SO NEAR, AND YET SO FAR

David finds a new battery – and a massive setback – for our Reliant Robin resurrection

DAVID SIMISTER I already know what you’re thinking. ‘ Why is your £600 Reliant Robin still up on a ramp, with all three of its titchy rubber boots still in the air? Shouldn’t Tamworth’s tot be charging smugly towards CCW’s offices, ready to show that pesky Rover Tomcat that you don’t need to have a full complement of wheels to have fun?’

By rights, Staffordshire’s finest should be innocently bobbing along on Britain’s highways and byways by now, reminding everyone of a time when Reliant was the nation’s second-largest car manufacturer after BL. I particularly liked the idea of H362 CBA venturing out during last week’s horrendously wintry weather, using its light weight and narrow tyres to skate across the same snow that left all those BMW X1s and Audi Q3s stranded. Anything Richard Gunn’s Fiat Panda can do, and all that…

Progress on our Robin project had been thundering ahead too. Since its last appearance within these pages, the rather questionable wiring has been tidied up, a healthy coating of Waxoyl has been applied to its undersides and it’s been fitted with replacement brake parts, wheel cylinders and a new kingpin. The team at Parkhill Garage also reckon that it’s one of the more enjoyable cars to push around because it weighs so little – but only dropped that in as a hint that the Reliant needs a new battery! Its Banner unit was sounding increasingly weak – it wasn’t in the best of health when it fired up of its own accord at the point of purchase, and was increasingly reliant (sorry) on jump leads to fire into life.

I was dreading the search for a replacement being yet another long night on the web looking for obscurely sized bits or trying to work out which BL or Ford offering Reliant’s engineers had used for inspiration. Luckily, Halfords’ online search system extends to Robins, and promptly suggested one of its ownbrand HB028 units as a willing new occupant for the now-empty space beneath the Reliant’s GRP bonnet. A ten-minute trip from CCW’s offices later, I had the new battery ready to go. Next morning I was reunited with the Robin at its temporary Merseyside residence, new battery to hand and looking forward to a drive. But then none of us had been expecting the Reliant’s undersides to drop a mid-resurrection bombshell. As the final prep work for the Robin’s MoT loomed, we spotted a rather worrying patch of corrosion that had managed to elude everyone, but one that definitely needs sorting. Devotees of Reliant’s finest will know that there’s a frame that rises up from the front end of the chassis on either side, with a circular bar that connects the two – at precisely the point where H362’s front tyre fires up water, mud and all sorts of other road muck. It’s also what the front shock absorber connects to, so there’s no doubt that it needs urgent attention. Welding up a section like that would normally be a tricky but by no means impossible task, but being mounted so close to the GRP bodywork means that there’s very real risk of the whole thing going up in flames if it’s left in situ.

A few calls to our Reliant-savvy friends later and a depressing consensus emerged – doing the job properly means that the body is going to have to come off.

So is it game over for our threewheeler? Not quite. The hidden rot spot may be a massive setback in our latest cheap car challenge, but we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve.

Best get to work, then.

The Reliant was so nearly ready to venture back on to the road – but now the race is on to repair its crusty front section.

The Robin needed jump leads for its tired Banner battery to fire the engine into life, so we’ve bought a new Halfords unit.

Front bar is tricky to see even on a ramp, but needs welding before going in for an MoT.