Bond Minicar Handstarters

[rayburrow]

I'm fitting a handstarter to my '57 Bond Minicar mkD.   I've got all the parts, but would be grateful if anyone who owns a mkC or D, or has access to one with a handstart mechanism could let me know where on the floor the mounting bracket fits, and where the cable passes through the bulkhead?   Dimensions would be good, but I'd be very happy with pictures instead!  Thanks in advance, for the flood of replies   

[Jim Janecek]

do any of the photos here:
http://microcarmuseum.com/tour/bond-mk-c.html

or here:
http://microcarmuseum.com/tour/bond-mk-d.html
help?

[rayburrow]

Hello Jim  -  Unfortunately, both of the cars illustrated are of the DeLuxe versions of the Bond mkC and mkD.   These did away with hand starting, in favour of the Siba Dynastart which is what I have fitted to my DeLuxe mkD.   Because the Siba struggles sometimes, I want to retrofit a handstart to avoid getting out in the rain, to use the kickstart!   Many thanks for your reply - at least the mkD pictures show a mkD identical to mine, which is useful!

[Bob Purton]

Hi Ray, would it not be better to fix the dynastart? Do you have a decompressor fitted?

[Jawmedead]

Hi,

I'll start the flood!

Back in 1964 I restored a standard 1953 Mk C. You could still get the parts from the factory then. I fitted a handstart but found it useless as the heavy cable was too short so you couldn't do those lovely 180 turns. Here are two pictures of the Bond taken with an old 1950s box camera. You can just about see the handstart in the middle of the floor in the second picture. I think the cable was clamped onto the kickstart lever. I lined up the cable straight from the kickstart to the bulkhead, drilled a hole for cable and joined it to the handstart bolted in line inside the car. Hope this helps.

I have recently heard that my old Mk C, painted Valspar French Blue, may still be around somewhere in the south east of England, which is suprising as the last time I saw it was in 1976 dumped in Groombridges yard and left to rot. Has anyone any knowledge of it? I put the my initials 'RD' in cast alloy on the door.
Regards.  Rob D.

                                                                                                                             

[g-o-g-g-o]

Thats funny because the Bond Mk C that is in Bruce Weiners collection has the initials RD on the door - Bob take a look at that Mk C in Bruce collection and see if its your old car!!!

[Bob Purton]

It all makes sense , that car came from the South of England because Sue Watts {now Sue Gore} owned it for some time, also another guy from Sussex but I bought it from a car dealer in middlesex and run it for a couple of years, I them moved it on to a shifty looking character from London. It had the RD on it when I owned it, I often wondered what it stood for!

[Stuart Cyphus]

   the Bond Mk C that is in Bruce Weiners collection has the initials RD on the door

                                             

 Hmmm, now that changes everything in the forthcoming Groombridge article if it is!


Bruce's car today


JAP 369 in 1964. Note the "RD" on the door....


 Right then, the case as I know it. The Bond known as JAP 369 was apparently "acquired" from Groombridges yard in 1995 without the concent of the owner (Read into that what you will). It was apparently then in fairly good order but was subject to a dodgy number plate snatch with the by-now abandoned carcass eventully passing to Nick Mander, who I understood, according to Stan Cornock, still had it. I tried contacting Nick back before Christmas to confirm he has this ex. Groombridge car for the purpouse of the forthcoming article, but as yet I've had no reply.



 Now Bruce's car. I notice it has no chassis plate, which would tie in with a dodgy plate swap (making no acusations whatsoever) But Is it the car that was once JAP 369? The door could have been swapped remember. But then note also the two holes in the front valance, which coresponds with the spotlight mounts on JAP..  The more I look at it, the more I think this PXH 744 IS indeed actully the real JAP 369 !!!  The words "Worms", "Can" & "Open" have suddenly sprung to my mind for some reason......

STOP-PRESS 21/1/09

 It has just been confirmed in the past hour that the Bond known as JAP 369 was NOT stolen from Groombridges yard in 1995. JAP 369 was acquired BY LEGAL MEANS from out of the yard in 1982 into the capible hands of Nick Mander.  The Bond tourer stolen in 1995 is a DIFFERANT car as yet unfound.

