Lagonda Rapiers

4 minute(s) of a 484 minute read

Here we are now well into the New Year and we have just returned from our brief holiday on the coast with my sister and her family.

I left for the coast somewhat reluctantly directly after a summer rain storm which had overflowed the gutter directly above my work bench giving the dismantled Rapier cylinder head and all its component parts a good drenching. At that time I simply locked the door and said to myself, "If this rain had come even 12 hours later there would have been nothing I could do about it!

I have now unlocked the door again and checked out my work bench and its contents for damage. I can report that the damage was just a few spots of light surface rust on the face of the cylinder head. 

I can now go back to finishing the valves and start to re-asemble the cylinder head and valve gear.  But before that I will take the head over to my friends at Crankshaft Rebuilders to make sure that the face of the head is percectly flat.

Cheers

Bernie j.

1-7-2016

Summer has finally arrived in Melbourne Australia, there is very little work being done on either the Lagonda or the Humber, today or yesterday, the temperature was/is around 35 to 38 degrees centigrade. 

Cheers

Bernie j.

1-8-2017

Hello Paul

Yes, Melbourne Australia has been voted the world's most liveable city. Snow is unheard of, frost is extremely rare as the daytime winter temperature is around 10/15 degrees and in summer it seldom goes as high as 40 degrees Celsius. 

Traffic can be a problem if you drive into the CBD but we do have an efficient system of Freeways, We live approx 13 Kms from the city and if for some reason we need to go into the main business centre we prefer to go by bus, These are very efficient with no more than a 10 minute wait.  Our "other"public transport is either tram or train.  We have great parks, tree lined streets and lots of gardens. . Mostly streets are laid out on a grid pattern.  We have several large shopping "malls" within a four or five kilometres.  You could say that life is good!

You should visit some time.

Bj.

Enough of all that! It is a cooler afternoon and ideal to  go back to working on the Rapier cylinder head. 

Bj.

1-9-2017

Hello Mike

Surely not in California?

I think that the same things are happening all around the world. Fires in the Summer and floods in the Winter. Fortunately we live in a very domesticated suburb on a hill far enough away not to be worried by fire and about five kilometres away from the river and far enough up the hill, not to be worried about flooding. 

Meanwhile I have spent the afternoon attempting to sort out the one exhaust valve which "caught" a fragment of piston ring. It is going to need a lot of grinding to have it so it will seal but in the process it will close up the tappet clearance so a similar amount will need to be ground off the end of the stem. Not a really satisfactory out come, I have two other exhaust valves left from an earlier rebuild but I would sooner not use either from preference.  

Hey! It is an 80 year old car; why am I being so fussy?

Very simply because:- 

1. It is my car and it is a LAGONDA RAPIER....

2. I want to be able to drive it without worrying anywhere in the world we chose to take it.

3. When I say drive it I mean DRIVE IT!

Bj.