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Decided my engine bay needed a bit of a tidy up. Had a local company dip the cam cover. https://www.hydragraphics.co.uk/ Really pleased with the result. May not be to everyone's taste but I like it. I'll add some more photos at the weekend after I've fitted it back on.

Waay too long between updates, but in my defence, it's been a busy few days and any time I've had free, I basically haven't had Internet. Just crossed into Romania again this morning so back to free EU roaming! I'm not sure what I expected of Ukraine, but the experience was certainly different. We spent the weekend in Kyiv (Kiev) other than Saturday when we took the day trip to Chernobyl. Chernobyl is incredible, but for anyone thinking of visiting Ukraine, allow yourself more time than just for that one thing. Kyiv, and the whole country from what I saw, is incredible. The people mostly haven't a word of English, but they're fantastically friendly and perfectly willing to struggle through a broken conversation. The city was beautiful too. Lots of remnants of the soviet era, but there are some incredible bits of architecture around. We did a walking tour of the city too which was really educational. Here are a few random highlights. The monument and arch below were built as a symbol of friendship between Ukraine and Russia, but since the start of the war in Crimea, someone has stuck a "crack" on it to symbolise damage to that friendship. Gotta love the cars here too! Every Saturday night they close the main street too for a street party and light show. We only took a wander through it as we were pretty wrecked after the day but it seemed good fun! I'll try to do another post later with Chernobyl photos etc, but I didn't want to bundle them together, as Kyiv really is well worth a visit on its own!

Dodging showers, in between visits to banks

Planning a weekend away with changeable weather has focussed my desire for a hood to go over my cage. For our last road trip one of our lads, Graeme, kindly let me make use of his own home made hood - and this got me thinking of making one for myself. I managed to get some waterproof fabric from eBay for under £14 and also bought a couple of mountain bike clamps to fit at the back of the cage. Any other bits and bobs I needed were in my Aladdin’s cave of a garage, so the total outlay was less than £20. First job was to make a template from an old bit of fabric once I was happy with this design that I shamelessly ripped from Graeme’s “Mark II” version I transferred the pattern onto the new material. the bits at the top of the photo happened to be hoops used for hanging these old curtains - turned out to be in almost the right location for my Velcro straps that are used to hold it at the front of the cage. next up, a few hours messing about with the wife’s sewing machine and making use of some straps I cut off an old boot protector we have a functional (if not very pretty) hood I plan to 3D print some fasteners for the bottom of the straps as I’m not convinced about the bolt idea - or I’ll once again blag one of Graeme’s ideas and use a piece of carbon sheet with slots cut out. But for now it might just do the job. Now the obvious question is “but won’t you just get wet without a windscreen?” - and yes, of course I will. But when you are moving, the aeroscreen tends to send rain over your head and the half doors keep a lot of the tyre induced deluge out - It’s when you get caught in slow moving traffic or get stuck at lights/incidents that you get soaked as the rain fills the car from above - and the hood really helps with this 👍

Printed a better way to attach the straps

Don't get too good with the sewing machine or the Mrs will have you making her dresses,. Been there and got the tee shirt.

Hi - Allow me to introduce myself - Dafydd Thomas "Daf" Recently retired, live in Colwyn Bay. Needed a hobby, always wanted a sports car soo bought a Westfield SEIW 2ltr Duratec OMEX Engine 205BHP - OMG. New experience but great fun will load some pictures up shortly. Looking to attend the monthly meet this Tuesday 1st Oct - Cheers Daf

Just seen on Complete Kit Car Magazine post that new kit car show to be held at NEWARK on Sat/Sun 12/13 Sep 2020. This is in addition to Stoneliegh on 2/3 May 2020 and Kit Fest in June 2020? I wonder how WSCC are going to reach out to 3 shows in a year - I'll get back to you on that one!

Me!!

now who would be so foolish?

Start spreading the news, Newark, Newark!

A final safety note might be to ensure that at least one point is attached/wrapped/secured around a bar to ensure that should you reach terminal velocity - and the hood detaches - it remains attached to the car until you can stop and stash it?

