A Mostly British Obsession
I met a potential contractor for our new house at our property on Friday. I was lamenting that I rarely get good deals because I put out some weird “sucker” vibe or something. He said “show up to a meeting in that truck and they’ll know you don’t have any money.”
My poor truck gets no respect–and it’s a perfect disguise (not that I have any money, in any case, but still).
Just a quick note to say I spent an inordinate amount of time reading and enjoying the restoration story of one of GM’s “Futurliners.” They’re pretty ungainly looking, but it’s a great story and there are a million photos.
What a great way to have something fun to do in retirement…get together with friends once or twice a week and restore a piece of motoring history.
This is just about one of my favorite motoring photographs–it shows Raymond Mays, an excellent British driver before Hitler’s War, reacting to his car’s loss of a wheel on a hill climb. Mays later went on to found BRM, a manufacturer of race cars designed to bring the Grand Prix championship to the English. He was also, in the euphemism of the day, a “lifelong bachelor,” quite talented in the dramatic arts.
Bourne was the home of Mays and there is a most interesting site about the town and its history: Bourne, Lincolnshire, England in Words and Pictures by Rex Needle.
The PTO seal on the fergie was leaking a bit, so last week I drained the 8 gallons (!) of hydraulic fluid from the machine and changed it. I was feeling very proud of my efficient work, and only noticed at about gallon seven of the refill that the new seal was leaking like a sieve…way worse than the old one.
My short-term solution? Park the tractor on a steep hill to prevent the expensive fluid from pooring out. Today, a week later, I pulled the PTO shaft and examine my work. (I always buy two of any seal I replace on anything mechanical so I have a spare in case I screw up.) Well, it was leaking because I essentially destroyed the new seal putting it in last time. Doh!
My spare is on, installed correctly, and seems to be working fine. Took about fifteen minutes, by the way…
I drove the MGB down to Bellevue today to take a gander at the All British Field Meet. I think this year is the 16th (!) which I’m astonished at as I helped put together the first one in 1989. I saw a number of neat cars and got a halfway decent sunburn. However, this show is the least interesting, somehow, of the “big three” here in the northwest, especially as it’s on tarmac and it can get quite hot out…not to mention it’s awfully darn crowded anywhere in the greater Seattle area these days, which makes getting there not all that much fun.
I’ve got a lot of car-related tasks to do this summer, but rebuilding the front end of my truck has got to be up there on the priority list. The springs have sagged a lot, and there is a ton of slop in the steering. I think I’m just going to do it all while I’m in there…tie rod ends, bearings, discs, springs, shocks, king pins and bushings. I suspect at least some of the slop is in the power steering, but that project can wait for another day.
I mowed another couple of acres today up at Pony Hollow, and I’m beginning to believe I’ll have to rebuild the hydraulics on the tractor. They work but they also don’t have a decent range of adjustment, which suggests either wear or bad seals.
I guess every machinery addict has a wish list of machines they’d like to own. I know I do…I’m a sucker for an old British car in need. I’m trying to temper that a bit, though, as I realize that once you have a certain number of machines, it’s very difficult to get much done on them, and you end up driving only one or two of them with any frequency.
It’s funny what you remember about certain cars and what you don’t. I’m going to see what I can come up with in a few minutes for this car, the Healey 3000 tri-carb I owned in 1995 or so, ten years ago (!).
This Jaguar was bought on a whim, probably for too much money, and cost me an arm and a leg for the year or so I owned it. When it was working right, it was a lovely car…there’s nothing quite like the V12 engine. When it went wrong, even seemingly minor jobs ended up costing hundreds if not thousands of dollars
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