Tricks that old racers get up to after retirement

Well, I came OUTA the traps like SHERGAR this morning.
Afternoon was one of those " Somedays the bear eats you days"
Decided to make a twin axle boat TRAILOR for one of the new projects I have in mind,
cut a couple of 10mm stainless axles, turned the ends down to 6mm to take the bearings, bored a 4.5 mm hole through each end to take a 5mm stud to take the wheel nuts.
Managed the first axle without a hiccup, then got over enthusiastic and snapped the tap off, worst part of it is, iKNEW IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, I felt the tap springing but didn't listen.
A few well chosen blasphemies made me feel a whole lot better but did bugger all to alleviate the situation.
it was well and truly embedded in there with no shoulder to grab, but today , God was good, at the third bite it shifted," VOILA" gotcha you little sucker.
Decided to call it a day and shut the shop at 4pm ----2 large CC7's later I was at peace with rest of my fellow men, As Scarlet said to Rhett-------tomorrow is another day!!!
My sainted mother used to say "let's play it be ear" MYGGWY .J.

Morning Steve, had another look at the line up for the OZ race at Chase ,33% of the drivers are long gone.
Three were a direct result of powerboating accidents, Spalding, Percy, Zimmerman. It's a bloody long list of fatalities if you look long and hard, sad part is, most of them were friends.
I was dead set against being strapped in a safety cell, just one of the things I got wrong in my life.

Looks like winters on the move, snow and high winds all over the globe, we just got wind and rain.
Jilly's going shopping for baby clothes with her only daughter, which means I get to be left in peace to play in the shop, way to go.
Shop looks like somebody works there once again, have to up my game a bit, make something desirable instead of "shedable".
Tell you if any thing memorable happens-------or unmemorable.

Attachment 312974Attachment 312975Attachment 312976

If if you ever bought a tunnel boat then you'll understand that the most important piece of kit In the whole ensemble is the TRAILOR . The boat has to sit perfectly on it and it has to keep the same shape for the whole of its life.
You remember RON 54, (he's really Phill from Bristol, who was once married to Don Ross's daughter Shirley) he sent me the model DAX to play with, I was never happy with what I did. So, I decided to build a custom set of wheels to stick it on.
Anyone who has done this knows what a frig it is! But there are NO short cuts and it's exactly the same in miniature .

Jackie
You seem to work in metric ( more spanners and more taps) rather than imperial, do you prefer that now or like us 60's childs we measure in metric but tap and drill imperial so you can use real spanners?
Cheers

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

It could only have been thee and me Steve.
Jeff Edwards was pure Liverpool
Thornywork lived in the Cotswolds.
Percy pure SuffolkAttachment 312983
Sabberton Suffolk
Jenks not even English
Alfie Cockney as they come.

This was the second time out for the Cosworth, best prop got damaged in practice.
Duckworth wanted Seebold to try it, he did, didn't improve my time.

Think I finished fifth, both factories were out in force and the boat had to be singing, it was croaking for the want of a prop, I didn't have a back up, that was the worst result that boat ever had in the eight times I ran it.

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Hey Jackie Ann Bullen once let it slip that Alfi Bullens mum was from Yorkshire.1978 is a long time ago but I do remember this race well the Molinari boat I had was too big and heavy for this race so I had Desi the chippy from Scimitar Boats build me a 17ft sprint boat and i bought the back cowl from Chris Hodges we turned up at Chasewater with the paint still wet with 1 hr left for qualifying and we made the start line.I can remember Bob Spalding had some kind of fall out with Garbrecht he never had one of the hot engines like all the others and had to make do with a Mercury 2.4 carb engine he had Carlsberg as sponsors and ran in the support race so that didn`t go down well and if you think back not long after he changed to OMC and raced Johnson.I remember we raced 4 heats over 2 days racing and we finished one place behind you not bad for a stock race engine.

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Originally Posted by powerabout

Jackie
You seem to work in metric ( more spanners and more taps) rather than imperial, do you prefer that now or like us 60's childs we measure in metric but tap and drill imperial so you can use real spanners?
Cheers

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Was using the metric system long before the end of the last century, metric is the simplest way to go and believe it or not Pilgrim they do have less spanners than the AF, imperial, whitworth and the mixed bag I stillwork with.
Any new projects I use mill., taps and dies appear simple until you take 5 mm for example, which pitch and number of threads do you use? 8/9--------- make sure you use both taps and dies that match, the difference is quite alarming.

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

Was using the metric system long before the end of the last century, metric is the simplest way to go and believe it or not Pilgrim they do have less spanners than the AF, imperial, whitworth and the mixed bag I stillwork with.
Any new projects I use mill., taps and dies appear simple until you take 5 mm for example, which pitch and number of threads do you use? 8/9--------- make sure you use both taps and dies that match, the difference is quite alarming.

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when I get that small I use BA..lol
there is 16 16ths in an inch and 25mm in an inch
UNC and UNF were invented for engineering purposes ( as was whitworth and BA) metric thread was just a fudge so a system existed in round numbers
As it happens whitworth thread form is the stongest and does get used today for that reason ( with std size heads)

I reckon the cozzy had a few whitworth threads?

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Originally Posted by STEVERINO

Hey Jackie Ann Bullen once let it slip that Alfi Bullens mum was from Yorkshire.1978 is a long time ago but I do remember this race well the Molinari boat I had was too big and heavy for this race so I had Desi the chippy from Scimitar Boats build me a 17ft sprint boat and i bought the back cowl from Chris Hodges we turned up at Chasewater with the paint still wet with 1 hr left for qualifying and we made the start line.I can remember Bob Spalding had some kind of fall out with Garbrecht he never had one of the hot engines like all the others and had to make do with a Mercury 2.4 carb engine he had Carlsberg as sponsors and ran in the support race so that didn`t go down well and if you think back not long after he changed to OMC and raced Johnson.I remember we raced 4 heats over 2 days racing and we finished one place behind you not bad for a stock race engine.

