1936 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs Body

Riley – ready to go home

Our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine is now complete. The running issues have been resolved and various test drives conclude successful. You’ll see our wonderful Riley

Read More »

Rodents have been at the Riley

A few little electrical issues have occurred on our 1936 Riley Nine so we’ve welcomed the car back in to look at the problem. Turns out, a mouse has made it’s way in and has chewed on a few wires. We have addressed the issues, tidied up the wiring and the car is good to go once again.

The Riley Merlin Exhaust Is Exhausted

The 1926 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs came to us with a rigid exhaust pipe. Eventually, the natural movement of the engine would lead it to break.

Our specialist classic car technician Dave has built her a new, more flexible, exhaust pipe. “A rigid exhaust pipe would eventually break the exhaust manifold,” explains Dave. “I’ve now built and welded together a new, flexible, stainless steel exhaust.”

This should tide her over for many more drives to come. Good job Dave!

The Riley’s Getting Flashy

Classic Car Technician Tom has been rewiring the indicator relay on the 1936 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs.

“I had to remove the old indicator box as the wiring was unsafe” says Tom. “I’ve redone the wiring and restored the flashing indicator relay to get it back to it’s original look.”

There’s been clear blue skies over the Pettistree workshop today, so Tom and some of the team have been working out in the sunshine. Bright indicator lights, bright sunshine and what is sure to be a bright future ahead for the Riley Merlin!

1939 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs Body – Interior Trim

Brian and Kath have both been working on the rear bench seat of our ’39 Riley Merlin Nine.

They have superbly trimmed the rear seats in matching blue leather. The seats just need to be sat in a few times for them to shine in a similar way to the front seats.

There was some leftover leather, so Kath has also made a brilliant tool pouch which fits perfectly into the boot storage space.

Continue reading below for the full process.

Lovely work, Brian and Kath.

The first job was to re-foam the front seats for additional padding. Brian stripped down the seats and added extra foam toppers to pad out the old foam.Brian then glued new leather to the wheel arch top panels. He then added new new wadding to the wheel arch panel and stapled new covers onto the panel.

After stripping out the rear bench seats Brian has added new foam toppers onto the original Riley rear base foam. He then glued the rear base covers made by Kath onto the foam.

Brian has then added chrome fasteners to the cover which will allow it to be clipped into place. He has then fitted the base back into the vehicle before we moved onto repeating the process on the swab.

Kath handled the sewing and stitching parts of the build. With some of the loft over leather Kath has made this lovely little tool bag as an added surprise for the customer.

Riley Merlin Nine Wiper Wiring

John has successfully re-wired our Riley wiper wiring without removing or affecting the ceiling cloth. Great result.

Rebuilding our Riley Nine brakes

Our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine has returned to have the brakes fully rebuilt.

The brakes have been stripped, machined and re-shoed. Whilst in, the wiper motor wiring loom has also been replaced within the headlining as a fault was continually blowing the fuse. This has now been rectified.

Rewiring our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine

Our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine Briggs Body has returned to the workshops for a full re-wire.

The full loom has been manufactured to order by our good friends at Autosparks

The old loom has been fully removed (apart from the interior light) and replaced with brand new throughout.

We have also fitted a new/old stock clock to the dash and wired that up as part of the new install.

Riley – ready to go home

Our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine is now complete. The running issues have been resolved and various test drives conclude successful.

You’ll see our wonderful Riley Merlin at The Ufford White Lion Car Rally in two weeks time on Saturday 6th April 2019; White Lion Inn, Lower St, Lower Ufford, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP13 6DW

1936 Riley Merlin Nine – running issues

Having recently undergone a restoration, our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine has now come into us for us to look at a running issue.

At present, the car will only run on choke and will swiftly cut out when the choke is not engaged.

Having cleaned out the carbs, which were very dirty, we have also noticed a lot of play within the existing rotor arm.

A new set of points, condenser and rotor arm have been supplied to us from the Riley specialists at Blue Diamond Riley Services.

Our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine seats are now complete…

We have now completed the re-upholstering of our 1936 Riley Merlin Nine front seats using the customer’s own leather hyde.

The hyde that has been supplied to us is very similar in colour to the original and has come to us with sentimental reasons so we were more than happy to assist with this project.

Front Seat Re-Upholstery

In today we have the front pair of 1936 Riley Merlin Nine seats along with a beautiful piece of hide supplied to us by the vehicle’s owner.

The seats will be completely stripped back, the frames will be refurbished before we apply new cushions and bespoke covers.

They’ll be good as new in no time.