Back in the day.

I did notice it on the Prod Sports forum but thanks D.C. and Chris T for sending  me this shot of Matt at Amaroo in about 1980, part of the "Moxo" collection. One of the car's many liveries but isn't this one great? I think it pre-dates the snazzy stripy wraps of race cars today.
By the way, Barry Campbell is an entry at the up-coming Wakefield Park Historic meeting in the fledgeling  group T class. There's only 2 of them so far, the other one is an MG Midget but I think it is a class that will be growing. It's for production sports cars that actually have a history in that class (no replicas) and there is the odd Turner and Datsun 2000 coming out for it. What a pity all the hot Nagaris have been turned into road cars, pranged or the bits used for sports sedans. Meanwhile, the Group Ts run with the Sa and Sb cars to make up the numbers.

Might need lessons.

Are you confused by the Ariel Atom's dash?

I am (I think).

Thanks Atom Johnny for showing us.

McArlus Cars - 7

More from Simon.

I have finally finished and fitted all of the aluminium panels on the two cars.

Many have actually been done for some time, but I have made it a rule not to do an update until everything is done on both cars.

Ken’s chassis was done first, largely so I could get it out of my garage and clear some room while he organized to clean it up and paint it. I’m not sure how he’s going but I strongly suspect it looks much the same as it did 2 months ago when it left my house, but at least I don’t have to look at it and walk around it!

I had the sill panels and the underside front floor panel folded “professionally”, by that I mean done poorly by people who should have known better, the sill panels were sent back for a second go.

These were the first panels I fitted before moving onto the top, more complicated ones.

I tried to do a nicer job of these than on the yellow car, by trying to make neat bends and folds where the panels change angle as they meet the chassis rails and go around corners. Initially these were just done with some blocks clamped in a vice, although I soon bought some pieces of hardwood and drilled a series of holes in them, in pairs, so that they were easily and quickly adjustable for various size of panel. It worked quite well.

Keen eyes may notice the removable section in the side panels of the footwell, immediately behind the triangular shaped panel. This is there so that if I ever get around to making and fitting sway bars, they can be fitted, and changed, without dismantling half of the car.

Less obvious is the joins necessary in the side panels where they have to fit in and around things like the fuel tank mounting brackets.

I thought I’d show a couple of tools that I have recently bought that have proved invaluable, particularly in this part of the project, but as usual I’m finding more and more uses for them.

Firstly the microstop countersink. This tool allows me to countersink holes in the aluminiun, or fiberglass, to a precisely adjustable depth without any danger of going too far. I have a range of sizes of cutters that screw into the cage for different diameter fasteners. I started using the countersunk rivets on the under body largely because at different times with the yellow car, even a minor excursion over a ripple strip or similar could tear the heads off all of the rivets, leaving the aluminium flapping rather embarrassingly in the breeze! They also look a real treat!

The other thing is clecos. These come in different diameters and grip length sizes. Basically they can be used as an easily removable pop rivet for anything that is to be fastened together. They allow me to exactly fit, remove and refit panels brackets, anything I like, as often as necessary like quickly and without damage, they are fantastic.

Both of these tools have come from ebay. At first they have been from Australia, but now I buy a lot tools a bits and pieces from ebay America, where all of this stuff is plentiful and using significantly cheaper ( often 50%) even taking into account exchange rates and the shipping costs. Just last week I received a new Longacre camber castor gauge that was less than half of what the same thing would cost me in Australia.

It’s well worth a look.

Regards

Simon

The old Dick Willis Milano

The Dick Willis Milano GT saw the light of day around the same time as the Sam, Bruce, Moss examples and was pretty quick. Here it is getting out of shape at Silverdale in the 60s.The car later passed on to Bevan Hill in SA and was eventually written off at Mallala. Dick picked up the bits, finding enough to add to a new body to turn it back into a car again. Eventually it was sold to Ken Mitchell who competed in historic events and in recent times it was acquired by Clark Watson and Matthew Liersch in Albury Wodonga (see Vintage Fibre Restorations in Links). Recently I saw an ad in UK for the car for 48,000 pounds. What prompted me to think about all this? A note from Clark, below about Kenny.
The last chequered flag for Kenny!

