First thing to explain - I have had a complaint from my one regular reader that I haven’t updated the web site for a month. Sometimes that just happens, but I made a decision at the start of last month, that this site should be about the TVR, and not get too full of stuff about Porsches, Chevrolets and other guff. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, I haven’t clapped eyes on the TVR for a month, so unless you want to read stuff about Porsches, Chevrolets and other guff, move ahead now.
First, the TVR meeting last month. Dave still wasn’t driving, so I took him and Claire in the Chevy - what a hoot! After taking up 3 parking spaces, I was last to order my dinner, because I was talking about the car. It’s certainly different!
I drop off Dave and Claire, and took this photo to demonstrate what happens to Citroens if they take too many steroids. Drugs is bad, don’t do them
kiddies… By the way, did you see the interview the other day with the fire crew who had just put out a blaze in an illegal marijuana factory? Funniest
thing I’ve seen for years…
Then on the way home, I stop off at Morrisons for some cans of coke (the fizzy kind, not the snorty kind - see above). As I get out of the car, this woman loading groceries into her car says “I bet you get this all the time but I really like that car…” Turns out her ”arsehole ex-husband” had a Chevy Caprice, so she knows what it is. I’m still trying to decipher whether her main hint was “arsehole” or “ex-husband…”
When I come back out, there’s one of those 80s Mercedes 500 coupes beside it, and the driver is just getting back in his car. As I get nearer, he turns and comes back - “this your car?” - this wakes me from the “arsehole ex-husband” pondering, to looking around for his accomplices and an escape route. But no, he saw me coming in, and hoped his girlfriend would get back before me. They both have a closer look, take a couple of photos, bit of chat, then they leave. He’s still looking at the car as he reverses straight into a lamp post. Oh dear.
So I help him to pick up various bits of plastic (just one rear light) and while I’m doing that, I see someone else who looks like Willie Nelson standing beside my car, smoking a roll-up. So I go over to speak to him. “You drove past me the other day’” he says, “I was on a trike.” I remember - it was an orange one with 2 front wheels and one back wheel. So we chat for a bit…
Then I get in the car to go home, start it up - and another couple appear at the drivers window. “Can we take a photo?” It’s a free country…
Nearly an hour to walk into Morrisons and buy a 6-pack of fizzy drinks…
What else… oh yes, I replaced the clock, that only took about 10 minutes, it’s easy when you can get not just your hands but also most of your arm, your shoulder and your head up behind the dashboard, and no cable ties to skin you alive.
I cant remember if I said before, but I thought I had a garage space lined up, but there was a delay. I went back to see him, and he promised he would sort it out, 4 weeks ago. Nada, zilch, nothing.
So the Chevy has been sitting outside since I got it. It’s been rained on, covered in leaves, frozen, frosted - while singing “do you know the way to San Jose” (which is where it was until June). I need to get it under cover…
There’s no more space available along at the farm, but I was along there the other day to collect my trickle charger, and noticed that the man who shares the other half of the barn hasn’t got nearly as much stuff as before. So I checked the measurement of the door width, against the width of the car - and the 57 Bel Air is a lot narrower than the ’59 red one I was looking at originally. That one wouldn’t evenfit through the door - but mine will (with about 3 inches on each side, according to published dimensions).
So I spoke to the farm owner, then gave the other guy a call, and he says he has tidied a lot of his stuff out, and is happy if I need the rest of the space at least over the winter. I think I will sell a car in the spring (probably the Porsche) so that would take me back to needing 2 spaces again - one here, one along there.
So I went along today, met the other renter, helped him to load some stuff into his van, and shifted the TVR right up against the wall (not RIGHT against
it obviously) and that leaves THIS space available. A Chevy Bel Air parked right beside the TVR comes roughly to where the front wheel of that little
scooter is.
The Chevy is a lot longer though - right forward to the edge of that bit of carpet (which regular readers will recognise, has featured in photos on this site for donkey’s years, and even in Sprint magazine). So - it fits!
What else… oh yes, I’ve put more antifreeze in the Chevy - there was some in there, but a little bit weak. I also got valve cover gaskets and new bolts and proper spreaders, plus oil and filter, so that I can service it - I don’t know when it was last done, and there’s only one way to be sure, eh? I also need to find my ancient unused grease gun - this thing has proper grease nipples on all the suspension and steering joints!
