July 2008
September 21th, 2008
Yesterday I took my first spin in the roadster. Literally a spin around Jock's lawn. There is no brake fluid in the system yet so I couldn't go out on the road. Yet I guess it is a milestone of sorts. Jock still has to fit the door panels and I have to do the final checks before attempting to get an MOT. More news to follow in October.
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July 20th, 2008
This is supposed to be summer, but we feel like putting the heating back on most days. My time of Leisure early April didn't last a week I think. I took another contracting job with a Bank in Brussels. In de UK I am now classed as a 'non-dom' and only allowed to spend 92 days here for tax purposes. This means even less time to complete the roadster for the summer and the ICCCR in Rome was the first project to be cancelled. I am still hopeful I will be able to take the Roadster to Lille 29-31 August. If its not ready I will go by Six and I have booked a Hotel near Lille Airport already.
The Roadster now has a hat for when it rains. The only thing outstanding is the two door panels and the back of the dickey seat. John Gillard has spent another day wiring up the car. Lee has put in a few days to align the body panels. It was a real challenge to fit the four speed set-up in the existing space under the bonnet. Have a look at the pictures by clicking on one of the thumbnails below.
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April 6th, 2008
Spring is in the air. That's why I am glad I finished my IT contract in the Netherlands and not too disappointed that there isn't straight away another job to walk into. Now to the serious business of getting the Roadster ready for the highlight of the Classic Car agenda in Ipswich, which will be the 38th Ipswich to Felixstowe Historic Vehicle Road Run on Sunday 4th of May. I registered the Roadster to keep the pressure on everyone to finish the job in time as promised, including myself. While I had a 7.5 tonne truck with hydraulic tail lift at my disposal (from my first removal trip to our new house in France) I took the opportunity to move the engine from my workshop in Henley to C&T Upholstery in Dedham. Here at Jock's Kay from Australia was subcontracted to finish the upholstery job. Below a link to the latest pictures, showing Kay at work cutting carpets and the engine, complete with 4 speed conversion and double carb setup at last mounted back in the roadster body.
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December 26th, 2007July 14th, 2007
Happy new year to you and I trust your Christmas holiday was as pleasant as mine was. There is a lot of news to tell you about! Not much on the car front though :-( The Roadster is still with Jock at C&T upholstery and hasn't made much progress since the car was left there January last year. We seemed to have a way forward in that Jock had hired a partner, a lady from Australia with considerable car upholstery skills who would finish the job before Christmas. Alas the lady complained that the garage was too cold too work in and Jock has not felt well enough to do stuff himself the project is effectively still at a stand still. I will visit Jock over the weekend and see if there are some new pictures to show you.
The main news is that we completed on the purchase of our farm in the haute Limousine area of France. I attended the Notaire in my best suit and he read out the cadastral number of the various plots that belong to the farm, including land straddling the Garetemps river and including a ruinous watermill which I intend to restore to working condition. The farm has a big barn suitable for housing a large collection of Classic Citroens.
Best wishes for the season!
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July 14th, 2007
My Internet Service Provider has been giving me trouble, so I moved to a new one. Chris Holland Internet has been a real sport with excellent service these last 5 years. Unfortunately he sold the business to an outfit called iDAQ, who have a bizarre notion of customer service. They keep spamming me with invoices of 4p or 7P or 6P. Always under a dime! Well anyone who attended even one hour of business school can tell you it ain't worth sending out an invoice if the bill is less than the price of a stamp. But I guess if you can spam your customers and threaten to close their web site for not payment, maybe you can coerce them into a higher grade more expensive plan. Only I did that back in March and now in July iDAQ is back spamming me with threats again! So I tell them to stop spamming me or have the account manager call me and explain why he sold the wrong plan to me. Unfortunately iDaq's owner Mark Roebuck is manning the helpline that weekend. Says he doesn't like the tone of my communications to his help desk: "I have looked at your history in our support system and your questions and responses seem to be quite aggressive!" ( You bet I wasn't happy for them to loose the entire site during a server upgrade!) So I tell him in no uncertain terms why he is wasting every body's time sending out invoices for such small amounts. He takes offense and just switches my website off. Can you believe it? It's like Ben Verwaayen personally pulling out my phone line because I dare criticize BT ( I shout at their Indian call centre workers too ;-).
Anyway it took me about 4 hours to change my ISP tag at Nominet and buy a much bigger web space (3GB) at uk2.net. This shows web hosting is now a comodity and customers will vote with their feet. UK2 deliver 100MB of band witdh instead of iDAQ's meagerly 4MB so now you can download pictures from this web site to your heart's content without me being told off by Mark Roebuck.
If there are one or two files that I forgot to ftp, will you please email me ? The Roadster is still with the upholsterer and I am afraid I will miss yet another deadline to get it ready for the Hemingham Hall festival of Classic Cars. I will go with the Six again. See you there maybe?
