The Oldsmobile is finished and we have travelled a few miles. A couple of runs of about 12 miles and now it is running beautifully. At first it seemed to struggle but we changed the plugs and bingo it started running very smoothly. Someone we know saw us on the road and started following and told us later that we were doing about 35 miles per hour. I think that their speedo might have been incorrect but we can check it ourselves on the next run as we’ve fitted a bicycle speedometer. Next weekend 23/24 May is  ‘La Vie en Bleu’ Hillclimb at Prescott so weather permitting we will drive the Oldsmobile over to the hill. No, I’m not really only a fair weather driver but after just finishing all the work on the Olds. I don’t really feel like braving pelting down rain, at the moment. This will be the third French weekend at Prescott and the first two have been extremely wet so here’s hoping ‘third time lucky’ with glorious sunshine. Last year there were five Bugatti Veyrons at Prescott – hope someone will give me a ride up the hill in one this year!!!!

Progress on the Oldsmobile is steady. It’s not a matter of just slapping all the components together but many small things have to manufactured and carefully assembled bit by bit. 

Trevor is very thorough with his work and as this is only a spare time hobby, progress has not been as quick as we would like. BUT, it’s better to be safe than sorry. This vehicle has to cover about 4000 miles without, hopefully, any mechanical failures.

INVITATION.

The Oldsmobile (and us) will be on display at Race-Retro, the historic motorsport show, at Stoneleigh on 13-15 March. Come along and have a look at the finished car in Hall 1, Stand G36.

I look forward to meeting everyone for a chat. Don’t look too closely at the paintwork. I have spent the winter painting the chassis, front and rear axles etc. the body-work etc, all by brush as it was originally done when the car was new. The axles and chassis look good and I spent so much time preparing the surface of the bodywork but I feel a bit disappointed at the end product. I did expect it to be better than it is, but as someone said the other day, “Don’t forget, the car is 105 years old”.

Look forward to your comments when you see the car.

The crankshaft was finally finished the day we were due to fly to India to participate in the Karma Enduro. After a mad dash to Coventry to pick up the long awaited crankshaft, deliver it have the bearings made, then hot-foot it to Heathrow – we made it on time.  We now have all components and the re-assembly can start -  or almost.

Another problem arose which I have not mentioned before. When the flywheel was removed from the old crankshaft it was meant to be gently pressed off. Trevor’s press was not big enough to accommodate the massive flywheel but we were assured it would be pressed off carefully. It wasn’t. When we brought the flywheel home fresh indentations were noticed and on closer examination cracks. After crack-testing it was apparent we now had a cracked flywheel. It had been hammered off the crankshaft and rendered useless.

There was only one way out of this mess and we had to get a new flywheel. Using the old one as a pattern, a new one was cast and that has just been delivered. It needs to be machined and balanced but that will be the last component that needs to be sent out.

I must admit the past seven months have been very frustrating, just waiting and waiting but now it’s all about to change.

Just before setting off for the Karma Enduro, the crankshaft was finally collected. It looks very well made and thankfully will now allow the engine to be rebuilt upon return.

I was looking forward to my update today as I was convinced that I could announce that the new crankshaft was at last in our ownership, but as usual, it is still not finished…but almost. It was meant to be last week then this morning, then tomorrow morning – perhaps it will be ready to pick up tomorrow morning but we are flying to India tomorrow to participate in the Karma Enduro, an endurance rally,  driving brand new Hindustan Ambassadors. (Look at our progress on my Telegraph diary from Saturday www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring )  

After the crankshaft is finished then the remetalled big-end and main bearings have to be machined to suit.  We thought we could pick up the newly finished crankshaft this morning deliver it Coventry Boring and Whitemetalling Company for the next stage so that everything would be finished by the time we arrived back in the UK on 30th October. I could then head off tomorrow morning feeling satisfied that at last the project was progressing and it could all be assembled on our return, however that horrible anxiety feeling is still nagging at me.

The crankshaft is still not finished. It is now expected by the end of September. Work is almost at a standstill waiting for the crankshaft. I have been getting on with more paintwork renovation to the body but Trevor has just about run out of jobs. When the crankshaft arrives it will be all systems go.

The Oldsmobile looked fantastic displayed on the Hagerty Classic Car Insurance stand at Silverstone Classic race meeting last weekend. The new crankshaft is still not finished yet so the body was put on the chassis minus the engine. The crankshaft is meant to be finished on 15th August – hopefully that will be the case as we seem to be waiting forever to get some miles up before the cold winter weather arrives. The newly restored car will need to be run for quite a few miles in case any problems may arise and they can be sorted out before its epic journey.

Progress with the rebuild has not advanced as quickly as anticipated.

The two main spring leaves were meant to take a week to make but ended up taking seven weeks. It’s been so frustrating waiting so long! They were finished last Friday so over the weekend we managed to get several layers of paint on, the last one this morning. From tomorrow the re-assembly can start. I look forward to seeing the Olds on its wheels again.

There’s still another hold-up. The new crankshaft promised for 11th June will now be finished mid August (I hope).

At last, once the Olds is standing on its wheels we’ll get the sense of some progress.

I cannot understand when a Company makes a date for completion of an order why they do not fulfill it. How can the calculation be so far out?  Am I just unlucky, or is this common?  

Oh well, back to the workshop.

Everytime I walk into the workshop my heart misses a beat. Instead of a complete vehicle all I can see are bits and more bits.

It’s been worthwhile though as quite a few nasties have appeared. The latest one is that when the springs were taken to bits Trevor discovered that the two main spring leaves had been welded at the front and disguised.  This would render them quite weak and if either had broken at any time then the front axle would part company. I don’t like to imagine what the consequences could have been.

The shopping list gets longer every day. That’s two new springs to be made now but I’ll feel a lot safer.