British Car Affair in the Park

We took place with our 1956 Rover P4 in the car show at Fort Rodd Hill today. It was great fun with lots of car talk. As hoped, I discovered a couple of people who actually recalled seeing my car driving around the Rockland area in the 1980s and 90s.

Set up alongside an amazing camperized Land Rover. It had only 44000 miles on its 1979 odometer.

Interior of the camper.

Pipers opened the show. My car in background.

The field with Jags in foreground.

My car aside pop top camper.

Unrestored Anglian owned by 17 yr old girl.

Original condition, unrestored and low mileage Rover P 3. This is one of the fellows who recalls seeing my car in the 1980s.

One of my favourites.

Another favorite. An old Commer.

The field as seen from the Fort.

View on south side of Fort.

A pretty Singer.

Bill taking part in Italian Job contest, slinging bars of gold. Our team won. (Only two teams entered)

On our way home over the Malahat. The car performed flawlessly and was a popular hit at the show!

A Rovin' to Victoria

This is the trip I've been preparing for for months. The Rover P4 90 that I rebuilt was a Victoria BC car from 1956 to 2001, and as chronicled earlier, it's owners lived right next door to the house that my wife, Pat lived in as a child. This was unknown to us when we obtained the car in Gibsons last year; a coincidence discovered after the fact. So this four day weekend trip was our opportunity to reenact the fact with photos of the car at the two still existing heritage houses. It was also the weekend of the "British Car Affair in the Park" at Fort Rodd Hill. Here is a photo chronicle of the trip.

Catching 6:20 am ferry from Langdale.

 Coffee stop in Chemainus BC 

 

Waiting for ferry to Saltspring Island at Crofton. We side tripped to visit Pats brother and family for a night. 19 year old nephew, Chris, had a nice part in a production of "Rent" at Artspring.

It was a huge and energetic production. Chris had three or four secondary roles, but he was delightful. He surprised us with the strength and purity of his singing, as well as his very confident stage presence in this difficult production. He obviously has the talent and grit to continue in performing as he is considering.

Ferry to Vesuvius.

Historic Rover in front of historic Mouats Store in Ganges.

Next ferry was from Saltspring to Swartz Bay Saturday morning.  You can see how beautiful the weather was all weekend.

Saturday noon found us at the AGM of the Old English Car Club at the Waddling Dog Inn in Ssaanich BC with 30 or so cars and owners.

Twin Singer Gazelles.

Following the AGM we joined the club for a 2 hour fun rally through the Saanich Peninsula countryside. This is one of our 5 instruction steps along the route.

Cars at one of the rally stops.

The Rally took us a block past Pat's paternal grandparents former house so we detoured over for a photo.

Another rally stop with a MGB and a Triumph TR4. The majority of cars were roadsters like these. We were one of the only conventional sedans.

Ok, here we are at 1009 Cook Street where this car resided from brand new in 1956 to 2001 when it's owner became to old to be able to handle it. The peaked roof in the background is 1005 Cook Street where Pat resided from about 1954 to 1958. 1005 Cook Street was the Victoria School of Expression from 1935 to 1958, owned by Pats grandmother, Marion Ord. 

One of Marion Ord's pupils was Basil Plimley. As a further coincidence, Basil Plimley was of Plimley Motors, one of the most historic automobile dealerships in Victoria and Vancouver. My Rover has two Plimley Motors service records in its files. This building is the original Plimley Motors in Victoria, built at Yates and Vancouver streets in about 1895. It is now a Moxie's Classic Grill, so of course we had to go there for dinner Saturday night. The food was good and the service was excellent. We were having a good time so did not notice that the food was taking a long time. nevertheless, the manger came and apologized and sent us a second round of beer free! We were walking back to our B and B by the way!

Our BandB was a spectacular little house on Superior Ave, the Albion Inn. The entire house is decorated by the Seville native owner with mostly his own work.

The Albion entrance.

Bedroom at the Albion.

Evening in Victoria.

The next day, Sunday, was the Affair in the Park. It deserves it's own posting.... To follow....

Gimme a Brake!

The car continued to lose brake fluid after the booster was replaced, but this time I could see it leaking from the master cylinder, or should I say peeing from the master cylinder. So I ordered a rebuild kit from All British Cars. It took a while to arrive, but ended up being a little pack of 5 rubber seals for only $12.
I have never done a master cylinder before, but it has turned out to be pretty darned simple. Of course I haven't reinstalled it yet, so I hope I am not talking too soon!
I am looking forward to Canada Day, July 1, when 30 cars from the Old English Car Club come through Sechelt and Gibsons. I will be the parade marshal for them in the Sechelt parade, and then we gather alongside Winegarden Park in Gibsons for the afternoon.

Show Season

I've had the car in a couple of more smaller shows in June. The firt was the "British Car Affair" at Two Lions Pub in North Vancouver June 8, and the second was Fathers Day show here in Gibsons. Lots of fun and car talk. The North Van show was particularly fun as my wife, son, grandson, brother and sister in law all came along for the show.
I have been having brake trouble with the car consuming brake fluid. I did install a rebuilt brake booster, but then discovered that the master cylinder is also leaking. I have ordered a rebuild kit for the master cylinder, and meanwhile just refill the fluid if I go for a drive.
Here are the latest photos:

Westy and me at North Van show

North Van show:

Father Day Show and Shine, Gibsons.

