New Project

[ColinB]

That is indeed my car Bill so thanks for posting it! The photo is from the Sotheby's catalogue when she was auctioned in 1979 but the text is new to me, so presumably it was written by the magazine's correspondent. I think her first home was indeed a good one but this was all too brief and from 1981 or so she suffered nothing but neglect, and, so far a I can tell from the evidence, quite a bit of well-meaning vandalism.

[cdk84]

Hi Colin,

Seeing the as-found starting point of your Six puts everything, your tremendous challenge and progress above all, in perspective.

Excellent car to reclaim, wonderful progress already made.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Was the fabric on the roof a very fine weave of cotton canvas? Phillip Avis was here and helped me learn that Rexine was liberally used on my Le Mans Coupé, both internally and on the sunshine roof panels. Wonder if your Six's roof may have been covered by Rexine as well.

Happy to learn more about your car from that recent auction catalog entry. Most Excellent.

Cheers

[ColinB]

Hello David,
The roof on my Six was non-existent so I don't exactly know what the covering was, although my friend John re-covered his Six with vinyl. There was originally a padding layer followed by hessian before the final waterproof covering so I will replicate this due course.

[cdk84]

Hi Colin,

From the photo in the Sotheby's catalog I thought there might have been a remnant of the original fabric. Now that I look at the date on the catalog, I understand why there was nothing at all left of the roof material.

Mind if I ask what 'hessian' is?

Hope you're having a great, productive week end.

Sending Smiles,

David

[ColinB]

Unfortunately she deteriorated further from the 1979 picture David and although there were one or two tiny fragments left they had lost all structure and just disintegrated when I touched them. John Griffiths has confirmed however that it was indeed Rexine. Hessian is sacking which is called burlap in America I think.

[ColinB]

I have given the front mudguards two further coats of Craftmaster coach enamel by brush, and they are now in my darkroom for the enamel to harden for a couple of weeks. I am pretty pleased with the result.

I'm not currently taking or printing any traditional film as there is too much else to do, so the darkroom is a safe place away from wives, cats and other unintentionally destructive influences as well as being generally dust free!

[telco.2]

Fantastic job Colin! Especially when you consider the starting point...
I now have all connections to the carbs finished; fuel feed, choke & throttle. Grandson & I bled the brakes at the w/e....could be seeing progress as "just" have electrics to complete to see if she fires up????
Grandson Sam has become really enthused & we're talking about rebuilding the remains of a '33 4 seater 9 for him. He'll be 13 at the end of the month, so it would be a wonderful project once the present one is finished. We have most parts except a handbrake + mountings, carbs & a few other bits no doubt, but the bones are there...
kind regards & thanks for enthusing us all
Bill

[ColinB]

What a great idea to build a car with your grandson Bill - my oldest grandson is only 7 and lives a long way away so I am bit jealous of your opportunity!

My friend Dick turned up today with the bonnet repair pieces he had folded for me. These work really well and grip hard to the existing part even before I fix them permanently. I am going to use copper rivets as these will look like the original steel ones when painted and will be far easier to fix tightly than steel would be. On my Land Rover I used an air hammer on the compressor to fix the aluminium rivets so I'll do the same with these. The existing holes are 3/32" and I managed to find rivets of the right size which were produced for making model train boilers. I also plan to spray into the void with zinc paint to try and avoid corrosion in the future.

I had toyed with plug welding rather than riveting but the risk of blowing holes in the rather fragile original sides rules this out.

[telco.2]

Thanks Colin; yes grandson Sam is very useful...and keen!
Your new folded bits look superb; I use air hammer for riveting too after I saw one in use at Longstone tyres. Takes all the hard work out of the job!!
Bill

[ColinB]

Repair pieces trimmed off ready for a bit of filler where the original steel profile has rotted. Once riveted this will be pretty tidy I think and it has the added benefit of being a period-style repair.
I have also attacked one of the doors to see if I can disassemble the inner frame pieces. This is necessary both to effect a repair at the bottom where a steel plate has rotted and also because I need to take off the structure to eventually put the sliding glass back in. Some screws came out with a sharp tap or two while some had to be drilled out but it is going OK. To my surprise I found that the inner steel skin was only present at the bottom of the door, pinned to the lower door structure. This will be (should be ) quite easy to replace. One piece of the woodwork had woodworm damage and broke up a little during the process. I will replace this piece with new wood.

[cdk84]

Do you ever feel that you're re-doing work that someone invested with pride (albeit for their livelihood), some time ago and feel both transported to that time but also connected with the hands that did the work?

Might sound a bit crackers, but that's what I sometimes feel when cleaning up or discovering some way to put BMX 7 back in order. There seems to me to be a soul to some of these cars --agreeably, perhaps, more accessible or 'felt' in some than others-- that is part of their history, if not, cumulatively, becoming something very much like a 'personality'.

[cdk84]

By the way, Colin, I looked at the rear (non sliding) portion of the sunshine roof on BMX 7 yesterday and saw exactly what you were talking about re: the roof covering material(s). I suggested that the covering on your Super Six might be Rexine and you mentioned the possibility that there was an underlayment. I discovered a hole in the Rexine, and guess what's underneath?

It's just after 5 AM here, and overcast. When there's more light I will make a photo and post it here, when I can figure out that arcane process. Thanks for putting me on to what I might look for. You were absolutely right.

[ColinB]

I think we are all a bit crackers to do this David, and yes I agree with you that there is sometimes a connection to be felt when handling things made many years ago.

I look forward to seeing the pictures of BMX 7. I hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs, but you just click on "attachments" below the text box and then click on the "add files" box that appears. You can then browse your pictures and select the ones you want to include. When "place inline" shows up you click on that box to add it to your text....

[telco.2]

What a super car!
Bill

[ColinB]

Various random bits and pieces going on at the moment:

I cut the final window winder off as I managed to find a couple of spares on eBay. This means I can properly restore the door cards and not have to fiddle around cutting a slot in them. I also found yet another Rotax dynamo on eBay for £25. It is the right model for the Six and was taken off an Alvis as a working part when the owner found the CAV item that was correct for his car.

I have bought 3/23" and 1/8" copper rivets to repair the bonnet side pieces; I wasn't sure which would be best but I have decided to use both sizes as they are to hand. I lent my air hammer and the rivet tool a couple of years ago to a friend who was restoring his Land Rover, but unfortunately he doesn't remember having it and can't find it. As it happens I don't think the tool would be the right size as I think its for 3/16", and he is a good friend, so I will forget it and do the hammer thing on them! To that end I am awaiting delivery for two further eBay purchases of rivet formers of the right sizes.

Finally I have settled on the colours for the bodywork and had 1 litre tins of coach enamel from Craftmaster delivered today: the upper body will be RAL5004 Black Blue while the lower part will be RAL5014 Pigeon blue. I'll be trying them out on the bonnet.