What did you do New Year 2014?..

I painted a 60 year old Dinky model of my A40 Somerset. What on earth?!! One to remember.

Before the Champagne was popped of course.

That's probably as good as I wanted to get it. Don't think I have a steady enough hand to add the reg. number. Silver pen maybe?...

Minus temperatures drive to Reading Central Pool!

OK, really ummed and ahhed about driving Amy this morning. It was around -7° overnight and only about -4° at 9.30am when it was time to leave for Rob's Diving in Reading. But it was bright, and dry. Probably as ideal driving conditions in that kind of temp that you could ask for. It would be a REAL test and I still feel the need to put her under pressure for some reason.

Again, as with in November, the cover was frozen solid to the roof. Bits of tarp were left in place when I pulled it off - that was a bit of a mistake!! Was already thinking of investing in a proper, breathable cover to replace it anyway, so no big deal just aided the decision along a bit.

Was not hopeful initially though, turnover was REALLY sluggish. Even more so than a couple of days ago due to the temperature being that much colder. It had that real "dead battery" sound, but ye of little faith. Oil pressure came up, few blips on the accelerator after that and she came to life easily again. I don't know why I harbor doubts frankly.

Rob was not impressed, cold car journey to Reading for him. He got over it, but admitted that he was hoping she wouldn't go when he heard me trying to start up. He was happy in a nice warm hoody though, winter motoring 50's style!! The "heater" was just enough to keep the windscreen clear and melt the remaining ice - but that was all you could really ask for.

But she was warmed up and purring along within 10 mins and got us there with no doubts at all. Mandatory location picture, Amy at Diving, Reading Central Pool:

Warmed up to 0° for the journey home mind you! Balmy.

Little boys toys

Bought a Dinky Somerset for a tenner. Sole intention is to make it roughly look like mine, not to be original or anything.

First coat, probably wont look great even when done and probably will be worth LESS than before! But that wasn't the point. Only for fun.

 



Bright, cold Christmas country drive

Blow out those Christmas cobwebs, bright sunny day, really cold overnight. Pulled finger out and cleaned up the sparkplugs at least! Long overdue as not done since CH Gasket repair over 9 months ago. Good news is that they all looked pretty much OK. Touch dark perhaps, but in OK nick with 1400 miles under their belt.

Starting took a little bit of effort, but nothing sinister. Not driven in over a week, cold thick oil. Highlighted the benefit of having a good strong battery. Initial turnover was slow, gradulally sped up as oil pressure came up. Then fired up pretty easily after that and ran quite nicely for temps of around 2°

Drove out into the country a bit and here's Amy in some random farmland scenery!

Another day, another drive. Judo Club / Youth Centre plus Seats upkeep

This blog is approaching a boring normality level, which is good. If the most interesting thing to note is where Amy was driven today then that's fine by me!

Therefore, Amy at "her" parking space at Isabelle's Judo Christmas party at Wokingham Youth Centre:

Also a small piece of work, must retreat the seats on a regular basis. The bases anyway. Noticed some early wear and tear and now that they are fitted they are much easier to treat.

Looking Back. 2014.

Was just glancing through a few old entries of this blog. About a year ago, end of Nov / start of Dec 2013 was a key point. I had problems, but was determined to work through them. Most importantly I had decided NOT to try to make Amy my exclusive daily drive and that I would keep two cars. Becky the Citroen arrived around then. 107,000 miles on the clock! So that may have been a questionable choice but annual mileage was so low, it seemed like an OK gamble.

But since then, my working pattern has changed, whereas I was probably only doing 2000 miles a year TOTAL before (due to Train travel) this changed. Becky was called into play far more, she's now done approaching 5000 miles in the last year. Regular trips to Staines and back. She passed her MOT with only new front tyres needed. The only problem is the radiator fan does not work properly so you have to turn the heater on in traffic jams! Not so nice in the summer - but bearable!! So despite NEEDING a car more than before, it's all worked out nicely.

Amy has done about 1500 miles in that year period too and it's the opposite problem for her, trying to get her nicely warmed up is the challenge there!!

But either way, since that important decision last year, the fact that mechanicals all fine now and we've had a nice summer of trips and shows, it's all good.

For now......!!!

Out and about - nothing much but ... Pinewood & Heathlake pictures

Saturday was a bright, icy cold day but had too much to do to get out in Amy for a drive. Sunday was also pretty nice so despite having quite a "head" from two nights of pre-Christmas celebrating(!), Amy had to get out for a nice drive. All FIVE of us pootling up to Gymnastics.

