Lucie: The 3-wheelers.com vehicle

May  Part 1 of 1

May was quite a sunny month and so Lucie enjoyed a trip out around the town every weekend and strangely ran very well.  I suspected that there may be a burnt out valve that was causing her to cough but then when she goes through periods of working fine it makes me reluctant to take her apart and just enjoy the weather whilst it last.  After talking to my brother Geoff though we think they could be three other possible causes for the occasional cough she has, this could be the coil, the condenser or maybe the timing.  So I will have a look at those.  I was pretty sure I had bought a new coil at some point but didn’t find it in the garage.

This month I also took Lucie for a photo shoot at Glascote Cemetary near where I live as she might appear in an article in a classic car magazine so I provided lots of shots and information about her. 

During May, mine and Stuart Cyphus’ new book as published, “The Reliant Three-Wheeler 1973 - 2002”.  Towards the end of the book it mentions that there is an annual Reliant Gathering in Tamworth and there is a photo of a past gathering that includes Lucie in the bottom left corner.  (BIn her “The Royal” make up before she was made over again by the BBC for the film “Toast”.

Elvis Payne.

May 2012

Lucie: The 3-wheelers.com vehicle

June  Part 1 of 1

June ended up being a very quiet month indeed.  At the beginning of the month we had an extended Bank Holiday weekend to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and we had planned to go to the 54th National Reliant Owners Club rally but the day before the event, our son was taken ill and given the miserable weather that was forecast over the weekend we stayed at home.

For the remainder of the Jubilee break I decided to decorate the lounge and dining room and so my wife and son went off to the Mother-in-Laws for the day.  I was a bit naive to think I’d do it all in a day and to minimize the paint fumes in the house, I took the doors and radiator covers off and pushing Lucie outside, painted them in the garage.  As the temperature was only about 7 degrees centigrade in there, things took a while to dry and so for the first time in ages, Lucie spent the night outside in the rain.  I’m just thankful that we live in a quiet close as next day I put the lounge and dining room back together and then slid the side window open on Lucie to put my hand in and turn the wheel and the glass just fell out.  Thankfully it fell inwards and landed on the driver’s seat but that has been fixed now.  That said I do have some spare glass incase the worst ever did happen.

Elvis Payne.

June 2012

Go to July 2012

Lucie having a little photoshoot at the cemetary in Glascote, Tamworth.

The photo of Lucie that appears on page 63 of the new book, “The Reliant Three-Wheeler 1973 - 2002”.

Lucie (as seen by night vision) out in the dark and the rain whilst the garage turns into a painting room.