UF 7090 1930 Coachbuilt Saloon

[Ian Grace]

Wonderful pics and super weather! Let's hope we are as lucky next month for our Summer Rally!

[martinng]

One of the less pretty snaps - it was not all sunshine.

[Ian Grace]

Ah yes - a well-known mod. invented my Messrs. Heath and Robinson!

[martinng]

The forum front page picture of military vehicles reminds me that just after the Norfolk rally we joined an event in Kettering "Wicksteed at War" which had military vehicles and battle recreations. This was a much more pleasant day than the previous one spent at Barnesdale Gardens (known as the garden used by Geoff Hamilton on BBC's 'Gardener's World). Sadly we suffered a day of rain.
Then on the way home yet another gremlin hit the car. This time we suffered extremely rough running when accelerating from 30mph in top gear. After checking ignition timing and carburation, I finally decided that it was a head gasket problem, Just now the head is off, a new copper gasket has been prepared and I expect to put it back together on Monday.

[martinng]

Done it again and missed the pictures.
Here are some more.

And the Morris 8 engine was used to drive the auxiliary systems on some British tanks so these pictures are not entirely 'off message'!

[Ian Grace]

Excellent Martin, but sorry to hear about your head gasket problem.

Not sure what we have turning up at Prescott, but I know we have five 'heavies' plus others coming, and I think some of them will be tracked.

Big milestone today - all tickets in envelopes with paperwork, addressed, licked and packed ready to FedEx'ing to Colin Lee tomorrow morning for onward posting to everyone. Most of the remaining work now is concentrated on the Sunday Rally. Racing against the calendar to get everything done before we fly on the 11th. I think I'm winning!

[martinng]

Ian, I wish you the best of luck with the VMR Prescott rally. I'm sure it will be a great success again.
I'm sorry not to be there, but I will be making my own 'rally' with my friend and his 1927 Oxford tourer the weekend before.
We will have a little jaunt around the north Northamptonshire villages that I have got to know so well so I will need to get the gasket back on this coming week. I feel that there is yet another picture of cars and the Harringworth viaduct to come!
However, we will try to avoid the A43 as UF seems to breakdown every time we use that road!!

[Ian Grace]

Happy travels Martin - photos always very welcome!

[martinng]

Quite a lot has happened since the PWMN rally.
We joined a MR trip to Barnesdale Gardens and Wicksteed Park for what turned out to be a difficult weekend. Barnesdale was washed out and overnight the car was damaged by drunken revellers who perhaps sat on a front wing and bent it. The 'Wicksteed at War' event was a great success with a good line up of Morris cars including threee Minors.

Morris at 'Wicksteed at War'

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The MR presence

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So with a repair to the wing needed, we were on our way home when all power was lost above 30mph. On inspection this was diagnosed as a head gasket: no compression on cylinders 2&3. I replaced the gasket with a solid copper one from S&V, tracked down and fixed some minor oil leaks from the rocker cover and then test drove around the block.

New gasket

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The gasket held up well (as I expected it would) but the back axle produced horrible 'chewing' noises. When I investigated, I discovered that the main pinion bearings and pinion thrust washer had broken down. I also think that the outer pinion bearing had been shimmed within the housing rather than turning down the top cap to pinch it tight. This shim had also broken up.

Borken thrust washer and disintegrated shim.

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So after a new set of bearings and properly skimming the top plate, the differential was all fixed and completely silent. Whilst this was being done I also pulled out the dent in the wing and resprayed it.
Then off to Thorseby and the gremlins hit again. This time it was a blown exhaust, but fortunately in the tailpipe just behind the silencer, so I was able to make a temporary roadside repair to get us underway. We had a very pleasant weekend in Thoresby and drove out to Laxton village, the last place in the UK where the medieval open field system is still in operation.

Sunny day in Thoresby

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On our return from a fabulous weekend I now have a beautiful Gideon Booth exhaust - the proper bullet ended shape too - and hope that I can have a few months at least of fairly trouble free motoring as I have now attended to most of the drive train. The next planned trip is to the Bruntingthorpe museum with MR friends in October.

[martinng]

Oops I seem to be repeating my self - must watch the short term memory or at least read what I have posted before launching into new post!!

[Ian Grace]

Martin,

Sounds like you have had more than your fair share of issues, but delighted to read that you have taken each one in your stride which should result in ever-increasing reliability and 'road sorting' - that vital attribute of a vintage car that can never really be determined when you acquire it.

[martinng]

Indeed Ian. I have looked at the MOT certificates supplied with the car and it appears that since the rebuild in 2008 it had only done about 1200 miles when I bought it in 2013 and just 160 miles in total in the two years immediately before my purchase. So some of the 'road sorting' was almost certainly not complete. This winter I hope to start some of the planned maintenance work that I envisaged before all the emergency stuff arose.

[martinng]

We had another good day today. We joined a Morris Register drive to the Bruntingthorpe Air Museum followed by lunch at the Cock Inn at Peatling Magna. It was good to see so many interesting aircraft and many in working order although not allowed to actually fly. We were able to enter the 'Super Guppy' with such an unbelievable shape and their Comet 4 that was host to a group of young Scouts. We must attend one of their 'taxi' days when the aircraft are taxied at full take-off speed on the main runway, which must be quite spectacular.
A Victor was there (I remember building a model of one in the 60's) and IMHO as impressive as the Vulcan that incidentally we saw this week flying over Northampton on one of its farewell flights.

Morris Buccaneer

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The line-up

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[Ian Grace]

Very cool Martin. Takes me back to the Midlands rally we held two years ago when we visited Bruntingthorpe and I was able to give a 'behind the scenes' tour of the first production Nimrod - took me back to my days as a young Engineering Officer on 42 Sqn at St. Mawgan. A bittersweet day for me.

The Victor is a truly impressive aircraft. When I was a child we lived in St. Albans, right under the approach into Handley Page's at Radlett where the Victors were built. They were a very familiar sight just over the chimneytops! And then, in a later life, it took us twelve Victor tankers launched out of Ascension Island to get one C-130 to Port Stanley. An unforgettable sight as they took off all together.

Hopefully in future years, they will be able to move some of these aircraft under cover. It is always a losing battle to preserve large aircraft out in the weather.

All good stuff!

Ian

[martinng]

Ian, the Victors must have been a sight indeed.
We also saw the Nimrod that they have at Bruntingthorpe (you probably know about it), although that was not available to view.
Just so many interesting aircraft, including a Shakleton in the open and without tail or engines and lookikng very sad.
When the summer is here we will visit again.