Gate crashers! And very welcome they were too. We were originally approached by the Surrey Street Rodders, who organise a garage night once a month, to see what's going on in other people's workshops. They asked if we'd like to host the February get-together. Yeah, great -we need a hand to fire the car up so come on over. And things kinda grew from there. We had no idea either the lads from Wyliez Autos or the Guzzlers car club were coming, but were very pleased to see them all.
Many, many thanks to all who turned out on a chilly February evening to come see us. Nobody actually counted, but we reckon between 25 & 30 guys, all crammed into Loony's workshop, drinking coffee, munching donuts & peering at the Pop.
Nice to see our own Terry T & Goforest, plus a contingent from the Surrey Street Rodders & an equal number of our mates from the Basingstoke based Guzzlers rod club, (turns out they've recently taken on a community workshop just over the hill from Loony's place). We middle aged hotrodders were matched by a showing of local younger petrolheads too. We were chuffed to bits with the turn out. Loony's workshop's never seen so much activity. Good job there's plenty of parking room in the yard outside. There's talk of maybe arranging a barbeque there in the Summer.
Stars of the evening were definitely Ian & the crew from Wyliez Autos. They arrived from Reading in Berkshire in their Chevy Suburban truck, pulled a propane heater out of the back & a box of assorted ignition parts & immediately set to work, hooking the Pop up. After some discussion about the firing order & whether it needed a ballast resisitor or not, the shop was soon reverberating to the sound of 3 & a half litres of V8, snorting through the 2 foot long header pipes. Damn that's loud! Think we might be needing a silencer or 2 on that at some point. Sounded great though. Considering it's been sat for the best part of 2 years without even turning over, it fired up & ran suprisingly easily. A tribute to the bullet-proof nature of the big Rover motor, more than our mechanical skills I suspect. I happily admit I'm no engine specialist. I can build a vehicle around a motor, but when it comes to setting it up & fault finding, I stand back & let those that know do their thing. So I was happy to chat & look on from a safe distance while the chaps filled an old scooter tank with petrol, wired the battery up to a temporary starter button & generally performed their mechanical magic.
A couple of minor glitches to sort out-
1 petrol leak from a gasket under the front of the new Holley carb, (I blame Taz for that as she was the one who rebuilt it on the kitchen worktop).
1 water leak from the new aluminium radiator, (I had the bottom outlet repositioned to clear the front axle. The end of the outlet pipe's not quite round, so the rubber hose didn't seal properly on it).
1 oil leak from the new rocker covers, (O.K, my fault for not tightening them down enough).
The electric fuel pump that came with the engine also turned out to be knackered, pouring petrol out, hence the gravity fed plastic bike tank.
Other than that though, not bad at all. We ran the engine 3 times during the evening, sounding smoother each time as things settled in & warmed up. The Wyliez boys were very keen to get it over to their workshop in Reading, where they can put it up on the lift to weld the underside of the chassis, re-bleed the brakes, wire it up & generally fettle it, ready for it's first drive.
So looks like our next task is to finish the exhaust system, then start in on the bodywork.
As is always the way with social gatherings, I didn't get to talk to half the people there last night, so to all of you who came along, a million thanks guys. The enthusiasm & generosity was truly heart warming. I'm sure Mr Lunatic will join me in saying you're all more than welcome to call in any time you're passing.
As predicted, my digital camera was cr*p in the low light conditions, so most of the snaps I took were too blurry to post. So if anyone has some better pics we can use, or footage of the engine running they can post on YouTube, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again chaps.
Wyliez Autos 
