39s 1d Coastal

Classics

Clacton Classic Car Club Newsletter

Summer 2019 Member

1 FOR SALE

Land Rover Freelander STD4 2005 3Door 5 Speed Manual Service History

1.9 BMW turbo diesel £1500 ono Alan 07958424465

Set of 5 Jaguar XJ6 Pepper Pot £60 Phone 07831157727

Front Windsreen Bedford CA £50 Phone 07831157727

Front body panel Bedford CA van Clean condition Phone 07831157727 2 Chairman's Chat

Welcome to the second of our new Magazines hope you enjoyed the first. In this copy we will be updating you on our events so far this year with also whats to come later. We had had good turn outs to all our events so far this year. In April we had our first meal/pub run to Hintlesham which saw 20 + people take cars and had a good day out with a nice meal. April also was Drive it day to Kersey Mill. This again was well attended thank you to all who went. Unfortunately in May we had to cancel the Leeds Castle trip as this was fully booked. We will be doing this next year so we will be booking earlier. The Kings Arms event im afraid was poorly attended probably due to other events going on around bank holiday. One car was there on Saturday and myself and Ian on Sunday with two others arriving after we left. We did not present Neil with a cheque there but did however present one at the Club night the following Wednesday for £250 for Cancer Research UK. May also see us attend Chappel Station where a ride on the steam train was available to the next station. We still need some input for the Magazine so if you have any interesting facts about the cars you have had or drive even that rebuild you have done. Why not let us know how things went. Vic Smith our Editor will be only to pleased to receive your contributions to feature in the Magazine. May be you have a skill like car electrics, car mechanic, body repairs or just the odd silly thing. Then why not share it with us here in the Magazine. I thank you all for taking the time to read this but I must close now as I do not want to waffle on too much. Hope to see you all soon. Colin Wintle Chairman. ******************************************************

Welcome to the summer edition of the club magazine. We are now

halfway through this year, we have enjoyed some good shows with nice weather, good days out and monthly meetings for a chat and catch up. We have in this edition a good input from members with very interesting reading. But the cloud on the horizon is the doom and gloom of News programs and the media in general. Global warming, climate change and harmful emissions into the atmosphere. This had me thinking perhaps we should set an example to other car clubs and reduce our emissions by 50%. To achieve this we need to drive a slightly different classic vehicle, I have found a selection of cars you may want to consider, sporty types, saloon and even a few commercials, some are electric powered, some are petrol powered and some are powered by goodness knows what! They are all easy to park and you can wash and polish them in five minutes. They are agile and nippy, easy to drive around and avoid potholes ( never drive into a pot hole). If you wish to restore one you could probably do it in the spare bedroom. As for the magazine we are still looking for questions and problems for the workshop section. Note, this magazine is compiled by amateurs but remember, a man who never made mistakes never made anything! 3 Treasurers Report As you are aware our May show went ahead as usual, I am pleased to report that we had around 1500 paying members of the public attend generating an income of £6000 from this we deduct or on field expenses for the day and then pay 30% to Little Clacton Playing Field Trust, they received £1465. Our bank balance at the end of June was a healthy £9996. During the course of the day I estimate with show cars with driver and passenger plus our traders we had between 2000 and 2500 people attend this show, can I also say thank you to all the members of the club that helped out on the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday from 7am till late without you this event wouldn’t happen. As I hope you are all aware from the proceeds of this and the August show we donate money to local charities and clubs please can I ask you to let us know what good causes you would like us to support this year please contact me or any other committee member with your suggestions. We are planning to have a presentation evening as part of our September club meeting. Ian Griggs Club Treasurer

Club Events List 2019 July 7th Maldon Promenade Park- £5 entry on an individual basis 7th Classics by the sea Clacton. To be held at clacton airfield and run by the St Osyth SOS group 14th Scavenger Hunt-contact Frazer 31st Club night. Fish and chips Brightlingsea- Numbers to Colin Please August 4th Pub Run. Strangers Home, Sunday roast £9.95!!-book by 26/6 contact Frazer 10th Mersea - individual basis £4 on line entry 11th Fordham- Spaces booked please let us know numbers 18th Stonham Barns Show 18th Saffron Walden Car Show-contact Frazer 25th Our Show. Plough Corner September 1st Brightlingsea 1st Walton- 15 spaces booked - Please let us know speak to Colin 7th Beaulieu Auto jumble by Minibus. This will be approx £30 per head and will include travel by minibus, entrance to the autojumble , the museum, the house and gardens. It will be a long day with an early start but you'll have the Sunday to recover!!. Visit "beaulieu.co.uk" 15th Treasure hunt-contact Frazer 22nd Warren Classic and Super car show.CM9 6RW. Looks to be an excellent show to be held at the warren golf and country club, near maldon. Advance tickets £12 per car and 1 passenger.£16 on the day other events will be added when information becomes available.

