MASCOT July - August 2005

Roadster Modification Update

Peter Watts

Now that we are back from our Dutch Honeymoon/Lustrum trip, just a short update on some of the modifications I made to my 1939 Roadster. See earlier article.

Firstly, the electric water pump exceeded all my expectations. Whereas the water temperature would have been 100 degrees plus on my gauge, the pump kept it to 85 - 90. On the exceedingly hot day when we ran up through Belgium it was running for a fair time, but mostly it came on for a second or so every minute. A welcome side effect was that the oil consumption was reduced to about a quarter of what it had been previously.

Secondly, the windscreen extension pieces also worked well, stopping the "earbashing" that is usually present when running with the windscreen erected. If anyone else is contemplating making some I would advise that they be made an inch or so wider. Mine are only 5 inches but I didn't have enough Perspex to make them wider. They can be used with the hood erected and usefully direct air away from the side screen opening, although I found that they didn't manage to cope with Dutch-style Arctic gale crosswinds! I will be modifying the top corners adjacent to the windscreen to allow the edge of the hood to lie better. I noticed that many of the Dutch members now have similar extension pieces, made to various patterns, so they must also think they are A Good Thing. See earlier article

Before going on the Dutch Trip, and encouraged by Mike's lemonade bottle overflow system (Jul 03 Mascot), I also managed to fit a catch tank for the radiator overflow. I used a 4 pint plastic milk container, which I fixed just in front of the bulkhead on the nearside of the engine compartment (there is insufficient room at the front corner of the engine compartment due to the presence of the dynamo). I then ran a long plastic pipe, clipped to the radiator and bulkhead stays, from the radiator overflow pipe down to the bottom of the bottle. I ran another pipe from the top of the bottle to the underside of the car as an overflow. The bottle is held in a cradle, cut and bent from a piece of aluminium angle and bolted to the top of the chassis. To stop the bottle falling out, I tied the handle to the stay bracket on the bulkhead using my normal standby fixing - a quick release cycle toe strap. Previously I would have expected to put in about half a gallon of water a day on a trip such as this, but there was no need to top up the radiator at all over the whole trip - it obviously works. I'm not sure about the durability of plastic milk bottles, though. Perhaps that is another spare part that I should be carrying?