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If Alfie was a Yorkshire man then my dicks a bloater!!!
That was one of the last races I had in this country nearly Forty years ago, and it wasn't memorable for me anyway-----I had a piss poor result.
Bob and Tom had worked long and hard and finally nailed the MARTINI sponsorship-------GG refused to let them run it anytime soon, Bob was spitting feathers.
As you said, wasn't long before Hodges got a big bag of gold from OMC and put together the full time race team of Hodges,Spalding and Percival.
Hodges had a new workshop, fully kitted out with brand new planers, saws, spindles etc, all courtesy of OMC.
Not even the Arabs could afford to spend money the way OMC did for very long!

Well,I think I now own a large portion of "MOTHERCARE"-------I just closed my ears , let it go in one and out the other.
Women should never question what a man spends on his golf equipment, or shoes, or clothes.
By the same token men should never enquire how much a mother spends on a daughter that's about to foal.
Repercussions could be catastrophic -------get lost in the workshop, do not ask(under any circumstances) about finance, pour the full glass of whisky, down it in one and act like you are in seventh heaven---------believe me brothers, you'd better be or life as you knew it could take a hike.

Got a lot of the fiddly bits done on the TRAILOR -----still got the draw bar , jockey wheel and hitch to concoct. Bent the overall shape of the mudguards, still have stays and running boards to cobble.
"BLOODS" in the morning, but not 'till 10:30am which buggers up the morning (clean clothes to see the doctor)------ then it's lunchtime-------then it's bye---byes time.
May get a couple of hours in the shop from 2 till 5, then I'm off up country to take my daughter Sam out to dinner.
I do miss not being allowed to drive, but as Jilly points out ,a lot better than having a turn and not knocking a child off his bike.?
Thats your lot for today peeps, all in all, not a bad day, sleep well my friends, MYGGWY .J

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Originally Posted by powerabout

when I get that small I use BA..lol
there is 16 16ths in an inch and 25mm in an inch
UNC and UNF were invented for engineering purposes ( as was whitworth and BA) metric thread was just a fudge so a system existed in round numbers
As it happens whitworth thread form is the stongest and does get used today for that reason ( with std size heads)

I reckon the cozzy had a few whitworth threads?

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So------you get a bigger variety and a better choice with the metric system -------its divisible by ten---so why would you try and mix the two. Not many people would want to know how many mm to the inch----------it's almost as daft as buying your fuel in litres and calculating how many mpg you're getting.

This is where you can show off your engineering background Pilgrim-----me myself am just a bodger and cobbler where the odd mistake and lack of little grey cells is of absolutely no importance
whereas you do not have that PRIVELEGE .

I totally agree going metric was a "FUDGE"-----but in a world of ignoramus's it is essential or everyone except the Einsteins of this world would be playing violins outside Kmart or cleaning cars.

You would have to fight the Poles, Ukes and Eastern Europeans to clean vehicles these days, who else could have closed down well established Car Washes.?

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Originally Posted by jackiewilson

So------you get a bigger variety and a better choice with the metric system -------its divisible by ten---so why would you try and mix the two. Not many people would want to know how many mm to the inch----------it's almost as daft as buying your fuel in litres and calculating how many mpg you're getting.

This is where you can show off your engineering background Pilgrim-----me myself am just a bodger and cobbler where the odd mistake and lack of little grey cells is of absolutely no importance
whereas you do not have that PRIVELEGE .

I totally agree going metric was a "FUDGE"-----but in a world of ignoramus's it is essential or everyone except the Einsteins of this world would be playing violins outside Kmart or cleaning cars.

You would have to fight the Poles, Ukes and Eastern Europeans to clean vehicles these days, who else could have closed down well established Car Washes.?

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All true Jackie
except in OZ you are only allowed to wash a car in a car wash that is 100% recirculating the water, due to it being a dry continent.

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Originally Posted by powerabout

All true Jackie
except in OZ you are only allowed to wash a car in a car wash that is 100% recirculating the water, due to it being a dry continent.

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What sort of a lame excuse is that?------you might be a dry continent but you're surrounded by CO2------if the Arabs can build ski slopes, golf courses and fountains in the desert, it cannot surely be beyond the wit of the Aussie to produce enough water to wash the Holden.
Probably costs more to recycle the stuff than to desalinate anyway.
Have a nice day Pilgrim!

(you might be a dry continent but you're surrounded by CO2) I think you meant H2O. CO2 is not metric for water

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Originally Posted by rotary john

(you might be a dry continent but you're surrounded by co2) i think you meant h2o. Co2 is not metric for water

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just testing to see if there was anything other than engineering in your blood.

Do you remember in the old days when you went for a blood test, flex your fingers, tie the tourniquet -----pop in the syringe-----extract the juice and lay down for a minute with a cup of tea and a biscuit.
Bit different today----------"sit down,----date of birth ?-----strap on, strap off, four tubes in the left hand, two in the right plus the mini syringe,------blood is so bloody thin with all the warfarin and mixamatosis its been fed, she doesn't even have to insert the needle, the blood leaves my arm of its own accord-----leaps into the tubes of its own volition . Still looks the same, but me not having vampirish tendencies can't tell whether it tastes the same!
In no time flat, half a dozen tubes of the old life giving substance is winging its way to the lab and I'm on my way home
Did get a couple of hours in the shop this morning----only had to change my outside sweater.