The summer of 2008 has turned to
autumn and winter is around the corner. The Black Cat has completed
2,600 miles with only a minor fault at the Prescott hill climb last May.
For the past 6 weeks the car
has been at Nostalgia Cars getting the star crack in the top of the front
offside wing repaired. These star cracks do occur from time to time if
you are unlucky enough to pick up a stone in the tyre and it strikes the
underside of the wheel arch with enough force. My crack was quite
severe but unless it was pointed out or you saw it in a certain light you
would not notice it. However I knew it was there and decided I would
get Nostalgia to repair it. Repairing it meant that the whole of the
front o/s wing had to be re-sprayed but now that it is done you would not
tell that had ever been damaged
Before I got the repair done, I did
some research on preventing star crazing or cracking. Back in my
Westfield days, we used Carlife Rubbercoat painted under the wings to form a
cushion for any stones thrown up, which seemed to be effective. Unfortunately
the Carlife Company has ceased trading. All is not lost. I found that
there is a an equivalent product called Isoflex High Performance Liquid
Rubber. It costs about £21.00 for 2.1 Litres, available from all good builders
merchants, Screwfix, B&Q etc. Painted on the underside of the wheel
arches it forms a rubber membrane that cushions the impact of the stones.
Only time will tell if it is effective.
One of the most important jobs to
get done whilst the car was at Nostalgia was to seal the windscreen.
Despite all our care and attention during the final stages of the build, the
atrocious weather at the JDC open Day at Highclere Castle and several trips
in the rain over the summer demonstrated, we still had a fairly severe leak
around the windscreen pillars where they join the body,
Nostalgia resealed the windscreen joints again with the same procedure as
detailed on the NSCC boardroom. They tested the car by leaving it out in the
rain and have pronounced it dry. We will have to wait and see how it is
under driving conditions.
Whilst the Car was at Nostalgia I
got a few of the shake down jobs done. Just a general check around and
tighten up nuts and bolts, screws and clamps. Check the oil levels in
the diff and gearbox. It was easier to do theses jobs on a lift than
scratch around under the car in the garage at home. We also took
the opportunity to recheck the steering geometry. One of the comments made, when we did the article for "Classics Monthly ", was that
steering did self centre but in the opinion of the driver he would have
preferred it to be stronger. During the steering geometry check
Nostalgia have increased the caster angle to +3 degrees (an increase
of 2 degrees). During the drive back from Taunton yesterday my impression
was that the steering did self centre more strongly but not excessively and
the handling was more positive.
With all these jobs done, the car
being at Taunton, was ideally placed to exhibit it at the Exeter Kit Car
show. The show was a great success with more than 6,000 attendees may
of whom regarded the "Black Cat" as the best in show. Purrrr........
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