38th time lucky: New boot (and panties)

[barrett]

The Palladium was taken away by my body man on Tuesday and today I popled over to have a look and discuss a plan.

 

Ben Brown is a young chap who is skilled in traditional coachbuilding. He could easily build a Vintage car body from scratch, and has done many times. He works in a great converted barn on a farm in the middle of nowhere filled with interesting old bits and bobs. I should have taken some pictures really but it totally forgot. Anyway, it's in safe hands with Ben and his number two János, the Hungarian mechanical wizard. The plan is to strip the body off, paint the frame and repair all the aluminium panel work, then re-fit it and prepare for paint. The rear wings need making from scratch, and both fronts need big repairs. Ben was totally unfazed and reckons it's an easy month's work to get it all together and prepped for paint, but for budget reasons this month or so will be spread over maybe six months of time. Hopefully work will start next week so well start to see some actual progress being made. Exciting!

 

Edit to add: I was at VSCC Prescott last weekend and on one of the literature dealer's stands I looked and down and spotted on the table a mint handbook for the 12hp Palladium. He wanted £20 for it and during the feverish rush to open my wallet he says 'good luck finding the car to go with it!' Ha! He'd only had it in stock two days and thought he'd be carting it round til he died, waiting for the right person to see it. Wjat are the chances, eh?

[Skizzer]

I’d missed all this - the Palladium looks gorgeous. I love the raked windscreen and the proportions. A proper cad’s car.

[barrett]

I am a proper cad, as you well know. Let's just remind us of how ita supposed to look, eh?

 

Finding a set of beaded-edge wheels is a priority as it looks wank on the diddy well-based wheels. The BEs make it all look much more spindly and sporty, and like a proper Vintage car. So many old cars look wrong these days due to details like that. In the overhead view you can just about make out the spot-buffed finish on the upper part of the body (that's the correct term for engine-turned, btw. Like a Bugatti dashboard or what have you). It'll be gloss black on the bottom, with black wings. It's gonna be snazzy as fuck.

[barrett]

Took the Ami for a spin round the local test route this evening, it's fine! Although there is definitely more noise than I'd like coming from the drivetrain, it is much better than Sam made out it to be. I think I might insure it on Friday and drive about in it for a bit before taking it all apart (after filling it with fresh fuel and having a closer look at the timing and sluggish starter). The handling is a bit odd, so I really want to restore the ride height as a matter of urgency. Not quite sure why it's so low at the front, but with less suspension travel it tracks the undulations in the road rather than gliding over them.

It looks quite at home here anyway, and I think with minimal improvements it will turn out to be 'a good one'.

[barrett]

Does anyone want to save this thing? I have had an 'interested' buyer for ages, but he has had some serious back injury which prevents him from driving and is just about to have surgery etc so he's gonna be out of action for ever. He hasn't even agreed to buy it, just to come and have a look, and he can't manage that despite only being down the road so I don't have high hopes.

 

In short, it's nice and tidy, drove very well but then sprung a leak from a low-pressure return pipe. After loads of prevarication I had this pipe 'fixed' but it seems to have sprung a leak in the same place and now I have totally lost interest. I have way too many cars, and this one is just in the way at my office and I could really do with it gone asap. I have already killed two Xantias and I can't be responsible for destroying another. It's got life left in it, it just needs some TLC.

 

£100. Near Horsham. Fill it with lhm and drive away (to a pre-booked MoT) if you dare, it still works well enough to drive cautiously somewhere, but I probably wouldn't want to go to Glasgow or whatever in it.

 

Please, somebody. Please.

 

edit: apparently I can't link photos from Flickr, sorry Sam

 

[binhoker668]

A rare colour on these I reckon - looks great though!  I prefer the stying of the S1s.  Not for me though I'm afraid - am on the verge of trying to swap my own!  I get bored quickly these days.

For some reason I'm fixated on Mitsubishi motors atm.

Glwts hey - it's a steal at that money...

TD Xantias are a great old steer...

[RobT]

Still MoTd till Tuesday by the look of it, so can be driven legally if someone is quick. Mmmm...

[barrett]

Is it? I thought it expired ages ago! I'd have been driving around in it if I'd known!

[Zelandeth]

Would you like me to cross post a link to this over on the French Car Forums? Figure there might be a few folks there who aren't already on here that may be interested.

 

TD Xantias are a great motor to soak up major miles with, cost pennies on fuel and when well looked after will quite happily handle intergalactic mileages with ease.

 

Nice colour for it too.

[barrett]

Thanks, but I suspect my phantom buyer probably frequents that corner of the Internet and I don't want to piss him off too much just I case he actually follows through!

[barrett]

Looks like the Xant is provisionally sold to a glutton for punishment/serial shiter, so that's good.