Club Cothing

As I hope you are all aware the club has a range of clothing with club Logo on, that it sells. Items can be ordered at any time through Ian the Treasurer below is a list of items and there cost the club sells them at the price we pay for them. When ordering please state what item you want and sizes required:- Hats £7.95 Polo Shirts £12.95

Polo Shirt with Pocket £12.95 Classic T Shirt £8.95

Sweat Shirt £13.50 Fleece £16.50

4 Club Events

Our Show. On the 19th May we had our first show of the year. Weather was not to bad for us it was not as sunny as last year but we still had a very good attendance. Some 1000/1500 people flocked through the gates and was greeted by a vast array of cars and the odd lorry or two totalling to about 400 + exhibitors and at least 50 traders to browse over. Many of the traders told me they had a good day. This year we extended the field and I and the Committee are glad we did. We shall do the same in August hoping for another bumper turn out. The entertainment in May was Barney and the Rubbles. A good local group who plays at lots of local venues including our meeting place at the Kings Arms Frating. In addition we had Radio Caroline on hand to play music in between the groups performances. All was going great till we had a hick up and the electricity supply tripped. Thank goodness for the electrican with the Radio Caroline ensemble who came to our aid and fixed the problem and music was restored. There was a good turn out by our club I think at least 50 cars was present may be more. The bright sparks at the council decided to let roadworks happen on the corner with a set of three way lights having been installed. This amounted to lots of confusion and frustration by the exiting public. Some waiting a while to leave. Thank goodness for our unknown heroes who some how made the lights disappear and traffic flow was brought back to normality. I have been inundated with thanks for the show since I placed an apology on Facebook as everybody knew it wasn’t our fault. Thank you to all that attended and helped out on the day. Your efforts are much appreciated and hope that we may have your services again in August. Colin Wintle Chairman

5 6 THE GEORGE PUB RUN On the 14th of April, 21 of us went on a pub lunch run to the George at Hintlesham, Suffolk. Setting off from the layby on the A133 at 1pm, we took a very leisurely drive down Crown lane, through to Manningtree then on to East Bergholt then onto the George at Hintlesham. We all managed to stick together despite a couple of tricky junctions and some traffic lights on some road works. We all enjoyed a couple of courses of food and spent a good couple of hours there, I can safely say we all enjoyed ourselves. Frazer

The Kings Arms monthly club meet on 29th of May. Our club presented to the hosts, a cheque £250 for cancer research

ALDHAM RALLY 9TH JUNE

Handing over the cheque

Old Strangers Home

Sunday, sitting and chatting in the sun

June’s monthly club meet

We were charmed with a pleasant evening in a large Tepee at the rear of the Strangers Home public house. Nigel supplied these photographs and some interesting history.

