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Well done everyone on turning your clocks back, it made me laugh when Glen thought we had left it a bit late to get up this morning - and then realised it was a hour earlier than he thought. 11 Westfields met at Ashbourne and dived in M&S for warm. Everyone seems to have been to Aldi and bought their heated seats which is a very good idea. It was a steady run over the damp, salty roads in stunning sunshine with the clear air making for lovely views We arrived at the Roaches Tea Rooms a little early so we could have a 'bonnets off' moment and a look at Simon's very tidy MX5 turbo'd engine. We are 300 metres (1000 feet) above sea level here with views from the cafe over the southern part of the Peak District Bagpuss had pulled, he was kissing in the corner Taking in the view behind Gail's car Someone has a better photo than this of a Westfield seemingly towing a caravan I had booked us a table in the conservatory with a lovely view, everyone had loads of layers on and with the sun coming through the windows we all started to cook. I was first in the car park and we just block each other in so we can all fit, might as well take another photo then while I wait to be let out. Back on the road again, up The Bank, one of my favorite roads and to the cake stop. Did you notice that I went sailing past my turning, so we ended up going down a road I have never been on, thinking 'cripes I hope there is plenty of tarmac on it' actually it was a nice road and we will do it again. At the Tea Rooms, only the best quality, homemade, proper cakes here and not silly prices either. We totally destroyed this Bakewell Cake, full of jam and almonds, they might as well have just put the whole cake on the table and given everyone a spoon......on second thoughts, NO. The Monkeys Tea Party in the Old School Tea Rooms Parking was interesting again, just drive in and block everyone in Dave needs to work on his little finger, one holds one's tea cup in the proper manner Nom, nom, nom Is your car poppy ready? get your knitting needles out Another fantastic day out and a big thank you to everyone for travelling the many miles to join us, especially Simon who came all the way from Peterborough. The convoy looked great in my mirror, I could not see the end of it there were that many of you. The other new guy, Johnathon, who came in his MX5 must have had a brilliant view as he tagged along at the back. He is trying to buy a Westfield and is not even a member yet. Next time we are going to a new pub that we tried out last week, guess what? it has lovely views from the car park, so do a sun dance and it will be on next Sunday. Cheers.

Thanks Julie for organising another fantastic run about the peak district what a great roads and scenery was beautiful. Thanks again and I hope no one got to wet on the way home. P.s Not sure towing a caravan is a good idea

@Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary I think she would prefer needles in the eyes than read anything on here. Albeit she did read about the thread on women being nuts and laughed as was all true what happened................... Ironically she said last night ' Are we getting off at Junc 14 M4 ?' I said why the hell would I do that ? ' Oh, I thought we get off there ? I said unless we have had a major land movement, Newbury for as long as I have been alive is Junc 13............................. ' Oh, I can never remember ' ........... She is an advanced driver and ex driving instructor......................... I do weep...................lots....................although it was 2:30 am .....................Luckily I chose to drive............

Final job for today was to make some spacers on the lathe for the roll bar backstay.

Thank for a fab day I loved it. hope to see you all in the near future, been back about 10 minuets back out now walking the dogs.

Eeh it were a bit mucky. And we got the map out. my pipe worked, it was toasty so I had to turn the heater down....lol Thank you Gentleman Jim for leading all day on some great roads, 8am start, 185 miles for me 3.30pm home, just as I left the M60 half a mile from home the heavens opened, so I had to negotiate three sets of lights all on red, surrounded by folks in their tintops laughing at me. I bet they didn't have as much fun though.

How i became a proud and happy owner of my Westfield? At first,dreaming 35 years of beeing a Westfield owner,and then,at my 58 birthday,i thought,i dont want to be in heaven,before i have owned a Westfield... At last,realy easy and very simple. I asked for a Westfield for sale in facebook,Luke Algar,owner of PlaysKool sent me some pictures and described the car,i sent a deposit,drove to Durham and adopted this nice blue baby. :-) This was in may of 2018. Now the Westie,called Serena,is a family member. After visiting the kitcarshow in 2017,by plane and bus,this journey to Durham was the second visit in England. And the first time,to drive by car in england. Really no problem. Leaved the ferry in Dover,went to the left side of the road,and felt like beeing at home in England.No problem. And after studying british roundabouts,the first roundabout in Belgium,on my way back home i took the wrong way---- :-) This has been a really nice and cool time ,beeing in England. On the way back,i visited my Guzzi friends from the Moto Gutti Club GB in Epsom,spent 3 days with them,and they showed me very ,very nice places in the country. Best regards here to Serena Powis and her Husband Paul ,and friends ! 6 weeks later,after doing some little repair,(new electric,straigtening the bend frame,little bit of welding,new radiator,.....),i drove to the german TÜV (MOT) ......too loud.much too loud.....but the TÜV engineer had FUN!!!Drove like crazy over the yard,testing the brakes and handling :-))) I drove home,bought stainless steel Topfkratzer (dont know the english word,a thing to clean pots....),cutted the silencer,Topkratzer into the silencer,welding,ready... :-) Then it was no problem to get the german TÜV okay. Since end of june,i made 5700 miles. The first 2500 miles,everytime the same. Driving-repairing-driving-repairing-......(lost alternator,lost startermotor,engine to hot,lost fuel pipe,broken back-axle braket,broken engine mount,broken gearbox mount,misfire,and so far and so on....) but - never i needed a trailer to get home,because of my experience with old cars and the simple tecnic of the Westfield. Very good car :-) But now everything is running,few days perfect,a day not so perfect,a day superb,a day really bad,and so on.... But every day 100 percent fun and really happy! And only two days rain,the whole summer,until today,there has been no rain here. Best weather to drive and have fun. Now i know,the only and biggest mistake i have done in my live was,to buy a Westie so late. And its not only the perfect feeling by driving the best car of the world. Nearly everyone smiles when I drive through the villages.Crazy!And lovely. :-)) Best regards,viele Grüsse,Jürgen

