:: Diary - April 2006 ::

:: Saturday, April 1, 2006 ::

TVR Car Club meeting today.

First I collect the car and bring it back to the house for a wash, because this wee garage is pressty dusty. I need a large dust cover.

Then in a fit of bravery over sense, I have another go at the door hinge - after a bit of adjustment it shuts nicely, so I put the door trim back on. Then I find it's just as bad as when I started. This leads to the conclusion that the hinge itself is knacked.

Then I notice that the top radiator hose connection is still leaking, so I tighten it up some more.

When I get to the club meeting I notice that there is coolant pissing out of the front. Quick inspection shows it's that top hose. Another tighten.

It's still leaking when I get home though so I pull the hose off and find that the stub is egg-shaped and not round - no wonder the hose won't seal. I also notice that the stub has a crack around it - which is weeping coolant. I bend it back into shape with bits of wood, hammer handles etc, then try to remelt the solder with a blowlamp but that doesn't work, so I try to seal up the crack with fireseal putty, which works mostly but will take ages to dry out unless I drain the rad down a bit, by pulling the hose off the swirl pot.

By this time I have covered the street, the car and me in antifreeze. At least it won't get slippy if it's frosty out tonight.

I have to leave the car empty of coolant till the paste dries, so I can't drive it.

Bastard.

:: Sunday, April 2, 2006 ::

Well the putty didn't work - as soon as I started it up there was water pishing out everywhere.

I lost the nut and decided not to fart about any more with "quick bodge" repairs - 5 minutes later the cooling system is drained and the radiator is out. I wire brush all the paste and other crap off to leave the joint clean, when the crack is obvious. My soldering attempts have managed to make a bridge to hold it in place, but it's not sealed at all.

I'll take it first thing in the morning to the man who re-cored it.

Then I walked to collect the Saab from the farm where the TVR should be.

Then to Morrisons for an enormous recuperative fry-up breakfast.

Then later I spent the rest of the daylight stripping several thick coats of paint-stripper-resistant paint off the original rocker covers (the ones that were originally black, then I painted them pale blue last March, and then replaced with the polished and lacquered ones that are now rusting).

I remember that I bought some supposedly magic rust-remover stuff called "Metal Ready". Reading the instructions shows that it has a weak phosphoric acid which etches bare metal, and zinc phosphate which then coats the bare metal metal parts. Worth a go! I spray the covers wet, and then give them a light dusting of splray to keep them wet for 30 minutes. Unfortunately it's getting dark so I do the clever thing of putting them away wet and hoping they haven't dissolved through by tomorrow.

:: Monday, April 3, 2006 ::

I drop the radiator off at the repair man, and agree to collect it on Wednesday (seeing as I am flying far away on business tomorrow - oh aye, a right bleeding executive I am...).

By the time I get home the "Metal Ready" has worked its magic. I wash off the excess with water and dry it with paper towels - Most of the rust marks have gone, leaving a nice etched matt metal finish, ready for painting. A combination of wind (no not mine, the weather) and hailstones means no painting. tonight though.

Examination of the TVR shows that there are bits of chassis under the radiator that could do with repainting - the Hammerite has cracked off the right hand side of the radiator mount and around the bonnet hinge. Clear evidence that the very front tubes of the chassis, ie the overhang bracket that the radiator is mounted on, have been flexed in the accident in July. Fortunately they have sprung back into place but need repainting. Again, this isn't the night for it.

:: Wednesday, April 4, 2006 ::

I pick up the radiator, all nicely repaired for £20. You can't even open the bonnet of a "real" TVR for that kind of money.

By the time I get home, there's no time to install it before it gets dark.

:: Thursday, April 5, 2006 ::

"Sprint", the TVR Car Club magazine, has a feature on servicing and repairing your own car at home, and my web site gets a mention! The article is available for download here.

I am a wee bit concerned at first that he seems to be using me as an example of "what not to do" and quotes that I have squandered the money I have saved through one or two simple errors. Well as far as I can recall, none of my errors have been dangerous, or terminal. I have never in my life, for example, pulled a car over on top of myself. One has been expensive and brought forward a repair and respray that I would have needed to do anyway (well some of it). These things happen. They way that I see it, you don't buy a TVR with a view to avoiding squandering money - it goes with the territory. I bought mine for the whole ownership experience, including repairing and improving - saving money was not the priority. Nevertheless, rather than squandering money I could have saved, I see it this way: I have saved so much money that I can afford to squander some. And the result was that the car looks better anyway.

