showing willing

Yesterday, when John popped in, I was in my overalls and he asked if I was working in the workshop and I said no, just showing willing. I wore them all day and never got down there.

sigh

crisis of confidence

Personally, I am having a bit of a crisis of confidence. What with the Venice trip, a several-week bout of what the docs dismiss as the 100 day bug (which implies that you must just put up with it) and work, I have got nothing done for nearly a month out of my rather pressing restoration timetable. It is beginning to feel like this has been going on for ages and that I will never finish. Of course, I am no quitter, but I am anxious. The trouble is that this is a big project and my first, and worse still, I am learning everything on the job.

I need my mate John to come round and give me a boost. Sometimes he will come round and I will be telling him what I plan for the next bit and he will say, "Well let's try that" and within an hour or so we'll be well into it, when I might otherwise have been just standing around looking at it; I seem to do a hell of a lot of looking at it.

a restorers' co-operative

Had a phonecall at lunchtime today from Brian to say that he has access to a truck today and could he go to the Goat Lady's farm to collect the roof-rack. Gave him the details, then rang Ted, the landowner, and confirmed it all with him. He made a pretense of being cross because it is a useful thing to tie his donkeys to.

The roof-rack is the most save-able bit of the van and it is good to know that it is going to a good home. I had blogged that I was going to visit Brian, but that was cancelled when I injured my back, so we haven't actually met yet, but he is a good chap, a friend of Truman's. The reason I wanted to write today was that his call got me thinking that what we have as a small group of like-minded people is far more valuable than any owner's club. Brian was asking if he should join and that was what got me thinking.

Like I told Ted, his generosity in giving me free access to the old lady's van had started a pattern. I was able to give Truman some bits he needed and he has given me a lot in return. Brian has been very helpful to Truman and in turn Truman had asked if Brian, who very kindly brought some springs up from Truman, could have the roof-rack that he and I had rescued. Money does not change hands. I have lost count of the many transactions which, if they had involved money, could easily have been very expensive. Truman is very generous - glad to have the opportunity to say a big thank-you to him here.

What we have is, in fact, a co-operative. It has come about rather naturally and it is one of the splendid things about the whole project (yes, I know splendid sounds old-fashioned, but sometimes the old things are the best.....not least of all for restorers of old things).

Rants about insurance have moved

Blogging here about my insurance situation certainly got things moving but it brought a negative air to a blog which is meant to celebrate J Types, and in particular the positive progress on my Austin 101, so I have started another blog of insurance rants and moved all the relevant postings from here to there.

Anyway.....back to the shed

So anyway, back to the workshop for me this Saturday to do some more welding and then on Sunday I am visiting a chap who lives 40 miles away who has a J type and who brought a pair of leafsprings up for me from Truman's on his last visit. My girlfriend is coming too because she has never seen a complete J before. I am that rare kind of man whose lover is 100% supportive of his hobby. I am off to bed now with a smile on my face for that.

4 J-Typers Meet

On Sunday I drove south in pouring rain to Truman's garage as I had promised to try and sort out a dent for him on his van. The only metalwork I have ever done has been on my own projects and I can cope with making a hash of those but it is a huge responsibility tackling someone else's, so I was pretty apprehensive. Truman's dent was just under the swageline, and the main difficulty was that ideally I would have bumped it from inside the van, but the dent is just behind one of the van's vertical bracing struts. Now, I'd have been very tempted to cut a 6inch length of the strut out with a thin cutting grinder and then butt-weld it back after tapping the dent out. In the end, however (as we didn't have power and my welder there.....and possibly not quite enough nerve either), Truman (above) slid the narrowest dolly behind the strut and I eased the dent out from the outside. I think we did a pretty decent job for now; the best in the circumstances, I think.

Then we had the treat of seeing Chris and Ilana draw up in their absolutely gorgeous Royal Mail van. This was the first van I had actually seen moving since I saw Harvey's at Gaydon two or three years ago (and that was the only one before). While Chris and Truman caught up, Ilana and I admired YLH 789. She showed me the various features of the van, particularly those which differ from non-mail or GPO vans...as detailed in Truman's blog recently. Then all four of us stood around chatting, comparing notes and posing for each other's photos........the ones of me are largely unpublishable but highlight the need for a diet! Here are some of the shots of the van.

Afterwards, we went in convoy to Truman's, where we met his family and had coffee and talked J-Type. Truman very kindly let me have some parts he had spare and when we all left, Chris and Ilana left first so that we could enjoy watching their van's departure. I got a poor film on my phone and Truman got a far better couple on his camera, which you must see.

All in all, a terrific day.....and it wasn't over because that evening I won an ebay auction for a 1964 Mk1 mini (one careful owner from new! - and with full MOT) to try and make one of my girlfriend's dreams come true (can't afford an E Type!). Her first car was a B-reg mini, so this is one project we can really share this summer. We will take the Prefect and Mini on runs...and I will probably sell the Prefect at the end of the year...as things are starting to get out of hand!!! What is it about classics? Once you have one, they quickly accumulate!

See Truman's account (25th Feb), including his terrific films of the van in action.

Back in the workshop

Great news: I have been back in the workshop. Been working on that awkward corner inside the cab on the driver's side above the windscreen. Lousy pics, sorry. Didn't have my camera handy, so took them with my phone.

I have used my stretcher and shrinker to make some quarterlight angle-surround and am chuffed because it seems to fit quite well.

Been welding, grinding and adjusting the replacement part (below) and making sure it fits with the screen trim and will fit both inside the cab and outside the quarterlight.....tricky because there are about 4 areas which can be pushed out of position by another adjustment. Eeek.