A bit of a twit ?

One of the benefits of the very mild weather we have enjoyed this December in the UK has been that I have had the car out more often.  However it gets dark early in December which meant I had to use the lights for the first time.  No problem - I just turned them on and immediately people started flashing me.  At first I thought it was because I was driving an old car, but I quickly realised that I was on full beam.  However I couldn't find the dip switch.  I felt very stupid, I had had old cars for many years.  Eventually I remembered that one old car I had previously owned had a floor mounted dip switch.  How daft did I feel?

Fluid leak?

As it was dry (if a bit windy) this weekend I took the Daimler for a run which included brightening up the local Tesco carpark.

The downside was that I have found a fluid leak on the garage floor - there is a small puddle of clear fluid, I guess either power steering fluid or from the gearbox.

Looking forward to spring 2016

I have been looking at some of the classic car runs that you can go on.  So now I need the spring to come so that I can get the car out in the sunshine.

I just need to get the parts bought so that I can fit the wire wheels ready for next year.

A bit of an outing

This weekend was dry and bright and we had to go to a couple of local small market towns to collect a few things.  So it seemed a good opportunity to take the car and try to persuade my wife that it is ok to go out in an old car.

The car ran faultlessly and that lovely v8 sounds continues to charm me.

We had a drink and read the papers at a local pub.  A chap came over and had a lengthy chat about his Triumph TR6 which had been imported from Texas.

Altogether a nice run.  See pic of the car parked in Brigg, Lincolnshire

Petrol plus what?

I was talking to someone recently about adding additives to petrol to counter-act the effect of the lower octane and the increasing use of ethanol in petrol.  When I started looking at all of the options I came away confused.

Any thoughts on what works?  And the relative cost of these additives?

Thanks

Steering wheel

There is nothing wrong with the steering wheel fitted to my Daimler, however I have always fancied one of those lovely slim wooden ones.  Mota-lita make some lovely ones as do Nardi.  So do I buy one?

I do not need one, there are many other things I could more usefully spend my money on - but they do look good.

Any thoughts on which sort to get and also any issues with fitting them?

No more smell of petrol

Whenever I went in the garage it smelled strongly of petrol due to the tank leaking.  I was constantly propping the door open to let the fumes out.  Now it has had the new tank fitted it is a delight to go into the garage - no smell of petrol, just a shiny Daimler.

The garage that fitted the tank did a great job.  Martin Robey Jaguar parts were really helpful as I needed a couple of extra bits once the tank had been delivered.  The folks in their parts department were very helpful and polite.

The next job is to get the wire wheels fitted.  Two other jobs also remain, one is relatively easy - where do I get a wooden steering wheel?  The other task is more difficult - how do I get my wife to go for a ride in the car?

Petrol tank fitted

I have started to enjoy the Daimler more.  I treated it to a wash today. 

The best bit about the car apart from the looks is the wonderful soft burble of the V8.  I love it.

The petrol tank has finally been fitted.  There were a few minor issues on the way, more of which another day.  My next job is to sort the hubs so that the wire wheels can be fitted before winter.

Petrol tank and other excitement

Ok - things are not that exciting.  In the last couple of weeks the Daimler has needed a new battery.  So I went to Halfords to buy the most powerful battery that would fit, with a 4 year guarantee.  The logic of the powerful (and hence expensive) battery is that older cars often have starting issues, so plenty of oomph seemed like the right thing to do.  The reason for a 4 year guarantee is that when I have had classic cars in the past the short journeys and infrequent starts are hard on batteries, so I hope that if I kill this one off in the next few years I can have a replacement.

On a more expensive note I took the car to a local garage to get them to check a petrol leak.  I had suspected the petrol tank, but hoped that it might be a rusting pipe or perished rubber.  They confirmed it was the tank.  So does anyone know the best place to get a new tank?  And I know I need a fitting kit, but what else do I need?

Little things

It is the little things that frustrate and also the little things that make me smile.  I have been looking for some new mats for my Daimler for a few months.  I cannot find what I am looking for so I thought I would just buy some cheap ones (£25) for the set to tidy things up pending finding some nice ones.


See below the before and after pictures.

Wire wheels - part 2

I have finally bought 4 wire wheels.  I bought them off a delightful chap in Essex.  They are second hand, they are from an E Type Jag, and they have been refurbished.  So now I need some hubs, but as my car is a 1969 model I am not sure which hubs I need.  I know post 67 cars require different wheels to those that are pre 1967 but I have not been able to find out how the hubs differ or what part number I need.  Any ideas?

I also need to buy 4 spinners, there are sets available between £150 - £170 however those for a Jag are a bit cheaper, presumably because there are fewer Daimlers out there.

