Chance meeting with an ex-Gilbern owner

[JED]

Hello folks,

I thought you might find it interesting to know of a meeting with an ex-Gilbern
owner, as the chances of such an occurrence are extremely rare!

I was at a garden party this afternoon & the subject of old cars came up. A lady
sitting near me, upon hearing the word 'Gilbern' said "We had two of those, a maroon
Mk1 Invader and a silver Mk3" Naturally, I almost fell off my chair, as most people have
never even heard of them...

It seems that the red one caught fire on the way back from the pub one day, their
young daughter getting out from the back safely. After this drama they bought a
the Mk3 and Gary, her husband (I think I got his name correct) had been considering
buying a Bristol, but decided on the Gilbern instead. He even knew how to pronounce
the name of the place where the factory was sited! He bought the Mk3 when it was only
about three months old. There was a lot to this conversation, but this post could go on for a long time & I can't remember most of it. However, they have photos which I may be able to have a look at & it would be interesting to know if either car still exists.

They certainly loved their Gilberns.
Regards, John

[Fareham GT]

Hi John,

Yes please, do follow this up, as it would be very interesting to tie down which 2 cars it is, any chance of you borrowing the photos and bringing them along to this months meeting at The Hurdles? Is NEV back on the road yet?

Cheers

Brian

[JED]

Hi Brian,

Regarding the photos, I'll see what I can do. The people in question live in
London's East End, so I'll try to get in touch with them via the lady who threw
the party. She is having another get-together tonight to celebrate the 'pink moon'
but I declined, as I'm at work tomorrow. I hope she doesn't take offence &
withhold their phone number!

Unfortunately NEV is still waiting, as a previous attempt at replacing the engine
before the weather got cold came to nought, despite three of us attending, one
of our number being a trained mechanic (!) I had another try last Sunday and
ended up with the front of the sump resting on the crossmember & the end of
the gearbox on the ground. Having re-read posts about fitting the engine, it looks
as if it's going to have to go in from underneath & I do wonder what engine the
manufacturers had in mind when they designed the chassis & its relation to the
front bulkhead.. Having fitted a 4.2 Jag XJ6 engine/gearbox/overdrive to
a Morris Minor I used to own, which back in the day ran a supercharged 3.8 Jag
engine & had a spaceframe chassis, that was much easier!

Incidentally, some lowlife stole one NEV's rear silencers recently, so I'll need
to find out where Steve Christopher got them from.

I'll certainly try to make it to the next meeting at The Hurdles.

Best Regards, John

[Gavin McArdle]

Hi John, The engine/g/box can be fitted either down through or up through, but to do it down through you will need a lot of headroom because of the length of the engine/box. Which ever way you try you will need to remove the steering rack and its mounting crossmember as the engine/box needs to be positioned forward of its normal place to allow the clutch slave cylinder bulge to go above the tapered chassis . The water pump also needs to be removed as you will have to re-fit the crossmember and rack before the water pump is re-fitted, it is quite easy to slide in the rack actually but be careful about lining it up with the part of the column coming through the dash as if it is not correct it will cause the lower part of the column to 'bend' when turning both increasing the steering load and wearing the bottom bush. Moss sell a cheap kit for this but it is possible to make one up, check Moss out for directions.
Good Luck!
Gavin
p.s. I can lend you some very well used swear words which have been proved to help!

[Gavin McArdle]

Hi John, as an after thought it may be possible to re-fit the engine/box with the rack in place if the sump and oil pump are removed first, this will allow the assy to be moved forward over the crossmember. Might be worth a try but you will probably still need the swear words!
Gavin

[JED]

Hi Gavin, thanks for the interesting info!

I'd already removed water pump, the carburettor I removed on Sunday as it was getting
jammed under the part of the body where the bonnet catch normally is - it's (ahem)
interesting that the catch is not held by bolts into captive nuts..

Where you mention about the steering rack's mounting crossmember, I'm a bit confused,
though as I'm not looking at the chassis at the moment, this can happen ho ho so I have
the crossmember above and slightly forward of the rack which is welded to the chassis
rails & the sump gets jammed against that & if I got it further back, the sump would get
caught on the steering rack. My friend suggested making this crossmember removable
which would be a possibility.

I meant to mention that the Morris/Jaguar used the engine as a stressed part of the chassis
it being solidly mounted to the chassis rails, so you simply rolled it in, bolted it up and
everything was rigid, though vibration could have been an issue.

I'll let you know how it goes!

John

[Gavin McArdle]

Hi John, have just checked my records and see Nev is a MK1, I was thinking he was a MK2 which is slightly different. Is this the crossmember that the rack is fixed to? If so I always thought that they were bolted into place. As the cars (sometimes like their owners!!!) are getting on a bit (and NEV was an early one) there could be differences/modifications over the years.
I suggest you speak to Phil I for confirmation/help.
Gavin

[JED]

Cheers Gavin,

I'll have another look tomorrow & if I'm still confused I'll do as
you suggest.

Thanks again, John