* Pg 1

MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF THE PEUGEOT CAR CLUB OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA (INC) www.pccwa.org.au

JUNE 2020 The LION The LION Next Club Meeting Next Club Event

Tues 09th June 2020

Club Meeting

NO EVENT

Tues 14th July 2020

Club Meeting

Bastille Day “Drive In”

Saturday 18th

Noon

Tues 11th Aug 2020

Club Meeting

NO EVENT

Nearly complete: Peugeot 403 Cabriolet by Barry Mouritz more photos page 9

* Pg 2

PCCWA COMMITTEE for 2020

President Neville Grimson

Vice President Yaap den Hartog

Secretary John Hall

Treasurer Ray Hudson

Editor Brian Eyre

Merchandise Peter Olsen

Event organisers Kerry Torpy

Anne Chester

Librarian Gordon Hort

Committee member contact details are available at pccwa.org.au

NEXT SOCIAL EVENT

Bastille Day “Drive In” Saturday 18th July.

With awareness of the restrictions currently in place and some member

concerns, the Committee has planned a get together for next month.

Meet time is 12.00, meet point is near Dome Café at Deep Water Point

Reserve. Weather is unpredictable at this time of year so bring along a

couple of chairs with the chance we may be able to lunch by the river. It

would be wise for members to bring along a few snacks just in case we

cant access the Dome Cafe.

check pccwa.org.au for latest details

PRESIDENTS PRESSINGS

Greetings folks

Our first club meeting since March was very different - 8 hardy souls braved the

new world of social distancing, hand sanitizing and no supper.

Still, it was great for a few to gather and plan our next social gathering. We're

going to celebrate Bastille Day on Saturday 18th June on the river at Deep Water

Point, Mt Pleasant. Take away food is available and we can sit in our cars or on

folding chairs if the weather dictates. See you there for lunch.

Our following social event is a weekend away at a venue to be arranged.

Preliminary enquiries indicate WA residents are flocking to the South West in lieu

of further travels. Watch this space.

We are pleased to welcome two new members to our club, Gordon Hort's son who

has a 404, and David Ward with an RCZ and it's cheeky number plate. Welcome to

you both.

While on membership, can I remind members our fees are now due for the coming

financial year.

Till next time

Neville

Just a friendly reminder that club Membership Fees for the new

financial year July 2020 to June 2021 are now pending.

If you have a car on club concession plates you must be financial at the

start of the new year.

(Please see pccwa .org.au for payment options)

* Pg 3

THE PEUGEOT CAR CLUB OF WA (INC)

MINUTES OF THE MEETING JUNE 2020

Meeting opened: 8.08pm. Neville Grimson in the chair, Brian Eyre as

temp Secretary.

Members present: 8 As per attendance book.

Apologies: Kerry and Trish Torpy, Gordon Hort, Anne Chester, Granville Nicholson,

Colin Redmond, Cathy Judkins, Sandra Eyre, Tona Pitt, Jenny Grimson

Visitors: nil

Minutes of previous meeting: Minutes (as published March) Resolved

Correspondence in: 2 club magazines. Letter from DCSi regards new logo

Correspondence out: return letter to tin group

Emails: from two potential new members

Treasurers report: Current Balance $5502.54 as of 8/6/20, 48 members,

outgoing to Brian Eyre for DCSI domain fee.

Merchandise: $3 for club sticker, New embroidery details to go on web.

Editors report: see editors notes.

Social: Members discussed Covid restrictions and any future get together.

It was decided that Bastille day event will be a “Drive In” where members

can get their cars out but stay safe. Details on page 2 of this newsletter (and

web site).

General Business: There are some donated workshop manuals to go to

library. More discussion is required for plans of Weekend away. Ideas

welcomed from members.

Meeting closed at 9.00pm

EDITORS NOTES

I hope that you are managing your self isolation well and not going too stir crazy.

