A Triumph Swordfish 1500 - On The Road

[Paul L]

Catch Up – Part 2
Yesterday was Classic Car night at the Ace Cafe and I was able to spend a couple of hours there.



Had a great chat with the Volvo owner, whose car was in mint condition.

Before I left, I gained a couple of new ‘neighbours’.



Didn’t get to talk to the Lotus owner, but the bonnet ‘patina’ suggests a major fire at some point.



Not a great photo, but I had a good chat with the owner of this yellow Robin Hood.
(He liked my mirror raising plinth on the passenger side, as he also can’t see anything out of his!)



A few other photos from the evening.










Really liked this little Frogeye.



But the ‘Most dramatic entrance award’ went to this DeLorean, that pulled up and popped open both doors.



It also had a few ‘Back to the Future’ accessories.



That’s all for now.

So, until next time, take care, Paul.

[Mick O'Malley]

...and a 'DOC' reg. no. Excellent!

Regards, Mick

[Mister Towed]

Some lovely cars there, Paul, thanks for sharing them.

[deni]

Hi Paul,
Great to see you enjoying driving Swordfish and that there were no big issues with the safety check.
Nice photos from the classic car day too, there were some very nice cars there.

Cheers, D.

[Paul L]

Mick, Mr T & Deni – Thanks gents, it is certainly nice to be out and about again.

I took some build photos to the Ace Cafe & people couldn’t believe how much stuff I’d cut up & re-joined.

Although, when I look back at all the work that was involved, I can hardly believe I actually finished it either!

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Weather Dodging
I’d taken the scenic route to Sainsburys on Saturday, but kept getting stuck in long traffic queues.

Then I could feel the first drops of rain and thought this could end up being a massive downpour.

Thankfully it stopped & I parked under a tree, to give the open cockpit a bit of shelter, just in case.



Again, there was just a few drops of rain on the way home.

Thankfully, the car was under the covers before the heavens opened.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Nothing Much

Just extending my ‘garage’ to give myself a few more inches of parking space.





Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

Finally had the chance to get out for a 50+ mile drive yesterday.

Complemented my shorts and T-shirt with some Factor 30 as it was baking out there.

Just a couple of stops and photos.

The first was old tech next to new, at this public electric charging point.



Then finished the day at the top of Harrow Hill.





Note - Looking at the last photo, I'd forgotten to sit on the passenger side to settle the suspension after climbing out the driver's side.

Don’t know if it was the heat, but the car getting even more of a positive reaction than usual.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Mister Towed]

Hi Paul, some lovely pictures there and it sounds like you had a pretty special time rubbing shoulders with the Duke of Richmond and Sir Jackie Stewart.

I had a far more modest Goodwood myself, although my MG did at least get to spend its weekend in the company of Classic Car Royalty in the classic car park -



Sorry about the awful selfie, I always end up looking like Clarkson's smug-face, and I have no idea why the image reverses when you take a selfie on a mobile.

Highlights for me were finding a car for sale that matched my watch strap, even though it was a bit over budget -



...and the WWII Supermarine Spitfire beer cooler display -



Yes, a few days after D-Day, Spitfires were really put into service taking barrels of beer up to Angels two-zero (20,000 feet) for twenty minutes so the squaddies below could enjoy a cold one while they saved the free world.

Anyway, nice to see you out and about in your car and we'll have to have a catch up soon

[Paul L]

Mr T – Looking very dapper sir.

I did see the Spitfire with the barrels, but didn’t read up on the history.

Seeing your black arm band reminded me that I only made mine the night before.
(After finding something I could cut to size and re-sew in one of my ‘might come in useful one day’ boxes.)

I figured that it would be ‘era appropriate’ for the Revival and a lot of people were wearing them.

Which leads me to these two photos…

The Queen
I originally posted this photo way back in 2012.



We had taken our daughters to the London Aquarium the day after the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee party.
Taking in some sights on the way home, we were on The Mall as things were being dismantled.
However, my ‘Londoner’ senses noticed an increase in Police, given that nothing was supposed to be going on.
So, I suggested we all wait around for a few minutes ‘just in case’ and we got a great ‘bonus’ to our day.
Without doubt, we were a lot closer than many people who had queued for hours the day before.

Roll forward 10 years…

I took the Swordfish out on Sunday to check out possible spots along the funeral route to Windsor.
I watched the Westminster Abbey service on TV until around 12.10 and then headed to the A30 near Staines.
Unfortunately, the local road I planned to take was closed (but not on the official list of closures).
I would have thrown my MTB in my estate car boot if I’d known just how far I would end up walking.
But it was still well worth the effort, as I was at the edge of the road, with no one close to me.



