Thursday 27 August 2009

Gone to a good home







This evening Dez (in the cap, above) fitted his A-frame to Lily using chains from my hoist and, with his mate Damian taking up the rear, towed her away. He has definitely been earning her with the work he has done on my leafsprings, axles and brakes.

He is back after the Bank Holiday to finish off the rear wheels and take away my fuel tank for renovation, along with various spares for Lily, which I hasten to add is not my J Type but a Ford Prefect.

It was sad to see Lily go but she is going to be looked after far better by Dez and I have had my money's worth out of her.




Also, the neighbour whose garage I rent (see pics) is taking my Lamb Chop (just visible in some of the shots) off my hands for the cost of 60 weeks' rent, so there is progress there too.



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Quid pro quo for Uxor



I am selling Lily and the chap buying her, Dez Stringer (a mechanic and restorer of predominantly American classics and rods), is exchanging expertise and a few days' hands-on effort (plus a Schwinn cycle and the renovation of my J Type fuel tank) for her.



It is a great deal......mainly because I haven't done anything on this project for well over a year -mostly because I spent a year getting my flying licence, but also because of a loss of confidence. The amazing thing is that Dez can accomplish in an afternoon what it might take me weeks of research, planning and worry to get done; months, if you include prevarication.

Moving the parts needed to Paul's (neighbour's) garage cleared space for me to work on the cab in my own workshop, which had become cluttered. It is so nice to have a clear space to work in. I assembled all the sourced parts (finding them took months of research) and Dez pronounced confidence that we had everything needed to assemble a rolling chassis (wheels, brakes, springs etc).



Yesterday Dez fitted my leaf springs and mounted the front and back axles, treated the back plates for rust (which I primed and painted last night) and took away a few other bits to clean up in his workshop. Today he is going to assemble the brakes. He has even promised to sort out some of my less penetrative welding and given me advice on where to get dampers, which he said are the same as those on VW Beetles.

Fantastic progress at last.



(must remember to use proper digi-cam instead of phone)

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