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Hi - took in the British car swap meet/show today.
It's held annually on the Saanich historical Society showground near Victoria BC - anyway, my XJ40 was the only XJ40 there so it isn't hard to spot - unfortunately my 40 was upstaged by some other killer motors, as you'll see ...still, a great day out, check out the pics
Some beautiful machinery there, but your XJ40 more than held its own.
The MGA roadster on the left side of the MG group shot got me all atwitter. Being a glutton for punishment, I owned not one but two identical '59 roadsters in the distant past!
The Panther motorcycle is an eye catcher. Don't see many of those!
I can't believe you didn't invite the rest of us to drive 2,000 miles to join you!
What a great group of cars! The row of MGs brought back fond memories of my second car, a '69 MGB, but the row of Triumphs was missing a Spitfire (my first car was a '68).
Love the Austin Healy's, the Bentley, the Morris, and it's impossible to not love an XK120, even in baby blue.
But I agree with retromotors that your XJ40 looks right at home among all those other classics! Thanks for sharing the photos.
Hi guys, Yes it was a great day out - too bad I have to wait another year for the next one!!
Actually Don, there was a Spitfire (sort of!) -
As we were driving into the showground, about 500 yds from the gate, a pretty fair shell of one (they can be very rusty) was sticking its nose out of a farmer's driveway - on the way home, we noticed "for sale" in large spray-bomb letters on the passenger side
I think I told you about my Spitfire "rustoration", done back in the early 1980's?
I'd just rebuilt my TR6 and was feeling pretty cocky so I took on this really really rusty Spit for a friend and we traded the work for a fancy paint job (80's marbleizing) on my Tangent loudspeakers (which I still have btw)
The body and sill were so gone that I had to model the shape in clay and plaster & take a cast of the shape to even give me something to work with!!
Have photos somewhere, I'll dig them out and post them to Flickr, you can have a good laugh at them!
Have photos somewhere, I'll dig them out and post them to Flickr, you can have a good laugh at them!
Larry,
I can't resist posting this shot of my first car, a 1968 Triumph Spitfire for which I paid USD $495.00. I bought it from an old gent whose hobby was rescuing sports cars from the breakers and "restoring" them just enough that they would run. I drove the car home from college and my dad and brother taught me how to renovate an auto by doing most of the work while I watched. We discovered while prepping for paint that most of the front point of the hood had been recreated in Bondo, so that's why it doesn't exactly match the factory profile. It was orange with black racing stripes when I bought it, but we returned it to its original red.
I have lots of great memories in that car. In terms of fun for the money, I can't think of any other vehicle that could come close.
Unfortunately I only have pics of the repair on the Spit so you'll have to use your imagination as to where these shots "fit in" - anyway, here goes - started on a Monday and she was painted on the Thursday IIRC!!
State of rear wheel arch
Sill front and end cap
rear wheel arch
plaster fill
plaster of paris fill
Plaster knocked out, cutting away rusty bits
plaster knocked out, metal prepped and fibreglass cast section pop-riveted in
fibreglass section pop-riveted in, front
Smoothing out the repair
Ready for paint!
I thought I had a picture or two of the fibreglass layup, (which I did over the plaster) but couldn't find them - hopefully the pics show what went on!
Anyway, there you have it, wreck to presentable in 4 days!!
Surprisingly, once the section was riveted in, the repair was quite strong and afaik lasted the life of the car!
And I always wanted a TR6. Love those cars. My uncle had a TR250, which was the American version of the TR5, with IRS. A great car I should have bought from him before it got away.
Local car show today
) on my Tangent loudspeakers (which I still have btw)