 

I haven't done as much to the Ami as I'd have liked, as it has temporarily donated its electronic ignition to my colleague's car after that one's 123 set shat itself last week. However, it is now sitting at the correct ride height and I made the bulbs yellow this evening. Proper yellow 6v bulbs for Amis are a pain to find - I don't think they are actually made any more so you have to hope for NOS items at French autojumbles, so I just chucked some yellow bulb paint on these. Doesn't really show up in the photo, annoyingly. After doing that, I couldn't manage to make all the front lights stay on all the time, but I noticed the earth cables were all loose, so tightened them all up and re-attached the o/s indicator earth, which saw full operation restored and the previously dead indicator working perfectly! I did a fix! Amazing! I really will have a push this weekend to get it on the road, I promise.

[barrett]

The Palladium, photographed in 1957. It had just been roughly recommissioned and was in regular, is sporadic, use despite appearances. Just an 'old car' then - it was only as old then as my Citroen BX is now...

[barrett]

Just been sent some progress pics! panels removed, paint stripped, wooden frame painted, fillets to support the windscreen let into the frame. Now ready to start re-panelling! Exciting stuff!

[barrett]

First repaired panel back on!

[DSdriver]

Are the panels aluminium or steel?

Love your comment on the age in 1957, I was only thinking yesterday about what 45 year old cars like my DS is now would have looked like when I was a kid in the 50s.

[barrett]

It's aluminium with steel wings. All the panels need quite a bit of repair and they will all need new metal adding to the top edges to ensure correct fit over the top of the wood frame. I can't even imagine how frustrating welding bits to 95 year old thin alloy must be, but Ben and Janos seem to have taken it in stride and it's hard to see where the new metal starts and the old ends. They reckon another week of work will see the rest of the panels fixed and reattached - that'll have to wait til after next pay day though!

[barrett]

Everything up to the doors is 'done', just the rear panel to go on now and then it's on to the wings! Absolutely superb work, these shitty pics don't do it justice. It'll almost be a shame to paint it.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

It's aluminium with steel wings. ...

 

Are the two metals supposed to be kept apart from each other, because weird corrosion effects if they touch?

[RobT]

Weapons grade. Men with real skills, very impressive!

[barrett]

Are the two metals supposed to be kept apart from each other, because weird corrosion effects if they touch?

 

 

I suppose there is a higher risk of corrosion to aluminium if it is in contact with steel, but only over very long periods of time. Most Superleggera cars don't seem to have disappeared into piles of dust over time, nor do postwar Panhards, which have lots of steel bits bolted to the aluminium punt. In any case, the wings are quite separate from the body on this car, they are held on by brackets which are bolted to the chassis.

[Talbot]

Mr Barrett... where do you keep all your shite? Is it anywhere near me? Have you got any more space available? I am in desperate need of some vehicular storage at the moment!

[barrett]

Most of it is in a big shed at my office, which is always full to bursting with old shit. Usually about 20-22 vehicles in there which is the absolute limit of sanity. Currently the Minor and Sceptre are sulking outside, BX in my garage at home... so, in short, no!

 

Decent, cheap storage is at a real premium round these parts. Perhaps a friendly farmer with a corner of a dry barn is your best bet? I had some 'barned' a while back for something like £10p/m but the chap was a tenant farmer and the estate that owned his land got wind of it and made him stop, which seemed particularly ungenerous to me. I'm sure there are others out there offering something similar, though 

[barrett]

The windscreen frame has been repaired and trial-fitted ready for re-plating. All the brightwork has been stripped and cleaned ready for replacing. This will be nickel rather than chrome, as per the original. I think by now the rear bodywork is done (no pics yet) and they're starting to think about the wings.

 

The radiator is German silver and will polish up nicely

 

Magneto has been rebuilt and is ready to go. The starter has gone off for rebuilding, too

 

Most importantly, we now have enough of the correct wheels to get it rolling. These came from Holland and I picked them up at the weekend. The rusty one will need repairs to the rim - maybe a new rim entirely - but the other two are good to go, plus the one that came with the car in black. We'll get at least one of these painted and finished as it will be on the car, with a tyre fitted, to make construction of the rear wings easier. Still looking for one more, but they see incredibly hard to find in this size.

[mercrocker]

Yep, top class....

[Jim Bell]

Is that radiator actual silver?!?

[barrett]

Nah, German Silver is a type of nickel alloy with a fancy name! It lasts longer and better than some other nickel alloys so was used for big stuff like radiators. All the other brightwork is beyond hope and needs redoing, but the rad will be perfect with a quick polish!

[Angrydicky]

This looks great, almost makes up for the Morris Minor! 10/10 would feel jealous again.

[barrett]

Not sure if y'all can see this, but Ben's wife has been documenting the work done and there is a huge gallery here:
https://michellebrown86.pixieset.com/palladium2018/

[Tickman]

I can see them.

Thanks for the link.

Finally WOW

[loserone]

That's utterly amazing.