Radiator Testing

Checked the radiator today - hooked up the hose, closed off all the outlets - no leaks, at least at mains water pressure.

Just need to paint it now, after a bit of research on the TSSC forum, off I went looking for heat resistant spray paints and found this: Hammerite barbeque paint in our local DIY store. Just need to arrange some sort of grill on top of the radiator to hold the steaks!!!!

Also ordered some new Pacet fan ties from fleabay to secure the electric fan.

Radiator painting

No, nothing to do with DIY around the house, I happened to casually mention to a neighbour that I was thinking of replacing the standard radiator in my Spitfire 1500 as the existing one has sprung a slight leak on the header tank, when he said 'why not try the full width one I used to use in my Mk 2 Spit'

Not being one to ignore a gifthorse, I bit his hand off and away he went rummaging around under his workbench and lo and behold, an original Stanpart badged (Coventry Radiators) full width radiator emerged, somewhat dusty and grubby following a 15 year or so storage.


Incidentally, his Mk 2 Spitfire, currently in pieces since his son decided to restore it some 15 years ago will shortly be appearing on Ebay, having been replaced recently by a very low mileage Toledo 1300 in excellent condition.

Next steps are to test the radiator for soundness, - it was OK 15 years ago!, paint it as it is very grubby - see photo, and then install it in the Spitfire.

Stag Weekend

Well, not what you're all thinking - this was a weekend of using the Stag. I had an opportunity to join the beginning of the European Stag weekend organised by the SOC on Friday. This was a train ride from Tenterden to Bodiam on a specially chartered Steam train, appropriately titled the Stag Express.

It was a great start to the weekend, a nice leisurely drive down to Tenterden to join approx 50 other Stags in the Station car park, a leisurely ride through the Kent and Sussex countryside on the train followed by local beer (Shepherd Neame Spitfire of course) and beer battered Haddock and Chips at the Castle Inn on the sun terrace, leaving a short time to stroll around Bodiam castle before the ride back to Tenterden.

Returning to the car park to see 50+ Stags parked there was very impressive.

Saturday I was working so used the Spitfire on this occasion, parking it in the registry office car park whilst undertaking my duties there. When I came out to go home, I was confronted with the Bride and Bridesmaids of the wedding adorning themselves over the car!

Sunday was a Stag day again, met up with a couple of local TSSC members in their Vitesse convertible and Bond Equipe and convoyed along the M20/26/25 to Leatherhead for the SEM there making sure we blatted past any MG's we came across!

The SEM was a good turnout, unlike last year although there was little in the way of autojumble. Met up with TSSC Canterbury area and had a good day with them

Whe the time came to go home, Chris (Vitesse) and I decided to go home across country, as I used to work in Dorking some years ago I led the way down some very nice leafy lanes skirting Dorking, Gatwick, Lingfield and Tunbridge Wells arriving home about 1.5 hours later - great run. Only problem on this route is that all the nice leafy lanes I used to use are now 40 limited!

Stag went very well on both days, just getting a bit of misfire on kickdown at approx 4000 revs, but otherwise it is running very well indeed.

Bits 'n Bobs

Sundays run out to Manston was great - 38 Cars in total from TSSC, CT, SOC and the TR Register, covering all models of the marque (except Toledo/Dolomites). Just goes to show that we can all 'club' together when needed!

After the journey home, as the brakes on the Spit were feeling a bit spongy, I decided to jack up the rear and give them a bleed before the MOT Monday only to be confronted by a puddle of oil from the nearside rear shock. Monday morning came, cancelled MOT appointment as I knew I couldn't fix it that day, rushed out in the afternoon and bought a couple of cheap bog standard County items to get it through the test. Fitted them Wednesday, passed the Test first time today - Yay!!
And yes, I did bleed the brakes. I'll replace them with better items when funds allow, or, more likely, when one of them breaks!

I also did a small mod to the Stag this week, I now have illuminated heater controls!. A thread on the SOC forum was discussing how to acheive this, so whilst in Halfords I bought a couple of small LED lights for a Tenner. A simple fit, currently powered by a switchable plug in the cigar lighter, but will be wired into the dash lights soon. I would have preferred a red glow, but the blue light given off does complement my Blaupunkt Stereo!

West Kent TSSC Drive it Day Pictures

The pictures say the words- Great Day - 37 Cars at Manston

TSSC West Kent Area Drive it Day Update

An update on the applications received so far:

15 Confirmed and paid up - models covered are Spitfire Mk 3/4/1500, Herald 1200, 13/60, TR4,5,6, Bond Equipe, Hurricane, Stag.

Support from other Clubs is very encouraging as well with members from SOC, CT and the TR Register joining us, and the possibility of 5 or 6 additional Stags arriving in Convoy from South London. Members from Canterbury Area will also be joining us at the musuem, so it looks like we will have a good turnout - just hope the rain stays off!

MOT on the Spitfire runs out on the 21st so it's booked in for that day as its the day after the run!

A Triumph Break!

Nothing to do with Triumphs, although Land Rover are mentioned! - we've just come back from a Safari in Kenya, our fourth time there so we're a bit addicted to it. This time we took our daughter and her husband with us and for the first time had a 'real' safari vehicle a Land Rover Defender instead of the usual Nissan/Toyota safari vans. This was a great improvement, particularly because there had been some significant rainfall this year and the Defender went where no mere Nissan.Toyota dare, we even had to pull two Toyota Landcruisers out of the mud! (I say we loosely, it was actually our driver Gimo who performed the feat, we merely provided additional weight in the van!)

In short we had a great time, travelled through the Great Rift Valley, visited Samburu, Sweetwaters and the Masai Mara and saw lots of game. It was actually very quiet as so many tourists had either been put off by the recent troubles there or had had their holidays cancelled which is a great shame for the local tourist industry. We saw no sign of any troubles there and everyone we met were as friendly as they ever were. At one hotel we stayed in on Mount Kenya, we were the only 5 people for dinner and breakfast, clearly outnumbered by the staff there.

Anyway, here are a few pics we took there, the odd looking land rover was a 70's British Army one used to transport us to our balloon ride over the Mara, finished off by breakfast in the bush - great time.