THAMES VALLEY HOODS

Return to the Lambert Arms (November Meeting)

Four brave Hoodies took the plunge and brought their cars out of the wet weather storage , including Smokey Joe, to make the trip to the greatly expanded and updated Lambert Arms on Wednseday night.
Although only a small gathering at this, our old meeting point, we had a convivial group natter in a side room. There was no shortage of seating or space. The new car park has hard standings and is a lot bigger than it used to be.
A welcome to Chris who was the first to turn up. A new member of the group who still has a big grin on his face.
Steve Goodchild arrived, still without a Hood,--- the project to replace "Comfortably numb" is currently parked and the withdrawl symptoms are receeding.

See you all at the Xmas dinner --contact Chris Newlands if you haven't booked yet.

Graham B

Homecall - Terry Barry (take 2)

Yes the second Homecall to Terry was made possible by the protracted build! Since 2002 Terry has meticulously made progress - quality, planning, deep consideration of options being more important than progress! But, we found the car surprisingly complete and near finishing with a "to do" list that seemed full of minor tasks and with treble line spacing, and large font ran to 2 A4 pages........clearly SVA in 3 months must beckon now?

A good turn out of around 8 or 9 Hoodies along with Terry's sons - made for a well sized group in the front garden. The BBQ output was excellent and the sun shone for most of the afternoon - making the Homecall a very agreeable occasion!

Chris turned up with the material (in the roll case below) for our Thames Valley flag - looks like Alan will be on stitch duty in coming weeks - well done guys.

To close then - many thanks to all the "Barrys" who pitched in to make us so welcome - much appreciated - but please do book that SVA! Or we'll be back in 3 years again!

Graham Mintram.

Le Mans 2008 - June

TVH's sent 5 of their finest this year - Graham Mintram, Graham Bowden, Alan Saunders, Tim Saunders, Peter Ray, Rod Lane & Son (Damien). There were relatively few car dramas: speedo cable failure, hazard light jam, failure to start, not much more than that - all recoverable.

The weather and racing was 100% improved over last year, there are many web sites that detail the cracking racing we had the opportunity to see - Audi saw through in the end (narrowly beating the Peugeots)- but of course much more important, was the Aston Martin (DBR 9's) win over Corvette! (sorry Tim - once more it was the only outcome likely).

Our camp site in Blue Nord was where we were 2 years ago - but this time improved shower and toilet facilities made it the only place to be - nice and close to the track, and we had Chris Brown to help organise things - many thanks to him!

We made a number of new friends ........... and especially during the game of boules............

Peter will have moved house by now - let's hope he settles in well and remembers to invite us to a house warming in his 10 acre farm!

Pictures to follow.

Best Regards Graham Mintram.

Homecall to Alan & Tim - May '08

May 2008: Homecall to Alan (Pa) and Tim (Son) Saunders

The family is becoming quite a Hoody one, Alan has a 2B named “Kit” and Tim is building a V82B, so there was bound to be plenty to look at on our home call to them. Even more so it turned out, as Alan had gone to the rescue of a Dutch fellow (Martyn) who had bought a Hood in Holland around Xmas and had ventured onto the RHOCaR site, due to his limited writing skills in English he got a rather negative response - luckily Alan was his knight in shining armour. So after a number of emails and what with Stoneleigh just around the corner a very Hoody arrangement was struck. Martyn and his son came across for the show and Alan would source a couple of EFI engines to replace the current 1600 that lay in the Dutchmans car. They’d then install the EFI before he returned.

When we gathered at Alan’s place in Hook (nr Basingstoke), the car had the engine installed and wiring was complete and everything in place but all was not well. Throughout the day one problem would be fixed followed by another … I think everyone there contributed a fix at sometime so well done to all : Alan, Tim, Martyn and son, Dan, Graham, Terry, Chris, Gordon & I. The list that I recall :-

Cable harness link to EFI unit, poor contact.

Air flow meter - vane jamming, this was a running sore until we realised it was not jamming just at its end of movement but at the 2/3 point!

Fuel starvation through kinked pipe.

Throttle cable.

There were others …………..

We found allsorts of solutions and learned much on the way. BTW, did you know the air flow meter in a Golf is the same as that on a Sierra!

All this testing of the “last fix” had to fall to someone - enter The Stig, Mr Chris N………. Did a fine job - even brought his “racing boots” !