July 7th, 2007
ay 6th, 2007
This is the May bank holiday weekend in England and traditionally this weekend I participate in the Felixstowe run, a local rally that starts here in Christchurch park and ends up at the boardwalk in Felixstowe. The rally is organised by the Ipswich Transport museum. his used to be a 'by invitation' event from a mailing list of sorts, only someone discovered the World Wde Web and they stopped sending me invites a few years back. Now by the time I log onto their web site, I usually find the subscription has closed end of February and I am too late to register. Well their loss really. I visited the park today with my dog Sam, as its on my doorstep, but without car. It was not that the rally looked over subscribed. There was one Traction that I knew was going to be there, because the local Citroen dealer had called me in a panic about a rear wheel bearing for it: It had failed it's MOT and they told me it was registered for today's rally. I met the owner John and one other Tractionist without car, who lives off Norwich Road. I also made a useful contact with a Lagonda owner. I am thinking of getting Angela's Lagonda Rapier on the road. Well, when the cars left for Felixstowe, I was off to Dedham again doing some more work on the Roadster in Jock's garage. In previous weeks I shoved the front cradle onto the car and fitted the window mechanism. This week it was connecting the track rod ends and connecting the front wheel brake cylinders to the master cylinder, by way of the flexi tubing. Then fitting the shoes. Note on the picture you will see the Roger Williams splined drive shafts. It's a shame that when Roger did this he hadn't worked out his new floating brake shoe set up. That mod I will have to do next time I wear out these shoes, unless I find that with the suped up engine, my braking prowess has not kept up with my improved power from fitting domed pistons and a twin carburettor setup. For pictures of the latest state of the roadster click on the usual link or via the thumbnail pictures below.
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April 8th, 2007
Di and I just returned from a fabulous trip through the South of Ireland In a Traction. The occasion was presented by the need to deliver Paul Beadman's old Legere to the new owner Bill Richards of Co. Tipperary. We took the ferry from Pembroke to Roslare on the Irish South coast so naturally we had to stop by Mrs Beadman to show her what became of the car she entrusted me with now some 4 years ago!
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 Middleton Jameson Distillery |
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February 10th, 2007
Today I had a visit from Bill Richards from Ireland who saw the add for Paul Beadman's old legere on www.ClassicCarsForSale.co.uk He liked what he saw and fell in love with the car even though it was still in half dismantled state. John Gillard was up again for two days to finish the Roadster wiring but instead we worked mainly on the Legère (in fact till midnight on Friday night!). With John's insight we spotted that the Fransen diaphragm clutch was set up incorrectly by me. By using a different clutch plate and throw out bearing we got the clutch functioning as it should. We put the engine back in the car and everything now works fine. The car now has found a new home in Ireland and the plan is that Di and I drive it up there during the Easter break early April and deliver the car. That means I still get to enjoy the fruits of 2 months hard labour and visit that beautiful and hospitable country :-) I may even find time 'en route' to drop into Mrs Beadman for a 'cuppa' and show her the finished project her husband started years ago. I also will have created the necessary space in my workshop for when the Roadster comes back from the upholsterer where it is temporary stored.
February 1th, 2007
Today I accepted a new position at Siemens insight Consulting and look forward to starting my new job on February 12Th . So it is imperative that I use the last few days of my unfettered time to get as much done reassembling the Roadster.
John Towler (aka Jock) was kind enough to let me use his garage while I desperately try to sell on of my other Tractions to make room for the Roadster in my workshop. See 'Cars for sale' elsewhere on this web site. Yesterday John Gillard came down from London for the day to fit the wiring loom, which he made for me 3 years ago! Without John's experience this part of the project would have been a real challenge. No-one has the experience of what goes where for this and that model of Traction.
Here are some pictures I took Today
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January 15th, 2007
Today I moved the Roadster from Lee Scott Restorations to C&T upholstery where the car will reside in Jock's garage. Jock will make the hood and carpets and won't have to travel to Ipswich, where I still have to sell Paul Beadman's newly restored Legere to make room for the Returning Roadster. During the weekend I visited Rene Dijkshoorns Slough Roadster project near Groningen to remind myself where everything went. Although Rene put out a flyer listing all the Slough parts he needed, he bought nothing of the Slough spares I hauled along all the way from England. Strange.... I think he may come to regret this in years to come. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink ;-)
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 Spare like this for sale! |
January 5th, 2007
Today I went to Lee's to see the body parts that were painted black rather than sand coloured. To my surprise the wings had already been bolted back on to the body to make it easier for Frank To do the polishing. I started to put some of the chromed bits and new rubber parts on. How exciting to see the project coming to fruition!
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January 4th, 2007
Today I finished restoring a 1955 Citroen Traction 11BL "Legère", Registration UXG804. This car belonged to TOC member Paul Beadman of Bristol who did most of the body work and did a complete rewiring including fitting modern fuse boxes. Sadly Paul passed away before finishing his project so his widow called the TOC help line and the car was passed to me to complete the restoration.
This car is now for sale. Click here to see pictures of the restoration and finished article.
December 14th 2006
Lee today mailed me the first few pictures of the Roadster in the paint shop. Now we are really going somewhere! Also Paul Beadman's Legere is becoming close to being ready for MOT and will then go on eBay to pay for it all.
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November 7th 2006
I find myself temporary 'unemployed'. What that really means is that I decided to part company with my company. The new Vulture Capital owners still think that selling complex identity management solutions is like selling donuts, so they appointed a man who thinks he can sell more donuts than me. We will see. In my first week as a 'free' man I have already rebuilt a gearbox and a clutch for Paul Beadman's old 11BL now owned by Dominic Hallgate. I made some 'discoveries' which set me back a bit but not for long. I made the mistake of assuming the gearbox and clutch of the car were 'alright' as they had been immaculately cleaned and painted by Mr Beadman before he passed away and joined it to the rebuilt engine and put it in the car. Well of course the clutch wouldn't work and the gearbox wouldn't shift so it had to come out again. Turns out there were a few 'broken or missing teeth' in the gearbox and the clutch for some reason belonged to a pre-war traction. Last month I found myself near Jose Franssen in Plombières Belgium and he sold me this amazing clutch conversion kit. No machining necessary. Just bolt on and you now have a modern Clutch!
I also started chasing up Lee again about finishing the Roadster. He says he is
'wet flattening' it and that it will go to the paintshop in teh next 2 weeks or
so. I collected the last few chroming bits. I am missing some small parts
I am missing to complete my roadster project.
