19 Dec 2022

 

Sunrise on the way home

Left Canberra at 4:30am and decided to stop on the side of the highway for a quick dawn pic around 5am. only came head to head with one kangaroo heading the other way, though we were both able to get out of each others way before there we were too close for comfort.

Along the way the car developed a few strange vibrations, like a wheel had lost a balance weight or something, though it went away and the car seemed fine after that. it powered along fantastically all the way back to Melbourne, returning fuel usage figures between 38 and 44 mile per gallon, not bad for a car built in 1955 (though with a slightly later 948cc engine).

The only casualty seemed to have been the speedo that stopped working all together. It had a cable replacement and had been working really well on the way to Canberra, mind slow to get up to the speed and drop back. Prior to the new cable it used to flick about and only work when it felt like it, you could not ever rely on it. So the speedo will need to go and have a spa retreat with an instrument reconditioner now and maybe yet another new cable.

It also seems that due to the slow creep of noise over time and driver industrial deafness from being in the car for so long that I failed to notice the increase in noise from the diff along the way. After being home for a while and then going for another drive it was alarming to notice the amount of noise coming from the just over 12 months old, expensive, reconditioned diff. This must have been where the previously mentioned vibration was coming from it seems, though inspection since shows that it was not brought about by lack of lubrication. Not sure what has caused this melt down in the diff, though I am willing to bet that it probably was never reconditioned in the first place. I would not be too surprised if the company I bought it from not only installed the incorrect oil seal (27 Jul 2021), but also just selected a reasonable looking second hand one and just painted it shiny, did nothing else and sent that to me as a reconditioned diff. Disappointed I can tell you.  

18 Dec 2022

Well, travelled to Canberra over the weekend where a very good friend did some surgery on the Count. The surgery consisted of replacing the bumper mounts on the front of the car so that for the first time since I have owner the car the bumper no sits straight on it! Grinding, welding and a lot of planning and calculations went into the work and everything went brilliantly. Really very happy and thankful for the efforts that went into the job, it's awesome!

You can see it hangs down and the over rider is leaning back, been that way for 30+ years

Problem was made worse when someone hit the car recently

Removing the bumper mounts

Angle grinding and patching the old, not too great welding

Both new brackets in

Final result is awesome

2 Dec 2022

Updating the saga of the damaged front bumper on the car, the one that was further damaged as per a few posts back.

Finally managed to get the front bumper off again and this time completely stripped apart, not a hard job, but one I put off because I am just too lazy. Anyway things are a lot worse that I had imagined with the spring bar that provides the rebound should the car be in an accident. Yes I know it certainly isn't a crumple zone design on this car. The bar is out of whack in just about every plane you could measure/test it by. Both ends are twisted in different directions and the symmetry of the bars design in completely out as one side had obviously had a fair hit at some time. I think it is well past saving and will need a replacement, which will hopefully twist the valance and the chrome dress bar back into shape, they both seem to be fairly much in the correct shape when it is all apart anyway.

A well skilled friend in Canberra is going to do some welding for me and hopefully we will replace either one or both of the bumper mount bars that hold the bar to the car. One of the ones on the car had lost its threaded section when I first got the car and a bolt was then welded to the stub that was left, which has worked well enough, though doesn't look too pretty. the other bar is now loose at the front and the threaded section now has a distinct bend upwards, which is a direct result of the parking speed "nudge". 

  Both halves of the bar should look like the right hand half in the pic

The bolt welded to the original stub, note the washers packing out the spacing 

The mount thread post the parking 'nudge", should be straight 

30 Nov 2022

Perhaps it was the impending St Andrew's day that was motivation for finally completing the upholstery of the passenger seat, though I would have actually had to remember that it was St Andrew's day (which I didn't), but finally it is done and for the time being that is it with upholstery.

The old Bluebird sewing machine had given up the ghost, so it is moving on to a new home in a museum (no, really, it is going to a museum!) and a new quite inexpensive Elna machine had no problem stitching it all together. Yah!

 I know they are not both the same. I was originally going to go for just an insert look with wings of the original upholstery  as per the base of the drivers seat, though that was somewhat too ambitious for my limited ability and a whole face replacement was much more my speed. Maybe one day I'll change the base of the drivers seat as well, certainly have enough cloth to do it, though for now I am happy for it to stay as it is.

27 Nov 2022

Spent a substantial amount of time this morning doing a grease and oil change, oh and changing the tappet case cover gaskets. Took a lot longer that had imagined it would, though well worth doing and happy with most of the results. one of the tappet cover gaskets unfortunately decided that it wanted to not quite seal and is allowing oil past, so now needs to be replaced yet again. Would probably be an easier job if the manifold was removed, though I haven't done that and it is quite a bit more fiddly, oh well, try again.

