:: Diary - March 2008 ::

:: Saturday, March 1, 2008 ::

Found a very helpful page on Pistonheads about the mirrors - they were also fitted to the early TVR wedges. Now I have a wiring diagram, and also a tip that the front of the mirror just pops off if you get a wee lever behind it.

I nip out with a screwdriver, and so it does! The front casing of the mirror is metal sprayed with plastic, except in my case they're mainly rust held together by bubbling plastic. I can buy new cases in fibreglass for a tenner or try making my own. I think I'll try tidying up the ones I have first.

The same web site doesn't say how to get the mirrors back together again, and they need an inordinate amount of shoving to clip them back in. Fortunately they pop back in just as I am sure they are about to break.

:: Sunday, March 2, 2008 ::

In preparation for the car club meeting, I give the car a quick wash, but don't bother to dry it off. Then I clean the wheels up and they turn out ok I suppose - they still need a proper polish again. I think I'm going to polish them up and then lacquer them, and see how long that lasts before I might have to pay for something more drastic.

I also polish up the headlamp rings, which have started to show small rust spots already.

The drivers side carpet is a bit damp - not nearly as wet as it was, but there's something still leaking a little bit. I think I'll take the steering column back out and put a gasket behind that bulkhead bush.

When I am washing the back of the car, the number plate falls off, which is nice. A rummage around the shed turns up a big roll of self-adhesive foam that I bought for a quid at Callander last year, so I stick that to the back of the number plate. When I remove the backing paper I discover that it's not double-sided sticky, so it won't stick to the car. 2 minutes with a tin of spray adhesive sorts that problem.

I have a nice leisurely drive to the club meeting, with the roof off (of course) because it's not raining. Not yet anyway. It's freezing though but I need an open-air driving fix. Stopping only for a pee and a supply of fresh jelly babies, I'm on my way!

At the meeting we sort out the details for our S-Club Heaven excursion to Nottingham. It looks like there are six of us going. Mike's job is to think of a suitable slogan for the T-shirts we plan to have made.

Jim also very generously decides to share out a pack of jelly babies which I decide not to wire into because I have my own in the car. It's only when they are finished that I discover where he got them...

:: Saturday, March 8, 2008 ::

The mirror that I bought arrived on Monday. Now it looks very nice but the wiring is very different - mine has 4 wires, ie 2 to work the up/down motor and 2 to work the left/right motor. This one has 6 - apparently, according to the wiring diagrams I found on the web, it should only have 4 (2 to work the motor and 2 to engage / disengage a "clutch" that converts side to side movement into up and down movement). I spend far too long searching for a suitable wiring diagram but no coconut.

Today I thought that, before I fry my brain any further, I would try the mirror against the door. Well it looks like it would fit perfectly! Unfortunately I decide that I don't like it - it looks bloody massive on a wee car like the S. Add to that the grief in painting it (and taking it to bits first to do that). Hmmm... After looking at the mirror again, I decide it just doesn't look right.

The mirrors that are on the car are ugly enough - they stick out like the ears on my pal at school who we christened "wingnut". Children can be cruel. Not as cruel as I'm going to be to Jim for nicking my jelly babies last Sunday, but cruel enough. Another difficulty is that the mirrors on the car are even uglier now than they were new, because of the rust bubbles under the plastic. Imagine my pal "Wingnut" with very bad acne on the ear lobes. In other words, they look effing horrible. I need to replace them.

Not with the one I bought though - they make the car look like "Wingnut" with a cauliflower ear. I start to consider alternatives. I need a mirror that will cover up the existing screw holes etc. I take one mirror off to measure that the screws are 90 mm apart and the mirror base is 135 mm long by 35 mm wide. I'm not bothered if the replacements are electric etc - I just want them to look better than the ones I have.

I decide that I would rather have chrome mirrors, which aren't exactly "period" but are at least more in keeping with the retro look of the car - ie the general style, the chrome headlamp rings and door handles, the strips in the bumpers and the polished window frames. I find a pair of round polished stainless steel ones on a web site. They have a base big enough to cover the existing screw holes (which my first choice, the rectangular mirrors fitted to early Minis and the MGB, didn't). They also cost a lot less (and I mean a serious lot) than the £120 each that somebody paid for mirrors a couple of weeks ago and, in my opinion at least, they look a bit better. I realise that beauty is in the eye of the beholder but since it's my car and my opinion is the only one that counts, I order them.

