Car SOS, Series 3. Is it going to happen?

[JPB]

....the noise the Darts make is rather nice

I agree, here's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8C4vNjDaSo

[Phil P]

Eeeh lad it quite teks me back!

[suffolkpete]

Just watched the Minor Traveller episode. I was astounded that someone could hand over £5000 up front for a wood restoration. I see Phil's role was mainly standing and watching while Fuzz did the spannering. As a job that looks right up my street Any vacancies? Or if you need a stand-in at any time I reckon I look enough like Phil to get away with it with the right overalls and glasses. I could probably master the Black Country accent with practice

[JPB]

Please tell me that they didn't really cut the wood to fit the dodgy inner arch/floor areas?

I recall the magazine's Minor Traveller restoration where the car was repaired in that area and turned out to be distorted as it had been manipulated without the rear end having been braced. They cut the welds, made some fillets to get it square again and then the wood fitted correctly and all was well, but I do realise that the bodged welds weren't in any way the fault of Fuzz and the chaps in the case of the SOS Minor which certainly looked and sounded absolutely perfect when presented to the owner. Maybe a spline too high on the front suspension though.

[rich.]

i recently saw the dart episode.. i want workshop phils autograph

[tractorman]

The Traveller stirred a lot of memories for me - especially Fuzz's own Traveller - same age and colour as our last one! The "Lowlight" reminded me of our first Minor (an early MM convertible) and there was a green Traveller that reminded me of our second Minor (though I think the green was darker on our 55 one)!

"Woody" tends to be a term used by non-owners in my experience - any owner I've met called them Travellers - perhaps that's just a local thing though! I think of American estate cars as Woodies (probably from the Beach Boys songs!)

I think Fuzz missed something far more important than badly fitting wood: the car had the wrong ashtray: a chrome one under the dash! It looked like the correct (for era) plastic ones were below the parcel shelf - and that the owner was a non-smoker - so the "extra" one should have been taken off!! TBH, I found the later ashtrays were annoying - too low and, as I smoke with my left hand, on the wrong side!

However, I agree with John - trimming the wood is the worst option and remaking the wheel arch would be the way I'd have done it. I don't think the suspension looked too far out though - I suspect many have sagged over the years and are lower than originally intended; certainly all ours (and others I drove in the early 70s) were quite high for a short git like me - there again, I did have a Hornet at the time!

IIRC Equity have higher pay rates for speaking parts. Perhaps Phil fell foul of their rules in the Dart episode!

[JPB]

Since nobody mentioned it, and as we're getting into details like the ashtray ; what about the steering wheel? I love the wire spokes but the fully resin coated two spoke one seen in the "before" shots is correct for that car. I agree that the suspension on a new one would have taken time to settle but the positive camber suggested that perhaps the bars on this example had been adjusted up a little too far, especially as they appeared not to relax into a more vertical attitude when the car moved off with all of those people aboard.

[Classic Microcars]

Just watching my recording of this episode. Once again, being frustrated by the nonsense of telling us that it could reach x Km/hr. For Heaven's sake, in England we use MILES PER HOUR. To metricate everything is just ridiculous and destroys the rest of a good programme.

[rich.]

i use kmh ...

[JPB]

England isn't the only country within the British Isles, I can think of at least two that show KM on road signs these days and besides, isn't it less logical to quantify some things by imperial and some by metric measures as we do?