7 The Strangers. A brief history The name of the Strangers Home public house is believed to derive from the French word estranger, meaning foreigner, and refers to the Huguenot refugees, who settled in this country from their religious persecution in Europe from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. They brought all manner of trades with them including weaving and the art of beer- making, a former Strangers Home landlord Derrick Tankard, between 1981-1995, has found he is a descendant of those Huguenot refugees. From their first settlement in Colchester, they expanded first to Thorpe le Soken and gradually to other outlying villages in the Tendring peninsula. The field at the rear of the present Strangers home was the site of a Huguenot refugee camp and a chapel was erected on the back of Gordon Spark’s shop in the street and this could have been their religious meeting place. Most of the villages in the locality had weavers and these villagers were engaged as outworkers, with the centre of the trade based at the Dutch quarter in Colchester. There is evidence to suggest that the former Windmill in Mill Lane was at one time used as a fulling mill and the cloths were hung out on Tenterhooks on the sloping bank in front of the Mill house to dry This Bay and Say industry died out sometime after the English Civil War of 1648. Of the Huguenot weavers who settled in Bradfield there are remainders of their presence in the old Mansard roofed cottages that line the main street and indeed up to recently a loom remained in the attic of one of these houses. The first Strangers Home was situated at the corner of Mill lane and the street and one of the earliest references of a landlord was Charles Baker in 1865, then Joseph Everson in 1866, he then passed it onto Charles Parker in 1870, which in turn passed it onto Frederick and Hannah Mason in 1882 Frederick died at the beginning of July 1883 but his widow Hannah ( b.1851) carried on until Edwardian days when she moved to the “ Old School House “ Now Milestones in Harwich road as a “ Boarding House Keeper “. Probably while she was at the Strangers Home the heavy work at the Inn was carried out by her brother-in-law Arthur (1859-1913) a Shoe maker who lodged with her. Hannah is recorded as the last landlady of the old Strangers Home from 1886 to when it finally closed in 1906; it then became used for private occupation and public social gatherings until the middle of the 20th century, when it was demolished along with adjoining cottages, slaughterhouse and butchers in the mid 1960s. The Strangers Home then moved to its new and current site at the junction of the street & station road and opened with a new landlord Issac James Clarke in 1906 who ran the pub for over 25 years until his death in 1933. On the site of the new strangers home was The White Horse Beer house on just one level – The Landowner in c1843 was John Harrison and in Occupation was John Sparrow, it was recorded as Homestead in the 1843 tithes/ to c1903+. An elderly customer called in to the Strangers for a pint in the 1960s and told the then landlord Denny Biggs (1958- 1971) that he worked as a boy for a building firm, (on one of his first jobs), who were called in to add a second storey to the White Horse, and make it into the building it looks today. A building company that had started the job had to leave it because they went bust or they were doing a poor job, he could not remember? He did remember that you can see the join of first floor with the second because they laid the bricks in a different pattern and you can still see this today. 8 After Issac James Clarke the landlord was Edward Arthur Goodman (1885-1964) who pulled pints for about 25 years until the 1950s. And then I believe Denny Biggs had it from 1958 to 1971? It is from Denny's time I remember as a teenager with my peers who were around 16 years of age in 1970 using the Stranger’s pub, the layout at this time in the early 1960s was different from the current open plan. Then as you looked at the pub from the front, there were three bars with three separate doors to get into them. The lounge bar on the left had comfortable seats and was hardly used. The middle bar was the regular bar that all the workers used, complete with a black and white television on the counter and sawdust spread over a wooden panelled floor with spittoons at either end of the foot of the bar counter. The third bar on the right became the leisure room with darts and later a juke box. There was another door on the left hand side of the pub reached by the alleyway which further lead you to the ladies outside toilet. This door was the jug department where you could buy anything the pub sold with out the need of going into the main pub. The Strangers Inn was a Steward & Patteson of Norwich pub supplied in the early days by horse drawn dray from the Princes Street depot in Ipswich, one of the dray men man later took on one of the pub tenancies in Ipswich. The Strangers Picture of 1962 is how I remember the pub…N.Klammer. **********************************************

New Members to our Club.

We welcome the Following members to our club who have joined us since the beginning of the year. There is some old returning members to.

January saw the following new members: Stephen Ivell-494 Paul Dines-495 Dave Cable-496 February : Justin Guilder-497 March: Edward (ted) Woolley-498 Steve Goddard-499 John Brett-500 Alistair Mitchell-501 Ian Carmichael-502 April: Neil Beadle-503 May: Chris Clements-504 Graham Holt-505 Michael Tulip-506 David Smith-507.

We welcome you all to our club and hope you enjoy your time with us.

Dave Spurgeon Membership Secretary.

9 Federation of British Historic Vehicles Club (FBHVC)

As you are aware we are members of the Federation of British Historic Vehicles Club (FBHVC). The FBHVC has recently launched a new website the link being ww w.fb h vc. c o. uk which takes the visitor to all the features including a members area, if you are not already registered as a member now might be the time to do so

PD F’s of their quarterly newsletter can be downloaded for free from the Members area.