So dispel any notions that I am in despair as the TVR costs mount up. If I wanted to squander real money I'd buy a newer model and a big medallion.

I realise as well though, to be fair, that I do tend to write these pages with perhaps an over-emphasis on the funny side of what goes wrong - along the lines of "I serviced the car today for a tenth of the cost a garage would charge me, but listen till I tell you this funny bit about puffins..." which might count as evidence that I do possibly know what I am doing, but modestly try to underplay it. Do not be misled, dear reader - I really am as useless as it appears here.

I have had absolutely no, zero, zippo, zilch nada formal training in car mechanics - I started off at 12 or something watching my dad fix his lorries, and picked up a lot from him. He's been gone for 20 years now (which is a long time just to go for rolls and milk now that I think about it) and I've just kept on picking it up as I go along. I am still well, well ahead on what I would have spent over the years if I had relied on garages.

In all seriousness, there is now not much that I will not tackle, provided that I have (or can make) the tools. My own cars only ever see the inside of a garage at MOT time - my Granada for example went from 56,000 to 195,000 miles and only saw a garage when the autobox went phut. Have you ever seen how many bits are in an autobox? I saw the gubbins of mine spread over a table, and I could not have got that many pieces back inside that casing unless I was Dr Who with a 10-tonne hydraulic press.

The article does contain several very useful tips for anybody teetering on the edge of giving it a go: Buy decent tools (I have amassed a collection just by buying as I need something, as he suggests) and don't ever, ever, under any circumstances, none whatsoever, lend them to anybody, even your best friend who won't be for long. Don't do it. Wear gloves, be safe, be careful, and don't bite off more than you can chew, which you might recognise as somewhat condescending coming from a man who takes things apart on the basis of "It's not working anyway, how much more broken can I make it?" It works for me though but that's only because I'm used to recovering from situations where all seems lost - I've got myself there often enough!

I have another tip, which he doesn't mention - don't ever ever use your car-mending skills to fix somebody else's car - not your brother's, your neighbour's, not nobody's, because if you lay a spanner on it, you automatically and instantaneously sign up for an irrevocable lifetime warranty on every component within 3 feet (aka arm's reach) of whatever you fixed - they will never be away from your door, I promise you. Listen to your Uncle TVRgit. Don't do it.

I do want to learn to weld properly though - think of the new possibilities for damage when you have the use of man's red fire...

:: Saturday, April 8, 2006 ::

I have to install the radiator in a hurry because I forgot that men were coming to paint the eaves of the house and I have to get the car out of the drive. 30 minutes later, I have it running. And in light of my post of yesterday, I have to report that nothing went wrong. No siree. See I can do it when I try. Even in a hurry.

I meant to take a photo before I put the radiator in though, and I forgot. Nobody's perfect, even those who say they are.

Oh and the exhaust isn't blowing any more! At this rate there's a danger that I might start thinking I'm clever.

:: Saturday, April 8, 2006 (Continued) ::

Later, after the rain goes off again, I install the fire extinguisher I bought last month. After a great deal of footering about trying it in different places, I fix it to the floor in front of the drivers seat, under my knees. Easy to grab in a hurry!

Then I remove the gear knob and shorten the gear lever by about half an inch, with a hacksaw. When I get it back together I think I could take a little more off, but it's better than it was.

Nothing goes wrong. Just thought I'd say!

:: Saturday, April 8, 2006 (Continued Again) ::

I have an hour's blatt, the first for ages (well not counting going to the club meeting last weekend obviously).

When I get back, I decide to respray the rocker covers that I stripped and cleaned last weekend. I get the new tin of hammerite smooth, and shake it like it says on the tin. What it doesn't say on the tin is that after spraying for about half a second, the nozzle will block and start splattering paint all over the shop, and dribbling over your fingers. Once you figure out a way around that, it will stop spraying altogether.

I find an old tin and swap the nozzles, and fortunately the new one works. I try to spray it as lightly and evenly as possible.