They look like the mirrors fitted to the earliest Porsche 911s - ie these:

:: Thursday, March 13, 2008 ::

The mirrors arrived today. I tried one on the passenger door and found that the balljoint doesn't let it turn inwards far enough to be any use on that side. Maybe that's why you only see old Porsches with a mirror on the drivers door then eh?

I try taking it to bits to increase its range of adjustment but it doesn't work.

So the net result is that I need to find another mirror that fits. Fixing the ones I have is starting to look even more appealing...

Better news is that I found a guy on ebay selling alloy roof stays - mine are pressed steel thingys that look pretty horrible, to be honest. I've been planning to clean them up but never got round to it. The Griffith, Chimaera etc had nice alloy ones that you can't get any more - so I've been watching on ebay for ages, for stainless steel roof struts. Well last week I found 2 sets, one with the sale finishing tonight, about 5 minutes before I normally get home from work. Rather than bid too early, I shoot home as fast as I can and to save time, use another PC that is already booted up, rather than my own. This means I have to search for the item and with 4 minutes to go, I find another pair that are cheaper as "buy it now" items than the bids on the ones I was looking for. So I buy them instead.

It's a funny old world.

They should fit straight on (with a little bit of drilling to move one of the mountings...)

:: Saturday, March 15, 2008 ::

Had a look again at the first mirror I bought, and tried it on the door - now that I see it in the daylight, it doesn't look too bad. I'm not sure whether to refurbish the mirrors that are on the car, or replace them with these other ones (although if I do that, I'll have to buy one for the driver's door to match).

:: Sunday, March 16, 2008 ::

Got up early and the weather's nice, so I decide to set aside the work I have to do, and the grief I've been getting for the past few weeks, and go for a nice run.

Once the car is warmed up, it runs like a dream. Within only a few miles, I'm happy, even although I can't take the roof off yet because it's still wet after an overnight shower. AFter about 20 miles I stop in a layby and stow the roof in the boot, open the spare pack of Jelly Babies and set off again. Life is wonderful again!

I decide that a drive through the lower highlands is the order of the day. Off through Stirling I go and then on to Doune and Callander, not even tempted to stop at the wee bakery in Callander that sells a wide range of delicious goodies.

First stop is by the side of Loch Lubnaig, which is one of my favourite places. Sometimes the Loch is like glass. morroring the hills and sky perfectly. Not today though - there's a ripple of breeze that just breaks up the water surface. The water is absolutely clear, and it's still early so it's quiet and peaceful. I take some photos and eat more Jelly babies, while I sit on a nearby boulder and just enjoy the atmosphere.

I am awoken from this idyllic reverie by the busload of tourists who have disgorged from the car park and are now clambering and chattering all over the place. Time to go.

On through Lochearnhead and then turn right towards Killin, where the road crosses the River Tay over a narrow bridge which for some reason is crowded with OAPs wandering in both directions on both sides of the road. The bridge is narrow, and there are no pavements, so every one of them risks being flattened on the road or against the bridge parapet by passing traffic. There are so many of them that I can't help thinking of that film "Cocoon" I think it was - perhaps the River Tay holds the secret to everlasting life.

Just after that, I stop again a few times for some more photos, and for a pee (the River Tay contains a lot more than everlasting life).

Then it's on through Aberfeldy to Ballinluig on the A9, where there are extensive road works and therefore big delays. The car sits bang on the right temperature, no sign of overheating or any other malady.

Obviously as we leave the roadworks, there's a long convoy in front (that was the queue that we were orginally at the back of). There's a long string of traffic stretching into the distance, and a lot of traffic coming the other way, so there's not a lot of chances to overtake (and not a lot of point in overtaking anyway - you'll only end up a couple of cars up the line which stretches for miles). This logic doesn't strike Audi A3 man further behind me though, who overtakes the Vectra behind to tag onto my back bumper. It's a good job I haven't got a towbar because he'd not have been able to get close enough if I had. After a mile with a bootful of Audi, I decide to pass the time by having a little play.

Now I think that tailgating is really stupid. So is brake-testing tailgaters - even more stupid if you ask me - you're saying "you're doing something really dangerous and stupid so I'm going to do something even more dangerous and stupid so that your stupidity and mine combined, might hurt or kill both of us", which doesn't strike me as too clever.

