Delayed update!!!

Well there's a surprise I hear you all say!!

We were away last week on the Southern Area rally. All was going great, meeting some of the Southern area members we had never met before and then the drive shaft broke! It can be very annoying at times. There are people that took their old ones out of their donor and dropped them into the Gentry. They have never had any issues from them at all!

We buy a reconditioned pair that are uprated with thicker shafts for racing purposes so that they are more than man enough for the job. 350 miles later and then fall apart!!!

Recovery courtesy of the AA and a quick strip out and examination and we find that ours has a faulty casting. The good news is that they are being replaced as clearly they are faulty, the bad news is the car has to be off the road whilst the new one arrives and then I have to find a few hours to refit and bleed the brakes.

Above right is a photo of the shaft for you to see what it looks like when the casting is faulty and it gives up on you.

Anyway onto better things. I have just collected the red Gentry from the trimmers and so we can get a first glimpse of the 'new' seats in situ. The ones in the photo's (photos will follow in the next update straight after this one) are not yet bolted into place but you get a very good idea of what they are going to look like.

They are designed to look similar to the bench seat arrangement but are actually 2 individual seats one runners so that each one will move on its own giving you the freedom to move the seat position to suit more than one driver.

We love them and if I can find the time will be changing the demonstrator seat, which is a fixed bench seat, for a pair of these.

See you all next week

Geoff

Update Sunday 14th March

If there are any spelling mistakes at the end of this I blame the fact that I am trying to type with a broken left index finger!! Yes I know, should take more care when using the pillar drill but we have all done it. Just a small hole no need to engage brain then suddenly it's too late and you've got to make a splint out of a paint stirring stick and electrical insulation tape!
It is a straight forward break and should bring about any complications so it is just making things a little difficult but not impossible.

I have re styled the bonnet and scuttle and the new panels are in the glass fibre factory having molds made as I type (well probably not as it is 10.45pm!) They look great, are an improvement over the last ones and I can't wait to build another car and use them!

Out trip to France in September this year is gathering momentum and there are now 3 cars and 5 of us going, if anyone else wants to join in then they would be most welcome. As I've previously said it is not going to be anything strenuous as I'm looking for a break of a different kind. It will be a gentle meander around, hopefully meeting up with some of the Gentry owners that are lucky enough to reside in France all year round!
Had no takers to make a film for U Tube so I can only assume that we have no budding film makers reading the blog. Something else I'll have to get round to eventually.

I have had to hand my car over to our senior engineer Cliff to get it ready fore the Dartmoor trip as I am too busy to sort it myself!!

Anyway must go, have got to finish the bottle of red (pain killer for the finger is my excuse)
See you all in a fortnight.

Geoff

Update Sunday 28th February

Hi Folks

Keeping busy as usual and looking forward to the coming season. I t is about that time of year when the car gets a service and you start looking forward to the sun coming out! then you get an email from Elwyn in Sweden showing me what they had over the weekend.

So whilst Canada were worrying about having enough for the Olympics it all arrived in Sweden!

Good job it didn't arrive here, it would have closed the country until about May or June.

Elwyn did send me some more photos during last summer of his car at a British car meet and if I can ever find the time I will get them put onto a gallery page on our website, if only to prove that it is not only snow in Sweden.

For some unknown reason there a a large number of Gentry's being bought and moved to France. I accept that their weather probably lends itself to driving a Gentry more than the weather in the UK but it's not ex-pats that are taking them. In the main it appears to be French residents who can appreciate the class and style of the car. Well we can all agree with that.

I also managed to speak with Roger Blockley the other day. Hopefully he will be able to get to one of our monthly meetings at the Hinckley Island and I can report back once I've caught up with him. I know I have a lot of questions I would like to ask.

Got to sign off now, Canada are playing the USA in the final of the ice hockey and I don't want to miss anything!

See you next time.