Isabelle dropped off first then it was off to a local venue, Heathlake, for a nice fresh dog walk.

Met some fellow dog walkers who were as enamored with Amy as they were with Reggie. AND wanted a picture of their dog in front of the car!! Random but my indulgence from last year (Amy) combines nicely with the Wife's indulgence of this year (Reggie).

Occasional Daily Driver Still - Roebuck Pub, Binfield

Still an element of bloody minded-ness that I can't shift, but anyway, today was similar to a few weeks ago. Sunny Friday slated, very cold, damp start. Ice. Took two or three attempts to start up, but still relatively easy. Haven't had to resort to easy-start like I did last year so all good.

In the office by 8.00am. Even after over a year, still can't help looking down at the Car Park and smiling. But resisted the photo this time.

But I just had to take a shot outside the Friday lunchtime pub!

New addition enjoys a trip in Amy!

Yesterday was another one of those weird warm days - two days before December! Lovely sunny day, a perfect Amy Saturday.

Reggie and Robbie (not Ronnie!!) on the back seat, en route to some garden center or another to buy dog treats, dog toys etc.. etc..!

Nice to have ordinary driving days and not just show days and club nights.

And they're in!! Brilliant

Slid the seats back in over lunch today, and had a drive around of course! They look absolutely great and just as comfortable as they were. Of course paranoid about rivets on jeans now etc etc..! But very happy indeed!! Just to compare easily the previous situation, the difference is clear!!:

 

 

Now, jobs that NEED doing?... None really. If Amy stayed exactly as - is and ran the same, then I don't think I'd touch anything at all. Thermostat? Yeah suppose I should after all of the research. Electric Ignition? Again suppose I should, since I bought the damn thing! Exhaust Manifold? The repair is fine.

 

 

Started relatively easily after over a week under cover from constant rain. Soaked in dew and pretty cold. She runs pretty nice once warm, not confident of long journeys, but do I really care?

 

 

I may get around to these things, but as I mentioned before, she's a fairweather occasional car now, so happy! And a good build up of memories, my son recalled breaking down at the end of the road in the early days today as we tootled off to Tescos this evening!

 

New Seats - ready to go in

Oh looky looky.... Too much rain to rush and fit them back in today, just admiring them in the lounge:

Weather slated to be sunny tomorrow, so a lunch hour job to just remove the Nissan seat, put the driver's side runners back in and then slide in the re-covered seats.

Seats are ready!!

Just got the call. I can go and pick them up!

I checked the dates when this all started, and I'll have just about managed to get this done within a year of when I first got the covers delivered from the US. OK so they weren't a complete set after all and this has ended up costing me £800 in total instead of around £450 which is what I had expected.

That wasn't the plan. But now done, very will be very happy. Pictures will ensue!!

On a side note, over the last week either the weather has been bad or I haven't really had the time to get her "out of bed" due to puppy duties with Reggie. Wet weather seems set to continue. Bottom line is not much driving time and haven't pulled finger out on other jobs yet. But was still glad that I had the temporary Nissan Skyline seat, if only for the White Lion Austin Day. And I was planning to cut back on Winter driving anyway. I have garage space available to me  now, so I might just put the "new" seats back in, admire her for a bit and then put her away. Not too long, maybe just over Christmas. Still very much weather forecast dependent.

We'll see, but in the meantime ... SEATS... can't wait..!!

White Lion Austin Day - and TOO MUCH CARDBOARD!!

November the 9th - Austin day as planned. Fair few Austins, was cool to arrive and be directed to park up in a Marque reserved space rather than just finding any old spot. Arrived earlier than normal for exactly that reason

Bright sunshine, dry, brilliant!

Got in a nice Counties line up, the 16 on the left is owned by an acquaintance from the club, the Devon pickup has been there before. My Somerset as usual, on the right. The Cambridge next would have been nice to see some sort of evolution. I think it was a departure from previous would have been interesting to see side by side.




Arrived in a small flourish of steam coming from the radiator cap!! Over did it by covering the whole rad, thought there would be enough draft around the sides but clearly not, ripped off half for the journey home and no problems.



Starter motor bendix got stuck when trying to start up to leave, but it's handy that I know exactly what I'm doing when that happens nowadays. Starting handle out of boot, turned over engine once, calmy put the handle away got back in and started up no problem - away she went! (That's my favoured method of freeing it up I know there's the "rocking it in gear" method and also taking a spanner to the starter motor but I just find the starter handle is the easiest and most consistent approach) Some onlookers also knew exactly what I was doing, some however must have expected I had problems. Nope.. no worries!

