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Essex monthly meet stated with a hour and a half blat around the countryside then back to Runwell Toby to meet our guests from Essex 7's good turn out nice guys interesting motors.

Evening all, Just came across this video and wanted to share. It's a brilliant overview of all the sorts of adjustments we have on our cars, how to use them, when to use them, and what does what. The guy is mainly into rallying but he discusses track use too and all the info crosses over. Enjoy! Adam

Blyton weekend 13th/14thJuly 2019 As usual the trackday on Friday was well attended and most people were very happy with their track time and the open pit lane as well as the tuition package offered by Alan and Nick Mugglestone of Triple M Motorsport. Mick Dent was out practicing but his car suffered brake binding , a failed bottom rose joint on his ARB and the threaded end of his flatshifter sheread off. Good use was made of the phone so that a die was obtained to rethread the gearshift rod and a replacement left hand threaded ARB rose joint was obtained before practice on Saturday. Mick Skidmore was there in his now turbo charged XE engine car. Adam and Charlotte Phelps were getting some practice in the partially rebuilt Busa following quite a bit of damage (bent rims, upright failure, wishbone damage, broken steering rack and cracked body panels) at Prescott when John Phelps had an argument with the scenery. Unfortunately Richard Houlgate had to withdraw from the sprint as his clutch slave cylinder failed and could not be repaired. Tony Mitchell ( AMM Photography) was there to take pictures during the trackday which are available from his website. Steve did a few laps to get used to his new Honda fireblade car nicknamed “Terry’s spare car” for some reason. As evening approached the rain started at 1915hrs and that curtailed any track walk or outdoor festivities. Poor John Williams was suffering from a very bad cold as well as the stress of being the Event secretary so he and others went off to the pub for the GF Meal deal! Saturday. By 0600hrs the overnight rain had stopped and the track began to dry out slowly. Signing on and scrutineering went smoothly and quickly and by 0900 we were ready for the first practice runs. As the Eastern track was still quite damp there were a few offs as people tried but failed to find grip on the yellow painted rumble strips. Steve had problems with overheating and we found that the water pump relay or fuse were at fault and we continued to monitor the situation throughout the day and indeed over the weekend. We installed a bigger in line fuse and borrowed another 4 pin relay from Derek Hodder. The worst failure happened to Jason Brown and that put him out on practice 1 as his nearside top wishbone adjuster sheared and damaged the wishbones etc so that was a sadly frustrating game over for him. Also in big trouble was Simon Waterfall who lost a bolt fron the gearbox to bellhousing connection which flew around battering the clutch case etc. Amazingly the Mugglestones went home and got an engine lift and Simon and Alex Gaskin( plus others) removed the engine, repaired it and reinstalled the engine in time to get a timed run in before 1600hrs and win his class.!!! The two practices were over by around 1100hrs so we went straight into the first timed run which was held before lunch at 1145 hrs. In T1 John Hoyle broke the class record easily scoring 101 points and for the rest of the day he helped on the start line. Matt Turner and I started our great battle again and we both broke the class record and battled throughout the day to see who would be quickest. Adam Phelps was also flying against a hard target time (class record) Steve was getting quicker but was still adapting to the revs, lightness, paddle shift, flatshifting and pure adrenalin of the blade car. Martin Harvey was going very well and Howard Gaskin and Keith Adams were having their usual battle and Howard was on his new Avon ZZS list 1B tyres. All the class B and C cars were putting in some good times. Michael Skidmore was using the extra power he now had however he blew a core plug in practice and got a lift to Scunthorpe in a Porsche car to get a replacement which he and John Hoyle replaced quite quickly so he was ready for T2. Steve Arkley, who had travelled 9.5 hrs from way up in bonnie Scotland was getting to know people and loving the track. Andy Silman was out for his first competition in several years in the Siltech car and from what I heard has caught the bug! We broke for lunch at 1145hrs and in afternoon we had 4 more timed runs. There were battles going on not just in classes but between drivers. During T2 Del decided to use all the yellow rumble strip exiting the lefthander at Bishops and he ended up in the field but there was no damage to the car as far as I know. It was a fantastic day of competition and the top 9 cars included 8 Westfields and were only beaten by Glyn Sketchley’s single seater Force. Many people had PBs and were pleased with their results and we were all happy to have had 2 practice and 5 timed runs. The three people beating the existing records were John Hoyle, Matt Turner and myself so it was good points for the Yorkshire area. The evening BBQ went well with the usual banter, beers, red wine sampling and leg pulling and the Marshalls were well fed and watered with Ian (Tolfree) and Andy Banks hosting the proceedings. The rain started at about 2130hrs so it was an early finish for some and the rain persisted during the night but had cleared up by morning. Sunday Today saw the continuation of the battles of yesterday but using the Outer circuit . Mark Anson had travelled up from the Lydden sprint on Saturday and arrived on site late so was looking a bit worn out as he had also been stuck in a traffic jam for around 4 hours. At least he had a toilet, food and drink in his camper van. Mark Bishop (class A) had been offered a double drive of Craig Spooners class C car as he had not been able to repair his own after last weekend at Harewood. Today we would get 2 practice and 6 timed runs so there was a lot of activity in the paddock all day long. Practice went well apart from Graham Frankland on P1 who lost his bottle of sun cream somewhere on the circuit when it fell off his boot cover. John Williams had a bit of fun presenting it back to him at the awards ( luckily the marshalls found it and could not stop laughing about it.) John Hoyle and Adam Phelps set the pace again and were determined to repeat their Sat success. Timed runs began before lunch and after T2 Steve Arkley left as he had such a long return journey to make but he had loved the weekend and is chasing the Novice trophy. At some stage, maybe even Saturday, Simon Waterfall suddenly felt he feet getting a bit warmer than usual and eventually realised that it was hot water leaking from the heater hose but he was in the middle of his run so could not stop. The result was some nasty blistered feet….hope it heals quickly mate. Mark Bishop and Craig Spooner went well until the engine expired with some internal head damage at the end of T4/T5. John Hoyle on ZZR tyres set a great time again as did Adam Phelps in class H who was 3rdoverall. Derek Hodder won his class on the day beating Garry Bunn by around 1sec. Charlotte Phelps achieved a PB and was very happy. Steve Everall went better today and is getting the hang of these sewing machines I think. Martin Harvey won class D against Howard and Keith so had a good weekend. Tony Smiley in the Busa had a few technical issues but I think he posted a PB. Andy Silman got to within 0.4 secs of the class B record with a time of 68.56secs. So what have I missed out????? Ah yes the continuing battle between Matt Turner and myself . I had beaten Matt on Sunday at Harewood with my last run so he was out for revenge. He had already just beaten me on Saturday and was keen to repeat it as he had no respect or sympathy for old people! What a great day it was . Matt had a few slides and spins as well as attacking a few innocent cones but he was flying. By T3 he was leading by 0.02sec and by T4 he increased this to 0.6 secs. As we both closed in on the class record previously set at 63.99secs by ACW. In T5 I really pulled my finger out and recorded the fastest at 63.03secs and as Matt waited for his run his supporters told him the news…bet that went down well. Anyway he went for it and I was gob smacked that as I watched he recorded something like 62.85secs to get ahead of me. However, just as I was about to throw my toys out of my pram there was a debate about whether his time was valid. Apparently Matt had passed 2 red flags at the end of the run but not seen them I had every sympathy for him as its impossible to see those flags when you are concentrating so hard on the track and trying to stay on the gas. His time was not allowed and as you can guess he was not pleased. Being a good sport I gave him a big hug and said get out there and do it again mate and blow me down he did just that on his last run recording 62.81 secs. He came back shouting “Oh Yes , Oh Yes” so a fantastic result.. He got his revenge so we will see what happens when we next meet at 3 Sisters. The people who be at target were John Hoyle, Matt Turner, myself with Derek just 0.5secs shy of class H target. Mark Anson won his single seater class and picked up another 101 points with his T2 being the fastest. So a great weekend and hope to see even more taking part next year and thanks to John Williams and all the helpers for a well run weekend. Terry Everall

