Thursday 10 April 2014

The END !!!

Sadly yesterday the Westfield went to its new home in the UK with a very nice chap called Andy and Toybox Cars. Joe and I will always cherish the time we spent together building the car, it was a great experience. I hope whoever ends up owning her next enjoys driving her as much as we did building her.
Good wishes

Paul & Joe.

Monday 16 December 2013

Seasons Greetings to All.

To update you all , Joe and I had never given much thought as to what we were going to do with the Westfield once we finished the build. To build the car together has been enough for us and after 500 miles the car is now sitting under its cover in the garage.

Consequently we have decided to sell the car with maybe another project in mind. The car has been much admired and is unmarked in every respect.

Our car cost over £21,000 to build with all the custom extras. I am looking for £16,500 should anyone be interested. The price is very competitive if you look at Westfield themselves and others on the market.

Get in touch if anyone is interested.

Good wishes

Paul & Joe.


Saturday 1 June 2013

A Distraction

Joe at last has finished restoring his Lupo GTI which he bought in a neglected condition and he has carried out the following improvements : Front end re spray to sort the stone chips, new nearside headlight (£800.00 GULP !) door hinge replacement, BBS RC Anniversary Alloys and Toyo T1Rs , rebuilt brakes and painted calipers, new rear light clusters and fully machine polished and detailed inside and out . Great investment for him always worth £6K, pity it cost .................
Now back to the Westfield, although it is TT fortnight here and the roads are full of lunatics wiping themselves out at every opportunity the Westy can stay under her cover in the garage for now ! Wonder why it is every time someone sees the Westfield they have an urge to race you even though they are driving some standard reps car !



Friday 17 May 2013

Undercover

The car looked cold in the garage so treated it to a Sahara indoor cover, just as well as we seem to have reverted to winter !
It continues to run well but its going to take some time to get in carefully run in I think. Joe has bought a VW Lupo GTI and is busy restoring that, has some strange notion it is going to be a collectors item in the fullness of time, seems like a money pit to me ! however dad has managed not to be financially involved (so far) !

Snug under cover



Tuesday 7 May 2013

Loads of Westfields !

Just got back from Stoneleigh where I had the great pleasure of meeting Jon and Rene in the flesh as it were instead of at the keyboard, felt like meeting old friends !
http://westfieldexperiment.blogspot.co.uk/
http://2js-westfield-build.blogspot.com
Anyway buoyed with enthusiasm took ours out for a blat tonight and decided to update the blog with some better pictures of the car before she gets dirty again !















Hope you like them.

Tuesday 5 March 2013

2013 Updates

Happy New Year !

A bit late I know but have not blogged for some time ! The car continues to run well and despite some appalling winter weather we have managed to drive it for 250 miles. It is far more comfortable than I anticipated and on a good road would be a viable long distance tourer, however unless you enjoy having a frozen face at this time of year I advocate dressing like a bank robber with as little visible flesh as possible. The only issues I have had to attend to are to replace the ancillary drive belt and clean the pulleys as I could not stop the slip on the one supplied and to fit a cable tie to the dipstick which vibrated out a little way and leaked a fine mist of oil on the engine. Mechanically the car seems reliable (famous last words) !

We developed an electrical problem with the 7.5amp fuse in the car next to the relays blowing continuously. I used my vast car electrical knowledge (none!) to try and isolate the fault, purely by chance we found it was the nearside headlight unit which when plugged into the loom blew the fuse as soon as the ignition was switched on. Car Builder Solutions were very helpful and straightaway sent a replacement all in one headlamp which cured the fuse issue, what the cause was I have no idea.

Our latest task was to adjust the ride height higher, as with two onboard on a very uneven road we could graze the hoop under the car and speed bumps were problematic, this was a straightforward adjustment of the shocks keeping their set up ratio as original, here apart from the TT course the roads are not the best in the western world !. Our very good wishes to all who have read our blog.

Paul & Joe.


Saturday 1 December 2012

Shakedown .......

Having now managed a paltry 70 miles on the roads due mainly to inclement weather we have had a couple of issues to sort. The battery went flat in about 4 days every time, so gathering our scant electrical knowledge we connected an ammeter in the circuit and found a resting current drain of about 158 mah. Further explanation revealed that when re assembling the connector relay block we had mixed up the constant and switched lives on the fan relay so the relay was using current to remain closed when the vehicle was not in use. Joe swapped the wires around and our standing current drain is now down to about 4 mah which seems to be on the horn hazard circuit and virtually disappears after pulling the fuse, haven't tracked this down but can live with 4mah ! (any suggestions welcome).
The auxiliary drive belt squealed like hell, it could be quietened by spraying with belt slip but after standing would make a racket again. I removed the belt and idler pulleys to take a look. The nearside idler pulley above the water pump was spinning on its mount rather than spinning on its bearing so a little bearing fit and that was cured. The belt however continued to make a noise, all bearings seemed fine so was scratching my head. I then read a post on wscc about talcum powder. I coated the belt liberally in talcum powder and hey presto no noise ! amazing. As long as the car can get over the embarrassment of smelling like a tarts boudoir (speaking from far distant memory you understand) all will be well. Hopefully we can get some miles on the car and then have someone look at the engine settings but for now all appears well and the engine seems happy ! If I don't post again before Christmas very good wishes to all.