Vehicles of historic interest MOT Exemption

Below is a statement issued by the Department of Transport

10 Results of FBHVC 2019 Cost of Ownership Survey

 Number of historic vehicles on the DVLA database has increased to 1,241,863  9.8 million people are interested in historic vehicles  Average distance covered by historic vehicles is 2,214 mile per annum  21 million people see historic vehicles as an important element of the UK's heritage  11.3 million people think historic vehicles should be exempt from restrictions of low and ultra low emissions imposed on other vehicles  5.1 million people are interested in owning a historic vehicle  60% of owners say owning a historic vehicle is one of the most important things in life  An owner spends a average of £1,489 per historic vehicle per annum   ************************ Wanted For the magazine's workshop section, a vehicle to rebuild and restore as a regular feature. The vehicle gets completely restored with the welding, new body panels formed, rebuild and paint finishing fully explained..

Previous owners; 5,534 spiders One previous owner, never raced or rallied

Only needs a bit of rust converter!

11 Workshop Section

THE OVERTIGHTENING OF PLUGS IN AN ALLOY HEAD

Problems can arise when removing sparking plugs because alloy contracts as it cools, its best to loosen plugs with the engine hot, and any that are a tight fit should be eased by screwing them half turn each way and gradually working them out. If the plugs are to be refitted, clean the threads with white spirit and wire brush to remove any carbon deposits. Often the cylinder head threads need cleaning out, you can do this quite easily with an old plug, whether the head is alloy or steel. Remove the sealing washer and make four or five evenly spaced hacksaw cuts across its threads at an angle to the plug axis. As the plug is screwed into the thread it will clean it and with the washer removed take out the carbon ridge formed at the base of the thread. After this treatment the plug should spin in easily by hand. A piece of heater hose placed over the plug porcelain will make it easier to hold.

A QUICK TEMPORARY REPAIR OF A LEAKING PETROL TANK If a small leak appears on your petrol tank, for a quick temporary repair use some BLU_TACK . This soft putty like material does not usually set and is used for sticking posters and cards etc. to walls. However, in contact with petrol it sets rock hard and is the best temporary repair solution I know for petrol tanks.

CONGRESS OF RESIDUE IN YOUR TANK. Any sludge in your petrol tank add one cup of baking soda and two cups of white vinegar to your tank and fill 3/4 full of water. Allow this solution to sit for a hour or two. This cleaning solution will break down and dissolve any unwanted build up.. Note:- The diesel bug ! There are over 100 variants of micro organisms that live at a fuel water interface. If they are in your classic vehicle fuel tank, they will feed on your fuel to produce a brown to black sludge that will clog the fuel system. To avoid this, make sure your fuel is clean, dry and store with the tank full. You can also add a biocide, I used marine 16, when my LR 109 had the bug, this is available from chandlers , Amazon and ebay. Other fuel biocides are available. Modern fuels with a high bio content are more susceptible.

12 Eco cars for the classic car enthusiast …We should do our bit for the environment!

13 112 Mpg Maybe the CCCC should be driving these cars to lead by example 14 ******************************************* LOOKING BACK AT TYRES

Over a hundred years ago the preferred motor vehicle tyre was probably the solid tyre, Idealy suited to a strong town car where top speeds were approximately 16 mph. Very soft springs were needed with plenty of vertical travel. Advantages of the solid tyre in this era was the capability of twice the mileage and half of the cost of the pneumatic tyre, some comfort was lost but reliability was good. A few problems arose when used at high speeds with the tyre becoming hot and the fixing cement used at the time melting and allowing the tyre to move on the rim. The pneumatic tyre giving some luxury soon became more popular, when looked after lasted 4000 to 5000 miles. Drivers at the time soon became skilled at mending punctures and lacing in gaiters on damaged tyres. In 1916 Sealomatic was selling puncture proof self sealing inner tubes where the inside of the inner tube was lined with a sticky plastic type of material. Expensive but it worked. Rubber was not always as useful as it is today. Early rubber did not hold shape, it would be sticky in hot weather and became inflexible in the cold. The side wall of crossply tyres is more rigid and is more resilient at preventing side wall damage. Many buses still use cross ply tyres to ease the swaying of the vehicle. Avon still make cross ply tyres for historic racing cars. Radial tyres first appeared in Europe in 1948 a well designed tyre giving a wider foot print, flexible side walls and a softer ride. All modern cars run on radials apart from some classics and a few commercials. Back in the 60,s and 70,s a lot of car drivers were not quite sure about using radial tyres. Where they give greater grip on the road surface, when they lose grip it is instant. Whereas with the crossply tyre, its loss of grip is very progressive and controllable. Fitting wider radial tyres can be counter productive because of the loss of down force on the tread. New cars with traction control now solve most of these problems. The modern tyre has a smaller percentage of natural rubber and mainly consists of Carbon black (soot), nylon, steel, synthetic rubber and other additives to make 'smart' tyres. 15 Key to Eco cars

