I was well pleased with myself after the heater job last month until I discovered that the top steering column clamp bolt had damaged some wiring again. My own fault as I should have remembered and been more careful placing the wiring when the dash all went back in. My solution (after repairing the wiring) was to add a shield around the column to prevent it happening again. Its just a cut down hand cleaner bottle but it stops any chance of wires and bolt tangling up again.
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| Shield added over column clamp bolt prevents wiring damage. |
Sunday 10th July: we took the TR7 down to the Forest of Dean for my old 143 Motor Club summer barbeque and discovered a problem. When you buy a pay and display car park ticket, where do you leave it on an open top car? Think I will have to fix it on the screen next time with a piece of tape. Very nice afternoon out though.
Sunday 17th July: Cotswold Classic Car Club have a little annual show at their HQ on the cricket ground by the Frogmill Inn on the A40 near Andoversford. It was a lovely day and a good selection of interesting cars turned up. Its a free entry, turn up and leave when you like show and the organisers had laid on some excellent home made cakes to help raising money for charity. Fellow TRDC member Guy Brinton also came along in his very nice original Pharoh Gold TR7.
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| Good selection of cars |
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| This lovely Vauxhall won best in show. |
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| Guy Brinton's original TR7 |
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| Bonnet open to display the Sprint engine. |
Saturday 6th August: Gloucestershire Vintage & Country Extravaganza. This is a huge three day show based on South Cerney Airfield near Cirencester that our TR Register group attend every year. Because of the size it is a much more organised event with designated display areas and a main arena. The programme is 68 pages thick with almost no adverts so that gives you some idea. There were 70 different steam powered vehicles (traction engines, road rollers etc), 17 ex-emergency vehicles (fire engines, ambulances), 55 old buses and coaches, about 500 classic/vintage cars, 250 motorcycles, almost 250 old commercial vehicles, 50 light industrial trucks, 100 military vehicles and about 200 old tractors. Not to mention all the old fairground rides and trade stands. Like I said its a big show. We spent most of the day wandering about and only saw a fraction of it. Excellent.
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| Our Glavon Group, TR Register stand |
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| Some of the engines are quite big. |
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| Some are quite small. |
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| Traction engine powered sawbench working hard. |
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| Beautiful showman's engine providing power |
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| Fairground rides powered by the traction engines. |
Sunday 14th August: Our Glavon group joined up with the Gloucester TSSC for the Severn & Wye Bridges Run. About 20 cars took part on this nice little day out took us on a tour over many of the bridges across the rivers Severn and Wye in our area from Tewkesbury in the north down to the original Severn Bridge in the south. I think we crossed the Severn about nine times and the Wye at least twice but I did lose count. Morning coffee stop was at the old Tintern Railway Station which does sell excellent cakes.
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| Some of the Severn & Wye runners |
Wednesday 17th August: I heard about a little evening gathering at the Sharpness Dockers Club. This is open to most older/interesting vehicles where you just turn up and park for a couple of hours to mingle with enthusiasts. Quite a few trucks and buses and about 50 classic cars. It was a jolly nice evening.
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| Quite few folks turned up at Sharpness Dockers Club. |
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| A good variety of cars at Sharpness. |
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On the Severn & Wye Run another driver who had been following us mentioned that my brake lights didn't show up very well in bright sunlight. This confirmed what I had suspected since I fitted some LED bulbs. They appear to be good but many of the LED bulbs you see for sale are just not bright enough. A bit of searching around and I found some much better ones, not cheap at £17.99 pair but well worth the money if it prevents an accident!
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| These LED stop/tail bulbs are excellent. |
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Sunday 21st August: Tewkesbury Classic Vehicle Festival
The weather stayed kind so we popped up to Tewkesbury for the Classic Vehicle Festival organised by the Rotary Club to raise money for the Air Ambulance - a worthy cause. This is another show held on a school playing field and was very well attended. The organisers reckoned 550-600 cars were on display and very large numbers of visitors attended as well. The Air Ambulance itself also managed to drop in for a visit after an earlier call out
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| Lots of kids got to sit in the helicopter |
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| Us arriving at the show |
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| Nice Morgan three wheeler |
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| Beautiful MG SA saloon |
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| Rare Lea Francis |
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| Lovely Austin A40 convertible |