One is a set of two opposing 'window guides' which stop the door glass rattle. (
I have one set and miss the one for the other door)
Then I miss 3 window 'paint guards', of which I have one, but need 3 more. If
you remember seeing these in a box of old odds and sods and don't need them I
would be very beholden. If you know of a supplier who might have these in stock
likewise please contact me. I added 2 pictures to show the state of the
cabriolet, which is ready to be painted.
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Oh yes and don't forget to watch Mick Popka's new YouTube entry about Classic Restorations with quite a few pictures from this site!
August 7th 2006
Just a small update from Ipswich and Henley (not on Thames). Yes the site has been off the Internet for a few weeks thanks to my helpful service provider UK3.net, who didn't bother to inform me that a restore they did from a back-up failed. So it was one (or several) of you my faithful readers, that had to alert me that something went wrong. You can imagine the fun of FTPing 3 Gig. worth of material and debugging everything. If you still see any broken links, could you please let me know?
I have actually been enjoying my 1984 French Six and visited the Citroen Car Club Rally near Cambridge and Helmingham Hall festival of Classics this summer in it. I shall make a page as soon as I can. The main reason for visiting this page is probably because you want to know what's happening with the Roadster: Well, some progress to report. I know Lee has been threatening me to finish the project and not take any more of my increasingly scarce spare cash. I told him the next invoice better had be the final one! The current excuse is that we are waiting for a 2 day free slot in a friends spray cabin. Lee has actually spray painted the interior of the car, as obviously that hasn't got to be done to the same high standard. Its the same colour, but let's say its more for rust prevention and forming a unison with the exterior of the car that it is painted with the same expensive paint. Also the exterior will be finished with a clear lacquer as a finish. Below see some snap shots of my last visit to the workshop. The fifth picture of the model reminds me of the goal we are working against.
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April 8th, 2007 |
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November 5th, 2005
I realise this is not much of a weblog and that I have not updated this site for the entire summer and fall. I know I have a few dear friends logging in here every now and then to see what's happened. So here is a resume.
As this is a Traction site the blog centers around the Traction Avant, my Traction Avants or those that I have restored for others. First of all the Kimball Six is, as I write this blog today, on board Vessel 'Honor' having left Southamptom on October 25th for Baltimore ETA today in fact. Erik de Widt should pick up this car sometime during the week and somehow get it to the Kimballs in Vermont. The delay in shipping was caused by a two teeth breaking of one of the satellite side gears. This happened returning from Lee Scott after having having met the insurance inspector for an estimate of the damage done on the Harwich Ferry (See June entry). So you understand I blame those horrible people from Colchester for that as well. Anyway the end result was that the gearbox had to come out and shipped back to Roger Williams for Repairs during July. The next impact was that I could not visit Tractionades in the new Six and really make a splash with it. The plan had always been to drop the car off after Tractionades at Andre Pol Citroen for shipping. The new plan was now to drop the car off in Breda at the end of August after the wedding of my nephew Daan with Brechtje in the French Vosges. Having left the final assembly too late to thoroughly test the Six, the car was running like a dog on the morning of departure August 26th and we had to take the modern C5 instead or we would have missed the boat. So this was the second missed departure. On return all it turned out to be was dirty spark plugs. I put some new GKN plugs in of Type BPR6HS. These seemed to solve this problem. There was only one nagging problem, that the fuel gauge did not work. I checked the system during 2 weekends, changed the gauge to one sent by John Gillard and tested by him. Still the gauge was always on 'empty'. Nevertheless I set of for my third rendez vous with a boat sailing for America and promptly ran out of petrol halfway down to London. Thank goodness it was not far from my good friend and old neighbour John Starke who came to the rescue with a jerry can of petrol. The three hour delay meant that the trip had to be abandoned. I got Nacton electrics to check the petrol gauge circuitry. They found a bad earth and the dial now went from 'empty' to 'full'. As the tank was filled up after my rescue, I now felt confident enough to drop the car off at Heathpark services on October 20. There offices are located at the Renaisance Hotel near London's Heathrow airport. The picture below is the last one I will publish until I take the Kimballs up on their kind offer to visit them and drive it around in new England one day.
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Finally some updates on the Roadster. The car is ready to be painted. Di and I picked a colour. Manningtree Cabinet makers made all the wooden parts for the hood frame. Click here for the latest pictures.
June 4th
4 days back from our trip to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. I made a complete rally report which you can read by clicking on the picture below. The Six has passed her first endurance test and we got rid of the two main teething problems: A clonking noise from the drive shafts and a fuel starvation problem. Walter & Noëlla Callens are to be congratulated for their fantastic organising skills giving us a real good break by organising an unforgettable rally. read all about it!
May 20-21-22-23 Including one Friday and Monday Morning taken off work.
Well after 3 days solid work yesterday night till 3 AM the car was finally ready for its MOT booked for 9:45 today and it Passed! Friday I took another day off to do further assembly work fitting wings and headlights and to be there in case Jock had problems with the roof headlining. Jock of C&T upholstery had his fourth attempt fitting this. He was getting close to a nervous breakdown (He is 70 years old and about to pack it all in and enjoy his retirement!), because every time he fitted another quarter of the roof the next attachment point would be too far or too close, making the material stretch or droop. So I said I would drop the car of at his house so he can go into and out of his workshop for the machining rather than driving a 30 mile round trip every time something doesn’t quite fit. Saturday John Gillard travelled up from London with the lighting switch, double horns and finished connecting headlights, sidelights indicators horns and testing everything. Saturday evening I put the brake fluid in and found several joins that were bleeding brake fluid. Also the bonnet didn’t fit on the car. It seemed to be too short. I panicked and persuaded Lee to come and help me on Sunday. Together we moved the wings, flitch panel and radiator an inch back, so now the bonnet fits perfectly! He also had to make several new flanges on the new brake pipes where they just wouldn’t seal. Finally by dusk I made the first spin with the car.