Currently in the mental busy period at work so very time limited on the build, and also taken a couple of steps backward on the inlet. My fabricated inlet wasnt going to work, the inlet trumpets were starting to deform when securing the silicon joins to the flanges. Plus with the weight of the throttle body etc it just wasnt beefy enough. So I've copied with the help of @CosKev and gone with a mondeo st200 inlet and throttle body. However after this arrived I found I needed a lower jaguar inlet from a later engine as this had a taller manifold. I then also went for a lower profile steel fuel rail from a 2.1 v6. This is dead headed and no pressure sensor fitting on the end. New inlet manifold and fuel rail in. This is the inlet resting on To make this fit needed a pair of spacers making. 15mm just about gives enough clearance. And with a bit of port matching. Still need a bit of tidying up. The inlet had all the fittings for egr breathers etc cut off and smoothed. I was hoping to use the iacv ducting as standard but it just wouldn't fit under the bonnet. So that was lopped off aswell. The standard st200 throttle is 60mm but the inlet is 65mm so had it bored and cleaned up with a new butterfly to the 65mm to match. Because the iacv will now have to be remote mounted I've made an adapter plate to fit it. I'll be getting the holes in the manifold welded up and smoothed and will get the adapter welded at the same time So sadly not a very exciting update, and the inlet has been by far the most frustrating part of the engine install so glad it's nearly sorted now. Onwards and upwards!

