A Mostly British Obsession

Category: Past Indiscretions (Page 16 of 25)

Valuable, if hard, lessons learned

Fetch!

In a bout of sensibility I have sold my Rovers back to the guy who sold them to me. My wife is extremely concerned.

Loose Ends

There are a couple of machines in the “Past Indiscretions” column which (until now) have had no words spilled about them–mainly because they weren’t all that remarkable.
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Can’t Have Too Many Rovers

1968 Rover 2000 Parts Car

This is the parts car which came with the red Rover. It looks fairly decent from the outside until you begin poking at it, and then you realize that it is rusted beyond repair. Too bad, I kind of like this color more than the red.

I think I will swap the wheels onto the red car, though, I think the chrome Rostyles are pretty smart on these cars. It also has an original radio and roof-mounted aerial, which is neat.

Parted from this Vale

Dump Run w 1968 F250

I finally got rid of the rusty body shell from the “parts MGB” today. I had to surrender the title to do so, which I guess is proper–but also flushes my idea of finding a decent shell to put the saved mechanicals in. (Not that I’m ever going to get around to that, realistically.) So, with that, I’m going to remove 1964 MGB #2 from my current list–a victory for common sense, alas.

Shown in the photo is the trailer I part-own with my neighbor. It’s a neat design, all aluminum, so it’s pretty easy to haul. Need to do something with the sleazy wheels that are on it, though.

New Bumper…Last July

1968 Ford F250

I guess I should get around to updating this blog more frequently at all. Goldie is still going great, a wonderful old truck. I put a new bumper on last summer, which improved the looks from the back about 100%. I’m now in the process of putting in a new brake controller and a receiver-style hitch to haul around the car trailer, which I’ll undoubtedly be using to ferry more of my precious junk hither and yon.

Truck has passed 100,000 miles now. That’s only 2,500 miles a year–mind you, that’s also 10,000 gallons of gas, so that might be part of the reason for the low mileage.

Where I Left Off on the Ferguson…

1955 Ferguson TO35

Since most of what I have left to do on the Ferguson is rattle-can painting, and it really should be dry and above 50 degrees to do so–and since we live in a hole with only an open carport on the north side of the building…well, it will be April before I can finish. But you can see above I got a lot done, and the machine looks 100% better. It doesn’t stand up to “concours” level inspection, but then again it will be bouncing around the field acquiring scratches and such. Hopefully I can avoid major incidents and keep up with a touch-up brush until I get tired of that.

All that remains, really, is to assemble and paint the hood.

So, Like, I’m 20 Again

1968 Rover 2000 TC

I last had one of these 20 years ago, when I was 20. Too bad this new car doesn’t make me feel 20, but what can you do?

This is a fairly nice, straight car, a TC with a manual gearbox rather than the single-carb slush box I had back then. It’s a reasonably fun car to drive, and is in decent shape, if you don’t mind sun-crusted seats and original paint faded from the California sun. And a few dings. And a few minor mechanical issues. And…

In any case, this is now my “daily” driver for winter use and abuse, sharing duties with the Ford–the 10 MPG of the truck was wearing a bit thin.

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