The weather is going to be good this weekend.

If the weather is as good this Saturday as they say it's going to be I will start checking over ROD. 

So many finishing jobs to do and I must start going round him and checking the tightness of all the nuts and bolts.

I might even take him for a small spin to the end of the road and back. 

On to this blog site as you can see I have been playing with the layout and if you had your speakers on you should have   heard some "magpie" music.

Do let me know what you think of the site and any ideas to make it more readable.

Have a great weekend all  you J type owners.

The Royal Enfield parts have arrived.

A parcel arrived from India Tuesday morning, although it had been sent some time ago it had been held up in the Airport customs and not released till last Friday. They have been x-raying all the parcels and as my one contained wires it had been delayed. I have been waiting for various parts the main one being a new "AC/DC" alternator. The picture above is of the old one, this has four wires two go to two of the six coils, these are wired in series, while the other two wires go to the remaining four coils, these are wired in parallel two pairs of coils i.e. coil 1+3, and 2+4 giving two phases of an AC current. The windings of all the coils are made with the same gauge wire. The new heavy duty alternator is similar except it has the coils in different gauges of wire, thicker on the AC for more current but uses only 3 coil of the six, so the AC output is a very rough and uneven sine wave while the DC output is increased by a third. The DC output is used via the rectifier and regulator to power the side lamps,coil and charge the battery while the AC out put is used for the headlamp both dip and main beam after all lamps don't mind AC but batteries do. It does seem an over complicated system to me.

I will be adding a separate album of motorbike pictures including all the ones I have taken while rebuilding the bike three times and some of my mates various old two wheeled junk.

Now that the bike is running correctly (thanks Royal Spares) it took only three quarters of an hour to fit the new alternator last night in the dark I will turn my attention to ROD the pick-up truck. I will have to go all over him and double check all the nuts and bolts,brake pipes etc as I have not touched him for so long. I will then do a mini MOT on him before I take him out for the proper one. I will then get brave and start doing longer and longer trips in him as he settles down to being used for the first time in many years. Keep checking in for an update on his progress.

Fantastic weekend weather.

A fantastic weather weekend, as we are to have the front of our house painted (for free)!! 

ICI Paints needed to do an "on site" trials of a new paint system, we put our house forward for the trial but at first we were turned down, at the eleventh hour this has changed.

So Saturday saw me, not playing with vehicles but giving the front of the house, a long overdue spring clean. The gutters cleaned out, a Wisteria climbing up the front all had to be cut down, the pressure washer was dragged out and all the paintwork,windows and plastic gutter were given a blast. Also the bike had a bit of a blast, its first wash in about three years.. The lawns were mowed, the paths swept and borders dug, I was knackered !!!, but as a few people from ICI will be standing in the drive, (watching the painter at work) and ROD the ex-painters truck will be there, they might take an interest in HIM, they might change their minds and publish a bit about ROD in their in-house newsletter. 

After all ROD has been painted with good old ICI paint.

So you can see I have been kept away from my vehicles, so here is a round up of other J type owners "doings" this weekend.

A Jb van earning its keep, Harveys van pressed into service to carry a light load of 150 balloons. Yes you can update a JB and have airbags fitted. The van was used to carry the balloons to decorate one of the floats in the St Patricks Parade held in Birmingham. This vehicle should have been in the parade, not just supporting it.Below are some of the super pictures of the just found remains of a JB van. Started life as a milk delivery Van in 1959, in sunny Wales. At the end of its life a local farmer took on the remains and towed it up to the tree line on his sheep farm. It was used as a human shelter in bad weather and also a safe covered area for the the birthing and delivery of new born lambs. Some what damaged by the local kids (and I don't mean Goats) the remains when dragged out by Bowie but were in a poor state. Some useful spares have been sourced. There are a few parts remaining in Wales, so if your interested in what's left, take a look at the "Bowie" site for further details.

Some bits worth saving, front shocker mounts, front axle, steering etc.

Another Jb for sale.

A nice 1961 G.P.O. planners van is for sale. Contact the man with all the info via the Bowie and Mr Therm link on this site. Also another 8 J type pictures have been added to the album on the right. If you have any pictures of J's I can use please send them in.

The Best J type at Brooklands or the only J type at Brooklands, take your pick.

Ken B's J type planners van, I remember helping him collect this and had the honor of driving it when we collected it from down Guildford way and taking it back to Walton on Thames.
A picture of the parting of the ways, YLH has moved on to Mr Mullholland in south West London/Kent area. He has an Austin 101 bought from e-bay and is under the welding torch at the moment. He also has other Morris Commercial vehicles LC3 etc.

Don't forget the Brookland Austin Morris day on Sunday.

The Brooklands Austin and Morris day is on Sunday 8th, I will NOT be there due to an incident a few years ago, I had taken some items to give to fellow vehicle owners at this event but was accused of being a trader and forced to pay the going rate of £55 for a pitch. So be warned if you have any bits and bob's you thought you might pass on, watch out it my prove to be expensive. Talking about expense I have invested a whole £10 on a secondhand laptop and bought a mobile USB broadband thing, so I can check my e-mails and do blog updates more often. I have up till now had to do it all at work on my Apple Mac, in snatched odd slack times but as of late I have been out on the road being a delivery boy this has proved difficult. The bike is running again but I'm not happy with it and have ordered a "shed load' of bits straight from India. The parts are so cheap, the carriage is not. I have also added another 12 pictures to the J type album and there is also a link to the "ESSO" van that became the "River boat van" that recently changed hand and went up north to be fully restored, enjoy.

Truman's blog is rather fantastic do take a look, I will replace the "missing link" to it shortly. I removed it has it had been dead for a very long time, it is now "full steam ahead" so I better put it back.

A further link on the right has been added it will be of the complete restoration of the excellent early j type van that went on to become the R.A.C vehicle. (LDG)

 

Recent finds and recent van sales.

Another van has changed hands, the postal G.P.O. van that did not sell a few weeks ago was re-advertised this Saturday at 3p.m. by 5p.m. it had been snapped up for the buy it now price of 5.5K. If I had the money I would have bought this, with all its original equipment, it would be hard to replicate. I do hope the new owner from Kent (and already has an Austin 101) will restore it as a postal van and not convert it to an ordinary van.

Further update on this is that I understand it has been bought by the chap that bought the other van that was advertised on e-bay last March for a buy it now price of £2000 (see my blog entry for that month).The 101 when purchased last year.



Also another J type van has been found in Wales, details are scarce but it is a "flatpack" van and some bits have already been removed. Further details of this vehicle are, its a Jb from March 1959, chassis number JB/MR 39667.