LJ 4435
Moderators: Ian Grace, Will Grace
LJ 4435
A few pics from the last couple of years - note in pic 2 the snow piled up last spring (and it's back again already!), just as the engine was being installed. Pic 4 was taken moments after the first firing up this spring. The final pic was taken a couple of weeks ago on the second run up the lane.
Work progressed well this weekend with the fitting of the new bonnet catches which required the wings to be very carefully drilled to fit the catches exactly in the right place. Amazingly, everything seems to line up - let's hope this remains the case after the wings have been off for spraying, which is the next major milestone.
Work is reduced to 15 minute stints right now, as it is 21 degrees Farenheit in the garage this afternoon, so frequent thawings out with hot tea in the kitchen are vital.
Work is reduced to 15 minute stints right now, as it is 21 degrees Farenheit in the garage this afternoon, so frequent thawings out with hot tea in the kitchen are vital.
Getting very close to completion. Nearside door finished, running board on with new 'Morris' rubber, beading on (will be chromed after the Summer Rally) and first rear wing fitted. Also hood frame completed with new ash bow and hood peak. Bonnet and radiator off to swap dynamos. The new hood will also have to wait until after the rally.
She's now on the road and done about 140 miles with no significant problems. This photo was taken on a run to a local farm this evening. It should go for its hood to be made in a few days and then it is off next week to Baltimore to start the long trip back to England for the Summer Rally.
I can't wait to drive it through the lanes of Dorset, which it hasn't seen for many a long year. While in England it will be staying at the very same house that it spent the war - Milton Manor. Can't get much more appropriate than that.
It is a JOY to drive!
I can't wait to drive it through the lanes of Dorset, which it hasn't seen for many a long year. While in England it will be staying at the very same house that it spent the war - Milton Manor. Can't get much more appropriate than that.
It is a JOY to drive!
And here she is in Dorset last Summer after being shipped across the Atlantic. The cottage in the background was originally the coach house to Hill House (since re-named Milton Manor) and it is in this coach house that this car spent the War. This was, as far as I can tell, the first time the car has visited the coach house in over sixty years.
Re: LJ 4435 - nearly finished
Update on the Bed-Pan.
I see that the last post on this thread was back in November 2007, since when the car was initially stored in Dorset after the 2007 Summer Rally, then taken to John Nagle's house near Reading, and then more recently it has resided with Terry Synnott in Sevenoaks - all trailer miles, the engine has not warmed in a long time.
But now the Summer Rally and VSCC 75 draw near and Terry has been busy. First he found that the (virtually new) battery had died, so replaced it. He drained all the stale fuel, cleaned out the carb., filled with fresh fuel - and it started immediately! The next steps will be to run it up and down his drive, get it back on insurance, send him the V5C and then it will be off for its first (ever) MoT. I have asked Terry to send over some photos of the car which is currently residing in a shed at the bottom of his garden. I'll post one here.
All very exciting stuff!
Edited to add: When I shipped the car to England in 2007, there were a couple of jobs left incomplete - one was the covering of the sidescreens. They were painted and fitted, but no covering. Before leaving Michigan, I left the screens, along with the original covering and new material with my trimmer. I just called him and arranged for him to finish them and then post them to me here in Seattle - then I will pack them in my luggage and bring them over with me in July.
For those not familiar with this car, here's what I started with:
I see that the last post on this thread was back in November 2007, since when the car was initially stored in Dorset after the 2007 Summer Rally, then taken to John Nagle's house near Reading, and then more recently it has resided with Terry Synnott in Sevenoaks - all trailer miles, the engine has not warmed in a long time.
But now the Summer Rally and VSCC 75 draw near and Terry has been busy. First he found that the (virtually new) battery had died, so replaced it. He drained all the stale fuel, cleaned out the carb., filled with fresh fuel - and it started immediately! The next steps will be to run it up and down his drive, get it back on insurance, send him the V5C and then it will be off for its first (ever) MoT. I have asked Terry to send over some photos of the car which is currently residing in a shed at the bottom of his garden. I'll post one here.
All very exciting stuff!
Edited to add: When I shipped the car to England in 2007, there were a couple of jobs left incomplete - one was the covering of the sidescreens. They were painted and fitted, but no covering. Before leaving Michigan, I left the screens, along with the original covering and new material with my trimmer. I just called him and arranged for him to finish them and then post them to me here in Seattle - then I will pack them in my luggage and bring them over with me in July.