Hi All, Had a fabulous Saturday morning achieving a first start for the big black beast. Started on the first kick and the throttle bodies needed very little tuning. Had a little drive backwards and forward to test out the transmission. All went well. Thanks Cider King for all your help again.

A beautiful winters day here is Tasmania so a bbq was had A yellow Elfin, my Aussie Westfield and in the shed is a PRB

Arrived today!!! Great customer service were with me in 4 day from ordering set up and ready to fit, thanks @DamperMan cant wait to get them on the car,

Stopped for lunch at Bala lake edge today, another nice run around the B roads of North Wales...

And the winner is....... @Snappy!!!! Last night I removed the bolt, Circled in BLUE, I had fitted into the throttle cable to throttle linkage mechanism (that holds it to the TBs). This 'allowed' the linkage to move with accelerator depression and in effect rotate the linkage from horizontal to approx 10-15o below horizontal (Blue Line) - this had the effect of pushing the actual TB throttle linkage/backing off and shutting the butterflies. When started it was at 500 rpm!!!! So wound in the idle screw until at 900 rpm and then shut down. Then disconnected the 90o transfer arm from the cable bell crank to the butterfly actuator and refitted the bolt, hence securing the cable linkage in the horizontal. Then with some trial and error and adjusting both the 90o arm and the locating screw/ball joint until it was smooth in operation. Each time starting to check still on idle....several attempts here (including me winding in when should have been out and 180o out etc etc) Then finally at right idle and smooth unimpeded movement I adjusted the throttle cable to be tighter, with 2-3 mm play before take up. So, as mentioned before, the engine was behaving correctly with correct fuel, air, spark to go broooom....just that the 'correct' fitment of the throttle cable linkage had caused the mechanism to advance to approx 3000rpm position. Now that is all done, time to refill Main and Diff gearboxes, fit seats, seat belts, roll bar and get out for a test blat! Hopefully before Summer disappears... I cannot thank you all enough for your advice and buckets of patience whilst I eliminated so many 'possibles' and got back to the start...and yes @Kit Car Electronics, Mike I have kicked myself several times over for such a simple fault that I added by correcting a different error. Chris

A video of various cars from Fridays track day. 24 minutes of video with other cars, from 1 hour 50 minutes of video track time..I drive on my own a lot is seems 😞 The @KugaWestie 'not so slow' mini at 17mins. Hopefully most people are in the Video somewhere?

@ MOT with Pass 🙂

Hey guys, had a call from Simpsons this morning saying was finished & he was kind enough to send me some pictures. The below picture is with the decat fitted which just slots out :0) Suffice to say, im very happy with it & looking forward to firing her up for the first time :0) Hopefully the decision to stick to the OEM header specs pays off

Pffff, this "hobby" has a steep steep learning curve... I rather swap another engine in my Westfield But my 1st attempt at making a back plate for the Hella 3rd brake light mounted on the rollbar (those who have one will know what I'm on about) I would almost call it a success! Had initially designed it as one piece, but then discovered that the dimensions were too big for the Ender 3. Split it up in 2 and added mini dowels to assist with the fitting. Forgotten the support for the pegs, so they would not fit until I sanded a little off them. No biggie really. What is a biggie is that I did not design the cable entry hole for it, so I will either do another attempt at the right hand side (where the cable exits on the led strip), or hack the existing one just to see what it will look like. I've trial fitted the left hand side and that was almost spot on! Just the rounding of my ellipse is narrower than the led strip. Would hardly be noticeable when fitted though, so I'll probably leave that as is. If anyone wants the STL file(s), let me know

