A Triumph Swordfish 1500 - On The Road

[deni]

Hi Paul,
Good to see you had a great time at Goodwood. I hope ending being totally soaked didn't spoil the fun.

Shame for the blotches on the bonnet though, maybe they can be polished out!?

I like your radiator shroud fabrication. I didn't notice many Heralds or Vitesses having these. I saw them mainly on Spitfires - I don't know if that's something specific to Spitfires.
When the time comes, I will try to drive my car without it first, but as I have a Spit engine, I might need to make one in the future too.

Anyway, it's great to see you're out and about enjoying your rides in Swordfish!

[Paul L]

A very belated 2024 Update
First of all, it is not my imagination, The Times confirmed it, it has rained a LOT!

At least the rain, stopped the snow settling.



Whenever I get the chance, I try to at least start the engine on my driveway.



Adding some fresh petrol to the stuff that has been in there a while.



Checking the engine oil level.



The odd trip to see my mum.



And the usual trips to the shops.







Unfortunately, I lost one of my driving gloves somewhere in/around IKEA.

Now I need to ‘wear in’ a new pair, as the old ones looked the part.



Good News!

I’ve been invited back to the Goodwood Breakfast Club.



I was in the pit area last time, so I see this as a ‘promotion’ onto the main straight this year.

I’m also planning to meet up with Deni soon, so I took the car out for a quick run this morning.

The clouds and weather forecast were not looking promising.



Thankfully, I had a dry, but short, run and was going to take a photo of a much darker sky when the rain started.

Once area I was putting the covers on over wet body work, which ruins the paint.



As it turns out, I had a luck escape, as it has been hammering down on and off ever since!



Hopefully I will get a chance to do a few little jobs before I head off to Goodwood.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[deni]

Hi Paul,
Great news about Goodwood! I hope I

[Paul L]

Update
Thankfully, a few hours after my last photos were taken, the sun came out.

So, I was able to remove the covers and dry them and my car, before recovering it.



I’ve also made a couple of Ebay purchases, the first was small, some electrical connectors.
(To replace the original ones that broke and their ‘bodged’ temporary replacements.)



The second was bigger and one of the best bargains of my whole build.

12 x 1mm aluminium sheets of 1.0 x 1.2m for thirty pounds!



I will use this to finally make some front inner wheel arches and sell on the rest.

Meeting Deni
I was due to meet Deni (Miglia builder) on Saturday, so had a bit of prep work to do on Friday.

Excuse the poor photo due to fading light, but I did the oil, tyre pressures & washed the wheels.



The sun was setting as I finally got around to filling up.



Unfortunately, my phone couldn’t do justice to the moon/street light combo on the way home.



Left the car on the street overnight, so I was all set to go first thing in the morning.



Thankfully, the directions were about as simple as it gets.



Meeting point.



It was great to meet Deni & his wife and I took them both for a spin.



After lunch, Deni was able to take photos of my engine bay for his wiring & plumbing.
(His Herald is fitted with a Spitfire 1500 engine.)



Then it was time to say goodbye and head home.



I know I would never have finished my build without the help and support of this forum.

So, it was good to ‘pass it forward’ to Deni and can’t wait to see his car on the road.

Take care, Paul.

[peterux]

Great to see you out and about enjoying yourselves.

[deni]

I went away after meeting Paul, and I have been away for a while now, so I couldn't post on the forum (internet is not so great where I'm at the moment).

It was great to meet Paul and to see the Swordfish - I'm so grateful he invited us for a spin, which we enjoyed a lot, so thank you again Paul.

It was very useful to chat to him about the build challenges he had, as well as to receive valuable advice from him. Being a rather inexperienced car builder, this was very useful to me, and as he said, without this forum providing the help and advice that people post on it, it would be very difficult for me to build the car. So, thank you all again.

I'm looking forward to continuing work on my car when I'm back, as the spin with Paul gave me extra motivation and confidence that I can finish the car. When I do finish it, I will take Paul for a spin in it!

Cheers, D

[Paul L]

Peterux – Thanks.

Deni – You are more than welcome & I look forward to seeing your car on the road.

Pre-Goodwood
Gave my ‘garage’ wall a bit of a trim.



Then fitted a new car cover.



Using my home made leather headlight grille covers underneath to avoid tearing it.



It wasn’t long before the cover saw some ‘action’.



Took my ‘racing suit’…



And did some sewing…





Also added this to the top of the right shoulder.



Travelled down South on Saturday afternoon to stay in a Premier Inn closer to Goodwood.



Tucked the car up for the night.



With my directions ready for the early morning.



End of Part 1…

[Paul L]

Goodwood Breakfast Club – Classic Car Sunday - 04/08/24

I arrived at the circuit just after 7am and was parked on the straight, just as the sun cleared the stand.



Excuse the poor quality photo, but I was sandwiched between a Mini Moke & a Ferrari 308.



I was part of one set of cars lined up approaching the first corner.



While another set of cars stretched out in the other direction from the starting grid.



There were nice/interesting cars everywhere you looked.
(And I didn’t even get to see the Pit area that I was parked in last year.)







The public are there from 8 am to 12 noon and I had a constant stream of people interested in my car.

Most common question was “What is it?”

Those that took the time to look through my collection of build photos couldn’t believe the work involved.
(To be honest, it is only when I go through those photos myself that I remember just how hard it was to build.)

Met a couple of Sammio owners, one had a Herald based Spyder & the other a Simitar based ‘Lancia D24’.
(Both had bought finished cars, rather than build them, but both were interested in my build photos.)

My proudest moments came when a number of people asked me if I’d raced my car at Goodwood.

As one thing that kept me going through some of the low points of my build was the thought of ending up with a car that wouldn’t look out of place on the Goodwood Revival grid.

This really is an amazing event and I hope to be back again in the future.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

PS
I’ve also got GoPro videos for both a ‘walkabout’ and me driving in & out of Goodwood.

Once I’ve finished editing them, I’ll load them onto YouTube & post the links.