RUMCars Forum
General Category => Microcar Events => Topic started by: MarkSnowden on June 27, 2014, 09:43:57 PM
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Hi all, I'm new here but not to the world of microcars. I am looking for information regarding the date of the Open Day this year. I know it's usually the last Sunday in July, is this the case this year?
Mark
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Hi Mark and welcome to the nut house!
Open day is 27th July. Hope to see you there. Has Dave converted you to Isetta ownership yet? ;D
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Hi Bob, Thanks for the welcome and the confirmation of the date. After another year of working on Isettas with Dave I find my resolve to NOT own one is even stronger. I find it interesting that when a problem or fault appears with a customer's car Dave's response is usually either "That's a design fault!" or "That's one of those weaknesses!" I am concerned about the lack of fuses in the car; just one to protect only the indicators, horn, brake lights and wiper motor. That leaves everything else unprotected, scary!!
Mark
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Hi Mark
Its the back up heater system common to many British cars. With the Isetta you get the extra option of a heated seat, by leaving the battery posts exposed. Why didn't Volvo think of that?
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Yes that doesn't inspire confidence does it. Dave that is, not the fuse situation! ;D
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Yes Al, I remember Dave asked me to get into one to adjust the door lock. Within a few moments there was a nasty smell in the car, and it wasn't me. I ignored it at first but then smoke was rising from below, PANIC!!! I've never got out of any car quicker. Dave came running with the CO2 extinguisher and all was well. Exposed springs and exposed battery terminals are not a good combination. Pure madness fitting the battery INSIDE the car in the first place. I took a friends Messerschmitt for an MOT test some years ago and the tester failed it for having the battery inside the car. He said it was "Plain dangerous." He waffled on about Hydrogen gas in confined spaces, it made sense to me.
Mark
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Things do not look good for me then as my G-wiz has eight whopping great batteries inside the car. Passes the MOT every time!
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' I love the smell of Hydrogen in the morning'
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Indeed gas bottles live outside. But the odd green dweller reaching 10,000 feet is probably OK, Bob. Interesting observation. Bats in or out?
Isetta needed the Bat in the door jam instead of the counterbalance.
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Yes, only for the RHD version though.
What makes Marks point less valid is that with Isetta's the carbon monoxide from the leaky exhaust manifold will get you long before a smidge of hydrogen! ;D
Design faults would make an interesting thread topic.
I am starting a new one and lets see if owners will be honest about the design faults on there beloved favourite cars. See new thread, this one was supposed to be about the open day.
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Its a design fault of the forum, Bob. Let the day be Open and sunshiny.
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Well the open day is almost upon us. Who is going???
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Dear Bob
Providing I wake up on Sunday I will be there.
Chris Thomas
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Every intention of being there. May bring the IC...... ;D
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If you do Barry, you may find that you will need an IC on a daily basis there after. ;D
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At the moment I'm afraid I won't be there as my intended chauffeur has had his car smashed in at the rear!
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You were hoping for Tony weren't you ? Not him then I hope
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Er, yes, but he is not hurt so I understand.
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Yes Tony is in the country, at Milton Keynes at the moment. He has had some sort rear end damage done to his car but because it is a French car, on French plates and French insurance but owned by an Englishman living in France but who speaks little French, the paper work is a nightmare. Tony is OK but until he can get the insurance claim sorted there is not much he can do, he is stuck in Milton Keynes!
Nice to hear Malcolm Parker will be joining us (he has booked into the camp site, that's how I know. Lesley has reserved the site for micronaughts for the weekend but it would be nice to know who may be joining us.
Is anyone coming from the Hertfordshire area with a tow bar, we were trying to get the Potton Historic Champion Saloon to us. They have a trailer but their towing vehicle has broken down. Jean
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Can I have more info on this Hertfordshire pick up please ? I might be able to help
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I have sent you an email Steve. See you and the family Sunday.Jean
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Hello,
Does anyone have contact details fore Tony this week ? If he needs help sorting out his French insurance maybe we can help him. Nick.
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The only number I have is his home one in France. I always used to ring him. Don't know if he has a mobile. No contact for about two weeks. Only heard of the shunt from Jean. Tony hasn't got in touch?
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Stop press! I heard about two hours ago Tony is mobile again and on his way to pick up Rob Dobie, so they both should be with us to morrow! Jean
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Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Sorry i won't be there :(
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Tony arrived last evening! So we will be there after all. ;D
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I think I can safely say that the openday this year was a resounding success! I don't know if this is my imagination but it feels like the people in attendance is increasing and the cars are dropping. I dare say Jean has the figures and I may be wrong.
There were certainly some interesting people there this year. I was very pleased to make the acquaintance of David and Marion Carter. David worked at Carr brothers in the 1950's making chassis' for progress scooters and the Tourette car, I was able to glean a few distant memories from him. I also was pleased to have a chat with Alan Hatswell of Cursor fame, an interesting character. Just when we were thinking that a gent in a lovely NSU Prinze sport had driven a microcar the furthest distance to the event coming from the Isle of Wight a Frisky sport appeared at the gates piloted by my friend Pierrick [An Inter owner] having come from Lille France for the day.
What with all the things to see and folk to chat with I completely missed the opportunity to meet Chris Rees who's books I am a fan of.
I think the star of the day and worthy winner of the peoples choice award was a fine 2CV based wooden bodied one off car. I think for most of us this was the first time we had seen this one and very impressive it was too.
All together a great day! Many thanks to Jean, Leslie and Michael for organising the event. Also, thanks for dinner on the Saturday evening!
My apologies to you jean, what with all the excitment I completely forgot to say goodbye to you before I left!
