Well we made a start back on the tank yesterday, and it felt good.The lack of posting here has mirrored the lack of time on the 'tank .The Rev' has been filming a feature and I've been otherwise engaged studying ( an AoD diploma or,Alcohol and other Drugs work, yeah thanks everyone but that masters degree doesn't count) and saving my readies to go overseas.
We went to Pendine Sands in Wales thanks to a suggestion from Malcolm UK. This is the place where in 1924 Malcom Campbell set his first land speed record in his Sunbeam Bluebird of 146.16mph, we stayed at the Beach Hotel and visited the Pendine Sands Museum of Speed , it was a beautiful drive from London , perfect weather without a cloud in the sky , wildflowers out everywhere and the countryside was gorgeous , after seeing the beach I kind of regretted not bringing the bellytank....seven miles of hard packed sand....anyway heres a couple of old dungas that they've propped up in the museum...sheesh, get with the times guys
In all seriousness these were beautiful pieces and my mate Frank who's got a thing for Broughs reckons that that particular one is the , er , business shall we say.....
The main gig at Pendine is Babs the car that JG Parry Thomas , a welshman, used to up the world LSR to 171.02mph and then 172.331mph in 1926 ,tragically Parry was killed a year later on the beach in a roll over and the car was buried nearby . In the late sixties Owen Wyn Owen requested and was granted permission to exhume the car and subsequently restored it to running condition.It's a curious looking thing.
Thanks again to Malcolm for the suggestion we had a top time.
anyway back to the task at hand....We've made a new seat for the 'tank because as the most sage Jack Dolan pointed out drivers "tend to grow over time"....Now, I weighed the same amount give or take 5% from 16 'til I was 41, it was Jack who said after seeing a photo of me with my "shirt" off that " it seems you've been spending all your lunch money on the car".....
, building the bellytank seemed to be the cue for my metabolism to change and I've , shall we say, begun the middle aged spread( nah not vegemite but I did have some this morning and I'll hear none of your complaints)...the Rev was always a little bigger than me and I'd figured that if I watched my diet then at some point I wouldn't have to share the driving, that didn't work.Both of us were struggling to get into the car and we also thought that we could do a better job on the seat anyway. We made up a cardboard pattern ( as we always do) and found more width , more depth and managed a bit more accurate symmetry. Cut from 3mm Al plate the seat has a single bend ,a modest pad at the base and wider wings than what the last one did.
here it is( roughly tacked and not yet tabbed for attachment points so it ain't sitting exactly square).....