Following the death of Gerry Buck in 1981 all the items in his collection were gradually sold on. The large tethered cars again vanished without trace, but most of the smaller items and motors such as the unfinished V twin (right) were retained until a final ‘clearout’ where they were seen for the first time as a collection at Old Warden having been gathered together by John Goodall.

With the exception of the Sunbeam, the four stolen from Stratford and the two cars still owned by his daughter, other items that have surfaced again over the last few years form the final part of the ‘Weaver story’.

In the meantime, it transpired, that amongst the collection of Weaver material that John Goodall had obtained was a motor that could possibly have been for a hydro and one with mounts and flywheel that definitely was intended for a boat. Could the mystery boat have been for either of these engines? It was academic as there was no further contact at that stage.

Eventually it was revealed that the hull was in Derbyshire and had a V33 registration that confirmed it as a Weaver boat but with no further information. This was exciting and frustrating at the same time, but some photos were obtained, which opened up a whole new line of enquiry.                                                   
                                                                                                                 Right: The AMCO BB Hydro motor

There was no doubt it was one of Arthur’s boats as it was an almost exact copy of ‘Gwyneth’, but what engine had it originally been built for?  Searches of magazines revealed no further information and study of the pictures only served to indicate that the mounts were not intended to fit any of the engines in John’s possession.

Peter Hill’s first thought was that it was intended for an ETA 29, which was the standard 5cc motor being used at the time. It was obvious that although very dirty, the hull was absolutely complete, even to the original flax bridles.

Several more months were to pass before Peter saw the boat in the flesh, which enabled him to solve the mystery in double quick time.

The hull had been stored somewhere very dry but exceedingly dirty so a great deal of elbow grease was required to get all the muck off and reveal the grey paint finish. ‘Gwyneth’ is grey metallic, but this is definitely metalflake, certainly a case of conservation rather than restoration, as this finish would be impossible to replicate. Also it is the only boat to retain the Victoria registration, which needed to be preserved.

The joints that had opened up were reglued and then filled with evaporated metallic paint, as were the bare patches and major dings. Other than that, nothing more was done to the hull.

The other interesting item was the bulkhead-mounted fuel tank. This penetrated the front bulkhead and an attempt to remove it had more and more coming out until it fouled the engine mounts. Engine mounts were unbolted and still the tank kept coming, until two cut-outs in the bottom corner of the flange just cleared the engine mount screws.

It was a monster at over 3" long and measured up at 115cc, almost enough for a seasons running? The cut-off was something of a necessity and a remarkable piece of engineering alone.

With a correct 'Alperton' prototype AMCO BB by courtesy of Steve Betney and a lot of fiddling about with exhausts, the renovation was complete.

No contemporary evidence about the silencers had come to light, so it was down to guesswork, TLAR and the existing holes to come up with the arrangement shown. A recent photo of a hitherto unknown Weaver hydro suggests that fishtail silencers may have been used.

Following the discovery and subsequent restoration of the hull intended for a standard AMCO 3.5 BB, the existence of a similar motor, complete with engine mounts (see right) was intriguing. Putting 'Gwyneth' beside this motor confirmed that the bolt spacing in the mounts exactly matched, but that the hull was much wider. Was there any possibility then that this motor might have originally been fitted to the hull in Bolton?

There seemed little doubt that this was another of Weaver's hydros and through Peter, we were able to contact the then owner, who still had the boat, along with an ED Comp Special that he had fitted.

Studying the photos that the owner kindly sent to us, it looked very likely from the pattern of the mounting holes and position of the hole for the fuel cut off, that the AMCO on its mounts would fit straight in to the hull.

This thought was further strengthened when it was discovered that the boat as well as the engine had originated from the collection of the late Gerry Buck, although some 15 years apart.

This card from the 1958 ME Exhibition has come as something of a surprise to all and it puts the AMCO engined boat above into its true context. For some reason neither the entry or the award of the Willis Cup and a silver medal had been recorded anywhere else.