I didn’t even make the farm gates! There was a heavy clonking coming from the drive shafts. They seemed to be fouling on the front suspension so I filed of some of the edges where I could see where they where making contact. Although this reduced the scraping noise there was still every full turn of the wheels a ‘clonk’. So this was 11PM with the MOT scheduled for the next morning. I finally located the problem inside the hubs where a new bolt Roger put in was a fraction too long and kept hitting the back of the wheel studs. After I ground it down and reassembled the lot it was 3AM. After a short nap and a cold shower Monday morning the car actually hit the public roads for the first time since 1967 and under its own steam made it to the testing station. The guys were oohing and aahing and generally drooling over the car, fixed some more small problems as the inspected the car (they don’t have to, they can just fail you!). I find generally they are a bit more understanding toward classic cars and I have been submitting my Citroens there for years. Must make a nice change from the modern drab. After the MOT, I went to the local DVLA office, where they gave me the form to be countersigned by the club, to register the car under its original registration mark of OLM 906. I data posted the form to Steve Reed of the Traction Owners Club, who promised to authorise it and put the club stamp on to verify its an original Traction Avant of the right age and not a kit car! I am scheduled to show the car again on Thursday. This should then enable us to make the ferry crossing to Belgium for the Chocolate and Lace rally in Flanders on Friday and to keep my appointment with CTA Service in the Netherland on Monday and the Shipping Agent near Rotterdam returning Tuesday Morning May 31st.
The coveted MOT
May 13-14-15 Including one Friday taken off work.
Fit Chrome radiator grille and flitch panels. Fouls Kenlowe fan, which makes enormous racket. Sort of bend everything into shape so it just clears it!. Fit wings and panel piping. Fit headlights and sidelights connect to wiring loom. Jock spends Friday fitting ceiling, but pattern made from old ceiling doesn't fit ceiling supports so he has to make it again!. Thankfully CTA supplied double the material needed! Patrick Seager of Seager Engineering comes t have a look on Sunday and is very impressed with the way the engine is running. Suggests some carburettor adjustments. Made Patrick an animated version of his company logo! See below. Jock doesn't finish on Friday. Have to take the missus shopping! Returns on Monday but the front and final ceiling support is declared too long! can't figure it out, as I 'borrowed it' from the Familiale, which is equal in body width. Nevertheless John insists it should be shortened by an inch or so. I reduce the length by making it more 'U' shaped and bending it into the roof edge cavity!
May 8th , 2005
I am battling to get the Six ready for the Chocolate an Lace rally at the end of the month and to keep my appointment with CTA service for the alignment job on Monday the 30th and with Andre Pol Citroen to discuss shipping the car to the USA on May 31st. So I wasn’t very pleased I spent all day Saturday in bed unable to move because of a bad back. Not sure if it was laying under the Six fitting the exhaust in place last Sunday or a squash game I won 3 Nil last Monday but for most of the week I struggled to get out of bed, had to ask Diane to do put on my socks an tie my shoe laces :-( Anyway this morning with painkillers. I made it back to the workshop and I seem to be over the worst of it. Good news is that I found out why the Six wouldn’t start last weekend. Basically the spark leads had to be moved up one position on the distributor and then she fired up straight away. Curious thing she would run for a second then die again. I did the old sparkplug test and found she wasn't sparking. The new electronic Ignition wasn't pressed down far enough to fully engage. After some further adjustments she now kept on running. The engine really sounds very sweet. I recorded her first burb into life on my phone and you can share the moment by clicking on the attached .WAV file. John Gillard promised to come over again next Saturday to finish putting the front wings and headlights on. Then he can check all the lights etc which should nean I would be ready to book it into to the MOT test sometime commencing Monday May 16!
Click on the picture to hear the engine run for the 1st time!
May 2nd , 2005
This weekend was an extra long weekend with the Monday bank holiday. Because my 83 year old mother flew over from Holland The Saturday and Sunday were non-Traction days. I was glad she came. She really isn't all that strong and made a real effort to see us. On the Monday I was back in the workshop to make up for lost time. I had already missed the Felixstowe run and was determined to do the rally in Belgium in the new Six and give her a maiden trip before the Kimballs arrive end June. I tried everywhere to get the rear mounting for the stainless steel exhaust for the Kimball Six and ended up making one myself. So another simple job end up occupying most of the day. The engine was now ready to start for the first time, but stubbornly refused to give any sign of life. John Gillard suggested I check if the timing camshaft had been fitted in the right position bay the people who rebuilt the engine in Los Angeles. That really would be great, if the engine has to come out again. |Let's hope its something a bit more basic and simple.
Me an my Mum!
April 24 th , 2005
This Saturday John Gillard came up to finish the rewiring job and return the reconditioned Steering Rack. John very kindly fitted the steering rack and brought a tool to adjust the track rods provisionally. He arrived midday in a Traction that was pooring petrol, so we had to replace the fuel line. He left about 10 PM in the dark to drive all the way to Bournemouth. Thanks for a great Job John! Worth waiting for a bit ;-)
End of May I will partake in a small rally in Flanders Belgium. On Monday May 30 I have booked the car in at CTA Service in the Netherlands, who will give the car a complete safety inspection, set the Car height, weight distribution, balance the wheels, check brakes and tracking etc etc. They will make a technical report and I will feel safer in the sense that another set of eyes just inspects all the work I have done plus the fact that I do not have the facilities for these jobs. They think the car will be in the workshop half a day. I am taking the car back to the UK via Rotterdam and made an appointment with Citroen Andre Pol on May 31 for him to inspect the car and fill the paperwork for export to America.
