NOW “THAT’S” AN ENGINE PULLER

You probably remember the iconic scene from the movie, “Crocodile Dundee,” where the protagonist and his girlfriend are confronted by a thug with a switchblade, demanding his wallet.  Dundee’s response, “That’s not a knife,” as he unsheathes his own, much, much larger knife and proclaims, “THAT’s a knife!” came to mind as we were pulling the engine of the RHD BN2 Le Mans.

Now I’ll admit it doesn’t hurt anything to own a large fruit-packing operation just down the road a bit, as Kent does.  As you see, Kent borrowed the forklift from the packing house.

The ability to lift 5,000 pounds to a height of 20 feet was more than we needed, but it’s always good to have some capability in reserve.

Like admiring a sport fisherman’s trophy still on the hook, we briefly basked in the glow of victory before resuming the less glamorous task of removing every nut, bolt and screw from the crusty chassis.  However, thanks to saving all that energy in the engine-pulling episode, we’re making great progress.

Three more days on task are planned for this weekend, and removing hardware that was installed at Longbridge in 1955 has a certain step-back-in-time quality.  You almost begin to think you know the men who assembled the car, and in a certain way, you do.