21.12.06. Chris has finished repairing and painting the tub. All the edges have been glassed, tightly sealed from any penetration of water, grim and dirt. The actual underside of the floorpan has been rubbed down to a smooth flat finish. This has taken two coats of Hammerite to protect the surface from weathering. Regular hosing down upheld by annual cleaning should maintain this condition for the life of the tub.
There is still some concern regarding the flywheel. The suspicion being that Cliff has skimmed far too much from the face of the wheel, which has, in turn, brought into question the ‘travel’ of the clutch. Subsequently I took both flywheels for comparison to Railway motors of Westhoughton to Andy and Eddie. This small but specialist company had been recommended by Alan of Suttons who had previously arranged for the repair work to completed on Danny Brennan’s burnt out BMW 850i clutch. The fault had occurred on the ‘buddy’ trip to Keswick. Whilst accompanied and encouraged by Chris to storm through the pass at ‘Shap’, to test the durability of the clutch, Danny had cooked it. The result was the worst damage to any clutch that Andy or Eddie had ever witnessed. If anyone could give a verdict on our puny flywheel these were the guys. I had been given instructions as to how to find their workshop but I was utterly amazed at the coincidence that would be revealed. Railway motors was once owned by ‘Les’ who, in1980 had been my next-door neighbour and friend. He was the first person to contribute to the car on the ‘first’ build. It was Les, in that very same workshop, who had welded the chassis as well as rebuilding the engine and gearbox.
It was Les who helped me to push the rolling chassis back up the hill on Wingates lane to the stables at the back of the ‘Dog and Pheasant’ where I continued building the car. It was with Les that I bought a second hand hang glider to enjoy near death experiences from the top of Winter Hill with our clumsy attempts of flying. It was Les who continued to cheat death by falling from his roof breaking his pelvis and both arms, divorcing his wife of fifteen years consequently seeking a new direction by selling the garage to Andy and Eddie in 1981 to become a lecturer of mechanical engineering at Bolton Tech. After expressing astonishment and unquestionable surprise to Eddie about this bizarre, repetitious ‘déjà vu happening’ he nonchalantly shrugged whilst at the same time examining the flywheel. As expected there were tuts, chin scratching accompanied by condescending smiles. “That clutch is fucked and the flywheel is badly grooved” was his judgment. “But the clutch is brand new, out of the box?” I questioned. Of the six retaining bolts only four had been attached which had resulted in the plate sitting unevenly on the flywheel. “By not attaching the mechanism properly, not gradually tightening all six bolts in sequence you have ruined a brand new clutch; in fact your old flywheel is in better condition than the skimmed shitty one!” None of this was really sinking in but it was an all too familiar fairy-tale of poor craftsmanship leading to yet more delays.
I returned to Westmead with the bad news followed by the inevitable worn out discussions about the validity of Eddie’s conclusions. The decision was to make no decision. I think we were both suffering from ‘another fucking problem syndrome’ but also the trepidation of the impending presence of Christmas. We shall see what Brockie has to say?
22.12.06. The tub has been completed, it is ready to be mounted onto the chassis. The flywheel and clutch remain unassembled.
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