Most of these cars were small, low tech, good fuel economy and would carry one or two people at speeds up to 50mph and often 60mpg. Ideal town cars. Some were electric. On that topic, the first practical electric vehicles went onto the streets in the 1870’s.Performance data on the illustrated cars is sparse, as it was not as important then as it is now . 16 17 Paul's VDUB I have only been a member of this club for around 3 months but have been a classic car owner / enthusiast for around 40 years. I have had a plethora of classic vehicles - mostly Fords, Triumphs, Austins and VW's currently run an original LHD 1303 VW Beetle Karman Convertible which was rescued from the scrap heap by someone in Caterham , Kent who owned a car body repair business and who, fortunately, was also a VW beetle fan. When rescued I understand the poor car was in no fit state for the road and was structurally riddled with rust arthritis ...so much so that it was virtually bending in half at the middle... 2 years of restoration work later and it was back on the road. I bought this car from the restorer and have had it for about 13 years. It's a great car to drive. It is surprisingly nippy having an air cooled horizontally opposed 1600cc engine and being a 1303 it has the later Macpherson strut suspension set up which is very user friendly.

Unfortunately heating in it is a bit hit and miss...the heat being transferred from the back of the car by a big fan on the engine and through heat exchangers (which after nearly 15years , don't work quite as smoothly or efficiently as they should do ) and the pram type 'up and over' fabric roof fits where it touches (which isn't much) so there are a few draughts and opportunities for wet weather tsunami's to occur when driving in rain, so (being the delicate flower that I am) I tend to only drive it on nice sunny days... The only real problems I have had with the car are when I replaced a lot of items on the engine ( all electrics , fuel , new carb etc ). The car was great for a few miles

18 everything I had just replaced ! (apart from and carb)...but a few miles later, the problem returned. To cut a very long story short, I was checking all the jets in the carb and found a tiny piece of metal, which was about the size and shape of a mouses moustach hair.. This was jamming itself into the main jet but was still loose enough to be shaken out again when starter was engaged..once I removed this, my intermittent running problems seemed cured. Such a small thing causing such a big problem - (Bit like Kim Jong Un ") Only other thing was a generator failure warning light which came on...I checked fuses and all seemed good so decided to change the alternator... bit of a pig of a job but after much swearing and cursing managed it. All seemed good but 2 days later light came on again...on further checking it seems that the fuse box terminal was slightly oxidised and just needed a very good talking to and clean...alternator was not the problem at all ...... bugger ! I did try to fit a car alarm to it but stupidly left the car to go and get a soldering iron, half way through the job. Schoolboy mistake was not to disconnect the battery. On my return something had earthed out and there was thick smoke and much red glowing wire as main wiring loom decided to turn itself into the best heater element you could ask for. This was literally eating itself through the wiring as I stood there wondering what to do first... Get car out of the garage, try to find fire extinguisher, try to disconnect battery, rip out wires I could see were about to combust ?....which one first ??? I grabbed a spanner and undid the battery on the hope that once juice was stopped all other things might just calm down which, fortunately they did. I have made repairs to the harness but, as I am way better at taking things apart that putting them back together, ideally would like it repaired by someone who is competent and experienced at Auto Electrics..***.So if anyone out there knows of such a skilled person, who doesn't want me to take out a second mortgage for his / her help, I would appreciate if you could let me know. I also have collected a vast array of spare parts for the hundreds of vehicles that I have previously owned, on the pretence of someday getting other similar cars. Of course this hasn't happened and i have a garage full of parts and related books, toys, ephemera etc...so I have now taken to selling / buying / swapping parts. It's more of a hobby than anything but I think that this squirreling of parts is probably true of a lot of people so if you do have a little (or big) collection of parts you no longer need or want and would like to free them up, (or know of someone else who might) then please let me know. I am also happy to do a write-up / editorial of your car, or others you may know of, in any state of repair, that our club members may like to read about...It never fails to surprise me, the amount of cars still laying about as unfinished projects or unwanted objects but are left and almost forgotten about. There could be something out there that our members would dearly like to own which is just languishing in a damp barn, rotting away and could be saved before its too late and gone too far ? My contact number is 07508156614 Thanks Paul Dines