No, it's best just to ignore them - or at least to make them think you are, while you make tiny adjustments on the accelerator to slow down very slightly so that they get too close for even their limited comfort zone. As they brake, you speed up ever so slightly so they start to catch you up again so you ease off so they catch you up too fast. After a couple of cycles of that, they're usually all over the place and back off to give their feet a rest.

It works. He backs off a bit then I let him pass on the next section of dual carriageway.

By the time I get home via Perth and the Forth Road Bridge, I've done 140 miles. Brilliant!

:: Monday, March 17, 2008 ::

I'm back on ebay and I find another couple of sellers who have matching mirrors for the drivers' door (ie black). One sale finishes on Thursday afternoon, the other 5 days later (whatever day that is). Add them to the "watched items"

:: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 ::

The mirrors that finish next week are described as "suitable for TVR Tuscan, Cerbera" - and there is a bid on them already. The bidder has bought various other TVR items including alloy roof stays last week (at about £20 more than I paid), original front indicators at about 5 times their original price, and other stuff. Oh well, each to his own. No bids yet on the mirror auction that finishes tomorrow.

:: Thursday, March 20, 2008 ::

Punted in a bid on the mirror in the auction that ends today - and won it! So I am now the proud owner of a pair of black mirrors that I intend to repaint the same colour as the car. I'll trial fit them first though just to make sure they fit.

Now that I've bought them, I'll explain that they are VW Corrado mirrors, and are exactly the same as those fitted to the Tuscan and Cerbera (except that they don't have the door-opening button underneath).

:: Saturday, March 22, 2008 ::

The roof struts arrived on Wednesday, but I didn't open them until today. God they're manky - they look as if they have spent their entire life immersed in muddy brine as an untreated "control" in some test of anti-rust products. This photo does them too much justice - they are barely shiny at all.

I fire in about them with the metal polish, and soon have them looking a bit more presentable.

They are not straight replacements though: they are slightly longer than the originals so you need to move the mounting slightly down the body. Oh and one bit is shorter than the other so I need to figure out which way up they go in the first place!

I take the car back along to the garage - I've had it parked beside the house since the beginning of February and it shows. It needs a good clean and polish, to get it spruced up for the summer. I am on holiday this week so hope to bring it back to life by the end of the month. I wander around it making a list of odd jobs and stop when I run out of paper - it's going to be a busy week!

:: Monday, March 24, 2008 ::

It's been a fun day.

I set off to the garage with a huge list of jobs to get through over the course of the week. First one is to take the rear nearside wheel off to see if the suspension is ok - it's been squeaking a wee bit, and I noticed it was sitting a wee bit higher on that side on Saturday.

Jack up car to take wheel off. Where's the locking wheel nut key? I was sure I knew exactly where it was - but it isn't. Last time I used it was on the 18th of February when I polished the back wheels, and I'm sure I put it back in my tool bag, but it's not there. I search the boot, the floor under the seats, the glove compartment and the wee cubby between the seats, but it's not there. I search both tool boxes and the door pockets / cubby holes in the Lexus. I go back to the house and can't find it there either. Bugger.

Back to the garage and think of another way. 5 minutes later and all 4 security lock nuts are off - obviously I'm not going to write here how I did it, but it worked! AND all 4 locknuts are reusable if I ever do find the key. (Well one of them is a bit mangled but the rest are ok)

Back wheel off, shock absorber off, spring off and the shocker seems to be moving ok - no stiffer bits or anything obviously wrong. I put it all back together again.

Then I decide to fit the alloy roof struts. I decide to do one side at a time so that the old existing strut holds the roof in the right place. The top is bolted onto the hoop, and the bottom is bolted through the rear parcel shelf into the boot. The new struts are slightly longer than the old ones so a new hole in the parcel shelf is needed. First I bolt the top bracket on, just a dome nut onto a captive bolt. Then I stick masking tape on to the parcel shelf carpet about an inch below the existing hole, hold the bracket up and mark through the hole, making sure that I press the bracket back to squash the carpet flat - if the hole is too far down, the strut will be to short when it's bolted up, so even after marking it, I drill a hole through into the boot slightly above the mark I made, just to make sure that the strut is properly tensioned when closed. Bolt through, tighten it up and it seems ok. If you want to increase the tension, you can put a washer under one of the brackets just to push it out a bit, but mine was fine. Then the other side, same routine and try the roof panels in place. Perfect. I took some photos of the new shiny struts in place. I'll come back to that in a bit.

