You make me dizzy

It seems like ages since I've updated - actually, it is: over two months. In that time Dame Zara has been behaving nicely (on the whole - see below), and we're now showing (1)59,910 or so on the odometer, meaning that we've covered over 8200 miles since February 2006.

Another nice day in the country

A few weekends ago we joined the monthly DLCV Sunday run and headed off with a strong contingent of cars (nine Daimlers, including Keith Ashworth's rare Regency Sportsman, in the centre of the lower pic) into central Victoria to visit experienced restorer Roy Shelton, who's currently working on a 1930s Daimler 15. It looks like a massive job, but Roy's well on the way and is confident he'll have the 15 back on the road before to long - to join his nice blue Daimler V8 saloon, Ford Model T, Delahaye (or was it a Darracq?) and 1931 Chev ...

Dizzy spells

It's well and truly winter now, and I'd been noticing that Dame Zara was a bit reluctant to start from cold, needed the choke on for longer and had a tendency to miss, hesitate and 'chug' a bit under load until she was warmed up.

Poking around under the bonnet, I thought to check the distributor and found that the central brush of the dizzy cap was completely worn down and had no spring left whatsoever. Whether or not that's the cause of the problems (and I suspect it might be), it needed sorting out and I thought I might as well track down a spare cap, even if mine is repairable.

The distributor used on the Daimler V8s (Lucas 20D8) is shared only with the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and its Bentley equivalents, so spares are rare and expensive. Luckily, a bit of ringing around found me a complete spare distributor for the price some places are asking for a repro cap! So I pootled out to darkest Ringwood this morning and picked it up from Jag Prestige Spares. A quick clean-up of the contacts and I put the 'new' cap on, and even though all I've done is a quick test-blast around the park, she seems to start more easily, idle smoother and pull better.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the spare distributor - perhaps I should get it set up with an electronic ignition system, and keep the original one with points for 'best'? Anyways, I've got it now and it can be raided for bits if needed - the vacuum advance widget on mine is very dodgy (it's held in place - poorly - with a short woodscrew!), and the one of the spare is perfect, so that's one thing I might swap over when I get the chance.

Keeping the green goo in

Ever since I bought Dame Zara she's lost coolant. I've tried both 4lb and 7lb radiator caps, fitted all new hoses, and had some weepy core plugs replaced, but still I have to top up the radiator on a regular basis. I've long thought of fitting an overflow container, but never got around to it. Then, a clever SP250 owner posting on the Daimler Forum said that he uses a cyclist's water bottle - cheap (mine was $8 at Big W) and easy. For the moment it's just held on with cable ties around the radiator drain lever, but if it proves successful, it came with a bracket that will be easy enough to fit.

Most of the colours of the rainbow

An impressive spectrum of V8 Saloons made it on the DLCV April picnic run to Anderson's Mill, Smeaton. Not the entire colour range, but with Sable, Regency Red, Masons Black, Silver Blue, Silver and Gunmetal Grey examples on show, it made for a very handsome display ...

I've been to Smeaton ... have you?

Daimler custodianship has certainly taken me to some interesting places—terrifying credit card debt, for one, after paying Ralph the suspension doctor’s bill the other day … But on a more positive note, now that finally I have Dame Zara back, she and I and Kathy joined a goodly number of our DLCV buddies for a little Sunday pootle out towards Ballarat to the historic Anderson’s Mill, near the charmingly named hamlet of Smeaton.

Anderson’s Mill is a handsome and substantial building dating from the early 1860s, and is centred on a very impressive (and still functional) cast iron water-wheel.













Arrayed in front of it is the Coventry-built portion of our touring party: (from left to right) three 2.5 litre V8s, three V8-250s, a Conquest Century, a Consort, a DB18-based special, XJ6 SII Sovereign and early SP250.

A very successful Display Day - even without Dame Zara

So, the Daimler Display Day I'd been doing so much work helping to organise went off pretty much without a hitch on Sunday. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but not too hot (even though I did get a very sunburnt neck!)

