Slippery Anne update

[Simon Scott]

A lot of early b&w films were mainly blue sensitive, known as ‘ordinary’ film. This meant you could develop by inspection with a red safe light and get round vagueries in sensitivity. Bring back wet collodion plates I say.

[Mark Atkinson]

excellent panel beating, is it your trade or did you learn from books?......if so can you recommend one as the only ones i can find use English Wheels.

I am a complete amateur muddling my way through, I do have one book, which is OK, but I honestly cannot recomend it. I have been on a short course, which was fun and I also spent a weekend along with a few of the Friends community under the tutelage of  Duncan Grimmond at his work shop, which was very informative and useful. Duncan was talking about doing the same again, so it may be worth speaking to him.

I think everyone running a training course will do so based around all the 'exotic' tools, most especially the English Wheel, but I have found it is possible to bash things to shape, and planish the finish - which is how I think Slippery Anne was originally made. However, it takes a very long time to planish something, I have attached a picture of my basic tools along with the first thing I made, which is part of a mud guard, this was bashed to shape and planished using hammers and into a wooden block and shot bag, but took me the best part of a week to do. 

   

I celebrated my birthday in the summer and was very pleased to receive a Metz English Wheel from my wife Helen, which has revolutionised panel beating for me, using it, I made the two fairings in this picture within a few hours.

   

Perversely, I then lightly planished them to ensure they looked like the originals - slightly tatty.

I was very jealous of Bills (All Alloy Cup) shrinker, which is a very usefull tool, I also keep perusing pneumatic planishing hammers on ebay at the moment, which are often priced between £80-100, they look very cost effective and useful, so may be worth a look.

I am unsure if you are even in the UK, but, if you (or any other Friends) are within a comfortable distance of the the Lancashire coast, then please do PM and arrange to come and visit me, and I will pleased to show you how I muddle along.

Kind regards, Mark.

[Mark Atkinson]

Since my last post on Slippery Anne, I have made some progress with her over the last few weeks, The manifold and exhaust is now finished, but awaiting paint, I really have no idea what to finish it with or if any particular colour was used back in the 20s.

I shaped the silencer out of mild steel and made it to the same dimensions I extracted from the period pictures, but, deviated from the baffle box approach, instead using a perforated tube and acoustic filling, which, if my sums are correct should enable the car to pass environmental scrutineering. The silencer input pipe is 1 3/4", which I think is correct to period, but, unlike the Brooklands rules exhaust used back in the day, I have increased the output pipe to also be 1 3/4" and finished it with a fish tail which has a nice big slot.

Another deviation from original is the mounting against the body. The original 1925 design was a simple clamp around the exhaust pipe which was hard mounted to the body, I have made a period looking mount with springs acting as a clamp to allow for body/chassis flex. 
To attach it in the short term, I have gone for a simple flange to join the system up at the manifold, but, in the long term I intend to try and fabricate a more original settup using a large nut, which I assume was some sort of compression fitting!?

Regards, Mark.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

[Duncan Grimmond]

That is all looking very impressive Mark, crack on!

[Chris KC]

Well I'm impressed Mark!

And yes, looking at contemporary pictures you realise that most specials of the 20's / 30's nowhere near approached the perfect lines of modern creations.

[AllAlloyCup]

Great efforts Mark!! A really terrific project so you
deserve a free ticket to Goodwood !

I look forward to seeing Slippery Ann in action

If I had not sold my other set of running gear and chassis
I was thinking of making a replica of Mr Jo Jo, which was
based on a GE Cup originally.

What events do you plan to take it to and will you make it
road legal?

Regards

Bill G

[Ian Williams]

Always a pleasure to see your progress Mark, we can't be far away from hearing her run now?

[Tony Griffiths]

I think Mike could be right about the gauge being from a Twelve. In the late 1960s, I collected a wooden box full of instruments from a long-established garage on Broad Street in Sheffield. They did have some Austin 12 parts and had used one as a tow-truck pre-WW2 (a very low bottom gear of course) - and I'm pretty sure that an oil-pressure like the one sought was amongst the collection - possibly more than one. Long gone, of course, I'm sorry to say.

[Bob Culver]

Hi mark

Thanks for your post of 10th Feb.  For the more unusual cars I check less often and somehow missed it!  

Decades ago when young and keen I cut up a perfectly good chassis with the idea of mounting the rear section lower for flat springs. Fortunately never attempted to fit!

The splayed springs always seem curious. There must often be severe stresses somewhere, esp on trials cars!

[Mark Atkinson]

Great efforts Mark!! A really terrific project so you
deserve a free ticket to Goodwood !

I look forward to seeing Slippery Ann in action

If I had not sold my other set of running gear and chassis
I was thinking of making a replica of Mr Jo Jo, which was
based on a GE Cup originally.

What events do you plan to take it to and will you make it
road legal?

Regards

Bill G

Hello Bill,
            Understanding the benefits to setup of the car, I do not plan to run it on the road, but will use it for sprints and hill climbs, I am probably not going to race her. Having said which, I did make and fit a 2ltr oil catch tank, just in case!

If you want to reconsider that Mrs JoJo replica, I do have a 1926 chassis and bits..............

All the best, Mark.

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Always a pleasure to see your progress Mark, we can't be far away from hearing her run now?

Thank you Ian, 
Yes, she is close to running, I do need to tighten up everything, as many parts of the car are only slotted together to aid their constant fit, removal and refit whilst making and fettling things. 

Regards, Mark.