Geoff

Update... Late as usual

Hi Folks,
Yes I know back to my old ways!! Only just into the New Year and have already slipped into forgetting to do the update. I don't know what happened over the last few weeks, apart from lots of work, but somehow I completely forgot that an update was due. I had set the reminder on the calendar on the laptop so it should be almost impossible to forget. Then the wireless card broke and so I've been mainly using the desk top. Of course I hadn't set the reminder on the desk top and the two computers do not talk to each other!!!

Work remains exceptionally busy, which is good, we have made some very nice changes to the latest car and kit which we believe makes for a much better build and final look. If I could find the time I would build another demonstrator so that we could show them off. Only problem remains time to do it!
I will be back on the correct date with the full update.

Geoff

Update Sunday 24th 'January

Hi All
I've recovered from my rantings on the last 'official' update and then dropping in the French video update nearly upset everything as I came close to forgetting to update this weekend!
Many thanks to all those who emailed me regarding the issues raised in the rant. it appears as thought I am not alone in either issue.

The house build is now making good progress, work is busy and the slight alterations we are making to the kit are coming on well. Then you are brought back to reality when an old colleague phones to inform you that another ex-colleague and friend has just died. At 55 yrs and after only 1 years retirement it makes it very clear to you were the priorities should lie. My thoughts go to Sandra and family at this difficult time. Bob was a friend from way back and will be missed by all those who knew him.

Did you enjoy the French video? I did, even though my French is very poor. Elwyn, to answer your question, I believe that most of the photographs used in the video clip were taken at Stoneleigh, probably at the kit car show. At the time, we were using Digby as our car and would have put it on the club stand.

See you in a fortnight.

Geoff

French Video on U Tube

Hi Folks

Just a quick note for a video on U Tube in French!!!!
Follow the below link to see for yourselves.

http://triumph.cambien.net/Home/resturation/gentry

How come there's one in French but no-one has ever added one in English?
Do we have any amateur film makers that would wish to try? If so, give us a call and we'll see if it can be arranged.

Geoff

Update Saturday 16th January

Hi All

Didn't want to get you too excited by doing the update exactly when I said I would!!! Thought I'd break you in to a more structured and reliable me by being just a day late. At least that way I'm making the transition at a more maintainable rate.

Anyway, thanks to all those of who who have emailed, phoned or just sent locks etc through the post. We are looking through many options now and should be able to come up with a solution from the vast array of ideas put forwards.
We have also received a huge envelope of Gentry photos from Frank, who was once the club secretary. We will be scanning them all and then using the new information to update our database on all those cars known to have been completed. It is a long slow process and some numbers, especially the more valuable dateless ones have probably been sold off over the years but at least is is a starting point. We then intend going through all the old Journals and again extracting all the reg numbers from the photographs to add more details to the list.

We are currently looking at the design for a new seat that looks like a bench seat so offers the maximum amount of seating room, but is actually two individual seats and so each one can slide forwards or backwards independently of the other making them more useful if more than one person drives the car. To be fair the seat design itself is quite straight forward, the skill is in the upholstery side of things and the trimmer getting to them to look like I imagine them to look!

On a personal note the council have now accepted that once our build had started and we discovered a few 'issues' we had no option but to deviate from the approved plans and have now granted us the official approval we required to finish the build. That means that the work can get be finished off giving us the bathroom etc upstairs thus freeing up just enough space in the workshop to allow the jig tables to be fixed in place permanently and still leave me some space to work on a car etc alongside any new builds. I know that this will be the last thing to happen in the grand scheme of things but at least now it is a reality and I know it will happen!!

Got to go, need to spend all available 'free' time on the house project so I can get it finished asap.
See you in a fortnight. Just think the evenings will start getting brighter soon and it will be time for the car to come out again!!!!

As a final comment,, the Stilton cheese run is planned for Sunday 25th April. Last year is was good fun and very popular. This year is apparently filling up quickly so if you want to do it, and help to raise some cash for the air ambo at the same time, then you need to act quickly. For details see the club events page ( I can't find them at present and so have to log off and find them!!!) We have already entered car number 053 and I know they are looking to restrict the number of entries so that the start and finish venues can cope.

Geoff