First decent run + more pics from Chantilly

I have had the Daimler about 2 years now.  Since fitting electronic ignition I am more confident that the car will start, and keep going in the damp (the leads were cracked and caused a misfire at times).  However I have not driven it more than about 30 miles at a time.  We have taken it to pubs, the local tip, Tesco, haircut but no real test.

Last weekend we took it to Newark, about 1.5 hours each way, and the car behaved fine both ways, getting a little warm in traffic, but no particular dramas.  So I decided on Sunday to take it to Suffolk for a few days, a trip that took about 4 hours.  It was an intersting test.  The car is quite low geared so anything about 55/60 gets quite noisy.  The other thing that you notice on a longer run is the heat from the engine starting to seep into the cabin.  And the back of the car groans and clunks over bumps.  I suspect some of the bushes are shot, or there may be a problem with the axle. Now all I have to do is drive it 4 hours back in a few days.  Below is a pic of the car in Suffolk and some more pics from Chantilly

Chantilly Classic Car Show & a leaky gearbox

It is a little while since my last post.  I have spent the summer out in the Daimler most weekends.  With all old cars, as soon as you sort one job the next one on the list becomes more pressing.  The electronic ignition seems to be a great success, however I now having a nice leak from the automatic gearbox - red fluid on the garage floor, although I cannot find where it is leaking from.  And I have been to a couple of great classic car shows.  I have just come back from chantilly arts and elegance which is actually a classic car show held at a beautiful chateau in northern France.  There are a few pictures of a number of cars - some were absolutely beautiful.

Sunday and tyre pressures

Finally there is more warm, dry weather so any excuse to get the Daimler out.  This weekend it was a trip to the tip, a trip to the egg man, a trip to Tesco and to a local cafe, where I felt obliged to park next to the Merc.

I have a question - any thoughts?  What should the tyre pressures be on this Daimler?  I have a handbook but the figures in there relate to the original crossply tyres.

Now summer is here, insurance and electronic ignition

At last we are having a spell of lovely dry, warm weather in the UK.  I have been able to get the Daimler out on a regular basis at the weekends. A few weekends ago managed to take it to the pub in about 10 miles away on Friday evening, dinner with friends on the Saturday evening and then to the local garden centre on the Sunday.  Brilliant fun and lots of comments from folks in the pub, although I am not sure what our friends thought of the car.

The electronic ignition is finally fitted and working.  The main difference seems to be that the car runs more smoothly and starts more easily.  Overall probably a good investment.

Recently I had to renew the insurance, the car is insured through a company called Lancaster, but I thought I would see if one of the other clasic car insurers could beat the renewal quote.  This was not a great experience - the lady I spoke to from Footman James made me feel like she couldn't be bothered and was in fact doing me a favour and the quote was about 40% more than the renewal figure I had been quoted.  I remained with Lancaster for another year.  Does anyone have any other recommendations?

 

Spring is finally here

It seems like ages since we have had some nice dry, salt free roads, but spring has finally sprung. 

A few weeks ago I tried to take the car out of the garage onto the drive, to be met with that horrid sound of a starter barely turning.  Not a problem I thought, I will pop the battery charger on and leave it a few hours.  When I went back to the car later in the afternoon still no joy.  Looking at the charger there was a warning light on that said wrongly connected, replace fuse.  So I replaced fuse in the charger, same result.  A friend advised making sure the battery wasn't connected to the car, so I tried again - bingo, it started.  Great joy and smiling.

One of the other jobs was to sort the MoT - booked and it passed - more joy.  I had asked the garage to have a look at the petrol sender unti whilst the car was on the ramp - they checked all of the connections and have concluded that it needs a new sender - the current one has only been in place for 9 months - hey ho.

Whilst on a roll I finally got round to ordering the inner tube and elastic band for the spare wheel - just need a tyre now.  And I ordered the lumimition ignition kit - excited about that going on, the car doesn't run quite right, one of the leads has started to break down.

And on drive it Sunday we went to the local market town to pick up a paper and have a drink in the pub.  The chap who wanted to buy the car last year is hinting again that he is interested.  We will see.

Finally selling my wheels

I have finally got round to selling the wheels that came off my Daimler when I had wire wheels fitted.  They are on e-bay.  I had imagined getting a couple of hundred pounds at most, but have seen that a Jaguar garage have a set on for sale on e-bay at the moment with a buy it now price of £1,700.  That seems a huge amount of money for some wheels to me, but we will see.  Please see the link below.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Jaguar-Mark-2-wheels-also-fits-Daimler-250-v8-and-wheel-hubs-/132050886397?hash=item1ebed89efd:g:cQwAAOSw5cNYaQPB

As well as 5 wheels I have the embellishers and 4 Daimler hub caps.  I had wondered whether to sell the hub caps on seperately but have included them.

I cannot wait for the salt free weather to come so that I can get the car out again

The dog's first birthday

On Saturday the puppy became one year old - so no longer a puppy.

We took her to the pub for a drink in the local market town, about 10 miles each way.  As it was a lovely day we took the Daimler.  Here are a few pics of the dog, in her Daimler, on the way to the pub.

We also tidied the garage and came across the wheels that we had taken off to put wire wheels on.  Does anyone know if I should sell them as a complete set, wheels, hubs, hub caps etc or sell them item by item ?