Love the fact they've fitted a towball. Wasn't @maurici after a new tow car

Fitted mine yesterday & had a dry test drive today so I`ll add my 2p: + nice and warm inside the cabin, so less weather gear needed (some 5-8 degrees today) + my doors without the holding straps (not fitted yet) stay in place in the corners! + I felt a bit more anonymous (if you don`t like all the attention) + perfectly fine with MSA bar up to 60mph, buffeting probably okay for short-mid distances at 70mph + no need for glasses / sunglasses +- feels much more like a regular car with the hood on - I can see why leaving the hood off as much as possible is still the preferred choice - I`m pretty worried about the longevity of screen channel. Quite impressed with Soft Bits quality.

...therefore i bought a narrow body. If my wife wants to drive with me in the Westfield,she has to eat less

Yep thanks @Julie Hall - AO Representative, Peak District AO Fantastic day, catch you all again soon.

Julie, what if you dont have an MOT ?

Thanks girls, brill run out. Bit tasty where we stopped for pics, must do better next time.

Great story Jurgen. Glad the car is being used and that a Q plate 'can' be re-registered outside the UK. I know if I named my car after a friends wife, the current wife would not be impressed. Luckily my car is much better looking ( and slimmer) than her friends

Thermal underwear, jeans and if it's raining unlined waterproof trousers. Thermal vest, decent polo shirt, fleece jumper/sweatshirt with a high neck and a windproof/waterproof shell, maybe thin nylon lined shell for the upper body. I find my old Sparco race gloves keep my hands warm enough and when I forget them or I know it's going to rain I wear my Mechanix gloves. I would avoid motorcycle gloves and skiing gloves. Too bulky and not enough feel. For the ears I find a decent thinsulate lined beanie works well enough, and remember to wear your earplugs. I've been using Damart thermals for years both on the bike and in the car and Amazon has a good selection of all the above clothes. For me though, I think of it like this. If I'm going out and we're going to have "weather" I expect to get cold and wet. Once that fact is accepted life is easier.

....my other project beside,building my own a seven from scratch :-)

HI Everyone, Sorry for being a bit quiet, I'm located in Chelmsford, I picked up my engine and I've been spending all of my spare time in my garage working on some engine detailing. Thought I'd attach a couple of pictures and see what everyone thinks so far I've so far done quite a bit more, removed and refurbished the engine mounts, removed the ac compressor, got a shorter drive belt and tested it for correct fitament, taken the engine loom out for its trip to Westfield to be modified, removed the rocker cover and started stripping the paint off, finally refurbishing the alternator and all the other pulleys on the drive belt, Just trying to get as much done as I can before the chassis arrives! im quite happy with how the engine is coming out so far!

A little bit out of our hands I’m afraid as we use third party software to run the forum with limited options for customisation. Then again, if we had more options that would then equate to fitting it in with the limited time we have to implement them! Seriously though, as with all things “web design” related, there’s always going to be compromises and a balance to strike between what can be done and how much money/time we can (afford to) throw at it. This in turn ends up being a choice between things that “must be done” and things that would be “nice to have” for any given time/cost budget. One day we will have lots of free time and an unlimited budget - until then we try and do our best

Our Christmas get together will be on Saturday 15th December. We will go to the Weatherspoons in Scarborough for something to eat before venturing down to the amusements for bowling, terror tower, penny pushers, and ice creams. We will meet at Weatherspoons at 12 noon. Parking is only 50 yards from the pub. Prior to this, I will be travelling up to Darlington for breakfast if anyone wishes to join me in my tiptop. I will be back at my house for 10.30am. Anyone local can meet at my house for coffee prior to leaving for the pub if they wish. Who is coming. Me. Jude. Gary. Malc. Di. Dave.

