The story so far…………..

So, I intended to start a log when I got this Rochdale Olympic about all the hours I’d spent on it and what the costs were but two years on still nothing. So, here it is, I’ll have to gloss over the past two years but I’ll try and keep it short.

Bought this Rochdale Olympic off Mr David Allen  2 years ago in an attempt to get it back on the road. Being in the military has caused a few set backs in this dream. When I bought the car it had had a front end smash in it’s time and the previous owners had fitted a morris 1000 grill in place of the two nostrils.

My first job was to graft a new nose cone onto the front end. Luckily the previous owner before Dave, Mr Chris Dinnis had already taken a mould off one of his other Olympics. This is partly grafted on and is now awaiting finishing. The car was running when I got it but definitely not roadworthy. I’ve since stripped it down to it’s bare rolling shell and started work on the bodywork and engine. This is where I shall attempt to carry on with the story of how to build a Rochdale. As for the hours I’ve spent on this so far it must be at least 100 hours

12/08/07       (3 Hours)

We went down to my father in laws this weekend, I took the cylinder head for the from the Riley 1.5 Engine  in the hope that Dave’s classic car knowledge would help me to source some spares for it. We called a few numbers and came up with an internet company that new exactly what I wanted, www.moss-europe.co.uk, hopefully the valve collets and oil throwers will arrive in the post soon. Today was a glorious day so I sat in the back garden grinding in my new valves to the reconditioned unleaded head. Slightly sunburnt forehead, probably not going to be the last ailment this car gives me!

17/08/2007   (2 Hours)

Spent most of this evening putting the new valves into the cylinder head on the kitchen table, still short of a few pieces though so 2 valves will have to wait until the future. My wife has told me twice to move all my tools out of the kitchen! Will probably get round to it tonight. Going to leave the cylinder head in there though, just as a protest! We can always use it as a hot plate!

18/08/07  (10 minutes)

I’m going to claim 10 minutes today. I was at  the garage where my Rochdale is stored getting some tools. There she was all sad and lonely, I spent 10 minutes looking at her a dreaming of the day she would be finished. I’m going to take a gamble here and guesstimate a date……….erm. child on the way…… work commitments and a marriage that is still in the honeymoon period! I'm gonna guess 3 years from today. I suppose if you look to the end of this Rochdale log you’ll see if I’m right? If you are reading this the day I finished the car then hello 2010

24/08/07 (1.30 hours)

Picked up the engine block from the garage today. Spent a while in the garden stripping it down and cleaning the block. I’m bidding on a engine stand on Ebay. Hopefully I’ll have that by the end of the week so I can keep stripping it down to the bare essentials. Can’t wait to get a garage closer to this house, I’m running out of space in this 2 bedroom terrace. Maybe faye (my wife) will let me put the engine block in the front room!

25/08/07 ( 10 seconds)

I can't have the engine block in the front room.

17/10/07 (1.40 hours)

Been a busy few months! I've been trying to get my house in Lincoln sorted to try and sell it so had little or NO time to be exact to do any work on the Rochdale. 2 weeks ago I started work in a GRP bay at my workplace doing structural repair on gliders, Cashback! Today I moved my first piece of Rochdale in there, the boss is away sick I so might as well take advantage. I took both the Rochdale bonnets that i've got to work today. The one that came with the Rochdale is in a bad way. A lot of Gel coat cracking and the stiffeners have been removed from the inside, maybe to make room for an engine piece? The other one i’ve got has got 2 scoops in that have been added  at a later date, they look rubbish and are incorrectly placed in my eyes. I spent a few hours today removing the hand painted green paint that was superthick in places on this bonnet. I’ve also started removing the coat of white paint underneath to get to the red paint which i’ll remove to get to the Gel coat. So far so good! It looks like it’s in better condition than the other one. Even though i’ll have to remove the ducts and finish it back to original I think it will be less work. Final point to note is that the original bonnet that came with the Rochdale is half the thickness of the spare one, you can physically feel the weight difference! Maybe I’ve got a long lost lightweight Olympic!  Expect some rapid progress from now on!

19/10/07 (0.30 hours)

Carried on rubbing the bonnet down today, it's going to  take a few more days to get it to a condition to start work on it. The underside is pretty manky and if I’m going to get that showcar finish I might as well do the bits you can’t see that much as well.  Still no engine stand off Ebay! The engine is sitting in the Garden and the cylinder head is on the fridge next to the fruit bowl! Winters coming so I better do something about the engine in the garden, watch this space

22/10/07 (0.45 hours)

Still working on the bonnet, carried on removing the paint today. Glad I’m getting to use all the equipment at work, it does make life a lot easier when you've got the right tool for the job, better for the lungs as well as the extraction system is pretty good.

23/10/07 (1.45 hours)

With most of the paint off I can clearly see all the gelcoat cracks now. When I said earlier in the week that it might be easier doing this bonnet I might be wrong! Still I’ve gone this far so I’ll crack (no pun intended) on. I Spent all my time today chasing the gelcoat cracks down to the fibreglass matting, the bonnet now looks like the London underground map, still more to do as well! A little bit worried about getting some of the gel profiles right at the end as I’ve removed quite a bit of damaged gel. Still, watch this space and we’ll wait and see.

24/10/07 (2.00 hours)

Forget everything, change of plan! Looking at the bonnet today it seems the gel coat cracks have damaged the resin a little bit around the area of cracks. It looks like this bonnet has been dropped at some time as I’ve also uncovered a rubbish repair on one of the corners. The chopped strand mat does not look damaged but the resin is definitely cracked. I don’t want to put gel straight onto this as the cracks will reappear in the future. With the amount of cracks in this bonnet and with the amount it will flex on the car I’ve decided to go down a new route. All the gel coat is coming off, So far I’ve sanded through 3 layers of paint, one layer of hammerite and two layers of  filler primer to get to the gel. Now all I have to do is get the gel off. Managed to remove about 1/3^rd of the bonnets gel today. The final plan will be to lay a 120 cloth over the bonnet and use a filler spray to get the profile back. Today I realised why I prefer working with metal!!!

25/10/07 (1.20 hours)

Change of plan, again! Carried on sanding the gel coat off the bonnet today, starting to get a bit tedious. Got at least another 3 hours before the rest gets off! Now I’ve decided to  put 2 layers of 110 matting on top of the chopped strand fibreglass instead of one and put some microballoons in between to profile it. All these extra hours I’m putting in are killing me but it’s good practice before the baby is born. D-Day for the Rochdale when he/she is born!