19 Isetta Car? Like many people who started out on the road in the early seventies as a teenager, I began on motor-bikes, which were cheap and plentiful. I didn’t pass my driving test until pressure from girlfriends in my late teens, who no longer liked getting on the back, and wanted to arrive wherever we were going without flattened hair and mascara streaks. I lived in the far North-West of Greater London in the part of this sprawl known by the post-war planners as ‘Metroland’. In the winter it was a pain biking from Harrow to Wembley to the GEC Estate where I worked, and with the nearest tube station being Preston Road, it still left about a mile to walk at the other end of my train journey in the dismal outer London grey-smog-rain.

A bike licence allowed one to drive a three-wheeler, albeit that if it had a reverse gear it had to be disabled. I toyed with the idea of a Reliant until I saw a cheap, tatty bubble-car down the side alley of our local motorcycle shop in Harrow, the shop HGB is now a nationally recognised Honda dealer still going strong nearby, but at the time located in a run-down three bedroomed detached house in the centre of town – stuffed full of frames, , batteries and mudguards piled high in each room. A madhouse where the owner could tell you exactly where to find anything you asked for.

Me: "Oi, got a rear rack for a Post-Office Raleigh Runabout?"

Owner, Upstairs in the bath " Underneath the blue Honda Benley petrol tank. It’s a grey Gas Board one, and it's Mr Oi to "

The Isetta was a dull matt red (funny how red does that isn’t it? Something to do with ultra-violet in sunlight I believe) and had a scrap of canvas up top which I have lately seen described in classic car ads as a ‘sun-roof’.

It had a plucky little engine which seemed to thrive on being thrashed and a plate had been fixed to the selector to prevent reverse being accessed. It was noisy and smelled inside of petrol and wasn’t suitable for my 6’2’’ frame, but what the hell it was cheap, and it kept me dry……until it rained.

Driving it was a scary prospect because it had absolutely no road presence, and when other road users did see it, they would ignore it, and certainly wouldn’t give way to it for fear I suppose of being stuck behind it. I only ever managed to get about 40 out of it flat out - with a tail wind, and it didn’t like hills. On the plus side, I rarely put petrol in it and reckon it did about 45 to 50 to the gallon.

For some reason the battery was very weak on cold mornings, this appeared to happen to all my vehicles in those days. With the motor-bike I just ran alongside it (I always pushed/ran to the left of the bike) and usually when I selected 2nd and leapt side-saddle on to the thing, letting the clutch go at the optimum point with my weight over the back - it started.

I have retold the following account of how to start a bubble-car with a flat battery many times in the last 40 years and frankly no-one ever believes me (about this, or the time I did the plans for flood-lighting Rod Stewarts house in Epping and on meeting him to approve the plans, found his latest squeeze, the gorgeous Kelly Emberg was taller than me) with Isetta owners in particular giving me that open-mouthed, blank look that suggests I:

(a) Am Fibbing (b) Am Bonkers (c) Have two heads.