We had over 40 Daimler and Lanchester cars, and about a dozen 'visitors' (including a good showing of Rovers, a Triumph Dolomite Sprint, a Wolseley 6/110, V12 E-type, lovely late 60s Mercedes convertible, 1924 Buick, MG TC special ...) . There were also plenty of general public visitors wandering by, so I'd say well over 100 people attended.

Among the very special Daimlers were a 1936 Straight-eight limo with Edward VIII lineage; two DS-420s from the Carwood wedding fleet; the 2nd prototype Special Sports, owned by Keith Vaughan (bottom picture); an Empress; and a Conquest Roadster. There were also about 10 SP-250s, a strong turnout of V8 saloons, plenty of DB18 varieties and a fine smattering of Majestics, Majestic Majors and Regencies (well, at least one of each, and two Majors - that's a big showing for these big and now rare cars!)

Richard Bowen's Conquest Roadster (driven on the day by Tony Porter as Richard couldn't make it) won the People's Choice award (top picture); a recently restored pre-war Lanchester was Ladies' Choice and the DB18 register took out the Best Registry Display prize (abve, showing Peter Towns' Empress and Russ Monger's Consort).

Just a few photos here - but I've put the full album up on my Flickr account and Steven Rowlandson has posted his pictures here.

At the suspension doctor's

Dame Zara has been off the road for the past week, in an inelegant yet elevated position up on the hoist at Trutrack Suspension in North Melbourne.

Under the caring eye of Dr. Ralph, head suspension surgeon, she has undergone a number of (in)delicate procedures, all of which are beyond the skills, equipment and experience level I can muster at home.
At the front end, upper and lower wishbone bushes have been replaced, the steering linkages are all being renewed and everything else has been checked, adjusted and cleaned up. New Koni Classic shocks are to be fitted all 'round - the front ones hadn't been installed when I took these photos.

Ralph has also sourced a reconditioned brake servo from JagDaim (from whence many other parts have come - all those not supplied by dad and his mates in Canberra), so we will now stop better as well as going over bumps and around corners in an unruffled manner.

At the rear, both leaf springs have been re-set and re-bushed to cure sagging and creaking (which is how I feel most mornings). The Panhard rod and link arm bushes had all been replaced just before I bought the car last year, so they were OK.

Ralph has been impressed at how sound, straight and rot-free the underside of the car is - no hidden horrors have come to light! He's even offered to replace the weepy core plug hidden under the left-hand exhaust manifold while she's up on the hoist: mainly I suspect because he was sick of coolant dripping onto his nice clean floor.

Quite a few weeks transpired between the original inspection and quote and the beginning of work, and once things got underway last Tuesday, Display Day was imminent. We had hoped to have everything finished by the end of last week, but it wasn't to be so and Dame Zara spent the weekend in 'hospital' awaiting track rods, wheel alignment and a final fettling, which meant that she missed Display Day.

However, Dr. Ralph's latest diagnosis is that all will be finished by this Wednesday and that the driving experience will be entirely transformed.

I'd love to say 'will be entirely transformed or your money back,' as this process will be costing me a four-figure sum ... but I suspect Ralph's terms of trade are rather more pragmatic!

But Trutrack is a very professional setup, and they know from all sorts of cars old and new, as the Lancia Monte Carlo, modern Ferrari, '75 Camaro, 50's Caddy, assorted rallying Subarus, and other exotica parked in the clean workshop attest.

I expect that Dame Zara will be back to her best - quite possibly the best she's been for decades - within days. If I don't update, it's because I'm having too much fun driving around roundabouts!

Happy first anniversary (is that oil?)

Dame Zara and I have been acquainted for just on a year now. It was 11 February 2006 when I tool possession. Since then we've covered 6,230 miles together, an average of 120 miles per week.

If you average the (1)57,930 miles now showing on the clock over 37.5 years, she's done an average of 80 miles/week througout her life. But, if you consider that when her engine was rebuilt in April 2000 she was showing (1)34,700, from 2000 to 2006 she only averaged 55 miles/week, almost all of them pootling around the Mornington Peninnsula, from what I can tell.

So we've been exercising the old dear quite hard in the last year, covering more than double what she's been used to, and over many an inner-Melbourne tram-track and pot-hole, as well as some long runs including a 1000-mile long weekend to Canberra and back.