April 3 rd , 2005
This Saturday Lagonda joined the 4 Citroens and the Talbot in the workshop. This car belonged to my friend Derek Cooper (25.2.40- 10.03.05) , who sadly passed away a month ago. He left two unfinished restoration projects, a 1934 Citroen 10A and a 1934 Lagonda Rapier and I hope to be of assistance to his daughters Angela and Katie who inherited the cars. Angela seems determined to get the car back on the road and drive it one day. We may need to find a new owner for the Rosalie who will restore it lovingly. The Kimball Six has made good progress again with the help of Tim who helped me drop the engine in position. Not a job which can be done by one person alone, especially coordinating the front lateral support which needs to slide in horizontally, while the engine support brackets have to sink down over their support studs vertically. Well Saturday night the milestone was achieved of having the car back on all fours. The gear levers and push rods were connected to the dash board shift mechanism on Sunday along with speedo cable. There seems to be a problem that the lever which operates the gearbox locking mechanism doesn't come anywhere near touching it with the clutch fully depressed so I will have to get some advice from Roger on this.
March 27th , 2005
Just came back from a small pre-Easter break in Barcelona. This meant of course
two of the four holidays earmarked for re-assembling the Six were spent eating
Paella on the beach and finding the best tappas bar in the Barri Ghotic. Anyway
made a start today with Tim helping me lift the cradle in position and providing
the weight at the end of my lever, a six foot piece of scaffolding. The lever
was so that I could pre-tension the
torsion bars in the reconditioned silent blocks.
This is a tricky job and should ensure that with the weight of the engine the
silent blocks are back in neutral position.
I reckon most Sixes have shot silent blocks because they are not pre-tensioned
and the combined weight of gearbox end engine make that the silent blocks are
already under tension before you hit the first hump in the road. So what I am
trying to achieve is insert the torsion bars with an opposite tension so that
when the engine is lowered into position we end up in a neutral position and the
silent blocks don’t disintegrate at the first big bump. As you can see from the
pictures, the vertical marking Roger made is now diagonal, showing that the
torsion bars are put in with two splines ofset from dead center. With the engine
in position the marking should come out straight again.
March 9th , 2005
This Wednesday took a day off to drive up to Nottingham University, where Tim has had a preliminary offer to study Business Administration. Yes a chip off the old block! and as we were now only 92 miles away from Roger arranged to pick up the re-assembled front cradle. Roger had done a fantastic job reassembling the entire jigsaw, skimming the drums, setting up the shoes at the correct angle. Even creating a 3D model in AUTOCAD of the brakes to work out the correct settings of the eccentric adjusters. To look at the latest pictures click on the thumbnail picture.
January 31st , 2005
Monday took a day off and loaded up the Kimball Six entire Front suspension
cradle, newly sandblasted and powder coated. Loaded up drive shafts, bearings,
brakes etc and hoped for a productive day at Roger Williams' well equipped
workshop in Beverley, North Humberside. Roger had made gauge MR.3447, which
helps set the suspension arms at the right height for the car. On the way
stopped at Mick Peacock to drop of some of the old Roadster panels that Henrik
Jacobson from Denmark hopes to utilise for a pattern to restore his cabriolet
body of which there seems to be even less left over than was the case with mine.
It was re-assuring to learn, that Mick has not entirely given up manufacture of
precision body parts for the Traction. he just prefers to do it at a less
industrial pace and will charge you by the hour if you require his services.
Arrived in Beverrley at 11:00 AM after a 6Am start, found that like usual with
old cars nothing is ever as easy as the manual describes it. Lots of smoke,
steam and expletives escaped from Rogers exasperated mouth and I learned a whole
new array of Technical terms from Roger ;-)
In the end I had to leave the cradle with Roger to finish en after a great meal
provided by Wil, I left for Ipswich where I arrived midnight.
The saga with RyanAir and BAA had some closure today, as I received a cheque from BAA Stansted with a full refund of our flights. It is no compensation for a missed funeral and family gathering but at least we can use the money towards a subsequent trip to visit my fathers grave.
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 Gauge MR 3447 |
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January 22nd , 2005
22 January 05 Tim helped me use Richard's 50 tonnes press to push the lower arm splines back into position for the reconditioned silent blocks. Apology received from RyanAir's CEO Michael O'Leary ( or at least his office) but no word from Terry Morgan, managing Director of Stansted airport, even though he invites personal feedback. On Thursday 20/01/05 flew Ryan Air again to Frankfurt, this time without a hick-up. In fact no queue at all! The same obnoxious security supervisor was on duty, who still can't figure out a simple 'sorry' would be 100 times more effective, than his wriggling and worming. The man lied that the machine was broken down on Saturday, but I reckon staff just didn't turn up in sufficient numbers or BAA won't spend the Saturday overtime money.
January 15th , 2005
January 9th was a bad day as my father passed away. January 15th , 2005 was almost worst as BAA at Stansted together with Ryan Air concocted to deprive me and my family of saying goodbye to him by creating such delays at Airport Security, that when we finally got to our gate the plane had taken of without us. Not an apology was forthcoming. Staff at the airport treat you just as cattle in a pen, bums on seats, hapless souls to stare at while huddling in the background waiting for the end of their shift. Its been too cold in the workshop to do any serious work, but on Jan 21st I should spend a day at Roger Williams to reassemble and align the front suspension and drive train.
