The combination of rebuilding my workshops and a need to get a tincan racer together for the Scottish Hillclimb Championship continues to keep me away from the Gilbern. But I have been running it around the block to keep it alive. One practical thing that struck me doing this is that I have bunches of keys that dont seem to work too many of the locks on the car. And I wondered if I could fix that?
Apart from the ignition, the one lock that works satisfactorily is the petrol filler. I believe this was a Gilbern specific item. But the result is entirely academic as the filler is unused, disconnected in favour of the little foam-filled alloy tank that sits in the boot.
Apart from the ignition, the one lock that works satisfactorily is the petrol filler. I believe this was a Gilbern specific item. But the result is entirely academic as the filler is unused, disconnected in favour of the little foam-filled alloy tank that sits in the boot.
More practical would be locking doors. The passenger lock kind of works, on Tuesday when the wind is from the west etc - so after a bit of joogling. The driver's lock does not, even on one of those Tuesdays. So a couple of new barrels sounded like a good idea if I could identify the handles.
Following some prompting from Brian, the Club GT Historian, I looked around contemporary Fords. Lo, they popped up as MK1 Cortina.
Fortunately the Mk1 has a busy owners club. And having secured membership for thirty earth pounds, the spares secretary was able to offer a pair of matching lock barrels and some new gaskets to go between the handles and the doors - no sense in taking the handles off to put them back on without gaskets. In fact Bob was good enough to spend an hour and a half raking through all of the stock, to label the barrels with their numbers and find me a matched pair. Bob - thank you!
Following some prompting from Brian, the Club GT Historian, I looked around contemporary Fords. Lo, they popped up as MK1 Cortina.
Fortunately the Mk1 has a busy owners club. And having secured membership for thirty earth pounds, the spares secretary was able to offer a pair of matching lock barrels and some new gaskets to go between the handles and the doors - no sense in taking the handles off to put them back on without gaskets. In fact Bob was good enough to spend an hour and a half raking through all of the stock, to label the barrels with their numbers and find me a matched pair. Bob - thank you!
Finally, the boot catch is a bit dodgy - as well as missing a key. But that looks like an early Mk1 Mini and a barrel should be easily found.
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