Driving a 1954 Austin-Healey 100/4 from Peking to Paris in the June 2019 ERA Rally.

Saturday 24 February 2018

0040 Paint stripping, bogging, and fettling

19th - 23rd February
Some things just aren't much fun !

Moving everything back home
New itg air filter arrives
Having got Gidget back to my garage last week, there were a million and one things to do.  There are just so many parts that have either come off the car and are worth saving as spares, or others that are still to go back on to it, that I hardly have a room to put everything.  Even moving everything back from CCC to the house meant several trips in Troopie, with the back and the
passenger seat packed full ! And parts were still arriving from suppliers - in this instance the new itg foam air filter which fits perfectly into the limted space available.  We ordered it with an un-cut backing plate so we could ensure it fitted our set up perfectly.   Eventually fitted everything in somehow, and started to get on with the work.

Wednesday 14 February 2018

0039 The completion of many things

13th February 2017
So much progress is made......
And Gidget finally leaves CCC !

Mt Panorama
Last Monday, I took a holiday.  I and about 70 other Lotus owners went to Mt Panorama, Bathurst, where the Sydney Lotus company Simply Sports Cars, following the Liqui-Moly 12 hour race, had managed to arrange a full day on track for Lotus owners.  Unlike the Nurburgring, or Brands Hatch etc which are
Lotus 3 Eleven at the mountain
open all the time,  Mt Panorama is a public road and is only closed a couple of times a year, so to score a track day is very special.  Needless to say it was an amazing experience for all of us, and one I will remember for a long time.  My Europa was absolutely brilliant on the mountain, despite being a full road going car, and made me realise how lucky I am to be a member of this special group of car owners.


Friday 2 February 2018

0038 Engines, brakes, GPS, & lots of problems !

26th Jan - 2nd Feb 2017
Progress despite the Pain !

Engine back in at last
Well, the great news is that the engine and gearbox are finally back in Gidget, which is a real milestone in the rebuild.  We have also achieved a lot more in the past week, but it certainly hasn't been without a lot of pain and frustration !  But apparently this is "normal" when rebuilding older cars - Just that no one told me how frustrating it can get at times, especially now when one is so close to having it all together, so when things go wrong, the frustration is more intense !