Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July. Bad day-Good day.

Saturday morning started well but very quickly turned into quite a stressful morning for me. The Wednesday night before I had committed a good few hours to the Red Shed, but had left the garage with her running really well.

She was booked into Mowatts for a rolling road session to have the carburettors set up and Gavin had come round to give me a lift back as I had to leave her with them. I took Gavin for a quick spin round the block her before we left and even he commented how well she was running.

He spoke too soon! Within half an hour of leaving my house this damn piece of Red junk had broken down! We initially thought it was the needle valves in the float chambers sticking, so a tap with a small hammer seemed to cure the problem and we got going again…….for about 500 yards. The same treatment managed to get us another 500 yards before we broke down again! This time we managed to find a screwdriver under the seat (We hadn’t brought any tools!) and undid the fuel line to find that the petrol pump had gone in to semi-retirement. So we primed the pump by hand until the carbs filled up and set out again……for about three hundred yards this time.

Unfortunately this was now the order of the day. By now we were on the A127 which is a busy dual carriageway with the usual mindless twats whizzing past only inches away while we tried to coax this thing back into life. It eventually took us 55 minutes to cover the two miles from my house to Mowatts. As well as the carb set up and electronic ignition she was originally booked for, she is now having an electric fuel pump fitted as well! I am not pleased with her at present, so maybe it's just as well she is out of my sight for a while.

Sunday was a bit more chilled (except the weather, which was very hot!) as I took a trip out to the Classic car show at Maldon. I took Gertie along to this one. The only concern that Gertie gave me was that the temperature gauge rose to three quarters while we queued to get in. Maybe I should look at fitting an electric fan. It was a gorgeous day and there were quite a few cars in attendance. Pictured below are some of the cars from the day.

 

Very nice Anglia Estate

 

 Rally Prepped Mini. I like the sign written front grill

 

Gertie next to one of her rivals :) 

A very rare Panhard (Looks like a Frog to me)

 

I've not see an Austin Cambridge in this original colour scheme for some time

 

2 door Mk1 Cortina. These are getting as pricey as Mk1 Escorts now

 

This Mk1 had 4 doors but 8 cylinders!

Vauxhall Cresta copying Gertie's cream roof look. :) 

 

Now this is what I like. Maybe I should sell the estate and the Red Shed and buy me one.