Both the kids came with me, partly as a ruse to keep them out of the way whilst the wife picked up our new puppy!! Isabelle started to get bored, but it was about right. We were there for a couple of hours. Rest of today is going to be spent playing with "Reggie".

A classic car is for life, not just for Christmas - that is what I said last year, this year it was the wife's turn - and a dog it was!!

Covering radiator for now

Tomorrow morning is going to be a chilly one. Don't want to fit the latest thermostat fix just yet, so covering up the radiator for the day. Pretty normal practice as I understand, and without the thermostat probably a good idea to avoid the engine running dead cold!

Only a bit of cardboard wired in place to the rad cap.

No need to over engineer things.

Hopefully tomorrow morning will be what it says it is - cold but dry and maybe bright.

Austin day at the White Lion Classic Car Meets

Thermostat and Blanking Sleeve

OK, so ready to go. Just have to drill a couple of flow holes in the Thermostat flange to allow SOME flow to happen before the stat opens. Also position the small holes in the sleeve so that there is a small amount through the bypass port. But the depth of the sleeve and positioning of the stat means that when it opens then the path of least resistance is CLEARLY up through the rad.

Partly still not totally sure I should bother to do this, despite a lot of information pointing to this as a fix!! A cold running car is inefficient and probably getting coked up more than necessary, but it WORKS. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!? But I'd like to think this is a good thing, plus having a heater that works was nice in the few weeks when I did have a thermostat fitted and working!

I am fitting the 75°C stat first at least. I tested it thoroughly in a saucepan. It opens across the range of about 70° - 77° to fully open. This should be fine (I also have an 88°C one but one step at a time).

Not doing it until AFTER the weekend though, I want to test it out on fairly short runs to start with and the White Lion is a medium run.. (10 miles is still a medium run?..!! I guess it still highlights a relatively low confidence level, despite all the progress...!)

REAL Ice!

Last year was mild. Wet, windy, horrible... but mild. I was happy to drive Amy on frosty days like here, obviously I had a number of challenges to overcome with blowing headgaskets etc!! But despite the post mentioning ice, it was in reality only a frost.

This morning was an eye opener. A nice sunny day was slated. At the same time temperatures have suddenly dipped after a lovely Indian summer and this morning the tarpaulin was FROZEN solid to the roof!

I am struggling to shake that bloody minded-ness and partly I wanted to drive Amy IN SPITE of te cold weather just to see how she would behave. With hindsight I didn't think about the paintwork, but cover came off and she started up pretty easily as usual and have had another nice day of driving to / from work and around at lunchtime.

Very pleased that Amy is running niceley- even when it's starting to get REALLY cold. I will not be driving her in really harsh conditions, but nice to have no misbehavior even when there was REAL ice around. And I haven't done any basic maintenance for a little while!... Lazy, need to roll sleeves up over winter whilst I do the thermostat thing need to do all those basics on the engine like Plugs, points, cables etc...

Back to the thermostat question

As winter and cold weather is approaching. (after the warmest Halloween on record today at 20° plus!) I am starting to re-visit the issue of having a thermostat and whether was the cause (or main contributing factor) of the blown head gaskets.

Some really useful information out there, but in summary, my issue could be a combination of things, rooted in the basic old design of the cylinder head bypass port. There is a great source of info here: http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/cooling/cool_103c.htm

Although written about MGA's, it's equally applicable to the Somerset. In summary, the newer type of thermostat on the older engine design does NOT stop the flow of hot water back around the head through the bypass port like the original bellows style thermostat would have done:

Despite not being a performance car by any stretch of the imagination, with it's pre B-series design and inherent weakness across 2&3 anyway, the old Devon/Somerset A40 engine could be hyper sensitive to that problem. Pretty much what I pondered about the thermostat issue causing flow issues in the first place, but with some reasoning behind that now clear (i.e. highly likely to have been the case due to the different designs.)

So I really feel I should try to crack it. Have ordered the blanking sleeve mentioned in the article and will fit that as shown in the picture. (from the article mentioned above and contribution acknowledged)

That - in conjunction with the lower temp thermostat, drilled with a couple of small flow holes should overcome the incorrect flow experienced when just fitting the new style thermostat.


(Still awaiting seats, but no rush. Austin day at White Lion next Sunday, so planning to attend that as the last activity of the year, rather than the previous visit being the last as originally expected!)

Seats still in progress - temporary pointless?

