Isaac Hunt

I'm hoping this is the correct area to post this.
  I'm @spartacus partner and I've joined up unfortunately to announce some bad news. 
 
  It is with a very heavy heart I am writing this. Approx 6 weeks ago spartacus (Giles) became very unwell and was admitted to Chesterfield Royal with a ruptured spleen. This was eventually removed however with an underlying diagnosis of advanced cancer (Mantle Cell Lymphoma) his prognosis was not great. Giles has tried fighting this, been under various Specialists and various Wards. He has put up one hell of a fight. However even Giles knows you can only fight this for so long.
  Sadly Giles passed away peacefully on Saturday 15th May 2021 at 11:30am he was surrounded by his family and friends. He will leave many a sad tear behind.
  He spoke often of autoshite and spent many an evening browsing through this website. He really loved it. 
 
  Giles has asked me to auction (roffle?) off one of his vehicles... A Fiat Panda (obviously not the car in the photo), which he requested the money be donated to a good cause. I'll try and find the thread/area to do this and keep all updated. 
 

Busy weekend hacking away slowly at this sill.

First job was to weld in the piece that was clamped up a few months ago. Also welded a bit more up on the inner membrane. I have a new panel that I could replace all this, however I'm keen to keep most of what I can as some of it is in good shape and original too.

Before

After


Next was to tackle the rear of the sill. This had been repaired before but looked like externally without having as much access as I do now.


A lot of chopping of old repair work out left quite a bit missing.


Now a case of piecing it all back together again.








That took a good 6 hours of work over the weekend. Slow progress but chipping away at it a piece at a time.

The inner wheel arch is going to need serious reconstruction. The inside panel is completely missing at the bottom corner. It is quite a complex curved shape that needs to be replicated.


Then there is holes along the top and then quite a bit missing at the bottom rear. Outer arch I have a repair piece. But there isn't too much for it to join back onto yet.


Probably going to obtain a panel to repair this. Not cheap and I will only need a smallish section to do this. But would save a whole lot of time while being a neater job.

Needs some tape on the barn as well.

Needs some tape on the barn as well.

Needs some tape on the barn as well.

While i had a couple of hours i did a bit more reassembly of the drivers door.
Luckily Boris came with a full set of new window rubbers including the quarter light ones.

These with the aid of a bit of liquid soap fitted very nicely.


I fitted the frame to the door and everything still opens and shuts ok but the frame is quite close to the top edge of the B post,maybe i can tweak it better when the car is back on its wheels.

One thing that i have noticed is the door skin repair panel i slaved over fitting is a bit pants in the squareness department.
Its rear edge wasn't folded square when it was formed and now the door is on the car it is quite obvious as the lower rear edge of the repair panel starts to taper away from the B post by about 8mm at its bottom corner so that'll have to be rectified at a later date too.

Epic, brought back some memories from when I was a lad.  I'd rebuilt a car using doors bonnet and boot from another car, it was a proper Joseph Coat of colours.  I had taken a weeks holiday to prep and paint it, and as you guessed, that weekend and beginning of the week it was pissing it down.  
I had makeshift tents just like yours whilst I did the prep work and squirted some primer on in the dry periods between showers.  I was on a tight timeline as a mate had offered me his Mums large single garage as a paint booth while his Mum was away, so it needed to be done at the end of my weeks holiday before she came home.

Clucking Bell that is one nice motor.   
I drove a few of them back in the day in Vitesse form and they were so comfy with those Recaro's.

Epic, brought back some memories from when I was a lad.  I'd rebuilt a car using doors bonnet and boot from another car, it was a proper Joseph Coat of colours.  I had taken a weeks holiday to prep and paint it, and as you guessed, that weekend and beginning of the week it was pissing it down.  
I had makeshift tents just like yours whilst I did the prep work and squirted some primer on in the dry periods between showers.  I was on a tight timeline as a mate had offered me his Mums large single garage as a paint booth while his Mum was away, so it needed to be done at the end of my weeks holiday before she came home.

Something ‘not quite right’ i’ve Been thinking with these here 110 things.  I had a Honda SS50 5 Speed 77 on the R plate and that used to 47mph and it was only 49cc.   These things must be restricted to feck if they only do 55mph

Reminded me of a uk registration transfer years ago.  The first one it did, I had to go to the DVLA office in centre of Birmingham.  
Proper dingy place it was.  You walk in and all of a sudden all these faces are staring at you.  Then you realise it’s cos they've all been waiting for so long, they are bored shitless.  No smart phones back then to loose yourself in for a hour.
you take a numbered ticket and dump your arse into one of those plastic chairs and join the long wait.
when your number is ready, you were called to one of the counters where ‘Ms’ with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, gruffly utters ‘wit u ere fir’.  The reply of registration transfer is greeted with a crescendo of required paperwork rattled of in quick succession.  You push the paperwork under the pre- covid screen and withdraw your hand before the date received stamp crashes across your fingers.  There is much more stamping and shuffling and eventually a fee is uttered at you.  
You hand over the cash and get told you can now display the plates and you will get the V5 as it was back then, through in a couple of weeks.
You leave feeling somewhat grateful to still be alive.   Presumably those with the wrong paperwork never made it out alive.

