:: Diary - February 2008 ::

:: Saturday, February 2, 2008 ::

I was out last night and ended up driving home through a blizzard, with snow starting to lie on the motorway and the falling snow reducing visibility to almost zero. So naturally, you slow down a bit, eh? Maybe 40-ish to 50-ish on the motorway seems sensible?

Unfortunately not to the superheroes, who appear to fall into two camps:

1. Drivers of 4x4s who obviously feel that their front fog lights are some sort of good luck talisman that will guide their way through the slippy bits. This, combined with the supertechno grip of 4x4, gives them a feeling of invincibility that means that no slowing down is necessary. "Look" they say to themselves, "no skidding at all - I will zap past these mere mortals in their ordinary 2-wheel-drive poxboxes and thus demonstrate my superiority!". No-one has told them about Newton's second law which, to paraphrase, means that's fine till you have to stop or steer, in which case your 4X4 will perform no better than anything else on the road, and will still skate off into the scenery and you will have the same accident as everybody else, except at a much greater speed.

2. Drivers of white vans, who are even more fucking stupid.

Then of course, having zapped past you on the motorway itself, they feel compelled to slow to 0.001 miles per hour before they enter the slip road, inviting a punt up the luggage and a smack in the teeth.

Anyway, what I started to say was that the roads were bleeding slippery last night, so I wasn't sure if I would be taking the TVR to the club meeting today. When I get up this morning, I'm still not sure: my street is still covered in snow and the outside temperature is minus 3, so it's not looking good.

I decide on a compromise: I'll drive to the garage and if the roads are reasonably ok, I'll take the car out, and if they're not, I'll drive past and go in comfort. Fortunately, most of the roads aren't too bad so I take the TVR - roof on though because it's bloody cold!

Only eight owners bring their TVRs, and the newest of those (the car not the owner) is 15 years old. None of the new ones are there (the owners are, but not the cars). Bunch of woosies if you ask me (I know you didn't but I'm telling you anyway - it's my site and I'll say what I like). It's a bad job, is it not, when the owners of the older (and therefore supposedly more fragile) cars are more prepared to get their cars wet than the owners of the newer ones?

Peter is there again with his lovely 40-year-old blue Vixen, and a new guy called Malcolm brings his 36-year-old white Vixen, which he's just spent 8 years rebuilding all on his own. There's 3 S-types, 2 Griffiths and a Tamora (he wasn't there when I said the newest was 15 years old a minute ago, he arrived later).

The other 3 S owners are there though, so the six of us decide that we're all going to S-Club in June.


:: Saturday, February 9, 2008 ::

Collected the car from the farm today, and paid another year's rent.

My intention was to wash it - it's still manky after the run to the club meet last weekend. I also notice that the wheels are horrible - badly corroded almost white, no shine on them at all.

So I go for a wee run instead, dropping in at the local wheel powder-coaters. AFter a wee look ound I'm not all that convinced that I want to powder coat them - yes they'll look nice most of the time but they're not that shiny, like the originals. They do have a nice grey with gold metalflake through which might look quite nice - far enough away from the original not to look like a poor attempt at restoring the original, if you know what I mean.

Then I drop in to see Mike who is busy chassis-scraping and painting, and who has a to-do list of jobs that makes mine look simple - I don't like putting too much on there at the same time - it's depressing!

His car is nice though - better than mine was originally (probably better than it is now!). Wish I had his garage - 1 minute from the house, power, light and heater - fabby!


:: Sunday, February 10, 2008 ::

I get up early to get a start made on tidying the wheels up.

3 hours later I get back from my wee warm-up run.

i give the car a proper wash on top, and a jet wash underneath.

Then I finally start on the wheels - about time eh?

Stage 1 is a wash with a wheel cleaner - that takes off most of the corrosion and leaves them reasonably clean and smooth. This photo shows the wheel after cleaning - I forgot to take one showing the bloody mess they were in when I started. I was too upset because I broke the handle off my £4.99 wheel cleaning brush.

Then with the wheel off the car, I rub it down by hand with 1500 grit wet and dry paper. That gets them to a reasonably flat finish, ready for polishing.

Then a 3-stage polish using my metal-polishing kit, using 3 different grades of mops and polishes, cleaning off the polish between each stage with white spirit. Then Meguiars metal polish and a polishing ball, and finally a hand polish with Meguiars, and it looks not too bad at all!

(These photos are 3 different wheels at different stages, not all the same wheel, but be assured, they were all just as bad to start with!)

Unfortunately it takes 2 hours per wheel, so by the time I have done 2, it's getting dark.

I think I'll leave the powder coating idea for a bit though - I prefer them like this. I do need to get some wheel wax on them though.


:: Monday, February 11, 2008 ::

Found myself near a Hellfrauds store today so thought I would stock up on wheel cleaner, metal polish and a wheel cleaning brush (mine broke yesterday because the wire handle had rusted through). After wandering around comparing all their products, I finally selected the exact replacements of what I had before. Don't say I'm not adventurous.

Then I got involved in a chat with another scustomer who was trying to figure out what car wash to buy - we ended up talking about all sorts of stuff as we walked to the till (or paypoint or "stand there while we ignore you for 10 minutes point" as I prefer to call it). Well today was no different.