Looking good Surprising how much time goes into that inlet conversion! With it though imo,the sleeker/more equal looking end result is much better

just thought id share my home made pump for filling gearboxes and diffs for very little cost needed are 2 x 6 mm 30 to 40 mm long steel bolts and nuts plastic would be easer to drill center out with a 4 mm drill bit some 8 mm fuel tube or plastic tubing laying around if you have it 1 rubber seal for inside lid top I used a old bike innertube cut it round and put holes in for the two bolts 1 jubilee clip optional to old the push bike pump nipple into tube so most gear oil comes in the 1 liter bottles so why not use them has your bottle saving on the cost of buying the pumps take the top off the liter bottle of oil nearly all tops fit other bottles and drill two 6 mm holes in it use 2x 6 mm bolts about 30 mm long and drill center out with aprox 4 mm drill bit now make a rubber seal to fit inside the top cap just to stop fluid leaking out when pressuring bottle if you have a rubber washer the right size even better put both the bolts through the top leaving a few mm longer on one to push the plastic pickup pipe onto it shown in pics and put bolts on to clamp it to the top making Shure you have the rubber seal on also the two bolt tops that come out of the bottle top need to have longish threads to push fit the tubing on see pics screw the top then on to the bottle of oil with the pick up pipe been long to reach to bottom of bottle to get all the oil connect to one of the top tubes fitted with the push bike nipple air pump adaptor shown in pic they can be got from any cycle shop about a pound or you may have a holo pipe that fits so you can fit your method of pressure pump or compressor the other long tube then pushes into the diff / gearbox and because its thin it can go around obstacles where has trying to but the bottle straight on with the spout usually ends in tears and mess I use my air compressor gently not to over pressure the bottle or use a bike pump this fits onto the nipple that jubilee clipped in the tube I am Shure there are loads of pumps to buy and members will have other ideas but some wont so just a idea from me this could also be used on bigger gallon containers using the same idea but using the bigger top thanks for looking sorry if my wording is a bit all over but see the pics has I ask for loads of info from members its my little way of helping back thankyou john

WOW what a great day out !!! a big thanks to all who came today and enjoy great day out in glorious weather we did 220 miles and I’m sure that everyone from down south did much more we set off south at 8.30 to meet up with everyone at glenshee, getting there a tad early meant there was time for a bacon roll and coffee sitting outside in the sun , there are a lot worse places to be on a Sunday morning! Soon there were 3 Westies and a tiger parked and ours made 5 a quick chat and we decided to press on to tomintoul and have a regroup there, on passing corgarf Les with his seight was waiting and waving us on he caught us up at tomintoul, onto a refuel at Grantown-on-Spey before taking the backroads through nethy bridge, coylum bridge and feshie bridge to loch insch boathouse for lunch after some good food and chatter, John said he was going to press on south so we all headed down the backroad to Kingussie and Newtonmore before saying goodbye Les said he was going for fuel and then to explore lochness side so we parted ways and we headed back up speyside for home. sat here in glorious sunshine and I’d just again like to thank everyone for a great day out

Well thanks for the ideas guys.so I started looking around for best price on pack safe and after looking at the pictures and thinking "how hard could it be to make one" which is what normally enters my mind so a quick look on fleebay and £30 later and a few evenings work I'm halfway done . 1.5mm stainless steel PVC coated wire rope and a bag large bag of crimps

Dave, Is this a John Prescott moment? Davey two Westfields !

couldn’t resist. Sorry.

24 cars turned out.

Sunday morning Blatter's! Really good drive. Nice and quiet 👍

On the front at Woolacombe Ilsham marine drive Torbay, the week is almost over so it’s M5 back home on Sunday

Hmm .. phoned them again yesterday but they still couldn't find my details. So they suggested I phone again today with the 'special delivery' number so they could chase. BUT as luck would have it ... the postman has just delivered my registration and tax documentation. Insurance company informed ... now to get the number plates made

Well it’s been a few weeks of not touching the car and as such I forgot all the places I had put things so I didn’t forget. Took most of the day just finding bits and bobs. ECU is back from repair and the verdict was I was just unlucky and had an early life failure of the processor. Seems to be fine now although my relationship with the neighbours may have been strained by the noise on my drive this morning. it appears the camber is a touch out as is the steering but it was good enough to do a 20 point turn and get it nose in ready for the body to go on. secured the water hoses hoses to the rad then fitted the ECU and relays Still have a lot of wiring work to tidy up and secure but It’s good to be back at it. Now time to work out how to fit the body.

