I really thought I wasn’t going to make this, my first Car Tour with the Facebook group, Enthusiasts of British Motor Vehicles Built Before 1985. I had it in my diary for several months and plenty of time to get the Corsair ready so was keen to take part.The calipers I sent away to BCS Automotive a couple of weeks earlier hadn’t turned up by Thursday (26th) but by the evening I had an email notification of their dispatch and due for arrival on Friday. So, thankfully the all day rain on Friday had stopped by 6.30pm in fading light for me to get on and fit the new calipers, and when I say new, they looked like new. All was going well until I had the problematic nut that wouldn’t undo on the nearside caliper which ended up in typical fashion, rounding off. Luckily I still had some spare parts from a few years ago, so I ended up having to re-fabricate a new section of pipe and fit new unions and flare the ends. I was a bit miffed about this as it was only 3 years ago that I re-did all the brake lines [see blog post].
Original calipers, removed in 2001 and sent away for refurbishing 
Refurbished brake calipers – can you believe these are the same ones I sent away! 
Fitted refurbished off-side brake caliper 
An impromptu near side brake pipe replacement, due to the male union head, on the one I created three ago, rounding off. 
Fitted refurbished near-side brake caliper
Bleeding the brakes has always been bit of a hit and miss situation for me, and struggled, with help, to get any firmness in the pedal. I even attempted it again on the Saturday morning to bleed them, gaining a bit better pedal pressure, so long as I pumped them.
So I set off to Sandy Balls holiday park in the New Forest to meet with other members of the EBMV BB1985 group that were staying on the site. Bit of an ambiguous start, having hung about in the public car park with a couple of others looking for the main contingent, but finally we grouped up and then set off, I was last in the convoy, but soon regrouped at a New Forest car park for one more member to catch up. Leaving the car park I was second to last and got separated from the main group all heading off to Lyndhurst. Thankfully I was confident of the route taken and I motored on with only a Jaguar (form the Jaguar Enthusiasts group) following me. I had forgotten about the notorious queues to get into Lyndhurst due to the traffic lights and joined the back of the queue. I was thankful to see the rest of the convoy ahead and then endured a 15-20 minute wait. The Corsair behaved and showed no signs of over heating. I blindly followed the group going past the filter lane for Brockenhurst.
Once turned around, I was now in the middle of the bunch that had taken the wrong turn and all heading to Brockenhurst and then onward to Milford on Sea. After a blip in my mental navigation (reading road signs) I made it to the beach car park at Milford on Sea with the same Jaguar that followed me earlier. A much needed toilet break and cup of tea was had, with a bit of relaxation sat on the small promenade in the buffeting wind and sunshine.
After about 30-45 mins we set off again to go through the busy High Street of New Milton without anyone getting lost along the way to the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum which was just outside the town. It was a good run there for the 15 or so cars to park up for a couple of hours and the drivers to have more refreshments and chat. From there the group went on via Bransgore to Ringwood Brewery, with a couple having already left the for other destinations. I joined the run out to the brewery which was when I was experiencing my brake pedal troubles, from soft pedal to hard due to an air lock in the pipes. I drove on for home once I saw the group turn off for the brewery at Ringwood and so took it carefully with my temperamental brakes.
It was a good day and the Corsair covered 92 miles with out over heating or any other issues apart from the poor brake performance. The image gallery of the day can be viewed here, and it makes a change to see photos of the Corsair not taken by me!