MASCOT May-June 2002

A Roadster with no Running Boards

Peter Watts

Why aren't there any running boards? Because when I acquired the vehicle, in 1971, the body frame under the doors was rotted away, the back ends of the front wings had rusted away, and some wooden fairing pieces had been fitted on the back of the wings. When I rebuilt the body, I made some new pieces to go under the doors, and I bought a new front wing that seemed to be the correct shape from John Horne, who was the SOC spares man at the time. However, when I offered it up to the car, it was apparent that it wasn't from a Roadster, as the holes for the headlight fixing did not correspond with the U section support bracket under the wing, and the sidelight fixing holes were not symmetrical with those in the other wing. However, I blanked off the holes in the new wing and formed some more in the correct places. Then, with some chopping of the horizontal bit that runs along the top of the chassis, got it to fit. I then had. I then had a big dent pulled out of the other wing (Sod's Law ensuring that the new wing I managed to obtain was not on the side which had the dent!) and had the back end repaired to the same profile as the new one. I then made some rough brackets to bolt to the chassis and support the backs of the wings. The thinking was that if I left them fairly rough I wouldn't want them on the car for too long and would get some running boards fixed up pretty soon.
When I eventually managed to get a set of running boards from a car that was being broken, I discovered that, not only were the lamp fixing holes in different positions, but the back of the new wing was at a different horizontal angle, so the running boards wouldn't mate up correctly. Furthermore, as I hadn't had a pattern to work to when I made up the body frame under the doors, the timber I put in wasn't really wide enough to allow the running board to be screwed to it. To add insult to injury, the new wing sits slightly higher than the original, so the top of the running board won't line up with it and still fix properly under the body. One of these days I will sort it all out, and that's a promise. Meanwhile I have trimmed up the brackets to follow the cross section of the top of the wings and painted them to match the car!
So now you know!

(There will be more of Peter's woes in the next Mascot, including how to get your paint to blister, fixing the bonnet hinge with a Morgan bracket and the expensive way to cure radiator leaks - Ed)