Finally got the cooling system back together this weekend. Had the engine running and was able to finally test the gearbox, clutch and brakes by driving it up and down the driveway. Also wanted a neat way to secure one of my cooling hoses so designed and printed a base for it. A cable tie then loops through the bottom slot and up and over.

Got late to the party, but am doing my best to catch up . Printer installed (Ender 3 Pro) and bed levelled. Just doing some test prints from Teaching Tech from the "How to tune your slicing settings featuring Ender 3" whilst waiting for Virgin to take my internet away (and hopefully fix it again!).

Now I've tested the fuel line a few times for leaks I feel confident to bolt down the boot box and cover. Considering this was reusing the old cover fitted with an RAC roll bar (bolt in rear stays) to use with the new MSA roll bar and narrowing and shortening the boot box underneath I'm pleased with the results. It's very secure to.

Well it’s been an odd couple of months since I last wrote an update, not because I’ve been idle, but because lots has been happening! An Aerospace engineering contract I had been working on for the past two years came to an abrupt end in May as a result of company cost cutting… All very well but trying to find work when everyone is thinking about holidays is a fruitless enterprise. That coupled with being ‘over-qualified’ (i.e. too old); not having the right skill set (i.e. too old); wanting too much money (i.e. too old); being beaten by someone more aligned to their requirements (i.e. too old) doesn’t help. I’m a Chartered Engineer for goodness sake with 25 years of manufacturing and high performance materials experience. Anyway enough of the moaning and onto an update (but if anyone knows of any work going in the Hertfordshire area I’d be interested…). Despite being at home for the past few weeks, I’ve been busy catching up on all the household DIY jobs that have been neglected, doing the washing etc., and then my wife cunningly slipped in a comment that it ‘would be nice for the summer to have some decking out back’ – so here it is in all its glory. XI wise I’ve also made some progress. In my last update I had just machined some steering rack stops and was wondering why they were different lengths. Anyway I’ve stopped being so anal about it, have fitted the rack and once the fibreglass is in place I’ll adjust them accordingly. I next moved on to the front hubs and brakes. As I was fitting Moss roller taper bearings I had to be very careful to set the pre-load. The instructions are quite clear in that this is set without the oil seal fitted, which of course meant fitting and removing the bearings numerous times whilst trying different shim thicknesses until the prescribed torque setting on the nut and the end float were within tolerance. This took some time to get right but did result in trashing one bearing as I didn’t use a large enough hub puller, resulting in a distorted cage and the rollers falling out! I used my ‘dti’ with magnetic stand mounted on the brake disk to measure the end float – eventually it all came good. The brake calipers went on easily enough, although I don’t think that the MG break hose lock plates are used. I’ve fitted them, but will remove them if not required. The front end (suspension/ steering rack/ anti-roll bar/ break assemblies) is now complete apart from future nut tightening and setting up. I’ve also made some good progress on the back end. As I am fitting the longer Protech coil over shock units, I’m employing the Simon M method of cutting a large hole in the rear floor panelling and fitting a rubber ‘gasket’. As I am retaining the original drum brake and hand break mechanism, my aperture needed to be larger to allow for the handbrake balance lever assembly which would have collided with the panelling at full axle droop. I went for 3 mm aluminium checker plate to re-introduce some of the stiffness back into the panel, not thinking it through how I would actually cut it to shape, my nibbler accommodating up to 2 mm thick aluminium and it being too thick also for my jig saw. A hack saw blade/ one sided handle combo wasn’t up to the job so I resorted to drilling holes all the way around the internal profile, cutting through the joining walls with the hack saw blade followed by lots (and lots and lots and lots and lots!) of filing to make for a smooth edge. It’ll be secured in place with m6 stainless button head set screws with lock washers screwing into rivnuts. The gasket material is 3 mm thick nitrile rubber sheet which is oil resistant. Time will tell though how long it will last before going hard and cracking. Next was fitting the differential and axle casing. My MG came with two diffs of which I am using the ‘spare’ (3.9:1) as opposed to the lower ratio unit that was actually fitted. In terms of refurbishment I have simply replaced the pinion oil seal (hopefully retaining the same preload on the pinion bearings) and cleaned and painted the cast aluminium casing. Inspection of the pinion/ crown wheel etc. revealed no damage so I’ve simply fitted it with the option to have it rebuilt with a lsd later on. My clamping tool for undoing and re-torquing the pinion nut (and decking in its unfinished state!): I struggled somewhat with (of all things) the paper gasket between the diff and the axle casing. It needed a little knife fettling to make it fit over the studs, I made sure that the fettling took place where it fitted at the top of the casing, gravity hopefully being my friend! I’d read the horror stories about fitting the axle to the chassis with all sorts of techniques being involved – mostly using brute force and a wrecking bar! I fitted the two lower training arms to the chassis and then to the axle brackets quite easily. I then fitted the two top links to the axle only. The off side top link attached relatively easily to the chassis by jiggling the axle up and down at the opposite end. The final link (near side) was of course an absolute pig to locate squarely into chassis bracket. I tried the wrecking bar method to no avail – having visions of it becoming dislodged and flying through the air and impaling itself into something soft! Finally I managed to lever the bush into alignment with the bracket by inserting a long bar into the hole and leaning all my weight onto the axle to keep it in place whilst I hammered in the bolt. I had previously turned down the two lower trailing arm bolt heads (to half their thickness) to prevent them from colliding with the lower chassis rails at full axle droop. Photo below shows both turned down heads on the left hand side, with an un-machined head on the right hand side. Once tightened there will be maybe 2 mm clearance between the bolt heads and the chassis rails. The shocks of course went smoothly into the top mounts, with a couple of washers required between their bushings and the chassis brackets to pack out the voids. Axle poking through bottom at full droop. The replacement drain plug (3/8 hex drive) is screwed in as far as it will go: Now that the rear end is assembled I’m starting to feel a lot better about the build, although I’ve now seen that at full axle droop the differential flange collides with one of the rivnuts – oh well not a major problem to solve (hacksaw!) and in all a good result I say! Next step is to build the axle casing back up with the half shafts and brake assemblies. I’ve read that the hand brake link rods can foul the panhard rod when the axle is at an extreme position, but I’ll bury my head in the sand over this one until I get to that stage, and then I’ll engineer a solution is required. I’ve noticed throughout this build that a hidden cost is that of taps to clean out internal threads that have been powder coated. The panhard rod internal thread being one in question. It is surprising just how hard the coating is, and a tap is the only way to safely clean it out. Well, that’s it for now and hopefully not another two months before the next update!