Had an update phone call today to confirm costs for doing my seats. The plan is to fit the two base covers (which is done already!!) and new covers for the backs to match as close as possible, which should be just a few weeks.

Anyway, total cost is more than I had planned for of course - but still manageable and total cost including the initial outlay for the covers is still considerably less than the £1000 that a local trimmers had quoted for redoing them from scratch.

So happy enough with that and it did mean I was able to spread the cost, covers first - fitting second.

And I will have a pair of original seat base covers to sell!

Not sure who I listened to about the October weather, but looks to be the OPPOSITE of September. Lots of rain, few driving opportunities. Fitting temporary seat looking more like a waste of time as the days go by!! But at least I have the CHOICE and it only cost me a tenner and a morning. So shan't complain, it stops me wondering too much about how long the original seats may take, in case it still takes a while.

From the Driving Seat (!)

The title of the post is a nod to the editorial intro of the County Counsel bi-monthly magazine of the Austin Counties Car Club! This post is just to mention another "original", pre-existing issue fixed at long last. Only took over a year to get around to it!

The indicator switch / horn have always been off at an angle since I got her. Probably noticeable in some pictures. Most annoyingly the Austin crest has therefore also always been wrong.

Now to be fair, my dad had said he remembered it being very simple to adjust. Undo the nut at the other end of the steering column, where the wires come out below the actual steering box, turn the indicator switch/ horn to where it should be and re-tighten. Just seemed TOO simple, couldn't understand, if it was that simple, why it was left at an angle!! The service manual didn't mention a thing either so upshot is that I never tried. Until now.. Anyway - it WAS that simple! View from the (Nissan) driving seat is all looking ship shape in side now!

 

 

Just need those seats back and fitted in and Amy is something to be proud of inside and out. Not concours by any stretch of the imagination. But a pretty fine example!

 

 

Oh and also need to get used to the "new" indicator position. Test drove the temporary seat today too but hands strayed to the wrong place when indicating!! Was fine by the end of the drive though. Skyline seat is VERY comfortable, and reclines too.. Might keep it ... NOT...!!

Temporary seat's in - ready to drive!!

!!! Mad !!!

 

 

That 'll stop me climbing the walls when the sun comes out anyway!

Austin - Nissan come together once more.

Temporary seat and bad news about proper seats

The good news is that the Nissan seat should do the trick. I plopped it in the car today and the general dimensions are fine, and once it has been raised by the couple of layers of wood then height should be OK too. So I have just lashed up a frame for it, and when the rain dies off, hopefully last step is to bolt it into place. Weather is atrocious so won't be doing a test run today!


The bad news is that I had a call about the seat covers which are being fitted. They always looked exactly the same, I assumed that they were meant to be. Unfortunately I have bought two sets of seat base covers. Just didn't realize, visually it looked kind of OK, but the seats chap phones this morning to confirm. He can make seat backs to match, he's going to work out how much, but my guess is that I wont be able to afford that.

Also I have seat base covers that I can now sell on, but they are ONLY the seat bases, so not worth as much as they were as a whole set. Oh well... Not a disaster, I'm still a step forwards.

Impatience gets the better of me again

Not even a week has gone by. Weather reports that most of October should continue to be nice. Already unhappy about the idea of not being able to drive Amy anywhere during this time. I might laugh at myself, because this might not work but I have bought a car seat from ebay! Three criteria: just one seat, it had to be local and it had to be cheap! I will be picking up a seat I got from eBay this evening. Just around the corner from Reading. £10! It's from a Nissan Skyline of all cars. My son's absolute favourite dream car. He wants it afterwards!

No idea if it will fit. Plan to static fit it with help of some wood, similar to the way the old seats are fitted (non standard and raised for a previous owner I presume, but hoping to apply similar principle). Except that it wont move.


Bolt the seat to some wood. Bolt the wood to the car. Simples!!  We'll see. Next post will confirm, or deny it that is even workable!

Last (?) Hurrah... White Lion Antiques again

What a day! Quite a while ago I had already planned to go to White Lion again today, basically because I am hopefully getting my seats recovered and they are going off to be done tomorrow. So considering the time of year, it's probably the last event to attend for a little while. (decided that Tenterden in Kent still a bridge too far frankly)

Glad we did (Rob came again, specifically turning down the skatepark for it this time!) It was beautiful weather, sunny, hot (end of Sept!). The turnout was MASSIVE with the carpark and field being pretty much full.