Somehow made it to Kiev! Border crossing from Poland ended up taking the best part of 7 hours just to get to the polish checkpoint, then another couple of hours to get to the Ukrainian one. The Ukrainian police thought my car was hilarious - not sure how many times the word "crazy" was said! They let us through eventually though. Chris had to buy some insurance for his car on the far side. With none of the Ukrainians speaking English, and us having no Ukrainian, we have no idea what he actually ended up with but it cost the equivalent of about €11! By the time we got all that sorted, it was nearly midnight, so we found a spot to camp on the far side of the border, cooked some dinner and went to bed. Google said it would be 6 hours to Kiev from where we camped so we got up at 6:30, packed the tents and hit the road as soon as it was light. For all the worries that we had for the road quality, it's really not as bad as people made out. Probably on par with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, with the exception being any bridges. They really seem to be the weak point in the road surfaces. One of them that we crossed, (on the main road to Kiev), you could actually see the river through the holes in the tarmac which was quite concerning! Also, when waze warns you of a pothole on the road ahead in Ukraine, be prepared to take a detour around a crater. It was pouring down with rain for most of the drive. The car was fine for it other than one or two points where there was standing water in the ruts in the road which made it a little twitchy! Ukrainians have been really polite and friendly any time we've talked to them so far (or tried to!). Everyone has been asking permission before taking any pictures of the car. I really want to get a photo of the westie next to one of the old ladas here but haven't seen an owner around when I've been parked up to ask! Once we got to the city, the driving seemed to change. Its a sort of chaos that everyone here seems to understand. The lane boundaries (and even driving versus pedestrian boundaries) are really not very clear which doesn't make for a fun drive. When we eventually made it to the hotel, reception said we could use the underground car park. After scraping the gearbox hoop on the way in, the security guard told us otherwise. More scraping on the way out, and had to use the outdoor car park around the back of the hotel instead! All OK though - while they all want the photo, nobody here would want a Westfield, it's too low and wet for their tastes! Besides, between the pretty well hidden ignition, the immobiliser, and the lack of a steering wheel, it's pretty well protected! With the weather being pretty horrible, and the amount of distance we had to cover, I didn't get a chance to take any decent photos yesterday, but when we leave on Sunday, I'll try to get something as a little evidence of how far east we've driven! I wonder what's the longest distance from home anyone's ever driven their Westfield? Might have achieved a random record with it!

So you want to go on a road trip around Europe for a couple of months. You have 3 vehicles: A nice, comfortable lexus IS200 estate. Mazda bongo campervan with full interior conversion and pop up roof. Westfield that's just passed its IVA after nearly 5 years of building. Let's be honest, despite the lack of heater, questionable weather resistance, and general noisiness, would it ever be anything but the Westfield? Doors and half hood on, my new steering wheel with quick release boss fitted, and a little practical storage added. Found a neat place to mount my jack in the engine bay. Very simply a strap riveted to the panel over the gearbox: I unfortunately didn't realise until after I'd cut chunks out of it that my boot box was for a short range tank, whereas I've got a long range one so I don't currently have a boot box. Only a plastic top which looks like it doesn't come off. This actually works out quite well, because it means I've got a place to secure my tools when road tripping. I made up a little frame from some aluminium box and angle section and riveted it in in front of the fuel tank. This holds an aluminium case which is good for the basic tools. Then my big socket set sits nicely on top of that. Other than fitting number plates when I get some post from the DVLA, the car is ready to go on a big road trip... And go on a big road trip it will. I've been keeping a little quiet about this as I was terrified of anything going wrong, but at this point, I've done everything I can. Pretty much as soon as I have registration plates on the car, I'll be hopping on a ferry to Holland, before driving to Germany, then Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and off down to Eastern Europe for a few weeks before coming back across the Alps at the end of October. The initial plan was for this to be a 3 month trip with me in the westie and my friend in his MX5, but unfortunately my build took longer than I had expected, so I've missed the first leg up through Norway to the Arctic circle. Once I hit the road, I'll be covering some pretty big miles every day to try to catch my friend up in Finland. Once I've got registration plates, it will literally be a case of finding somewhere to get my ride height sorted and wheels aligned, and then I'll be off on the ferry the next day. I'm hoping to get NMS to sort my alignment as they're not that far away from me and know Westfields, but if anyone has any other garage recommendations for alignment around the Midlands/Warwickshire, let me know!