BOOOMM drop the mic. The registration documentation has arrived this morning. Hope it stops raining soon

On the others side there is a magnet , Looks like a speaker magnet, doughnut with a hole in. The screw looks to be in the middle of the magnet hole. It looks like a retro made drain hole. Personally i'd not touch it you never know what bright idea there has been or how successful it was. If its tight and not leaking its probably been loctited in. The cast iron is not very thick and not great for tapping. You don't want to take it out to find actually there was a nut on the other side and you can't access it. Or strip the thread and be in a similar position. Who has the Strap line... Every little job is just one stripped thread away from a massive job!... . If you want to drain the oil its possible to get most of it out using a Oil Extraction Vacuum pump down though the filler hole. Its very slow and won't get all the oil at least it gets 90% new oil into the gearbox. Just measure how much you get to to have an idea how sucessfull you've been. Another tip for most gearboxes..... never drop the oil until you know you can undo the filler level!....

Thanks Adge. My car is all ready for IVA next Friday. Here are some pictures, please let me know if anybody can see anything wrong.

A great day out, and thanks to Gary for organising. Good to meet up again with those from the 'wigwam' weekend a few weeks ago and also nice to meet some new (for me) faces. I made it home around 11:15 pm after some 13 hours in the saddle (minus stops) but it didn't end there, just time to make a cup of tea and watch the F1 to round off an excellent day. After I left Gary/Trina I basically completed the previous weekends run that I missed, going past Laggan, Spean Bridge, Fort Augustus, up east side of Loch Ness to Inverness then a sprint home to Sauchen. Really good roads with lots of new blacktop and stunning scenery in glorious sunshine. As we're all used to, our cars get so much appreciative positive attention where ever we stop. On Sunday particularly I lost count how many 'tourists' were taking pictures with several asking to sit in it.

treated the gun sponson to a bit of 'cast effect with the dremmel and filler to create smoother areas that would have had a going over with a grinder on the real thing. This had a few milling marks that needed to be removed but filler primer may have done the trick. Added the side plates to the lower hull. I have decided to etch prime everything and bolt it together and then base coat the lot as I'm wasting paint and time keep going over the same bits. The real tanks would have had a good wollop of paint right at the end anyway. Upper hull started. The plates are held together by round head bolts that once filled in with milliput look like the copper rivets. A bit of filler here and there but it goes together pretty well. Just for reference this is the real thing. Hard to believe that these things had a crew of six, pretty harsh in the desert.

