Richard_Dover

Hear and see it running!

The autovac is a 1920s addition. In the fullness of time I will return to gravity feed but will necessitate a replacement fuel tank and at the moment, if it ain't broke, I'm not going to fix it!

What fuel should I run my 1909/1912 (dunno which it is yet) car on? I know that they only had very poor quality fuel back then and that the engine is very low compression but from the smell the previous owner was running on some kind of paraffin/ petrol mix not unlike what model airplanes are run on. Advice gratefully accepted.

I did the obvious, put it gear and turned the starting handle and lo and behold it went backwards! I managed to get it running though, which was quite an achievement as I was told that it was a non runner. After checking water, oil and spark I set the advance to 3/4, the hand throttle to something decent, filled the priming pots and swung like mad It took about 8 attempts before the first put-put but very soon I could get a 3 second firing from each fill of the pots. It has a vacuum system called and autovac which draws fuel through but this didn't seem to work at first so I bypassed it and away it went. When I first swung it over to feel how healthy the engine was there was almost no compression but after 5 minutes of running there was loads so I thin all it needs is a bit of top end work eventually. The radiator is now top of the list for refurbishment. The first step in the learning cliff has been cut!

Thanks guys, I thought I was being fed a line there. I am loathe to open up the box but the jack up the axle option is the obvious one Richard

I've got my Alldays and have started to play with it. It's a very interesting piece of motoring history and although complete, I've not had time to try and start it. Now for my question..... The gear change looks like a normal H pattern with a gate that looks like a Ferrari's. There is a gap that is outboard (right) and back and seems to lock the gearbox. Does the car have reverse? I've been told by a friend that cars did not have reverse until the 1920's but I'm not inclined to beilieve it. Any ideas?

Toyota once thought of having a Mini type car, you know Toyota-let or Toyolet!! Desoto Frank .... pardon me but I think you'll find Touareg has only 3 consecutive vowels and as the USA is responsible for California where English is spoken with over 45 vowels and only 3 consonants I fail to see the problem. BTW Alldays & Onions are more accurately known as "The Alldays and Onions Pneumatic Engineering Company of Birmingham". Trips off the tongue doesn't it?

I've got some photos from Beaulieu and made contact wit the VCC and a few others but I am really starting from scratch. I'll look up Strathmore VCC and Myerton and see what they have. Glasgow Museum of Transport is dedicated to Scottish historic vehicles (either made in Scotland or used here) and they don't have any Alldays but it is always worth a visit even if it's just to bore the kids! I've found out that the VCC listed only 18 Alldays in 2001 so it seems like a rather rare vehicle and I'm glad to be bringing the 19th back to life.

I have just bought a 1909 (we think) Alldays & Onions 2 seat runabout and are about to set about restoring it. What appeared to be a basically cosmetic job is fast turning into a more serious project due to some nasty earlier work wich removed some lovely original parts. What I am looking for is contact details of other Alldays owners and as many photos of the vehicles as possible. It looks as though the steering column and pedals have been moved to accommodate a very odd shaped driver along with the brake and gear levers. Your help is greatly appreciated. My email is rdover@volvoc303.co.uk