[Bob Purton]

Hi Stuart. [Our own Chinese detective!] I'm pretty sure its the same car because I notice that it has a glove box in the dashboard and I was told when I owned the car that this was an unusual feature. The only other thing I know about it is that it was involved in a front end crash when owned by the Sussex guy, apparently a pin sheared in the steering and he and his wife ended up in a ditch, It must have been terrifying! As a result the lady was put off of microcars permanently. I think Sue bought it after this, repaired it and got it back on the road. When you look at the front end it still shows signs of the repair. As far as any skullduggery is concerned I know nothing, it was PX 744 when I bought it. I would tread very lightly If I were you Stuart, someone is bound to get upset!

[Jawmedead]

Well, shiver me timbers mates.

All the times I've looked at BWs photos and never spotted the side view showing RD. That piece of 'artwork' started out life as the initials on the top of an old television aerial when it fell of the roof of our bungalow in the 1960s. It was BRD and I cut off the B.
Bob, when you say the front end, do you mean where the top body joins the bulkhead. This was just starting to split when I had it. Hope this didn't have anything to do with the crash!
I also fitted a new Mk D hood in Fawn as the red for the Mk C didn't look right with the blue body and it still doesn't.
It is great to see it survived after all these years even though it's had an engine replant. The original 8E without dynastart was a swine to start especially when it was hot, fuel vapourization.

Thanks to all.

[Grant Kearney]

'PXH744' is not a DVLA re-issue plate after a cherished transfer. It was registered new in London on 10th Feb 1955 so it looks like the identity of a 'dead' Bond has been used.  The vehicle in question is clearly much earlier than this as it has a glove box (identical to my 53 Bond MkC Tourer NYP963) which was only available in 52-53.  Also the Bond is descibed as a 1953 model on the Weiner website.   'JAP369' currently resides on a 2005 Mercedes s E320 CDI Elegance.
So detective Cyphus you have the facts.  What do you conclude 
Should I probe a little further and try and find out who was the registered keeper of JAP369 when the transfer happen 

[marcus]

When I had a Velorex, the blown dynastart had flat copper wire, and I could not get it repaired anywhere. I used the hand start lever for a while, and can honestly say the experience (and usefulness of it) was shockingly bad! Brute force, skinned knuckles on the dash board bottom, and even the toughest people in my yard could rarely pull it hard enough to spine the engine round enough to bring it to life. I soon fitted a starter motor from a 2litre Honda driving a spur gear which I bought from HPC, and fitted this to the crank shaft at the place where the dynastart would have been. Do I recommend hand starters? Do you like "colourful language?!

[Bob Purton]

Looking closely now at the two side views of the cars I'm not so sure they are the same car, there are a few differences, as suggested before, the door could have been taken off Jap and put on PX.  Notice the rear wheel arch cut away slopes forward on one car and not the other, it may have been a case of making one good car up out of two wrecks, it was done all the time and still is!

[Jawmedead]

I think you have hit on the head Bob. Two or even three cars making one. OK then if this is so, bits of mine I notice: Rear bumper (off an Austin A30), large rear flashers, door with RD on it, curved alloy bead on dash next to cubby hole, nearside front wing has a filled hole where I had a radio aerial, holes in the front bumper valance.
But who cares at least it looks like a Mk C.
Mine looks as if its got over size tyres. Oh yes. the rear rubber suspension was on its way out with the wheels splaying out as I watched it drive off in the distance. 

[rayburrow]

Hi Ray, would it not be better to fix the dynastart? Do you have a decompressor fitted?

Hi Bob,   the Siba is actually fine, and I do have a decompressor fitted, but my experiences last summer were such that I was never really confident in the Siba.  It never let me down, but was pretty slow at times.   I want to fit the handstart as an insurance - and my previous Bonds were all handstarters and I was always very happy with them!

Back in 1964 I restored a standard 1953 Mk C. You could still get the parts from the factory then. I fitted a handstart but found it useless as the heavy cable was too short so you couldn't do those lovely 180 turns. Here are two pictures of the Bond taken with an old 1950s box camera. You can just about see the handstart in the middle of the floor in the second picture. I think the cable was clamped onto the kickstart lever. I lined up the cable straight from the kickstart to the bulkhead, drilled a hole for cable and joined it to the handstart bolted in line inside the car. Hope this helps.

Jawmedead,  I think with the cable set up properly there's no restriction of the 180degree lock - at least on my previous Bonds there wasn't;  also it never needed much effort to pull the engine over once you'd got it top to dead centre.   Anyhow, thanks for your pictures which do help!   There  does seem to have been a can of hornets opened (or a worm's nest..) over JAP's real identity.   I have a similar mystery involving my car, which not even the Bond Club has been able to fully explain!