:: Diary - August 2003 ::

:: Saturday August 2, 2003 ::

I have an errand to do in the next town. The sun is shining so it's a job for the S!

I go straight from there to the monthly TVR Car Club meeting in Kirkcaldy. As I arrive I am guided into a small private section of the hotel car park, where there are already 3 TVRs waiting, including the bloke I met last weekend. They start chatting, some have a look at mine while I admire theirs. Others arrive, all instantly recognised as they turn in. Am I the only newcomer?

Apparently so, but despite the fact that they know each other they do take the time to speak to me too! After a while we go indoors for lunch, and I am asked if I want to take my car to the Callander Classic car show in 3 weeks, to the TVR club stand. After a nano-second of thought I agree.

We leave after a couple of hours. I am looking forward to next time already.

When I get home I can't get the boot open. After some swift rewiring (I am getting better at this "on the hoof" rewiring!) it pops open. I resolve that the repair of the burnt wiring connector is more urgent than I thought (I am still running through the good grace and electrical conductivity of Polo Mint wrappers!)

:: Sunday, August 3, 2003 ::

Slight drizzle overnight, can't waterproof a wet roof...

I therefore decide to tidy up the rear TVR badge which is corroded. First a coat of matt black to fill the background... then silver on the highlights. While an improvement over the corroded mess, it's still rubbish. Decide to get a new rear badge. Sometime.

A wee drive down to Halfords for electrical connectors. I find a 4-way connector block with 15 amp connectors that is meant for removable speakers in parcel shelves in maxed-up Novas. £2.19... yup that'll do me!

Return home, remove steering shroud and write down what colour of wire is connected to what. Then proceed to merrily chop the old connector out of the car wiring loom. Loads of dangling bare wires.

Next step is to put male electrical connectors onto the 3 wires from the ignition switch. Then put female connectors onto the 3 wires from the vehicle loom.

Then figure out which wire should be connected to what and push them into the connector blocks accordingly. Then push the connector plugs together... turn the key... Varoom!!! sorted!

While I have the steering column in bits I separate and clean the boot switch connectors. Now that's sorted too!

Finally, I decide that I am once again peed off with self-cancelling indicators which switch off when I want them to stay on, and stay on when I expect them to switch off. I'll switch them off myself, thank you! I take off the indicator stalk and figure out how it works. There's a little piece of plastic which comes out against the steering column and flicks the ignition back off. I find that if I wedge a tiny wire offcut in the mechanism it holds this plastic back... so no self-cancel!

Another blatt confirms that all is ok. Return home as its getting dark. Oooops waterproofing! Too late now...

:: Tuesday, August 5, 2003 ::

Bought a personal registration for the car. Have to wait 5 days for paperwork from DVLC.

:: Saturday, August 9, 2003 ::

DVLA certificate of enttlement for personal registration arrived today! Hula hula hula! I have to go to the local vehicle licencing office in Edinburgh with the MOT & road tax etc and get the registration assigned to the car... Once the paperwork is started I can't use the car till the new registration is on. I'll do that next week while the car is at the upholsterer, then I can change the number plates before I drive it home!

Finally got round to waterproofing the roof. Thompson's Water Seal is recommended by the Pistonhead site - cheaper than the "custom made" stuff. Just brush it on till it soaks in, it says on the tin.

I dunno about water repellent but it's effing horrible to anything with nostrils or antennae... I am absolutely high on water seal fumes. "Use in a well ventilated area" it says on the tin. That'll be Milwaukee during a typhoon then? God it honks... Still it's done now...

:: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 ::

Up bright and early to take the car to the upholsterer, who is based 20 miles in the opposite direction from where I work. Drive through the Edinburgh morning rush hour (a misnomer if ever there was one) and eventually arrive at his factory at 8:00 like he said.

Except - he's not there.

Wait around for him to arrive, constantly tempted by the snack van parked right outside the gates of his yard. After a roll with sausage, a roll with egg and a can of fizzy juice I am about to fall into a cholesterol coma when he finally arrives.

He agrees to make up a new gear lever gaiter and also fix the door seal.

I then travel home by public transport - a journey that takes me two and a half hours.

:: Thursday, August 14, 2003 ::

The car is ready for collection!

I have had the foresight to arrange a meeting in Edinburgh but it drags on from its scheduled forty-five minutes. As it enters its third hour I make my excuses and leave. Unwilling to suffer the interminable delays of the public transport system, I get a taxi out.

The car looks absolutely fantastic! He couldn't get an exact match of carpet so has made up a contrast, then used the old carpets to make inserts to fill in worn bits on the sides of the footwell. The new gear gaiter is a perfect match (except clean!). I am absolutely delighted with his work - not cheap but not cheap-looking either and that suits me.

I haven't had time to go the Vehicle Licensing Office to get the new registration assigned so it's a case of drive home by the "nearly" most direct route.

