From Shaun Matthews
I recently had some professional photo’s of my Cross and Ellis tourer taken for the business on a rather wet day just before Christmas. 
In the history file I have an owners letter from the early ‘70s and some hefty Charles Follet invoices from 1947 that suggest the car was used throughout WW2 by the WRVS for war time work, clocking up 100,000 miles or more. I’ve registered as an NHS volunteer and hpe the Alvis can be used for Voluntary work again a mere 80 years after the first time – A good story for the RVS, Alvis and classic motoring in general if we pull it off.
In the history file I have an owners letter from the early ‘70s and some hefty Charles Follet invoices from 1947 that suggest the car was used throughout WW2 by the WRVS for war time work, clocking up 100,000 miles or more. I’ve registered as an NHS volunteer and hpe the Alvis can be used for Voluntary work again a mere 80 years after the first time – A good story for the RVS, Alvis and classic motoring in general if we pull it off.For context the car also appears in a promo video which you are welcome to share around the Alvis community and on our website – our project may interest others. Obviously everything is on hold at the moment but we are still aiming for late ’21 opening with first apprentices in Sept ’22 – frankly It’ll come down to whether our investors still feel inclined to open their cheque books as we come out the other side.
From Peter Stierlin
Some photos of my TC108G restoration, coachwork nearly finished and ready to be delivered to the trimmer
From Andrew Snell
Hi, I thought I would share a few images of how my 1933 Alvis Firefly restoration is progressing now that I have some unexpected time released to concentrate on it!
This Firefly was owned for the last 65 years by a fairly local chap in Oswestry who carried out the most comprehensive restoration back in 1960 using the skills and parts supplied by the Alvis factory and he managed to completely rebuild the rolling chassis including all running gear, engine etc. He even had a new ash frame built for the original Cross and Ellis 4 seater body. Sadly life got in the way and the project was mothballed back then. It sat in a barn for the proceeding 60 years until he very reluctantly sold it at Brightwells last year.
It ended up with me via the guy that bought it as a happy accident when another friend of mine swapped the car for one of his and asked if he could store in in my garage. I couldn’t resist it and bought it!
So work began and it quickly became clear that the rolling chassis, engine etc just needed cosmetic attention and reassembling…it really was a first…a total restoration that required no new parts for all of chassis and engine. When I took the old surface rusted brake drums off they revealed a factory new brake system. Same was true for the engine…all in bits but in as new condition and just had to be assembled. It started first time!!
The ash frame was solid albeit a few unwanted wiggly visitors that were quickly wormed out of existence. The body was thankfully all there…pretty rusty in places but was all salvageable apart from the door skins and the running boards…all of which were remade in steel.
So during the current crisis I have been able to accelerate the restoration massively as I had all the chrome etc done a while back and was sitting on my shelves. Even the wiring harness is brand new (1960 issue).
I do have a remaining issue in trying to sort out how the brake mechanism works under the drivers feet area…there is something missing and I don’t know what. 
This shows there is a cylindrical peg sticking at right angles from the chassis rail…was this somehow used to connect the brake pedal shaft to the brake light? Any thoughts would be fantastic!
This shows there is a cylindrical peg sticking at right angles from the chassis rail…was this somehow used to connect the brake pedal shaft to the brake light? Any thoughts would be fantastic!I have the seats re upholstered but currently stuck down in Cardiff and the door cards etc remain to be releathered. But so nearly there and I do look forward to 1. attending the first Alvis rallies when they kick off and 2. is reuniting the Firefly (that I affectionately all ‘Buzz”) with his previous owner who still lives in Oswetry area. That will be a very emotional day as he really did not want to part with it!
Keep safe everyone and keep those projects going!
Alvis Archive 
Dear Andrew,
on my Speed 20SA the cylindrical peg is for the return spring of the brake pedal. The spring is hooked in the hole at the end of the peg and the other end of the spring goes in the hole of the brake pedal lever, which can be seen in the photograph.
The funny lever which is attached/clamped to the rod which runs from brake-pedal to brake-crosshaft operates the brake-light-switch by means of a spring.
If you want, I could take a photograph showing how these things look on my Speed 20.
All the best, stay well and safe
Klaus-Peter
Thanks so much for that reply! Yes that all makes good sense and I did receive a picture from someone else which illustrates what you have described. Much appreciated.