I set the camera to video mode, so I didn’t have to ‘take’ a photo as the coffin passed by.
Door to door was just over 4 hours, a roughly equal split of driving, walking & waiting.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Oh how I laughed…
A few weeks ago, I took the car out to do a number of chores, at a variety of shops.

As I was taking the battery cut off out at one stop, I fumbled and dropped it.

Note – The following photos were taken after the sorry saga had ended.

The cut off key landed in the dropped corner at the edge of the seat.



Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room to pick it up cleanly, so I had to carefully balance it on my fingertips.

No sooner had I thought, whatever you do, don’t push it under the seat, or you’ll never get it back…

Obviously, the key slipped out of my stretched fingers and came to rest, out of reach, under the seat.

I may have turned the air in the ScrewFix car park a rather dark shade of blue.

Took my tool bag out of the boot and started to loosen the allen bolts holding the seat in place.



Now, at one stage I spent literally hours trying to get one seat fitted during the build.
(And that was with the car jacked up to make access easier.)

So, the last thing I wanted to do was accidently unbolt the seat.

Instead, I did this is small stages, but just could not get my (now grazed) fingers in far enough to reach.

Thankfully, I had this flexi-screwdriver…



And I was able to get just enough room to ‘flick’ the key back to the side and remove it.

At which point I could tighten everything up, take the photos and be on my way.

First job when I got home was to make sure the key wouldn’t fit in any hard to reach places again.



Anyway, a couple of photos where I was packed without trauma.






The only other news I have is that my car cover & tarpaulin are clearly leaking.



So, I’ve now got a replacement tarpaulin to cover just the cockpit area.



And I’ll change the car cover in the Spring after the old one has taken the worst of the Winter.

Cheers, Paul.

PS
My headlights are working again.

[Paul L]

Catch Up
Don’t ask where this year has gone, as I can’t really believe it is now 2 weeks to Christmas!

My attempts to get some nice photos in November, with Autumn colours, didn’t really work as well as planned.







In fact, I had more luck in the car park at Sainsbury’s.



Last week, I had just about enough juice in the battery to start the car after I’d left it for a while.



I just moved it back and forth a few feet on the driveway to keep the brakes and clutch free.

I also remembered to disconnect the battery this time.



Then the frost arrived and it reached minus three outside.



However, this is what my driveway looked like this morning.



Hope I get the chance to take it for a spin in the next few weeks.

Cheers, Paul.

[Mick O'Malley]

Spin? I rather hope not!

Season's Greetings, Mick

[Roadster]

Been a while since i have been on here
Good to see the Swordfish is still going strong - and has fulfilled some of your wildest dreams.
After many years without a project I am picking up a Sammio body , 15years sitting in a barn unstarted to say it looks a little sad for itself.
You know me so i will be attempting an unorthodox build - but if it works it would be great to meet up again.

[Paul L]

A Long Overdue Catch Up

Peterux – I did see, and appreciated, your Christmas wishes at the time, thanks.

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Roadster – Great to hear from you.

Good luck with your Sammio project, it will be good to see another build on here.

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I’ve now been working from home for over 3 years and it has been a struggle at times.
The time saved by not travelling to work seems to be filled with doing more work.
I also really miss seeing people in real life, rather than just on a computer screen.
The fact I spend all day staring at a screen for work, means I spend less time on screens after work.
So, apologies all round for the fact I don’t reply to as many builds, or as often, as I used to.

My ‘spare’ time for driving the Swordfish has also been restricted.

But, I’ve tried to get into the habit of regularly peeling the covers off and starting the engine.
(Plus driving a few feet forward and backwards to stop anything seizing up.)



This was late February, but don’t let the sunshine fool you, it was only 2 degrees and COLD!



It was mid-May before I was finally able to go out for a decent run (30+ miles).





Also managed to get out for a short blast on Sunday (21st May).



The photos make the paint look a lot better than it is, as it now really looks like an old car in real life.

Having said that, the car still turns heads and gets a positive reaction wherever I go.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[deni]

Hi Paul,
The Swordfish looks great, especially in the sun, so it needs to be driven more 😉.
Yeah, working from home has it

[deni]

It happened again, my message was truncated for some reason.
Yeah, working from home has it’s advantages but, as you’ve pointed out, quite a few disadvantages too. I remember when the mobile phones came, the people were saying that they became always available and therefore worked more.
It seems to be the same with working from home… technology is “killing” me… Cheers, Deni.

[Paul L]

Deni - There are definitely some technical problems with the site these days.

I tend to copy my post into the reply & when it doesn't work first time, I then edit the post & copy it again before saving the edit.

Most times it works OK in the edit, but not the original post?

Cheers, Paul.

[deni]

Hi Paul,
Yes, it

[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 !!!!!