November 22nd, 2004
The average temperature is falling rapidly in my workshop. Not so much fun to work when you are freezing your nuts of and can't open the double doors to let the sunshine and fresh country air in. The Roadster is still sitting in Lee's workshop while two other projects seem to have overtaking it there. I asked Lee to find me a decent quote for the paintwork after getting a nasty shock from letting Frank spend just all hours god sent him on Chris Kimball's Six. Well it turns out that under such conditions no-one will touch such a project with a barge pole. Lee said he would have a go at painting the car himself and showed me a nice little Morris he just finished spraying. I couldn't fault the paintwork so we agreed he would start on it in January. Meanwhile assembly work on the Slough Six continues and as the photo album was getting a bit massive and slow to load I subdivided the photo album in some chapters, like Body work, paint work, mechanical, engine and upholstery. To see the album click on the link below and compare some of the before and after images to see from where we started and where we got to.
Best seasons wishes
Marcus
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August 27th, 2004
Today made up couple of pages with photo's from the 13Th ICCCR rally at Interlaken on August 13-15. Diane and I made this the central theme of our summer Holiday, which took us via Calais to to Amiens for our first stop over. In Amiens we set out to find the exact spot, where Louis Whirter (1873-1932) made the etching from Amiens Cathedral that decorates our kitchen wall. Next stop was meant to be in John & Suzie's cottage Maison Burtsal St Andéol-en-Quint, Drôme, but we left the site of the magnificent Cathedral too late and by the time we got close to Nuits-St-George in Bourgogne we had just about enough and crashed out in a cheap but very pleasant Ibis Hotel in town. Anyway at least it meant we did not arrive at John & Suzie's in the dead of the night. After spending 4 great days in the National Parc de Vercors, we headed for Switzerland and the 13th ICCCR. A more detailed report will be written about this, but if you just want to drool over the beautiful pictures click here.
June 21st, 2004
Today posted some pictures from the Dunkerque Rally. There are some very nice and arty pictures of my latest acquisition, a 1949 Six bought from John Gillard of Classic Restorations. Also the first pictures of Chris Kimball's Six now in paint.
April 17th,2004
Today fitted a head converted for unleaded petrol by CTA Service to Chris Kimball's Six. I did all the jobs Roger told me to do without shortcuts. Roger Williams lectured me I should drill each cylinder bolt hole out a further 5 mil, Tap a further 10 MM of thread with a 10MMX1.5 plug tap so I can replace the old 'tired' head bolts with new high tensile bolts from Unbrako, 10mmX115mm, which can be torqued up to a higher torque (about 40 foot pounds) required for the modern head gasket material, now they no longer make the copper asbestos type. Roger says if I don’t do this there is a chance that some of the old bolts will be torn out of the block ‘threaded’ which in turn would require expensive helicoil inserts.
I actually didn’t have to drill out any of the holes, (they were all deep enough), but I did tap an extra 5-10 MM of thread so it could take the modern 115MM head bolts. I reused the copper asbestos gasket that came with the engine from Larry Kraus. It can be reused as the engine has never run and it looked like new
March 1st,2004
This weekend Henrik Jacopson from Denmark was kind enough to come over with his special rear axle Torsion bar pre-tensioning tool MR 3336 and help me put back the rear axel on the roadster body shell. First we made another special tool MR3338, which Henrik forgot to take. We made this out of plywood. Much easier and does the job of checking that the axel is fitted at the correct height. Then we used driving block MR1578 to knock the torsion bars into the right position. We had one setback with one of Mike Tennant's re-vulcanised silent blocks. It turned out it was loose in the Ω shaped housing, so pre-tensioning seemed futile. We fixed it in position by drilling two holes through the housing and the outer ring, tapping tread and fixing it in position with two M8 bolts.
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See the rest of the pictures click here
December 14th,
Lee has made some good progress on the Roadster, while the Six is patiently waiting for a slot in the paint shop. I got a call from lee to bring up some parts for the roof mechanism and found the car pretty much welded together with the floor in place. You can now really see the car in its final contours, doors a perfect fit and closing like they should. Remember how the previous owner did all this welding and found out nothing aligned and the doors wouldn't shut? Well with the new jig and multiple adjustments, panels all loosely screwed together so their alignment could be changed, I guess Lee was satisfied the car could be 'frozen' in this position and quickly welded everything up. The petrol tanks were sent to a specialist firm, where they were lined with some modern material, so they wouldn't rust or corrode from the inside, so that's another job ticked off. I also took three big boxes of chrome bits to Hockley Enterprises in Southend-on-Sea to be chromed. When they has stripped the old chrome off, they gave me a call to collect the headlines, so they could have some minor dents taken out by a friend of mine who is a silversmith. If you click on 'Ecclesiastical gallery on his web site, you will get an idea why he is the right man to ask to sort out the shape of a Traction Headlight. Meanwhile I have been pottering about with the Familiale, slowly working my way down the list of possible MOT failures and after having sorted out the wiring to the indicators I now have the wiper mechanism in pieces for a small overhaul. Amazing how much time these little jobs costs, especially struggling with a complex mechanism like the window wiper assembly in such a confined space as exist behind the dashboard. So that's probably it until after Christmas. Got to put the tree up for the kids and do my Christmas shopping !