We discussed many things through the day but one returning topic was that of the RHOCaR set up and what it does and how it does it - never a topic before - perhaps there is a need for change and regulation. The recent threads following Stoneleigh in the Forum revealing a depth of differences that’ll need reconciling.

Time in the event was limited to look around Tim’s V8 build (and anyway it was a very full garage!), as Martyn and his EFI + van were due at Dover by 5pm to get back to Holland …….. The booking was moved to 3am as we began to depart ………..the Hood was nearly there but not quite ………… just replacing the coil ………….. How did it go ,…….. Have they left the country yet ……………

Our thanks to Alan for his hospitality and for arranging such good weather!

Great day out. After my having fitted a new shortened sump, changed the cylinder head gasket and having fixed a broken suspension mount, I was taken by surprise with a broken clutch cable in the Q into Stoneleigh …….. So doing the 4 hour round trip to Alan’s today was a real relief as nothing went wrong and Le Mans is not far away!

And a follow up report from Chris om how things turned out .....

Hi Graham.
They broke down twice on the way to Dover , the 1st time the plug came off the airflow meter, 2nd time ran out the fuel but they made it to the docks. Hope they made it the rest of the way.

Chris

Graham Mintram.

Monthly meeting April '08

A Handover of Power meeting at the Dewdrop Inn, just a couple of snaps from our roving reporter Graham Bowden:-

The EEC spec. banana changed hands without the China Olympic Torch problems ......... but, Chris seems to have Gary Glitters' old jacket on?

Graham tilted this the "Gathering Gloom" .... not wrong!

Easter with the Southern Hoods - '08

Graham Bowden missed out on “Wheels 2008” meet at Aldershot, but joined up with the Southern Hoods at Bob Fry’s near Salisbury. It was meant to be an outside BBQ but although Bob and Malcolm ( sec) got the awning up and the BBQ and patio heater in place on Friday, Saturday turned out to be a completely different weather system. The winds howled and broke the tent/awning free so the outside pursuits were abandoned.

Some of us directionally challenged had to phone up for final landing instructions. Malcolm had put out route signs ,-- but 4 inch squares of coloured card can be missed.! Most came with partners in tin tops, but Vic and Wendy (Wendy driving) and I braved the elements to arrive in Hoods, Robbie brought his Locost and an impressive Hawk Cobra was in attendance for several hours. It hailed , the wind howled and it snowed, off and on, throughout the day.

More than a few members of the local group converged on Bob’s. A visit to his “garage” , an inspection of his ALL SS 2B wishbone, which is to have a 1800 CHV lump fitted and a play with the train set in the loft. Sylvia kept everyone fed, soup, dips, quiches, all in her large warm kitchen. A blast for Bob and an other passenger as Robbie and I did the local circuit, at a reasonable Hoodie pace, of course. Then Vic and Wendy arrived. Sylvia excelled herself, with, I am sure, other family members help --- burgers, sausages, chicken, buns etc , a veritable feast appeared and we all set to again. We sat and talked as we do, people left in ones and twos, leaving myself and Vic and Wendy to overnight.

I had taken my tent, and was quite prepared to put it up and sleep in it, but Bob offered the loft of the garage. He didn’t need to ask twice. Compressor to pump up the air mattresses, it was heaven.

Breakfast was another Sylvia special, Shreddies, with bacon and eggs and toast too. After another trip to the Model railway, I left about 12 for my sons in Swindon. Yes it snowed on the way there too. Many thanks to the Southern hoods for the invite and the hospitality. I am sure we will meet up again several times this year.

Also I hope Easter is later next year!!

Graham B

Wheels Day - March 2008

Four of us Thames Valley area members braved the weather to go to the Good Friday Wheels Day show at Rushmoor Arena near Aldershot. Julian, Gordon, Eamonn and myself met at the Ely pub on the A30 and then convoyed to the arena via the back roads of Fleet. Later in the day we were joined by Becky & Tasha.

This was my first big event as the new area sec for the TVH area having taken over the role from John. The weather forecast had said we were in for some rain showers and the prospect of a snow shower to add to the days fun (great!!!). In the end it turned out to be not a bad day at all, just a bit cold and windy.

