A familiar story

Well, if anyone is still reading this, you'll have noticed that every time I post anything on this blog, I usually start by apologising that it's been so long since the last time, and end with an airy promise that I'll try not to leave it so long until next time. Well, guess what...? It turns out that small children are a slight hindrance to both blogging and driving old cars which don't have a full complement of seatbelts.

Yes, just a few weeks after the last post, a small, screaming, pooing addition to the Happy Bristoleer's family put a brake on the progress towards 410 short stories. This also has meant less use for the 410 itself,  since we can't go out en famille (according to Mrs Bristoleer at least...). However, the little blighter has been out in the car a couple of times and has seemed very happy with his seat up front with me. The urgent plan is to have rear belts fitted this spring, and I've been umming and aahing over what to do, and where to take it. The options seem to be Bristol Cars themselves, but I'm told they subcontract the work to Quickfit SBS (no relation to Kwikfit), who are also highly regarded by many and I could go direct to them myself. They have several Bristols in their gallery, and I've seen the very neat work they've done on a friend's MG Magnette. The third option would be Spencer Lane-Jones's Warminster workshop, who also have experience of belting up cars. My indecision stems from the various approaches taken to fitting rear belts. Some people have told me it can only be done properly with the fuel tank removed, but others say this is not necessary. Lap belts would be much simpler, but if it's going to be done it needs to be done properly so three-point belts are the way to go. It is not going to be cheap either, with estimates varying in the £750 – £1500 range.  If anyone has any thoughts please do let me know.

One task I do intend to do myself however, is overhaul the heater box. The heater has always been pretty efficient, providing good level of warmth in winter. However the demist/defrost (footwells/windscreen) control has always been very stiff. Or at least it was until one day about 18 months ago when it suddenly became very free moving. Unfortunately it also became non-functional at the same time. There is an excellent guide to the removal, repair and overhaul of the heater box and its controls in the latest BOC Bulletin, so I shall try to get stuck in and make it work again. It would be nice to regas the aircon at the same time. This was working when I got the car, and I hope will not be too involved to revive.

So there we go, not even mid-January and we're already at 50% of last year's post count. I've learned my lesson so make no promises of when the next update will be. I'd like to hope you'll get more than two this year, but we'll just have to see what happens...

A Mini adventure

Ferrari California

A few hardy Bristoleers  braved the cold last Sunday to go to the PistonHeads Sunday Service, held at the Mini factory in Cowley. Bristols always seem to get a mixed reaction on the PistonHeads forums, threads usually started by someone who has never seen or driven a Blenheim getting very angry that other people would consider paying so much for such an ugly, outdated car. There is then a long discussion about how you either "get" them or you don't, and people singing their praises as the last gentleman's car. I think the older cars tend to avoid such polarisation of views, but as ever the 412 does come in for some stick and divides opinion like no other. (Although that's also true to a certain extent even among Bristol owners themselves!)

410, 411 S1

Anyway, there we were, bright and early, queueing for a rather good sausage and bacon bap. There was a pretty varied selection of cars present. Lots of TVRs, MX5s, Porsches, BMWs and other modern sports cars, as well as a couple of new Rolls-Royces borrowed by the organisers for the weekend. A sprinkling of Ferraris were present, but unusually only one Lamborghini was there, a pearlescent Murcielago that drew a crowd when that big V12 was fired up.

Lamborghini Murcielago

There was a smattering of other classics around the place. A pair of lovely P5 Rovers parked in one corner, one a V8 coupé and the other an early three-litre saloon, a nicely patinated 1970 Mercedes 300SE 3.5 saloon that the owner mentioned was only giving 8-15mpg (when he started it, it sounded like the engine and exhaust were slightly 'patinated' as well...), a tidy MGA, and various others.

Rover P5 coupe and saloon

All in all an nice morning out. The 410 was going well, and although it was grey in Oxford, it was a beautiful sunny morning most of the way over, with good empty roads over the Lambourn Downs. The PistonHeads meetings are held several times a year, and the summer ones especially can attract some pretty serious machinery. The Bristol contingent this weekend seemed to go down pretty well, with lots of favourable comment. Stuart, the PistonHeads director, commented, "Favourite cars for me included the box fresh white 997 Turbo S (dream spec), the gaggle (I don't know the correct collective noun) of Bristols, the Rover P5B and the Aston Martin Cygnet which turned up unannounced and was a big draw." (I was sorry I missed the Cygnet – it would have been interesting to see what a Toyota dressed by Aston Martin looks like.) Some wag said that perhaps the collective noun for Bristols should be a cleavage. I'll suggest it to Toby and see what he says.

