Inspirational!

Well well well, isn't it funny how inspiration and recklessness are beautifully intertwined. Got a call from Ruairidh today to talk overdrives, made my day as the Commer scene is a little quiet oop north and he's (kinda) local and likes to talk tech. Its nice to know there is another van to go an 'ave a shuftie at too. And Panky got the mini MOT'ed yay! (time for Harvey the RV to get a look in now).

So.. Got off the phone, had me tea, stopped playing on the computer and went out to the garage to get stuff done... (Flava of Love 2 helped the inspiration too...)

tree's in - car's finshed!

look at that headlining!

ok it aint finished and there are some wrinkles....

like morris minor botox, pull here to make wrinkles go away...

Its all Autumnal!

The weather has gone really wonky, rain and wind in the extreme. Proper autumnal, lucky we finished the kite today!


Just need to keep it away from the kids until next weekend!

A time to live - a time to buy

On the way back from Belladrum we spotted a Commer, I stopped and chatted with the fella who owned it, took a photo, discovered it was for sale, then left....


The van ain't in inverness any more!


On another note, there is a fella called Claude who lives about 2 miles from here who is selling a vespa...

The drive should be being done next week (it better get done - grrrrr.....) and then there is a carport to go up.

Recession, what recession?

Up in the sky....

Bin a bit quiet recently I know, but things have been happening at littleyellowtowers. The first thing that has been keeping me busy is sorting out Molly's headlining. The orignal one literally fell apart in my hands, which made measuring up and putting together the new one a tad difficult, but thanks to a little help for the chaps at East Sussex Morris Minors I'm on my way.

I've now spent 2 saturday evenings on it, (casualty is ok, but working on old cars makes it lots better) and its looking good.Fitting time is getting closer and I'm wracking my brain thinking of things I really need to do before the headlining goes in (like polising the interior bodywork, rust proofing the gutter and stuffing in some more soundproofing). Then again it could be because I'm scared of screwing it up.

Jessica has been having some attention too (not a lot, just a little). She has been booted out onto the road outside the house in readiness for the driveway getting done (1 week late so far). Being out front means I can see the handywork she had lavished upon her a couple of weeks ago. I managed to finish off the gutter, throw some paint and sealer on before the weather went properly bad, however what with the weather being quite rubbish, the finish is er.. rubbbish. One more for the to-do re-do list. A couple of things arrived in the post this week for her from the Saviour of Commer vans, Mr Woolfie. Firstly the door bottom panels (a winter todo item) and a pair of orginal bunks. More bunks you say? Well the ones we have are were adjusted to fit, leave no room to actually put the children up, and they (the bunks and therefore the kids) easily fall down when you stand up and bang your head on them (not good). So I'm going original. It should mean the bunks are harder to knock down and they are kinda wedge shaped, so the kids can get in and out without having to wriggle through a teeny gap at the end.

Next weekend we're all off to Saddle castle on the Mull of Kintyre (1 minute 34 seconds... - that'll be us) to celebrate my Dad's 65th birthday. We last went to Saddle over 20 years ago, where, as kids we had a whale of a time, playing in the woods, mucking about on the beach (I came back with a sheep skull!) and flying kites. Well my little brother, ever the sentimentalist, was reliving the kite flying, and talked me into building another kite for this trip (to be honest it wasn't that hard for him!).

the original (50p) kite book, still works!

the next generation of aeronautical engineers

Now I do try to keep this blog on the straight and narrow, concentrating on the things that matter (cars n stuff) but this got me annoyed. It even annoyed my wife, and she doesn't like eating yummy tasty fish...

Magnificent Machines!

Today Rory and I went off to The National Museum of Flight for their Monster Machines weekend. What a wonderfull excuse to get some superb stuff all in one place. V Bombers to Vespas, Road Rollers to Car Crushers, and the sun was shiny too!

never has mutually assured distruction looked so sexy

East Lothian Scooter club were out in force with a really nice selection of Vespas and Lambrettas. A friendly bunch of chaps too, they were happy to give me a bit of advice about my impending purchase.

personally assured distruction?

"they are the mods, they are the mods, they are - they are - they are the mods..."

The traction engines were lovely. The sights sounds and smells took me right back to Steam Rallys I was taken to as a child.

pleeeeease can I have a go...

Of course Rory found the tractors...

and there were the monster trucks.... (not my thing, but Rory seemed to enjoy them)

Classy Glace

The more you look...

the more you find... I had a dig around the remmentants of the strap that prevents Jessica's roof goping to far back and found this...

Commer Sunroof?

So I also went round the gutter with the twirly wire brush, removed all the old mastic and threw some excelent Bilt Hamber products at it.

Smoooooth...

The headlining being under the roof hole ment that I didn't really want to go welding it up and setting fire to the headlining so.... a sheet of stainless and some self-tappers were employed.
I also took the angle grinder to some of the gutter which was rusty and made some panels to replace it.

Hide your eyes Jess, this won't take long...

So what colour is Jessica? Well today we're going for Ford Diamond White... not too bad is it?

Don't you open that Trapdoor

Also had a crack at some wag filled corners at the back, it wasn't as bad as I thought so it was quickly patched up and sealed.
But I don't seem to be able to put the seam sealer on properly.
Don't worry Molly did get some attention, all the carpets got taken out again for a good scrub. Looking a bit better now don't you think?

Drip drip drip...

No not rain this time... but progress... little by little, Molly is being put back together, 1/2 hour here 1 hour there. Stuff is coming out of boxes and getting fitted. Both drivers side doors are done, complete with windows, surrounds and trim. The carpets are in (a right state). I need to get the electrics sorted now (I think its just the indicators left) then crack on with the headlining, seats, screens then fit the rear wing properly. After that we could be looking at mechanical stuff like adjusting up the handbrake, cleaning the front discs and tuning the engine!

the to-do list is now small enough to fit in one photo

interior looks as shabby as when it came out (surprising that)

windy windows and door handles

I picked up a pair of van wheels a couple of years ago, and well left them in the garden to er ... season. Today they got a lick of old English white paint... These are destined for the back of the car with larger tyres, and should hopefully gear things down a little on long journeys. I still have the nicely powdercoated wheels for best though!

Jessica has been dumped on the road outside the house (so the hedge man as room to get in tomorrow) time for a photo to-do list.

help me Woolfie you're my only hope!

Commer "fur" from the bottom of the doors

work in progress

scars from picking at rust just before Belladrum

still loving those indicators

What with the weather being, er... ok, we spent some of the day in the garden, where I remembered I had stashed my spare panels under the hedge - do you think anyone will find them?

incognito

pimped the composters

Harvesting the the marrow (modelled by Rory - for scale)

And Dad is coming out of hospital tomorrow YAY!! Bron has broken her arm BOOO! - get well soon you two!