Classic Silverstone

After the "comforts" of Classic Le Mans, we thought we'd do Silverstone in a bit of comfort, particularly as the forecast was for a bit of mud. Hence the new "komfy kamping" tent...

Proper sewn in groundsheet, under groundsheet and rugs on the floor! Plus a king size airbed

Here's a few pictures from the 700 plus taken at the event: (clicking on any picture will open them all up full size in a gallery format)

Practice session on Friday

Aston Martin DB6 (I think - it could be a 5)

I'm pretty sure the red and blue cars are Marcos GT's

We know what this is! TR4 attempting to pass an Aston

Classic Formula 1

Friday afternoon shift change at Dagenham, circa 1965

...and we thought the idea was to drive on the circuit!

Cortinas, Alfa and BMW 1800s round CLub corner

....hotly pursued by Mini Coopers

A very pretty Alfa Giulietta, I think?

Jaguar, C type I think, but could be a Lister

Lotus?

Could only be a Jaguar D type

Maserati

On Saturday, we were treated to a wing walking display. Not totally sure why it is called wing walking as they appear to be securely attached

Followed by a few more pictures of cars

Big Healey

TR4 again

Escort. I had one of these, once - but mine was a humble 1100 deluxe

Aston and 250 GTO racing for real

Another 250, this time racing an E type

Alfa Romeo

and ANOTHER! 250

and another. We stopped counting the car values in this race at £50 million

Aston Martin DB2

Here's a rare one (foreground) - a Jensen

Finally,  we see the parade of Ferrari F40's to celebrate 25 years of the model's introduction. You can have any colour you like as long as it is red! Breakdown services for the weekend were provided by the AA in conjunction with Trotters Independent Traders

Classic Le Mans

Last month I was intending to take the TR6 to Classic Le Mans. It wasn't to be as at the last minute I found a coupling in the steering had perished and so at the last minute, the 2000 stepped in as a substitute transport. Had I been thinking straight, this would have created the opportunity to take the "comfy camping" gear with me. But it didn't!  So here's a picture of the tiny £10 tent, plus small gazebo set up at Maison Blanc on the Thursday before the main event started.


The tent is slightly shorter than I am tall and just a little wider than a single airbed. Space is, as they say, at a premium! Two years ago in the scorching heat, it was fine but in this years mixed weather, it was a bit cramped.  To resist the temptation of using it again, it went into the skip! So at less than £2 per night camping, I can't complain, can I?

Friday was a day spent wandering around the village, looking at cars and sampling the beer. It would have been rude not to! A lot of the cars were under cover as a result of the rain - but here's a few...
To the right is a slightly potty looking Bentley and left a Zegato bodied Alfa Romeo

And below here, we found a Ferrari 365 Daytona.  There's a very strong David Bache influence in the design of the Daytona - looked at from the right angle, you can see a definite influence from the Rover 3500 SD1 - particularly from the front angle. Some say that it's the other way round of course...

Those who have seen "Cars" will easily recognise this next one - a Hudson Hornet, two-time winner of the "Piston Cup"

And to finish this section, a selection of pictures from the racing. The fencing at Le Mans is a challenge for photography unless you can get an official photographer's permit. But in view of what happened in 1955, you can well understand the need for caution...

Porsche 917, I think

Talbot 105

Talbot 105

Not sure what these are, other than blue cars...

Bentley or Lagonda - not sure

Night racing

Porsche 911

BMW 635, I think?

Probably a Renault, judging by the logos!

Ford Capri 3100RS

Matching Paintwork at long last!

Our TR6 had a little nest of metal weevils in the lower rear corner of the passenger door. As you may know, these delightful insects live on door skins and if left uncontrolled will rapidly turn metal into lace.
We chased them out and removed all sign of the rust before making good with filler and repainting.  This was originally done around 3 years ago. The problem was that the paint was not a good match and the difference in colour was very obvious.  It has irritated me ever since.
A few weeks ago, I decided to deal with it properly - or at least as properly as I can until I replace the door with a new old stock one that is sitting around somewhere with my name on it. So, the cellulose filler was scraped out and replaced with marine epoxy and prepared for a repaint.  Originally in the "wrong" colour front out of a rattle can, but fully intending to repaint in the correct colour.


I had acquired a tin of the correct paint from Autopaints in Brighton (well recommended supplier, by the way) and used this to repaint the offside sill last winter. The colour match was near perfect. However, as you know, I have another Triumph, finished in French Blue -and mostly faded, original paint.  I also have a 500ml tin of French Blue from the same supplier, but it is ever so slightly too dark and therefore, I have obtained a small tin of plain while cellulose paint to "tint" this to get the colour right.


You're ahead of me at this point, aren't you.  Yes - in a moment of dippiness, I "tinted" the wrong tin and so needed to get another half-litre of Sapphire Blue.  Well, we all have our moments.


Now with the correct paint, I set up my spray gun and repainted the door in the right colour.  I wasn't happy with the finish.  My "big" spray gun, a pro Sealey job needs more air volume than my compressor can really manage at the pressure it needs to atomise correctly and so the paint came out in blobs.  There was only one answer - a tin of "Nitromors".  It seems that they have removed the active ingredient from Nitromors as it didn't seem to work (I recall reading something about this and the old stuff being carcinogenic, hence the change to another recipe). So, the paint needed to be removed the old fashioned way with a sanding disc, right back to bare metal.  I lost count of how many layers of paint came off, but there were a **lot**.


And eventually, having put on 3 coats of zinc based etch primer, I was ready to respray, this time using my little touch-up spray gun - the sort that is sold to spray tan salons to spray people, but it is brilliant for spraying cars, just a little slow.  37 coats of paint later, 2 weeks for the paint to harden, 2 hours with 1800 grit wet'n'dry and the bar of soap from the utility room then an hour or so with the electric polisher first with G3 and then 3M "Finesse" and we have the finish as shown in the picture below. The paint isn't perfect, but the colour match is! It did take a little while to remove all the dust and old paint shrapnel. Next time I do a paint job, perhaps I'll put the hood up and shut the windows...