There are 2 tills on a large square desk. There is an assistant (I use that term in the loosest sense) standing at one of those tills. She watches while I and my new-found friend stroll up to the till she is at. Just as I get there, she points to a notice sellotaped to the top of the desk (so that you can't see it till you are standing beside it). The notice says "This till is out of order". She takes one pace sideways to the other till and says "I'll just take you here" and gesticulates around the desk.

While my friend and I are sprinting around this mahoosive desk, and negotiating the inflatable RAC man, the stand of videos, the sweetie rack, the 25 million gallons of cut-price antifreeze and each other, a third person steps up to that till and Bint A starts to serve her.

I crack.

"Tell you what," I hear myself say, "if you can't be bothered lifting this stuff from one hand to the other at a till that's 2 feet from you, I can't be bothered either, so I'll just leave it here so you can have the extra exercise of putting it all away again. Bye" I put the stuff down on the floor and leave.

Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy. I'll have to go somewhere else now, and I'm running out of branches that I haven't stomped out of. I think I have to lower my expectations.


:: Monday, February 18, 2008 ::

Managed to hold my breath long enough to get round the local Halfords and buy the stuff I needed. This is despite another episode of having to ask them to do me a big favour by getting the keys to the school display cabinets so that I could buy a ratchet handle.

When I get home I polish the 2 back wheels, again with the 3-stage process. Like the front ones, they come up ok, but not quite as good as they were when they were just refurbished. They're still ok though!

Then I wax the wheels to give some degree of protection. Then I put the car away - because of other stuff that is going on at the moment, I'm not really in a mood for enjoying the car.


:: Saturday, February 23, 2008 ::

The car has been sitting outside since I cleaned the wheels up, and despite the wax, the shine has gone off them. I clean them up (again) and they're not too bad, but definitely need doing again to get them back to where they were last weekend. I decide that this is just not practical, unless I only want to take the car out on dry days. I think I'll paint them and lacquer them - maybey 95% as nice as the newly-polished look, but at least half decent the rest of the time, whereas at the moment I have 100% for a few days and then they look shite again.

At least the drivers side carpet isn't floating after the car has been sitting outside in the rain all week- it's a bit damp though, but at least the sealer around the steering column bearing has helped a bit.

Sod it - I take the car for a wee run, just to cheer myself up. And it does - it's running well, it stops well, everything is as sweet as a nut. The ride is still a wee bit joggly though, a bit to stiff at the back I think.


:: Sunday, February 24, 2008 ::

I meant to do a pile of wee jobs on the car today but well the weather is too nice to waste so I have another wee run. Even although I've had the car for close on 5 years, I still smile every time I hear it start - it feels and sounds fantastic. The run invloves some pottering about and some blootering along - and in either role, it's brilliant!

When I get home I have a good look around the car so that I can update my list of things to do. Some of them are important, some are tiny little improvements.

Then I take the door mirrors off so that I can try to identify (a) their make and (b) how to get them apart to refurbish them - the metal casing is corroding and making the plastic coating bubble. I can't find any evidence on any of the bits, of the maker or what car they were originally meant for. I also can't figure out how to get them apart - despite moving the glass about in all directions and peering inside, there is no obvious fixing mechanism or lock ring etc to release the glass from the motor. I think it must just prise off, but if I try that and I'm wrong, I'll break the bloody thing and I don't know what to replace it with. The inevitable result would be car off road because it has no door mirror.

I have a look online to try to find door mirrors that might fit. I've been looking out for weeks, for cars with separate door-mounted mirrors (rather than the ones that fit in the front corner of the window frame, which is more common). The list so far:

Mazda MX5 Mk 1
Audi TT (Door angle is different so would need mods to mirror stem)
Hyundai S Coupe (looks like same problem as above)
Toyota MR2 (again on the top of the door, not the side)
Daewoo Matiz (stem is very long so mirror would be halfway up the glass
BMW Mini (which look very nice)

I was reading on Pistonheads during the week about a man who fitted FX4 taxi mirrors, and I have to admit they did look very nice. They were £120 a pop though so I think I'll look out an alternative. Mazda MX5 looks like the favourite at the moment.

I also found a pair of SVA-approved door mirrors for sale for kit cars and self builds - they look ok, a bit like the "bunny ears" fitted to the earliest S-types but bigger, and their finish is not great, but they have the benefit of being very cheap!

I also soften off the rear shock absorbers as far as they will go. Another wee run and it does seem to feel a bit more comfortable.


:: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 ::

The search for suitable door mirrors goes on. I find myself looking for door-mounted mirrors as I drive about, and although I've seen a few, a lot of them are too big or bulky to be any good.

Well today on the way back to the office from a meeting, I passed a car which had mirrors that looked just perfect. I even slowed down to make him pass me again so that I could have another look. Yep I was right the first time, it looks perfect (well the angle of the fitting on the door does, the mirror looks fine too though).

When I get home I have a look on ebay and there's a few for sale for that car, with one auction due to finish tomorrow evening. I'm not going to say what car it is just yet, in case their value suddenly goes up! It's not that common a car, especially not now, so there aren't many mirrors to go around!


:: Thursday, February 28, 2008 ::

Won the ebay auction! I am now the proud owner of one battered electric passenger door mirror, that I can try against the door to see if it fits and looks ok. I don't want something too bulky but it looked ok on the original motor yesterday. Worrying about how to wire it up can wait for another day.

If it looks ok, I'll have to buy another one for the other side (or a pair in better condition). So I'm still not saying yet what car it came off!



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