You win some and lose some

I shouldn't have celebrated so much about the Wickham. Last week end it failed again, this time the rear axle has slipped through the bearing and as a result the left rear wheel is rubbing on the chassis. The fix is simple but for the time being it has been put away until the VW is further along. Sort of glad these thing show up in testing, on longer runs it would be disastrous.


526 pauses in the Crookwell yard.

On the brighter side, after a small delay, paint has begun to fly on the VW project. I couldn't be happier about the colour choice, a nice deep but bright red. Norglass Fleet Red to be exact. It's a marine grade enamel made in Sydney NSW.  So far the underside of the frame, axles, brake handle, skid rails and axle carriers are painted. I still have a lot of paint stripping to go and many brake linkages to remake.

Dad put the heads back on the engine and adjusted the tappets. The tin cowlings will be cleaned up and painted in the next couple of days, then the rest of the engine can be reassembled.

The frame and axles in the makeshift spray booth

Oh yeah, the trike trailer got a make over a couple of weeks ago. New, longer A frame, new springs, Ford hubs and tyres. It has made it more stable on the road.



Things are starting to click now

Over Easter the Wickham was given a thorough shake down after it's engine rebuilt.

I can happily report...Yippee, hooray, oh yeah, It went well. From the time it rolled off the trailer and back on 4 days later it never missed a beat, nothing broke, nothing fell off. The car is now tucked back into bed and there is nothing more to do. What a great feeling after the last 10 months of on and off work and an empty wallet. The biggest difference is how smooth it is in ride and power. No revving the engine to get it moving. Crack the throttle and squeeze on the clutch and off you go. 

It has been 25 years this month since I first got to drive 526, from Cowra to Carcoar. Back then it was just a coat of paint otherwise it was as is from State Rail.  A nice little anniversary to have it fully restored. It is a shame that 526 can't run on the straight rails of the Cowra-Blayney line. I would love to hear it sing again.

This weekend more was done to the VW. The battery cradle was resized and the corroded part of a hand rail was cut out and replaced. The paint is on order and should be here on Tuesday. The (and I use the term loosely) "paint booth" has been set up.

"Paint Booth"