Molly Midget

Or take half the bike apart and eventually persuade it to comply…

Had a puncture on the Vespa and discovered I didn’t have the right stuff with me to swap to the spare. Recovery guy arrived pretty quick and swapped them over no problem.

I don’t suppose anyone is still looking who followed when this was my car blog, but classic tinkering is back in the form of a 1970 Vespa.

Above shows before and after fixing failed clutch cable. Luckily I spotted it before it actually broke, although it was down to 3 strands!

Another recent activity was decoking the cylinder head, which would be a big job on a 4-stroke OHV or OHC engine but is a piece of cake on this little 2-stroke. I don’t think much of the surface inside the combustion chamber - could be worth smoothing it out somehow. This is a modern part; I’m sure the original was better in that respect.

A few photos from MGCC at Snetterton. I realised that I’d basically been taking the same photos of the same cars for a few years, so took far fewer this year, but here are a few to prove we were there.

While there’s no car, there can still be tinkering. I’ve put this mower together from bits of at least three others.

The engine suffered from having tipped over in storage, so oil was everywhere it shouldn’t be, including about half-filling the exhaust. But it eventually stuttered into life with a lot of smoke and settled down to a reasonable idle.

Well, almost as soon as it arrived, the Dolomite is gone. In unbelievable timing, on the very day I bought it, my neighbour, whose garage I’ve rented (and not cheaply) for six years, chucked me out, leaving me with only a terrible council lockup that takes about 10 minutes fiddling to squeeze a car into it and absolutely no space to work.

Also, while it had no major problems, the Dolomite had a lot more little ones than I thought at purchase. Given that fixing those DIY was no longer feasible without a garage, I decided to bail out.

The Dolomite has been sold to a dealer for less than half the (much too big) amount I paid for it.

Meet Dolly

I know that’s not an original name for a Dolomite*, but having had cars called Molly, Polly and Milly, and being married to Holly, there was only one choice that made sense.

Some Classic Two-Wheelers

While I look for the next classic car, here are some classic bikes from a recent trip to Cadwell Park.

So today Molly has gone home with her new owner. End of 6.5 mostly happy years of her and me.

At one point the plan was to get her to her 50th birthday in 2020. But in the end I decided that I wanted a change a bit earlier.

It’s very much hopefully not the end of me and classic cars. In a few years, the march of technology and environmental legislation will make it impractical to drive a classic as transport (I’m not interested in an old car that I can’t use). But I think there’s time for one more adventure for me and a suitable vehicle.

20000 Miles Since Resto

This shot was taken before I took a newly-topless Molly out for a short local drive to enjoy the Easter sunshine. The speedo, new at restoration, was reading 19999 before we started and is now a few miles over 20000.

Show in Shropshire

Whilst visiting relatives, I attended a little car show in a delightful setting near Shrewsbury. Very un-British weather helped a lot.

Still Connected

Thought I’d better check how the gearbox and clutch were, after a few hundred miles. Oil level was unchanged - the ‘box doesn’t seem to leak. Using a cheapo borescope attachment to my Android tablet, I looked at the clutch slave cylinder - it all seems still to be properly attached.

I do wish there was an option to buy a slightly better borescope for a bit more money. They all seem to fall into the categories of sub-£10 but a bit crap (like mine) or over £100 and presumably good. Could someone not make a £40 one that’s middling quality?

CSCC Snetterton April 2019 - Older Classics Day

A wet morning and a very grey day, not ideal for photography. But some good racing, none the less.