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HMC

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Posts posted by HMC

  1. Well the p38 has so far been perfectly well behaved. Priority 1 was to turn it back from a 2 seater  to a 5 seater car.

    My keenness to keep it bASe made things more complicated. Theres a choice of complete p38 interiors on e bay for peanuts. They are all later model leather ones- they look nice! Maybe this was the better idea? (spoiler: YES)

    I was hoping to keep it cloth- and the easiest/ laziest thing was to just lob in a rear bench and seatbelts, and forget the aesthetics. Maybe the miss matched seats tells part of its story?

    There were, i discovered, a few little other bits that had been removed during its “conversion” I believe the door cards and carpet it has wouldnt have had tan cloth matched from new.  And i couldn’t find a tan cloth rear bench. And the grey cloth rear bench i did get hold of had had the integral seat belt buckles removed from it. Then from 2 other breakers I was sent the wrong buckles, and a wrong belt respectively. I had to correct an e bay trader, supposedly a P38 expert about the centre and right rear buckles being different parts, with different part numbers, despite looking outwardly identical, and not functioning if interchanged. Slave to the bASe.

    All in all to be honest with this hassle I was regretting not buying a complete later leather interior, forgetting originality and binning what was in it. Slave to the bASe

    Anyway, i could do all this at a later stage if i wished, and im a seatbelt away from it being a fully functional 5 seater again which is my first priority- needed ASAP.  Most normal people just buy something with the number of seats they need. I just felt it needed rescuing.

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    A (5 seater) Bitsa

  2. Russian lady-

    “Do you want to go to a Cuban Ballet? We need to be there in 30 min?”

    Me

    ”Sounds good”

    As it was all a bit spontaneous and choosing life I decided we should take the shad. I hadnt really driven it to get somewhere in a hurry before, so that was fun in itself! Think boat-like floaty wallowing and body roll with engine noise (im beginning to wonder if the silencers are past it as it can sound suprisingly snarly)

     

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    So it was quite a cultural evening. Did a quick pic beside a clock tower and a Bank (now a pub) that somehow survived the Blitz and Subsequent redevelopment, whilst everything in the immediate area didnt.

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  3. Side note- ive chased up the banger racer for a backstory on how his father in law got hold of the shad, and am awaiting the grandson of the first owner getting in touch re his mothers recollections +/- photos

    Meanwhile the  son of the original owner appears to have been a colourful character. As well as a powerboat racer, he appears also to be a racer of the earliest TVR sportscars..

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  4. 10 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

    Me too.

    Is it actually as nice to drive as it looks?

    Its lovely to drive- distant burble, lovely smooth shifts from the gearbox (you hear the engine note drop but dont feel anything) finger light (one finger if you wanted) power steering ( with very little feel) - but so usable for a car this age. Its a full on barge but id rather trade the sharper experience (relatively) of the shad II for the detailing of the earlier cars. Soooo relaxing to go around in. It feels like im piloting a boat- sounds dreadful but if thats your thing its great! Its quicker than i was expecting. A very gentle car to drive.

  5. 1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

    Surprised to see a PCB based fuse box to be honest.  I thought they'd be using something more old school than that (like the unreliable nonsense in my Rover which has tried to melt itself at least a couple of dozen times from the looks of things).  That looks nicely engineered.  Interesting to see the diodes there set up to be replaceable too.  Worth getting a meter on those to see if they're all good as those being open/short could well cause odd behaviour from the associated systems.  I imagine that's to do with the dash light test (does this do the same as the later ones where all the warning lights are tested when you crank the engine over?), but could be wrong.

    Tasteful coach line I reckon will actually really help smarten it up a bit, it's an awful lot of solid white otherwise.

    Thanks for the tip re the electrics- TBH im totally clueless about electrical things

  6. This shad is now starts on a flick of the key, sounds like a motor launch and after i cleaned and lubricated the auto choke linkages its running better than ever. I even used it “on a trip to the moors” im a gentleman and will say no more.

    I cleaned the fuse box connections hoping it would resurrect a few dead things, but no dice.

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    Looks old school! I forgot to take a pic of the guide that comes with it- its on a small ally sheet that pulls out from it. 

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    After tesco (not seen- it now has a boot carpet in suitable shabby condition from a scrap car)  i tinkered with a few pointless but satisfying little things

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    The spec sheet is a nice reference for how it rolled out of Crewe in summer 1971. I cant ‘quite’ stretch to a full body rebuild and respray in ICI shell grey, but what about the “fine lines” in dark blue?

    I would imagine they were applied by hand by a craftsman….. how about a 3.99  ebay coachline? More within budget. How the mighty have fallen!

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    Bit of a nod to the original spec. Easy to do despite the gentle curves on the wings as you can be guided by feel and sight by the body crease and trim. I looked at ads for mega expensive perfect/ original cars to see where the “fine lines” went.

    Perhaps a bit of an insult to the craftsmanship that made it; but this is something that was nearly banger raced and will never be a “good” example. Usable, yes- and isnt that what its all about? (it is to me!)

     

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