@Skypeller Thanks; I paid £369 for the half hood with drivers side zip and screen channel, lightweight bag, delivery and fittings (no bar).

Outdoor carcoon. Works just fine.

....would prefer cremation sitting in my Westie.Would be faster

My wife is okay. I told her,that i go to visit Serena and Paul in Epsom,and came back home with the Westie ...and i am still alive

Don't use the Westfield pressed bracket for a fan mount on a Coolex radiator, it just make the fan less efficient. The Coolex rad can be ordered with fan mounts directly welded on, in fact, you can actually order it with a fan as a package, if you wish! The closely fitting fan attached directly to the rad, will work significantly more efficiently than when mounted in the dismal Westfield bracket. Not all Polo rad equivalents, whether the plastic end tank types, or the all aluminium versions like the Coolex, have the mounting bosses on the front, so always better to check a time the time of ordering. Again, if buying from Coolext, they're very good and doing customised one versions of their standard rads, and would do one with specific oil cooler mounts welded on, if you required.

Hard to believe how one amazing day keeps getting topped by another, but it does! Awesome, awesome views on some of the long sweeping roads through the Peaks, craggy outcrops of the Peaks themselves to one side, beautifully coloured autumnal trees in the valleys on the other, and Westfields as far as I could see, both ahead and in the rear view mirror.

Another fantastic day out @Julie Hall - AO Representative, Peak District AO, Westfields, great company, amazing roads and scenery, lovely food and cake of course. See you all soon.

Hi Steve, Your garage looks great! Below is a picture of my coolex radiator which is a direct swap for the polo rad. The westfield fan bracket fitted directly to the mountings on the rad and there are the same mountings on the front which many use for ducting, but possibly could be used for your oil cooler. Personally I would ask coolex due to weight of the oil cooler.

After what seemed like ages messing around with clevis' and split pins I could then get on with something different. When the Carburol Special was modified for hillclimbs a crash box was formed around the pedal assembly in the nose. During a trial fit of the pedals a couple of months ago I'd spotted that in the pedals wouldn't fit in the two forward most positions as they'd hit one of the additional new chassis tubes in the nose. The Carburol Special ran a much more upright seeting position compared to when it was a JW4 so I presume this wasn't a problem, but as I'm quite long legged I wan't to be able to use the full range of pedal positions. There was no way round it and the tube had to be cut out, but I wanted to retain the option for it as it helped to stiffen the nose and more improtantly offers addition feet protection so I'd deceided to make the chassis tube removable. As the orignal tube had been butchered by the angle grinder a new one had to be made. The ends were then drilled and threaded so it could easily be unbolted when required.

A few more small jobs completed today. The pedal assembly is an unnecessarily complex affair with a pull rod acting on a simple balance bar to the master cylinders. Not unsurprisingly the JW4 was criticised for the vagueness of feel and the amount of play through the linkages. Even the throttle pedal is over complicated with the addition of a couple of linkages to allow for a twin throttle cable setup.

Andy has the better option , but you could either get a fan which has fittings than hold it onto the radiator, so negating the bracket completely , or design an alloy plate, which the later rads seem to have or the rad and fan as Andy's above. With mine, I used some sticky foam to draw the air through the fan and stopping it from missing the rad core , by taking the easier path. It made a huge difference to cooling capability with the fan running.

I don't know why he had that pipe attached to his body. I just hope it was blowing rather than sucking. Oh errrr

Phew! All the best with that

I’m stetting off in the next 5 minuets hope to see you all.

Deep frost here this morning, wrap up warm and take extra care on the roads this morning - and revel in how much better the engines pull with the lovely crisp cold air!

...and would you prefer flowers or donations, burial or cremation? (If she ever reads the Boardroom? )

This is what you get with 'money-no-object'!

Before I get too far with assembly I thought I'd better get the brake lines fitted. I'd actually planned to do it last weekend until I found I hadn't quite got enough brake pipe so I decided to leave it until I had bought some more. As with the first car I wanted to avoid using any modern fixing methods and definitely no cable ties so for the hard lines I'm using brake saddles from the Series 1 Land Rover and BSA Norton rubber cable ties.

Well done!

And what's a carburetor . Isnt that an antiquated watering can ? . With the current cars i'd make it chasing radiator coolant leaks @IanK (Bagpuss)

My missus swears by her heated gilet when on the back of our bike - if your core is warm, then there is a better chance your extremities will be. With the single lithium battery pack she gets about 5 hrs out of it on medium setting. https://www.blazewear.com/our-gear/gilets After seeing @Dave (OnliestSmeg) - Manchester AO 's softshell jacket and troo, we found some water resistant softshell jackets with fur-seal lining and wear them alot in the Westie, along with softshell trousers for the winter. Our heater is toasty too, but there is another recent thread covering hoods and heaters.

Thats not standard v8 bonnet!

Westie now tucked up, so it will be CC till March / April. ☹️