Just an update after the Toowoomba Rally. You may recall that Sylvia and I were to spend some time with family at Warwick and then head back to South Aussie via Perth.

We have made it as far as Darwin so far, and have spent a couple of hours with Terry Haughey, a recently joined member of JCCA.

 

He is currently putting his Javelin back on the road after 10 years of hibernation with a view to selling it. It is a 1949 PB deluxe in very good condition. (It appears that the records say that it is a PA but I have seen the chassis plate: E9 PB 6494). A cut and polish would make it really nice. The engine is an El PC motor. He also has a spare crankcase with no engine number on it. The spare is in very good condition, and suffers none of the corrosion that we South Australians see a lot of. The car is suffering from a lack of use and he currently has the radiator removed for a thorough cleaning. The brakes have been refurbished, and condition of motor will become more clear once the radiator is replaced and die car is run on the road.

 

Terry says that to his knowledge the car has always been shedded, and he is about to sell his shed due to retirement and he has no place suitable to house it, and for this reason he would like to sell to someone who will look after it (but deep down he would like to keep it!) We were able to pass on some advice on running a Jowett (eg, don’t make the fan belt too tight, and ensure that the cross pipes slide in each other, and the master cylinder is free to move and not too rigid) Sadly he has lost the ‘JAVELIN’ number plate. When he went to re-­register it he found that his rights had lapsed after 8 years and someone else claimed it (possibly a Rambler Javelin owner), so the car is currently on normal NT number plates.

Some interesting things about the car:

• The fan and horns have been chrome plated.
• Indicators are incorporated in the rear lights (red) and PC style front parking lights (clear) and the semaphores have been removed and the holes filled.
• There have been seat belts at some stage but the bottom mounts have gone missing
• The seats have been re-upholstered and the picnic table holders on the rear of the front seat have gone missing (but the picnic table is still on the back shelf)

 

As far as Terry knows there are two other Javelins in NT, both rotting away in a back yard in Katherine. He thinks his car has been in Darwin a very long time but I doubt if it was pre-Cyclone Tracey (1974). Barry Houston may know if it was, as he was working hard on his Jupiter in Darwin in 1980 when we were associated with him in our time in that capital.

 

Alvin Jenkin

Taken from The Javelin Vol 61.3 May/June 2018

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A member’s story

Many years back, (50 plus years) when I was a teenager, my father, an engineer, was looking for a cheap vehicle for the family.

 He found a Jowett Javelin that had been stripped down and left in a back yard.

 He brought it home to Wagga NSW in boxes and started to re assemble the car.

 It was painted light blue by brush and its body was less than perfect, but he made it go.

 He then found a good body in Adelong which had no motor, purchased it and made plans to tow it back to Wagga, on a rope, a 70 km trip through the foothills of the snowy mountains.

 It had brakes and no front seat, so mum (in the tow vehicle) had to sit on a fruit box (Batlow fruit box I think) and steer the car, using the break when the tow rope became loose going downhill or when the tow vehicle wanted to pull up. No mobile phone conversation or 2 way, just by looking at the rope and reacting to how loose it was or when dads arm waved out the window.

The car got home……………..

Dad transferred all the working parts and seats into this car, an olive Green colour. It was our family car for some years.

He was always keen to tell anyone that would listen “that it could beat a VW”…………..

Dad drove it over the Clyde to Burrill Lakes for a Xmas one year, two adults and four children.

It was very safe……………… as everything was stacked that tight that nothing could come loose if we were involved in a crash. Even the foot-wells were packed and we only had room to put our feet.

It was cosy but we made it there and back and had a good holiday.

Fond memories  and just before I retired I found one in bits to do up.

Then I found a second one, again in bits.

I had shelves full of parts and no car to drive, 3 or 4 motors, gearboxes, extra body panels etc.

It became too much for me as I had other projects on the go and did not give it enough attention.

They were sold a few years back and the purchaser had to come with two trailers and flat top utes (twice) to collect all the parts.

(The deal was all or nothing)

 

If you have any fond memories of Jowett related motoring please email them to webmaster@jowett.org.au