Triumph Spitfire
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VOLUME 17, NUMBER 2 Mar-Apr 2012 INSIDE THIS ISSUE UPCOMING EVENTS more details) What Was I Thinking Part XIII 4 April 3rd-Branch meeting at Coast May 1st Monthly branch meeting at Valentine’s Day Run 2012 6 Mountain Maintenance Yard the Johnson collection, Langley St./ Patrick’s Day Parade 7 April 14th Ft. Langley Run (Contact May 19th Van Dusen ABFM Aston Martin MGB 8 Steve Diggins for details) June 5th Monthly branch meeting - Triumph Spitfire 50th 9 April 15th—Restoration Fair, TBA Meeting Minutes 12/13 Saanich (see South Island branch June 23rd Club AGM and Mini The British Are Coming 13 web page for details) Monte (details on website) Welcome To OECC, April 22nd—LAMB’s St. Georges June 24th—Brits ‘Round B.C. starts! Autojumble, The Boot, Car Show, Fort Langley At The Wheel 14 (http://www.lambscarclub.com for Cars of Branch Members and their Stories Unfortunately, and only two weeks after the restora- tion was completed, the car was T-boned and he was By Walter Reynolds thrown out of the car onto the road. He sustained lots The Cars of Peter Pel of cuts and bruises, but no broken bones. The car, alas, was totaled – not only was the driver’s side of the car The first ride Peter had in a British car was in his fa- demolished, but the car ended up with a V-shaped ther’s burgundy Austin Devon when Peter was driven front end after having hit a boulevard tree, against home from the hospital after being born. When Peter which it came to rest. Peter believes that had the car was four years old, he went with his father to Fred not hit the tree, it would have run over him! The Cam- Deeley’s when his father picked up his first new car bridge was scrapped, but not before Peter had re- which was a 1960 Austin Cambridge. Peter and his trieved the power train and running gear. two brothers learned to drive in this car. In later years, Peter inherited the Cambridge. The car was a daily In 1978, Peter bought a 1975 Triumph TR6 as a re- driver and also used as a work “truck” for the family placement for the T-boned Cambridge. As far as being construction business. Time took its toll on the Cam- a work car, it was not. However, it did turn into a bridge and, at 173,000 miles, the clutch went and the “keeper” because Peter still has the car and uses it car was retired (it had also been having an increas- regularly. The TR6 has 53,000 miles on it, of which ingly hard time to pass the Provincial Motor Vehicle Peter has only put on 10,000 (in 34 years). He has Test). Peter kept back (and still has) the car’s dash and driven the car twice to California and it has been on instruments, including the 173,000 mile speedometer. every ‘Vancouver to Whistler Run’. He has not had to do any restoration work on theTR6 which shows a nice, Peter’s second car was a 1967 Austin A60 Cambridge even patina on its red paint. which he used for a daily driver during 1974-6 while attending BCIT and then sold it on. He then bought a 1959 A55 Cambridge which was la- beled “Cambrian” [See sidebar at end of article. WDR]. The car was a rolling restoration over a period of a year during which time he re-labeled it “Cambridge”. Peter’s original TR6 waiting for its next outing. (Walter photo) In 1987, Peter bought a 1960 A55 Cambridge (his cur- rent Cambridge) from its then North Vancouver owner. The car’s original colour scheme was red over Farina Peter’s rolling restoration Cambrian during the grey with the same colour scheme in the interior. At restoration period. (Peter photo) some point, a prior owner had changed the red exterior THIRD tank of gas. Peter doesn’t drive the car much, colour to green. but did add that sometime this year he will probably have to fill up a fourth tank of gas! In 1989 Peter was given a Cambridge locally which he used as a “how-it-fits” reassembly guide and parts car for the current Cambridge. Green Cambridge when Peter bought it. (Peter photo) Peter restored the car and returned its exterior colour to its original red over Farina grey. The restoration was over a two year period and was completed in 1989 in time to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the first The “Three Tanks of Gas” Cambridge as of March ‘Farina’ Cambridge. Part of the restoration included 15, 2012. (Walter photo) using the power train and running gear of the T-boned Cambridge. Pat Jones helped Peter with some struc- In 1988, Peter completed a cosmetic