Exact ownership?

Sat.23.02.08. Chris has carried out further work on the wiring loom. The new 13/60 loom is surprising effective; he has discovered that the major clocks of, Speedo, 4 way (fuel, temp, beam and indicator) and the tacho coincide exactly to the wiring diagram. The provision for the gauges, switches and time piece should not pose such a difficult problem as the feeds from the modified Jaguar dash have all the necessary connectors that can be incorporated into the basic loom.

The chassis identification plate, however, is a different matter. For some strange reason it does not correspond to the one that was recovered from the vehicle when we stripped the car down. The donor car that I purchased in 1978 was a Triumph 13/60 estate which I assumed was totally original. Because of the restoration we have since discarded much of the original the chassis for a much worse one bought from Crazy Richard in Sheffield: but wisely we retained the plate that was fastened to the estate car. The mystery lies in the fact that this plate bears no resemblance to the one in the log book. When the Burlington is inspected by the DVLA both the engine and chassis ID plates must match otherwise the problems of proof of ownership may surface. Even though the vehicle has been registered in my name for the past 30 years the powers that be could question the authenticity of my claim. As unbelievable as it sounds this could prove to be the outcome. Logic and reason have no part in their remit, so to ‘massage’ the correct numbered plate is the only answer. The potential grief that these pedantic fools can cause leads me easily to this devious solution. Two years of work will not be pissed away by the stroke of a pen; we shall remove any doubt from the equation.

Re-visiting the bonnet I have carefully masked all the edges in preparation for sanding, filling and spraying. The vulnerable top-sides have been protected by layers of ‘bubble wrap’ and thick folds of newspaper so that when they are inverted there will be none or very little damage to the finished surface. The interior of the two sides should have been dealt with before the top coat but just as most aspects of the build it was an afterthought or another ‘mod’ to enhance the overall impression of a ‘quality build’. There is, unbeknown to both Chris and myself, flexible aluminium based padded carpet, usually found under the bonnets of modern cars that acts as both a heat and soundproof agent. This could offer an alternative to our chosen method. So much so, I shall investigate this further as possibly a better option.