FUEL FOR THOUGHT
Our Reliant’s internal organs have been stripped out – the best time to give them some TLC, then
1990 RELIANT ROBIN THE STORY SO FAR Miles driven Still 0 Total mileage 63,781 What’s gone wrong Engine no longer attached to the chassis. Which isn’t attached to the body.
DAVID SIMISTER Better out than in. That’s what I’ve long been told when it comes to confronting tummy bugs – in no way brought on by a tad too much Jennings Sneck Lifter the night before, I promise – but I didn’t realise that this long-standing bit of common sense applies to cars, too.
For while Features Ed, Chris Hope, has been openly weeping over the thousand shards of glass that used to make up his Rover Tomcat’s roof panel ( CCW, 16 May), the real English patient of our cut-price classic challenge has been treated to some open-heart surgery. Since I last popped by to Wisbech’s makeshift hospital for sick and wounded three-wheelers, H362 CBA has been looking very different, thanks largely to the efforts of Reliant Owners’ Club guru, James Holland. The car’s Achilles’ heel – that tired chassis with its worryingly crusty front crossmember – has been stripped of all the mechanicals it’s been cradling for the past 28 years, in the space of just a few days.
Resting gently on the ground in James’ workshop next to CBA’s (soonto-be-ex) chassis was the engine. It’s currently covered in a thin coating of oily grime, which we suspect is down to a leaking rocker cover gasket, but the plan is to give the unit a thorough clean before it goes back in the car, followed by a service to make sure that it continues working as Staffordshire’s engineers intended.
The real surprise, though, are the fuel pipes. If you’ve read our news story on ethanol ( This Week, page three) then you’ll know that it’s something that a lot of classic clubs are worried about, but I wasn’t expecting to have the issue of ethanol degradation laid out quite so acutely on our own car. It’s only now that the fuel lines have been separated from the Robin that you can see how much the chemical has eaten away at the pipes – and now that they’re off, it’s only right and proper that we replace them altogether. A new set of fuel lines are on the way, which should be much better at resisting the effects of E5 fuel.
By the time they’re connected to the car’s mechanicals, the replacement chassis, which is fully galvanized to avoid a repeat of the original’s rusty demise, will be ready to accept them. Slowly but surely – and without any broken glass panels, I hasten to add – our plucky little Reliant is heading in the right direction.
If a job’s worth doing, and all that…