Lagonda Rapiers

4 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

At last I have managed to do something positive. The Rapier gearbox is now with Peter Meyer in Germany and I have given him the go ahead to do a full rebuild on it.
We have arranged send the Rapier to England without a gearbox and I have managed to hire some garage space so I will have somewhere to put the gearbox back into the car at the start of our five yearly holiday. My next task is to make a list of all the nuts and bolts etc I will need to complete the job and organise them into a container that can go in the car. This should be a very good "memory test". If you would like to test yourself, close your eyes and count all the nuts bolts etc you would need to do this job & you must not forget little things like split pins and spring washers. Where I will be doing this job there are no shops down the road, it is in the heart of rural Suffolk well off the beaten track. At least, I believe, the natives speak a form of English. Every thing I am likely to need will have to go in the car or in the container with the car. Little things such as a Trolley jack can go with the car and the shipping people in England will store it until the Rapier is coming home at in September.

3-9-2019

I have spent most of today sorting out all the "stuff" I have to do to be sure that with the rebuilt gearbox safely back into place and the tailshaft reconnected I can add some petrol and start up and drive away. One of the last things I still have to do is to give the car a very through chassis grease.Even though it is safely lashed down into the container, the vibrations on board the containership for eight weeks is a little like driving along a corrugated road for mile after mile virtually non stop for the same period of time. The last day or two I have spent going over the car tightening nuts that I may have not touched since 1978. Considering the distance that the car has covered since then it is all remarkably tight and rattle free. I have added a couple of psi to the tyres so that they should still be "OK" when it rolls out not to solid ground again. I still have to do a "stock take" so that I have a comprehensive list of all the "stuff" packed into the car. Little things such as the bottle of Rain-ex for the windscreen, top-up engine oil, a spare inner tube, light globes etc. Not forgetting both a "sun- hat" and a "rain-jacket" and other essential gear that we  do not need to be carrying on and off aeroplanes.

3-10-2019

We still have a little way to go before we can jump into the car and drive away.
I have just packed up another parcel of small parts to be sent Priority Mail to Peter Meyer in Germany. WHEN he has finished rebuilding the gearbox it still has to be transported from Germany to England, hopefully by the time the car arrives there so I can spend a delightful day putting it all together again. At least this time they are nearly all small (light?) parts.  The outcome of this most recent rail on my parts store is that I will no longer be able to put my second (spare) gearbox together again. I have been busy sorting out all the things that can be packed into the car rather than having to carry it all on and off aeroplanes. Yesterday I spent in sorting out all the car's floor and carpet etc so it is all temporarily back in place in the car. I still have to sort out a tool bag with all my BSF and Whit. spanners etc. As the lining in my existing "hand-bag is getting a little "worse for wear", I have another of Helens nice (obsolete) black leather "bag" that I can transfer all these "important items" into. They really do make the best tool bags but I won't bore you with all that again.