Rolls-Royce drophead

A Bristol also made it into the official report of the meeting, with the first photo starring Gavin's lovely 411 to show the variety of attendees at a Sunday Service. See you next time!

S2000 and 412

Happy New Year

I thought I'd better get something on the blog early this year, and will try to keep up with posting better in 2011 than in 2010.  The 410 is going well as ever.  I picked it up from SLJ's in mid-December but it hasn't seen much use through the snow and salt we've had recently. It is all much more solid underneath, and they kept the rotten bits so I could see just what had been remade.  Nice to have it back, and nice to know it should last many more years now.  The garage smells pleasingly of new paint and underseal!

Here for your amusement is a video of last year's Concours at Filton that was linked to from the club forum.  I presume it was shot by a BOC member, though I don't know who exactly.  Nicely put together and I like the music.

Still here

Hello! Don't worry, I'm still here. Around this time last year I mentioned that getting married might slow the rate of blogging, and it seems I was right! The last time we spoke, the car had just had a new MoT, but kept blowing fuses and the lights didn't work as they should. All that's now sorted - a replacement fuse holder (there are only two fuses on a 410) has so far kept the electricity flowing as it's supposed to, and a morning spent remaking all the connections to the headlights seems to have sorted them out properly. The foot operated dipswitch was also loose, which was the cause of occasional bouts of total darkness while switching between dip and main. I took the opportunity to replace the inner pair of increasingly hard to find sealed-beam units with new reflectors and halogen bulbs, and put nice bright halogens in the outer pair too. As previously mentioned, my car has all four lights providing both dip and main, so once all the new kit was fitted I went back to my local MoT guys to make sure they were all correctly aimed and not dazzling other road users. The centre pair are actually aimed slightly low to provide better spread. The result is that the car is now a joy to drive at night, with good even coverage, and well defined beams that don't annoy people – getting flashed at night (not like that!) used to be a regular occurrence but seems to be a thing of the past now.

The other thing about to happen last time was that the axle was coming out to fix some leaks and attend to some rusty bits that could be done more easily while the axle was out anyway. This was all done, but obviously ended up being more involved than hoped, with some nasty holes in the chassis being found that would need fixing. Somehow, I had also lost completely one of the sill covers - I don't know when but it had always been a bit crusty and had clearly had enough of holding on underneath. Since this was going to be a big job, and I needed the car back for a trip to France at the beginning of May, the work on the sills was left for the summer and I went to Bergerac in the now not leaking 410. Although it was a wedding anniversary trip, we still managed to gatecrash a gathering of Tractions Avant. They were all parked up by the river in Bergerac, and there were no owners around to chat to, but they had left a Bristol-sized gap for a photo - spot the odd one out!

Since then, the summer has passed peacefully enough. The BOC Concours went off well, with well over 160 cars present it was certainly the most Bristols ever gathered together at once. The next day was my first trip to Goodwood, which was another great day out, and just made me wish I'd been able to go for the whole weekend. There's always next year...

And now, in December, the car is back at Spencer's workshops for the sills to be tackled. It's been a fairly big job, and was almost done when it was spotted that the front subframe was also rusty at the edges. Thankfully this has turned out to be not quite as involved as feared to fix, and Rob is making an excellent job of the whole thing, removing rusty bits and letting in new metal. Coincidentally it was his brother who last welded up the car 20 years ago when it was Spencer's own car to restore.

So that's it for now, though I've just realised that I missed two anniversaries last week. It is now four years since I started this blog, though I'm still some way short of 410 short stories, and it is seven years last week since I bought the 410 itself. Mileage together since then is well over 40,000, and I look forward to many more. I know I say this every time, but I'll try not to leave it so long till the next post!

Silenced

Things carry on here. The door has now been fixed and is working as a door should (opens, closes, that sort of thing...). While it was at Spencer's I also asked Rob and Colin, since they had one door apart anyway, to replace the rotten weather seals on the front windows. It is possible to replace them with modern rubber seals, but these sit proud of the door and don't look nearly so nice, so I have stayed with the original style. Mine had got pretty grotty over the years, with the metal bits under the felt rusted and crumbling. Every so often a sharp pointy section would catch you in the arm if driving too nonchalantly with one arm out of the window. The new ones are very smart and should give years service.

