September 1, 2021

The digging commences

Carrying on from yesterday’s post, showing the blueprint of our extension, the workmen began yesterday by drilling and digging up the ground for the foundations

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The ECMC Charity Run

Last Sunday, the 29th of August, East Coast Mini Club came to visit us. The club was doing its annual charity run, raising money for

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VW Autojumble

Suffolkbugrs are bringing the Autojumble back at a great new venue, with loads of undercover trading space. Trinity Park, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP3 8UH Entry –

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Squeaky Clean Volvo!

You might have seen from yesterday’s blog posts that we have bought a “run-around” car, a green 1998 Volvo V40. Well after getting a much-needed

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The digging commences

Carrying on from yesterday’s post, showing the blueprint of our extension, the workmen began yesterday by drilling and digging up the ground for the foundations to be laid.

Bentley’s black trim continues

Brian has been re-covering more panels for the 1963 Bentley S3 Continental. This time it’s been dash panels, the instrument cover, door cappings and various other panels. The process for all of them involved taking the original black leather off, followed by any foam that was on the panels, and then sanding off the old glue left behind on the wood and metal forms. Brian used the original leather pieces as patterns to mark out around on the new black leather. He replaced the original foam with new 3mm foam. The foam was glued on first and then the leather wrapped over it. Some of the panels, as you can see, just have leather covering them.

Aston Martin gets another step closer to the paint shop

Lydia has been getting the bonnet of the 1955 Aston Martin DB 2/4 a step closer to the paint shop. The front inside edge had a lot of red oxide left on it so Lydia went about removing as much as she possibly could with thinners and a red scotch pad. There are some parts that aren’t budging so James will look at grinding those out.

More tidying-up of the TVR.

After having a new clear PVC window sewn into the original hood of the 1989 TVR SII 2.9 V6, the rest of the roof needed a bit of attention. The two panels that create the roof in front of the hood has black vinyl covering the underneath. This had various cracks running throughout due to age and wear and it was coming unstuck at the edges. The first decision made was to try and re-glue the edges down, clean off the dirt below the edges of the vinyl, try and glue the cracks together and paint any non-black edges, to take a sympathetic approach so it fitted in with the wear and tear of the rest of the car. However, after Lydia started to try this approach, she wasn’t happy with the results so decided to take the old worn-out vinyl off and start again. Before the vinyl was taken off, the rubbers were peeled off very carefully and with a blade where it was tricky to do by hand. Any remaining glue that was left on the fibreglass was sanded off and cracks in the fibreglass were filled. 3mm foam was cut out and glued on first, making sure to press into the edges and corners to get the shaping right. New black vinyl was then cut out, using the original pieces as patterns. The vinyl was glued over the 3mm foam and pressed into the edges and corners again. You can see in the photos below where the original vinyl was coming away from these edges, which is why it was so important to make those edges as sharp as possible. Lydia went around the sides of the panels to make sure the exposed edges of vinyl looked neat, trimming along the way with a blade. The last step was to re-glue the rubbers on.

The ECMC Charity Run

Last Sunday, the 29th of August, East Coast Mini Club came to visit us. The club was doing its annual charity run, raising money for the charity, Mind Suffolk. They managed to raise a grand total of £1,200 for the mental health charity. What an awesome achievement, well done everyone! The run started at 9:30 am at the Ram Meadow car park and was open to both members and non-members, and finished at Bridge Classic Cars. Take a look at our photos from the day. Did you come along on the day? If so, you may spot yourself or your Mini in one or two of the photos.

Well done to Chairman Tom and the entire team behind the event. It was a pleasure to have the club at our workshop.

If you run a car club and are looking for a location to hold an event or have a similar charity run coming up, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us!

The repair process of a Riley chassis…

After coming back from the sandblasters, the chassis of the 1951 yellow Riley RMB is looking a little corroded so James is going to have to repair these sections. Lydia has begun the process by making cardboard templates of these parts, cutting where necessary to get the shaping right. These templates will be used by James to mark out around on the new metal. The original corroded metal will be removed and the new will be welded into place.

Recovering the Porsche 911 wheel

The stitching had started to pull away on our Porsche 911 SC steering wheel.

Kath has stripped the wheel of the existing leather and successfully managed to re-stitch it back in to position.

We fully expected to have to recover with new leather but once off the wheel we could see that the integrity of the leather was still beautiful so decided to keep with the originality.

VW Autojumble

Suffolkbugrs are bringing the Autojumble back at a great new venue, with loads of undercover trading space.

Trinity Park, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP3 8UH

Entry – Adults (£2), Kids (Free) – Show & Shine (£1 Charity Donation – raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care)

Camp – £9.50 per plot, EHU £15 per plot -arrive from 3pm on Saturday

Undercover Trading Space – Autojumble (£20), Craft Plot (£12), Trade Plot (£25)

New in, Vauxhall VX220!

This green 2003 Vauxhall VX220 has just arrived with us. It was actually bought from us back in 2019, so it’s back on familiar ground. It’s only in for a small number of reasons: there’s a squeaking noise when it goes over bumps, which could be down to suspension issues, the customer wants it serviced and put through an MOT and it’s going to get a pre-delivery inspection.

Squeaky Clean Volvo!

You might have seen from yesterday’s blog posts that we have bought a “run-around” car, a green 1998 Volvo V40. Well after getting a much-needed clean, our “run-around” car is going to have a service in our workshop to check over everything.