:: Monday, April 10, 2006 ::

The sun is shining but the weather forecast says that it will be raining later. What better day for jet-washing the engine, and then rain to clean all the residual crap away?

Jack front of car up on to axle stands, and then clamber underneath with a tray of paraffin and a brush. Now it would make more sense to just douse myself in paraffin and then rub myself all over the bottom of the car, because it would, at the end of the day, be less messy than trying to spread paraffin overhead with a brush. I clean the engine and gearbox, and also the main chassis members. After that, cleaning the sides of the engine block from above is relatively easy!

Then jetwash, again doing the bottom first (nobody likes lying in pools of water do they kiddies? Well I suppose it would have helped to wash the paraffin off me). Nice shiny gearbox and sump etc, and the chassis members look pretty good as well.

I then leave the bonnet up while the engine dries off (oh aye, I learned my lesson there right enough) but push the car back a bit so that it can clean up all the oil and crup on the road. This takes longer than actually cleaning the car. I must remember next time to park right over a road drain (only joking Mr Council Drainage Officer).

I do notice during all this that the front suspension looks crap - the hammerite is chipping off again and needs to be redone. I might do the suspension in a different colour this time rather that having the whole lot in the one colour of red. It does look good when its freshly done though... The rest of the chassis is mainly ok although the front offside corner needs repainted as a result of having the hinge mount hammered back into shape after its bump. There are also one or two bare bits just behind the suspension wishbones.

Then I have yet another go at the door. I loosen the big central bolt and then the wee bolts and realign the door again. After struggling with it twice, it's better but still not quite right.

Then I stick TVR badges onto the newly-painted rocker covers - but forget to photograph them.

A wee blatt then I leave the car at the farm and walk home.

:: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 ::

I was right, it was pissing down rain all night. Good job I took the TVR along to the garage then eh?

So today what'll I do? I have to think about it before I leave so that I remember to take all the stuff with me that I will need. It's a pain in the bum locking up to come back for stuff, and then going to get the key again when I get back there. So, with the boot of the Saab absolutely packed with toolboxes, jacks etc, I set off - first to a local motor accessory shop to buy some sundries - cleaner for the hood, some steel wool for the wheels. and a paint brush, that sort of thing.

When I go to pay for the stuff I am greeted by a grunting thing of about 19 years, who carefully avoids eye contact as he snatches my prospective purchases and passes them in front of a scanner. Having dropped the paint brush he tries to insert it open-end first back into the wrapper, bending half of the bristles back. When I ask him to leave it, he appears to speaka no Inglische. He grunts though so he's still alive and the glowworm is obviously kicking over.

"£22.37" and the hand comes out.

"Pardon?" (studiously ignores hand)

"£22.37"

Still ignoring hand, I proceed to count out, painfully slowly, £22.37 in the largest combination of lowest-denomination coins I have in my pockets. I pour them into his hand and he almost imperceptibly grunts again.

He starts to count the coins into his till. Half way through, just when he is concentrating really hard, I decide to engage him in conversation. "£22.37 isn't much really is it?"

Blank look.

I mean it's hardly worth saying "Thank you" for, is it?"

Blank look. Arm comes up and holds out receipt.

"Oh a receipt? For me? Thank you very much for allowing me to spend some of my money in your shop, it's been a pleasure..."

Grunt.

Anyway back to the garage and the relative sanity of having nobody to talk to for several hours.

The garage and outbuildings are being rewired, and the two electricians are impressed with the car. I let them have a look around it and then make them get back to work, the lazy bastards.

Jack up rear of car and remove rear wheel. This lets me in to clean up the fuel pump connectors and put some heat shrink tubing over them.

Next job - install wire from rustproofer gadget (which I started to install in February!) to the back wheelarch. This involves threading it along the length of the middle of the chassis, and across above the diff. Then I get the rest wired up and it all seems to work!

What next? Oh yes - I clean the rear hood section and roof panels which are manky. This takes ages because as the panels dry I see mucky streaks which I have to clean again and wait till it dries etc etc ad nauseam.

Then I decide to install the new headlamp rings and instantly find a problem. They don't fit - they are a different size. So instead I attack the ones I have with Autosol or something and they come up really nice (apart from the ding in one of them). I realise that what I really need are the lamp retaining rings - mine are rusted to hell underneath.

