AN ISETTA IN GUERNSEY

by Keith Dumont (published in the Isetta Gazette July 1978)

It all started four years ago. In the spring I sold my ailing VW Beetle and returned to a scooter for transport, thereby financing a new rubber dinghy. When the autumn came around the situation was less than desirable. In fact it was cold and wet, so I started looking for cheap transport. Having been a DIY mechanic for some years, the thought of working on an old car did not deter me - only the cost. Then came an odd coincidence. Two Isetta's were offered for sale within a couple of weeks, and both went unsold. Getting interested I traced their owners to different parts of the factory where I worked and, after some bartering, acquired two un roadworthy but complete cars, four part complete cars in a derelict greenhouse, and several boxes of spares. One of the cars was a four wheeler and well rotted, the other was a sound three wheeler (LHD) but with an engine which imitated a machine gun, half a silencer, and brake pipes which would do a good job as a lawn sprinkler. The whole lot cost £40.

In those far off days no one thought of conservation, so the three wheeler was kept and the rest stripped and cut up. A few weeks work put the car back on the road and after a coat of paint and a new sunroof (made by a friend in the trade) it looked almost decent. Intent on proving that Isetta's weren't the junk that most people thought, and at the same time defending my decision to get involved, I put the car to work. As daily transport it proved ideal and reliable, and began to be noticed about the island.

Now to my surprise people started coming along and chatting about the car and offering advice on where spares might be lurking. Several useful caches were discovered including drive couplings and steering parts. One tip off led to a garden where an Isetta was in use - housing eight chickens!! It had no engine or gearbox, and the interior looked less than pleasant, but it looks worth collecting. Negotiations were started, and once the owner realised his chickens would lay better in less cramped conditions he agreed to part with it (a decision in which his Wife had some doing, I believe). With it came a lot of odds and ends plus two TV sets! It was towed off by lifting the rear into the open back doors of a Bedford van, and towing it on its front wheels.

As the years went by, the car was worked ever harder as its capabilities became apparent. A tow bar was added so that it could tow the dinghy, a strange sight as the dinghy was two feet larger than the car. This soon led to a box trailer being built using Isetta wheels, and that enabled several tons of building materials to be moved when I started modernising the house. It even carried the kitchen sink on the roof at one stage. A boot rack also helped a lot with cargo handling, although the sun roof was undoubtedly the biggest boon of all. Have you ever seen an Isetta with two apple trees sitting between the driver and passenger and rising three feet above the roof?

After three and a half years and 10,000 miles the quick repair jobs were failing and the steering getting very poor. An old Hillman Husky had taken over the tougher jobs so it was decision time - Scrap or rebuild? I had bought £100 worth of spares from Brighton for a possible rebuild a couple of years before, and that swayed the decision for a complete rebuild. The car was totally stripped and the bare chassis repaired and repainted, and then work commenced on rebuilding. All new brake and steering parts were fitted together with dampers, mountings, couplings, etc. A nearly new chain turned up, but some things like brake shoes had to be relined at home. Brake back plate bearings were reground and new bushes made, as were many small parts all through the job.

A good cylinder and piston turned up, once again in strange circumstances this time at a breakers yard. I was helping a friend cut the wheels of a lorry or a farm cart when I spotted an Isetta engine at the bottom of the engine heap in the corner of the yard. This was too good to miss so we put it under the lorry wheels in the back of the land rover and paid for "that lot in back" on the way out. A modest £3.

The car is now run in after re-spraying, re-upholstering and re-chroming and bears little resemblance to the old banger from which it was made. The arrival of the Isetta club and the rise in status of the car to the ranks of the classic makes it all seem worth while.