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Sunday, January 2, 2011

10km trip around the back streets

With it being a Monday public holiday and our new pup awake early AGAIN! (5.30am)  I decided to go out to the shed, start up Monty and take him for a drive out on the back roads of the town, as from inside our house I could not here any traffic down on the Princes Hwy at all so the roads were not busy with holiday makers at this time of the morning.

Anyway once I got him into 3rd gear and motoring down the street towards the traffic lights which cross the Princes Hwy that cuts through the town I was pretty much smiling like crazy and enjoying the crisp morning air but all the while looking around for cars but there were none and with a luck on my side the lights turned green as we approached them so we just sailed right on through them over the Hwy, up over the railway crossing and then around onto Waterloo Road past the church, the last time Monty travelled this route was 42 years ago but on the back of a truck.

Right this was my chance to "see what Monty had under his hood and what he was made of" so I pushed down the throttle and off Monty rolled, he did it very well with no coughing or missing and very soon we were flying past my workshop through the "S" bend and a making our way to the edge of town, I jumped on the brakes as we approached the left hand corner, around we went all the while me grabing for sections of the broken wooden steering wheel then back onto the throttle once more as we roared down Middle road, past the cement plant, then past MacGregors Panelworks then off the end of the sealed road and down onto hard packed dirt road Monty flew, "Oh to be back on familiar dirt roads after all these years" I could just picture him 80 years ago flogging along on a dirt road somewhere with his original owners all on board returning from a trip into town to grab their weekly supplies and now all making their way back out to the family farm in "Hill End" .


While this was all taking place I could tell you that I had one eye firmly set apon the rear view mirror for some flashing blue lights to appear from behind but it was not to be on this little early morning motoring adventure.
I basically done 4 big laps around the northern side of the town which is mainly made up of the industrial area so there was no people or traffic around at all on a public holiday and at 6am in the morning...

Monty starts, drives and handles very well, has a good pulling/roll on power for a 30hp motor, the brakes need work but it does pull up OK....


I am basically down to the business end of the deal now, Monty is running well as dad wanted and knew it would when we spoke about it and I constantly hear my dads words in my head when I think about the resto that I have ahead of me & how to fix the interior and the woodwork cosmetically without disturbing the look of the outside, it will be done and knowdoubt some things on the exterior will have to be changed as we get it back on the road again and registered, but I will not be painting him, I love the look of it way to much and it has grown on me more and more as it slowly comes back to life once more to being a realiable "as is" vintage motorcar.

Time will tell and I am learning as I go along.....

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