I was on the phone to my mum on the way home; explaining that unlike my brother i get to meet my friends only a couple of times a year. This weekend was one of them! Blyton this year was good, and also emotional thank you to richard & jane usher for their amazing hospitality, and we wish them every success in their next adventure. I'm sure their will be post saying thank you as drivers get home unload and get a beer and watch the f1 repeat; but this event can't happen with without the help of an amazing helpers and teams...... Nigel Curry - thank you i did 17,000+ steps a day; god knows how many you did. the Amazing Alan Smith - clerk of the course the timing team - David Clay, Chris Winstanley Graham Frankland - the GF meal as good as ever. Andy Banks and Ian Tolfree - the braimasters 20 harewood team members led by Mike Shoreley Darlington & district Eastern Recovery Del for hosting the clubs kit @mrs panda - for putting up with this. all the drivers for making this a wow event. If i haven't mentioned you I'm sorry, I'm going to hibernate for 360 days and see you at blyton 2020 iI welcome ideas on how we can finish my last year on a high. eg parade lap etc... cheers Panda

Last night I finally got started on the dredded bonnet catches! Having read as much advice on here as possible and taking my time I set to my new bonnet with the Dremel. It wasn't as bad as expected, I took my time and trimmed a bit at a time. It still needs a bit more thinning to sit flush but getting there with one side. I'm thinking of using some leftover Methacrylate Adhesive to bond them.

Posted by Chris Brook..... "Just got back from a weekend marshaling this event for about the 7th year. Think my fellow Harewood Marshals will agree that I speak for all of us in saying "Thanks" for a great weekend of racing and fun. The BBQ you laid on was much appreciated" Let's do it all again next year." Gutted I couldn't head over, 1st Blyton missed since WSCC's been there. I'll make sure life revolves around Blyton in July 2020. Well done Panda et'All!!

Fuel filler cap now fits

As predicted it was tricky getting the rivets in, snapped the drill and spent an hour fishing it out , but got there in the end. All secure underside front to back. Now going to prep for dashboard fitting. I have decided my track record on riverserts isn't good and can imagine some splitting GRP, so I have gone for the sprung metal captured thread trim clips, hopefully they will be more forgiving.

Hi, Thanks for all the interest, but to let you know that everything has been sold and collected today. Good luck everyone. Have a great time building and driving your cars!😎 Cheers! Andy

Off to Blyton yesterday at silly o’clock

To idle that high it's either a massive air leak after the throttle body,or the idle control valve is knackered/wired up wrong.

Thanks to John and all involved for a great day today. Plenty of good track time and a great atmosphere and good to see so many Westies at one track! Hope you having a good night and a fast and safe weekend!

Screws and stitching plates removed. I then removed the gelcoat both sides of the cut /repair. I then feathered down the existing bodywork where it was cut to level into the new matting on the underside Close up of grinding/feathering down to the new underside matting Once this was done I laid up a couple of layers of chopped strand matting on the topside of the arch Finally a view from above looking down at the rear section of the arch. I am quite pleased with the initial shape that has been achieved. It feels like a good base to work on to smooth everything out

By request by Cider King, URL for First Engine start on YouTube.

I have been waiting for around six weeks for my M2 nuts so I decided to pick up a few locally just to get a feel for how the tracks go together. Because there is a big plastic/rubber pad in the middle they cannot be spray painted assembled so its very time consuming. Just for reference this is a M2 nyloc nut. You need a 4mm spanner for them and just as luck would have it its the smallest in my 1/4 inch socket set. The finished item. There are 162 links in total, 81 each side. 11 parts to each link. Keeps me out of trouble. Photos are getting better. @Chris King - Webmaster and Joint North East AO

Great weekend John, thank you for organising. Hope no-one found any raw sausages or burgers!! I will be back in 2020 for sure thanks Ian