I need to clean the back window but I can't find the stuff I bought, and I'm sure I didn't use it all. I'll have another look.

Remaining tasks are mainly polishing and cleaning - the paintwork and wheels first, then the engine area.

Oh and as I said yesterday, there a lot of bits of chassis that need repainted and waxoyled.

But that's enough for today.

:: Thursday, April 13, 2006 ::

First things... I have noticed that the car is covered again in a film of dust, even although it was relatively freshly washed when I put it away. I need a dust cover. A quick perusal shows that even simple cotton covers cost a bleeding fortune. So instead I go to B&Q and buy a couple of decorator's cotton dust sheets.

Second - all this kneeling on concrete floors is doing my poor old knees in - they're killing me! A trip to Machine Mart later and I am the proud owner of a castored, height-adjustable with gas-lever, padded stool with built-in tool tray and extra ponciness. Bleeding comfy though.

Back at the garage, I start by taking the car outside and washing it and then drying it off with a chamois and terry towel. I mean, you can't go putting a dust sheet over a car that's already dusty, can you? I mean, what's the point of that eh, what's the bloody point?

Then I leave it in the yard to dry, while I start to waterproof the roof.

First I brush down all the panels and the hood section with a stiff clothes brush - this sweeps all the dust out and also brings up the texture of the roof cloth. Then I put the first roof panel on a bucket, and paint with Thomson's water sealer.

As I finish the first panel, I notice that it has started to rain. Well to be accurate, it's been raining for a few minutes and the car is wet again. So I put the car back into the garage and go through the chamois and terry towel routine again. Joy. Then I put the dust cover on, before I have to wash the thing again.

Then the second panel and the hood section, being careful to work into all the stitching around the edges and round the back window.

Then I spend an inordinate amount of time with Scratch-X, rubbing out the worst of the scratches on the rear wings and boot lid, but there's a lot to do! Worth doing right though - this is the first stage before paint cleaning, then polishing then waxing.

:: Saturday, April 15, 2006 ::

After the Scratch-X yesterday I am not overly impressed with the rest of the paint finish - the rest of the paint (outside the Scratch-X areas) is noticeably less smooth and even feels rougher. I know what I am going to try - the clay bar! More of that in a minute but first:

I give the roof a second coat of waterproofing. Same routine as yesterday but without the rain coming on and screwing it up half way through.

Then the clay bar. What you get is a bottle of "detailing spray" and a bar of clay, like plasticene but dearer. You mist the spray on to the panel, and then rub the clay over the paint, rubbing all the surface imperfections off the paint. It also removes ingrained soot, bird crap, etc. When the clay gets dirty you fold it over on itself and continue with a new clean bit. It took me about 3 hours to do the sides and boot (well I suppose what I mean is all of the car except the bonnet, which has just been painted!) I haven't done the door shuts, boot edge etc - I don't want the vlay getting filthy until I have safely cleaned all of the main panels.

I was going to take photos but the camera battery was going flat. There was also the problem that my arms were so knackered from doing the claying thing, that I couldn't hold the camera steady anyway.

I managed to take one photo though, showing the resulting shine. Bear in mind that this is bare paint with no paint or wax on it - those stages come later!

After taking this photo, I turned the car around so that I could do the other side with some light on it, and also so that the boot and back wings of the car are at the garage door - easier to see what I am doing! A quick check over shows that there are still a number of scratches on the rear of the car, especially on the boot lid. More Scratch-X required!

I decide to eschew this particular pleasure, preferring to be able to drive home before my arms fall off.

:: Sunday, April 16, 2006 ::

Start again with the Scratch-X - I do the boot, and the top curves of both front wings, which have been shot to hell by that stupid car cover I had. Add in the extensive scratching from the later hood cover moving in the wind, and it's not a pretty sight! Several (I say several because I lost count because I can't count that high) applications of Scratch-X later, I have the back of the car to a reasonable finish, but there are still a lot of scratches visible in the strip light reflections in the garage!

After a while, further applications of Scrath remover make no visible difference so I decide to call it a day.