As a result, it's not surprising that some major suspension and steering work is next on the list.

I have to hand a slightly scary piece of paper - a quote from Ralph at Trutrack Suspension. I will get Ralph to do the heavy work, such as replacing upper and lower wishbone bushes at the front, getting the steering sorted, and re-setting the rear springs. Some other jobs, such as front roll-bar bushes, I'll do myself.

Luckily the Pater Familias has been on the hunt among his Jaguar mates in Canberra and has sent me one of his wonderous care packages - this one contains a track rod and drag link (helpfully labelled!), track rod ends, some bushes for front and rear, and a spare SU fuel pump that is original but looks as if it's never been used ... (the Post Office must wonder).

Check out that 'Guaranteed Factory Replacement' tape! This is a completely brand-new, 35-year-old SU pump.



Now, that's what I call shock absorbers! I bought a set of Koni Classic adjustables just after Christmas from GT Suspension, and they're certainly going on along with as many new bushes and other bits as Ralph at Trutrack deems necessary.

Within a week or three we'll be travelling like new - but it might take a bit longer for the credit card to recover!

Daimler (and Lanchester!) Display Day, 18 March

Come one, come all!

RACV Rally

Each January, the RACV holds a rally from Melbourne to Mornington (the Mornington Penninsula makes up the eastern side of Port Philip Bay, south of Melbourne). There are four starting points around the city, and hundreds of diverse classics travel together to all meet at the marina at Hastings (on the western side of the penninsula) before traversing the narrow and winding roads to the eastern side. They then travel along the beach road to Mornington, gathering for a display at the racecourse.

There were suprisingly few other Daimlers on the rally this year, but we did see this gorgeous 1930s Light Twenty.

Dressing to match your car is the order of the day, so Kathy and I and our friends Alison and Steve did our best to look late 60s. Kathy and Alison (who had very big hair - must have been industrial-strength hairspray!) did a lot of Twiggy-and-Shrimp-style lunging and posing. And while it's not a Daimler, Kathy does coordinate nicely with the blue 60s Fairlaine.

The weather was a bit wild, so our picnic ended up being eaten in the car - who needs picnic tables when you have the glovebox lid to balance your bubbly on?

We parked next to a close cousin - a Jaguar 240 which had evidently had no expense spared in its restoration. Plenty of people were walking past playing 'spot the difference'.

A fine day out was had by all, and Dame Zara enjoyed the run - despite carrying four passengers and a boot full of chicken and champagne, stop-start traffic as we headed from Melbourne to Frankston, and then some quite hilly going in the drive from Hastings to Mornington, we used just on half a tank on the 120 miles or so: close to 20mpg.

On the straight and narrow

Now, that has to be one of the easiest jobs I've done so far! Four screws and I now have a shiny black steering wheel centre instead of the motley-brown, sun-damaged one.

Before:















After:















The replacement came courtesy of eBay, from a 1966 Jag Mk10 being parted out in the US, and thanks to the slow period between Christmas and new year, it cost me less than a quarter of the price the parts places want for a repro.

The leather steering wheel cover, by the way, is from Wheelskins, and I heartily recommend them. For thin, sometimes slippery steering wheels, they add a nice amount of grip and some softness. I've actually bought four of them now: one for Kathy's previous car, Gussie the Hillman; one for her current car, Beryl the '75 Galant coupe; one for Dame Zara; and one for my dad for his '66 S-Type Jag 3.8.

I get them from this eBay seller in the US, who is very quick in supplying custom orders (Wheelskins doesn't have a retail distributor in Australia).

Sharp eyes might note the flouro orange markers on the tacho - they match the cruising speed of the car at important speed limits: 50, 60, 80, 100 and 110 km/h. The speedo is none too accurate at the best of times, and at the moment the needle is wobbling around like no-one's business!

The clock, which I used to be very proud to report worked - a rarity among Smiths clocks in cars - stopped for no apparent reason sometime before Christmas, but started up again the other day (for equally mysterious reasons) and is now keeping perfect time. I'll leave it well alone!

