The preparations for me began on Thursday evening when I arrived having been away from OUMF due to the start of my placement. It was good to be back at the barn and part of the team again. The team gathered to give our trusty Riley a final once-over before the big weekend. Everything was looking good and by Saturday morning, the Riley was primed and ready to go. We packed up the van, loaded the Riley, and hit the road at 4 PM, bound for Brands Hatch with excitement and optimism.
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 A trailer wheel rolling past the van while leaving the HQ was not the best omen with which to start a race weekend - but luckily the OUMF race team is not superstitious! Attempt 2 to leave went much more smoothly, and the team made their way north-east to the very technical Snetterton 300 race circuit in Norfolk. The team had just returned from Belgium the previous weekend, where we had scored a notable success with a Class win with our rally Riley 1.5 in the FIA Ardeca Ypres Rally. Almost as soon as we got off the DFDS ferry, we had continued the race prep our 1959 Elva Courier, in the hope of running it at Snetterton 5 days later. While it was quite the valiant effort to try and get the ol’ girl ‘good to race’, it was eventually decided to put a much less time-constrained effort in on the car after Snetterton. This meant the team fully committed to taking our Sebring Sprite and Riley 1.5 racers, our tried and tested machines which only required a quick refresh instead of a full buildup!
On reaching the circuit near Norwich, we set up our pit at the track and then made our way to the pub for some grub. However, after previous all-nighter of race prep took its toll on many of the team, and upon our return to the track, a rare occurrence took place…the exhausted OUMF’s were all in bed by 22:00!
Who are Zircotec?
Zircotec Ltd is a world leader in heat management, specialising in high temperature coatings and heat barrier solutions. Originally part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, Zircotec’s expertise lies in thermal barrier technologies initially developed for the nuclear industry. Zircotec is known for its plasma-sprayed ceramic coating materials that provide thermal and abrasive resistance. Their core products, such as...
 The Classic Car & Restoration Show at the NEC, hosted annually by Practical Classics magazine, has become a favorite of OUMF members in the past few years. OUMF is a club that prides itself on its can-do attitude as can be seen throughout countless event and race emergencies throughout the club’s history! The Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show gives the opportunity for OUMF members to showcase not only the products of their labors but also the techniques and skills built and refined through teamwork and collaboration.
Introduction
The headliner, also known as the roof lining, is the fabric panel that spans the interior of the roof above the heads of the occupants, and in the Kestrel’s case, the fabric extends down the B and C pillars to the waistline of the car. It is suspended from 6 arched metal rods that slide into pockets on the upper, roof side of the lining and their ends locate in holes in the cant rails down either side of the inside of the roof. Over time, headliners can sag, tear, rot, become damaged by UV, or stained by tobacco smoke and hair products. The process of replacing the headliner is a painstaking but rewarding process which can greatly improve the overall look and feel of the car. With the average price to install a headlining kit ranging from £250-£500, our aim was to document the entire process so that other enthusiasts might feel confident enough to tackle the replacement and do a professional job, at a fraction of the price. While our headlining is known as a suspended headliner, and this is a report on the fitting of this specific kit, the steps are applicable to many other models and designs.
The OUMF team’s plan was to leave on the afternoon of Saturday 29th July for Oulton Park’s signature Gold Cup, as our race in the Riley - The Jack Sears Trophy - was on Sunday 30th July…or so we thought until 1pm on the Friday afternoon! At that point it was realised that the race was ACTUALLY on Saturday 29th! Now most of you, I’m sure, might say that once the simple mistake is realised, it's an easy fix: ‘just’ pack and leave immediately for the circuit, right? Well, yes, but at this point the team was heading out to collect a semi-dismantled TVR Wedge that had been
Those of you who have been following OUMF recently will have seen that we now have a current project in the form of a Riley Kestrel. This has been on display to the public at the NEC Classic Motor Show in November 2022, and many will have seen it in a particularly sorry state… body panels missing, half painted, no interior - the list of things that were missing or badly damaged was probably longer than the list of what was present. Some of you may wonder, what prompted this departure from the dedicated competition car projects to date, and where did this car come from?
However, before I address these questions, I should first say that – possibly to the surprise of many - this wasn’t how we got it, even though it was fully running and driving when it arrived! So, how on earth did the car end up in the state that is in now? The problem that we had with the 1968 Riley Kestrel project arose only after painting the interior of the shell and then comprehensively lining the floor, doors, and other panels with a sound-deadening product called Kilmat. This is a butyl rubber backed foil, similar to other products like Dynamat, and is a dense, malleable sheet - very like the bitumen panels found on older cars - that absorbs drumming, and drivetrain and road noise very effectively. Once the lengthy process of cutting it to shape, sticking it down, and thoroughly rolling it into place is completed, it is extremely difficult and very messy to remove. The Kestrel came to us following extensive renovation of the floor, including replacement of the sills and much of the floorpan. We stripped the floor inside back to bare metal and it was very sound prior to painting with Rustbuster epoxy mastic , and top coat in body colour. The underside had been finished with a coating of black ‘schutz’ type underseal which was lavishly applied and did not appear to need further attention - all of which gave us the confidence to apply the Kilmat.
It was at this point that two issues arose in quick succession. The first was that we were kindly donated an LCB manifold and pipework by John Ashley Exhausts, and Joe Ellis at BTB Exhausts generously offered to help by undertaking various modifications in the course of making it fit as snugly along the underside of the car as he could. His artistry resulted in there being very little clearance between the stainless steel silencer boxes and the walls of the tunnel - which looked fantastic, but spelled big trouble for the very meltable Kilmat now glued just above it. The second problem was the chance discovery that the schutz underseal had been applied to bare steel – without any signs of... My arms are sore, it’s cramped, and for gosh sake, this underseal does not come off easily!
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