Looks fantastic but do check on the underside for blasting medium trapped in any baffles or crevices, any doubt -- wash it out. We have a member that lost his engine due to grit circulating the engine after a sand blast of his cam cover

You've not made a mistake at all! Mine when I bought it as an unregistered car... During the strip down... And how it looks now after 3 years... I've got a full photo album of the complete strip down for when the IVA test comes around. Not saying it's been easy but it has been fun! This forum is an amazing source of information and ideas for when you hit a brick wall. Enjoy your project and put lots of pics on here!

Oh good.... My petrol head religion doesn't allows me to have nice cars, because I'm not allowed to nurse them... but If I wasn't a true believer, I would be on my way to Northumberland... Very nice thing. very very nice.

Haha - let‘s not go there!

Not sure about N of Dalmellington, but S to Carsphairn is a fast A road - quite scenic, but busy, not my favourite. The Carsphairn (great cafe!) to Moniaive road is very good - a lot of it single track, with cows / sheep. It would be a shame to miss the Galloway forest part, especially the Newton Stewart to New Galloway road. Dave. PS - I would probably favour the St Johns to Moniaive route if bad weather.

Chris, The road from St Johns (Clachan Inn is great for food https://www.theclachaninn.co.uk/) to Moniaive is fantastic (I was on it yesterday..) - again, a twisty real drivers road, and very quiet. 2 Great pubs, petrol, and a cafe (Glenwhisk) in Moniaive (the "festival village" - there was an international bluegrass festival there last weekend). After Moniaive, things get a little sedentary, but your route is probably the best compromise till the roads get more interesting after Lockerbie. Cheers, Dave.

Hi Chris, sadly I wont be able to join you at the weekend, but hope you have a great couple of days' The roads in D&G are so quiet (Except A75!). A few pointers: There is an XBC sprint on at Kames circuit (Muirkirk) on Saturday and Sunday (They also do good bacon butties if you want to stop for a break) http://www.eastayrshirecc.co.uk/sprints http://www.crossborderspeed.co.uk/wp/2019-events/ The Straiton to Newton Stewart road is very scenic, but quite tight, twisty and narrow in places - allow plenty of time for this stretch, and watch out for timber lorries - they take no prisoners! Newton Stewart has various shops, pubs, petrol etc, but not the most inviting town in the area. The Newton Stewart to New Galloway road (Queens way) is great - lots to do and see, plenty of photo opportunities (especially the red deer range viewing hut). Great little cafe / arty shop (Catstrand) in New Galloway. The A712 New Galloway to Crocketford is also a good, very twisty quiet A road. Stay on the bypass round Dumfries, unless you really want to visit the town. The A709 Dumfries to Lockerbie is a bit boring, but not many options to avoid. The Lockerbie to Langholm is a fantastic road - a bit rough in places though. Will keep fingers crossed for the weather for you, but let me know if you want any other (D&G) info. Dave.

it Is wrapped and secured around the entire front of the cage. 👍 design it’s based on using same fixing method tested to 120 on track

Neat idea, might want to consider a coat of tent waterproofer, despite it being "waterproof" material!

Jim, you make some good points but the real problem is that the EU chiefs refuse to see they are doing anything wrong. It is not just the UK that is unhappy, Italy and Greece have basically had their options dictated by Brussels and had no option whilst tied to the Euro and the EU to do anything different. The EU had a choice when Cameron went and asked for concessions they gave none and the vote was the response. The difficulty in this is there are many more divides in the country which drove the result. In London people love the variety that immigration has brought but travel to Sheffield and that was a well integrated city but now there has been a huge influx of Romanian people who have caused no end of issues as they are not integrating and are a problem to many. And this is all races that see allowing unskilled people in to take homes and resource from an area already not the most affluent. They view unchecked immigration differently to London. We can all have a view on the rights and wrongs but the single worst thing that has happened because of the EU refusing to engage with peoples fears has led to the rise of far right parties all over the EU. And they get a lot of support, in France Macron was elected because there was an anybody but Le Pen movement, but she made huge gains. Hungary has a far right leader who has refused to accept migrants, Austria and Germany all seen grous progressing and also in Holland a laid back country which has seen many embrace right wing policies. The EU needed tweaking to stop this but they refused and are afraid if the UK leaves easily and is successful afterwards that others will leave. The best single thing about the EU is that it has contributed to a long period of peace but some of their policies to poke Russia look dangerous to me.

