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J

JHaydon

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Hi everyone, I'm relatively new to Texas and even newer to British car ownership... two things that don't seem to go together too well.

We just celebrated our 6 year anniversary of moving to Temple (between Dallas and Austin, south of Waco and bordering Fort Hood) from the Milwaukee WI suburbs. It has also been one year since I acquired my 1954 Bentley R-Type.

I'd love to find some Britcar-friendly events (and touring partners) less than 100 miles away!!
2020RibsNRods.jpg
 
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J - welcome to BCF. I used to drive through Temple back in the 1970s when I taught school in Edinburg (RGV) and took kids to San Antonio. Always stopped in West for those fantastic Czech pastries (kolaches) at the Butter Crust Bakery.

How'd you get interested in a Bentley?
Tom M.
 
It's all my wife's fault. She spotted one and told me to buy it.

The TL;DR version...
I inherited an '82 Mercedes SL shortly after we moved down here. It's huge compared to an LBC roadster but way too small for her to fold her Amazon legs into. So if I'm driving it, I'm usually alone. A few years later, she spotted a car in a parade which turned out to be a (1946-54) Bentley. She turned to me and said, "If you had one of THOSE I'd ride with you!" I loved the style, and once I did some research I fell in love with the engineering too.

I was lucky enough to find a very clean "driver" with a fully-restored interior (including AC) in San Antonio.
 
Welcome to BCF J! That's a lovely Bently you have there! I'll bet it gets a ton of looks when you drive it!
 
Hello JHaydon

Welcome to the forum.

That is a great car you have there. How easy is it to get parts for it?

David
 
Thanks David! Bentley doesn't have a huge aftermarket, but the Rolls-Royce and Bentley clubs around the world (especially in the UK) have actually worked with Bentley to arrange production of some of the high-demand parts. There are a couple of sources in the US and a few more in the UK which carry whatever parts are available new.

And RR/B used a small number of UK-standard parts (Lucas electrics, SU carbs, Yale locks) which really helps! The detective work to find the crossover is often well worth the time.

I am hopeful that the recent production run of "original" continuation Blower Bentleys at Crewe is a good sign for the future. The factory went to an awful lot of trouble to re-create perfectly authentic parts to assemble 12 perfectly authentic cars. It would take a lot less effort to re-make similar parts which could be used by a few thousand cars.

Luckily, the knowledge base on these cars (and the number of people willing to share their knowledge) is immense. The contrast to most other car groups I've known in the past is just staggering. There are no secrets, very few wild guesses, and almost no shoulder shrugs!
 
Is there a group that is the best resource? My experience thus far with the US group (not the official RR/Bentley group) has been less than helpful.

Asking what I thought was a "normal" question got a reply questioning my intelligence.
 
JHaydon said:
Hi everyone, I'm relatively new to Texas and even newer to British car ownership... two things that don't seem to go together too well.

We just celebrated our 6 year anniversary of moving to Temple (between Dallas and Austin, south of Waco and bordering Fort Hood) from the Milwaukee WI suburbs. It has also been one year since I acquired my 1954 Bentley R-Type.

I'd love to find some Britcar-friendly events (and touring partners) less than 100 miles away!!View attachment 68625
Click to expand...
Beautiful car! You use it for weddings? You aware of Post 55 near me: Belmont, NC
 
JHaydon said:
Hi everyone, I'm relatively new to Texas and even newer to British car ownership... two things that don't seem to go together too well.

We just celebrated our 6 year anniversary of moving to Temple (between Dallas and Austin, south of Waco and bordering Fort Hood) from the Milwaukee WI suburbs. It has also been one year since I acquired my 1954 Bentley R-Type.

I'd love to find some Britcar-friendly events (and touring partners) less than 100 miles away!!View attachment 68625
Click to expand...
Great looking car! and no snow to worry about! Enjot he forum...
 
wimpy said:
Is there a group that is the best resource? My experience thus far with the US group (not the official RR/Bentley group) has been less than helpful.

Asking what I thought was a "normal" question got a reply questioning my intelligence.
Click to expand...
At first I was really happy with the amount of information I found on the RROC discussion forum. Unfortunately it seemed that every time I tried to contribute some knowledge, the technical expert would question or belittle or simply shoot down whatever I posted (even when I simply quoted another authority). I haven't even logged in to that site since finding BCF. It's a real shame because he really does know his stuff -- so you can't just tell him to go away -- but he apparently takes offense at the suggestion that anyone else might know something useful.