Either way I am getting excited about seeing my car on wire wheels.

 

Wire wheels

I have always loved the Daimer (Jaguar Mark 2) shape when fitted with wire wheels.  So when I bought a car with standard steel wheels it was obvious that I would start looking to find and fit some wire wheels.

My first hour on the internet left me confused and concerned at the cost.  You can buy a complete kit to do the conversion for about £2,000 which seems like an awful lot of money.

As well as the wheels themselves there is the issue of changing the hubs over, which cost around £90 each.

From my research from the internet it would seem that there are 3 options, chrome (most expensive), something that looks like chrome and painted (least expensive).  Many are now made in India under some kind of patent or license from Dunlop, who I always thought made tyres, but in the past they also made wire wheels.

Size is an issue - cars of that era (the 60s) used 5,5.5 and 6 inches in width wheels.  The issue with my car is that if I want anything wider than 5 inches then I would need to fit coombes spats.  These are available, but would need fitting and spraying in to match.  So 5 inches it is.  I have spent weeks trawling the internet to find some second hand ones.  One of the problems is that many of the advertisers say thing like "from an E type Jaguar".  These might fit, or they may not.  My car is from 1969; Mark 2 Jags and Daimlers of that era changed slightly in 1967 which means that wheels from an earlier period do not fit (not sure why not).  Curly or flat appears to be one of the main differences.  So many on e-bay may be suitable but in the absence of knowing the year or the model number of the wheel there is no point bidding.  One chap in Essex, who appears to deal in wire wheels judging from the number he has on e-bay was happy to supply the right info.  He has a set of 4 and he wants £326 with me having to collect them.  So my intention is to buy these and get some hubs and make my car look lovely.  We will see how smoothly that all goes.

One interesting thing that did occur to me.  All of the wire wheels that you see for sale are in sets of 4.  But there is a spare wheel in all of these cars which will be useless once the hubs have been changed over.  Any ideas why they do not advertise 5?

Classic Daimler - getting to grips with the faults

Since I bought the car I have not had much opportunity to drive it.  However I have been able to work a few things out.  I knew the paint work was not 100% when I bought the car.  Having had a proper look it needs more paint putting on it.  The pictures flatter the car, it was originally sable/beige and has been re-sprayed what I am calling Morse burgundy.  So at some point I am going to have to fork out for a partial re-spray, the doors are the most affected.

One of the other issues that I am not sure what to do about, if anything, is the seats.  They appear to look good upon a superficial inspection, but they have been almost spray painted with something very thick that masks what I suspect are some quite tired seats. 

One of the problems to be investigated is that it leaks petrol.  It is dripping gently from somewhere in the region of the tank.  I am not sure if it is the tank or some of the pipework leading into it.  Any thoughts anyone?  I have priced another tank, they are not cheap (approx £400).

One of the frustrating faults is that the drivers door does not lock or unlock on the key, so I have to lock and unlock it from the passenger side. 

Next time I will describe the dilemma about buying some wire wheels.

First drive

I had hoped to have a drive almost as soon as the car was delivered, but my mother in law was very ill so there were any number of trips to the hospital in either of the modern cars that we run.  However on the Sunday we needed to go to the tip and then the local Tesco, pop some petrol in the car and then home.  All in about 8 miles.

It did not start off well.  My wife (who is not keen) and the dog got in.  I turned the key, petrol pump ticked nicely, after a few seconds I pressed the starter button - nothing.  So I turned it off and on and again, pressed the starter button - nothing.  I am starting to feed a bit awkward in front of my wife as she is not keen on old cars and this one was not for starting.  She suggested putting the auto in neutral.  I tried it and tried the starter again - off it went.  First lesson.  My modern car in an automatic as well, but it only starts in park - that is my excuse.

Once I got going down the road the first thing you notice is the lovely burble from the v8, the second thing is how imprecise the steering is compared to a modern car. I have driven other old cars, most recently a Volvo Amazon so I was used to the steering.  The brakes pulled the car up reasonably well, the only issue in that area is that a red warning light flickers on and off most of the time.  It relates to both the handbrake and the brake fluid level I belive,  The chap selling me it says it is a loose connection in the warning light system - but I would like to get it checked out sometime - no brake fluid is not a good look.

It suprised me how nervous I was.  I have driven old cars for the last 25 years, so I should not have been nervous.  It being automatic feels slightly odd in an old car, you cannot dip the clutch if the revs falter.

When I got the car home I was pleased that it had run ok and nothing dreadful had occured.

