In addition to his Trialling and Racing exploits Neil Bray is also a fan of pre-war Fords and has restored both a 1935 Model C and a 1937 Model Y. Neil like to give these cars a good annual work out on the Ford Y and C Registers Annual adventure, which in 2006 was a tour of Holland. Even Neil can’t drive two cars at once and I was thrilled when he asked me to join him and drive the C.
Friday 2 June 2006
Neil came picked me up in the evening to take me round to his place to collect the C. I had only driven it once before when we took the cars to The Enfield Pageant. The wandering steering was familiar to me, just like my Dellow, but the low powered engine and three speed box were all new experiences (my Dellow is a trials car with a Kent engine, Rocket Box and Escort axle).
Saturday 3 June 2006
Off at 5.30 to meet Neil at Baldock Services at 06.00. I was very concerned the C would start. It needed full choke, no throttle and all 6 volts burst strain to turn the little engine over. It took a couple of goes but away we went. Down to Harwich on the A120, with very little traffic to bother us we had time to have breakfast in a transport cafe just outside the port. Even then we were in the queue for the Stenna Discovery in good time. Stenna call it a HSS (High Speed Ship). Its a Catamaran with four gas turbines powering water jets for propulsion. A mere three and a half hours later we were driving off in the company of a dozen or more cars from the register.
Not to many problems with driving on the right and we soon got used to acknowledging the waves of the bystanders. The line got broken up when we came to the first set of traffic lights and it didn’t take long for us to get separated from Neil. We weren’t too badly off as I had printed directions to the hotel from the Internet. Neil had been depending on his Tom-Tom which had gone on the blink, so he was trying to stay on the bumper of the car in front.
All of this meant we were at the hotel in Voorschoten first. Other cars arrived in dribs and drabs but no Neil. A quick phone call revealed he was broken down in a Motorway Tunnel with no hard shoulder and finally arrived on a tow rope behind an 8hp Y. In the hotel car park it soon became obvious that the Y’s 12v Luminition had gone on the blink and had to be replaced with a conventional distributor.
Sunday 4 June 2006
Off at 08.30 for our first full day. Back to the Hook of Holland for a guided tour of The Atlantic Wall Museum, all about the defence system built by the Germans to keep us out during the 2nd World War. Then a boat trip around the canals of the Westland and a tour of a modern commercial greenhouse.
We were off in convoy at 8.30 but only got a few hundred yards up the road when Neil pulled off as the Y was not running properly. Adjustments to the points and timing with help from John and Jim ot things running properly and we were away. We had a brush with the law on the way, being urged on by a motorcycle policeman as we weren’t going fast enough on the motorway. Our hosts at the museum did us proud and I think our cars parked outside attracted a lot of attention for their museum.
In the afternoon it was off in a suitably old restored boat to tour a commercial greenhouse where they grew and packed tomatoes for supermarkets all over Europe.
Back at the hotel we checked the cars over and noticed the C’s fan belt wasn’t very tight. Further investigation revealed that the dynamo pulley was loose and about to burst through the radiator. Tightening the nut did no good and we discovered that the centre hole in the aluminium pulley had enlarged and the movement had damaged the shaft as well. Graham Miles kindly donated his spare dynamo but it had a different fixing. The only solution was to take the old and new units apart and build Grahams parts into Neil’s case. With Grahams help this was accomplished just in time for dinner.
Monday 5 June 2006
We had a long drive south today, down to the delta region to see the sea defences on the artificial island of Neeltje Jans. We didn’t start to well as we followed our part of the convoy led by John and Jim the wrong way up A4. We regrouped at the ferry across the entrance to Rotterdam harbour and it was here the problems with starting the Model C when it was hot began. We finally got it going using maximum choke but it popped and banged as it kangarooed up the road for a mile or so before it cleared its throat. Neil felt it was down on compression on one cylinder, but that didn’t account for the hot starting problem. The battery charge cut out was also playing up, the points sometimes stuck together necessitating a quick pit stop to flick them open.
Neeltje Jans was very windy but it was interesting to see the tremendous effort the Dutch have to make to keep their feet dry. The original idea had been to provide a permanent barrage to keep the sea out. However, this would have meant the water in the Delta would have changed from salt water to fresh water, changing the ecology. So the barrage at Neeltje Jans is only closed when the sea reaches a certain level.
There was a lot more traffic on the way back to the hotel with some long delays where we kept the engine running, keeping a careful eye on the water temperature. We had to switch it off on the ferry though and this time it wouldn’t start until Jim and John bump started it for us.
Back at the hotel Neil changed the points, condenser and plugs and we hoped it would be better tomorrow. First there was an early dinner before a trip in a wonderful old bus to a private museum in Schipluiden belonging to Mr van Vliet. It was mostly commercial vehicles but there were some cars and bikes as well, including a Beetle police car and a Karman Ghia.
Tuesday 6 June 2006
We checked out of our hotel as we were to spend the next two nights near Volendam. The Model C started fine in the morning, although getting it going from cold had never been a problem. Our Dutch hosts had arranged a private visit to the Ford Museum at Hillegom. This private venture is the largest collection of pre-war Fords in the world. All the exhibits were American, ranging from a 1896 Quadricycle to Bonne and Clyde style V8’s. We had a wonderfully entertaining guide and it was a thoroughly entertaining time. There was one European interloper, an Eifel, tucked away in a back room. It was available for sale and Jim and Graham had a good look at it, returning a week later to clinch the deal.
The C was running very well, or so we thought. But the engine had to be switched off for the ferry to Westzaan and absolutely refused to restart. We had plenty of help and, after an hour of swapping bits and pieces leant to us from other drivers, we found the problem was the coil. Once it was changed away we went. Although it was clear we had little compression on one of the cylinders starting was no longer a problem. One of the Dutch Model Y’s was having problems as well, with all sorts of horrible noises coming from the transmission. It was diagnosed as the UJ on the back of the gear box and a team led by Neil fell upon the poor little car to change it in the hotel car park. As the model Y has a torque tube this involves partially removing and pulling back the back axle so it wasn’t a quick job. It was done just before dinner, but a test run revealed the problem lied elsewhere, so then car went home on a truck the next day.
Wednesday 7 June 2006
Wednesday was boring. We went by bus to Amsterdam so the cars didn’t break down! While some of the group indulged in a cultural tour of the museums Neil and I concentrated on enjoying the cafe culture and Red Light district!
When we got back to the hotel we visited a sort of farm shop next door where we tagged along with a Spanish Tour group to see Cheese and Clog making, after which we bought some of each! We enjoyed our last dinner with the group, during which I said I hoped to join them again next year, perhaps in a car of my own!
Thursday 8 June 2006
After breakfast we waved the group, away. They were off to see the gardens at Appeltern and the National War and Resistance Museum before going home on Saturday. We made for the Hook of Holland as we had to collect Neil’s Capri from Manchester then next day, ready for racing at Lydden on Saturday.
Apart from un-sticking the battery regulator a few times the C behaved, although its increasing lack of compression made it down on power. We got a bit lost a few times but managed to find the Westzaanferry again and diverted by the Zandvoort racing circuit. Later we got totally lost in The Hague and finally stumbled across signs to The Hook of Holland purely by accident, arriving at the Ferry terminal about an hour and a half early. We were parked right up against the berth and got a marvellous view of the Stemma HSS Discovery approaching and berthing.
We had the buffet dinner on the boat and arrived home about ten in the evening. No rest for the wicked though as it was 4am start to Manchester in the morning. But that’s another storey!
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