A trawl through the ME and a show guide for that year that we just happened to have had a single line in each that confirms Arthur winning the Willis twice, 1958 and 1974, a superb achievement. What is even more rewarding is that both boats have survived.

There is still one hydro unaccounted for and that is a larger version of the cup winning boat fitted with an ETA 29 motor that can be seen in previous photos but has not been described anywhere, as far as we know, but as the card proves, there are still surprises out there.

This started of with some photos that David Giles had been sent from Australia. He passed them on to see if we had any further ideas as to what the two cars might be. The first one was relatively simple as it was home built, using a selection of components from D.C. Howell of Eastbourne. It was the second car that was more interesting as it was a very close scale model of a Formula 2 Cooper Bristol, as raced by Mike Hawthorn amongst others.

The front suspension and wheels were a very close copy of the original car, but someone had discarded the correct rear wheels for a pair of functional items. Apart from that piece of vandalism, it looked an extremely well made and accurate model and definitely something out of the ordinary.

When the extra photos arrived, it did not take long in comparing them with the originals to confirm that the mystery car was of Weaver origin. Every aspect of the chassis matched up with the pictures published in Model Maker, every screw, all the suspensions details, mountings, clutch and gearbox. Even the fuel cut-off bore a striking resemblance to the one in the hydro.

There is no doubt that the entire chassis is one of Arthur Weaver’s, but whether the car is one of the others that he referred to in the article or an original REDeX example was not known until the owner had a pick at the paint and underneath the layers discovered an aluminium body shell and the original 'REDex' paint finish. This was the final confirmation that this was indeed one of the 'REDeX' Cooper Bristols, making it a very important car indeed. It is unfortunate that the rear wheels and wishbones have gone missing, but these could be replicated to replace what has been fitted. Certainly it was an exciting find as there has always been conjecture as to whether one of these cars had survived.

Update May 2017:- Following an enquiry from a correspondent in Australia it was established that the car had been sold although we had no indication where it had gone to until we were contacted by Scott Clydesdale quite recently. He was aware of the car having been sold on yet again and was able to furnish the photo on the right showing the car in its current state.

The blue paint has been removed as has the original REDeX paintwork, which is a pity, but it does reveal the quality of Arthur Weaver's sheet metalwork. Thanks to Scott for this information and photo that confirms that one of the Weaver REDex cars did survive, but as we also know from other material received, so do two others.

An eBay listing many moons ago piqued interest around the retro car fraternity as it was the bare chassis of a very unusual railcar, complete with the equally unusual and somewhat distinctive motor, a fuel tank that was almost an AFW trademark and the 'controversial zonkers'. 

Minimal research was required to establish that it was the remains of Arthur's 'Experimental railcar' NL 1952 illustrated and described in Model Maker in 1953. Contact with the vendor down in Wales established the provenance as he was Arthur's nephew, disposing of non aero related items he had acquired.

The wheels and tyres that Arthur supplied for railcars were unusual in that the entire tyre and centre was moulded in one piece with aluminium discs attached either side. These were missing and there has never been any sign of any appearing for sale so conventional railcar hubs were substituted with tyres of almost the correct size being carefully removed from a set of Raylite centres. 

With the article to hand it was a realistic option to rebuild the car to its original specification, a job carried out to a very high standard by Mike Crisp.

It was not until later that day when she could upload her photos that the significance of the plurality could be appreciated. The Curator at the Louwman had been very helpful, directing Erica to where the cars were and allowing her to photograph them. Our thanks to Erica for passing on the photos and information.

The Vauxhall railcar we obviously knew about although there was no credit given to Arthur as the builder, either in the Spindizzie book or at the Museum.

The family are now trying to get the Louwman to add the name of Arthur Weaver to these cars as the original builder.

It is this car that caused the most intrigue amongst enthusiasts as it was Arthur's most famous build and many had seen it at Gerry Buck's house, but then, of course, it vanished.

Wonderful that it should be rediscovered after all this time, and by Arthur's granddaughter as well, could not even have been scripted like this?