[Tech1] Car restored

Wed Aug 4 17:25:52 CDT 2021

Dave Jorgensen and I bought a Morris Minor convertable with a split windscreen when we shared a flat in Ealing. We sol dit 18 months later for what we had paid for it!.  After that, I bought a frog eye Sprite from Chequered Flag. Loved that little car. Ian Stanyon was my go to mechanic when things went wrong - there wasn’t much he couldn’t fix. He was always going to build a Ginetta but never got around to it as far as I know. I let Dave use the Sprite whenever he needed transport, and we also did many a mile together in it going down to stay with his parents in the West Country or up to Shropshire to stay with mine + trips to N Wales. Eventually, I met  the girl who became my first wife, Carole, and she displaced Dave as my regular passenger!!

Geoff F

> On 4 Aug 2021, at 23:03, Nick Ware via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Aha! The Granada 2.8i Ghia. Mine was a bright red Estate. Bought for a bargain end of lease purchase price ex-Redapple, only two years old when I got it. Absolutely fabulous car, and it ran better and smoother the faster you went!
> Two little incidents involving the Granny. First one, coming out on the M4 towards the M25 on my way home from an LWT late finish (well tipsy). At the time, the motorway police used Granadas too, and on the M4 I suddenly became aware of a white police Granada alongside me. Glanced down at the speedo: just over 105 mph. Oh shit, I thought. The cop in the left seat gesticulated me to wind the window down. Window controls between the front seats, you’ll remember. Cop grinned at me and called out “Go well, don’t they!” And off they sped into the distance as I peeled off onto the M25. Phew!
> Second: we were doing the Crufts Pedigree Chum commercial at B’ham NEC. At about 7PM on the middle of three days I got a panic call from my wife saying she’d gone into labour a week early and was now in the Royal Surrey County Hospital labour ward. I rushed out to the Granada and sped off down the newly opened M40. No traffic, no cops, (I don’t think many people knew it was open) so foot hard down, the Granny cruised as if airborne, topping 110+MPH much of the way. I got there literally just in the nick (!) of time to see daughter Ellie come into the World (she’s 28 now). Then back at NEC in time for breakfast. When I told everyone where I’d been overnight, our Producer/Director, Johnny Fielder, said “Oh, you needn’t have hurried back, we’d have covered for you”. Happy days.
> Cheers,
> Nick.
> Nick Ware - Sent from my iPad mini 5
> 
>> On 4 Aug 2021, at 20:29, techtone via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Gosh, late getting to this thread (again - I don't live on computers/email) but I simply loved my Triumph Herald, which of course rusted away after I'd had t about a year -can't remember who sold it to me, but someone at TVC did, if the guilty party is here, you broke my heart!
>> 
>> My first car was an A30, which ran its big end on the M1, and took me and Dave Jorgensen quite some time to restore to working order. However, it took Heather and myself, after we were married, to many exotic locations such as the Tally Ho in Kentish Town at the weekends to listen to Phil Seamen, and down several pints of Guinness, just as well that the drink/drive laws hadn't been enacted at the time.
>> 
>> Whilst on the subject, my all-time favourite car was the Ford Granada, when I was earning a reasonable amount I had the 2.8i Ghia, and that really grieved me when I had to part with it, but I had nowhere to keep it, not to mention not enough money to run two cars. The Herald ran it a close second, but the Granny lasted a lot longer.
>> 
>> TeaTeaFN - Tony
>> 
>> Sent with ProtonMail <https://protonmail.com/> Secure Email.
>> 
>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>> On Wednesday, August 4th, 2021 at 19:40, Alasdair Lawrance via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>>> Yet another Herald driver, and I followed up with a Vitesse drop-head, the 1600 version.
>>> 
>>> Both were designed by Michelotti, and the Vitesse was wonderful until the floor rusted through.
>>> 
>>> At one stage it wouldn't go into reverse, and our upstairs neighbour turned out to be in the service section  in the old Western Avenue showroom/service centre which was very handy...
>>> 
>>> Alasdair Lawrance
>>> 
>>> Don’t blame me, I voted Remain.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 4 Aug 2021, at 19:23, Nick Ware via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>  I actually have a piece of the Berlin Wall. Hacked out for me long before the wall came down by Emma Freud - so two reasons to treasure it!
>>>> 
>>>> Pat, I’ve known you for around sixty years, but I never had you down as a grease monkey!
>>>> My memory of sitting on the Herald and Spitfire front wheel was with Dicky Chamberlain sitting on the other wheel. Clutch replacement - simple. MHRIP.
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Nick.
>>>> Nick Ware - Sent from my iPad mini 5
>>>> 
>>>>> On 4 Aug 2021, at 18:06, Roger E Long via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>  I once drove at night from Munich to Berlin.
>>>>> Just before the wall came down.
>>>>> All the Trabis were in the slow lane smoking like belching chimneys
>>>>> The fast lane was full of Mercs and Beamers flat-out…
>>>>> When a tired Trabi tried to pull out carnage ensued.
>>>>> Later on ,on the same job , History of the CIA but in Havana , we realised all the classic 40s and 50s classic Yank  cars  Had been re-engined with Trabi 2 strokes.
>>>>> Lovely cars ,shame about the motor.
>>>>> Roger
