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37th time lucky: Palladium goes for a drive


barrett

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  • 1 month later...

Amazing what a lick of paint on the chassis and a quick polish of the radiator does for the look of this thing. It's almost looking like a car, now

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The tinwork is now all completed and the body has been properly attached to the chassis for the first time in decades. All being well, it's never going to come apart again

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Both front wings are now done. The nearside has had its spare wheel well reconstructed and the offside has had a flat section welded in place as we only want to carry one spare.

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Luckily the well fits the wheel! We now have a set of tyres (Blockley 760 x 90 beaded edge; look that up if you want a shock) so next step is to paint one of the wheels, fit a tyre and use this as a guide to make the new rear wings. Other jobs on the 'before Christmas' list hopefully include running boards and new floorboards throughout.

Mechanically things aren't progressing so quickly, but we hope there will be far less work on that side of things. The March deadline is creeping scarily closer every day, though...

 

(Sorry for shitty third gen pics, I should have some better ones soon)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Had a telephone call out of the blue the other day from Jeremy Bacon, who discovered the Palladium in 1952 on a farm in Meopham. He got it back on the road, drove it straight to France and then used it regularly for several years. Nobody seemed to know if he was still around (he's at least in his mid-80s) so it was very nice to hear from him. He's looking forward to having a ride in the car in spring. Here it is not long after he started using it - it's thanks mainly to Jeremy that this car survives at all.

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  • 1 month later...

So, I managed to drive around in the R16 for a bit today. It's really flippin' great, actually, and I reckon with some very minor fettling it'll be properly brilliant. I am converted. I'll do a proper update if I make it to Paris and back when there's something to really talk about.

 

In less interesting news, the rear brakes on my 406 are totally shot and pricing up parts it's gonna be £350 before any spannering occurs!! Almost enough go make me have a go at doing it myself, but not quite. Anyway, until I can afford that I'm falling back on the only other functioning member of the fleet. The recent cold snap has made me wonder if anyone else in the world drives their 404 cabriolet in the snow?

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Discs and pads are cheap, but needs the handbrake doing as well so that's shoes and cables. There's lots of 'little bits' on the 406 brakes and I don't know what will need replacing until it comes apart, so I might not end up needing all the parts so they can be sent back. Actually the calipers are a refurbished exchange thing so I'll get £60 for my old ones. I'm just being dramatic, it'll all be fine

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  • 2 weeks later...

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