20 However every word is true and the experience just seemed natural to me at the time, as natural as, well, bump starting a motor-bike. One grey, drizzly Metroland morning (always shown as sunny in the post-war sales posters by the way) the Isetta wouldn’t start. Again. My normal routine was to take the battery up to my bedroom, put it on charge and arrive late to work on the train. For some reason, on this particular morning I went onto auto pilot and performed a stunt which I was destined to repeat many, many times afterwards. I released the handbrake, slid the nearside window back, reached in and grabbed the wheel and push-steered the thing into the middle of the road. I opened the door, the handle was to the left as you looked at the car from the front, which meant the steering wheel was elevated to the right as it was attached to the door when opened. Next I selected second gear (stick with the successful bike starting routine, eh?) and turned on the ignition. With one hand pulling the clutch pedal down and the other pulling on the steering wheel (pulling whilst affecting minor changes to the vehicles direction with it) I ran backwards as fast as I could and when I was knackered let the clutch pedal flick up and moved my hand to give the accelerator a couple of . The Isetta started. After giving the accelerator another couple of pumps whilst running backwards furiously (into God knows what by the way) I leapt into the moving bubble-car and with a deft twisting movement, landed in the seat, slammed the door and drove to work. Ta da. It just needed Terry Thomas at the side of the road in cricket whites with a tennis racquet over his shoulder saying ‘I say, you baynder’ as I drove off and the scene would have been perfect. On later attempts I refined the process and used first gear, as I realised the car would travel slower during the final pump-the-gas process and would be less inclined to try to run me over. Later still I acquired the skill that once the engine had fired I could knock the Isetta out of gear with one hand and apply the footbrake with the other, then pump the gas a few times with the hand that had taken it out of gear. Phew. One Sunday, whilst laying on the grass with a mate watching small planes take off and land at Elstree Aerodrome, we became aware of a kerfuffle going on behind the clubhouse, which was reminiscent of a scene from Porterhouse Blue as it involved a huge plume of black smoke rising from the carpark, people running around and bumping into each other and the arrival of the aged, bell-clanging resident fire engine, complete with volunteers hanging off the sides. Walking towards the plume of smoke, I wondered how we had missed the spectacle of a Cessna arriving back from a trip to France, or wherever it was posh people flew their planes to at the weekend, and crashing into the Mercs and Jags in the carpark. As we rounded the corner of the building, it turned out that the black smoke was from the burnt-out and blackened wreck of my little Isetta. Shame really I had become quite fond of it. On reflection maybe I should have paid more attention to the smell of petrol. Footnote. In the years since my children were born I have accumulated thousands of photographs, mostly digital (it somehow doesn’t feel the same gathering around a laptop to view our snaps of Dubrovnic, the Peak District or a university graduation, as it does opening a shoe box and leafing misty eyed through its photographic contents). When I was young, life was to be lived and not reflected upon and it rarely occurred to me to photograph the vehicles I owned, so the image shown is of the wonderful Isetta in one of its many guises has been lifted from Google. Where else? Keith ***********************************************