I have managed to keep myself busy in my shed, not only on the race car but with

a bit of furniture modification and repairs. I have also started to give myself a

slightly longer leash to roam on. (but with care)

The club has now restarted its monthly meetings at our Applecross club rooms.

Some restrictions apply, such as a pre and post clean with sanitiser, maintaining a

social space of 2m2 and no food or drink allowed.

The “newsletter” continued on while there was no club meetings based on club

news together with member articles provided. There has been a steady trickle of

member articles over the last few editions. Nowadays the newsletter is simpler

and in electronic form only. Once prepared the newsletter is published for all to

see on the club website.

Being editor and publisher of the club newsletter “The LION” is just one of the

things I do on a regular basis. There are also the club Registrar duties (maintain

the club member data base) and also the Webmaster duties (maintain the club

web site).

It would be nice if I could get someone else to come on board for at least one of

these tasks as I have been doing these things since I joined the club some eight

years ago. I know these things are essential for the club but they take time to do

and keep up to date (and on a monthly basis). I admit I am not as dedicated as I

was once.

Member details must be kept up to date by the club Registrar to comply with

Constitution requirements. Have you changed your address or contact details?

Are the details of your vehicles current? Is the list of vehicles that are on

concessional licence current??

You probably will need to renew your club subscription for the next financial

year of July 2020 to June 2021.

According to our Club Treasurer Ray Hudson most member contributions will

need to be renewed as they are only current up to the end of the financial year

June 30th 2020.

If any of your membership details or vehicle details have changed please send in

a member update form with your subscription.

(as provided at http://www.pccwa.org.au/membership.php)

* Pg 4

He didn't ever sell the 350 BSA, and it now resides in all its working

gear in McPheeters Motor Museum in Forbes, along with a 1935

Morris 8 tourer that we converted to a small work ute for around the

farm. Unstoppable in the wet or dry, as we put oversize tyres on, and

ran them at very low pressures. I learnt to drive in a Ford TT truck,

pretty hairy on the bush tracks, had a mind of its own, you couldn't

relax with it!

The workshop there was called the Smithy, as it had a big forge with

a large set of bellows, great for shaping iron and pipe. The drill was a post

drill, amazing the size holes that you could drill by working up from

a small start. After a couple of years, my uncle bought a 250 amp

Lincoln welder, which we installed in a 1935 Dodge car, by taking

the doors off for a start, then replacing the tailshaft with a car gearbox

turned around backwards, so it would give us the required revs to run the

welder. All this was connected together with homemade couplings.

The welder had to run at 2500 revs, and the motor only ran at about 1000

revs. It was governed by an adjustable throttle opener, utilising the electric

current from the electrode lead, which was wound around a heavy iron rod. As

soon as you started to weld, the current would create an electric magnet, and

open the throttle to the set amount. So all those types of interesting jobs

created my lifelong interest in all things mechanical.

By the time that I was 17, I had enough money saved up to buy my first

vehicle, a Commer ute, about a 1950 model, which got me around for a couple

of years before I traded it in on a 1956 Morris Minor, a good little car, which

was fine until I decided to travel over to WA to work. It was then that I bought

my first set of spanners, Sidchrome, in both SAE and Whitworth, which I still

have to this day.

I had another uncle already over at Albany, and he suggested that I come

over to work on the land clearing work that was going on down there at the

time. So as the Morris was too small to put all of my gear in, I traded it in on a

secondhand FC Holden ute, only a couple of years old, and in good nick.

SOME OF THE SHEDS THAT I HAVE WORKED IN ,

and SOME SHEDS THAT I HAVE OWNED. By Tom Pitt

This, I suppose, is a story of the sheds that I have worked in since I

left school back in 1955, as a 15 year old, through to owning my own

sheds in later life.

