Dixie Flyer "Firefly" speedster photographs

4 minute(s) of a 91 minute read

This must sound completely crazy to some of you but This afternoon I have started to completely dismantle the Dixie Flyer! 

This is preparation for the final assembly. "Dave the Painter' tells me that he has finished the mudguards (fenders) and is ready to start work on the main body. Being a fastidious worker he requires the body off the chassis. I have also decided that the paint applied to the wheels some months ago is no longer up to the required standard and so all five wheels are about to have the tires stripped off prior to going to be bead blasted. Then they can be repainted before fitting new tires. The chassis can also receive a final rub-down and freshen up. 

With one eye riveted to the calendar there is no room for second chances. Yesterday son Steve came to assist with the silver soldering of the windscreen frame so I now have (hopefully) the final load of "stuff" to go for nickel plating. Radiator surround, wheel "knock on" hub caps, windscreen frame, and quite a box full of little bits. Having said this I just know that there will be at least one more visit with more "shiny stuff".

3-20-2010

Help!!

We are just starting to put together our travel plans for the AACA 75th Anniversary at Louisville. Getting from Australia to the West Coast is the easy bit. We are now totally confused by the huge number of options available to get from there (LA) to Louisville. Can any of the experienced travelers possibly advise the most practical route?

3-22-2010

Hi Bill

Much as I would like to be driving the Dixie Flyer we won't be bringing it on the plane with us. Hopefully it will arrive in Louisville before us.

Re the World's Fastest Indian much as I would like to claim it as Australian the film was actually made in New Zealand about a New Zealander. They just like people to think that they are Australian. They are so confused that they talk about their two little islands as the "Mainland". It is a bit like Canada and the USA.

The first lot of paint finished, the Black bits, look great. Unbelievable in fact, when I think about the heap of rusty rubbish I brought home in the first place. 

It could have saved me lots of $$$$ if I had made new fenders, but I was determined to use as much of the original sheet metal as possible.

Hi Ben

Thanks for your support. We are certainly thinking very seriously about driving. As our first visit to the US we think that it would be a shame just to fly in and fly out without actually seeing anything. After all we spend up to four months to visit the UK and France but then we have lots of friends, especially Lagonda people, in the UK. I don't think that we are going to find too many Dixie Flyer owners in America, still we are working on that. We do have one Lagonda friend in Sth Carolina who we would like to see.

3-25-2010

Hi All

I have been rather busy the past few days, apart from everything else I managed to "loose" the next part (9) of the Return to Louisville story for the Antique Automobile and have just finished re-writing it all 1500 words.

I have also been doing some work in the garden as you can see in the attached photograph.

Re our travel plans, our present thinking is that we take a week to 10 days to cross from LA to Louisville. but it is still early days.

Just a couple more of those gardening photographs........