Words From The President
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January/ February 2012
The driver’s side headlight of the Anglia Tourer failed recently. The pax side worked high and low beams OK but all I got on the dry side was dull high and low filaments at the same time when the headlights were selected.
I had all ready purchased a new set of modern head lights to replace the original head lights and now was the time to fit them. |
The originals came off without too much of a fight (the angle grinder helped) to show up a known deficiency. Part of the bracketry to hold the pax side headlight in place had separated from the front guard and it was time to fix that as well.
Fixing the guards was well outside my level of expertise so a member of the Adelaide
Hot Rodders was engaged for the fix. He fixed the headlight mount and tidied up a few other
blemishes in all four of the guards. He was not asked to fix all the blemishes and as new paint
all over the guards would look a bit patchy the Tourer is going back for more work. It would
appear at the moment that the Tourer will not take the grandchildren around the Lights at
Lobethal or make the normal Christmas Eve Hot Rod Cruise.
The Tourer has sat not touched as I have got a start on setting the Beam Engine up to
run on steam. There is nothing like having too many projects on the go at one time. The Beam
Engine would run on air more or less OK but it did seem to have a couple of tight spots when
being rotated by hand.
I have dismantled most of the Beam Engine and have found that the eccentric shaft and
strap were not machined properly in the first place and do not fit together too well. I hope that
my model engineer friend can do some sort of fix or re-make with the bits that I have. I am
making a hard pine base for this engine too as I could not buy a big enough flat bit of wood.
I had been told about a 100E Anglia for sale in Wandong which is 100 km east of
Ballarat. It was said to be an easy restoration and was priced at $1,000.00. A 1959 Anglia for
that money should be pretty good. The first car that I owned in my own right was a 1954 100E
Anglia hence the interest. My Rochdale GT was getting nowhere and another car to drive was
high on my list of “non essential” needs.
The Anglia could be easily “cheered up” with a twin carby set up, an Aquaplane exhaust
manifold and the 100E Laycock overdrive gearbox slated for the Rochdale GT. The Celica 5
speed set up for the Rochdale GT would be reinstated whenever work was to start on that
again. The Rochdale GT may have also got on to a “for sale” list minus the 100E Willment
engine and 100E Laycock gearbox. I am “cheesed off” over the lack of action there.
I borrowed a 100E sized car trailer and set off for Bendigo and Wandong via Dimboola,
Charlton and Bendigo and not via St Arnaud for reasons given in the previous notes. Well into
the trip my plans changed. I had found out the previous day that two part epoxy squashed up
against a hole in a petrol tank that has petrol running out of it will if held long enough set and
stick to the tank and stop the leak.
The grey Cortina has three such repairs. Brand new Mk 1 Cortina fuel tanks are available in
Ballarat. At Nhill I rang the supplier in Ballarat and arranged to pick up a tank later in the day. I
then went to Ballarat.
The following morning I headed across country to Wandong “zig zagging” and “map
reading” all the way. That was hard work. The Anglia when seen was a real “basket case” and
certainly not a $1,000.00 motor car even with its rarity. It was certainly not the “quick fix” motor
car that I was looking for. I am not sorry that I went for a look as I now know that the car was not
for me. I will not wonder for ever if “it was for me and I let it go”.
I came home via Bendigo, Charlton and Warracknabeal, over nighting at Dimboola. A
GPS would have been of great benefit on the trip especially Ballarat to Wandong and I also
managed to get lost in Bendigo due to road works and wasted a fair bit of time there. I got 24
MPG on the trip. I am still interested in buying a drivable or quick restorer 100E Anglia if there is
one out there. I do not want a black one.
I normally tow one of the floats in the Mt Barker Christmas Pageant as a member of the
Adelaide Hills Motor Restorers Club based in Mt Barker. This year I managed to get to Mt
Barker on time, tow a float and then drive home. The previous two years were not done as well.
Last year I melted the nylon clutch hydraulic line on the extractors and did not get to Mt Barker.
The previous year I did the parade OK and then with an injector wiring problem came home on
the back of a lift truck that was towing my trailer.
I had a quick trip to Melbourne to attend a Cortina Mark One Owners Club meeting. They
are organizing a Cortina Nationals in June 2012 and I was interested in the progress being
made. They are well on the way to solving a few problems and I know a bit more now than I did
before I went to the meeting. The Cortina Nationals is the celebration of 50 Years of the Cortina
and all Cortina’s are welcome to attend, Mk 1’s, Mk 11’s and the T series. There is a T series
Taunus in Adelaide that is also eligible. If you have a Cortina of any year check out the website,
www.cortinanationals.com and put in an entry.
I had to go from Braybrook to Hawthorn for the meeting through the top end of the CBD
in peak traffic without a navigator so I bit the bullet and purchased a Garmin GPS from the
bottom end of the market. I used the “go to” function to get to Hawthorn and as I did not go the
way it thought I should it had to “calculate” a few times and plan a new route.
It was a big help however with lane choices. The little box must have some sort of
memory function within however as it took me back to Braybrook along my same preferred
route that I drove to Hawthorn.
I had an interesting interaction with a Motor Bike Policeman on the way home on the
Adelaide side of Bordertown. I saw him first opposite direction before I reached Bordertown. I
stopped in Bordertown for petrol and then continued to Adelaide.
He caught up with and followed me for quite a distance. I moved in to the left lane of a
passing lane and as I reached the end and had to cross the dotted line I gave the trafficators a
good 8 second burst before I went across the dotted line.
The cop then accelerated past me and disappeared into the distance. If I had given no or
less than a five second burst I reckon I would now owe the Government some money. I got 31
MPG on this trip.
Nice weather, nice company, nice meal, that about sums up the Christmas Run. We had
34 sitting down to lunch and a good assortment of Club Cars to look at on the oval as well. The
venue was good and it was nice to be the sole occupiers with no distractions. Our Treasurer
even had a smile on his face when he handed the cheque over.
All for now ....