When I left school, my father was a dairy farmer on the north coast

of NSW, and I worked for him for 6 months or so. I then decided

that dairy farming wasn't for me, so I was able to go out to

Condobolin, in the centre of NSW, where one of my uncles was

managing a property running merino sheep. At the end of primary school, I

had managed to get a bursary that paid for 3 years at Hurlstone Agricultural

High School, so I had some knowledge agricultural wise under my belt,

but no real practical experience, certainly not with merino sheep.

It was a steep learning curve, but I enjoyed it, and it was this

particular uncle that encouraged me to become interested in all things

mechanical. He was a real innovator, with very limited resources tool

wise, all hand tools, no 240 volt power to help, but he managed to alter

machinery and vehicles to suit our purpose on the land. There were no

ag bikes as such at that time, so he bought road bikes and adapted them

so we could use them for mustering and general running around on the

property. We carried 2 dogs on the bikes, one in front on the fuel tank and one

behind in a cut down

4 gallon drum.

He rode a 1950

250cc BSA, and after

I had learnt to ride on

an old Velocette, he

bought a 1953

350cc BSA for me

to use, which was a

great bike.

* Pg 5

I must have had a good

half ton on the Holden,

because it was sitting

down pretty low at the

back when I started off

on my journey. In those

times tar roads were

pretty thin on the

ground, usually only on

the last few miles each

side of the towns.

I had no problems on the trip over, took five and a half days to travel the

2,500 miles, no punctures, no mechanical problems at all. Lots of bull dust and

rough roads, about an average of 4 or 5 cars coming the other way each day, so

different to travelling the Sturt Highway these days.

My uncle over at Albany already had quite a large shed built, 60ft by 30ft,

including living quarters down one end. He then put another 24ft bay on the end

for me to use for my gear including a small room for sleeping quarters. There

was an area in the main shed that we used for maintenance of our gear. As well

as working with my uncle on fencing, seeding pasture, etc., I also drove a small

dozer for a local land clearing contractor in my spare time. Even though there

was plenty of work around, I decided after 3 years to go back to NSW, as my

uncle back there had bought his own property and offered my some share

farming if I was interested.

I took him up on the offer and prepared to head back east. The Holden ute

was getting a bit tired, so I traded it in on a brand new 1964 Toyota Crown ute.

They were very new on the market, but read up well, good carrying capacity,

but still built like a proper coupe ute, not a tray back like the later Toyotas were.

Even with the extra loading capacity of the Crown, I still had to send some

heavy gear back by freight train. The road back was so much better than I had

experienced on the way over just 3 years before, a fair bit of tar, and a lot more

being prepared for tarring.

The workshop on my uncle's place back in NSW was still just a wooden

shed, but we managed to make a reasonable workshop out of it. He had

picked up an old metal lathe which came in handy for a lot of rough turning

work that seemed to come up fairly regularly. He had a cottage built for me,

which gave me a bit of independence, I have never minded batching, I can al-

ways knock up something to eat.

In between cropping, I worked with him on stockwork, so I was back riding

the 350 BSA again, which was great. One large building job we did together

was a new bridge to go across a creek on the property, it was about 120ft long,

made up of 20in x 6in I beams, with all the cross bracing bolted in between.

The awkward part was it was in 3 sections, with a 5 degree rise up on each

side to the centre section. We had to make it all up on the bank next to the

creek, then unbolt it all and get it across the creek and put it all together again.

We were quite pleased with the finished job. It is still in regular use, so we

must have done a reasonable job of it.

In the meantime, I had traded the Crown in on a new VC Valiant ute, which

I kept for some years. Very good vehicle for towing, which was where the

Crown was a bit lacking with only a 1900 cc motor in it. But the Crown was

standard with heater, demister and all those creature comforts that the Aus-

tralian utes didn't have.

