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First outing with the her new shoes on

You can tell the weather is improving, five cars out to play tonight at The Halfway House pub in Cullompton. I met up with Matt in Illminster and we had a fun drive down over the Blackdown hills, much more pleasant in daylight! Eight of us in total, good to catch up and have a natter about all things Westfield and not. We even managed a quick photo shoot once the car park emptied out a bit. Heading home was a tad chilly, so a quick stop for fuel at Illminster services was welcome, the guy serving thought I was mad!

I used 15mm spacers on the rear of mine when I bought some wheels and tyres that had an offset that much different from the originals. Longer studs were needed as only eight turns of the nuts seemed marginal. There was debate on here at the time about how many turns were required as minimum for optimum strength. There was no firm conclusion so I thought overkill would avoid any other 'kill'. If 'blind' nuts were fitted, though, bottoming-out of the nuts was a risk if not allowed for.

I’ve been quiet on this thread for the last few months, mainly because there had been some suggestion that the regulations would change for this year so I waited for entries to open earlier this month before investing too much in the build. That don’t stop me drawing though and gathering a few of the parts need for the build. One part I did buy over winter was a body to make the sidecar. I’d looked at various things such as pedal bins and water butts but in the end I found an eBay seller local to me who made fibreglass tote Tot-Rod bodies. The cost wasn’t much more than a pedal bin would be and it would save me a lot of fabrication work. With that sorted I moved on to finalising the sidecar drawings, I’d initially looked to mount the pivot low to minimise tyre scrub but since the course is straight and the turns are minimal I instead settled on a high pivot as it would simplify the construction. The sidecar frame itself is quite crude but I wanted to keep the design of it simple and the weight down. Finally to get the BMX looking more like a motorcycle I modelled an engine. This will also double as a mount for the sidecar and also stop the crank arms from rotating. This week I stripped the BMX down and it got a rattle can finish in Red and Black while I wait for the laser cut parts to arrive so I can fabricate the sidecar. Finally my trusty companion Gromit who will be riding alongside me.

Last piece of the jigsaw today. My spacers arrived in time to get the fitted while I had the wheels off. All done, car is back on four wheels! Rear arches filled much better now. I’ll take it for a quick test this lunchtime, and if it stops, and the rears don’t fall off, I’ll brave it to Cullompton for our meet tonight!! Perhaps not on the M5 though! 🤪🤪

Thanks, it was the 2nd hole that threw me, mine is a non FW!

You're well past rebab! You should be in a carbon fibre coffin 😉

Do I spy a carbon adict ? 😉

I have some lol 😆

They fit here on the FW rear end The holes are or the roll bar and the harness eyelet bolt

My tin top is a Range Rover so I need the best breakdown recovery and have found the AA to be the best in our area. The renewal quote based on a household of three was a staggering £526 up from £407 the previous year. Trying to cut costs and on the basis that only 2 in our household actually need cover, I phoned the AA. By removing one person, the cost went down to £421. Ok. About right proportion. Next I pleaded poverty. Immediately the price went down from £421 to £158 based on the same level of membership!! Paid immediately in case they noticed the mistake!!

Have a look at AutoAid. Great price and fantastic service.

I’ve been with Britannia Rescue for years. £150 per year which covers me and Dawn as drivers or passengers in any vehicle and additionally 1 named vehicle on the policy for any driver. This includes home assist and recovery to any U.K. destination. I’ve had the need to use them a couple of times in the last couple of years (once with a trailer) and they’ve been faultless.

That makes complete sense, exactly how I would have thought it through myself if I were fitting them to my Westfield Stuart 👍 My Jag ones were specific to the model of car, made by Direnza. They really are excellent quality I have to say. https://www.direnza.co.uk/product-category/wheel-spacers/

I just choose 45mm bolts as the originals were 25mm plus the 20mm spacers so my simple logic was that I would end up with the same amount of thread in the hub. What I haven’t been able to verify is how much was in in the first place but it should be all the way through I think, looking at the depth on the wheel etc.

Welcome to the Westfield family @SteveG, looks you've got a great car there. Hope to catch up with you at one of the local meetings very soon. Don't forget the Warwickshire Area meets at the Falcon, Birmingham Road, Hatton, CV35 7HA, from 7.30pm, 3rd Thursday of the month.

