For those interested in old cars.

[peanuts]

Lovely old Commer van re purposed as a beer van in for  some remedial work at one of my drops yesterday. 

[Sidecar Racer]

I'll have 2 please .

 

[Captain Cuttle]

On 02/03/2024 at 11:29, peanuts said:

Lovely old Commer van re purposed as a beer van in for  some remedial work at one of my drops yesterday. 

We hired one back in the 70s after leaving the RAF and moving all our stuff from Romford to Mullion. It had the handling capabilities of a rice pudding. Plus it was running a tad rich at about 20 mpg. Got it fixed before returning, it had split diaphragm in carb and. that woke it up!

[37114]

On 02/03/2024 at 11:29, peanuts said:

Lovely old Commer van re purposed as a beer van in for  some remedial work at one of my drops yesterday. 

The body roll was bad on those in the standard poverty British Telecom spec, hate to think what that one must be like! 

[Oldddudders]

No pic, but yesterday I beheld a Mk 1 Escort two-door, painted orange, being driven with verve in Cary Park Torquay. 

[Hobby]

12 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

I'll have 2 please .

 

 

"Delivery and Protection charge" - what's a "protection" charge?

[doilum]

12 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

I'll have 2 please .

 

For the benefit of younger readers, we must remember inflation. Around this time my late father’s teachers salary after fifteen years at the chalkface, worked out at £15 a week. The cost today? Somewhere north of £40K?

Downton Engineering were one of the leading competition preparation firms. This owner had deep pockets.

[Oldddudders]

28 minutes ago, Hobby said:

 

"Delivery and Protection charge" - what's a "protection" charge?

Note the ‘purchaser’ is a finance company, not an individual. 

[alastairq]

1 hour ago, Hobby said:

 

"Delivery and Protection charge" - what's a "protection" charge?

 

 

In 1964, surely that would be, the creation of a deliberate oil leak? 

 

When did Ziebart actually arrive???

[Sidecar Racer]

 

 I found the above on a Facebook page , went back a few minutes ago and retrieved the

rest of the entry . copied in below . Hope you all find it interesting .

 

 

Imagine getting a brand new fully race tuned 1275 Cooper S (one of the first) on Cooper magnesium wheels and race suspension from Downton Engineering for your 21st Birthday in 1964! . A veritable rocket ship back in the day. Nicky Porter then went on to enjoy a very successful Hillclimbing and sprinting career at venues all over the country in this car which he still owns today and will be celebrating its birthday this Summer!

 

 

 

 

[petethemole]

4 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Note the ‘purchaser’ is a finance company, not an individual. 

They were a hire purchase company so actually owned the car until paid in full.

[uax6]

Interestingly the first photo shows it running on standard steel rims!

 

Andy G

[Sidecar Racer]

Back when I did sprint meetings several people used to compete in their road cars that

had been tuned , some used to turn up with a set of wheels fitted with non road legal

race tyres and swap them over for the day .

[Nick C]

59 minutes ago, Sidecar Racer said:

some used to turn up with a set of wheels fitted with non road legal

race tyres and swap them over for the day .

Which has the added advantage of ensuring you'll have the original legal tyres to drive home on afterwards...

[30801]

This amused me for the sheer irrelevance to this topic :)

How to do a software update on your Kia door handles.

 

 

[figworthy]

Not an old car, but an old tractor.

 

The following was posted el swear earlier today :

 

Quote

I was at an agricultural museum the other day looking at a very early
Ferguson tractor engine (1937 I think) and there was an odd component on he
side of the engine I couldn’t identify and it’s causing me sleepless
nights.  Okay, not really, but it’s bugging me a bit.

It’s the oblique pot shaped device with the brass “tap handle”.  The
spout-like part that is sticking out towards me is blanked off. It’s not a
water pipe connection.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BYFxuh6ZexRwGotG7

I did wonder if it might be some sort of grease pot (recharged by undoing
the bolt at the top) to lubricate the drive chain/gear for the magneto and
speed governor (on the other side of the engine).

 

Has anyone any ideas ?

 

Adrian

 

[30801]

45 minutes ago, figworthy said:

Not an old car, but an old tractor.

 

The following was posted el swear earlier today :

 

 

Has anyone any ideas ?

 

Adrian

 

 

This one has something looking quite like an oil filter in the same place with maybe a pressure gauge attached?

Maybe the oil pump shares the magneto drive?

Of course any Googling of Ferguson tractors just produces a flood of TE20s...

[30801]

Pretty sure it's a self-cleaning oil filter. You turn the 'tap' to scrape crud off the strainer which you drain out of the spigot on the bottom.

Here's a modern one.

[figworthy]

54 minutes ago, 30801 said:

Pretty sure it's a self-cleaning oil filter. You turn the 'tap' to scrape crud off the strainer which you drain out of the spigot on the bottom.

Here's a modern one.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I've passed it on.

 

Adrian

[uax6]

Look what I picked up this week:

 

Lets just look in the cab shall we?

What are these:

 

That'll do rubbery thank you!

 

Yeap rubber wings... its a 1954 rubber wing GPO engineers van. A bit of a Morris minor holy grail. Needs a lot of work, but theres no rush.

 

Andy G

[alastairq]

Hi folks..I have just viewed the most recent video on the channel of Ian Peter Strange, concerning his rebuild of his AC 2 litre saloon.[Which I follow avidly]...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfU_NHFjnkI

 

At the end he includes some 'extras', displaying the dairies his Father kept regarding things motoring, from, I believe, in this case, 1962?

