 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. We arrived Thursday night to set up, at the 11th hour as always, having finished classes late in the afternoon. By the time we arrived with the Sprinter van the TVR 350i had already been delivered thanks to Andy Philpot’s trailer and Paul Philips. Immediately, we got down to work unloading the Powerpak motorised pedal Bike, the Honda 90 Cub, and all the supporting tools and parts we had brought along to keep us busy for the weekend. With us we had brought the TVR350i, minus an engine, but with lots of work to be done, the Riley Kestrel, nearly complete, missing only some minor electrical bits and with carpeting ready to go in, and a still ailing MGBGTi with symptoms still keeping us on our toes. Other than a slight disagreement about how tall the regular flamboyant and flashing OUMF flag was, it was in and out, ready to go for the weekend! Friday morning saw some enthusiastic salespersons come round and donate some lovely cans of penetrating oil that has since been thoroughly tested and has shown impressive results. The rest of Friday was a haze of Alpha contact adhesive fumes and carpet fitting. The Riley Kestrel 1300 was having its debut outing since it was painted and its reassembly had commenced. Already adorned with its chrome it was looking very dapper. We were overwhelmed by the amount of people walking by complimenting it, and reminiscing about the days when they had a Kestrel, or an 1100, or a 1300 back in their day! We had lovely feedback and lots of great suggestions regarding how to turn a Kestrel into a rally car, how to get more camber at the front as well as much more. For anyone who has installed carpets, you know that it is a long process of test fitting over and over before gluing to make sure that you don’t get stuck with a crooked carpet. Much learning was done, with Thomas Leclaire leading several others on the carpeting project as well as finalizing electrical challenges including the heated screens, front spot lights, wipers, and dash lights. Genuine joy was had trying to sort out what had been done over the past few days by some other members who were slightly unsure of what the goal was! The TVR350i had loads of work to be done as well. During the course of stripping the car and learning about the most common faults, the inadequate clearance on the downpipes was clear as day. The paint on all the frame rails near to the exhaust had been completely charred and melted away leaving bare steel. In a country like the UK with so much moisture and salt on the roads, this clearly becomes an issue very quickly i.e. buying a new chassis! One of OUMF’s long-time sponsors, Zircotec, kindly supplied Zircoflex Gold for us to cover all the heat affected areas of the frame. A full report on the Zircoflex application can be found here. Alongside the weekend-long application of the Zircoflex the entire cooling system was also overhauled with a superbly crafted aluminium radiator from Radtec and twin electric fans from Davies Craig. These werel mounted on rejuvenated bracketry blasted and powder coated to perfection by ProCoat who also kindly demonstrated their exceptional standards of finish on the front suspension. Like with most 34 year old project cars, one of the common tripping zones is the electrics - and the TVR proved to be no different. Seized pop up headlights, unidentified switches on the dash and plenty more riddles, OUMF rose to the challenge. We were greatly helped by many members of the TVR Car Club who we were lucky enough to be right next to for the whole show! Their expertise and experience proved to be invaluable to us. They were able to help us with all these issues and more, and on top of that they were able to direct us to loads of books and websites for even more information to solve every problem we encountered…over countless cups of tea from their ‘on stand’ cafe! Saturday proved to be just as busy as Friday. The MGBGTi was jacked up in the air to try and solve the fuel supply issues that continued to nag it even after all the cleaning we had done to the system. Upon removing the fuel tank and inspecting it, it was found to be akin to a morocco with the amount of debris floating in it. Clearly not a good sign, however easy enough to solve. After draining it, it was decided that a good cleaning and an overnight dose of Rustbuster’s finest fuel tank cleaner and sealer would be in order to ensure that it would not rust in the future and once again cause the lack of fueling Sean experienced several times in his adventures in it. Meanwhile Ethan and Charlie ploughed ahead with the wiring of the unique heated screens on the Kestrel, generously donated to the project by Pilkington Glass. Having decided on where to add switches to the dash, this was nearly completed, and with tests proving that both front and rear heating elements worked, we decided to leave it at that until a suitable racy period looking bracket could be obtained for the switches and installed at the bottom of the dash. Meanwhile plenty of other work was also accomplished on the Kestrel; the twin spotlights mounted on the front bumper were wired into the main headlight switch, providing a serious amount of light to flash with at night. The carpeting continued to be laid in, without gluing, to make sure all the underlay carpeting was cut to shape, and all the surfaces were cleaned and prepped. Then the carpets were glued to the underlay to make it easier to install and less likely to slide about underfoot in the car. OUMF even had the pleasure of joining in with podcasts as the creators roamed about the halls and asked loads of questions about the Kestrel and the MGBGTi. Max Evans also did a one off Instagram live update of how the show was going that got lots of love from everyone on socials! Sunday proved to be the biggest day of all with the highlight being in the afternoon, from Joe Farley:
Joseph Farley Oxford Brookes University, Computer Science 2nd year Ding Boston has been running OUMF for some 20 years in Oxford and is absolutely deserving of this award. To be recognized as a member of the classic automotive scene encouraging, supporting and actively promoting young members getting into classics has been something Ding has always been proud of, yet he is very humble about it. He runs OUMF from his own enthusiasm and his unwavering attitude of getting it done means that he gives every single member, years his junior a run for their money when it comes to dedication and commitment. As an organization we are truly fortunate to have his unwavering support, not only in maintaining the club but also his relationships with sponsors, supporters, and friends of the club as well. His conscientious driving and damage limitation, not to mention his great feedback for young engineers throughout race and rally events.
The rest of Sunday was a blur of gluing carpets in, installing the lovely Vanden Plas seats in the Kestrel, as well as finishing installation of the weather sealing trim all around the car, kindly sponsored by East Kent Trim Supplies. The shining TVR’s engine bay (WARNING: do not look without sunglasses!) was finished off and made ready for its big V8. Pictures were taken with many supporters and some great new supporters were chatted up for a variety of much needed bits and bobs as well as tools and all kinds of advice. Thomas Leclaire - OUMF Presedent 2023 - 2024
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