All British Field Meet 2014

So, last weekend I entered the big leagues! I took my car to the All British Field Meet in VanDusen Gardens, Vancouver. This is one of the biggest British Car Shows in North America, with more than 500vehicles, ranging from $500,000+ Rolls Royces, Bentleys, Aston Martins and Jags, through Austins, MGs, Triumphs, and a couple of dozen BSA, Velocette and Norton motorcycles.
The Rover sedan contingent was small. with one P3, two P4s, a P5 and two P6s.
How did my car stand up in this crowd? Just fine, thank you very much. It is not concours standard by any means, but it fit in just fine. It was certainly better than the other P4.
This was also its first ferry ride, and trip to the big city, so I was a bit nervous about stop and go traffic, single lane bridges etc. It was a beautiful early morning drive in. I had time to kill so drove the lower Marine Drive route, and then through Stanley Park and Shaughnessy.
The show itself was fun of course, making many contacts with the Rover folks and other Brit car enthusiasts.
The drive home was a bit more nail biting. I had to hurry to catch the 5:50 ferry, so headed right through downtown traffic. The car handled just fine though, with no overheating or any other squawking... until just time to load onto the ferry!
Everything was fine into the terminal and stopping in line, and she started just fine when it was time to load. After just a few seconds though, the engine quit! I pulled over out of the loading line (fortunately it was before the actual ramp) and informed the ferry guy of a little problem. Once before I had got it running by wiggling the fuel pump, suspecting a vapour lock. Sure enough, it started and ran onto the ferry just fine. Suspecting low fuel (gauge still not working) I had my son stand by at the Langdale end with a gas can... but... no problem, it drove right on home. Hmmm???
I will check the fuel level and try to fix the gas gauge later this week. I also discovered a very loose fan belt and non-functioning brake lights, so those jobs will be added to the top priority list.

Debut with British Car Bunch at Persphone Brewery.

So, my last post described the stalling problem.... when we got back from our trip, the new ignition parts were awaiting. The installation was fairly straightforward... it was deja vu though, to be installing and adjusting ignition points. I can't remember when I have done that before.

Today was the car's show debut with a little group of folks from the Brit Car Bunch on the Sunshine Coast. There was early 70s MG Midget, MGA and Jag XKE, all in very nice "nick". Fun to meet some of these folks. There will be bigger gatherings in the future.

Licensed, insured and on the Road!

My "collectors" plates were approved and arrived at the local ICBC outlet, so of course I had to pick them up and get the car out on the road as soon as I could. I had it out on a one day permit about a month ago, but it was a miserable wet day and so didn't stay out long. This outing was more like the real thing.
Pat came along on the first drive to record it for posterity.

The plan was to go around Gower Point Road and back around through Gibsons, about a 6 km jaunt. All felt good for the first couple of kms, but then on Reed Road near Payne Rd, I got a bit of hesitation, as if one cylinder was missing. So we pulled over, and I snugged up all plug wires. It felt good again at that point, so we decided to press our luck out around Gower Point.
All was good until we got to the foot of Pratt Road at the Gower Point Road stop sign... the engine just died as I pulled to the stop. So I rolled across to the other side of the road and popped the hood (bonnet). There was no obvious problem, it had not overheated not run out of gas. I fiddled with the various ignition wires some more, but still no start. It was pleasing to have passers-by stop and ask if we needed help!
After about 15 minutes of fiddling, Pat got on the phone to dial up BCAA. I guess the car sensed the humiliation, because she started up! All was fine for the 3 km drive back home.
When we parked in the carport, Pat asked me to move it forward a couple of feet, but she wouldn't start! Again, after 10 or 15 minutes, she did start up again and purred like a kitten!
I posted this description of events on the Rover P4 Facebook page, and got pretty unanimous feedback that it is the ignition system, so I have ordered new points, condenser and distributor rotor.
We are off to a two week holiday in New Orleans and Texas, so will install those bits when I get home, and we will no doubt be happy!

Swivles, Horn and Grill, and we're done!

This entry actually covers a couple of work days.
I had the wheels off last week to paint them, and while I had them off, decided to check the oil in the "swivels", better known as "king pins" in North America. Yes, you might notice, I said "oil", not grease. Most cars have grease in the king pins; older cars would have grease nipples while newer ones are permanently sealed. But the Rover P4 has king pins that require fluid oil rather than grease. So, I opened them up by removing the filler plug on top and the drain plug at the bottom. Sure enough, someone had filled them with grease!
Referring to my newly purchased "Rover P4 Technical Tips" book, I cleaned out the grease by using baby bottle brushes that I bought at London Drugs, along with Kerosene, and then filled them with 140 weight oil. That took most of a day.

Here's the swivel with the fill plug open.

Here's my new Technical Tips book.

 

 Today's job was to see if I could fix the non-functioning horns (yes, there are two). I used a deep cycle 12 volt battery that I had and connected the horns to that. Neither worked. These horns are pretty big and complicated gizmos. I managed to get the casing off, and investigated the mechanism, which is a clever little setup involving an electromagnet and a set of points which are to be set at almost the open position. When power is applied, the electromagnet opens the points, cutting the circuit which causes immediately closing of the points which engages the circuit again, and so on, very rapidly. Each closing of the circuit also draws in the sound diaphram, so the rapid on and off vibrates the diaphram, making the sound.

All I had to do to get them working was fine tune the "points" to get them to just the correct amount of tension to operate properly. Kind of fun because I never knew how a horn operated before. I suspect modern horns use a different system.

When that was done, I decided to clean up some more of the chrome, particularly around the windows. As I got to the chrome around the front grill, I decided to remove the grill so that I could paint the visible rust spots inside it. That was very worthwhile, as I was able to polish up the chrome on the grill as well as paint behind it. Lucky I still have the parts car though, because I lost a couple of the mounting nuts, and being Whitworth standard thread, I would have been up a creek.

With this, I am going to pretty well declare the car done for this year, and ready to hit the road! I am just awaiting ICBC's response to my application for Collector's status before I get it on the road.

Meanwhile, I have another project lined up and ready to go. My Westfalia van needs a new clutch, so it is now in the garage and ready to begin.

I may start a new blog for that project.