When our car is sitting in the garage not being used, I always have the hood on so that it is kept stretched.

Just because I mentioned working men and women I didn't mean to suggest that I think it is a class war. Truth is families are split, there are many from everywhere on the economic spectrum disagreeing about this, more significant than class is probably the age divide, None of us will have the full facts in order to make an informed decision at the next election either, we will have some works of fiction called manifestos, and a whole bunch of the media putting every possible twist on the facts to persuade us to vote the way they want. We are indeed in the post-truth world. There are many good reasons for coming out of the EU, there are many good reasons for staying in the EU, which way you voted depends on a) what is important to you, b) how happy you are about these things, and c) does it look as though these things will be better or worse in a future in or out of the EU. The same 3 criteria will apply to the next election, except c) will be "does it look as though these things will be better or worse with a different government". People don't vote to change something when they are happy, I think the strength of the leave vote in the Midlands and North East is registration of unhappiness. Perhaps my reference to 'working men and women' was flawed, as you say, people all over the country work. It is a shame politicians (ours and theirs) didn't get together three years ago and say 'this is a close vote, how close can we stay close, whilst addressing people's chief concerns'. I blame the EU to some extent for their 'no cherry picking, you are in or you are out' stance. It is obvious that there are many EU institutions that have HUGE benefit to both sides from us contributing and participating. We are polarised because we are being presented with 'Completely Out' or 'Completely In' and three years on, some more constructive work might have presented us with something very feasible in between. Jim

Oh crumbs, if Glen sees this it will set off the OCD and then suddenly when he announces 'this week we are mainly....cleaning the car' this will become a standard job. Is there a moderator that I can bribe to edit the posts 😁😁😁 @Steve (sdh2903) that is a very interesting point, 'washers provide a smooth, level surface for the nut/bolt to bear upon, reducing the likelihood of loosening due to uneven fastening surfaces' thank you for pointing it out.

I don’t know, but I’ve always fitted them, bolt threads and the receiving threaded holes do usually need to:be properly clean for threadlockers to really bond.

On the donor Sierra these joints have a washer plate fitted. Wonder if that's making a difference on cars that dont have them fitted?

Tour of the Cambrian Mountains 2019

Have a great day @Andy (Sycho)

Have a great day Andy

MHR Andy.

Happy Birthday Andy, have a great day!

Driving to Sunk Island.

I did look at going to Noway but struggled a bit with that and then looked at going to Hamburg, Peenemunde, Wraclaw and down to Auschwitz. That was going to have been my furthest drive from home.

The morning revealed just how nice a spot it was. May have been a little muddy getting there though. My car decided it wanted to try some DIY ceramic exhaust coating.

Falling behind on my updates! This one hits the limits on photo sizes so there'll be a few posts here! Weather was much nicer on sunday for the drive from Estonia into Latvia. Roof was off all day thankfully! Once we crossed the border, we hit some really nice roads before stopping at a border checkpoint a couple of miles after the border. The Latvian border officer was very friendly, complimenting the car before checking my documents. All in order and we were back on our way. We stopped off for a short hike around Langu cliffs. Then carried on to another short walk to a viewpoint for Turaida castle. Then on to our campsite for the night. It was pretty late by the time we got there and the temperature was getting down to minus figures, so we just pitched the tents, cooked up some dinner and went to bed.

Still alive and well, just been a busy couple of days and not blessed with great Internet currently in Lithuania! We're booked into a hostel in Poland tomorrow night so I'll get a proper update done then, but in the mean time, here's a picture of the campsite tonight. Tactically dark to hide just how dirty the car is!