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I second that, it was great to see everyone yesterday, was good to meet Pierrick of whom I briefly spoke to many moons ago, nice to see the Frisky Sport shoot past me when walking from the station! >:(
I had a fairly long chat with the owner/constructor of the wooden bodied 2CV based car, not only had the body been laid up by hand using wooden strips bonded around ply sections, (bit like building a model airplane fuselage), but a portion of the front had actually been steamed! Intriguingly his wife explained how he'd very cleverly utilized some of her kitchen implements, for example: the front grill surround was originally a serving dish, the ports either side were from the bottom of another metal dish of some description, whilst the central piece of the windscreen frame was actually crafted from a large serving spoon.
Rob, I forgive you for not recognizing me, looks like I've been out of the loop too long, though much impressed by the Hammond's improvements to the site since I was last there, roll on next year.
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My little family and I had a really good day to, my son was more in to the chickens and Shetland , my hi light was to see Jaime getting his peel running and driving around ,oh and of corse meeting you lot !
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I just want to say thank you to everyone who mucked in a helped on the day without even being asked. Especial thanks must go to Michael and Lesley for all their hard work because I am afraid my contribution to the preparations are rather limited these days. I agree with Bob more people and less cars. Chris counted 20 vehicles which included the 3 scooters and 2 hot rods. However everyone seemed have enjoyed themselves. the weather was kind and there lots of interesting people to talk to. It was tiring but oh so well worthwhile, I hope Leslie and Michael will invite us again next year!
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the wooden 2cv thing seems a common theme -
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=2cv+wooden&rlz=1T4ADRA_enGB460GB460&tbm=isch&imgil=YBRadInwOwWJlM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcRBGe9tS_yhGeij8kPr5MM4TjqE67FCfPscHngsrFsYuKCi1OkyUw%253B802%253B599%253BUp7PoNZlYGgqMM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.cats-citroen.net%25252Fcitroen_features%25252Fmods%25252F&source=iu&usg=__wc--P0JNjUpvOscItCkpgPIotwo%3D&sa=X&ei=KqbWU7P7H-We7AaqioDYBQ&ved=0CCoQ9QEwAw&biw=1366&bih=639#facrc=_&imgdii=gRFuLzte_TMoUM%3A%3BhO-kcW6KLedi8M%3BgRFuLzte_TMoUM%3A&imgrc=gRFuLzte_TMoUM%253A%3Bj1rJGUkVHhAQRM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fi.dailymail.co.uk%252Fi%252Fpix%252F2007%252F04_02%252F2FriendWoodSN_468x282.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%252Fnews%252Farticle-451055%252FThe-wheeled-car-wood.html%3B468%3B282
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We just got back last night and had a fantastic time. Thanks to Michael, Lesley, Jean, Jamie and anyone else involved for making the open day possible. It was great to finally see the Hammond collection in the flesh and to hear more about the legendary Delta car project at Potton as well as learning how to turn humble kitchen implements into stainless steel car trim. Where else do you get the chance to see two Friskys, two Unicars and two Cursors all on the same day?
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oops . one sterling and one unicar i think - yes both Opperman though . wish i had been there myself but in a way i had my own open day and new neighbours , one on each side strange that ;) , saw the delightful Gordon for the first time .
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No. Right first time. one green and one blue Unicar = two plus the Sterling. As you say, you weren't there to see them all.
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oh wow ! very sorry both . that must have been a treat . what else was there then , is there a list ?
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If you missed the open day or just want to experience it again, the open day highlights video is up on Youtube. ;D ;D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGou9WVLgXk&feature=youtu.be
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thanks jamie , guess that answers the Unicar querie :D i bet he was very interested to cross reference .- pity jean insisted you include the music on the video jamie
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unfortunately i have been having problems with the cameras microphone and so the video sounded really bad in parts, so the music makes it sound better, i am trying to get it fixed before Thursday throw. ;D ;)
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Thanks for the video Dodger. I enjoyed that music so take no notice of the old fogie! ;D Its a shame you didn't get any footage of The Frisky sport though.
Its not often there are two Inter owners in the same field but there was last Sunday. I think the last time I could say that was at Story 2002.
Have fun on the Isle of Man where I guess there will be quite a lot of Peel owners in the same field!
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I can blame the peel for making me miss the frisky because i was busy learning how to drive it. We are still trying to find a way of mounting 'L' plates on it. ;D :D
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I guessed you were preoccupied for most of the day as nearly all the footage was of people leaving!
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Thanks for posting the video. Here's a photo of the Frisky
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Thanks for posting the video, looks like i missed a great day.
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I had two Mini Countrymen and a Mini Clubman Estate and all three had the battery under the back seat. There was a little vinyl cover to go over the terminals to stop them from touching the steel frame under the rear seat. If you forgot to put the cover back on, or if the cover had been damaged (by being squashed between the terminals and the seat frame) then the smoke and smell quickly alerted you to the problem.
The first time it happened to me, the steel frame work had heated up enough to char and smoulder the plywood seat base which sat on the frame.
Worse still, to remove or replace the battery you had to tip the front seat forwards, lift up the front-hinged rear seat and rest it against your legs, then bend right over it to lift or lower the battery, back aches GUARANTEED!
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Thanks for the video which I have just watched. I wish I could have been there, I had planned to come down from London with Mike, but had to work.
I like the 2CV Special, it looks a bit like a Blackjack Avion, very stylish.
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The peel on the trailer ready to leave, complete with the 'L' plates. That should make Bob and Steve happy. I also ran it again before we put it on the trailer so i got a bit more practice. ;D ;D
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Well done mate !!!!
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Thanks for posting the video. Here's a photo of the Frisky
thanks for those nice moments spend with you.
see you soon. Pierrick
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I wonder what the answer is to this one , I really would like to read the full letter published in the magazine , but which mag ? Does anyone here have friends who have any back issues ? Thanks