His Father noted stuff like fuel costs, repairs, etc...and noted his use of Cleveland Discol fuel.

Cleveland Discol fuel contained  ethanol [nothing new on this world!], and, as I recall, did no harm at all..indeed, performance of what i used to drive may have been improved?

Anyhow, the point I note is that, the actual percentage ethanol content of Cleveland Discol isn't currently 'known'.....but Ian's Father noted that Cleveland Discol contained 15% ethanol!

[As well as being, in the early 1960's, lead-free!!]..

So the above might place a more positive view of information missing in time?

 

Also, being lead-free at the time, puts into perspective the modern day issues amongst old banger car owners over today's fuel, with its mere 10% [or less] ethanol content, and leadless to boot.

Perhaps our issues today, in truth, concerns the other additives in fuel, designed to make our moderns drive more efficiently, instead?

[uax6]

What issues are they? My two moggies (not including the one above) both love E10. The only issues could be the rubbery bits, but it cost me about £20 to change them on both motors.... Makes me laugh when I read about people filling on E5 with their Minor. 

 

And yes I use mine every day, so I'd soon find out what issues there are!

 

Andy G

[Hobby]

11 hours ago, uax6 said:

What issues are they?

 

https://www.adrianflux.co.uk/blog/2023/03/e10-petrol-classic-cars/#:~:text=Ethanol is corrosive so with,fuel lines to carburettor issues.

[alastairq]

I think it's all down to the freely available media for the past 30 or more years...where old car enthusiasts suddenly turned themselves into 'classic car' buffs...and 'values' overtook the technical interests, as a priority?

No longer do we get asked ''wotllitdo, mistah?''

Now it's ''wotsitworth, mistah?''

 

Yes, greater percentages of ethanol in fuel can lead to issues with stuff like hoses and certain gasket materials...Not to mention issues regarding when there is an ingress of water into the fuel tank [water attracts ethanol...[alcohol]...which can then settle on the bottom of a tank in blobs of very acidic watter]...just be very careful if filling up in the pouring rain, tis all...

 

The issues with hoses, etc and ethanol makes me wonder whether we have a 'chicken-&-egg' situation here? 

Have we ,in fact, actually seen a 'change' in the quality[cheapness?} of the stuff hoses and certain gaskets were made of, in more recent times? Which has led us t having issues when the percentage of ethanol was [very slightly] increased, in fuel?  {Bear in mind, E10 means there might be a maximum of 10% ethanol in the fuel.....Reports suggest the actual percentages of ethanol may be lower, depending on time of day, month of year, or the whims of the fella doing the mixing at the refinery?

 

However, has anyone really looked into what other stuff has been introduced in our so-called 'petrol?'

The fact that, in petrol [fuel] these days, the head-end components have a much lower temperature of evaporation than the fuel of the 1960's....which has also led to higher exhaust temperatures in older types of engine design... Which leads us to issues in old bangers [classic cars?] of things like, hot starting issues, etc...

Apparently our modern day motorcars need the modern day fuel mixes in order to perform miracles?

 

Remember , also, the hoo-haa surrounding the introduction of unleaded fuel?

The sudden rise in the trade offering to convert cylinder heads to 'unleaded?'

For vast sums...which the newly found classic car owners were all to happy [and well-off enough?} to rush out and trumpet that they've had their cars 'converted?'

I seem to recall a premium being added to an old banger's value if its head was 'converted'.....

 

Yet, the bug bear [valve seat recession] only really raised its ugly head if the old banger was flogged up & down motorways day in & day out, at 80 mph all day long.

[I wonder how many had poor valve seats to begin with, before the 'conversion?'  Then the conversion would provide that miracle of improved performance, would it not?}

Folks still bung lead pellets in their fuel tanks, in the mistaken belief that they're solving the issue....

 

Methinks there still is an element of ''witch-doctory'' concerning the ''classic car'' industry???

 

 

I've purchased a manual tyre changer...50 quids worth....so I don't have to rely too much on the 'trade'....It is currently bolted to a decent CHP pallet....But its outside, and due to rain and pain [I'm old,so I've been told]....I haven't yet  tried it out...

 

I also got a plastic 'duck's bill' to modify the cheapo chinese tyre changer with...

Cheapo tools are fine [often improvable]....for me as a casual amateur banger-fixer-upper.....Wouldn't do so well if I started doing jobs for  all & sundry, however......but for me they give an element of independence to do my own thing, in my own time.

 

In my area of the country, current lead time for local fixer-uppers of cars[motorcars, or otherwise]....is more than three weeks...Local Farcebuuk pages full of requests for fixer-uppers who can take on jobs almost immediately...

 

If I had purchased they tyre changer 5 years ago, it would have paid for itself twice over subsequently....

[What value do we place on two packets of Custard Creams?}

 

Edited March 12 by alastairq

[30801]

4 minutes ago, alastairq said:

 

 

Yet, the bug bear [valve seat recession] only really raised its ugly head if the old banger was flogged up & down motorways day in & day out, at 80 mph all day long.

[I wonder how many had poor valve seats to begin with, before the 'conversion?'  Then the conversion would provide that miracle of improved performance, would it not?}

 

 

 

Given that the conversion consists of replacing the valve seats and the cure for valve seat recession is exactly the same thing, you might as well leave it be and see if you actually have problems...