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 4 Aug 2021, at 14:21, Alan Taylor via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk <mailto:tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Actually early Trabis had a two cylinder, two stroke, air cooled engine, although more recent ones had other engine variants.  Part of the visible pollution from them could be attributed to the 3%of oil mixed into the petrol. The rest of the pollution was because the engine was rubbish.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Janet’s mum had a Trabi and hated it at the time ( there were no alternatives available ) but is quite nostalgic about them these days.  Janet left East Germany and fled to the west on the day before the wall came down.  By that time her mother had moved upmarket to a Lada.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Trabis had all sorts of weirdness about them.  The bodywork was made of a strange plastic material filled with cotton, a bit like Paxolin.  One of the few advantages of it is that it doesn’t rust, but everything else on the car does rust. It also had a ridiculously small fuel tank, I believe it was less than 25 litres, but as the car was rather thirsty, it wasn’t a good combination, made worse by early models not having a fuel gauge, just a dip stick arrangement.  There was no fuel pump, the petrol reached the carburettor by gravity feed, so the petrol tank was over the engine inside the bonnet.  Checking the dipstick for fuel level was quite scary on a long run because you wouldn’t want drips of petrol to fall onto the hot engine. Filling the tank was even scarier because you could spill even more fuel onto the hot engine. Most Trabants got fitted with a small fire extinguisher, even if they had few other modern safety features. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Some say that the art of elegant design is to remove unnecessary clutter so that what remains is the fundamental essence of the design.  With the Trabant, I think they removed a few too many bits and at no stage in the process was it ever elegant.  Early models lacked indicators and odometers.  When they did get round to fitting indicators, the switch wasn’t self cancelling and there was no repeater light on the dashboard, so Trabants were often seen driven with the  indicators flashing for miles and miles. Maybe the mention of a dashboard implied a level of sophistication which was unintended.  The original dashboard was just a panel with a speedometer mounted on it, no other gauges or indicators. In many cases, no switches either.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I did once see a brave soul driving a Trabant along an Autobahn near Köln.  With a top speed of around 60 mph and brakes which were more of a concept than a realistic stopping device, it was unsettling to see it sharing a road with cars doing 120-150 mph. 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Alan Taylor
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On 4 Aug 2021, at 12:23, patheigham via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk <mailto:tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>> wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> When I was on a job to the former GDR, before the wall came down, we were appalled at the pollution emitted by the Trabant vehicles. Think these were 3-cylinder?
>>>>>>> It was eye-opening to our East German hosts, when we had hired a brand new VW minibus in West Berlin and driven it through Check Point Charlie – got lots of inquisitive East Germans taking a look. We also were wandering around with our mobile cell phones clipped to belt, when our liaison guy said that it would take him at least two or three years to have a landline phone installed, and about ten years to get a vehicle.
>>>>>>> He did OK though as when the wall came down he was able to be employed by NBC for some winter sports coverage, where I bumped into him again. He hadn’t been very well, so I gave him my Heathrow Duty Free brandy.
>>>>>>> A make-up girl I knew had family in West Berlin , but when the wall came down, stationed herself on the former East side of the Brandenburg Gate to watch the faces of the people who were at last able to visit the West. She said that they all came back, gobsmacked at having seen the shops, cars etc of the affluent West.
>>>>>>> Pat
>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for Windows 10
>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>> From: Dave Plowman via Tech1 <mailto:tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
>>>>>>> Sent: 04 August 2021 11:26
>>>>>>> To: tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk <mailto:tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk>
>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [Tech1] Car restored
>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>> Lots of scare stories in the press. Any car which ran on the previous E5
>>>>>>> will run on E10.
>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>> The problem *may* be the alcohol attacking some parts of the fuel system.
>>>>>>> Like 'rubber' hoses. But few old cars would still be on the originals
>>>>>>> anyway. Perhaps some plastic or seals in the carbs, etc, too.
>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>> But remember many countries have had a higher amount than 10% for many a
>>>>>>> year, yet still manage to run old cars.  
>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>>  
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>  <https://www.avast.com/antivirus>	
>>>>>>> This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
>>>>>>> www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/antivirus>
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