:: Friday, August 15, 2003 ::

Bought new number plates - still no time to sort out the paper work though.

:: Sunday, August 17, 2003 ::

Today I have mostly been cleaning up the rest of the interior to match the new carpets.

Cleaned all the leather dash, seats and trim, and then used a leather cream / polish to finish them off. Door trims, headrests and headlining all get cleaned up.

Am then inspired to properly wash the bodywork as well.

The car looks the absolute mutt's nuts by the time I have finished.

It occurs to me that I have not heard from the TVRCC about the Callander Classic, which they asked me to go to. I don't have a contact telephone or anything for the Secretary who was arranging the exhibitors' passes.

I decide I am going anyway and will blag my way in on the day. No worries.

:: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 ::

Went in to the Vehicle Licensing Office and got the registration officially changed over to the new number. They were very helpful - reminded me to tell the insurers etc.

So when I got home, I did!.

:: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 ::

Revised insurance certificate arrived today.

So did the entry ticket for the car show this weekend. I'm in!

I try not to be deterred by the peeing rain outside, as I recall how the field was like the Florida swamps last year after a brief shower. Forecast says weather will brighten later this week. No worries.

:: Saturday, August 23, 2003 ::

Decided to put the new reg plates on.

The front one was easy. Pull old plates off sticky pads, clean up with white spirit, stick new plate on.

The back plate was however less easy. It's set into the bodywork, and the new plate was very slightly too long so didn't fit.

Back to the shop. They looked at it and measured and remeasured then decided that because it was the British Standard length, there was nothing they could do to make it sub-standard. So I went to a wee shop and he made me one that fits.

:: Sunday, August 24, 2003 ::

Up bright and early, we're going to a classic car show!

A quick blooter up the motorway and as we turn off for the last 20 miles or so, I decide to stop in the next layby to take the roof off. In the layby is another S2! He is waiting for his mate in a chimaera. I wait too. When he arrives we all "scramble" out of this layby and proceed at a leisurely pace to the show, blootering past caravans and dawdlers in noisy convoy. It's absolutely superb, the sound of 3 TVRs echoing back along the road.

The show itself is superb too. We park the car and give it a quick dust over, then chat to others as they arrive. By the end of the day I have picked up tips on wheel refurbishing, cleaning the headlining, dissolving dead flies, making the wipers work better and sealing the windscreen. All good projects for the winter.

It's nice to watch people (other members and the public) look at your car or look inside and say "that's nice"... warm tootsie-toasting glow... The car looks at home amongst its peers, although most of them are in better paint nick than mine. At least all of them were driven there and home, not trailered in like some entries.

A most excellent day.

:: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 ::

I found who makes the little catch for the glove box!

They are £2.85 each. I order 4.

:: Friday, August 29, 2003 ::

Home from the work early, so decide to fit the new glove box catch. It works! Clear out half a tonne of magnetic catches, elastic bands, velcro, clothes peg wedges, chewing gum, gaffa tape and various other adhesives and fittings into a wheely bin.

I then decide to fix the radio cassette player - it plays the radio but cassettes sound like pinky and perky on helium. Pull the radio out, take the case off and clean the cassette mechanism with tape head cleaner and cotton buds. Back in the car and... it's exactly the same! Back out, take it to bits again, a few squirts of WD40 on the cassette mechanism and... it's sorted! Meatloaf blasting all over the neighbourhood! (Ok my taste in music is crap, but I CAN fix cars!)

:: Saturday August 30, 2003 ::

There is an alloy panel under the rear valance, above the exhaust, that is only visible to anybody following the car. I noticed that Davie's is painted plain black. Mine has been painted with underseal which is coming off in places and looks ... well... frankly it looks absolutely pish.

First I loosen and lower the exhaust, then attack the alloy strip with paint stripper, then white spirit, then a wire brush, then various grades of sand paper, then finally metal polish, till it's gleaming. Polish the exhaust, refit it, stand back and admire.

The cassette player is knackered again. Decide it's not worth fixing, since I can get a new CD player for not much more than 70 quid. First I need to fix the aerial, because it's not connected, has a strange connector on the end that I have never seen before.

:: Sunday, August 31, 2003 ::

Left hand indicators aren't working. Flickering far too fast, front left hand indicator isn't working at all. Remove indicator, to find that the earth wire has corroded through and detached itself from the bulb holder. Try various connectors and terminals but none of them fit, so I go for the botch-it option of of soldering the wire straight onto the bulb holder. It works.

I then decide to sort the wipers, which park nicely at the bottom of the screen but don't reach the top or the sides when it's raining, which is not a lot of use. I noticed at the car show the other week that most of the S types had their wipers sitting higher when parked. I remove the wiper arms from the spindles, move them round by two teeth, and refit them again.

The wipers now overlap on the screen, and wipe up to the edge. Sorted.