What next? I'll take the driver's side mirror off, ready to put the new one on. First I remove the door trim card - one screw at the back, remove the speaker, take off the wee nut behind the armrest (I thought I'd put a wing nut on there but obviously not) then pop the trim out of the retaining clips around the bottom, unhook from the door lock and it's off!

I unscrew the mirror from the clamp on the outside of the door, then try to loosen the clamp. but there are wee bolts up inside the door that I can't reach behind the window glass. I took some photos of the bolts behind the glass. I'll come back to that in a bit.

I also find that the mirror wiring connector won't fit through the hole in the door - not that I need it because the mirror has 4 wires and the ones I bought have 6 and I haven't figured out how to adpat them, so the mirrors would be manual not electric, till I sort that out. I think I'll stick with the mirrors I have. I pop the covers off, to find that the drivers side one is on its last legs but the passenger one is ok. I took some photos of the new mirrors with the covers off. I'll come back to that in a bit.

Then, while I have the door card off, I decide to adjust the hinges to take up the door sag (if I can). After faffing about with for ages loosening and tightening hinge bolts ithout really knowing what I'm doing, I seem to have made some improvement so I leave it alone. I took some photos of the hinges so that I can work out how they work. I'll come back to that in a bit.

Then I find that the window doesn't work. I've obviously dislodged a connector. I find that the motor connector is loose so I tighten it up with a tiny screwdriver and the window works, but it's slow. I spray some rubber lubricant into the window channels, and grease up the window motor and slider mechanism, and after a couple of goes to free it up, the window is whizzing up and down like a good un. I took some photos of the window mechanism and wiring. I'll come back to that in a bit.

At night, I sit down to write up the web site, but when I plug in the camera it says that the memory card is full but also that there's no images on it. It's got corrupted somehow so that's all my photos lost - no matter, it's not the end of the world and I can take them again. There were other ones on there though that I hadn't put on the computer yet (some for work) and that's a bit more of a bugger.

:: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 ::

Didn't get along to the car today - I had to go to work, which is a pain when it gets in the way of stuff you want to do. I also got to have two trips to the local "recycling centre" where I recycled several black plastic bags full of total junk.

What I did start to do was strip the plastic off the mirror covers with a wire brush in an electric drill. After a while I realise that the driver's side cover is held together by only the plastic - by the time I have done one edge (the worst edge, to be fair) I have turned it into something resembling a colander - with some of the rust holes big enough to put a finger through. It's knackered and well beyond restoration. There isn't even enough of it left to make a mould to make new covers in fibreglass.

My only option now is the Corrado mirrors.

:: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 ::

First thing - re-take the photos that were lost off the camera yesterday.

The roof strut as fitted.

The bottom door hinge (or rather, one of the fixing bolts). These bolts also hold the bottom of the window channel in place.

This is the top door hinge. I see from this that the fibreglass looks a bit lumpy under the hinge, so that might explain why it's difficult to get it to tighten in the right position. You can't see this up inside the door (unless you are a lobster with your eyeball on the end of a stalk). I'll have to have a grope and see if I can feel those lumpy bits (ooooh eeerrr matron!). Ahem. Yes, quite.

Driver's side door mirror with the cover off. A bit rusty. The passenger one is ok though. The covers (especially the driver's side one) are literally rusted to bits, so these mirrors need to go!.

Nevertheless, the Corrado mirror I have, is a passenger side one, so I decide to change that first. The driver's side one should be arriving today so I'll do that tomorrow. First step is to remove the mirror from its bracket - two grub screws into the bottom of the mirror hold it onto a bracket on the door. The electrical connector doesn't fit through the tiny hole in the door, and rather than make the hole any bigger, I have to cut the connector off, inside the door.

Next bit is to remove the bracket off the door. It's held on with two screws, which again are impossible to see, so I use the camera to let me have a look. One of the screws (the front one) is just a self-tapper but the back one is held on by a 9mm nut. I don't have a 9mm spanner though, and I can't get a socket on because the door glass is almost against the end of the screw. In the end I manage to clamp a large mole grip on to the nut, and take it off with a screwdriver from the outside. The self tapper comes out and it's off!

