NATIONAL RESTORATION SHOW - STONELEIGH - SUNDAY 31st OCTOBER 2004
Despite
the extra hour in bed it seemed to be the middle of the night when Lois and I
set of to join Doris and Fred Sanderson in Loughborough. The journey to
Stoneleigh was achieved quite quickly due to very limited traffic. However we
had difficulty gaining access to our stand, due to traders and exhibitors.
When we
finally found our stand area it would only take two vehicles with no room to
work or to set up our shop and parts display. Fred located the organizer and we
were offered a very good stand area, which we accepted minus power and despite
being surrounded by Auto Jumble, Books, Tools etc. Set up our stand.
Stuart
arrived in time to position his car between Fred’s and our Restoration Project
- C173 JUD. The display and club shop was set up and we were open for business
so to speak.
We had a
lot of visitors, requests for club membership, maintenance advice etc. despite
being on camera all day with a cctv spy camera watching us.
Fred got
stuck into painting radiator cooling fans and surrounds, but he did spend most
of the day on a prayer mat, (facing the wrong way for Mecca) Perhaps worshipping
the MR2 is a new religion. HA HA.
Richard
Morgan arrived and promptly settled in to have a breath of fresh air! The
evidence left around the stand; fag ends everywhere. Richard brought some more
of the clubs regalia, (and set up on the items on the stand). Richard was
designated the foreman and health and safety officer.
Stuart and
I commenced replacement of his cam covers with Stuart cleaning components and
his plug leads. Chris (Stuart’s son) had a field day making art statues with
nuts and bolts on my magnetic parts dish and blowing up surgeons gloves! –
“I didn’t see a water bomb” But walking round with the gloves as hands
looked quite amusing.
Back to the work in hand, Doris was busy with Lois talking to visitors and passing them over to the men for
Technical Information. Richard set
about removing Stuart’s rear off/side brake caliper (yes you’ve guessed it
right, seized slides) With a bit of brute force and ignorance (big hammer) the
caliper finally gave in and came of the top slide. After cleaning and refitting
with copper grease it worked correctly; Richard did ask Stuart why it had not
been dealt with by Toyota at its recent service!!!
We then
commenced our project; Richard removed the caliper and carrier on the front
offside - he likes taking things to pieces but doesn’t reassemble any item
removed.
Fred and
myself cleaned up and painted the disc, hub, carrier and caliper in black and
red hammerite. “Oops” I forgot to tell you my deliberate mistake. I stirred
the red paint with a screwdriver and put the paint tin one side, it promptly
tipped over leaving red paint all over the mat I was working on, I did get it
all up quickly (I felt a right idiot)
Lois had
disappeared but did return with body stripes for Fred and two graphics for our
Track Car, i.e. Renegade Racing / Back on Track. (THAT’S ANOTHER STORY)
After
talking to more visitors, the majority not being current owners, but potential
purchasers and new Club Members, we started to refit the road wheels to
‘Jud’ and pack up our stand.
It seemed
to be a very long day, but was very worthwhile and a good conclusion to our
clubs events. (FOR THIS YEAR)
As a
footnote it would be nice to see more Club Members Attending these Events, YOU
REALLY ARE MISSING OUT.
GEOFF CORDON
restoring the front fans
changing the cam covers
Stuart's rear caliper was seized