For those not familiar with this car, here's what I started with:
Re: LJ 4435
Here's the Bed-Pan in Terry Synnott's garden down in Sevenoaks earlier today - out for a pre-MoT airing. Just edited the picture to make it larger. Note that it still has its shipping labels on the screen! Terry is working on the TF 201 tail lamp which shorted out - it had a single pole bulb and a two-pole fitting. Terry has also fitted a new battery, so she should be ready for the MoT shortly. Now to get it insured, and then work out how best to get it to Gloucestershire for July.
Re: LJ 4435
Shortly after that previous post in 2009 (almost ten years ago!), I sold this car to Andy Streek. I was very sad to see it go, but I could not justify keeping it and only being able to use it a couple of days every year when we visited from the USA. The tipping point came with our daughter's Wedding that threatened to drain the financial well dry! The decision was made, and almost immediately regretted!
A few years ago, Andy advertised the car through a dealer, and I assumed that it had sold to a new unknown owner. However, this was not the case. This morning I received an e-mail from Andy stating that he was planning to sell the car, and did I know anyone who might be interested. It turns out that he has never driven the car because he is too tall for it. It has reposed in his car collection all this time.
Well, that got the cogs whirring! A phone call was in order, and I am very excited to report that Andy and I have come to an arrangement which will see me re-acquiring the Bed-Pan later this year. I am deeply thankful to Andy for permitting me this opportunity.
Watch this space for further news!
A few years ago, Andy advertised the car through a dealer, and I assumed that it had sold to a new unknown owner. However, this was not the case. This morning I received an e-mail from Andy stating that he was planning to sell the car, and did I know anyone who might be interested. It turns out that he has never driven the car because he is too tall for it. It has reposed in his car collection all this time.
Well, that got the cogs whirring! A phone call was in order, and I am very excited to report that Andy and I have come to an arrangement which will see me re-acquiring the Bed-Pan later this year. I am deeply thankful to Andy for permitting me this opportunity.
Watch this space for further news!
Re: LJ 4435
So if you look at the picture above, you will see that the car has no sidescreens. This is because only one had been trimmed by my upholsterer in Grand Rapids before the car had to be shipped back in 2007.
I called the upholsterer yesterday. He's still in business, still has the sidescreens and my double duck and promised they would both be done by next Friday!
I'll post a few more photos below.
I called the upholsterer yesterday. He's still in business, still has the sidescreens and my double duck and promised they would both be done by next Friday!
I'll post a few more photos below.
Re: LJ 4435
A selection of photos taken between 2000 and 2007. I had been restoring the car for about eight years by 2000 - first in Germany and then in England before shipping it to the States, with a couple of years stored with Pickfords in Peterborough in between. A much-traveled car.
Our daughter Amanda, helping Dad out before heading out to her High School Prom. This was taken shortly after the car arrived by container from England as a rolling chassis. The first task was to build the ash frame, using the original timbers as patterns, plus the ply patterns I had made when previously restoring JN 570 in the eighties. Note the bandsaw in the garage.
The ash frame painted and nearly ready for paneling and fabric, showing off its sweet lines.
First firing up. The car retains its original factory engine that was vandalized in a machine shop in Bexhill, while we were living in Germany. There were two years of delays and excuses. They had found a crack in the block and had to send it to a company in Birmingham for welding - or so they said. The truth, which was discovered by my brother-in-law who lived in nearby Hastings, was that furious creditors broke in to the engine works one night and smashed every engine with sledgehammers. The block was subsequently described as a 'jig-saw puzzle', but some superb craftsmen in Birmingham stitched it back together and the repair is now invisible externally. Luckily it was limited to the side opposite the oil gallery. if that had been smashed, the block would have been scrap. As the Bexhill company quickly went bust, there was no come-back - an expensive exercise, but it did save the original block.
During the fabric work (I chose hot weather so the material stretched over the tail more easily), Register member Peter Caldwell visited from Wisconsin to learn how it is done before tackling his 1931 Minor fabric saloon.
The difficult part - the 3/8" pin beading. Getting this wrong would have let down the whole car. The most difficult part is ensuring the narrow pin beading covers ALL of the fabric attach pins underneath. Note also how the beading comes to a perfectly symmetrical point. I am NEVER going to do another one!
Getting close. In the background is my old 1929 Minor tourer. Now resident with Ray McCrary in Tennessee.
The big day. First drive up our hill and back.