Also due this week was an MoT, which it passed first time. This was after replacing both silencer boxes, which have a hard life under this car, with regular brushes with the tarmac gradually taking their toll on the integrity of the boxes. Bell Silencers in Swindon did their usual excellent job and made up two very smart new bespoke silencers, fitted and adjusted as high as possible quickly and efficiently. Also before the MoT I noticed I had three headlights on dip beam, and three on main - but not the same three! An hour's poking around with the wires revealed one blown sealed beam unit (replaced with one pinched from my P6 that is currently awaiting a halogen conversion) on the inner pair, and loose wiring for one of the outers. In the end it went to be tested with the outer two only on dip, and all four on main, which sounds correct, but in fact this car is wired for four main and four dip so they still need some attention. Although it passed, on the way home it blew a fuse so I lost indicators, brake lights, wipers, and various other circuits. Luckily it was only a couple of miles home so I didn't worry too much, but this is not the first time that fuse has blown, so something is clearly awry. The fusebox shows signs that it has overheated in the past, so I have ordered a new one and will see what gives.

The final task for this weekend was to clean up the switches in the door posts for the interior courtesy light. Ever since the post-accident rebuild the light has not worked at all from the driver's door, and only worked from the passenger side if you held the door half open. Half an hour with the Dremel had all the switches and screws out, cleaned up nice and shiny and good earths restored so that the light now glows brightly and the car is more welcoming at night. The interior switch is still a weak link – I think it remains full of filler dust. My car has air conditioning fitted so it is a bit fiddly to get it out and clean it, but it works if you wiggle it a bit so I'll leave it for now. You need to leave a bit of character in a car!

Bitter and Twisted

Well, happy new year to one and all. Things are moving slowly forward. My 'other' car, the Bitter SC, has finally gone to a new owner. Technically it had been for sale for some time, but in practice I had not advertised it anywhere, so enquiries were few. However a few people in the Bitter Owners' Club knew it was for sale, and passed some enquiries on to me. One of those was very keen, and although it needed a bit more work doing than he'd planned, the fact that it was a manual transmission car swung him. I say "a" manual transmission car, but actually it is "the" manual transmission car – the only RHD 3.9 manual made. I shall miss it, but it needed some work, which I was not going to do as the 410 is currently taking precedence, so it's best that it go to someone who will. I had it five years almost to the day and put about 40,000 miles on it, the first 30,000 in about 18 months as my everyday work car. A wonderful and much underrated vehicle.

As for the 410 itself, it is currently at Spencer's having some corrective surgery to the door. This is a sorry tale. I wrote a year or so ago about a problem with the axle leaking oil. After long motorway runs there would be a fine film over the back bumper, and parked up across a slope it would leak from the ends. Well it turned out that it was (and still is) leaking from the bushes where the suspension arms mount into the axle. This was going to be an expensive fix, so I have been putting it off on the basis that LS90 axle oil is cheaper than a suspension rebuild. This means pretty regularly popping the car up on ramps and topping up the axle, not a huge job and one I'd got pretty adept at (even doing so 90 minutes before I was due at the church last May...). However, a few months ago disaster struck. I was doing the job in my parents garage (bigger and cleaner than mine) and while reversing up onto the aforementioned ramps, I managed to give a slightly recalcitrant cold engine too many revs, which gripped the ramps too well and flung them forwards, sharply depositing the 410 eight inches downwards off the back of the ramps with quite a jolt. I do not recommend doing this. The car hardly moved backwards, but the ramps shot forwards. There would not have been so much damage, but for the fact that the driver's door was open so I could see where I was going. The shock of the drop combined with the weight of the door caused it to drop a little, bending the hinges and snapping the check strap casting. I will admit to significant and creative swearing.

And there it has sadly sat since last July I think. The door was just about closable, from the outside, if you lifted and shoved somewhat, but driving anywhere meant clambering in from the passenger side. Other priorities and commitments have meant that I have not had the chance to do anything about it until now. However, I plugged in the trickle charger last week and it started first turn of the key. The engine left some soot on the drive, but ran very nicely and the car drove just like it had been parked yesterday.