21 Ticking noise behind dashboard Roy Franklin

Rover p6b 1974 . 'Ticking ' noise behind dashboard. having checked with rover forums it seem likely the speed cable may be fraying or simply dried out with no lubrication after so many years. Injecting some oil into end of cable failed to cure so . new cable to be fitted. Tip here is you do not need as I did to raise car on ramps for access underneath as gearbox end of cable has a large rubber 'bung' accessed by removing carpet on passenger side footwell and noise suppression foam on side of tunnel. ( pic included) a few pictures showing dashboard removal in process and new cable about to be fitted are attached. ( hopefully) replacing this failed to cure ticking noise ! So checked both 'angle ' take off drives that are fitted each end of speedo cable. Unable to determine any faults at all. Refitted with lubrication and a clean. Then while driving ( erm.. passenger hands) moved speedo cable around behind centre console and noise abated quiet a bit. Will live with subdued noise though may have to invest in replacing the angle drive unit fixed to speedo itself later ( ££). Meanwhile back at the ranch Mot had same yearly issue with rear . On a rover p6 these are inboard discs and a real pain to access plus notorious for poor emergency braking. So having checked pads. linkages , found slight play in handbrake cable. fiddly adjustment underneath car in propshaft tunnel computing with propshaft and exhaust pipe but finally at one hexagon flat turn at a time took out play! car in use for another year. hurrah. This car has been a money pit since purchase in Wimbledon London 5 years ago. stored in a garage for 13 years until owner went into care home. His family then sold to a dealer and muggins came along and bought it! mileage not paved but as far as can tell with paperwork seems genuine at under 40K . having. spent a gazillion on new brakes. lines . master cylinder. servo. Flexi hoses. exhaust system. all hoses . new fluids .complete set new tyres ( old were hardly used but were well over 10 years old so binned) sorting out. over heating , fitting electric fan. new rad cap. new thermostat. new inlet manifold gasket. new , new coil .new plugs, new leads. refurbishing carbs. checking timing and so on. We. finally though we had a car we can drive. now I see why it has so little mileage on it... with all this work taking place over nearly 18 months or more. I was visiting Clacton car club meets with no car ! having stared to sue car for short journeys we found we have an ongoing ( uncured) issue with full vapour. apparently with modern fuel ( even top grade) we have a blend of at least 5% ethanol . so when car engine stops .heat from engine creates gas bubbles in carbs and fuel line . so we start engine. move off ..and proceed in a leisurely fashion eventually reaching 32 mph ( regardless throttle or choke positions) for around 30-50 seconds before we get a slight shove in black as fresh fuel enters carbs and we immediately have a normal car again. this car is my first. classic car and luckily benefits form historic tax exemption although MOT exempt can be applied for I will always get an Mot each year both for own satisfaction its in decent roadworthy nick and to avoid the very real prospect of. being involved in an accident and insurance company saying I missed something and car was in thinner eyes 'unroadworthy' and therefore no paying out! Now that would be very £££ costly. far better we all have a regular MOT at least. My own back ground was first car bought as an apprentice and company loan for £300. a red Morris 1100. rust and age eventually. moving it on! driven. Morris minor pickup . transits. lorry ( under 3 tons) many fords. and owned a ford Mexico in Daytona yellow mk1 1972 from new when I joined Ford motor company ( staying for 39 years) If only I had kept that car! lol followed by Zepyhr Mk4 v6 , then Capri 1660 XL with black vinyl roof in a nice metallic purple ! soon after a cortina mk2 1600. then when family started we went back to an escort. mk1 1100 in yellow. followed by a Sierra estate 2.0 Ghia silver fox. About this time we had a white mini 1000 that ended up being scrapped. later having an Ford Fiesta mk2 1.6D. traded in for an fiesta ST blue ( fab car). Then a fiesta 1.4. next in line was Kuga 2'0 titanium AWD ( got a deal on that bought new for 15k as part of new car launch by Ford 100 off at that price only .normally 20-21k) . after 7 years trouble free. Swapped for new fiesta mk7 followed by a second hand Kuga 2.0 titanium 22 Then a fiesta 1.4. next in line was Kuga 2'0 titanium AWD (got a deal on that bought new for 15k as part of new car launch by Ford 100 off at that price only .normally 20-21k) . after 7 years trouble free. Swapped for new fiesta mk7 followed by a second hand Kuga 2.0 titanium which is current car. So aside from driving other cars such as an MGB .as not owned by me. I have been involved with cars all my life other than as. an apprentice mechanical craftsman completing apprentice ship in 1971.

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INTERESTING MUSEUMS BARNARDS FARM MUSEUM Brentwood Road, West Horndon, CM13 3LX www.barnardsfarm.eu EAST ANGLIA TRANSPORT MUSEUM Chappel Road, Carlton Colville, Lowestoft. Suffolk. NR33 8BL www.eatm.org.uk

IPSWICH TRANSPORT MUSEUM OLD TROLLEY BUS DEPOT Cobham Road, Ipswich, Suffolk. IP3 9JD www.ipswichtransportmuseum.co.uk NORFOLK MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM Station Yard, North Walsham, Norfolk. NR28 ODS www.mc-museum.freeserve.co.uk SANDRINGHAM ROYAL MOTOR MUSEUM PE35 6EN The Estate Office, Sandringham, Norfolk www.sandringhamestate.co.uk THE YELDHAM TRANSPORT MUSEUM AND RESTORATION CENTRE Unit 22, Hunnable Industrial Estate, Toppersfield Road, Yeldham, Halstead. C09 4HD www.veldhamtransportcollection.co.uk

23 COMMITTEE Chairman Colin Wintle. Tele : 01206 974279/07701011053 Email: [email protected]. Vice Chairman : Frazer Linsell Tele: 01255 813508/07902420912 Email: [email protected] Treasurer: Ian Griggs. Tele: 01255 429150/07984854069 Email [email protected] Membership Secretary: Dave Spurgeon. Tele: 07831 602214 Email: [email protected] Member without Portfolio: Karen Reeder Tele: 07780115755 Email: [email protected] Magazine Editor: Vic Smith Tele: 07831157727

Regular monthly meetings are usually held at the Kings Arms, Frating on the last Wednesday of each month from 7- 30pm unless otherwise stated in 'Forthcoming Events'. Please visit our web-site or enquire from committee for further info. We are Member of the Federation of British Historical Vehicle Clubs, (FBHVC). And fully insured.

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