A90 Atlantic Restoration in NZ nears completion...

The NZ contribution to this car's rebuild is now nearly complete, with only a small amount of mechanical work to do before "road trials" canbegin in earnest, before the car is shipped to the owner in Northern NSW.

Lew Eustace, who has been doing the car's rebuild, is pleased the long haul is nearly over. The car's rebuild has been substantially affected by the Covid climate at times, regarding procurement of parts, supplies, soaring shipping costs, and NZ's general isolation from the rest of the world. "Sometimes life just gets in the way." Consequently, it has now been decided the Atlantic will be shipped to Australia to have its interior

and convertible hood done. It will just be easier and cheaper to have it done there.

Very little manufacturing for the auto industry is done in NZ anymore and almost everything required has to be imported. I particularly noticed this when renewing mechanicals on my Holden Torana in recent years. I could get everything I needed just "across the ditch", and of course, it was all still being made in Australia. So, "one-stop" shopping and very little shipping costs. Whereas, while doing our own Austins and the Atlantic, most mechanical parts were sourced from the UK, Australia, India and the US (thank goodness for all the British sports cars that went to America and are still on the road there).

Thankfully, our own Austins had mostly been completed before Covid hit, but it was a different story with the Atlantic, with procurement of parts and shipping costs and delays, really starting to bite during the project. As an extreme example of this, we were having trouble locating camshaft bearings for the recondition of the Atlantic engine. After much searching on the Net, I found a set in Dayton, Ohio, of all

places. At the time, even the normal "go to" Moss Motors in California couldn't supply them. Never mind, as far as our own Austins and the Atlantic rebuild goes, we are well beyond that point now.