Before taking it to Spencer's I dropped in to Bell Silencers in Swindon for them to check the exhausts. I knew one of the silencers was holed, and in fact both turned out to be pretty scruffy. This is not rot, as they are stainless, but physical damage from impact with roads and kerbs. One had split at the front, and both were almost worn through on their trailing edges. There is not a great deal that can be done about this, apart from being more careful. The exhausts are both about as high as they can be mounted, and I have still had the car bottom out in a dip on the M25 even! However I think it was a misjudged kerb, with five large people in the car, that had caused the fatal blow to the front. I have seen other V8 Bristols with the silencers under the boot floor instead, but that I suspect would gently cook anything you put in the boot. Anyway, Bells are making up two new boxes and they should be fitted before the MoT is due next month.

I'll pick up the car from Warminster in the next day or two and report back. It was really good to be out and about in it again last week, and I look forward to a busy summer. But first there's that back axle to deal with... Stay tuned for news on that.

Stay Tuned...

Well hello! Sorry this hasn't been updated in six months now. Maybe that's what happens when you get married – are there any married bloggers out there?

Anyway, to cut a long story short the car has been off the road for the last few months while waiting for various small / medium sized jobs all to be done at once, which makes it a Big Job, hence the delay starting. Things should progress in the new year and I look forward to keeping you updated with what's being done and how it all goes.

In the meantime, thanks for the emails about the blog - it's nice to know it's not just me reading it - and I wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year.

Sam.

Still Here!

Well sorry it's been a bit quiet here for a while. This is due to spending April furiously preparing for my wedding, and then spending most of May on honeymoon. Hooray! The 410 obviously played a part in proceedings, transporting me and my wife from the ceremony venue to the reception. The photo above is the best man and his girlfriend fitting the ribbons to the bonnet. Honeymoon was in California, where we went on a bit of a road-trip, covering 2500 miles all around the state, from snow-clad mountains in Yosemite, to the 47ºC heat of Death Valley, elephant seals on the Pacific, the emptiness of the Mojave Desert, and the bustle of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

For this we had an enormous hire car, of the sort I didn't realise America still made – 18 feet of brand new Lincoln Town Car. We didn't book this, but were upgraded by the nice man at Alamo in San Francisco, who described in as a honeymoon car. He was part right - it was also the funniest car I've ever driven. The 4.6-litre V8 was not nearly man enough to avoid running out of puff up hills on freeways, but then if did have over two tons to haul about. The air suspension gave a wonderful ride, but when people describe some cars as driving like a boat, I now see what they mean. The steering was alarmingly light, and gave absolutely no information or feedback about what the wheels or road was doing. Hit a ridge on a corner at freeway speeds and the whole car lurched and wallowed worryingly. However, it was big, comfy, spacious, and great for wafting gently about on honeymoon. Being rear wheel drive, and with switchable traction control, I guess it might also have been handy for doing donuts in the middle of the desert, if I wasn't a responsible married man of course...

Now that we're home, the 410 is currently sidelined with a serious axle oil leak. It's been leaking gently for a while really (about as long as I've had the car in fact), but over the last year it has been getting steadily worse, to the point that it now needs to be topped up every couple of hundred miles. I'm wary of damaging the axle itself, but the fix is going to be quite involved so it is going to have to wait a bit until the credit card has recovered from its Californian exertions. The axle is leaking not from a easy-to-replace seal, but from the bushes where the main suspension pins support it, so news pins and brass bushes will need to be made up, and this involved dropping the axle. There a bit of rust that should probably be sorted at the same time, so it will all add up. I shall report back in due course.

Behind the Arras

We've been off to France again this month.  I'd been given a flyer for a classic car show in Arras, and since I needed to go to France anyway to stock up on cheaper booze (only slightly these days sadly!) I thought the two things could be combined easily.  Arras is only a little over 100km from Calais, so it would make a nice weekend trip with a cheap hotel in town easy to find.  The weather on Saturday was fantastic.  We stopped first at Majestic to pre-order our supplies (if you order in advance of collection you get a discount to cover your ferry fare) before a gentle potter down the coast, stopping for a picnic lunch in the sunshine.

