All British Field Meet

This weekend was the "All British Field Meet" at a local public gardens in Vancouver. I had heard of it before, but never attended. It was well attended by people from all over Vancouver, and parking was hard. There was about 500 British vehicles there, but only three commercial ones. One was a Thames van, another was an Austin 7 pickup or something like that, and the last was something so unremarkable that I forget. There was no Morris class oddly enough. The MGT, Triumph sports car and Mini fields were the best attended. Steve D was there with his Austin Westminster which, as near as I can tell, is the only one like it in North America. Steve was supposed to introduce me to a guy who has a spare Morris 8 steering wheel. That steering wheel, I strongly suspect, is the same as the Morris J Van-type one. In the end, I didn't hook up with the guy, so the question will remain unanswered for a while. On the whole, going to the event kinda was demoralizing. I witnessed one perfect car after another and, meanwhile, at home I have this jumble of rusty parts. Sigh.

Yesterday I drilled out all the holes in the floor supports (the metal lattice that supports the floor). I will insert rivets nuts in place of the captive nuts that were there before, which were harbingers of rust, sometimes thrashed beyond restoration and which included BSF nuts which are costly to keep in place because it requires me to source new BSF bolts. I have all my chrome bits assembled and they're going off to be rechromed soon.

Last September I wrote a letter to a local trades college asking them if they would be interested in helping me with the bodywork. I got a reply indicated that they couldn't do that for insurance reasons, which seems very reasonable. However, one of the instructors -- a guy named Ian -- called me and said that he was building a shop in his yard at home and wanted to perform jobs on the side. Well, I then met him. I liked him -- my age, well trained, and we ended up having a common acquaintance. He was also an UK expat, and I like the concept of a continuity in English workmanship. Well guess what? Now that the friggin' project is ready for his efforts, he won't return my calls. The last message I left stated clearly that, "if you're not available, I understand. However, I would like to know what other shops you may recommend....." Nothing. I have enjoyed this project because I have been introduced to some great people as a result (all over the world), but boy, there's a lot of flakes out there too.