An early test run to the historic Ada covered bridge.
Our Summer Rally at Milton Abbey in 2007, after this historic car had been repatriated. Note the shipping stickers on the windscreen. The green one reads 'TOWED ON'. I didn't want it driven by the dockers! When the car arrived in Southhampton, I was there to collect it and drive it to Dorset. The car was undamaged, but I did find the gear knob missing. I found it on the floor. Weeks of a ship's' engine vibration tends to unscrew anything not tightly secured. The only other problem was that it would not start. The distributor points had become glazed with salt air. A quick cleaning with emery paper and we were off into the Southampton rush-hour!
The two Hambro sisters, Jean Woodroffe (left) and Mary Seymour (right). Their father, Captain Angus Valdimar Hambro, DL JP, owned Milton Abbey in Dorset between the wars and purchased the Semi-sports new for his chauffeur to teach his six children to drive. Jean and four other siblings all learned to drive in this car, uyt Mary was too young at the time, but remembered the car fondly. The children rather irreverently christened the car 'The Bed-Pan' due the shape of the body! It was an honour to take the sisters for a drive around the Abbey grounds and through nearby Milton Abbas, bringing back many happy memories for them.
The sisters are interesting. Jean Woodroffe (Nee Jean Francis Hambro) was appointed Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Princess Elizabeth in 1945, then Extra Woman of the Bedchamber to HM The Queen in 1953. Mary Seymour (nee Rachel Mary Hambro) married Major Sir Bryan Cosmo Bonsor 3rd Baronet, 7/3/42, thereby becoming Lady Bonsor. Both sisters were with the incognito Princess Elizabeth outside the gates of Buckingham Palace among the ecstatic throngs on VE Day. Sadly, both sisters are now deceased, so the reunion was timely.
Taking Jean Woodroffe for a trip down Memory Lane.
Jim Legg, MBE and Honorary Member of the Register. The above-mentioned chauffeur was his father and he remembers the car vividly from his youth. The Semi-sports was given to Jim's father as a retirement gift because he loved the car so much. A few years later, Jim became the third owner. Jim is still going strong and sends me a Christmas card every year.
As you can probably imagine, I cannot wait to own this car later this year and drive it to the pub once again.
Our daughter Amanda, helping Dad out before heading out to her High School Prom. This was taken shortly after the car arrived by container from England as a rolling chassis. The first task was to build the ash frame, using the original timbers as patterns, plus the ply patterns I had made when previously restoring JN 570 in the eighties. Note the bandsaw in the garage.
The ash frame painted and nearly ready for paneling and fabric, showing off its sweet lines.
First firing up. The car retains its original factory engine that was vandalized in a machine shop in Bexhill, while we were living in Germany. There were two years of delays and excuses. They had found a crack in the block and had to send it to a company in Birmingham for welding - or so they said. The truth, which was discovered by my brother-in-law who lived in nearby Hastings, was that furious creditors broke in to the engine works one night and smashed every engine with sledgehammers. The block was subsequently described as a 'jig-saw puzzle', but some superb craftsmen in Birmingham stitched it back together and the repair is now invisible externally. Luckily it was limited to the side opposite the oil gallery. if that had been smashed, the block would have been scrap. As the Bexhill company quickly went bust, there was no come-back - an expensive exercise, but it did save the original block.
During the fabric work (I chose hot weather so the material stretched over the tail more easily), Register member Peter Caldwell visited from Wisconsin to learn how it is done before tackling his 1931 Minor fabric saloon.
The difficult part - the 3/8" pin beading. Getting this wrong would have let down the whole car. The most difficult part is ensuring the narrow pin beading covers ALL of the fabric attach pins underneath. Note also how the beading comes to a perfectly symmetrical point. I am NEVER going to do another one!
Getting close. In the background is my old 1929 Minor tourer. Now resident with Ray McCrary in Tennessee.
The big day. First drive up our hill and back.
An early test run to the historic Ada covered bridge.
Our Summer Rally at Milton Abbey in 2007, after this historic car had been repatriated. Note the shipping stickers on the windscreen. The green one reads 'TOWED ON'. I didn't want it driven by the dockers! When the car arrived in Southhampton, I was there to collect it and drive it to Dorset. The car was undamaged, but I did find the gear knob missing. I found it on the floor. Weeks of a ship's' engine vibration tends to unscrew anything not tightly secured. The only other problem was that it would not start. The distributor points had become glazed with salt air. A quick cleaning with emery paper and we were off into the Southampton rush-hour!