It would be one thing if these were "common" cars that worked just like every other car on the road, but so much of RR-B engineering is vastly different from everything else out there. Questioning someone's intelligence because they weren't born knowing how to tune the Hispano-Suiza derived mechanical brake servo is inexcusable gatekeeping.

I've also found some helpful info on the RROCA (Australia) site RROC.org.au, which unlike the USA isn't members-only. Also KDA132.com is a wealth of information, hopefully covering the areas you need covered. (The author/founder of that site actually quit the RROC discussion board some years back because he was sick of being flamed online, go figure.) Classicrollssa.za.net has good information, including a step-by-step on rebuilding the brake servo.
 
JHaydon said:
At first I was really happy with the amount of information I found on the RROC discussion forum. Unfortunately it seemed that every time I tried to contribute some knowledge, the technical expert would question or belittle or simply shoot down whatever I posted (even when I simply quoted another authority). I haven't even logged in to that site since finding BCF. It's a real shame because he really does know his stuff -- so you can't just tell him to go away -- but he apparently takes offense at the suggestion that anyone else might know something useful.

It would be one thing if these were "common" cars that worked just like every other car on the road, but so much of RR-B engineering is vastly different from everything else out there. Questioning someone's intelligence because they weren't born knowing how to tune the Hispano-Suiza derived mechanical brake servo is inexcusable gatekeeping.

I've also found some helpful info on the RROCA (Australia) site RROC.org.au, which unlike the USA isn't members-only. Also KDA132.com is a wealth of information, hopefully covering the areas you need covered. (The author/founder of that site actually quit the RROC discussion board some years back because he was sick of being flamed online, go figure.) Classicrollssa.za.net has good information, including a step-by-step on rebuilding the brake servo.
Click to expand...
sorry to hear. SWMBO and I were discussing this the other day as she belongs to a Facebook (old house) group where a couple of trolls feel like the need to negatively respond to everything. Here in Ontario I had a friend who was looking at a big Healey where the owner bought it, took it to his first club meet - had the rivet counters tell hime everything wrong with it - he drove it home, put it in his garage and never drove it again. 🤬

You should enjoy it here, we drove out anyone who knows what they are doing long ago. :ROFLMAO: Seriously it is a wise and friendly bunch - and the Board itself is curated to a very high standard.

Welcome!
 
JHaydon said:
At first I was really happy with the amount of information I found on the RROC discussion forum. Unfortunately it seemed that every time I tried to contribute some knowledge, the technical expert would question or belittle or simply shoot down whatever I posted (even when I simply quoted another authority). I haven't even logged in to that site since finding BCF. It's a real shame because he really does know his stuff -- so you can't just tell him to go away -- but he apparently takes offense at the suggestion that anyone else might know something useful.

It would be one thing if these were "common" cars that worked just like every other car on the road, but so much of RR-B engineering is vastly different from everything else out there. Questioning someone's intelligence because they weren't born knowing how to tune the Hispano-Suiza derived mechanical brake servo is inexcusable gatekeeping.

I've also found some helpful info on the RROCA (Australia) site RROC.org.au, which unlike the USA isn't members-only. Also KDA132.com is a wealth of information, hopefully covering the areas you need covered. (The author/founder of that site actually quit the RROC discussion board some years back because he was sick of being flamed online, go figure.) Classicrollssa.za.net has good information, including a step-by-step on rebuilding the brake servo.
Click to expand...
Been using the Australian forum for a long time, but doesn't seem to have as much user input as a few years ago. I'll take the forgotten KDA132 & the new resource za.net. KUDOs!!! Right now I have brakes that are questionable at best. Well, they stop the car, but WAY TOO MUCH pedal travel.
 
wimpy said:
Right now I have brakes that are questionable at best. Well, they stop the car, but WAY TOO MUCH pedal travel.
Click to expand...
I would start with adjusting the shoes (the ones in the drums, not the one on the pedal 🙃 ) since that's the easiest and most likely to go out of adjustment. If that doesn't do it, I'd next check the linkages for wear and looseness -- on my car, the anchor which holds the linkage to the rear axle was loose and shifting around. Every bit of lost motion in the linkage adds a bunch of excess pedal travel.

And if none of that solves it, KDA132 has an excellent writeup on how the (unbelievably complex) front brakes should be assembled and adjusted. As he notes, many cars are assembled incorrectly because even the factory shop manual is wrong!
 
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