Sam is born

Fri.26.10.07. We learned today at 5.38am our treasured daughter attended by terrific son in law, Paul has given birth to a 9lbs 6oz baby boy. Everything is fine although the length of the birth meant that there had to be a ‘C’ section. The proposed name is Samuel Joseph.

An early call from Chris informing me that both David and Andrew were available to move the painted tub from Nigel’s paint shop to Westmead was the first piece of good news of the day. We met at 11.30 to transport the tub. I was slightly nervous because Chris had never seen the painted outcome before, sensibly I expected the usual amount of criticism about the quality of craftsmanship; but this was not to be, Chris was very impressed with the result. “Listen, listen, I’ll tell you what, the lad can paint, he knows his stuff doesn’t he!” The paint was deep and rich, pretty much flawless, there had been one tiny stress fracture where the engine panel had joined the tub but Nigel confidently assured us that the problem could be solved quite easily after the car had been built up. With a person on either corner we gingerly lifted the body section into the van. Similarly, at Westmead, we carefully transferred it onto the waiting trestles that were lying parallel with the running gear. 

At this moment we could clearly see the inherent possibilities of the completed vehicle. A striking, brightly polished chunk of engineering sitting adjacent to the equally astonishing, curving lines of the tub rekindled the latent potential of the finished article.

I left Chris drooling over our latest acquisition as I was despatched to Savoy Timbers to have the plywood cut for the under frame of the boot space; but with one last instruction resounding in my ear, “Make sure you get Richie to cut it properly!” As was expected, when I arrived at Savoy, I was automatically greeted by several verses of ‘lights on the dashboard’ followed by ‘eh up’ Meat’s back. This collar would hide the original clumsily hacked rectangle under the rear quarter that was formally the location of the petrol tank. This space would now accommodate the newly made boot box but before installation the rough edges needed to be tidied.

This task was accomplished by a custom made frame to hide the coarse edges. Once in position it will be fibre glassed to improve strength and appearance.

I also used the opportunity to leave some more samples of wood at Richies for some extra experimental dashboard colourways. In a nearby unit were the offices of ADM a printing company run by Matt Johnson, they had volunteered to produce the ‘Polo shirts’ for the ‘Beaujolais run’. The shirts certainly looked the part in olive green set off by gold embroidery. One last stop took me to Brabbin and Rudd for 6 stainless steel nuts and bolts to hold the windscreen brackets to the scuttle top. Finally, in my cellar, with all the errands complete, I fashioned the plywood collar clearly claiming that, “I had to really twist Richies arm, cajole and persuade him to leave his own work to cut the piece professionally.”

A later test at the workshop proved that Richie had made a super job of the frame as it fitted perfectly, but he would need to remove the corners on the front edge to avoid the attaching brackets on the chassis. Bugger me; I shall have to myther him again tomorrow.