Some sad news today folks,
Ken Mitchell who campaigned the Milano for many years after restoring the car to it's past glory has sadly passed away while enjoying the Belgian Grand Prix late last Sunday Night 29/8/10 . While the Doctors will no doubt say it was due to a heart attack or stroke I'm fairly confident it was caused by Mark Webber slipping from 2nd to 6th place before the La Source Hairpin on Lap 1.

For those that didn't know, it was Ken's engineering prowess that helped Peter Brock become a household name when they famously built and campaigned the Austin A40 together and remained close friends until Peters untimely demise. Kenny loved a Beer, a Smoke and a laugh. He was a fierce racer and cooked a mean potato.
Ken will be sorely missed by all.

Regards

Clark Watson

Something for the Datto fans

An unmodified 510 (1600) is a very rare sight these days and when you occasionally discover one it's a joy to behold. There's a beautiful pale green one up Eudunda way isn't there David. Well, a blogger friend who doesn't seem to go anywhere around San Francisco without his camera snapped these this week. A bog standard 2-door. Imagine if that was parked in an Adelaide suburban street. There'd be a traffic jam, especially if the Datsport crowd put the word out.

Arosa Classic Car 2010

Arosa is an annual Classic Car event in Switzerland that takes the form of a big long hillclimb through the Alps. The four day event starts next week. Just look at the poster for the event which features Bruno's Holden powered Milano GT.

Kapunda - week 6

This is the Farina styled Wolseley 6/99. It's really a badge-engineered Austin A99 Westminster. It's got the bullet-proof 3 litre Austin truck engine. Clive brought it over to pick up the Vauxhall bits after the old car day at Bethany. There's plenty of room in that boot for blocks and heads and gearboxes and the rear springs didn't even notice.

4A coupes

These pictures are from the Bolwell Archives. None of these cars are Dinky. I wonder if any of them are the ex-John White car. Probably not. But what are their histories? And where are they now?

McArlus Cars - 6

Next episode - brake lines

A little more forward progress with the brake lines bent up and fitted.

In all honesty I don’t think the pictures do justice to the work involved here, or indeed to how sore my fingertips were after having bent up all of the tube!

I did invest in a cheap, but very effective tube bender on ebay which made the job a lot easier than last time, and once again had the flares professionally done.

I tried hard to get the bends nice and symmetrical from side to side and to also keep the tubes nice and straight until it needed to bend, which is not nearly as easy as it sounds, especially since the tube is supplied in a coil 5m long.

Another trap to watch out for is the use of metric and imperial threads.

I am mostly using imperial largely by accident, which BGT Brakes tells me is by far the most common here even on modern (I call that up to 1990) cars, except for an hydraulic brake light switch that I deliberately chose as metric thinking that all modern cars would be metric!

I did get caught on one of the rear lines that leads from the T piece to the rear brake hose. In this instance the T piece is imperial but the standard (1980’s Laser) brake hose is metric and I mixed up the ends.

Fortunately it was a simple bend that was easily reversed.

I took the time to pre fit and clip the lines to the chassis at this stage to make life easier for final assembly on my chassis. Ken still has his chassis, cleaning up welds and organising to get it painted, so his will be clipped on later

A couple of minor things to finalise with the aluminium panels, which I will detail next and then the chassis can be painted and assembly will begin.

I CAN’T WAIT!

Regards

Simon

End of an era. In SA anyway.

Here's the rest of the SR6 bits all boxed up to go to WA. The car's coming on too. It'll soon be out on the track.

Dinky - The 70s and now.

I say 70s because these first 3 photos were taken at the Easter event at Hamilton in 1976 when owned by Peter and Judy Jones. As you can see, it still has the Holden engine and carries the ILV-170 rego.The following year it appeared at the Mt. Gambier Easter in the same form but I think it had the Globemasters by then. I reckon those photos from Peter Chandler were taken in the Jones era.

This is the rebodied car in 1979 at Calder for the release of the Ikara.
It's not a lot different today.

More on the Doug Seath car from Rick Dathan

"Doug Seath's car was bought by Mark Beasy. Mark sent me the B&W photo some years ago (when I was Slipstream editor).

The other photos I took at Ross Smith's place near Boolarra. Doug had left the car there when he moved to Tasmania. On this day (6 June 1999). Mark was acquiring the car. Sorry, you can't see the bottom of the doors."