The bit under the bracket and the rubber backing is manky so I give it a clean with some quick detailer and then white spirit, and it is only at this stage that the real problem emerges. You see, somebody has re-lacquered the door with the mirror still on (possibly to blend in the new bonnet in 2005?) and there is a definite "lip" around the old mirror base. Worse than that, there is a difference in colour depending how the light hits it. I can see it even inside my relatively dark garage so it's going to stick out like a sore thumb in the daylight!

The base of the Corrado mirror isn't big enough to cover all of that - it covers the mounting holes (which was my original concern) but not the bit that needs repainting. So that's the Corrado mirror idea finally squashed then, at least until I feel like getting the doors resprayed. So my options are reduced to one - refurbish the existing mirrors. This isn't going to be easy because the covers are knackered.

So for today, I have to put the old mirror back in exactly the same position, which isn't that hard. Then I have to reconnect the electrics, except I cut the connector off, so I have to splice that back in again. Then by the time I've lubricated the window winder mechanism, refitted the door trim and the speaker, I've spent nearly 3 hours doing absolutely nothing.

I do a deal with my son - he needs brake pads and disks fitted, but doesn't know how to do it. I need wheels polished, and he knows how to do that. I take off two wheels and take them back to the house, and the deal is done. The wheels look ok and his car now stops.

As I write this I've just had a flash of brilliance - I think that the man I bought my bonnet from, makes fibreglass covers for the early Tasmin mirrors - and that's what these are. I'll phone him tomorrow and see what he says.

:: Thursday, March 27, 2008 ::

I phone Trevor Bee at TET Mouldings and he confirms that he can supply fibreglass covers for these mirrors. I just need to send him the money! And then buy primer, paint and lacquer, so that they are the right colour before I fit them. This gives me a chance to try Halfords paint-mixing system to see how good the colour match is, before I use it on the actual car.

Then it's back along to the car, to spend several hours removing and rubbing down and then polishing all the wheels. Hours and hours and hours.

They look nice though! The only question remaining is: do I leave them or lacquer them this time?

By the time I get home, it's too late to post my letter with the money for the mirror covers. Ah well - not the most important problem!

I've now got the car to a state (apart from the mirror covers and refitting the driver's door trim) where all that's left is cleaning it up and giving it a polish. Oh and tidying it up under the bonnet. And the interior could do with a clean. And the roof. And I need to polish the window frames. Oh and reseal the windscreen.

Let's face it, I have tons to do yet. I'm a happy pixie though - it's slow but it's getting there.

:: Friday, March 28, 2008 ::

Didn't get along to the car today. I did, however, order new miror covers, and then bought some paint, primer and lacquer so that they'll match the car. Hopefully.

:: Sunday, March 30, 2008 ::

Another list of jobs.

No 1 is something I've been meaning to do for a while. I strip off the tape around the windscreen and clean up the edge of the glass and the edge of the windscreen frame with white spirit - then go round the screen filling the gap with Sikaflex adhesive sealant.

You'll see here that the edge of the screen is delaminating, a common problem with the S. I hope that the Sikaflex will seal the edge, and I'll paint over the black surround just to tify it up a bit.

While that's drying, I decide to tidy up the wiring under the bonnet. There are a number of wires held together with mouldy old insulating tape and cable ties, and they look horrible. I bought some split corrugated tubing so I wrestle that onto the cables and it looks a lot better. Less likely to catch on things, too.

Next job is to refit the inside door trims - pretty uneventful really, shove them on, punch the clips into place, refit the speaker and the job's done.

What next: Oh yes, I polish up the front quarterlight frames. I hadn't noticed how dull they were till I started thinking about doing the windscreen.

Not finished yet! In a fit of enthusiasm I clean up the interior trim - dash, console, everything except the seats.

While I have the cleaner out I also clean up what's left of the door mirrors - that "Back to Black" stuff does exactly what it says on the tin!

While doing all this I come up with a new list of jobs:

Clean the engine compartment
Lacquer the wheels
Paint and refit the mirror covers
Clean the roof
Clean all the glass
Polish the paintwork

My list never gets shorter!