Reminded me of a uk registration transfer years ago.  The first one it did, I had to go to the DVLA office in centre of Birmingham.  
Proper dingy place it was.  You walk in and all of a sudden all these faces are staring at you.  Then you realise it’s cos they've all been waiting for so long, they are bored shitless.  No smart phones back then to loose yourself in for a hour.
you take a numbered ticket and dump your arse into one of those plastic chairs and join the long wait.
when your number is ready, you were called to one of the counters where ‘Ms’ with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, gruffly utters ‘wit u ere fir’.  The reply of registration transfer is greeted with a crescendo of required paperwork rattled of in quick succession.  You push the paperwork under the pre- covid screen and withdraw your hand before the date received stamp crashes across your fingers.  There is much more stamping and shuffling and eventually a fee is uttered at you.  
You hand over the cash and get told you can now display the plates and you will get the V5 as it was back then, through in a couple of weeks.
You leave feeling somewhat grateful to still be alive.   Presumably those with the wrong paperwork never made it out alive.

The excitement of the new car is swiftly forgotten on the first FTP, i’m sure it will be fine.  
LUK’s share price has just dived now they have learnt the receipt for the clutch is in the car. 

Reminded me of a uk registration transfer years ago.  The first one it did, I had to go to the DVLA office in centre of Birmingham.  
Proper dingy place it was.  You walk in and all of a sudden all these faces are staring at you.  Then you realise it’s cos they've all been waiting for so long, they are bored shitless.  No smart phones back then to loose yourself in for a hour.
you take a numbered ticket and dump your arse into one of those plastic chairs and join the long wait.
when your number is ready, you were called to one of the counters where ‘Ms’ with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, gruffly utters ‘wit u ere fir’.  The reply of registration transfer is greeted with a crescendo of required paperwork rattled of in quick succession.  You push the paperwork under the pre- covid screen and withdraw your hand before the date received stamp crashes across your fingers.  There is much more stamping and shuffling and eventually a fee is uttered at you.  
You hand over the cash and get told you can now display the plates and you will get the V5 as it was back then, through in a couple of weeks.
You leave feeling somewhat grateful to still be alive.   Presumably those with the wrong paperwork never made it out alive.

Reminded me of a uk registration transfer years ago.  The first one it did, I had to go to the DVLA office in centre of Birmingham.  
Proper dingy place it was.  You walk in and all of a sudden all these faces are staring at you.  Then you realise it’s cos they've all been waiting for so long, they are bored shitless.  No smart phones back then to loose yourself in for a hour.
you take a numbered ticket and dump your arse into one of those plastic chairs and join the long wait.
when your number is ready, you were called to one of the counters where ‘Ms’ with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, gruffly utters ‘wit u ere fir’.  The reply of registration transfer is greeted with a crescendo of required paperwork rattled of in quick succession.  You push the paperwork under the pre- covid screen and withdraw your hand before the date received stamp crashes across your fingers.  There is much more stamping and shuffling and eventually a fee is uttered at you.  
You hand over the cash and get told you can now display the plates and you will get the V5 as it was back then, through in a couple of weeks.
You leave feeling somewhat grateful to still be alive.   Presumably those with the wrong paperwork never made it out alive.

Reminded me of a uk registration transfer years ago.  The first one it did, I had to go to the DVLA office in centre of Birmingham.  
Proper dingy place it was.  You walk in and all of a sudden all these faces are staring at you.  Then you realise it’s cos they've all been waiting for so long, they are bored shitless.  No smart phones back then to loose yourself in for a hour.
you take a numbered ticket and dump your arse into one of those plastic chairs and join the long wait.
when your number is ready, you were called to one of the counters where ‘Ms’ with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, gruffly utters ‘wit u ere fir’.  The reply of registration transfer is greeted with a crescendo of required paperwork rattled of in quick succession.  You push the paperwork under the pre- covid screen and withdraw your hand before the date received stamp crashes across your fingers.  There is much more stamping and shuffling and eventually a fee is uttered at you.  
You hand over the cash and get told you can now display the plates and you will get the V5 as it was back then, through in a couple of weeks.
You leave feeling somewhat grateful to still be alive.   Presumably those with the wrong paperwork never made it out alive.

