SWTVC BULLETIN NUMBER 02/21 (FEBRUARY 2021)
The SWTVC Website can be found at www.swtvc.org.uk
Registered address of the SWTVC: 80 Barfillan Drive, Glasgow G52.
Committee:
Alan Brown (Chair) san.soubeyran@hotmail.co.uk
Sandra Brown (Secretary) 07951 732611
John Stewart (Treasurer)
Harry Sherry: (Webmaster)
Ken McGeoch: (member)
John Young: (Membership Secretary)
Ronnie Johnston: (Editor)
Dave Stewart: (
Kevin Began: (Events Co-ordinator)
Monthly meetings: These normally take place on the 3 rd Tuesday of the month in the Kirkhouse Inn at 08.00PM but are suspended meantime.
EDITORIAL:
January is always a dark, dreich month. It is too cold to do much in the garage or the garden and it can seem endless, particularly right now when we are confined to the house. I fully support the lockdown rules but I confess that cabin fever is beginning to set in.
Anyway, to be positive, there is not a lot of winter left and the days are getting longer.
CLUB ISSUES:
Here is a copy of John Young’s recent communication advising of our intention to hold a Zoom meeting on Monday 15th February.
The first SWTVC Ltd members meeting via Zoom will be taking place on; Monday 15th February 2021 at 7pm.
Any member wishing to share their motoring experiences or tips will be welcomed. A 5 or 10 minute chat would be ideal.
The Zoom link and login details will be emailed out on the afternoon of 15th Feb to those wishing to attend.
This is intended as a social event to keep members in touch while the lockdown regulations are in force. Zoom is free and not difficult to use; even a computer dinosaur like me has figured it out.
If anyone would like to speak briefly on a topic, ideally with a motoring theme, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Ronnie Gordon:
I am pleased to be the bearer of good news about Ronnie.
I had a telephone chat with him on Thursday and he tells me he has made an excellent recovery.
He is still in hospital but hopes to be discharged soon, possibly over the coming week if he makes a big enough nuisance of himself.
Event news:
You are probably already aware that the Moffat show in June has been cancelled on account of the uncertainties over the lockdown regulations.
With my Ayrshire Classics hat on I can report that our annual “Cars on the Campus” event in Kilmarnock has been postponed from 2nd May to 22nd August in the hope that the lockdown regulations will have eased sufficiently to allow a viable show.
I have also just learned that the BVAC event at Thirlestane Castle on 7th June has been postponed but no word of the later date yet.
MEMBER’S MEMORIES:
I was pleased that my account of my youthful visits to Glasgow scrapyards has prompted a member to favour us with memories of his early motoring experiences. It is a lengthy piece so I will present it in two parts.
I expect many of us have some amusing anecdotes from our younger days and, if so, I would be delighted to hear from you.
MOTORING MEMORIES FROM GORDON DOW:
I have spent much of my yoof and beyond in and around scrap yards
while trying to keep my old cars running. In my m/cycling days Ross
Motors seemed to be the place to access second hand bits`n bobs, but on
becoming a car owner for the first time there was found many more routes
to cheaper parts. I have to be careful when making use of the term
scrap, given my first car was at the time no doubt thought of as such by
those who viewed my pride and joy, but were too polite to do other than
smile knowingly..
My first car was a 1959 Austin Healy Sprite, I used to see it parked at
the side of the road on the way home from school in my final year, and
some years later having passed my driving test I rediscovered it sitting
under a tarpaulin, still parked in the same place..! From my few years
of messing with m/cycles since age 14 I had accrued a fair degree of
mechanical knowledge in keeping old m/cycles runningwhile they
suffered my abuse of them by ever tuning to go faster. I knew nothing
of monocoque construction and my appreciation of corrosion damage and
other aspects of motor cars was gleaned as a kid sitting at the side of
the road watching a neighbour who was ever working on his old bangers,
generally Rovers, the newest of which was a 14 if I remember correctly.