So then I move on to the paint cleaner stage - applied and polished off by hand. I do the boot, the back wings, the doors and the front wing panels - ie all the main panels except the bonnet (which, having just been painted, can't be polished yet and shouldn't need to be anyway).

This is the stuff!

Then the polish stage - again the boot, back wings and doors etc, this time using a machine polisher to apply the polish and buff it off, with final shine brought up by hand with a terry towel. It's looking pretty shiny but it's hard to tell inside the garage, and I'm not taking it outside to look because the rain's back on. I don't want to apply the wasx until I get the chance to look at it in daylight first.

So instead I decide to polish the back window, using stuff called "Hindsight" that I ordered earlier in the week. It's a 2-stage process again, a paste and then a cream - and it brings the window up superbly!

This little lot has taken me 6 hours, so I've had enough for today.

Next stages is to hand-polish the detail areas (around door handles etc and around the egde of the hood) and then wax the lot.

:: Monday, April 17, 2006 ::

It's my wee car's offical birthday! 3 years today since it bought me. It got a bargain - I got a fast train to bankruptcy - bloody thing.

Anyroad - another day, another layer of polish. This time, my darling son, Daniel-san, comes with me to wax-on / wax-off.

When we get to the garage he starts to strip the lacquer off a wheel, while I clean and polish the tricky bits (the car's, not mine) that the electric buffer can't reach. After an hour I'm ready to start waxing, but he's flagging badly, having successfully got the lacquer of one wheel centre.

So like the nutter that I am, I agree to swap places, so he does the wax-on / wax-off thing as I, aka Mr Miyagi, get stoned on Nitromors fumes. The lacquer is about quarter of an inch thick and obviously polyurethane, because it comes off in huge rubbery strips. Eventually.

The areas where the lacquer has been flaking off are badly corroded, so I clean them with a flap wheel - a couple of grades too rough as it turns out, because it leaves scratches that take a very long time indeed to polish out. Well nearly polish out - they are still visible if you look for them.

5 hours later (yes 5 hours!) we have a wheel stripped and polished and back on the car - and although it's hard work, it does look good!

I take off another 2 wheels and take them home to work on during the week - I am back at work tomorrow so it'll be back to evenings only for the rest of the week. I do manage to strip one of the wheels in about an hour, later in the day. This time I remove the corrosion with 600 grade wet and dry, which doesn't mark the wheel, but doesn't remove all the corrosion either. Finally I get it reasonably clean and shiny with the 3-stage polishing wheels (that I used on the rocker covers last April). It just needs a hand polish with the ordinary metal polish and it'll be fine.

The polishing wheels will also sort out the wheel I did earlier today.

Daniel-san has promised to keep up his training while I'm at work. We shall see.

:: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 ::

I've realised why I like polishing so much. It gives me time for reflection. Polishing - reflection - oh never mind.

My cycnicism was misplaced - young Daniel-san has indeed polished up another wheel.

Anyway, last night I used up half a tin of nitromors removing the lacquer from the third wheel, and then tonight I removed the corroded bits and polished it up. It's not perfect but it looks a lot better than the scratched corroded mest that I had.

Three down, one to go.

I have been thinking (always a dangerous pastime in my case). The site guestbook has had a couple of spam attacks recently, and isn't used a lot anyway. I quite fancy teaching myself how to build a discussion forum, just to see if I can do it. So I think I might give it a go, when my brain capacity is up to it.

:: Saturday, April 22, 2006 ::

I take the two polished wheels along to the garage and put them on the car, with nice new shiny wheel nuts, then take the fourth wheel off and bring it back to the house.

Another couple of hours with the hitromors / wire wool / paint stripper routine, and then various grades of polishing mops etc and I have them reasonably shiny. Well a damn sight better than the scratched and corroded mess that I started with.

Back to the garage and put it on the car, then I add a couple of TVR sticker badges that I bought on ebay, under the front indicators, just to save wee boys in cars alongside from having to as "what is it mister?" because it's getting on my nerves everywhere I go.

I think that's the car all ready for tomorrow.

:: Sunday, April 23, 2006 ::

A group of us have arranged to go to the Doune hill climb, where Rodger has arranged a wee club exhibition space in the paddock. We are all meeting up at Stirling services and then driving along in convoy.

