Autopendium :: stuff about old cars

Tags: driving restoration safety-belts seat-belts seats

Big day yesterday (well, it felt like it). Drove the Amazon for the first time since dropping it off at Romance of Rust (a year ago) for its bare-metal restoration.

Though it's not finished yet, it is fully roadworthy, and I needed to get the seat belts refitted, and so (gently nudged by Lance), I decided to drive it up to Quickfit, in Stanmore, North London.

When I say 'fully roadworthy', I mean of course it had an MOT and was insured. It was however lacking number plates (quickly attached those temporarily), a boot catch (some tape sorted that out) or even any seats.

This last problem was solved partly by the arrival of the back seat from the trimmer (will post separately about this), and partly by borrowing one of the front seats from Lance's Amazon estate). With that, a quick check of the fluids (needed more petrol), a boost of the battery, I was off on the 8 miles to Stanmore, up the A40, round Hanger Lane (which was... interesting with no mirrors at all) and on to the North Circular.

The engine was brilliant (though obviously I kept the revs fairly low), the gearbox good (though there was a rattle from the propshaft -- another story, another time -- and the overdrive light wasn't working), the suspension very stable, and the steering lovely and tight, especially with the new Motolita wheel which had arrived the previous week (again, more info on this in another post).

All in all, it was a good drive, and I can't wait to get the Amazon run in and on to some A roads where I can really enjoy the egine and handling

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