September 24st
I must be crazy! I am now simultaneously working on four Tractions! Well two are in my workshop in Henley and two are with Lee Scott in Frating. Roger Williams came over for a couple of days to deliver the reconditioned gearbox for Chris Kimball's Six, together with new clutch, C/V Drive shafts etc. Did anybody read Roger's puzzle in Floating Power about the mysteriously disappearing oil pressure? Well to be sure we took the sump of the Roadster engine to check we didn't make the same mistake. False alarm! We reassembled the engine, changed the oil and fired her up. What a lot raw power! Of course we had to stop by Lee Scott to have a look at the Roadster and Six in progress. Lee got some specific instructions on how to fit the 4-speed conversion parts. We did not have enough time to measure the crank of the Arizona Six engine, but we did measure her compression: It read 12,8,8,6,6,8 bar on the newly bought pressure gage, so not good news. Could it be the piston rings are stuck after 20 years in the desert? Maybe its the valves not closing properly? This engine probably will have to be dismantled to check it out, which is a set-back :-( The body meanwhile is making good progress, having been sandblasted and put in primer. The right bottom sill turned out to be corroded and so I found a good use for a 2nd hand sill purchased at the TOC spares 'open day'.
The Familiale was fitted with the new water pump and started up fine after being laid up for about 6 months. Roger took the rear drums away to be skimmed, fit a missing wheel bolt and new bearings. My colleague Ian brought them back this morning. This means the Familiale next week should be ready for MOT. Finally I found a local engineering workshop who will balance the crank of Paul Beadman's 11BL and will reassemble the engine.
August 1st
Yesterday I picked up the Bristol 1955 Legère, which I bought from Paul Beadman's widow. I think she was happy that the car went to a Traction enthusiasts who will either restore it himself or find a good home for it. With the car I bought Paul's MIG welder and today I had my first welding lesson from Richard my Landlord, who as a farmer is well used to this kind of work. The welder seems to be fine but because the spool of wire inside has gone slightly rusty, it keeps jamming the feed of the weld material. I shall buy a new spool tomorrow and try again!
I also loaded up a new page of the Somerset Six, which is for sale. Because the owner is quite old (93 in fact), the sale of the car is handled through intermediaries. To avoid 'tyre kickers', I suggested I make a page of the car so people can see the condition without having to bother these elderly people. View pictures of the car here.- You are welcome to contact the owner of this web site for further information on how to place your bid or look out for an add in the next TOC magazine 'Floating Power. I have seen this car and will try to answer any further questions by email as best as I can. One thing I must say: Although MOT'd and 'on the road' the paint job on this car is very poor and the interior a little tired. Expect a full restoration job, not a concours winning car!
July 24th, 2003
Spent 4 solid days in the workshop this week. First of all stripped down Chris Kimball's Six down to the bare chassis as much as I could. It was picked up today by Lee Scott and now joins the Roadster in his workshop. Ripping out all the carpets reveals a very solid floor. One door is pretty rotten but the sills and wheel arches are again in very good condition. You can see pictures of the stripping process and move of the car here.
The Roadster's woodwork has been restored by a furniture restorer in the next unit. Look at the latest pictures here.
This weekend on Saturday I will be seeing a 1954 Slough Light Fifteen for sale in Bristol and a 1959 Slough Six in Somerset. On Sunday I will be visiting Fred Annell's Spares bonanza at the Club Spares facility in Chicester.
Wooden dash and door panels of the roadster restored by a friendly neighbour.
April 23rd, 2003
Not much to report. I started dismantling the front suspension of the Familiale. The lower ball joint is impossible to get off, even with the right tools from the club! I bent the 16 MM bolt that secures the puller, so now Roger Williams of Steamcar Developments has to make me a new one :-0
Marcus
January 4th, 2003
I have made an index for Shane's CD, The content of which is now on line, for those of you with fast ADSL connections and plenty of patience.
You can also get to it by clicking on Citroën Archives on from the main menu of my site. This means the Light Fifteen manual is now on line. Frank Grant is exploring getting various other manuals and spare part catalogues scanned in professionally and making available on CD via the TOC.
Happy new year! Marcus
December 29th, 2002
I have changed Internet service provider to www.UKDomainRegistrations.net and if you read this page, it is a proof the move worked without too much trouble. This ISP is not only half the price of UK2.net but also has a friendly help line and customer service operated by humans rather than robots. As they also support Frontpage Server extensions, I hope to add a feedback page to my web site soon and maybe a message board.
Happy New Year! Marcus
Dec 10th.
I have now purchased the Familiale first mentioned on November 18. I may drive the car around while waiting for the Roadster to be finished. The weekend of November 27-30 I spent with Hendrik Jacopson from Denmark, who also is in the process of restoring a Roadster. I took him up to see Mick Peacock to order some panels, door hinges etc. and also to Lee Scott to see restoration of my own roadster in Progress. Hendrik took lots of pictures with my new digital camera for reference. I made a new photo album of that. We even made a short video film! Speaking of video, Mick Peacock is about to assemble his last Peacock Roadster and will make a video diary of the work in progress. Watch this space!
Regards Marcus
November 25, 2002
Friday November 22 picked up the engine and restored drive train for the
Roadster at Steamcar Developments. We ran the engine and the oil pressure came
up beautifully. For pictures click on the engine
November 18, 2002
Five new
pages on my web site:
Familiale
for sale in
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Familiale/familiale.htm
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/miniatures/miniatures.htm
Chris
Kimballs Six being taken further and further to bits
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Kimball_Six/kimball_six_restoration.htm
Some
Tractions in comic books (sorry Dennis your picture ended up in here also ;-)
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Cartoon/cartoon.htm
1998
Article from Automobilia on Six
Sorry they
are all 4MB bitmaps so I suggest you only download them if you have ADSL and a
lot of time
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Automobilia/automob.htm
Will I get
into copyright trouble reproducing this on my web site?
Tractionellement
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/
November 6, 2002
Caspar Türler put his great TOC annual rally report on line.