So it's up first thing and along to the garage to extract the car. After a routine of removing dust covers, starting it up and getting it out, then loading various items from the Saab, I jump back in ready to start. Except it doesn't. Start that is. Turning the key produces absolutely nothing. Marvellous.

After flapping about for a couple of minutes I find that the starter wire has come off the solenoid and just needs to be clipped back on tighter. Except reaching the wire is impossible from above or the side. Marvellous. Eventually I manage to wedge my arm down between the engine and the chassis and get the wire back on.

Ignoring the exhaust burn on my arm, I jump back in and we're off!

Well for 10 minutes or so. Then the car stutters to a halt, out of petrol. I must get that fuel gauge fixed. Emergency supplies poured in, and we're off again, delayed only by a stop at the next petrol station!

Meet the rest and drive along to Doune where we park up. It's a glorious warm sunny day - and the cars do attract a fair bit of interest.

All those hours of cleaning and polishing are suddenly worth it because the car looks beautiful out in the sun!

The TVRs are invited to do a run up the hill over the lunch break. I decided not to but a few had a go. I kind of wish I had now. Anyway we have photos of each car going up (you can view these on the Yahoo Scottish newsgroup), and another as you came back down again. Let me know if you want a copy of yours.

We made it back without incident apart from an amusing blatt through the underpass beneath the Stirling shopping centre, in close and noisy (and totally impromptu) formation with Stewart's 350i.

A grand day out.

:: Saturday, April 29, 2006 ::

You would think that after the polishing frenzy of last week, I'd have had enough for a while eh?

You forget that some people never learn - so here I am, polishing again, the engine compartment this time. It takes me the best part of a day, cleaning all the rubber hoses, wiring etc, polishing the metal bits and then cleaning and waxing the paintwork inside the engine compartment. Brake hoses and copper pipes, wee plastic connectors, the lot - if I can see it, I clean it.

I am going to the doctors on Monday to ask him to explain the symptoms for compulsive disorder syndrome - I'm sure I can't be far off.

:: Sunday, April 30, 2006 ::

Another lovely spring morning. I decide to have a dawn drive. Unfortunately by the time I wake up and make that decision, dawn is well over, and we are halfway through the morning. Well, 8:00 am anyway. I am on pain of death to be back by lunchtime (12:30 at the latest) so no time to lose!

Start the car up quietly (as quielty as possible!) and rumble out of the street on idle while it warms up. I have absolutely no idea where I am heading for so I am scanning the skies like Baron Von Richthofen (except I am looking for where the decent weather is, not for Snoopy on top of a kennel).

About 5 minutes after I leave the house, I happen across a brace of 1960s Ford Anglias, obviously travelling in convoy to somewhere. 5 Minutes later I pass a Dolomit SPrint and a Mini Cooper, and then a Marcos. Even to me, senile, demented and confused as I am, it's kinda obvious that there's something going on somewhere that involves old cars! I follow a TRiumph 2.5 up a slip road and then further along the road there's a Saab 96 and an Alvis at a junction. One of them has a pass stuck in the window that says "Autos at the Airfield 2006". Only one airfield around here, so off I go.

I get there at 10, so can't stay long, but there's a droolworthy collection of old cars, American cars, military vehicles, fire engines, all sorts of stuff, along with the usual air museum exhibits.

Then I meet somebody I know so we start blethering - he is there with his Marcos (not the one that passed me), so we go to look at it, as you do (well, it's only polite, eh?). When we get there, the car next to his is a Panther Lima belonging to somebody else I know, so I have a blether with him as well.

Then I remember the time.

Gulp!

Back to the car and blooter home, pulling into the drive at 12:29 exactly. Skin saved!

Later, I take the car back to the garage, and put it to bed. The weather forecast is for rain tonight and all day tomorrow so no play time.

I find another blowhole in the exhaust manifold though, and stick some Fireseal in that and leave it to dry, before I lock the garage. At this rate I'll have sculpted a whole new manifold out of fireseal - there will be no metal tubing left! I think I'll replace the manifolds over the winter, when I'll have time to take the cylinder heads off etc when the manifold studs break off (as they inevitably will). What do you mean I said that last year? Too good a memory, if you ask me...