Been a busy few weeks for Simeon with a tech down and numerous small jobs turning into big ones. An example - they had a
Jaguar E type series 3 that came in from America and had been restored elsewhere. The car ran poorly so it came in for tuning. It turns out that the two rear Strombergs have had their internal gubbins changed over to a type that is not adjustable from above and needs the adjusters below, which don't exist on the old plates. So a lot of investigation to establish what's wrong, tracking down the correct part, when tuning doesn't seem to work and a small job turns into 4 days with other work being necessary.
Another, a lovely restored Bentley Mark VI Park Ward drophead was in having broken down - the dusty rear was covered in handprints showing clearly the reason it was there before I had to ask. Having got it running, the front brakes were found not to be working at all, and are immensely complex to adjust and bleed. So as the owner was hoping to pick it up and Simeon had to deal with something else, I was asked to test drive it, having experience of driving 40s cars (my Allard is from 1948). On crossplies, so the car wandered, it had its gearchange on the right side of the drivers seat (I'm used to a manual on a lhd car too), which was very precise, but no (or damaged) synchromesh on the lower gears so a lot of crunching as I'm really no good on double de-clutching. With Billy operating the indicators we got it started, changed the running speed and all other things doable from the steering wheel. Progress was stately as it wasn't my car, and having tried low speed braking, it pulled hard to the right. So back to base after a 10 mile run to find the left brake cylinder leaking fluid. So more work and no car for owner.
All this to show that my car is not an orphan but is temporarily having a rest and will be back on the ramp next week to get it finished off, then off to the trimmers in early July.
