.... is unstoppable!

The 1905 Rover 6 hasn't run for over 50 years and it's taken The Great Collector only 5 weeks to breathe life back into the car. Body off, chassis repainted, engine stripped, brakes sorted out and carb and ignition system attended to, would have been enough to keep most of us busy for 5 months but The Great Collector likes to get things done. The Ambassador's Daughter and I were happy to witness the great event which produced quantities of smoke and congrats all round. Once out of earshot; the clatter and clamour of its single cylinder reduced to a barely audible tick, the location of the car could be easily discerned by smoke filtering through the hedges in the distance.  It was rather like watching a mobile bonfire. Some adjustment to the lubrication system should reduce the car's emissions to a more acceptable level.

In fact, looking at the view from my garden a bit later on in the day, I might have been forgiven for thinking that The Great Collector had taken the Rover out for a second spin.

I was wondering what oil to put in the steering box on the Hillman and knowing that they tend to leak, I was thinking of employing a mixture of grease and heavy oil - the same grade of oil I use in the diff. The trouble with grease is that it tends to work for a bit then, pretty quickly, it retires to the corners of the box and doesn't do anything else ever again. My local vintage Ford chaps gave me a plastic cup full of grease that smelt a bit like a cross between an old garage and conveyor belt grease. I know the smell of conveyor belt grease because years ago on a farm near Potters Bar, there was an ancient fellow in an equally ancient shed just behind my brother's print works, who used to cook up this evil stuff. I didn't want to take the steering box apart, having spent some time getting the adjustment just so, so I borrowed one of the old cattle syringes from the farm workshop and successfully pushed the grease through the filler hole. This grease seems not to behave in the same way as ordinary grease and has properties which enable it to flow relatively freely and not get stuck in the corners. I must try to find out what it is - the Ford chaps were a bit cagey when I asked so it's probably something to do with conveyor belts - it always is.

I notice that the seat's been placed in the Jowett Junk Shop so Learned Counsel must be anticipating a bit of a whizz round the yard in the not too distant future. I'm not quite sure what that cable on the floor is for - a bonnet release perhaps?

But if I were him, I'd concentrate on doing up a few nuts and bolts; he doesn't want bits of metal like this one falling off every time he opens the bonnet.