One step forward, two back…

I ’m writing this month’s diary in a prolonged hot spell. Needless to say, this has meant working on cars hasn’t really been on top of my agenda and instead I’ve spent more time driving them, which makes a change. The Lowlight has been on some lengthy drives across the south coast without incident. The car certainly laps up the miles and the modifications are a great success. The heatwave has made a look at the cooling system more pressing – it’s not boiled up, but the temperature gauge has been too close to the red line for my liking. It’s slightly harder to fit an oil cooler to a 1275 A+ engine than an older A-series, but I think I’ve come up with a solution, so watch this space over the winter.

With the Lowlight’s rebuilt engine now run in, I’ve decided to take the car off the road before the weather turns nasty to rectify a number of outstanding faults. The prop shaft needs to come off and sent away to a specialist to sort out the vibrations it causes at certain speeds. The shaft was shortened and is a bit out if true and if re- balancing didn’t completely solve the problem, I may need a new single piece propshaft.

I’ve fitted and tested my new recalibrated speedo, which now reads too fast and the needle waves hello whilst indicating a wide range of speeds! Perhaps a new cable will help or it might have to go back to the specialist for more attention. The bonnet is currently being touched up after some over- enthusiastic cutting back revealed the primer. Somehow, during the restoration I’d not properly checked the alignment of the bonnet finishing trims and the

swage line that runs along the rest of the car. Thankfully I found this out before getting the bonnet rectified and have been gently ‘re-adjusting’ the bonnet to improve the fit. I might also have to file out the holes to ensure a really good fit, after which I can get the pinstripe painted on.

A number of faults have developed with the interior. The first of these was the headlining and some of you may remember how I’d found it impossible to get a piece of thin plywood to fit correctly into the Minor’s roof. Instead, I opted to use a much easier to fit hardboard section. This looked the part, but because of the heat it has sagged out of shape, meaning I had to take it out of the car to drive. The material is quite expensive, so I would like to avoid having to replace the board if possible. While I mull over a solution, the headlining is currently sitting in my room taking up a lot of space. I’m hoping to make up some sort of frame, which will suspend this from the roof but that idea may be more complicated than I would’ve hoped.

Next on the list are the door seals. For originalities sake, I decided to fit the earlier fabric style, but I’ve been having trouble with these staying attached to the doorframe lips. After some investigation online I concluded that there weren’t enough of the special clips fitted to the frame. I’ve collected some more and will take the seal off so I can add these to the frame. The vinyl door pulls have sadly disintegrated but I’ll replace these with more durable leather ones. One of the headlights also filled up with water in a thunderstorm. I’ve drained it and sealed the lens with instant gasket, so will see how this fares. There’s also a rather annoying leak from the corners of the windscreen, this is a known fault on split screens but I’ll need to get this sorted before the winter. More progress on the fault rectifications will appear in next month’s diary.

I’ve decided to take the Lowlight Minor off the road before the weather turns nasty to rectify a number of outstanding faults

The Lowlight with the bonnet removed, ready for repainting after Will rubbed through the topcoat.

The Minor’s door seals wouldn’t stay in place due to a lack of clips on the aperture. More clips are now on order and adding them should sort this problem out.

Annoying bonnet trims and swage line misalignment have been rectified prior to having the bonnet touched up.

The hardboard headlining distorted and had to be removed. A proper solution to the sagging issue will allow it to be refitted next month.

My home made vinyl door pulls have already broken and will later be replaced with more sturdy leather ones.

One of the Lowlight’s headlight bowls had somehow filled up with water despite the lack of rain we’ve had this summer.