After 7 years there, I was offered an opportunity to go into a partnership with

my father-in-law up near Grafton, on the North Coast of NSW. It sounded

good, so I took him up on it, not really knowing just what I was letting myself

in for. Also my wife wanted to move back closer to her family, so we moved

up and bought a small farm just out of Grafton. The partnership didn't work

out, so for a few years I worked in the local Joinery Works, where I did a ma-

ture age apprenticeship. On our farm I built a new shed, 40ft x 20ft, with a

workshop down one end. This was handy, but sheds are never big enough, and

money was always tight, so that was as big as it was ever going to be. After 3

years at the Joinery Works, I decided to go out on my own, with building in

general, mainly carpentry but with a couple of fair sized steel constructions

as well along the way.

* Pg 6

The shed was always in use for both types of work. I had my own Lincoln welder

by this stage, running off the PTO of my little 135 Fergie, amazing the jobs that I

could tackle by myself.

After 8 years up at Grafton, it was time to go back to Condobolin, as I had

heard of a small property not far from my uncles that was on the market. With a

bit of our own money and a friendly bank manager, we purchased it and

moved back there. Unfortunately, not many years after we took over, bank

interest rates soured, and I was paying 22% interest, which made things a bit

awkward to say the least. At least I had a shed on the farm to play around in. Car

wise, I had traded the Valiant ute in on an XB V8 Falcon Fairmont, which

wasn't a bad car until you put it on a gravel road, then it liked to do its own

thing, very hard to keep in a straight line!

Time to think of getting something more suitable for the roads that I was

travelling on, so I started looking around and went for a test drive in a Peugeot

505 from the local dealer in Parkes, one of our closer towns. Mick Miller, the

owner, had a special rough gravelly track that he used for his demos. He takes

you out there, puts the car on top of the loose gravel at a fair rate of knots, and

drives along with just the tip of one finger on the steering wheel. The car doesn't

move sideways, just stays where it is meant to. I would have bought one there

straight away, but the price of a new one was a bit more than I could warrant

spending.

But after a couple of months I had a phone call from the dealer to say that a

low mileage 1983 505 petrol manual had just been traded in, so that was my

introduction to owning a Peugeot. It was a year old, and only had 23,000 klms on

the speedo, immaculate condition. I had that car for 10 years and traded it in with

365,000 klms on it on a second hand 505 Auto Turbo Diesel. The petrol car still

had the original discs on the brakes, the motor hadn't been touched. All I did was

put fuel in it, a few sets of tyres and have it serviced regularly.

Getting back to the shed on the farm, I had just cemented a double bay that was

my workshop area, gone up to the house for a cuppa while the cement went off a

bit, came back to see the milking cow and her calf walking through the middle of

the fresh cement! Not impressed! Took me ages to get it back to a reasonable

finish.

Next shed was the most usable shed that I have owned. We sold the farm in

1997, and after the bank took most of the proceeds, my ex wife and I went our

separate ways. I built her a 35 square mansion in Forbes and I went into

Condobolin where I had a small weatherboard and fibro cottage on a large

block. The block backed onto a lane at the rear, so I put the shed down there.

Because the block was on a bit of a slope, I had different levels in the differ-

ent sections. I had one main section where I could store 3 vehicles, another

section was for carpentry, another was the steel workshop, and the fourth

was a large rumpus room that we lived in while working on renovating the

house. ln total, it was 50ft wide by 65ft deep, quite a handy size.

* Pg 7

Tona was with me by that stage, and we spent the next 18 years there. It

was a large block, the shed took up a third, the house took up a third, and

Tona's garden took up a third, all nice and equal!

I didn't have any of my Peugeots at this stage, as I needed a heavier

vehicle for towing a heavy bogie trailer, so I bought a new Diesel Land

Rover Discovery. I was one of the founding members of our local car club,

and I had an R Series Valiant and an Austin 1800 in the shed, plus the

remains of a 1950 Land Rover out on a friends property just out of town. I

ended up selling the R Series to another member of the club, as I didn't have

the time to do the work on it that it needed. It was No. 6 into Australia, and

had the push button auto setup, plus a matching set of buttons on the left

side of the steering wheel for the heater controls. I was sad to see it go, but

I was still working at the time, and spare time was hard to find. Quite a

collectable vehicle.

