Today was the last Sunday of the month, which in Boston Bike Bits' world means it's Stickney auto jumble day. It's held in a 40 acre field, coincidentally it's at a place called Stickney - about 5 miles or so north of Boston on the A16. We usually stand there, it's close, it's cheap, we get all the space we want and there's always loads of folk we know that turn up to chat to. Very occasionally one of them actually buys something - which is nice.
Today ended up with less sales than I would have liked but it ended up being a damn fine buying day, with my little bag for treasure absolutely bursting at the seems with treasure. My Mrs observed that I had, and I quote, "been buying a load of crap again". I like to think that I had accumulated some valuable assets, artifacts and highly useful trinkets.
Today's list included some things that I really wanted for my hot rod, some bits I know I can sell on at a reasonable profit and one bit that is going to cause me a huge amount of work and no small amount of head scratching.
The first thing I found was a matched pair of brand new air filters that will be absolutely perfect for my hot rod - proper shiney shiney, just the right size and a matched pair. Brand new, they were too, which made them spot on. I had been looking for some on line and was expecting t have to pay up to 60 quids for a pair - I got these for just a tenner. No, I couldn't believe it either, what a bargain.
I was just thinking what a nice bloke the seller was when I noticed he had a fuel injection inlet manifold with all the injectors and other gubbins. Rather foolishly I asked him how much it was and when he said 20 quid, I did a really stupid thing and bought it. I have this crazy idea of making a see through plenum chamber so you can see all the velocity stacks. I can get a Megasquirt or similar ECU, leave the ignition timing to the existing distributor and just have the ECU controlling the fuelling. All it does at the end of the day is set injector pulse duration according to a few different sensor outputs. I am thinking a MAF or MAP is the easiest way to go, I have loads of learning to do before I get that far and it will be on carbs to start with as I already have it running but this is a hobby so it will be nice to mess about even after it is finished. I don't suppose any of these cars are ever really finished, one chap I spoke to yesterday has rebuilt his 3 times in the last 12 years.
Anywayz - one thing I was definitely on the look out for was a pair of springs for the front or possibly a pair of adjustable coil over shocks - the car sits far too low at the moment and the springs are slightly different rates so the car sits a bit wonky at the moment. I found a pair of springs that I thought would be perfect - 325lb ones at 10.5 inch length. I think they would go nicely over my existing shocks and although a little stiffer than I think I need they would certainly give me a better ride height than I have at the moment. Another absolute bargain - brand new and just 15 quid a pair - I had been quoted over 100 quid for a new pair.
Another 2 rows down I found the gold I had been looking for - a pair of Spax adjustable coil over shocks in exactly the right length. They even came with a pair of springs that may be better than the ones I had just found - they are lighter and slightly shorter. At least I now have choices and can see what works best on the car. I need to modify the suspension turrets slightly but that's a very easy job - bit of 3 or 4 mm plate and some welding will see that done.
They are in fairly poor cosmetic condition, a bit like their new owner, but they will clean up and paint up nicely, unlike their new owner. One is missing the top cap, which is a pain, I had seen one earlier in the day but when I went back to get it some selfish sod had already bought it. It's no big deal, it's easy enough to make one on my lathe if I can't find one, at least I have one to copy.
All in all a pretty good day, I got a few consumables too - some flap wheels for the grinder and a few other minor bits and pieces. OH, yeah, almost forgot, I bought a rather nice Kawasaki GT550 motorcycle too. I have to pick that up in the week as it wouldn't fit in the van.
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