The two Hambro sisters, Jean Woodroffe (left) and Mary Seymour (right). Their father, Captain Angus Valdimar Hambro, DL JP, owned Milton Abbey in Dorset between the wars and purchased the Semi-sports new for his chauffeur to teach his six children to drive. Jean and four other siblings all learned to drive in this car, uyt Mary was too young at the time, but remembered the car fondly. The children rather irreverently christened the car 'The Bed-Pan' due the shape of the body! It was an honour to take the sisters for a drive around the Abbey grounds and through nearby Milton Abbas, bringing back many happy memories for them.
The sisters are interesting. Jean Woodroffe (Nee Jean Francis Hambro) was appointed Lady-in-Waiting to HRH Princess Elizabeth in 1945, then Extra Woman of the Bedchamber to HM The Queen in 1953. Mary Seymour (nee Rachel Mary Hambro) married Major Sir Bryan Cosmo Bonsor 3rd Baronet, 7/3/42, thereby becoming Lady Bonsor. Both sisters were with the incognito Princess Elizabeth outside the gates of Buckingham Palace among the ecstatic throngs on VE Day. Sadly, both sisters are now deceased, so the reunion was timely.
Taking Jean Woodroffe for a trip down Memory Lane.
Jim Legg, MBE and Honorary Member of the Register. The above-mentioned chauffeur was his father and he remembers the car vividly from his youth. The Semi-sports was given to Jim's father as a retirement gift because he loved the car so much. A few years later, Jim became the third owner. Jim is still going strong and sends me a Christmas card every year.
As you can probably imagine, I cannot wait to own this car later this year and drive it to the pub once again.
Re: LJ 4435
Plans are all set to conclude the purchase shortly and ship the car to Tarlton, near Cirencester, in October where it will be given a thorough check-over after having been unused (but carefully stored) for ten years. This will leave plenty of time to get it fully ready for next year's Summer Rally.
There are a few jobs to be taken care of which were not completed before the car was shipped from Michigan back to England in 2007, including chroming the windscreen pillars. The pin beading wasn't chromed and remains in bare brass. Chroming of these items is tricky as the tail sections have to be bent before chroming and their length means that they are extremely floppy. So I may very well leave them in brass, as removing them for chroming at this stage might be complicated!
There are a few jobs to be taken care of which were not completed before the car was shipped from Michigan back to England in 2007, including chroming the windscreen pillars. The pin beading wasn't chromed and remains in bare brass. Chroming of these items is tricky as the tail sections have to be bent before chroming and their length means that they are extremely floppy. So I may very well leave them in brass, as removing them for chroming at this stage might be complicated!
Re: LJ 4435
Big day today - sending the funds to Andy Streek for the car. As soon as the transfer is complete, then Roger at the Vintage Petrol Pump Co. is going to deliver it from Goudhurt in Kent to Tarlton, near Cirencester where Peter Balding will be caring for it, helped by John Stubberfield and Chris Dunster.
It has not turned a wheel since I sold it to Andy 12 years ago so will need some light re-commissioning - probably battery, oil, lubricant, probably fresh fuel, etc. And it's already booked in for our Summer Rally next June!
It has not turned a wheel since I sold it to Andy 12 years ago so will need some light re-commissioning - probably battery, oil, lubricant, probably fresh fuel, etc. And it's already booked in for our Summer Rally next June!
Re: LJ 4435
Another big day coming up on Sunday, when LJ 4435 will be delivered to Tarlton from its decade-long hibernation in Kent. A certain amount of re-commissioning will include fresh fuel, an oil change, lubrication and sundry other tasks, but as the car has not turned a wheel in ten years and has been stored very well in a car collection, I'm not expecting any serious issues and can't wait to see it out and about across Gloucestershire.
Look out for delivery photos here as soon as I receive them.
Look out for delivery photos here as soon as I receive them.
Re: LJ 4435
LJ 4435 was successfully delivered from Kent to Tarlton, Gloucestershire yesterday in chilly but dry weather. John Stubberfield was in attendance, arriving in his son's 1929 tourer. Darkness fell before any attempt to start it could be made, and the battery will need a charge first. But it was very pleasing to find that the car remains in the pristine post-restoration state as of 12 years ago. It has not been driven since then and has obviously been very well looked after.
Further reports shortly.
Further reports shortly.