Reminded me of a uk registration transfer years ago.  The first one it did, I had to go to the DVLA office in centre of Birmingham.  
Proper dingy place it was.  You walk in and all of a sudden all these faces are staring at you.  Then you realise it’s cos they've all been waiting for so long, they are bored shitless.  No smart phones back then to loose yourself in for a hour.
you take a numbered ticket and dump your arse into one of those plastic chairs and join the long wait.
when your number is ready, you were called to one of the counters where ‘Ms’ with a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, gruffly utters ‘wit u ere fir’.  The reply of registration transfer is greeted with a crescendo of required paperwork rattled of in quick succession.  You push the paperwork under the pre- covid screen and withdraw your hand before the date received stamp crashes across your fingers.  There is much more stamping and shuffling and eventually a fee is uttered at you.  
You hand over the cash and get told you can now display the plates and you will get the V5 as it was back then, through in a couple of weeks.
You leave feeling somewhat grateful to still be alive.   Presumably those with the wrong paperwork never made it out alive.

seriously who would do that unless somebody was paying you £££
 
In the 70s we had a kid at school who tried to jump the brook at the bottom of the school playing fields on his bike, plank and bricks set up
Most of the school was there to watch , 3 playing fields on 3 levels to cross so he'd built up a fair turn of speed, only the plank snapped launching him into the brook, he hadn't really thought it through as it was all brambles the other side so in the water was the most favourable outcome 

Interesting new euphemism noted.

What a lovely trundle out. I will post more pics over in my memoirs post but, suffice to say, our famous visitor was very keen on the car. He spent about five minutes showing the car to his kids before proclaiming it “brilliant”.

A thoroughly lovely run out also fearing Danny Hopkins off of Practical Classics smoking a lovely TR7. 

Ha.  You're giving up your time to help me fix a car, I'd never tell you to hush your gums!  You grossly overestimate my ability to do...err...anything actually.  I'm pushing 40 and still haven't discovered what it is I'm actually good at!  
I was using the continuity setting on my multimeter.  The one that looks like a little diode.
Unfortunately, I couldn't do electronics at school and was told to do woodwork.  Fat lot of fucking use that's been since!!  I should do an evening class or something.

Having a phone that is worth more than your car, not cool.  

Youngsters nowadays mostly seem to get something new on finance, they miss out on these sort of memories

MCP = Management Car Plan, available to anyone of a Management (Non Clerical Grade) who did not qualify for a Business Car.  
Two years not, about 6 to 9 months.  Sometimes one had to order your next car when you collected a new one.  
6 to 9 months and it would be back in and on its way to the dealer network as nearly new.  
As one moved up the grades, ones entitlement increased.  At one stage I had a business car, and MCP car for the wife and a second MCP car for the FIL.  It was a bit like a modern day PCP, so much a month.   BL ran the same scheme.  
By the time I arrived, the Sprint had been out of production and we were in to MG Metros and MG Maestros of talking dash fame followed by Rover 216 Vitesse of which I remember an extremely spirited drive to the south of France four up, speed warnings flashing at every village.
I remember someone showing me an old photo of the staff car park, stuffed full of Dolly Sprints.
Dolly Sprints were very very popular, it was quite a car in its day despite all the shite about HGF.  By 1980 you got 16V, Alloys, Sundym Glass, Vinyl Roof, Bri-Nylon cloth trim, wood veneer, overdrive if manual, cool is that, a switch on your knob to change gear and some decent oooomf to go with it.  
When the man next door had a ‘poverty spec’ Ford or Fauxhall or a Talbot Solara, you’d arrived when you rocked up with a Dolly Sprint.
i remember when I was a lad, a friend up the road, his Dad came to see him, the Dolly Sprint had not long been launched, I was a kid, and this Pimento Red Sprint turned into our road and booted it, I think that was the day I learned to say ‘fookinell’ as my jaw hit the floor.  
I worked for a guy in marketing, Alan (his surname will come back to me) and I seem to recall him once saying he had a yellow Sprint Auto, but as I say, they were very popular.   There was a tale of two yellow sprints parked next to each other at a wedding, someone nipped out and swopped the number plates and when everybody was pissed up there was much ROFL as the first driver back tried to unlock ‘his car’.  TBH the locks were of few differs so with a wiggle he might have got in.
 

There was always the odd person, like me, who had a car they liked and didn’t like anything on the replacement list (not all cars were always available) so you didn’t put your order form in the internal mail.  That gave you some time before the chase came.  You then took more time to get the form in.  I would hazard a guess that this was probably one of the last Sprints on the scheme and something like a Triumph Acclaim CD with all the toys did not appeal as a replacement.   I had a Rover 216GSI for Mrs Hunt, someone ran her off the road and she took out a signpost.  Car was about 4 weeks old.  It went into the bodyshop and they had it  for a good few weeks.  I remember collecting it and then handing it back in as the replacement car was ready.  So we only drove it for about 5 weeks.   It was a ‘deal upgrade’ and it was GSI with ABS for a special price, they must have had too many in the car pound.