rolling restoration tural body work and assembly of the car as it had been of a 1975 Austin Marina for his wife – the car becoming totally dismantled and acid-dipped during the restora- the family’s daily driver. The car was tan in colour and tion. came with an MGB engine. Peter re-painted the engine and installed MGB twin carbs (with velocity stacks) and mag wheels. One of his brothers also bought a tan Marina as did his sister. At the Van Dusen ABFM that year, there were the three Pel Marinas, along with Pat Jones’ tan Marina – four Marinas, a feat that’s yet to be repeated. The restored Cambridge on show at the Van Dusen ABFM. (Peter photo) At the 1989 Van Dusen ABFM, the Cambridge won The Pel tan Marinas at Van Dusen. “equal” First in the Debuting Restoration Class. The (Peter photo) other winner of the Class was a restored race car. He has also trailered the Cambridge to the Portland ABFM where it took First in class in 1994. After the family’s Marinas they moved to a Volvo for a The Cambridge is currently working on its third tank short period. The Volvo was replaced with a 2002 Jag- of gas since its restoration in 1989. That’s correct, its uar XJR, which is still the family car. VOLUME 17, NUMBER 2 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 2 Peter has two project cars: Side Bar: I am advised that when Austin first imported - 1950 Jaguar Mk. 5 Drop Head Coupe, very the Cambridge into North America, they were chal- lenged by Plymouth who had a Cambridge sedan on rare. Peter is doing his own woodwork on the car. sale at the time. Austin changed the Cambridge to “Cambrian” until such time as Plymouth stopped mar- keting its Cambridge. Once that happened, Austin re- turned the Cambrian name back to Cambridge. 1950 Jaguar Mk. 5 Drop Head Coupe, very rare. (Walter photo) 1950s Plymouth Cambridge. Internet photos And there you have this month’s story. The Cars of - 1937 Austin 7 Open Tourer, Right Hand Branch Members and their Stories continues in future Drive. Not started yet. issues as follows (subject to change): June 2012 – Alan Miles; August 2012 – Elaine Lafontaine. As this section is for members to talk about their cars, contact me if you want to tell us about your British vehicles. REMINDER! The following volunteers are required for this year’s AGM on Saturday, June 23rd! Billeting Guests in your house Wellbrook Winery set up and cleanup – 10 AM Saturday Morning Wellbrook Historic Winery Meet and Greet – 11 AM Saturday Morning 1937 Austin 7 waiting in the wings for its turn. Mini Monte - do you live South of the Fraser River , (Walter photo. Delta, Surrey, White Rock, Langley?? – Host a Mini Monte rally stop. Not wanting to be limited to four wheels, Peter also Ken and Pat Miles house – set up/clean up has a Collector-plated 1984 Honda Twin and a 2000 ex- Vancouver Police Harley-Davidson, complete with pan- Attend the hotel Night Cap at the Hotel niers. He also has an extensive collection of model Sunday Breakfast – tbd. trains, mainly steam, many of which are rare Lionel train sets. Please email Gerry Parkinson or Alan Miles if you can help! VOLUME 17, NUMBER 2 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 3 What was I thinking Part XIII Or, the restoration of a demon Imp. Well, at the moment it’s the end of February and I’m running out of time. I’m convinced that the car will be fin- ished within the next two weeks. That only gives me a couple of months to fix all the little problems that I’m sure will raise their ugly heads. Then it will be over to Kerry Smiths in Cloverdale to align the steering and fine tune the engine for Aircare. You may think that a couple of months is plenty of time but I’m not sure that the re- worked cooling system or the transmission is going to work. If reversing the flow of air through the radiator with an electric fan doesn’t work I will have to order the standard parts from England to put it all back to standard. I also still have that tiny water leak from the seals in the water pump. I’m hoping that once I have driven the car a few miles that the seals will “bed in”. If they don’t, it’s another 4 hours to strip and rebuild the pump or spend $200 on a new unit from England. I’m currently spending most of the weekend and a couple of hours each night on the car. I spent 6 hours one weekend trying to fit a quarter light in the passenger door only to realise that the door I was trying to fit it to was the replacement door I acquired in Seattle.