History
This started out as a 3 foot long single channel radio controlled 2.5cc diesel motor-cruiser (a radio ham friend of dad's built the transmitter from plans, fitted it in an old ammo box, with a 12 foot whip aerial). The commercially purchased receiver had a huge valve protruding from the case!
As a 16 year old, chasing swans with the boat (no throttle control!) soon became boring, so I put the boat up for sale....
Imagine how excited I was when a person offered a straight swap for a 1948 Standard 8! A REAL CAR!!! (BTW, the photo is of a similar vehicle, not mine)
Of course, it was a project car, and it took me 2 years to bring it up to good condition. I dismantled the engine, and thoroughly cleaned all the parts, and took them to a mechanic friend of dad's proud of my cleaning job. He asked to borrow my hankie, and then began wiping the motor... He soon handed back my blackened hankie and told me to go clean the motor. Life lesson learned right there! In due course, my thoroughly reconditioned (and clean!) 1009cc side valve motor was back in the car, and actually running like a bought one.
Meanwhile I had sourced new thick plywood for the floor-boards, new cables for the drum brakes, filled in the lumps and bumps on the body, and painted it using royal blue house paint (matching the gutters on our house), applied with a 4 inch paintbrush (as you do).
Dare I say with no little modesty, that with wet & dry sanding between coats, the paint job was superb, with nary a brush mark..
As the paint colour resembled that used by the Total Racing Team (Norm Beechey, Jim McKeown and Peter Manton). it seemed entirely appropriate for me to add a giant red white and blue patch on each side of the bonnet just like their race cars!
With impeccable timing, my little gem was ready for rego inspection at the time I turned 18, getting my licence on my birthday (as was (is?) the Aussie custom), and the only comment from the inspector was that he thought the back window blind ring-pull next to my seat was a neat feature!. The non-synchro three speed manual gearbox offered no challenge at all, and I had trouble understanding the fuss others made about the need for synchro at all..
As it transpired, I became a part-time motor racing photographer, and unbelievably, my carefully-crafted home-made "PRESS" cardboard sign placed behind the windscreen enabled me to jump the queue at many entrance gates at Calder, Sandown etc.
Sadly, after taking me safely round for two years,my little car met its end after glancing off a steel power pole, thankfully (and miraculously) without harming the four occupants on their way home from a party. The brake cables all snapped, so my dad told me to follow him home, as I drove it slowly, with VERY strict instructions not to hie anyone but him! Fortunately the gearbox didn't let me down when it really mattered.
learned a lot during those exciting times!
Modifications
Total Racing Team stickers.House paint
(Note. This is OBVIOUSLY not in the Show and Shine category. Please move it as appropriate)
