38th time lucky: New boot (and panties)

[barrett]

I took some detail shots... The newly-plated brightwork really shi9nes agianst the black, and the 'coined' top half is just so bonkers. Gonna try and get together with the 'other' Palladium soon for some photos

 

[High Jetter]

15 minutes ago, barrett said:

Gonna try and get together with the 'other' Palladium

On a Saturday night, in London?

Bet you're chuffed to have it back after all the work. Nice looking workshop / storage place, very tidy. Is the light blue car a Corvair?

[barrett]

17 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

On a Saturday night, in London?

Bet you're chuffed to have it back after all the work. Nice looking workshop / storage place, very tidy. Is the light blue car a Corvair?

Brooklands, VSCC's Halloween Driving Tests if anyone wants to see it in the flesh!

Yass, it's a 1960 Corvair 500. 25k from new, never painted etc. A lovely car. Here I am explaining the fan belt arrangement to some Frenchmen

[Sigmund Fraud]

Great stuff, as always !

Also, that first Corvair picture could have easily been taken in the 1970s...

[barrett]

Just realised I'm doing my 'top of head model' routine. @garethj haven't I come a long way!

[Jon]

Goodness, I remember the days when you didn't have an interesting job and hadn't passed your driving test - maybe 10 or so years ago? And look at your fleet now! Absolute shite hedonism. The boy done good. 

I could carry on with the gushing admiration but that's not very becoming of me. Instead, have a shoddy image of my own kilometerstone in the Jondeo, a couple of months back:

Good job I'm in the film industry, so I could rig a hands free mount, to document the momentous event (your honour).

[Three Speed]

We had a neighbour with a Corvair. He was paranoid about fan belt breakage which is, in his experience, followed very quickly by engine seizure. 

[wuvvum]

5 hours ago, barrett said:

Here I am explaining the fan belt arrangement to some Frenchmen

Having owned a 304 I would have assumed that the French would be used to odd fan belt setups.

[barrett]

11 hours ago, Three Speed said:

We had a neighbour with a Corvair. He was paranoid about fan belt breakage which is, in his experience, followed very quickly by engine seizure. 

I've driven for a while with no belt. It gets very hot very quickly and I imagine it would eventually seize entirely, but you get plenty of warning when a belt goes. And in our one, it goes regularly for reasons too boring to get into here.

[garethj]

15 hours ago, barrett said:

Just realised I'm doing my 'top of head model' routine. @garethj haven't I come a long way!

It’s an odd choice for “this is my best side” but you’re owning it 😀

[barrett]

The repaired headlamps have been put back together for the first time, looking infinitely better for it

[barrett]

Outside for the first time in a while, and raring to go. Looks really good with a bit of space round it (despite the glamorous backdrop)

Sadly it's going to be horrendous weather on Sunday so I'm not sure I can be bothered driving it to Brooklands in the lashing wind and rain

[garethj]

Looks fantastic!  What’ll she do, mistah?

[LightBulbFun]

ooh its looking really lovely!

I hope someday ill be able to see the magnificent Palladium in person   

[puddlethumper]

That's a proper chariot that is. Stunning.

[barrett]

Amazing to think it wasn't that long ago when it looked like this...

It's certainly much, much closer to my inspiration photo than it was!

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, barrett said:

Outside for the first time in a while, and raring to go. Looks really good with a bit of space round it (despite the glamorous backdrop)

Sadly it's going to be horrendous weather on Sunday so I'm not sure I can be bothered driving it to Brooklands in the lashing wind and rain

Woah. Is that the one at Brooklands? Seen some on Yesterday.

[Jon]

So, how many years do you reckon it's been since it looked this good? 70?!

What a great way of spending money! I mean, respraying a Tredia is entirely worthy but this is on another scale!

Most importantly, have you sketched out designs for your 'Paladium Club' bottle green ill-fitting fleece and matching bucket hat?

[barrett]

4 hours ago, Jon said:

So, how many years do you reckon it's been since it looked this good? 70?!

What a great way of spending money! I mean, respraying a Tredia is entirely worthy but this is on another scale!

Most importantly, have you sketched out designs for your 'Paladium Club' bottle green ill-fitting fleece and matching bucket hat?

At least 70 years, yeah. It does feel good that it's getting close to the original vision now although there's a very long way to go.

Funnily enough, I did think about making some Palladium Owners' Club clobber just because so few people would legitimately be able to wear it. I think an OC for a car with two survivors is a funny concept. It would also be nice to see if it was possible to make an attractive piece of car club regalia - I'm thinking a tasteful black v-neck with the Palladium logo on the breast (with owners club added round the rim of the circle)

(That's off my Palladium Autocars letterhead which I use to send the few letters I write).

