oldcar

Right now I am well on the way to having the new Short wheel base chassis welded up with only the welds on the underside to be completed. That and I have ro decide if I need to reinforce the join with some of the cut out pieces used to "overlay" the joins. I must say that having got this far I am pleased with the result. It is amazing the difference this has made and well worth the effort. I will still have to shorten the drive shaft too. Here you can see my "Chain-block" used here to hold the two sections of the chassis together during welding. Bj

Hello Dr Data, The fenders have already gone to scrap but I have retained the "hood" the four door-skins, the lid from the trunk and the roof. This probably means that I may not need to buy any new sheet aluminium. I do already have a half sheet "in stock". Left over from my last project I have now removed the surplus 12 inches out of the centre of the chassis so now it is officially a "Sports". All I have to do is spend a day welding it all back together again. At least here in Australia it is the right weather to spend a day welding. It is now just after 4.30 pm* so I will not be starting now. It is Friday today here in Australia, our traditional shopping day for our weeks fruit, veg and grocery shopping. The LeaF's (sedan) roof is too large to store it inside, all I have to remember is not to put it out with the garbage on Wednesday night. Anyone puzzled by today's photograph. The Steel deck roof seen here is actually in our neighbours property. We live at the top of a hill, our next door neighbour has excavated down to make their garage level with the road outside. Another point of interest, the leaves seen on the ground in this photograph are not "Autumn" leaves they are from the Native Australian, Eucalyptus trees that grow in our garden. These are ever-green and tend to drop leaves throughout the year. We rake them up and use them a mulch on our garden-beds. They are quite slow to rot down. I am sure that I Have talked about our garden before, It consists on mainly Australian "Native" plants apart from my wife, Helen's vegetable garden. As we are both now in our "eighties" and as we have been living in the same house for almost 50 years you could say that we are more or less settled. Bernie j. * Eastern Australia standard time.

Hello Digger You may be amazed, I now have bitten the bullet and as a result of todays labours I now have a short wheel base LeaF. With it sitting in my "garage" held together with g-clamps and my "chain" block, It certainly looks short, you would hardly think that 12 inches would make such a difference! With a light two seater body and with the engine puting out any sort of horse power it should "FLY". The next few weeks will be interesting, so interesting I will not have time to worry about Co-vid or any other bugs. Just as well both Helen and I had our "Jabs" some time ago. Sorry no photographs just yet. Bj

Meanwhile after some considerable thought I have decided that the chassis really does need to lose the 12 inches to bring it down to the "Sports" wheelbase. The one problem is that with the holes in the inner side of the chassis side rails it will be difficult if not impossible to make the cut at an angle so it will need to be at 90degrees. I have now made the first cuts in the left hand side rail. I will need to remove the petrol pipe and electrical wiring loom from the right hand side before making the next cut. I also will need to remove some of the build up of dirt etc from inside the box section rails. Bj.

The more I look at it the more a treatment of the rear of the car similar to the Jaguar special, the more it appeals to me. Naturally it will not be exactly the same but a variation on a theme. Meanwhile during our current "lock-down" there will be no going out to buy the steel tube or having it delivered so I need to be changing direction with the Lea Francis. I have just today removed the cylinder head in preparation to removing the motor and following up that hole in the crankcase. Bj.

Hello again, Chris Sorry but I do not maintain a stock of square tube but order it in as I require it. The length of the standard tube is too long to allow ease of storage and if you cut the lengths to a convenient size it leads to too much waste. Once I start on a (body) frame it tends to disappear quite quickly. Bj.

One other solution would be to bury the petrol tank in the rear of the body and recess the spare wheel into the rear of the car as I did some years ago with the SS Jaguar special. Perhaps without the second spare, which in the case of the Jaguar was a second thought added on just prior to our taking the car to Europe. My present thinking is to paint the finished car a dark navy blue with either tan or Navy-blue trim/upholstery. But that is racing ahead somewhat. In the case of the Jaguar, it did not have any doors. It did have tan upholstery with its dark green paint. Only time will tell, it is a long time since I finished a car to the same degree as the Jaguar.

