Vintage Minor Register

Thanks to Ken, Jeremy and of course Ian for your thoughts. The head has been skimmed to 3.5" so there is no going back on that! Now there doesn't seem to be a lot of point in running the standard cam, even though it seems to have little wear, so I guess I'll be going for the 12/12 cam. Incident...

Needless to say I have hit some snags in the area of the vertical drive. This appears to have been the subject of some modification, probably before it was laid up. I was expecting to find an outer sleeve with the Torrington or Hyatt bearings within, but instead found a solid phosphor bronze(?) bush...

Ian,After a long winter's break I am slowly getting back to the garage, and as a break from woodwork have turned my attention to the cylinder head. Last Autumn I acquired a newly refurbished one from Quarry Engineering with the intention of transferring the cam mechanism across from old to new. Of c...

Pencil me in for a pair please Ian,

Regards, Mike.

Brost Forge in North London can retemper and reset springs for 'our' cars. They can also manufacture replacements where necessary. I found them to be efficient and accurate when overhauling mine, but I thought expensive. There are other spring specialists. Hope this helps.
Mike Houston.

Another month has shot past, and a little more work has been done on the restoration despite the garage getting colder. Bit by bit I'm working on the saloon ash frame, gradually piecing the whole thing together. The screen and hinge pillars were farmed out to a joiner, they were beyond my capabiliti...

A quick update, then I have a few questions for the team! The panel lettering worked a treat thanks to Ian's advice of wiping over the painted letters with a soft cloth and a small amont of white spirit. However I am disappointed with the general pitted finish so am now thinking of stripping it all ...

Halbe, Nice to see the progress you are making, I hope that the body work will go easily for you. I came across one short piece on the site http://www.vintageknowledge.co.uk which you will find interesting. If you take the link to Hints and Tips and then to Coachbuilding you will see that the last i...

Ian, Thanks for the great picture, it gives me a standard to aim for. Although I have had the two smaller instruments checked over, the faces still have a certain 'patina', (they look old)!  How do your's look so new? Is it possible to get new faces for these guages? I will probably use your hints w...

I've just realised how long ago it was since I last posted. Where does the time go? However unfortunately not too much of that time has been spent on VG, so not a lot of progress to report. It took a total of seven wheels plus one hub, (from Toby at Beaulieu), to produce the five best serviceable wh...

Ian,
I phoned Dave at 09.30hrs this morning and gave him Harry Edward's phone number. Hopefully he will be able to supply Dave's needs,
Mike Houston.

I thought that to give me a break from woodwork I would make a start on rebuilding the wheels. The car is on axle stands, trued up level, wheels off so I thought it would make a change. Before taking the wheels apart I've carefully measured the rear offset, and I'll take an average (unless anyone ca...

Ian, Like Halbe I have found a six digit number below and to the left of the handbrake. The number is 185050. Also of significance are some digits arranged radially around the speedo drive exit hole. These are : 4 9 31, which I guess at first sight would refer to date of manufacture. If this is the ...

Especially for Cammy, some pictures of the rear! I should point out that this is early days and there is much fettling and finessing to be done. In particular a thin section needs to be added across the rear board to act as a closing piece for the removable lid over the rear axle. I have extended th...

Well I see that two months have flown by since I last posted, but I think that the attached photo should sum up progress. I am basically producing what amounts to a collection of frame parts, made from ash and ply where appropriate, which has been very time consuming. However I am not too far away f...