The build really began to gather pace in February after significant injections of cash from the sale of the last Riley 9 parts donated by Archie & Betty Sinclair, and a very generous cash donation from one of our new Shedders – thank you Tony. The resulting purchases included a pair of vintage Auteroche Phares acetylene lamps, upholstery materials, and covered car transporter.
Work on the car focused on the start mechanism, and a timber carcase for the aluminium bodywork. A start mechanism to the drawing in last month’s report proved inadequate when the 12mm shaft was deformed when turning the starting handle. The assembly was stripped out and work began to source materials to rebuild based on a 16mm shaft. This pause in firing up the engine gave the team time to check over key dimensions before pressing ahead on the bodywork. Rear axle misalignment was corrected by adjusting the rear radius arms, but misalignment of bodywork forward of the cockpit could not be easily remedied without spoiling the bodywork line. Work started on stripping out the bulkhead to be replaced by slightly wider one to give a continuous taper from the dashboard to the ‘radiator’ grille. Then – bang – coronavirus prompted social isolation hit, and the Shed was locked down on 17th March bringing the project to a halt.
One of our members, Dave, has being using his self-isolation to press ahead building a 1/3rd scale model using a scale timber frame and 3D printed PLA parts, otherwise the project is on hold.