Bad day at Black Rock

Weds.20.09.06. Chris Turner of Simmals has arranged for a ‘good and proper’ sheet of aluminium to be delivered to Catterall and Wood of Chorley (Alan, Chris) so that the engine panels can be made up properly. Alan will be in touch as soon as he has received the materials. He has also requested a personal visit so that the intricacies of the work can be explained in detail. This professional contact is quite refreshing, as we don’t want any more screw-ups. 

The news that the order from Rimmers would arrive imminently has been long awaited. Two large, heavy cardboard boxes were lifted into the garage to be excitedly opened. But the day took a decided down turn after box after box of components were unwrapped. There was a peculiar mixture of quite excellent replacement parts but an equal amount of dreadful, badly made, totally inferior parts. As the contents of each box were emptied there were groans of disgust from Chris who by now was becoming increasingly wound up. “I specifically asked for top, top, top quality and they have sent us absolute shite: I’ll say it again, you can’t trust anyone these days, it’s just a joke, I’m disgusted!” so, consistently after each examination the all-encompassing purple hue steadily crept from neck to forehead revealing his unhealthy complexion, progressively budding, deeper in colour. 

The steering rack and the anti-roll suffered the worst of this onslaught. “Where has this friggin’ thing been made and by whom: the workmanship and the steel are shite!” The actual steering rack had been made from a strange melange of metals, none of which appeared to have any substance. The gaiters were flattened by the packaging and could not be resuscitated, at each end there were different gauge threads: a separate tube of different metal hid the actual rack mechanism. This was by far the most hideous piece of kit that we had received but other items emerged later of comparative shiteness: there were parts of the order that were missing, many of the prices did not relate to the ones originally quoted and some of the parts were not even for a Triumph vehicle. The mood was one of anger, disappointment and disbelief. Rimmer Brothers have dealt us a serious blow. Of course, the crap parts will be sent back but the delay in sourcing alternatives will become a mother of a headache. 

Nutty Steve, Sheffield Richard, The Sheepdips of Whittle-le-Woods and Chic Doig of Glasgow may be given parole from the ‘fuck off’ bin if this component crisis cannot be rectified.          

Chris’s temperament grew blacker the more the ‘tuttle’ sank in, his despair was deeply apparent. It was impossible not to be anything but completely depressed after today’s events. It will be very difficult to raise the spirits after this kick in the stones.