Arras itself is a nice place, with two stunning old squares, that would be much prettier if they weren't both car parks.  However, the fact that they are car parks is very handy if you wish to park right outside the hotel!  We'd been told to get to the show in good time on Sunday morning, as the free display area for cars over 30 years old fills up by half past ten or so.  As the hotel was only about two minutes drive from the exhibition centre we thought we'd be fine leaving at about 9.30 - and the first half of the distance went fine.  Then we hit the bouchon.  About an hour later as we were nearing the front of the queue, a smart Frenchman appeared and started turning the traffic about, as they were now full.  However as he told us this he spotted we were English and came over, saying that there was apparently a place inside reserved for us!  I think he may have thought we were someone else, as when we eventually made it inside (with the temperature gauge now nudging 110ºC after over an hour of inching along) we were placed with the Kent TR Register, but there seemed to be plenty of space and I don't think we pinched anyone's place!  We had a good wander about the show for a few hours - lots of Citroens, Renaults and Peugeots obviously, but plenty of Simcas, Panhards, Matras and other French machinery, and some foreign rarities too like a lovely Bitter CD, and several classic Americans.  We also found ourselves next to a Mini, with its bonnet open showing off a very clean and tidy engine bay.  It was therefore a slight surprise to find another very clean and tidy engine bay in the boot of said Mini, or Twini to be more accurate!

Coming home, we again took the slow route, a gentle run along some tiny rural roads through sleepy villages.  We stopped for some photos beside a few of the many wind turbines in the area.  The presence of these, alongside many traditional windmills shows that the idea of harnessing the wind in this part of France  is not new.  While not thought of as being the most beautiful part of France, the Pas de Calais is an area full of little nice little valleys and it was nice to explore it a bit, instead of whizzing past on the autoroute while rushing to catch a ferry or train.  We got back in time to pick up our pre-ordered booze, which was all neatly piled up on a trolley awaiting our arrival.  All very civilised.  (Majestic is unusual in being open on a Sunday.)

All in all another successful trip.  The car was going well (although there are a few issues with the back axle that I am trying to avoid facing up to) and the weather was fine.  The Bristol is very rare in France, although they were and are sold there new, so few people had heard of it and even fewer had seen one before.  Maybe a Club trip next year?

Urgent request!

The Vulcan bomber is a true Bristol. Four Bristol Olympus jet engines means it is more Bristol powered than my own car. Through a combination of extraordinary dedication, thousands of small donors, corporate will, and the National Lottery, one Vulcan XH558 is now airworthy after a 12 year restoration, the largest return to flight operation ever undertaken. However, the current financial situation with the Vulcan to Sky Trust is parlous to say the least. Notice has been given to their staff, and if they do not have £1,000,000 in pledges or donations by Friday night the end will have come and the Trust will be wound up. The Vulcan itself would be sold and in all likelihood never fly again - the bureaucratic hurdles in operating a 60-year-old Complex-rated aircraft would mean that it could not simply be passed to another organisation to operate.

Vulcan XH558 will be grounded forever, unless further funding of £1million is identified by early March. This funding will allow the project to pay its monthly expenses, clear debt and provide a stable financial footing for the future.

But why is your Vulcan so important?

In a word - EDUCATION!

In line with our motto "Honouring the Past, Inspiring the Future", we returned XH558 to display status for two educational reasons:

• To teach Britain's youth about the pivotal role that Britain played in the Western World's defence at a time of political uncertainty and instability.

• To inspire our children and grandchildren to choose a career in Britain's design, engineering and scientific industries.
  

Vulcan XH558 is not privately owned, but operated as a National Heritage Asset. She belongs to every man, woman and child in Britain and is an iconic and emotive example of Britain's pivotal position in World technology and foreign affairs.

The 'Vulcan Effect' is a unique and powerful tool - without your immediate help it will be gone forever.

The Vulcan '09 Pledge Campaign will raise those funds so please sign up now and play your part in securing the future of the world's only flying Vulcan. Your pledge will only be called upon when we are confident of reaching the target.

Please help us weather this economic Perfect Storm; we are working on a new business model aimed at avoiding this situation arising again next year.

Please remember that even a relatively small monthly pledge is a significant help – supporters have already pledged in excess of £900,000, with a significant proportion coming from the intensive efforts of members of the Vulcan to the Sky Club.

Thanks to all who are intent on keeping XH558 flying and thrilling through 2009.

To Make A Pledge Click Here.

Robert Pleming
Director of the Vulcan to the Sky Trust
24th February 2009

I can't say it better than Robert - to lose the Vulcan now, after so much effort, would be a tragedy. I remember seeing, hearing and most of all feeling the Vulcan fly at airshows as I was growing up. The unmistakable howl of the engines spooling up, and the sheer majesty of such an enormous aircraft being thrown around the sky like it was a tiny fighter, performing seemingly impossible manoeuvres, will always stick in my mind. Go and pledge your support now.