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After numerous hours of sanding and filling I thought that it would be best to spray the whole of Lucie with grey primer so that I could see any remaining cracks and areas that needed to be filled. It was amazing the difference that just a coat of primer makes along with a fresh coat of paint on the wheels and the front grille is now silver instead of black.
I would have done more filling and sanding though September has been a really busy month for Lucie. At the beginning of the month she used as “background furniture” for a new film called “Souled Out” that is set in 1974 and currently being filmed in Stoke-on-Trent. I thought it was therefore best to leave her all one colour rather than gray with dozens of white spots everywhere. Unfortunately the front valance was damaged when coming back from filming as whilst driving up the ramp to get her back on the towing dolly, the ramp suddenly gave way and Lucie came off it loosing a chunk of fibreglass just under the front number plate. Luckily it was easily repairable and after sanding down and spraying with primer no one would have been the wiser. That particular ramp has been dumped now though in favour of two car ramps stacked together which do a great job and are very secure.
After filming the car still didn’t seem to be running 100% and so I checked things over again. The spark plug gaps were a bit big so they are back down to .025” now though I did notice that whilst 2,3 and 4 were OK no 1 is a little bit oily. There is no smoke out the back of the exhaust though. After resetting the spark plug gaps and cleaning them, things do seem a lot better.
Mid September, Lucie was on show again at the 2008 Tamworth Heritage Day where she got to also meet up with my other Reliants, Snoopy and Gwenn, for the first time. Best of all, thanks to Mark and Sue Cropper, I now have a fire extinguisher to keep in her that is much larger than the one that was stored in Ole Blue (and sadly proved to be useless). The day went well with 58 Reliants though Lucie was the only 1960’s 3-wheeler. No end of people commented on her “Navy gray” or “Battleship grey” exterior though she won’t be like this forever.
There was no rest for Lucie as a week later she was taken over to the West Midlands to do some filming for BFBS Television and she had quite a workout indeed. There was a lot of driving involved throughout the day and indeed numerous large hills of which Lucie really hates. In first gear and second gear she has a lot of guts and then when you go into third she just seems to loose power and you have to build it up slowly. On most hills she is down to about 20mph and second gear. Even the 1949 Reliant 8cwt van my brother drives seems to be a lot faster up hills, this has the same engine though its attached to a three speed gearbox so I wonder if this is the reason as once she builds up power she is faster than Old Red on a flat road. I’m not sure if this is the way that Mk VI vans were or whether the engine is in need of a good tune up.
She also had an oil leak, it looks to be coming from the valve cover on the left hand side of the engine so I shall have to have a look at that. The filming went well though and it will be most interesting to see the footage. It’s funny that this is the second lot of filming Lucie has done and I’ve only had her or around 6 weeks now. She also seems to like petrol as during filming she appeared to run out and needed another can pouring in. I say appeared as she gave all the signs of running out of petrol and then wouldn’t start. I only turned the key once as I didn’t want to risk sucking up any debris that may be in the tank. I then poured a can of fuel in and she started first time and ran fine. Very strange indeed as you would expect a few key turns to pump the fuel through.
I have still been mad on e-bay buying things. I now have all the bits I need for the interior including carpet, soundproofing and an oil gauge and ammeter for the dashboard. I also have new lights and indicators for the front and new door straps for the back doors. It is just finding the time now to get everything done.
Elvis Payne.
September 2008.
Go to October 2008.
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