Cheers - I hope you and yours were unaffected by the recent earthquakes.

T

Thanks Tony - severely shaken (literally) but no damage for us.  It's an ongoing struggle for people living closer to the epicentre (some towns still entirely cut off) and I feel for them - having gone through the partial destruction of our city and extensive damage to our home 5 years ago.  And now Japan is getting hit again too.  Roll on 2017...   

Quote from: davidnagel on Nov 21, 2016, 09:50 pm
Da hell is that battery on the side for? Can't be the starter can it?

Here's a better view...



The battery finds its way into a box in between Robot and the Five Doctors

Quote from: kiwidoc on Nov 21, 2016, 11:59 pm
Thanks Tony - severely shaken (literally) but no damage for us.

This is good to hear, Glen. I had no idea New Zealand was hit by that quake. Glad everyone where you are is okay.

Quote from: kiwidoc on Nov 21, 2016, 11:59 pm
And now Japan is getting hit again too.

Yeah... as the wife says, "You know something's happened when you have a message waiting for you that starts out with 'Just so you know, I'm okay...'". Apparently that's what was waiting for the wife when she checked The Evil One's Facebook message. Evil is on the west side of Japan, so they didn't even feel it, but apparently because the Prefecture that did get hit is Fukushima (northeast of Tokyo), and the school where The Evil One teaches is named Fukushima (in Fukui, not far from the Sea of Japan and due west of Tokyo), all of her friends assume "Fukushima" the same place and have been bombarding her with messages of "Tell me you're not hurt!"

I've never been though a major quake - just a small "rocking" motion when the US East Coast had that quake a couple of years ago - so I can't even imagine what it must be like. I just hope that everyone that got hit by this one is able to walk away without physical injury.

And a big Thank You! to David, Steve, and Tony for those excellent photos of Bessie and the gang. Those publicity photos are just beautiful! (After looking at most - not all, but most - of the publicity photos of the actors in the New Series, I guess the BBC's forgotten how to take nice photos like these, with all of the current ones having to be some sort of "action/dramatic" pose... which gets old.)

Also, thanks, Glen, for that reference link for the Siva! (Oh, how I'd love to get my hands on one! The Siva, not the link. )

Dino.

I love the doorway in DavidNagles photo. That door must be four feet wide!

Thanks for sharing.
Greg.

Yep.  Note the engine compartment on this style of car--barely enough space for an inline 4 (or 6?)  Even the radiator is outside of the engine compartment.  I'd have loved to see under the hood to see what they did for an air filter.  

And since it did have an electric starter, there had to be someplace for the battery.  I need a back shot.  I'm pretty sure the gas tank is visible as a cylinder under the back seat.  

I think the original engine was an old Ford Popular 103, which was a tiny four cylinder job. From memory of the Pop's I've seen that type of engine's air filter was a small black box mounted on the rocker cover on the top of the engine (although this may vary if there were different generations of the car...)

I'm not sure what the 1973 replacement engine was though.

I'd love to have a go at restoring one of these....

Quote from: fivefingeredstyre on Nov 22, 2016, 09:08 am
I'm not sure what the 1973 replacement engine was though.

The letter I received from Jon Pertwee (posted back on Page 2) doesn't mention anything about the engine, only the transmission (gear box). Unfortunately, Steve, the one site I knew of that would have had the answer to your question on the replacement engine (link in the very first post on Page 1) has gone defunct. Even the Wayback Machine doesn't have any snaps of the chronology for modifications page. I can look in my e-mail address book to see if I still have "Dr. Dean's" e-mail since I also sent him a copy of the Pertwee letter. If I do, I can try sending him an e-mail to see if it still works and ask him for some info on the replacement engine (that led to the oversized bonnet).

It won't be until next week, though; if I still have his e-mail and it works, I wouldn't want to bother him over the Thanksgiving holiday - not knowing if he celebrates it or not. (I'm also visiting relatives this week and using the dinosaur laptop: hard to type on, and utterly, painfully slow. )

Dino.

Are there more pictures of Bessie's Street Number plate?

I think a shot of the rear "MTR 5" plate would make a nice addition to the References, if anyone can find one.

Dino.

I'll have to go digging, i'm sure there are more pictures out there.

Naughty naughty no tax or SORN declaration.

The thing that sticks out for me on that is the engine displacement.  That's basically a motorcycle engine by modern US standards. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the ford pop these are some details on it:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Popular

It would appear they didn't bother to inform the DVLA when they uprated the motor during the green death ether.

For those of you that are missing the DWE and live near Bournemouth in the UK, this might be of interest: http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/NEWS/15551396.Time_Warp_Bessie_brings_Doctor_Who_to_Beaulieu/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

And a couple of nice pictures of the old girl showing her as she is at present (minus her fold-down top):



(And here's me with her in March this year!)