I finished full time work when I was in

my early seventies, and now had time

to start work on the 1950 Land Rover.

It was just a pile of junk, really, but I

wanted to restore it as best as I could,

doing as much of the work on it myself

as I could. A big learning curve! After 3

years of work on it, I finished it good

enough to drive and get registered on

club plates.

Next job was to make a bogie trailer that the Landie would fit on, as I

wanted to take it to various rallies that were too far away to drive it there.

When I built the workshop, I had installed a gantry beam up high so that I

could handle heavy bits of material when I was welding them, so when I was

making up the trailer, I was able to rotate the whole chassis to weld the un-

derside, which made life a lot easier.

Now the move to WA, where my latest shed is. Before we bought the house, I

had checked with council to make sure that I could have a 3 bay, 9x7 metre shed on

the block, which they agreed to, but that size shed was all that I could fit on that

part of the block. Because I didn't have any of my building gear over here with me

at that time, I had Stratco organize the complete erection of it.

* Pg 8

Just for laughs Next job was getting

the container with all my

shed stuff delivered over

here from Parkes in NSW,

it came by freight train,

and was delivered and

offloaded in front of the

new shed, so I could

unload it and arrange

everything as I wanted it in

the shed.

By this time, I was starting to think about taking up the offer from my uncle

back in NSW, to buy one of his 504 Peugeots, that he was wanting to offload. I

had the choice between 2 green 1980 504 diesels, a white 1972 manual fuel

injected 504, or a yellow 1974 manual 504. I decided to go for the 1974 manual,

as it had only 165,000 klms on the clock, and was in pretty good nick. It came

over by vehicle transport, and arrived in a non-going situation. With the help of

some of our members, we finally found the problem and it now goes rather

well. My uncle still has the rest of those Peugeots for sale, as he feels that it is

time to ease back a bit as he will turn 93 at the end of this year. He also has a late

model 505 4 speed auto and a manual 406 that he doesn't want to sell. He was

seriously into Peugeots!

* Pg 9

LION TORQUE

Hi Everyone, Better news this month for our members. Easing of

restrictions of numbers has enabled the club to once again hold club

meetings & possibly revive a few social events. We are still restricted in

what we can do in regard to club meetings. Rules regarding the Covid -19

virus are still in place. No food or drinks permitted on the premises where

the club meetings are held until further notice, which means no supper after

the club meetings for the time being. More details about what we can &

what we cannot do is included in this Lion magazine.

You are all welcome to attend club meetings & we hopefully look forward

to catching up with everyone in the coming months.

As for social events for the remainder of the year this will be a topic for

discussion at the club meetings June & July.

I have made enquiries about accommodation in Nannup, Bridgetown &

Pemberton for August, September in case you would like to spend the

Weekend Away in the South West around one of these popular

destinations. I have some disappointing news to relay in that all the places I

have enquired at with a reasonable weekend tariff are all fully booked out.

Venues that I believe may be above the rates we would expect to pay are

booked out. These are the $130-180.00 per room per night.

If you have any ideas of other places we can spend the weekend please let

me know. During Winter and into Spring accommodation rates are overly

expensive in the South West.

The ‘’Shed Sleuth‘’ has not been out & about very much for at all the past

two months as you would understand the reason why. Still doing as asked

& social distancing, I have snuck into Barry Mouritz shed a couple of times

keeping the required distance from Barry though. The 403 Cabriolet project

is progressing very well. Last Friday I was invited by Barry to come with

him to pick the 403 up from the trimmers at Yallingup near Busselton. As

WA is now in code 3 of the restrictions it was okay to do so. The trimmer

has done an amazing job for Barry. Photos are included in this Lion.