How long does it take to drive from Warwickshire to Helsinki? 1806 days. That's 1800 days to build the car, and 6 days to drive it here. Reckon I could cut the driving time down to 5 days at a push though! Today was my first day not doing big mileage. We had a slow start to the day before heading to Helsinki. I picked up some waterproofing spray for the hood and we then hopped on a passenger ferry to check out an 18th century island fort just off the coast. Pretty fascinating place! We then drove just outside Helsinki to find another camping spot in some more woods, cooked a little dinner and settled in for an early night. We're up early again in the morning for a ferry to Tallinn, then driving down to Pärnu where we have a hostel booked tomorrow night so we can get some clothes washed and sleep indoors for a night. Weather tomorrow doesn't look great, but hopefully the forecast might improve overnight!

Unfortunately he bought a 1.8 without realising it was the inferior motor so not quite as many spares to pinch as I would have liked! 😉 Nice little camping spot for the night, other than the 10km gravel track to get there. Views were great though!

That sounds like a good idea. I'll be spending most of Friday in Helsinki so I'll find a camping shop then. Carried on to Stockholm yesterday. Decided to forgo the 3.5 hour motorway drive in favour of a 5 hour non motorway drive - which turned out to be 2 hours of non motorway followed by 3 hours of a different motorway. Still a good trade in my eyes! The views were beautiful, although the speed limits too low for any entertaining driving. Once I got to Stockholm, I parked up the car and checked into my hostel. It was nice to have a hot shower after two days sleeping in a tent! Then went and met up with my friends - one originally from Finland and the other from a bit further north in Sweden. In my head it was only 2 or 3 years since I'd seen them, but the reality was more like 8 or 9 when we worked it out! That's one really important point about this car that could be so easily overlooked - it's a fantastic conversation starter, both with old friends and new ones. My housemates lived in my old house for 4 years before I moved in without knowing the neighbour's names properly. Once I started working outside on the car, everyone would stop for little chats here and there, or ask for a little advice if they were having some car trouble. The result was that I got to know them really well, to the point where I know a good chunk of their backgrounds now too! It's so easy these days to live without building these relationships, that's what makes it so fantastic to have something that facilitates them! Anyway, I'm now on the ferry to Finland, where I'll be meeting up with my friend and his mk1 MX5, and the rest of the trip then we'll be doing together. I quickly changed my speedo back to mph this morning to check the mileage reading. 1 week today since the reg plates went on, and the car has covered over 2000 miles and driven in 5 countries (that'll be 6 in about 11 hours time)! That's some pretty decent progress I think!

My campsite for the night! Who says a westie can't go off road, eh?

I guess that's probably what I should have done. I assumed I'd need to do it in the future but foolishly expected that it would be pretty well treated from the outset. Just crossed over into Sweden. Gutted the weather has been so changeable today. Went over one of the bridges towards Copenhagen and it was spectacular. The sun was coming out so I decided to pull over and take a gamble on taking the hood off and setting up the gopro. Then a few minutes down the road I saw a rather unhappy cloud... Before I could get to another exit to get the hood back up, it turned into a very unhappy, hailstoney cloud... I might complain about the hood, but for cases like that it's better up than down! Sadly this meant the hood stayed on for the Øresund bridge so I can only show you the stock Wikipedia photo for it: What a spectacular piece of engineering. 4km tunnel followed by an 8km bridge. The toll booth operators at the car side even offered me a cup of tea when I jumped out of the car to pay them!