It was a dirty job but someone had to do it

By the time I'd finished installing the exhausts I looked like a coal miner! Amazingly enough, I was allowed back indoors and after a very long and thorough scrubbing I returned to a near-clean condition. A few days on, and some of the scratches and grazes are healing up nicely, my fingernails are *almost* presentable, and many of the strange aches are passing.

If only I could have driven the car over the new exhausts and had them magically ascend into place ...

Exhaust-ed!

The next time I get the bright idea to do a big job underneath the car - on my own, in the garage, with one jack and two axle stands - please all advise me to pay someone else to do it!

After three afternoons of work (it's not really the time of year to be bounding out of bed at early o'clock), I have finally finished fitting the 'new/old' stainless steel exhaust system I bought just before Christmas. The exhausts came from a sad, sickly yellow V8 that was being wrecked by local parts gurus Jag Prestige Spares .

As you can see from this picture, the old - I think, except for the mufflers, original - mild steel exhuasts had just about had it.



Getting the old system off was a messy enough task, but then I decided to be a bit more thorough than just bolting the replacements straight on:
- first, I took off the exhaust shields - three per side, and not all exactly the same - and was surprised to find once I'd given them a quick once-over with the wire brush that they were actually silver. It just so happened I had a spay-can of high-temperature silver paint handy, so they got a re-spray.
- then, looking at the underside of the car, I decided that some of the underseal needed attention. The centre of the car beside the driveshaft and the back under the rear seat pan were surprisingly good, but I ended up repainting much of the main beam that runs the length of the car (lots of underseal chipped off at various points where the car had been jacked up), one rear wheel arch and the underside of the floor on the left-hand side (the right side and the other three wheel arches can wait for another day!)

The end result was pretty decent, if I do say so myself:

Jag display day

Five DLCV members accepted the kind invitation of the Victorian Jaguar Club to attend their annual Display Day, held in the grounds of Wesley College just off St Kilda Road.

Long-time DLCV member Keith Ashworth has an amazing collection - today he chose to come in his Regency Sportsman: the only example of this rare model in Australia, as far as he's aware.


There were a number of Daimlers among the Jags - this 420 Sovereign caught my eye.


Dame Zara had had a good wash and polish, and sparkled in the sunlight.

a hole in the right-hand exhaust patched with a bandage ... but I've just located a near-new stainless steel system from a car that's being wrecked, so I'll be replacing the whole rusty set-up soon. (note to self: must repair that patch of underseal I've taken off with the jack!)

The lower photo is of the front valance panel (which goes under the front bumper). It looks in a pretty sad state, but a going-over with a wire brush and two coats of POR15 rust-proofing paint now has it looking pretty spiffy.

Fresh sandwiches, no more leaks and a (pretty) full service

Current mileage: a hair over (1)57,000
Costs since last time I totted them up in July: $700

It seems like ages since I've updated, and plenty has happened of late.

Let's see ...

Firstly, I've replaced the front suspension 'sandwich' mounts, as DLCV V8 guru Jack 'Fast Eddy' Edmonds was correct in his telephonic diagnosis that they were had it (old one on the left).

This still hasn't cured all the clonks in the front suspension though, so there will still be some ball joint &/or bush replacing to go, and most likely shock absorbers too.

Next up, I had the rear window seal replaced - which turned into a bit of a runaround when the guy who was doing the job got the window our and discovered that the reason the demister had never worked for me was that both wires were broken off the element. So I picked up the window and took it to Connections and had then re-solder the wires, then took the window back and had the seal fitted. The window no longer leaks, but he didn't do a great job with re-fitting the chrome strip ... And as I took out all the water-damaged headlining around the rear window, I'll also need to have that re-made - and the parcel shelf and a few other bits of trim while I'm at it.

Last Friday I took the day off work and set to doing most of the tasks on the 2500 and 5000-mile service checklist, including:

• oil change (decided to try Penrite HPR30 this time)
• fresh oil filter
• went around pretty much the whole car with grease gun, oil can and WD40, lubricating everything from rear springs to door hinges to carburettor pots

I also took off the front valance panel and repainted it with POR15 rust-proofing paint, and fixed a leak in the rusty exhaust with a bandage (pics in a separate post above, as I can't seem to add more than two images to this post).

