Four years have passed since the last entry and a fair bit has happened including moving twice in that time, but the one thing that has not changed is that I’m still working on the Wolseley Hornet Special. In the last entry I had just bought it and was going through the usual (for me) stuff of modifying the car so that I could drive it, usually by finding an extra 100 mm of legroom this and some roadworthy stuff was all done. But that was not the end of it.

The main problem was that the car seemed to be trying to kill me.

• Terribly vague steering
• Brakes pulled one way or the other
• Brakes had no bight
• Bump steered
• Didn’t like going straight
• Hated right hand bends

Lesser Problems

• Gearbox ratios were all wrong with a huge gap between 3rd and 4th and 1st only good for removing stumps.
• Oil leaked out of anything that had oil in it.
• Made a weird noise when braking, I thought it was the starter pinion hitting the ring gear (it wasn’t)

Things I liked

• The engine was smooth and it sounded great.
• The car looked good so I could forgive all the above.

So where are we today?

All the stuff above more or less was sorted except for the oil leaks and the weird noise and the handling wasn’t quite there yet…but better. So the thing I really liked was the engine, but it broke it’s crankshaft so I thought I’d start the blog back up and record that event and I may go over some of the work done to make the car drivable while I wait for the crank and rods to be made, which will be a while yet.

First off, a list.

1. I don’t fit, seat needs to go back
2. Brakes pulling to one side
3. Rear blinkers are flashing red, should be amber.
4. Steering lethal
5. Thermo fan is not working

The drivers seat goes back until it jambs between the tunnel the rear wheel arch neither of which I can change, however the seat has this monster steel bracket that needs to visit the angle grinder also the seat tracks are crap so I have ordered some more the end result is about 100mm more leg room so I can now take it for a tootle around the shed. I probably should do the passenger side as well.

Both rear brakes are covered in diff oil, according to the Holy Book for Horneteers a lip seal conversion is the go, about $10 and a day’s work later it’s nearly fixed as alas the oil has swollen the brake boots and the cups are leaking as well so again according to the good book SWB rear early series Landrover cups are 1” and the boots with the aid of some heat shrink work as well….time passes waiting for supplies.

Bleeding the brakes turned into a nightmare as it looks like one of the front wheel cylinders is leaking as well, luckily there are spares from the landrover stuff.  Brakes are OK now but I suspect the residual pressure valve is kaput or even non-existent, It’s stopping OK but the pedal doesn’t feel great, this one to be continued.

I have used motorcycle indicators on other cars, but I was not that happy with their brilliance until now, these LED ones are really bright and nicely made so I will use these again.

Steering is terrible as you end up sawing your way around a corner, not pleasant. Obviously steering has been an issue as it has a modern damper fitted. As it happens it’s an easy fix as the drop arm is fixed to the steering box via a spline with a pinch bolt….which was loose, I’ve taken the damper off as well as this car needs a bit of lightness added. Checked toe-in and castor both in spec.

Thermo fan needs a waterproof fuse holder as the old fuse had corroded away. The roadworthy passed so now onto the tuning issues.

A couple of months ago between lockdowns, I went to NSW to pick up the Hornet I won’t go into the reasons for this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Here are some early pictures of the car all I can say is that these 1930’s people were very short and a bit blood thirsty as well.

Somewhere between that photo and when it was rescued in the 70’s the rear of the body was shortened, and a slab tank added. During the next 40 odd years it lived under a Queenslander where although protected from the environment it was not protected from the local Hornet owners who used it as a spare parts supply.

Around 2012 Joe Wilson obtained the car with a 14hp engine and set about the daunting task of restoration. Initially Joe intended to fit a supercharger but evidently it did not run as hoped so it now has a pair of SUs but the supercharger is in a box so who knows. The car was registered in 2016 and has had 2 owners since and only covered about 3000 miles.

You may be thinking why has it had so many owners and so few miles? If I had had any sense, I would have asked the same question, no matter it just needs some or maybe a whole lotta love. More to follow.