* Pg 10

Barry is having some of the body mouldings shaped to suit the body as

the mouldings on the cabriolet are of a different curved profile than on the

sedan. This work is being carried out by Cliff Byfield up in Bayswater.

Cliff needs no introduction to anyone

involved in vintage car restorations in

Western Australia. He has created some

amazing cars & body shells in aluminium

over the past 60 years for many satisfied

customers. Two of his creations, a 1934

Riley & his hand built Jaguar special are on

display in the West Australian Motor

Museum at Whiteman Park.

Barry`s mouldings are in good hands for sure. Cliff Byfield is still

working daily in his shed even though he is in his late nineties. Wow!!

When the mouldings are fitted not much has to be done on the cabriolet to

finish it off. Barry will then take it to Perth for a final inspection by the

Traffic Department engineer. He will inspect Barry`s work then carry out

a braking test. If everything is in order the engineer will then issue the

engineering certificate & Barry can then have it registered for road use.

Tom & Tona Pitt our Mandurah members, have made good use of the self

-isolating at home over the past eight weeks. Their 1973 Trak Yellow 504

has been treated to a cosmetic restoration to the paint work & a few small

dents removed also. The 504 is back home again & looking great. The

504 was purchased from Tom`s Uncle in Forbes NSW. Tom has penned

an interesting story for us in the Lion this month. I am sure you will find it

interesting reading.

We had a visit from Ray & Barb Hudson for a couple of days on 4th & 5th

June. On the Thursday morning we drove across to Yornup just south of

Bridgetown to visit John Scott & to collect some parts from one of

John`504` wagons that he is wrecking. Ray was able to find some good

parts required for his 504 wagon restoration. We were able to find some

parts for Gordon Hort`s 504 pickup, mainly a good vent flap assembly for

the RH dash vent.

We had a great time there. Barb & Trish enjoyed themselves inspecting the

amazing number of interesting cars in John`s collection. Most of the cars

are European. John has a large collection of Citroen cars mainly Traction

Avant models. Several are being restored at the moment.

John is a member of SIVA Club. I would like to thank John for his time &

the welcome he gave us. John was only too happy to let Ray have the parts

that he needed at no charge. May be we could call in to John`s for a look at

his collection if we go South for our weekend away.

Until Next Month

Drive Safe & Enjoy it

Kerry Torpy

* Pg 11

Date & Time: T B A

The WA French Car Festival has been deferred due to Covid 19

restrictions. The event will be at a new venue and changed format

The afternoon event will feature displays from all the local French Car

Clubs which cater for French cars, plus some special invitations to add

to the mix. The French theme will extend to support displays and

vendors.

A PEUGEOT STORY Cont.

In the previous newsletter I

shared the story of my

original 404, a 1968 *Alpine

White sedan with dark

brown upholstery. It was my

pride and joy for 10 years

and sold in 1978 for a

Renault 12 wagon to

accommodate the growing

family.

It was not until I retired for the 2nd time and relocated back to our property

in the Swan Valley that I purchased my second 404. It had to be a 1968

Alpine White with brown upholstery, and in 2015 I was fortunate to

acquire one from Jack Anderson through his son Douglas, along with many

of Jack's spares acquired over many years of collecting and saving parts.

The 404 sat in my shed for the next few years until the work began in

earnest to prepare the car for licensing. I am forever grateful to Dennis

Brosnan for his drive and expertise in achieving this no small task in 2018.

The body was in good condition with only a few small rust patches - one on

the rear window seal, several others in the door panel and front window

seal. The floor was great. The petrol tank came out, a new radiator built,

engine mounts, steering wheel and horn replaced, brakes and clutch

refurbished. Underneath the body was coated in tar and anything that

moved freed up and lubricated. Two new Michelin tyres on the front and

the car was nervously presented for inspection. No worries. While there is

still work to be done on the upholstery and body, the car drives great and a

trip down memory lane for Jenny and I.

Till next time

Neville

* Pg 12