Instead of a drawing here are two photographs of the Lagonda which is typical of a 1930's sporting two seater. with a "slab " petrol tank and a rear mounted spare wheel. While the same (17") size wheel the LeaF has steel disc wheels rather that a wire spoke. Not of any real consequence. The main differences are that the Leaf will have cycle type mudguards (Fenders) and for now I do not have another pair of "fog amps". That and that it will not be painted white.

Thank you OCF, Now that I am ready to move the Lea Francis forward I have made one decision which will govern which direction the restoration will take. As I have the original LeaF radiator in good condition I really should use it. This means that my LeaF must have a traditional two seater body with an upright radiator and cycle type mudguards, not unlike many of my past restorations. This will be made easier as I already have things such as a pair of Chrome plated headlamps and some of brass door hinges from the saloon body. These and the door latches can go inter service in the new body. As I write this I am forming a mental picture of what is needed, just please do not ask me to draw you a picture. Bj.

Having gone as far as I need to for now, with regards to the body, I have spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon removing the eight nuts and bolts along with the split pins securing each nut. This I suppose must have taken up an hour or two. At least I can see the result of my efforts and I am now that much closer to having the engine & gearbox and all the drive components stripped off the chassis. While it requires my borrowing a trailer it means that I can start with a sand blasted and primer undercoated chassis frame. Before this can happen I still need to remove the four springs and the two axles along with the steering box. Golly, at times like this I sometimes wish that I was nearly 24 instead of 84. But then I think just how much I have accomplished in those 60 years and I would not change anything. Bj

Today photograph of the Lea Francis Show it waiting for our next "hard garbage" collection, early next week. The sad part is that it is not even worth going to the trouble of sorting out the AluminiumIt's scrap value just does not justify going to all the trouble to remove any of the steel nust and bolts etc, the scrap merchants will not even look at stuff like this which may have a mixture of metal .

AND another day spent sorting out all sorts odd "stuff" for the LeaF. I have now stripped all the old upholstery off the front seat frames and moved them out of the garage and into the garden shed. I have decided that I definitely do not want or need the rear seats This means that the chassis is about to loose 12 inches from the wheel base so IT will now definitely become a two seater. I now need to clear a shelf or two take all the LeaF engine "Bits" as I take it apart. I am very curious to see just what damage there is other than the "hole" in the crankcase.

Another of my Lagonda Rapiers bought as a collection of loosely assorted parts was this one. When purchased it came without a chassis frame, an Amilcar chassis was used after some modifications had been made. It was rebuilt as a very successful racing car. It too was sold overseas by a subsequent owner. I understand that it is now part of a "Collection" in England. Bj.

Again and perhaps more relevant, the first of these photographs shows my present Lagonda Rapier as a "Sports Racing-car in the 1950s and again as it is today.

Yes and no. It is one of my earlier Rapiers*. This one has one of "my" two seater bodies and motor-cycle type mudguards (fenders). Some years ago it was sold by a subsequent owner and it is now "somewhere in Europe". My bodies all have one common feature. They are built on a steel (square) tube frame with aluminium panels. This one did not have doors on either side. The photograph was taken at one of our local "Hill climbs" at the crest of the very steep hill. The book's main content is of various Rapier owners descriptions of and their experiences with theor cars. It runs to 216 pages with the products of the various Coachbuilders grouped together. Each car has two or three pages including photographs. There is a section devoted to each of the usual Coachbuilders and their body styles. As I have stated in several places at different times, "There are no two Lagonda Rapiers "exactly the same"..... As with virtually all my cars this one too, was bought as a "basket case" to be restored from a pile of loosely assorted pieces. This photograph shows the typical condition of the majority of my "project cars" when purchased. This one is the extremely rare Dixie Flyers and when completed. The second photograph shows the same car standing outside the Louisville Kentucky (USA) factory where it was originaly built in 1922. Bj. . Bj.

That is one of the good things about Australian Houses, very few have basements. Our house is built on a Concrete slab flat on the ground. We more or less stopped building our houses with cellars or basements about 100 years ago. Despite some similarities Australia and the USA are very different and our life style here in Australia, we like to think is unique. Until you visit you would be hard pressed to understand just how free of restrictions we are. Right now there are some people who complain about our present (Co-vid) restrictions on travel etc. They just do not know just how good our life is! They even complain when the Government pays them money to stay at home. People in some countries do not know what it is like to live to be 85+ years old. Here people complain if they do not live until they teach 95 or 100.