So, joke's on you @Jon - I love a bit of POC regalia!

[wuvvum]

Seeing it parked next to that Transit has made me realise I'd got the scale of it wrong in my mind's eye - it's quite a bit bigger than I had thought.

[anonymous user]

The Palladium is just beautiful.

[HillmanImp]

That looks amazing. Really chuffed for you. 

I assume the Transit van is what you're using to deliver Amazon parcels for 23 hours a day on top of your day job in order to pay for all this? 

[Jon]

On 10/30/2021 at 9:40 PM, barrett said:

At least 70 years, yeah. It does feel good that it's getting close to the original vision now although there's a very long way to go.

Funnily enough, I did think about making some Palladium Owners' Club clobber just because so few people would legitimately be able to wear it. I think an OC for a car with two survivors is a funny concept. It would also be nice to see if it was possible to make an attractive piece of car club regalia - I'm thinking a tasteful black v-neck with the Palladium logo on the breast (with owners club added round the rim of the circle)

(That's off my Palladium Autocars letterhead which I use to send the few letters I write).

So, joke's on you @Jon - I love a bit of POC regalia!

I think you'll do well to top this regalia effort I picked up from a local charity shop for literal pence:

Sawn-off sweatshirt that's Levi's branded, no less! Quite what Alfa the owner was driving, I don't know. It was so mind-boggingly confusing, I couldn't leave without it. 

Of course, I'll never wear it, even if it does fit me. But a small part of me considered it sufficient reason to buy the car to go with the clothing (that again, I'll never wear)...

[Three Speed]

On 30/10/2021 at 09:40, barrett said:

I think an OC for a car with two survivors is a funny concept.

especially if the owner of the other one doesn't join

[Datsuncog]

...and then sets up their own 'Palladium Drivers Club' in opposition.

[barrett]

Sadly the Palladium is still out of action as there is water getting into number 2 cylinder. Suspected (hoped) head gasket issue rather than a cracked block... I have some new composite gaskets being made to replace the solid copper currently fitted, so we will try it with one of those which should enable the head to be tightened down a little better.

Sadly this means it has missed the VSCC Light Car and Edwardian Section's Welsh weekend for the second time (with a long gap for covid in between). This meant a last-minute car change to the only other running Light Car on the fleet, the Riley Monaco. Preparation involved binning the ancient Uruguyan tyres which have been on there since the 1970s and replacing them with a set of venry handsome three-stud tyres from Longstone. Usual reccomendations apply. These are Longstone's 'own' tyres and a quite a bit cheaper than some of the rival brands, but look absolutely spot-on and as several other Vintage Rileys are running these it seemed like a good choice. I also cleaned up the wheels which has made a huge difference - before and after here.

Other than topping up the oil, checking the water and filling the tank that was it. On Friday we set off at 8am and were in Llandrindod Wells by 3.30pm, including a few stops along the way. Not bad going I reckon. The route we do is mostly back roads, some quite small, so progress is limited by conditions but on fast roads it's possible to keep up 50mph although it's quite noisy.

I did the full 200-mile stint and didn't feel too terrible at the end of it. On saturday my co-owner/driver did the 90-mile tour itself. Another great event down some fantastic Welsh roads one would never normally travel on. Here we are crossing a slightly dodgy single-track bridge

And with a great road sign which is about the same age as the car, if not a bit older

The other Palladium was there. Imagine how much better this photo could have been!

Then on Sunday we set off at about 12.30, carrying a third person who needed a lift back to Sussex. Three-up is a bit more of a struggle, but the car didn't really miss a beat and the journey took exactly six hours, which probably isn't far off what it would take in a modern I'd have thought. Apart from using a frightening amount of oil - it's pissing out from just about every possible place - the car didn't misbehave at all. So, 500 miles in a weekend, and not of particularly gentle driving either. It really is The Wonder Car and you can see why they're still so popular. There must have been another half a dozen Riley Nines there, but ours was the only 1929 car.

Anyway. Definitely don't need to drive it again for a while, although I was getting about an 80 per cent clean gearchange result by the end of the trip which is quite good for me. Sadly my BMW is out of MoT very soon and won't pass another without loads of work so I might actually be forced to use this for the commute at least some of the time! How can I have 8 cars and no way of getting to work in the morning?? Fuggin' typical!

[barrett]

BMW now on ebay if anyone's feeling stupid

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275275560774

[Matty]

17 minutes ago, barrett said:

BMW now on ebay if anyone's feeling stupid

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275275560774

No need for anyone to feel stupid. Brilliant cars loved ours to bits. Cars of that period for me definatly represent a high water mark. Good luck with the sale

[barrett]

BMW replacement has arrived. It's.... shite

More details will follow when I've driven it further than round the block

[loserone]

That looks ace.