Hi All,
Not that anyone's missed me from the list, but I've finally completed my
move to England from the US. Oh Yeah, I brought my 4A with me as well.
I drove the 4A from my house in Crestline, CA to the CITY of Compton to
leave it in the hands of ETC, Int (no connection, blah, blah) for a
container shipment to Felixtowe, UK. On the way, my overdrive relay went
out...Having a mild leak and knowing that I hadn't topped it up in a
while, I thought the worst...I way way low on tranny oil. So I pulled off
the freeway and found myself in the stranger parts of SoCal. Too say the
least, I found oil and a pump at a Classic Mustang parts place where no one
spoke English (no pun intended). After topping up without getting robbed,
I finished the journey ( w/ O/D still DNIF), managing to lose my ride back
in the process.
It only cost approx 1000 US to ship, including insurance. Apparently, LA
is the car shipping capital of the world. After I drove to New Hampshire
in my Trooper for my new job training with Lockheed Sanders, I shipped the
Trooper from RI to Southhampton. That cost 1500 US, with no insurance and
it was deck loaded! Closer by far to the UK, but the East Coast doesn't
have the volume.
It only took 5 weeks for the car to show up at Felixstowe. For customs
reasons the car went ot London and was delivered to my house. The cost on
the UK side was only a few hundred pounds. I did get the car without
paying customs duty. My wife holds an English passport. So we
exploited the "I'm the husband of a Brit, she's been out of the country
for more than a year and we are moving back" line and got away with no
customs duty. There are actually a few more stipulations/rules that go
along with this, but if anyone is interested, pls inquire.
The next thing was to pass the dreaded MOT. Since my 4A was (is) in good
nick, I thought, Hey, No Problem. Yeah, Right. I located the nearest
Triumph expert in East Anglia, who turned out to be Clive Manvers of
Manvers Triumph (again, no connection). Brilliant Guy, great shop,
and an excellent mechanic by the name of Nick. They specialize in all
things Triumph, restorations, etc. The most interesting thing I learned
was that Clive breaks 2000's, and 2500's for their parts. These parts are
common to a lot of our TR's and he sells these to MOSS, etc, for a hell of
a lot less then we pay for them. One would be surprised what parts are
common to all TR's. He also banger races a lot of these rotten cars for
fun at the local track. And Wins. He's the guy with a shark on top of
his Triumph. Nick used to have his own shop, also worked on the Caterham
team, he likes to run Castrol-R in his lawnmower, as well.
The common wisdom of the MOT is that it is a bad thing. Yes, the 4A
failed for lots of reasons. Lots of little things that we in the states
would not find applicable. However, it only cost me 200 pounds to set it
right (combination of me fixing things and letting Manvers Triumph fix
what I couldn't...I had no work space at the time). I then passed the
MOT. I think in retrospect that the MOT is a good thing. Mainly, bc it
found lots of things that I wouldn't have and I feel much better having an
independent source of criticism about my TR. I probably won't feel this
way about the MOT when they fail my Subaru for emissions. The inspector
found that a lot of my front end nut/bolts were loose. Like ball joints,
steering arms, tie rod ends, etc. The car only had 3000 miles since a
ground up rebuild, but somehow these things were loose! I was only happy
to find out. All of the correct lenses were fit and the exhaust
leaks/unsecured fuel lines/etc were fixed and the car has run faultlessly
since. BTW, the overdrive was still nonfunctional. I only discovered it
was the relay after I fit a new relay AND solenoid and it still didn't
work. After telling Manvers Triumph about this, they quickly discovered
that the new relay I put on was u/s. Thanks, MOSS. I had bought an extra
before I left the US.
Since then, I have driven the car constantly and attended a few shows.
The Brits are always amazed at the condition of my SoCal car, "Hey, No
Rust", but they have to get past my below average paint to see it.
No worries about which side of the road that I'm on. My daily is a RHD
Subaru Legacy Estate and the 4A is a LHD. It's easy to switch hit after
awhile.
Wow, I have to admit that there are a lot of nice cars here. As an aside,
even though S-T/MG/JAG exported 90% of their cars to the states back in the
50's/60's, I see more cool cars here than I ever did in SoCal.
Just recently, I have finally settled, unpacked and located an local
phone IAP at a farmhouse about 30 minutes away from Norfolk ( We spent 5
months staying with friends, don't ask). The nearest big town is Watton.
There is a 4A (red) about town and hopefully I'll find him. Also, funny
enough, last week I spotted a 4A at RAF Mildenhall when I was at work. I
left a message on his windscreen after seeing his license plate holder
(SCTOA, my old club in CA), and looked inside to discover that the owner
was the son of Paul Smock, a past president of SCTOA, who runs an
excellent 4A racer. Paul also rebuilt my engine with Bill Burroughs. The
son hasn't contacted me yet, but Oh, Well.
I love being here, its home for the wife and I can indulge in my favorite
pastime. I can WALK to the thached pub in the village. Oh, Yeah...it's
easy to understand how and why these TR's were designed/developed
after driving these English country lanes. It's a hell of a lot more fun
running through the gears on these twisty roads than the SoCal
freewaysand having a thin profile. And you can buy lead gas...Oh Joy!
Not that I'm exactly volunteering to the list, but I do have access to the
military post office...It doesn't cost extra to mail to the US from
here. I'm working 50-60 hours a week and don't have too much extra time,
but perhaps something could be arranged in a crisis.
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pcarson@lcfh.demon.co.uk lcfh = Low Common Farmhouse
Field Service Engineer - Sanders, A Lockheed Martin Co.
Sofpars - Unix system Admin/Trblshtr/Ex-Navigator
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