Tuesday 25 March 2014

Great fun at Stoneleigh

Stoneleigh was fun, I managed to flog a load of old rubbish (that’s valuable spare parts to someone else) and buy a load of new rubbish (that’s valuable spare parts to me!) and even made a small profit – until I took the cost of the stall, fuel etc into account…………………………Oh well, it kept me off the streets of Hertfordshire.


The ‘Season’ has now started properly with many regular customers getting their prized possessions out of hibernation and back on the road. There are of course the inevitable “You know that job we talked about last year?” type repairs too – funny how they don’t get better while the cars are in the garage over winter – least ways mine haven’t, I really must replace that iffy driveshaft UJ or the next outing is likely to be a really short one.
We seem to have a plethora of Stags at present, one of which I have been using to put a few miles on a new engine. I had forgotten just what great cars they are to drive regularly; all the luxury of your average ‘modern’ with that fabulous sound track and head-turning looks to boot.
An old ‘Non-Triumph’ friend has also returned for some additional fettling and fine-tuning, mainly cosmetic including the manufacture of a custom additional twin instrument binnacle to fit under the fascia. ‘Genie’ the ’63 Capri is a real eye-popper, never mind a head turner and her owner Graham has to allow double the journey time when he goes anywhere in her as opposed to any of his other steeds.

Other minor ‘custom’ jobs include modifying the rear case of a 3.63:1 Spitfire 4 stud differential to have 6 studs for fitment to a Rotoflex Vitesse (2.5 – 148bhp) and also provision of a drain plug to allow oil changes. That’s all for now, more next time.