I decided to go for a drive and see how it went, hoping the gasket would seal after all, it didn't. I had seen a picture taken by someone else in the small town of Dean, Victoria some years ago and so decided to go and see if I could get a pic of the car there as well. Took a circuit route and went to Dean, Daylesford, Maldon and Castlemaine and the back to Melbourne. 

And the pic...

25 Nov 2022

 Today was a bit of a slow start to the morning as I wasn't really in a hurry to get to my last day of work, would have been happy not to go at all to be honest.

Anyway as I wasn't in a hurry and I had the car so thought I'd take a few pics along the way and see if I could get something decent. Some weren't too bad...

  

22 Oct 2022

 Don't you hate it when...

Headed out to the car today to head off somewhere and first thing I notice is that some swine has done a parking speed brush past on the front of the car. Well to be honest I actually noticed that, even though the bumper has always drooped on the drivers side of the car, it was hanging much lower that it ever had before.

You get that kind of thing when you park in the street I guess, it isn't the first, someone did a parking speed slight touch of the back once before. Cars around in the busier road have even been completely written off while parked out front of their owners houses on a regular basis. Makes it no less annoying though especially when the perpetrator would definitely know they have hit the car, but they can't be bothered owning up to it and leaving a note.

I have to say, I reckon I know exactly who did it, actually both times, though I can't prove anything. Maybe it is time for a dash cam, one that can record bumps while parked...

14 Aug 2022

 Another run with the BMC-Leyland club, up Mt Macedon and then through to Trentham for lunch at the pig and Whistle pub, and the Count didn't miss a beat. Actually it really liked the colder weather, always seems to, especially if there is a bit of moisture in the air, makes it run very well. The run went well and i wasn't always the slowest car on the trip, though I think everyone passed me on the way home, even those who had previously been slower. The only difficulties on the trip were posed by cars in front slowing down before the climb on the steeper sections of Mt Macedon, which then killed my momentum and thus when they started pulling away again I had nothing left to accelerate. Oh well, it is only 948cc after all. 

26 Jul 2022

 Just a quick run down the street today, only because of the threat of yet more rain, so too lazy to walk.

Not often that the street in front of this house is clear, so too the chance and parked up. Not too often you get the change to park in front of a house for sale at near $4 million AUD! Think it would be right at home in the garage...

18 June 2022

Bit of a run out to Noojee today with the BMC-Leyland Car Club members. Except for the Highway part of the run it was a great blast through the backroads with a varied bunch of BMC and BL Aus cars. Around the backroads I can keep up with some of the cars, but they all leave me for dead when on the highway, I guess when you only travel at 80ks it makes it difficult for everyone else as no one else really wants to hang around. A great twisting, winding country road once off the highway though and there were a couple of really steep inclines and 2nd gear managed to get a good work out to climb them!

23 Apr 2022

 It's been about 14 years since the Count last had a respray, and even that one was done by myself in the hay shed on the farm. Humidity was high and so was the temperature when it was done as well, so there is no really great surprise that now it is living outside in the driveway and on the street that the paint isn't the greatest. 

A few years ago the paint on the rear end surrounding the boot and below the rear window started to develop cracks and over the years the cracks just grew worse and multiplied. It had come to the stage that something had to be done or the car would start to rust below the paint. So we come to the weekend and what to do, like stripping paint is ever high on the list.

Starting point

Guards off and ready to go

A lot of load paint and primer layers there

Back to bare

Etched and primed

Back in colour

Nearly done, just needs lights

Certainly looks a lot better thank it did with the cracking and flaking paint, though it's never a fun job. 

20 Feb 2022

 Sunday 20 Feb saw the Count attend the British and European car show at Yarra Glen Racecourse. The first car show in quite some time and the Count's first in a number of years. The show was very well supported and plenty of car there to be seen, may it be the first of many to come.

Just a few random photos of cars at the show...

Still cleans up ok with a polish and some distance

3 Jan 2022

Look at that, almost without any notice we have started a new year, 2022. 

Lets hope it's gets a whole lot better that 2021 and 2020.

So late last year (2021) I was able to commission an awesome artist, Gavin Thomson ( @gavin_thomson_cartoonist  and https://m.facebook.com/gavinthomsoncartoonist) to create a fantastic new logo for the Count and it's travels around Australia (not that one can travel too far around Australia at the moment, some states are open to each other, though there are Covid testing requirements and State entry permits and some States are even closed completely still).  The cartoon is inspirational and comes complete with a nod to the legendary intrepid adventurer Mr Phileas Fogg from the Jules Verne novel "Around the World in 80 days", it's absolutely brilliant!