Thought I should probably put an update on here so nobody sends a search party out! Big couple of days finished. Made it to Düsseldorf last night shortly after 9pm. All was well except for the last half hour when I lost all of my Freewheel controls. Not ideal to lose your indicators on the autobahn at night time, but I got there anyway! Turned out just to be a wire that had been trapped by wiper pot cover which was shorting. Tidied that up and modified the routing slightly so all good again today. This morning around 10am I set off for Denmark. Rain was spitting and the clouds looked pretty ominous so I thought it would be best to try out the half hood I bought from SBFS. I think this is probably the first bit I'm not overly impressed by on the car. When I did the fittings in my garage, I remember being disappointed with the fixing at the rear using cable ties. Sure enough, as soon as I tried to tension the roof, the supplied cable tie started slipping, so I had to spend a half an hour getting stuff out of the way in a McDonald's car park to fix that. Even with new cable ties and the roof fully tensioned, though, it leaks. I expected some water to get through gaps around the doors etc. But not through the actual roof seams! Anyway, nothing to be done about it now. Waze reckoned about 6 hours of driving to get to my camping spot for the night in Denmark, but I have no idea what speeds it was anticipating me doing on the unlimited stretches of autobahn. It was pouring down rain for a good chunk of the drive, so having set off at 10 am, with three stops along the way for food, coffee and petrol, I arrived at the camp site around 8:20. Slightly wishing I'd taken a photo when I arrived, but it was very nearly dark and I wanted to use the little remaining light to get my tent set up! I'll take one in the morning though! Tomorrow I'll set off for Sweden. Aiming to be in Stockholm on Wednesday to meet a few friends I haven't seen in years so I'll just drive that general direction and pick a point along the way to pitch a tent tomorrow night! It'll be nice to be off the autobahn. Everything today except the last half hour was autobahn which is not the best for my car - especially with the front wheels toed out. At one point the next instruction on my satnav was to take the exit in 133 miles - to go onto the next autobahn... Exciting stuff. Anyway, photos tomorrow! Time for some rest now!

Alarm set for 4:30 this morning, loaded the car and set off at 5:06. Nicely heavily laden with tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, hiking gear etc. The drive down was cold and noisy, but it didn't stop me smiling like an absolute muppet the whole way! Had to resist the urge to wave at random cars as I passed them a few times! (before anyone worries, the below photo was taken using my phone in a mount, with a timer and the shutter pressed while stationary) The car is absolutely fantastic. I'm so happy with the little changes I made to deviate from the standard car - Freewheel is so good for night driving, being able to switch between dip and main beam mid corner without taking your hands off the wheel. The quantum suspension is just incredible too. I took my friend who drives an M3 for a spin yesterday and he said the Westfield soaks up the bumps better than his car. When I take it on a track too, I can just dial up the damping to wherever I want it. Very glad I asked JK composites to put heater pads in the seats as well. They really make a massive difference and they're so comfortable. A heater in the car would be nice, but wrapped up as I was and with heated seats, I don't see any reason I couldn't drive this car in the middle of winter. When I arrived down at the port, the security guard at checkin directed me into the lane to have my car searched, although I think he did it just to confuse his colleague who was carrying out the searches! "eh... Eh... Can we have a look under the bonnet?". He then proceeded to ask me a few details about the build rather than anything security related! All safely boarded on the ferry now. Car is up to 798 miles now, less than half way through its 4th day with registration plates, although, granted more than half of those miles are from the trip up to Carlisle for the IVA test! I've taken a couple of pictures but the WiFi on the ferry is pants and there's no signal in my cabin so I'll have to edit those into the post later tonight when I get to Düsseldorf! Edit: managed to upload them eventually!

Touring mode enabled!

Westfield XI 2018 This Westfield XI is only for sale due to a complete change of direction and unforeseen change in circumstances. It is a new car which was IVA’d in NOV 2017 and then registered in Feb 2018. This is a special commemorative edition car 48 of 50. It has done 200 miles since the build. The body is the standard Westfield body kit, with Le Mans driver's head fairing, in Westfield racing green, with crimson carpets, dash and seats. The bodywork has been professionally machine polished. The dashboard is populated by a matched set of MG Midget instruments, all professionally rechromed, comprising fuel gauge, combined oil pressure/water temperature gauge, rev. counter, and speedometer fitted (and calibrated). The car has a factory optional tonneau cover supplied. All donor vehicle parts were fully reconditioned using MG specialist, the engine capacity was increased to 1330cc to give a better performance and converted to unleaded fuel. Twin SU carburettors, set-up by a period specialist (Ron Harper) to give excellent starting and running. Minilite wheels, Mountney period Red leather steering wheel, front anti roll bar, Tonneau cover. Front driver seat is on sliders. Asking price is £ 17,950 or near offers. Would also take a standard Westfield in part Exchange. For more details / pictures give me a call 07770 934673 or PM on here.