Unique Colin

Thurs.08.03.07. Colin has spent most of the morning fitting the front section of the exhaust. From the manifold he has fashioned 4 cuts that permit the system to weave through the box section of the chassis. At each joint it was necessary to cut then twist the stainless steel pipe meticulously so that the two twin down pipes merged into one horizontal central big bore exhaust that would run exactly parallel with spider section of the chassis. The rear silencer boxes will be located either side of the fuel tank: to achieve this end the pipes had to be cut at the “V” junction. Two new straight lengths of stainless will be formed to join the final part of the system together. The entire system has been exclusively, precisely and carefully created by Colin, to add yet another unique, well crafted piece of engineering to the car.

During the afternoon I recalled our eventful visit, last year, to JJ Bullens yard, also known as the Thunderdome, where we met Crazy Dave the eccentric sandblaster. Leaving the “Dome” with the freshly scrubbed chassis I noticed a large garage outside of which there were several Dolomite Sprints. This could be the answer to the search for the perfect front spring. According to Max the rear spring of a ‘Dolly’ is 10 inches in free length and 95 lbs of pressure, which should be quite close to perfect for the Burlington. Before reporting for duty at Westmead I decided to pay a visit to the garage to see if my memory was not playing ‘craft’ games. I met the young proprietor, Andy, who helpfully, searched for the springs in his mini scrap heap of used parts. We were unsuccessful, but he has promised to find a set by Saturday morning. We might be lucky?

The rest of the day was usefully spent re-designing the dashboard. The MDF model fits reasonably well onto the scuttle but as an alternative I shall produce a cardboard maquette that can be positioned inside rather than, like the original dashboard located externally. Apart from not appearing over large and clumsy, another advantage of this method would be access. The complete board could be easily removed to facilitate any future repair work. The surrounding edges could be fashioned as padded protective areas bound in leather to improve safety but also to create a contrast to the ‘hardwood’ of the instrument panel.