As is the norm these days, nice smooth journey down. We turned up around 10.45am and stayed for 2-3 hours and there was plenty too look at. The neighbor was there in his Scimitar too, plus I was coincidentally parked up next to an MGB GT just like the one I used to have same year, Webasto sunroof at least. Same except for the wheels and colour!

Nice weather for a couple of decent shots. The usual lineup and standalone pics!

 

Then got home and it was time to bite the bullet. Out came the seats, leaving me no way of driving in the meantime, but they are packed in Becky safely ready to go off to be recovered at long last with the original set of covers that I got imported from the US all the way back in December LAST YEAR!!

Need to take the opportunity to hoover to the carpets whilst the seats are out, messy!! REALLY looking forward to having nice seats!

Probably won't use her as much through winter as I did last year, first year was sheer bloody minded determination to the exclusion of all else, but the aim is pure enjoyment from hereon in!

Final (?!) Car at Work - just visible through the mist!

I took the first shot of Amy at work because I loved the comparison. Then it got out of hand, because I was often just happy she was still running during the last 12 months, so the motivation was sometimes more - "Look still my daily driver occasionally"... So realizing it was getting boring I'd kind of decided that enough was enough. But I seem to find excuses to post just one more! Most of the "Car at Work" pictures have been in sunny weather. A couple on damp days, but Amy only really comes out when the weather is supposed to be nice - so no surprise really. There will NOT be any shots of her at work in the Snow for example.

I maybe WILL stop now, but this morning was amusing. It's supposed to be dry and sunny. I am sure it will be when it burns off, sun is coming through as I type But, having parked up and got to my desk, this is how things were looking!! (we'll ignore the terrible parking of the Audi next to her!)

Amy at Cobham Heritage Day 2014

Excellent day out again, Cobham this time. A yearly event for the village, incorporating a classic car display, organized by one of the guys from the ACCC. Weather was cracking!

Weirdly enough, arrived in a plume of smoke, so worries reared up again. During the day various conversations ensued and removed all plugs whilst there, did compression tests again, with an audience this time!! 125psi each cylinder. No issue there. Can't be head gasket, valves or clearances. (or piston rings?..) Swapped spark plugs about, in case an ignition issue.

The drive home was smoke free!! Strange. Clearly a problem somewhere, intermittent? Big issue? Cylinder 4 seems to be the one, it was suggested to me that it may be HT leads or at least something related to ignition there. Should try swapping some stuff around to identify better.

But in the meantime, great day, Robbie enjoyed it (he had his BMX with him as there was a skate park there, so his interest was extended)

Austin Car - Austin Pedal Car!!

Nice lineups!

 

Probably the only car to arrive with a BMX stowed on the back seat!

Car at work - 9 or 10 - almost a year to the day since first one!

I occasionally like to take a picture of the view from the office window when I drive Amy to work. There are about 9 others of similar shots. The first one I took was on Friday 13th Sept 2013. That's as close as damn it to a year. So 364 days later, here is Amy at work again:

 

Running and looking as good, if not better, than she did a year ago, if I do say so myself. Also for once actually looking quite big next to the "getting to classic" H reg Mazda next to her! I mean it's getting on for 25 years old, and the MX5 is generally recognized as a classic design.

 

Look at the "Mini" next car up. How can that be considered a "Mini"..!!?? @#!$%

 

Mini Somerset convoy to Brooklands!

It was the last visit to Brooklands of the year for the ACCC monthly meet last night. I'd met a guy locally in Bracknell who also has a Somerset and we drove up together, which was pretty cool. Most of the journey was in partial daylight, so there were some turning of heads as we pottered past!

Despite being happy that I had "fixed" my engine again, I was still back to being a little nervous. It's near enough 20 miles each way, and the journey home was going to be fully in the dark and down a number of unlit roads, so it was just in the back of my mind whether I'd have any problems.

But no - all pretty smooth there and back, was able to keep up with the other Somerset, which is a lot smoother and driven harder than mine!!

A fellow club member had a spare chrome bonnet catch and decorative chrome (the Flying A, and the chrome strip) that he sold me, which was great. He'd noticed mine was broken and brought it up as he thought I would be interested - damn right and big thanks there!

Cobham at the weekend, only round the corner from Brooklands, so no harboured worries for the journey at the weekend. The organizer was there last night and mentioned that around a third of the cars displaying at the weekend are Austins!!

Also hoping to meet the guy who is going to do my seats.

Was pondering going to ACCC rally in Tenterden in mid October before the little engine wobble, after a successful couple of longer trips, I am considering it again. But that is 80 miles each way... hmmmm.. not sure, we'll see. Don't have to register so can pretty much decide that morning!