As last year the turn out of cars for this show was huge, there seems to be more & more every year. There were even some classic car copys from TV and sliverscreen like the General Lee, the Duke boys 69 Dodge Charge,a Starsky & Hutch 1975 Ford Gran Torinos and the Ghostbusters 1959 Cadillac Ambulance. The only down side this year was there was not the same amount of trade stand as in the last few years. I think the weather may have put a few of them off.

This show has every type you could wish to see, ranging from Street Rods, Custom Cars, Yanks, Kit cars, Bikes, Vans, British Classics, Historic Vehicles and Dragsters. the live bands were also very good. Something for everyone. Lets hope for better weather for next years show.

Chris.

Photo's by Gordon, Chris & Becky.

Homecall to Ashley - March '08

Myself, Mat Augier and Terry Barry braved the weather on a homecall to Ashley with the aim to install the engine and gearbox into his Robin hood 2B.

When we got there Ashley had already got the engine and gearbox chain up and mounted on the engine hoist. This is going to be a straight forward job had crossed my mind!!!!!! How wrong could I be????

All was going along nicely with the power unit going into the chassis till the headaches started, we seemed to run out of room for it all to fit. As Ashley has an injection engine fitted with a double crank shaft pulley it wouldn't pass the top crossmember plus we only had 1/4 of an inch between the gearbox output shaft and the lower firewall crossmember.

So as with Matt's engine fitment on his Homecall we had to remove it to get it all to fit in place. Easy.... I hear you say.........!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wrong!!!!!!!!!!

The thing was seized on to the crank, and it is the later pulley the type with the rubber damper fitted between the centre hub & the outer pulley ring. Which meant it would come off as one lump or fall apart in two pieces making it scrap. So after Ashley had fed us all (Thanks to Ashley's other half) we set about getting the pulley off in good old hoody fashion. We bit the bullet and went for it, with Matt's three legged puller, a big hammer and a load of WD40, and with sometime it was off and all in one piece. Once the engine & box were in it was fairley straight forward job from there on, fitting the gearbox mount plate, Ashley had to take the grinder to the part of the chassis which this bolts to as they was hardly any clearance between the chassis and the rear of the gearbox. Good old Robin Hood!!!!!

Then a heavy downpour stopped play and we had to wheel the 2B back into the garage, it was then decided that we would call it a day. A big thank you to Ashley's hospitality and to Mat and Terry for their help on the homecall.

I hope we have Given Ashley a base to work from on his build with the engine and gearbox fitted. A good afternoons work.

Chris

Beds/Bucks Very first meeting.

First off - many thanks to Graham and his family for their generous welcome and flowing provisions - very much appreciated.

Graham Cole (GDC - ROHCaR sign on) started things off with a meeting at his home in brightest Dunstable - what a fab place - certainly space for his 4 Hoods and the 20 or so he must have in part form! (Yes we've seen your collection of parts in the loft !...............). A good turn out from TVH's and SG7's group, to get things started, the bacon butties and tea/coffeee making facilities were "on tap" and dictated by your own desire - better than being at home!

Graham and Dan we do wish you good luck with your next SVA (one of a series) and with the Purple and Black car which despite my describing as a funereal colour combination the lady concerned believes is worth the risk!

Some snaps I took of the affair follow - thanks to all who supported the inaugural event .............

About 25 in total turned out - along with at least 5 "hoods" attending.

There was plenty to look at in the extensive garaging!

Graham Bowden brought his along and of couse attended to the exhaust!

This one is ready for its SVA in the next few weeks.

Visiting Hoods too.

And Work In Progress ..............

Monthly meet travels - Newbury

On the tour forced by the closure of the Lambert Arms - we travelled to Newbury in the darkest south of our district in January - Graham Bowden sent along some snaps - clearly it was cold outside as the bonnet lifting seems to be in short measure here! Hoodies always look at home around a bar don't they!

Autosport Birmingham - Jan '08

Over the weekend I (Chris Newlands) went up to the Autosport show held at the NEC Birmingham.
Loads to see, plenty of trade stands selling motorsport equipment and a live action show which had everything from karts to dragsters racing about the indoor arena including a 9 litre 2000bhp street legal Vauxhall VX 4/90 .
Here are just a few of the photos I took - (Chris - I've put them into a slideshow - apologies if some get repeated more than others - you'll see why! - Graham M).

An area group of the RHOCaR club - all things Robin Hood Kit Cars