I also took the opportunity to re-fix a few things I thought I'd 'fixed' before, such as the front passenger door-handle, the stud on the dashpad and the left-hand handbrake caliper.

Put your pedal to the the metal

... as long as you're wearing nicely shined Oxfords and turn-ups on your tweed trousers!

International fame!

I was deeply chuffed to find that this humble little blog was picked by Matt Wright, the editor of UK magazine Practical Classics, as his 'site of the day' (see the 6 September entry here). Not that I'd necessarily call 5000 carefree miles of motoring in eight months 'one man's battle' ... but you know journos and hyperbole!

Her Laydship was also pleased, but she has been expressing some concern lately about the state of her undercarriage: a nasty 'clonk' is heard/felt in the front when one is forced to hit a large bump, pothole or tram track; and she's developed a tendency to pull to the right under brakes.

The Pater Familias suspects it could be 'merely' a lower balljoint, but having poked my head underneath and seen the state of some of the many bushes and other rubbery bits that cushion the various bits of the front suspension and steering, I think a more thorough going-over may be in order. And given the 'bouncy-bouncy' way she responds to a sharp prod to any side, some new shock absorbers might also be on the list. I looked up the price of four Konis* - then I lay down for a while in a darkened room!

While she hasn't yet lived up to the 'Moneypitt' moniker, the day may soon be upon us ...

*that would be more than A$800.

All brand new

There, that's better. Safe, flexible fuel lines that won't split suddenly and pump petrol all over the engine; and a t-piece that won't burst. (I probably should have done this before driving 1000 miles last week!)

I did have a bit of a 'moment' putting it all back together, though. After carefully tightening everything up and reconnecting all the throttle and choke linkages (or so I thought), topping up the radiator to replace the coolant that came out when I undid the t-piece, and turning the ignition on to pump fresh fuel through the filter and into the carbs (and checking that it wasn't leaking anywhere), I hit the starter ... and vroom! She was 'idling' at about 2000rpm!

After scratching my head for a bit, I worked out that I'd connected one of the short throttle linkages the wrong way around and it was holding the throttle open on one carb. After putting it back to rights and giving the slow running screw the tiniest tweak, all was serene.

But just to test, I went for a quick spin around Royal Park, including (I must admit) a few fish-tails in the gravel carpark at the rear of the Zoo ... don't tell anyone! Definitely plenty of power getting to the back wheels ;)

Why fresh rubbery bits were required

The old t-piece was in a pretty poor state - I'm grateful that it held out this long. The fuel line was sound enough, but very hard, so I think it was a good idea to replace it.

Some important rubbery bits refreshed

I've just spent a quite useful few hours out in the garage doing a few jobs that I probably should have done months ago - namely replacing Zara's old (original?) hard plastic fuel hose with new rubber ones; and finally replacing the other t-piece.

To get to the t-piece I had to take off one carburettor. I'd been warned that this is a hideously fiddly job (which is why I didn't do it when I replaced the other cooling hoses), but actually I found it a doddle. No knuckles grazed, no bolts lost down into the darkest recesses of the engine bay ...

The carb was rather grotty, but a quick spray with some carb cleaner had it looking much shiner. (Actually, the engine bay isn't going to win me any concours awards - but Zara is a car in frequent use, not a show pony, so as long as everything works and nothing leaks, I'm not that fussed about how shiny it is.)

I told you she was famous

How many cars have a street named after them? When I found out there was a Dame Zara Street in a new suburban development on Canberra's outskirts, we just had to call in on our way home!

Aside from a minor overheating incident on the way up that wasn't repeated (the needle of the temperature gauge stayed in the lower third all the way home), Dame Zara behaved impeccably on the 1000-mile round trip.

Passing a digital speed-checker on the freeway just out of Melbourne, I discovered that 76mp/h on the speedo is really 'only' 108km/h. As the speed limit on the freeways is 110km/h, an indicated 80mp/h became our maximum speed (when safe and appropriate, of course). Zara had absolutely no trouble keeping up with the modern traffic, and we did our fair share of overtaking slowpokes, even pulling up hills at 4000 rpm-plus in order to pass trucks.

What's even more impressive is that our fuel consumption for the trip averaged out at about 23.5 mpg!