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The words I have been longing to shout out at last, “I’ve finished!”. Unfortunately due to all the time spent on getting my book finished ready to send off to the publishers this month along with family stuff, actual time spent on the Regal was very limited. I did manage to spend some time on it though and so have changed the steering box for a better one and have built up a metal cage for the battery. The car is now ready for the road as soon as it goes for it’s M.O.T. Better still though I have managed to move the car to a new location for storage which was just as well as when we took down the gazebo the car was stored in, the lower branches of the trees that it covered had started to die off a bit. Opps!
One thing I was particularly pleased about this month was that I saw a Reliant Supervan III for sale that was in superb original condition ... and when I looked at the sides they were not as straight as I imagined them to be so all those times that people said to me, “Don’t worry about getting the sides perfect and flat, they were not perfect when they left the factory” were right ... and there was me just thinking they were trying to cheer me up as I could not get mine perfectly straight.
Things are absolutely manic still for the next couple of weeks so I will not get chance to take the car for it’s M.O.T until the end of July - which is a shame as summer will be on the way out then. So apart from the MOT my first car restoration is complete - and boy did I learn some lessons doing it. Thank you for “tuning” in each month and listening to me waffle on about how the car was restored, for those who would like a more comprehensive guide to the restoration and indeed lots more photos, a step by step guide is now available from Veloce Publishing and all good book shops. ;o)
For everyone who has me helped with the restoration, whether by supplying parts or offering advice; thank you. Thanks also to my brother Geoff for giving up so much of his spare time and listening to me grumble when things were not going so well, and indeed my mum & dad for all the work they did to. Last but not least if it wasn’t for my girlfriend Sue - the whole project would not have existed as without her garden I would have had no where to restore a Reliant.
I thought I would leave you with a few “Before and After” shots. I really hope you have enjoyed reading about this restoration - I have really enjoyed telling you about it.
Elvis Payne
June 2005.
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