Watching the maintenance and much required repair processes of the old
14 had me transfixed for hours on end while pals would be kicking a ball
or some such pastime. I well remember My neighbour bolting in a length
of hardwood to an area of the chassis deemed to be corroded enough to
warrant a bit of reinforcement, and sewing a tear in the wall of a tyre
placing a few strips of old inner tube on the inside to protect the new
tube from contact with the wire used as thread in the repair process, no
big deal, as it would only be used as a spare…!!! The aforementioned
repairs while making the car ready for the family holiday trip up to
John O’Groats from Glasgow…Pre MOT times of course…Yikes..!
When it came to purchasing my first car, circa 1969, Ikicked the tyres
looked to see if the engine was complete and not covered in oil I
looked at the wiring, seats, it had two of them, and the body was a tad
bashed in places, though not too badly and no open wounds or sharp edges
so it must be OK… I was told it would run if the battery was charged,
and that was good enough I knew it would need work and told myself I
would learn how to fix it in time..I hoped…! Summoned up the help
of a couple of pals and pushed it the half mile or so to take up
residence on the road outside the tenement building where I lived with
my parents, in those days fortunately there were not too many vehicles
parked in the streets. As part of the deal I got the tarpaulin too,
which came in handy, when I removed the driver’s seat and much of the
floor came with it, ditto the passenger’s seat, in fact by the time I
lifted the carpet it too brought with it some sort of All-Bran like
material…. At least the battery box in the bulkhead had a base to
it….!!!
A knock on the door, opened to find a big policeman, enquiring as to who
was the owner of whatever was under the tarpaulin… I explained that it
was my car, a non-runner and that I intended to get it running, he
pointed out the ways of the law, and kind man that he was gave me a week
to shift it. I managed to find a friends mum`s driveway and from there
found a lock-up with no power perhaps a mile from home where I spent
many months pop riveting fibreglass sills, and sections of flooring
created by a metal fabrication company from my measurements which were
perhaps less than exact, either that or the metal workers interpretation
of them differed somewhat, whatever, they were not a perfect fit and
required a layer or two of fibreglass over them to make them watertight.
What was left of the “chassis” longitudinals and spring hangers for the
semi elliptic springs, I reinforced with a spade like structure made out
of 1/4″ steel plate bolted through the new metal and fibreglass floor
pan to meet another length of 1/4″ steel running lengthwise from the
cross member just in front of the seats and back till it met the rear
axle well, all of which made up a rather over engineered Clyde built
set-up, pretty it was not, but strong ish, it was.
Of course other than bodywork I had tuned the engine… Sigh. I should
have remembered the words of my m/cycle racing uncle, “If you want a
fast machine, buy a machine designed to go fast, trying to make a
machine designed for general use go faster, is like chasing tripping
dominoes.” But there it sat having fitted over sized carbs a polydyne
cam and three branch ex. manifold painted with Sperex HT to resemble a
bunch of bananas; well I thought it looked great…! During the engine
re-build I had carefully oiled the big end shells bores etc.etc. It was
time to spin it over with the plugs out and watch for the oil pressure
gauge reading rise. Only problem was that it did not even flicker
having spun and spun the engine till the battery could spin it no
more… I turned the engine by hand and heard a clunk….!!!!!
To be continued.
In the style of Saturday morning cinema of our childhood, I will stop the story here. Will Gordon get his engine running or has it been damaged beyond repair? Be sure to catch the final thrilling instalment next month!
MOTORING TRIVIA
On this day:
The first British Motor Show organised by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) was held at Crystal Palace, London, from 30 January to 7 February. The show attracted over 10,000 visitors – a remarkable figure given that there were only 8,000 private cars on the road at the time! After the 1903 event it moved to Olympia in London, where it was held for the next 32 years before moving to nearby Earls Court.
How interesting if we could go back in time and have a browse round the stands!
And finally:
That’s all folks,
Hope to see you at the Zoom meeting,
Ronnie