In fact he just uploaded some 12 new panoramas for your enjoyment, on
http://www.tractionavant.ch/Berichte/tocar/tocar_index.html For an English language version and http://www.tractionavant.ch/Berichte/tocar/tocar_index_de.html for the German version The pictures were taken with a USSR panorama camera (the lens moves from left to right during exposure, hence Caspar gets a negative of some 70 x 24 mm and a picture that is not distorted vertically, but sometimes horizontally - some nice effects result. contrasts etc, as some were under/over-exposed.... have a look yourself!
Thanks for sharing this with us Caspar!
Oct 31,2002
Visited
Roger Williams at Steamcar Developments last Friday and
took 3 pictures of the new Roadster’s power plant:
Domed
Pistons, Double Inlet manifold and carburetors, 4 Speed ID gearbox.
Looks
like another master piece of engineering by Roger Williams of Steamcar
Developments!
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Roadster/atleescott9.JPG
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Roadster/atleescott10.JPG
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Roadster/atleescott8.JPG
More
pictures on this page
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Roadster/picture_book_roadster_4speed.htm
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Roadster/atleescott5.JPG
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Roadster/atleescott6.JPG
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Roadster/atleescott7.JPG
Finally
Some new Pictures of The ‘Barn Find’ Slough Six four Months
back see
http://www.traction-avant.co.uk/Six/mybig6.htm
Go
to the bottom of this page to see 10 new pictures of this car.
Oct 11,2002
Last Saturday said goodbye to my Six and saw it being driven off by it's new owner in France. The 1954 Six I have meanwhile sold on to the under bidder at eBay. The Roadster meanwhile is shaping up, but still only half ready, so I am feeling a bit blue :-(
I did add a full written report both in Dutch and in English to the 12th ICCCR page.
Sept 1st, 2002
I must be mad. Just bought another 1954 Big Six. Watch out for pictures soon on this web site when the next film is developed. Meanwhile the owner gave me two period pictures of the car, one with the missus in attendance, which I think are just so cute.
What do you think?
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Marcus
August 23rd, 2002
It's 10 PM Friday here and I just woke up from my jet lag induced afternoon slumber after arriving at Heathrow this morning from Newark very tired. I spent the last 4 days with my former American exchange family in Manahawkin NJ, where I was a guest as and exchange Student in Michigan 1969/70, so a 32 year reunion, although I must say we always kept in touch over the years. I also worked a few days from my company's Freehold NJ office to get to know the operations and the folk down there. It was great how this all fitted together with the purpose of the rally.
Apart from belting up and down the New Jersey Parkway more times than I care to remember, we did a huge triangle in the Six roughly from New York, via The Pallisades and Taconic Parkways (the recommended route by Ed Merryman on July 18 to this list. Thanks for that Ed it was great), then from Amherst on the ICCCR recommended rout to Montreal via Stowe. In one day from Montreal to Niagara Falls via Toronto and then back from the Falls Via the I90 and I81 ending back via the Pocomo Mountains and Pensylvania at the Great Adventure Six Flags near Freehold NJ. I never counted the miles or the petrol used, but the Six ran great all the way with its uHaul Sportster trailer in tow. We have had maybe 3-5 times where the engine got slightly overheated and I had to hand pump petrol to get over a vapor lock. This usually happened just after very slow parkway tolls and ones in heavy traffic in Toronto.
The u-Haul people completely buggered up the wiring of the trailor, so that when I switched the sidelights on, it blew a fuse and so I had no rear or sidelights while dropping op Diane and the kids on Sunday evening, but fortunately no-one ran in the back of me. For safety reasons I was cruising between 70-80 miles most of the time anyway. Driving the ambivalent speed on the US interstates, means people don't overtake you left right and centre so much. I overtook the same convoy of 4 French roadsters several times 'en route' Each time I did I saw them pulling over to check their cars or something straight afterwards. They must have thought their engines stalled or something ;-) Thank God and Roger Williams for his (9x31) crown wheel an pinion, that allowed me to do this in safety and comfort.
The only mechanical failure was a failed hot spot gasket, which meant that towards the end the engine sounded more like a Suffolk Tractor, when pulling away or climbing hills. At speed with less load on the engine it was not too bad. This is the third time I have replaced this gasket, so if anyone has any suggestions for improvements I would appreciate it. Alec Bilney had the same problem with his Six.
That's It for now. Look out for many new pictures on the 12th ICCCR rally link over the next few days. Thanks again to the organisers and the informal support network of this group. I have no gripes whatsoever.
Marcus
July 23rd, 2002
We are going to the ICCCR in Amherst, Ma. USA. Flights are booked, tickets arrived. The Six is coming along for the ride. The car is now in Le Havre
I also be visited the TOC annual rally at the 'Rock of Gibraltar' near Oxford together with Caspar Thurler from Switzerland. I went in my new C5 estate as the Six by was by then half way across the Atlantic.
June 20th, 2002
Lee Scott has sent me some pictures while he is cutting the Roadster in smaller and smaller sections. but not until he had made a Jig to put it all back together again. Straight this time, and with more and more new body parts provide by Mick Peacock.
April 15th, 2002
I like to go around antique and collectors fairs in England. It's always nice to find a period brochure, toy model or anything related to our cars. On Easter Monday in Woodbridge I saw a 1930's Cigarette Picture Album with pictures of motor cars. And it had a light twelve in it. Needless to say I scanned my new treasure in to share it with you!
You will find the link to the this and other new material on the "My Big Six" menu or click Here. More to follow soon!
Time to get the car out of hibernation ! Maybe see you in Boston?
Marcus
Chris Treagust 98, First Avenue, Batchmere, Chichester, West Sussex, PO20 7LQ, +44 (0)1243 511378
