HRA Awards 2021

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
I've only just had time to look at this video and pass on a well done, Tony. That's a great result and all credit to you and your buddies on the project.

Brian
 

Osgood

Western Thunderer
When I learned that the Fowler had been entered I didn't give much thought to such a modest industrial's chances, so this all came as a bit of a surprise.

In fairness the credit goes to the Mid Suffolk volunteers who provided their labour and skills - without them the Mid Suffolk would still be waiting for me to get stuck in.
My contribution was providing the 9 tonnes of base metal, some technical scheming and a handful of unobtanium McLaren engine components I didn't realise I'd had for years (thanks to McLaren's standardisation policy) that enabled the power unit to be saved.

I'd been steadily preparing for a start on restoration, including sourcing copies of drawings from the J Fowler archive at Museum of English Rural Life, Reading for a crucial missing gear linkage component (now that would have been really fun to fathom out without the drawing!) and the chimney that was missing (rumour is it ended up on a traction engine!) - the elusive missing component as always being time.

And left to my own devices without Nigel's engine skills I'd probably have scrapped the engine (described politely as being in a bit of a state, at some time in the past it having been run up with a sump full of water which got pumped all round the engine and then left for 27 odd years....) and put a Gardner 3LW in, which would on reflection have been a great shame as the 2 cyl McLaren is a fundamental part of its history - Fowlers having installed it in 1953 when the original Waukesha 4 cyl petrol gave up the ghost.

An amusing part of the engine job was the approach to an elderly Norfolk engineer whose engine bearing scraping skills had been brought to our attention - the offering up of a large box of freshly re-whitemetalled shells and accompanying '"Do we hear right that you can scrape in large bearings?" brought the response "Well yes I can - the question is, do I want to?". He did as it turned out, and we thank him for it.

Still a few improvements to complete, such as an electric lub oil priming pump to save excessive cranking over on de-compression to build up adequate oil pressure before starting, and some tweaks to the vacuum pump drive.
 
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