Next time - starting to get to grips with the faults

Classic car delivery

Getting my new car home was an interesting experience.  The Daimler was bought in Ramsgate and I live in Lincolnshire, about 6 hours away at a steady pace.  My wife's mother was very poorly and this fact, taken with I did not want to drive that far in a car that had done very few miles over the last few years helped me decide that I was going to have the car brought back on the back of a lorry.

I assumed that finding a company to deliver it home would be easy.  So I spent some time on the internet looking for suitable companies.  There is no equivalent of tripadviser.  My experience was interesting, I phoned one chap and asked for a quote.  He gave me a price that seemed reasonable.  I phoned a few others who were quite a bit more.  So I rang him back to accept his quote, at which point he informed me his original figure had been an estimate.  He asked me to e-mail him the details over and he would give me a price.  Nothing happened, so I chased him, nothing.  Eventually after ringing him again his quote went up by £90.  So back to the drawing board.

Then I found a couple of sites where they get quotes for you, a little like a reverse auction.  I suspect that it is not quite as open a competition as they would like you to believe.  I had 5 quotes sent over within a few hours, all within about £10 of each other, some were a couple of £s apart.

I then found another chap via the internet, agreed 2 different dates to make it easy for him.  And I made the mistake of paying upfront as I wanted the car dropping off and the keys popping through the door as I would be at work and my wife was visiting at the hospital every day.

So come the day of the collection it was finally collected around 4pm.  I was informed when I rang that it would be delivered the following day - not a problem.  The following day came and went, so I rang about 8pm to be told that the car would either delivered over the weekend or the following week.  I explained politely but firmly that I expected to see the car the following day.

The car did finally arrive, 2 days later than agreed.  Over the last 2 days whilst it was being delivered I had a number of approaches from some of the other companies who offered to reduce their quotes considerably.

So the lessons are; choosing a company to transport your car is a complete lottery, do not be suprised if it is delivered late and a price is not always a quote. 

Next time I will describe my first drive.

Daimler 250 V8

I have been looking at the prices of these cars for the past 3 or 4 years.  When I first started looking quite nice ones were going for between £4-5k.  This figure has slowly but steadily been rising with odd, exceptional cars going for £20k +.  I started looking in earnest a few months ago.  Some nice cars went through various auctions, which I could never make due to work or other commitments. 

I was scanning the internet, particularly e-bay and the classic car sites.  There was always a number of cars that looked good but on each occasion they were at the other end of the country.  And all the time the prices kept creeping ever upwards.

I read an article in a classic car magazine about finding cars in local papers, not using auctions or via the classic car magzines.  A few days later I saw an advert in one of the weekly classic car newspapers.  There was no picture, just a brief description and a telephone number.  The gentleeman selling the car explained the story - he had bought it a year earlier from a chap who had restored the car but never got to drive it due to having a stroke just as he was finishing the car.  He explained that all of the usual problem areas had been sorted, boot floor, car floor, sills and crows feet.

So I went to have a look.  The car was in Ramsgate.  I live in Lincolnshire but was working in Suffolk, which meant I could drive over after work.  The car was under a cover, alongside a number of Mark 2 Jags.

I crawled around underneath with a torch and indeed all of the problem areas looked good.  The car was originally beige but has been re-sprayed the same maroon as the Jag in Morse.  I realised that it was not the best re-spray I had seen.  The test drive was fine, normal for a 45 year old car and the engine ran smoothly with a lovely sound and good oil pressure.  I could not work out what was happening with the leather seats - they looked much better than they should but they had not been recovered. Only after I got the car home did I realise that they had been heavily covered with some kind of leather paint.  I looked through the paperwork - lots of bills for the repair panels and parts for the rebuild for the bottom of the engine.  The chap wanted £8,500, we finally agreed on £8,000.

Next time I will cover getting it home

Daimler V8 250 (Mark 2 Jaguar shape)

I have always loved the shape of the Daimler v8, which looks almost the same as the Jaguar Mark 2 with a different engine and trim, but the same body shell as the Jaguar.

This blog is going to describe some of my thoughts and experiences of finding, buying and running one of these cars.

So why did I want one?  I remember cycling past one of these cars over 30 years ago and being struck by the lovely shape.  I have wanted one ever since.  I think the shape is lovely.  I love the Mark 2 Jaguar as well, but I like the idea of the Daimler with a V8 engine making a lovely noise.

I have owned a couple of classic cars over the last 25 years.  Both were run as second cars, the first was a grey Austin A35, the second a cream Volvo Amazon estate.  Both of these were great fun, the A35 was very underpowered but would pop its tail out at stupidly low speeds on a wet roundabout.  I enjoyed both of them, they are so different to driving modern cars.

I have enclosed a picture of my new car, which makes it look better than it is.  Next time I will describe the search for the car.