Thank you Karl, that's much appreciated. It will definitely be looked after under my ownership too. No questions at the moment, but appreciate the offer. Hope you're enjoying your new one too?

Hi Steve I'm pleased it went to a good home and still in the local area 💪 If I can help with anything let me know 👍

Gutted, I always enjoy this event!

Arrww. Well I'm sure there will be 1 later in the year. The world goes mad when technology fails ay lol.

I've got some similar 16mm ones and they've been absolutely fine

Another form of tracked machinery.

I have altered the post with the invoice in it (blacked out two areas on the invoice) due to the fact it contained highly sensitive bank account details as well as an email address and phone number, which being in a public area could have caused major security issues for the poster.

I probably know a bit more than most on this as a couple of us have been putting in a lot of time (some more than I) trying to help in our own time in the back ground. The car was a non-runner being sold at a very low price for a Westfield of exportable age. It last had an MOT in 2020 and had been sat untouched ever since. James (who was selling the car) managed to get the car started and a video was seen of it ticking over (although not running particularly well). Using contacts from our end, a transport company was sourced for Nikos to get the car to the docks in Bristol and he had sorted the export paperwork. Rather than being container shipped, the car was being exported as a running car (i.e. was to be driven onto and off the ship by the dockworkers). The transport company did not start the car, they winched it onto and off their trailer and it was delivered safely. When the dock workers attempted to start the car they could not. It was assumed that they were not used to an old car running webers. At this point, a helpful member rang various local garages who could attend the dock to get the car started. Paul at Bristol Classics agreed to do this, arriving very early to try and start the car. Unfortunately when the car eventually started (after over 2 hours of fault finding) the carbs were so far out of tune a backfire caused the filters to catch fire. Thankfully Paul managed to extinguish the flames. Bristol Classics then agreed with Nikos that the car be transported to their workshop to get the car running. They spent many hours on it with various electrical and fueling issues. For instance, they found the ignition was permanently on (which they fixed), the fan switch had failed and the fuel was stale (tank drained, system flushed and fresh fuel added). On inspection of the carbs, the 40 webers are of two different types (one from a Lotus and one from an Alfa) with different jets etc. The carbs were dismantled and cleaned along with new jets etc so the car could run with reasonably balanced fueling. While the bill is a lot if money, the car was not in a road legal state (known to have no MOT and be a "barn find"). Bristol Classics have done a lot of work and shared photos and videos at most stages of the work. The sale agreement (who with, what was described etc) is really between the seller and the buyer. It's not something I could or would offer an opinion on in open forum as its not fair on either party without all of the facts. Even with the £1500 spent, the car us still thousands below the price of all other exportable age Westfields I have seen for sale. On a side note, I'd like to thank the people who have helped in the background (you know who you are!). One person in particular has spent hours and hours of his own time liaising with the docks, transport companies and the garage trying to help someone in need.

Yes it was well looked after, always immaculate and no expense spared. Karl only decided to trade it in a few weeks ago as a MegaS2000 came up. Karl's new one on the left, mine on the right

And I don't driver her in the dark but I am impressed with the lights!

I blame @Crash test dummy. Just finished the painstakingly pain in the butt job and replaced the floor.

Sorry, forgot the house rules!

Something Westfield related for me finally. I received the replacement pushrod for my AP Racing Master cylinder so replaced that and got it all put back together. Hopefully 🤞 can get the brakes bled today and if the weather is good take it to the meet tomorrow night. I’ll post up separately with more on what I’ve done. Hopefully my pedals are finally well positioned and I’ll have a firm brake pedal 👍🤞

Hiya Dean, welcome to a great club, so much in-tel from a vast array of like minded folks. In 11 months of asking some mad questions, never less than 5 responses to everything & no such thing as a silly question. Learnt so much so quick & use the forum daily for parts & Tech Talk a bargain investment for the yearly subs. Car looks stunning & good job you posted pic’s I quickly found out it was “the law” to do so. Where in the country see ya? Phil R

Ah ha! A full member now, and here she is

Somebody should snap this up! Love the colour 👌