Leaderboard

The Acquisition Not the usual agricultural machinery but it is mine, it's old and a machine of sorts. First of all a bit of history as to how I became the custodian of a 1937 Triumph Gloria Vitesse 4 seat Tourer. In 1963 my father was offered £5 for an old 10.8HP Coventry Climax engine that he had removed from a 1935 Gloria Saloon he used in the late 1950's if he put it in running condition but when he found out it was required for a Gloria tourer he refused to sell the engine and offered £5 for the car. A couple of months later he became the owner of SU3305 and soon found out why it needed another engine:- The above was sticking out of the engine block and had smashed the camshaft, engine mount, sump and front casing. As he was foreman of the machine shop in the local Albion agency in Aberdeen the spare engine was rebored, fitted with new Rover 10HP pistons, the crankshaft reground and the bearings re-metalled and line bored to suit. The engine was installed, bushes and pins were made for the front suspension, door trim was replaced with leather from a cut down Austin Seven rear seat and sponge backed domestic carpet used to replace carpeting that was falling apart. The mechanic at the local garage who owned a Singer 9 Le Mans tourer gave it a 'sympathetic' MOT and we enjoyed short runs on warm summer days around the Aberdeenshire B roads. Over the next twenty years every so often if money allowed - he did have three teenage kids to feed and clothe - it was insured, MOT'd and licenced for 4 months in the summer and once I reached 25 my name was added to the insurance and I was allowed to drive it. We attended local galas and some local car shows over the years until a problem with the brake master cylinder that we were unable to repair in 1988 put it off the road and it ended up at the back of the workshop collecting dust. I had been bitten by the kit car bug by this time A Burlington Chieftan A Westfield SE The Gloria was started and taken out to be dusted down now and then until 2005. To be continued.

Thanks David I will put that carb on the marine engine (blue cowling) in due course. When the new batch of O&R decals arrive from the USA I will refresh the cowlings