Saturday 1 February 2014

The Humber Speedster Project - Update #2



Today my boys and I, and a mate of theirs, drove to Toowoomba, about 2 hrs west, to the Darling Downs Veteran & Vintage Motor Club’s annual Swap Meet, their 42nd this year. I hadn’t been since 2012, so was absolutely blown away by the increase in numbers this year - not so impressed by the traffic jam that saw us cover the last 5 km to the Toowoomba Show Grounds in an hour!  Anyway, after we got through the gate, we had a short pow wow about who was going with who.  My son Liam, and friend who had travelled with us, are both Army mad, so it was decided they would troll the stalls looking for ANYTHING army, and Callum, (my other son, they’re 15 yo twins), came with me – Good boy, I needed a pack horse ;-)  I was on a mission this swap meet - I had a shopping list and some cash burning a hole in my pocket. I usually start meandering through the rows of car parts, brica-brac and other detritus from just near the entry, working my way uphill to the Vendors pavilion, but this time I went straight to the top, the Vendors shed. I wanted to score certain new items early then relax and peruse the old shit ;-) Besides, with Toowoomba Swap being pretty big, I wanted to get the uphill walking done first, before my legs started to make me feel old. I checked my list and headed for the various vendors - some were a gold mine, others struck out, so I moved onto the private stalls with trays and boxes of every automotive part imaginable. Here I found some new old stock parts that the vendors couldn’t supply. Callum and I tried to methodically cover as much ground as possible, and some other gems were uncovered and crossed off my list. We caught up with the other two who were very keen to show off their purchases, all military in origin of course, then they decided that all the boys would head off together, which really suited me. I work better alone ;-)  We agreed to meet outside the burger stand in an hour, so off I went and found my best purchase of the day, a set of front and rear mudguards – brilliant for the Humber, just brilliant! The ones I have just aren't right, too rounded for the look I;m going for.
After a long two hour drive home with all the boys asleep, we arrived home with our booty, as the pictures below show. The mudguards are perfect ! A couple of days work to get them up to scratch, but perfect for the job.

The seat taking shape.
The circa 1915 mud guards sitting in place.
The left hand rear guard.



My haul below - running board brackets, new front bump stop rubbers, two gas shock absorbers for the rear and the makings for the sparkplug leads. Oh, and some new old stock neoprene bushes for the front shocks. One happy camper ;-)
My haul ;-)