AlanHitchcock's blog

rogress on the 'schmitt front has been sporadic as the need to do other tasks continues to push the time available into a few hours here and there. Not least in this has been the realisation that I still have far too much junk laying about not being used and getting in the way. While the studio and workshop can be entered and used again it has revealed projects and stock replaced in the roll call of urgency of removal. Having gained space and funds for stuff I no longer want the process is now addictive and cathartic. I only wonder at how I managed to firstly obtain, and secondly store so much stuff as there seems minimal space in the stores after the clearout over last year. Then I get offered 4 valve radios and I realise I have not stopped collecting the stuff really, it's just no mega deals done but a dust of odds and sods turning up all the time.

ell a load of work done and despite a spell of illness I am up to speed with my personal plan for the year. This did not involve use of Microcars but rather selling off the rest of the unwanted ones in the best condition I could reasonably manage to work them. Fiat Jolly GiardinieraThis has been effected and I am down to just Messerschmitt and Goggomobil now. Even the last Heinkel has been traded off as I was offered a solid Fiat Jolly requiring rebuild, one of five left? To be honest, while I wanted to keep a Heinkel this very rare and valuable car could not be turned down and the Heinkel was not the model of the marque I really want to have in the collection; I want a coal scuttle boot rod change car. So the Jolly will be restored and sold at some point yielding enough cash to buy a suitable Heinkel and probably a healthy margin on top.

Following the Comtesse mayhem at Gaydon here's more Micro event news...

he invisible 'schmitters also decided not to attend the MEC Rally in Lincolnshire. Like our club night at Bretforton and Gaydon the Trojans easily outnumbered the 'schmitts despite being rarer. I had 'phone calls asking why I was not present. Inevitably I had committed to dismantle and remove a 47 1/2' by 17' oak framed garage around the time of this event but dependant on the builders. Shed Envy: Alan's Oak Garage. If sheds like this do it for you then click for more pictures.Of course in the event the job landed on that weekend so with three BUMS over four days we did the job leaving a cleared site, even taking the special bricks. The builders were waiting to tear up the concrete as soon as we were clear of the site so no margin for mucking about. This garage will hopefully rebuild with minor changes into my permanent storage facility on site and thus seeing me save £1,850 a year in storage charges — all for £3,000, a bargain. Not only that but it is a positive enhancement to the property and I can copy the construction if I decide to make a smaller version to go in the front garden. I cannot stress how great it will be to have all my cars and a rental property all gathered around my dwelling. From there one can really plan ahead for restorations and adventures instead of spending half the time running around in circles.

here have all the micronauts gone? So far this year it has been a story of reduced attendance at events. Is it the Crunch and Gordon Bankrupt's dissolving Government and policies? Is it that cars are being sold off in a market that seems to find certain cars selling for huge prices and others of equal merit with no takers at all? Is it because interest in micros has waned? Probably a bit of all that and more. We live in strange times.

ear Nick

'Schmitts are not prone to whiskering in normal times and were, for their time, expected to run clean. This was partly as they did not run such a high mix of oil as many of their competitors. Of course when you're just getting going it is difficult to get the mixture spot on as all the adjustments are interdependent and the stated acceptable settings give quite a large margin of error. Many new owners never understand that the settings are there to give you a starting point and that it is up to you to find the sweet point — on a 'schmitt that can take sometime.

This fundamental misunderstanding is common across Microcars and is responsible for many cars never getting used as the owner is applying modern technological expectations to machinery that was designed for an age where you took responsibility for your life rather than pay someone else to do it. Fortunately you know that the best method of tuning is to drive the car and make adjustments.

This story just shows the power of a network of friends who are enthusiasts and dealers built up over the years I have had Microcars and Classic Cars in providing information leading to the return of my car and several arrests.

Recovered

ack in February I was told one of my sheds had been broken into and a rather oddly painted and equipped Messerschmitt taken. The intelligence gathered locally named a suspect, and the destination to which the car was sold too. This was reported to the police who seemed to suffer a great deal of inertia in doing anything about it — to the extent that I considered an "alternative" way of getting the rest of the information to recover the car as the thief was named, as was the general area in which the dealer who bought it resided. Rejecting that, I put out the info round the network of chums and clubs. Not all responded positively but soon more info flowed and a watch was placed on eBay since it was clear that unless I did the work to find the car for the police nothing was going to happen beyond their recommendation to claim on my non-existent insurance.

ear Nick,

Depends where the regulator came from. The first of the HTC Ltd. ones from HTOEC were the stock from the defective cage at DMW which someone bought in. These were either damaged repairable or incorrectly calibrated. This explains why there have been a few failures on Trienkels but less so on 'schmitts, as the MOC avoided these units. I am not sure who loaded the club with dodgy stock but it is a short list of folks no longer involved! Likewise there are still regulators turning up that came from this last cache. If the buyer had had sense he would have reset and repaired the units and got really good money but it was easier to rip folk off. I therefore do not trust any regulator without a lid.

I have not had this problem with a 'schmitt but that is not to say it will never happen. In my experience the problem has normally been the regulator welding itself together. This was sometimes due to a defective or poorly calibrated regulator. The other cause has been a failed ignition/starter switch which has then allowed the regulator to fail. This can occur on a 'schmitt. The switch is dismantleable. The contacts inside can become loose, polluted and, if the barrel is not locked with a grub screw then all sorts can go on.

nother KR200 has been through the garage and is ready to either hit the road or be restored further. This car had been dragged out of a shed after years of storage. It is amazing how if stored in a dry dark place these cars just do not really seem to suffer greatly from being mothballed. I think they must have been made from good steel as given the same treatment a similar year Fiat would be hanging. So very little needed to be done.

ell another main rally season over and you wonder if it might be better to be collecting or showing DUKWs, Schwimmerwagons and Stalwarts with the amount of rain, mud and floods about. I was never going to be at many events this year but I think I managed only three in the end, the best weather being our own MEC Rally. All the others were either cancelled by the sodden ground or I was put off by the rain and sheer cost of attending from a distance. The weather remained stubbornly poor at the very mention of an event. The Indian Summer failed for the Halloween Bash at the Bubblecar Museum which I visited while collecting several cars put through the auction up there. I left Oxfordshire, once again under water, but on arrival the event/camping field was pretty slippy so I think most of us had a fair wetting. In the event I kept turning and headed back onto the gravel, as the LT with car trailer is poor on wet ground despite having a flashing light that is supposed to stop you getting stuck — the wonders of modern technology.

ike Earth is just in a cul-de-sac of a commuter suburb set in one of the spiral arms of our nebula, a chaotic place where many strange and wonderful things happen we do not know about, so I was on the edge of this auction by dint of being asked if I would place a few cars into it. I cannot tell you why, what or how certain things happened but, like some astronomical observer perched on a mountain, I had a closer view than the public, many of whom treated the event as something a bit like a total eclipse of the sun.