All clear - phew! But...

So - it was the valve clearances. A number of them were tight. Adjustment PLUS a clean up of the spark plugs and we are back to normal. So from a short termist viewpoint I am very happy!

ACCC meet on Tuesday (Brooklands or Ash Vale not sure yet) plus Cobham Heritage Day next weekend still looks on, was a bit miffed about the possibility of missing both!

But as my neighbor mentioned to me (he runs a 70's 3 Litre Scimitar Convertible, not one of the 80's small ones, its a beast!), it could be an indication of valve seat recession caused by the unleaded fuel. (my cylinder head has NOT been converted) So for now I'm not too concerned, it was always a known possibility, depending on who you listen to. Small amount of adjustment after 1000 miles is OK, not sure HOW many times I can just do that before it no longer fixes the problem. But I'll wait and see if/when it raises it's head (pun intended!!) again.

I have a spare cylinder head, albeit with a small crack, the engine firm that skimmed the one I'm using quoted me around £250 to convert it to unleaded. The process of inserting the hardened seats would involve removing the metal around the crack and not be a problem, so happy to have that possibility on the back burner.

Unless anyone has a reason why that would be causing other long term damage to other parts of the engine? Can't think of any reason to worry, but  any insight welcome!

Roll on (Indian) Summer!!

Engine problem again - diagnosis required

So, shouldn't have got all comfortable! First drive to work since Camberley, Amy started fine as usual, no worries there, but felt lumpy and rather sluggish.

Similar symptoms as when the head gasket failed previously, except there wasn't the "broken" noise that went with it.

Anyway, returned home, no point carrying on to work. Did cursory check with the starter handle and seems only one cylinder has proper compression. Didn't have time to check thoroughly, but if that is the case, then there is a small hope that it is valve clearances. I haven't touched them since the first Head Gasket change (let alone the third!)

Seems odd that the drive home from Camberley was fine, and yet suddenly not fine this morning, that would indicate a failure of a component, rather that coming out of adjustment.

But we'll see. Had a great, trouble free, summer's motoring. Perhaps attendance to Cobham is in jeopardy, need the weekend to work on her to find out.

Couple of attempted "pictures" !

I've always like photography, since a teenager. But cost of film, developing et.. was a pain. Digital makes more possibilities, you can obviously try loads of things out and see which works a lot easier. Also the manipulation possibilities are mostly good (but can be bad if getting too carried away!) Anyway, I still like a nicely composed, straightforward, unmodified picture. Hubcap refelection from the Car Show yesterday I think fits the bill:


Also for a month or so I have been mucking about with effects. Mixed B&W and colour is quite popular in the shops.

Jury is out a little bit, quite like the effect, but needs a bit of work, but wanted to post them anyway to record my efforts!

Amy at the Camberley Car Show 2014

The weather panned out really nice. I was keeping an eye on it, as earlier in the week Saturday had forecast potential rain. Of course I wouldn't have been the only one doing the same thing! Got up early, uncovered Amy and gave her a wash and polish for her first pre-booked outing. Proudly ready to go:

Me and son going first thing in the morning, set off at 9.00am with a view to being in place in good time for the official start of 10.00am.

All day show, lots of other cars to look at, in town centre so coffee and McDonalds through the day.

So we basically parked up and then kept ourselves amused.

Somewhat dwarfed by a big Chevvy pickup right next to us! Other side was a very nice, pretty rare, Trident Clipper V8. (that's what the badge said anyway!)

Views down the high street

Isabelle and the wife came along to take a look part way through the afternoon, Isabelle then stayed with Robbie and I until the end. I think she enjoyed being around for a little while and seeing (and hearing!!) the cars set off home.  :

Another brill day as hoped and planned for. In summary Robbie had a great day and his comment on the journey home was "Good times" or something to that effect, it's his little saying that he comes out with now and then. Isabelle also enjoyed a quick foray into the word of classic car shows, she was more than happy to pose and grin next to Amy:


From the point of view cars, Amy provided another smooth journey, all mechanicals seeming very good, no niggles whatsoever, she did me proud.

At the show there were over a hundred cars too look at, quite a large selection of Austin and Morris vehicles. Made a point of photographing all of them and posting to Facebook here: Austin and Morris cars at Camberley Car Show 2014!!

Bit traitorous I suppose, but I especially liked this beautiful MG Magnette:


Next show, Cobham Heritage Day in a couple of weeks! Looking forward to it already!