When I bought mine in 1972 it had a Kenlowe electric fan, and being made in the pre-alternator period had a dynamo. This was a fatal combination in traffic. I was in central London in the dark during the miners'/power workers strike when all power was off, including lighting and traffic signals. I juggled heater blower, aka supplementary engine cooling, and headlights to prevent boilover, but the battery died as I headed out of London. The folk in the stationary traffic coming the other way gave me a push and I got home. Later it occurred to me that the extended nose of the Bond bonnet moved the cold air source away from fan and radiator so that the fan just circulated hot air if the car wasn't moving. Some ducting might have improved things. Cars that just work are so dull ...
I bought a Bond Mark C for £5 when I was at school, I still have it now, 53 years later. Highest milage covered in one year: 12,000 miles. Highest milage covered in one weekend: 702 miles. Plus I have a second one owned for 44 years.
Thanks for the comments. I'm afraid you will have to go to Northern Ireland if you want to see the car at the moment. Yes, I did consider a waterless coolant but ruled it out on the grounds of cost and value for money.
Fond memories of my dad's Mark D (I think). Bronze 2 seater, reg FCB12.) He had it around 1956-8 in South Norwood and carried mum and three children aged around 10, 6 and 2. We use to go camping at Polesden Lacey- Dad and I drove down in the Bond with all the gear and mum with the 2 other children came down by Green Line bus. It was eventually sold to someone in Middlesbrough who drove it home in a snowstorm. Happy memories.
The kickstart was only ever used as the secondary means of starting. Initially, there was a cable attached to a modified kickstart lever and connected to a floor-mounted lever inside the vehicle. By pulling on the lever whilst seated, the engine could be started without lifting the bonnet and 'putting your leg in the engine compartment'. Later, for Deluxe models only, a modified 6 volt car type starter motor mounted on top of the cyclinder head was connected to the engine flywheel via a 'vee' belt. Engaging the starter motor moved the 'vee' belt across from its idler pulley and onto the engine flywheel, thus spinning the engine over to start it. The Standard models still retained the cable and pull-lever starting system. In 1956 the 12 volt Siba Dynastart was introduced for the Deluxe model, dispensing with the often unreliable cyclinder head mounted starter motor. The Standard models still retained the cable and pull-lever starting system until the Siba Dynastart was introduced across the board for all models in 1957. The Bond Minicar continued through until the end of production in 1966 with the Siba Dynastart. From 1953 until 1966, all the Villiers engines fitted to the Bond Minicar retained the motorcycle kickstart. The early 6v starter motor system was very hungry for power from the battery and the magneto on the engine was often incapable for supplying enough power to recharge it. The later 12v Siba Dynastart equiped engines were less troublesome but, unfortunately, they did require a special tool to remove the flywheel and change the Dynastart brushes when they had worn down and needed renewing. Failure to change the brushes resulted in the engine receiving no electrical charge and running off the battery. This very quickly led to insufficient battery power to turn over the Dynastart. Hence, the kickstart lever could always be used as the secondary means of starting any Bond Minicar with a low battery.
@@MrSpeedm4 I had two of them many years ago. The first one (MK C I believe) had the 6 volt starter that turned the flywheel and the second one was possibly a MK F with the 12 volt system and electric starter. Both of them had the kick starter option, but never had any cable mechanism or levers in the car to start them.
@@rileybenstead3574 The floor mounted starting handles were omitted from all Deluxe models in December 1953. If there was an electric starter, then it was deemed unecessary to have a hand start lever as well. However, the non-electric start models which still used a magneto for the generating system all retained the starting handle until September 1957 when the Siba Dynastart became a standard fit item on all Minicars.
Yes, John, there are numbers into double figures in the Bond Owners' Club and several of those are regularly driven to Bond events. I can only think of two in museums; one in Preston and the other is in the Science Museum storage depot at Wroughton. Neither is on display but they are available for viewing by prior appointment.
How in thoose days - things actually got MADE . Hands and teams - like scores of people busy making something. The sense of 'result', of achievement, - far from today isolated behind a screen - working globally with 'people' you never actually work with.
I couldn't remember which year I went to Morecambe, but now I know! Brilliant to see the footage of my 'Bertie' in action, thank you! The high first gear plus a 3.27 diff doesn't really make it suitable for things like this, I must say, not to mention the higher-geared Herald rack and the wide tyres
I seem to have mislaid my VHS copy of this, but the two things I remembered of it were the large positive camber developing at 4:38 and the glimpse of the temperature gauge at 4:41! Marvellous to see this film again, and thank you for posting it, Paul.
Thanks, Chris. It has been on my mind for a long time that I had a lot of V.H.S. stuff from back in the late 1980's which had all but been forgotten. One of two copies of copies of copies of some of my original tapes had been posted onto RU-vid and the quality was even worse than when they were copied from my originals! As V.H.S. is almost obsolete as a viewing medium, it was time to investigate other means which would also allow for a bit of editing and corrective work, if required. Getting them put into MP4 format has ticked all the boxes for me and I can now share them all with others. Glad you enjoyed it. There will be some old T.S.S.C. Equipe Rally videos coming in the near future. Watch this space!
Hi Robert. Unusually, this has had a 23 cc jet fitted from new - as far as I can tell. I used a 6203 2RS main bearing with double seals in the crankcase, so I didn't need any grease to seal where the crank exits. Personally, I have never found the need to use fuel insoluble grease on any engine I have built over the last 45+ years. If the mating faces are in good condition and new gaskets are used, then a light smear of an ordinary grease has always worked for me. :-)
Hi. Thanks for the compliments. Unfortunately, I don't have too many pictures of the engine beforehand as the previous owner had already started to 'restore' parts of the 45 cc before I purchased it. However, you can see some early pictures here: www.flickr.com/photos/68224436@N03/albums/72157652359877722 and I can also show you 'How to nearly wreck a Solex 45 cc engine through sheer stupidity!' here: www.flickr.com/photos/68224436@N03/albums/72157663790287095
Beautiful restoration, do you have a pictures or videos of the engine before? I am about to start a 45cc resto myself, i have done plenty of more 'modern' Solex engines like 1700, 2200, 3800, 4600 or 5000, but nothing that old. Keep up the good work. Mat