In the early 1930s the Lagonda Company engaged a young Automotive Engineer, Tim Ashcroft to design the Rapier, to aid him in the task, the company provided him with one draftsman. The company decided that as at the time it was using the one "Jig" to build the bodies for the other larger models, the Two Litre, Three Litre, and 4.5 Litre they would not go to the expense of building another to accomodate the smaller Rapier. In stead the Rapier was only ever offered "New" as a rolling chassis with a number of Independent Coach-builders offerin a choice of suitable bodies, These included a four seat open Tourer, a Drop Head Coupe , and a Fixed Head Coupe all available from Abbott Coach-builders of Farnham in Surrey, England. They supplied these to the majority of the purchasers of a new Rapier in 1934-5. The Melbourne (Australia) Coach-building firm of "Supreme" offered a two door, four window saloon, there are two of these still surviving.

When writing the Preface of the Rapier Register's book "Ever Keen" to celebrate the first 75 years of the Rapier in 2009 I state that having bought my first Rapier in the late 1960s and joined the Rapier Register in 1971 and while having owned a wide variety of other cars, none have surpassed the pleasure of owning, restoring, racing, rallying and driving a Rapier. I should further explain the book contains the recollections of a number Rapier owners writing of their own experiences each about his or her own Rapier.

Hello Chris It is pity that you are so far away, You could come and assist me otherwise. I apreciate your interest and support. Bj.

If you are confused, I can understand you asking. Why with such an amazing car as the Lagonda Rapier would any one get side tracked by "ordinary cars" such as the Lea Francis. You would think that by now the penny would have dropped! Well I can only explain, I have this compulsive need to be doing something creative. With the Lagonda Rapier, it is so good that Iit simply does not need to be having "something" done to it every other day. You must have noticed that regardless of the constant changes happening all around it, it just stands there patiently waiting for our next outing knowing that nothing can compare with the enjoyment and satisfaction I get from driving it. When I look back at its history and then at all the miles we have driven in it, anything else simply fails by comparison. Bernie j.

Meanwhile the LeaF's body is slowly comming apart and the flat (aluminium) panels put to one side for future use. The rusted steel components are being cut up into pieces small enough to go out with the rubbish. While all this is time consuming it is better and easier to make use of our local council's waste removal system.

While I am working my way through all the LeaF's problems, I seem to be saving the worst until last. This is nor really intentional, it is simply a matter of accessibility . This brings me to that hole in the side of the crankcase, while the whole story, if you will forgive the pun, well not be fully revealed until I have the motor out and on my bench with the cylinder head and sump removed, todays photograph reveals that the big-end cap has come off completely and must have made quite a loud noise in the process. Apart from the obvious damage just how much more still remains to be seen. There is also quite a large amount of debris that has also collected in the sump, presumably since the "blow-up". Todays photograph reveals the the bigend cap had come completely undone. I still have some tidying up of the body remains so with luck, I should be able to concentrate on the motor sometime early next week. If it can be regarded as any consolation, it appears as though the crankshaft is fully counter balanced. I am reasonably confident that with a large patch to cover the "hole" that I should be able to reclaim this, the original motor. From what I can see, it appears that it was one of the "Big-end bolts" that had failed, not the actual con-rod that had broken. Bj.

Thank you for your continued interest, It is all slowly coming apart, It is time consuming because currently I am taking the doors apart so I can save the sheet metal and take the frames apart so they will go into the bin. It all takes time but saves it in the long term. I am also attempting to save the door furniture(latches, handles, etc. I may get to use some of it in the future. Bj

Another day and the same old rubbish, perhaps it is my age talking but I cannot help but wonder, "Why am I once again getting myself involved with something that means a whole lot of work with little or no reward. Does anyone care?" Once again I have a pile of rubbish cluttering up my front garden. Will I ever learn. One thing is certain, even IF I offered to give this "car" away free. No one would be stupid enough as to want it or to take it away. Bernie j.

Thank you DrD Not that I have to justify anything, this photograph of the underside of the bulkhead says it all.