A Triumph Swordfish 1500 - On The Road

[Paul L]

Bank Holiday Weekend
Spend most of the weekend doing gardening chores.

But was due to meet some friends in Holland Park on Monday evening.

Given the forecast was good, I decided to drive, rather than take public transport, and not drink.



Took my car cover with me in the passenger footwell.



After squashing the cover into the boot, I could give one of my mates a lift home.

He took this photo.



The yellow safety glasses help with the headlight glare, as my eye line is so low.

I tried to ‘tip toe’ my car into my driveway to avoid waking my neighbours up.



Until next time, take care, Paul.

[micky1mo]

The unnoticeable smile says it all !!!!!

[Paul L]

Micky1mo - Thanks.

Just noticed the last part of the previous post was cut off, so fixed that.

I've got another update, but I'll do that later.

Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

Goodwood Breakfast Club – Classic Car Sunday



As you know, the cars on display at these events are strictly ‘By Invitation’ only.

So, I was literally dancing with joy when I saw this arrive in my inbox today.



The fact I finally updated the photo of my car that Goodwood had on record may have helped.

From on the road in primer:



To a cropped version of this (obviously not my mews house ):



My aim while building my car was that it would look at home at The Goodwood Revival.

”Oh happy days!”

Cheers, Paul.

[peterux]

Wow, that is fantastic news, well done!!

[Paul L]

Peterux - Thanks, I still can't quite believe it.

But B&B now booked for the night before.

Unfortunately, I will either have to keep the bonnet closed...

Or finally tidy up the engine bay.

Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

Countdown to Goodwood – Part 1
Building inner front wheel arches has been on my ‘To Do’ list for years now.

However, recently, I was at the Ace to meet a friend attending a bike gathering.



I was allowed inside the car park and the Swordfish generated a bit of interest.



Including Mark Wilsmore, the Ace owner, who came over for a chat when I arrived.

Anyway, with the bonnet up, a Spitfire 1500 owner was singing the praises of having a radiator shroud.

I did fit the wider radiator and even in London traffic I haven’t had any over heating issues. < Touch Wood >

However, I figured this would be a way of getting back into fabrication work, so…

Radiator Shroud

Back to the CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) and Plan A went above the front chassis.



Then Plan B went under the chassis, but needed to be in two parts to fit into place.



This design failed when I opened the bonnet.



Note – Where high speed bumps meet low point of bonnet and scrape away the paint.

So, Plan C became a shape like this that would be attached to the front, rather than the back.



The sides will be held in place by the bolts holding the radiator in place.



Plan D will cut the top edge of the side panels down a fraction to avoid the closed bonnet.



The sides will be joined together by straps across the top.



I’m sure there will be some more fine tuning, but this is the basic idea I ended up with.





I dug out some of my ‘off cuts’ and it looks like I will be joining smaller pieces together.



I will also be making a joint panel for the cockpit, at the back of the gearbox cover.





Which will be cut/hammered in place to see what works best.

With a bit of luck, I’ll be making a start on the metal work this week.

End of Part 1…