:: Diary - February 2010 ::

:: Friday, February 5, 2010 ::

I've promised to help Tom replace the alternator on his Cerbera tomorrow. I have a spare one, but I can't find it! Then realisation dawns - it must be along in the barn with the S, so I head along there, and so it is!

I can't resist having a look at the S under its cover - I take the cover off and it looks great - then I decide to start it, and wgen I open the bonnet, I realise how clean it all is. I've not used the S since the start of October (I haven't used the Cerbera much either to be fair - the weather has been terrible). It deserves better, my wee car - I really must use it more. But for now, I start it up just to hear it - 4 months it's been standing, and it starts first time. It's a wee beauty!

I let it warm up, supposedly to recharge the battery, but really so that I can listen to it as I look for the alternator.

Right, alternator found, engine off, cover on.

:: Saturday, February 6, 2010 ::

Up first thing to get along to Tom's to change the alternator - how hard can it be? Well usually, a piece of piss - disconnect battery, remove fanbelt, remove alternator, fit new one - takes 20 minutes tops.

Not on a V8 Cerbera though. First you have to remove the fuel rail, and that means running the car with the fuel pump relay removed to depressurise the system, then disconnecting all the hoses and taking out the rail and injectors.

Then you find you still can't get a spanner on to the alternator mounting bolts - so that means removing the airboxes and inlet manifolds. And the spark plug leads. And the throttle cable. Surprisingly, seeing as it's not long since been rebuilt by a very expensive specialist called Automedon (no name and shame restrictions here!) two of the inlet manifold bolts are only finger tight, and one of the spark plug leads falls off when I touch it. We also find that the emergency access system is broken, although he paid the same company to fix it.

Finally we get the alternator off, and the new one on, then put the whole thing back together, checking all the leads are on in the right order, and all the injectors are also connected properly (we marked them with masking tape before we took them off).

Fuel pump relay back in, and start her up then off for a test drive - Tom reports it's going better than ever. A voltmeter check confirms it's now charging properly.

Success!

:: Sunday, February 7, 2010 ::

TVR Car Club meeting today, and I decide to take the Cerbera (it's nice to have a choice!) so we set off in convoy, with Dave as a passenger after his shoulder operation.

Good turnout, 12 cars there, plus other members in their "day cars". Brian has been busy restoring the seats on his Chimaera, and they look absolutely fantastic - they've come up like new. The interior of the S lets it down but if I could get the leather looking like his, then do some carpeting, I'd be a happy scone.

Tom turns up, and is still happy that his Cerbera is still going well. Only problem seems to be that the doors sometinmes don't shut right and the passenger door sometimes flies open. Don't have a clue how that started! If he locks it from the inside, though, it's ok.

It's funny how opening the bonnet draws a crowd, eh?

Cerbera gets a wee bit hot on the way home, I forgot that the needle was moving about a bit, last time I used it. I think it's just built up air in the system, probably not helped when I took the rad cap off a few weeks ago before the engine had cooled to freezing, and heard it gurgle a bit - now gurgling needs air so there must have been some created when I released the pressure. It's not overheating, just swinging about a bit - which I've realised is the first symptom of air.

I also notice that the drivers side windscreen wiper is split and isn't clearing the screen,. Need a new one.

:: Monday, February 8, 2010 ::

Bought some more antifreeze and bled the cooling system. Right enough, a fair bit of air trapped in the radiator. Leave it to run and the fans cut in perfectly.

I also bought a Halfords 16 inch wiper blade, and fit that - except it doesn't have the right size of wee plastic fitting to fix it to the wiper arm - so I re-use the old fitting to put the new blade on. Important tip - don't break the plastic fitting clip getting the old blade off!

:: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 ::

Took the Cerb down to Carlisle today for a Sporting Bears cheque presentation - 100 miles there, car behaved perfectly, although the needle is still swinging around a bit. No real pattern to it - it's not as if it goes up when you accelerate or when you stop, it just swings around.

It gets a lot hotter on the way back though - not to the overheating stage, but awfully close! I decide it needs bled again.

:: Friday, February 12, 2010 ::

Bled the Cerbera's cooling system today. Jack up the front a little bit, heater on full tilt, engine running, then bleed the radiator and both top pipes. I notice that when I switch the car off and it starts to cool, it sucks water back down out of the header tank. There's no bubbles coming up through the coolant so I don't think it's the head gasket. There's still air in there somewhere though! Maybe it needs another "sniffer" test - I'll run it for a bit and see how it goes.

:: Sunday, February 14, 2010 ::

It's a year today since I bought the Cerbera!

I decide to celebrate by starting to polish it properly. I think I'll use the same process that brought the S up nice a couple of years ago, so the first step is to clean down the paintwork with a clay bar.

After an hour or so I realise that there's a lot more paint on a Cerb than on an S - I'm knacked and I'm only half way through! After another hour, I've finished the car - well this stage anyway. It looks damn good (considering that it's got no polish on it!)

Next step - liquid paint cleaner. And a polishing machine, thank goodness.

:: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 ::

Well I've spent 3 days polishing the Cerbera.

Monday - liquid paint cleaner applied with a polishing machine, and then cleaned off with a couple of terry cloths.

Tuesday - polish - again applied and worked in with an orbital polisher, and polished up with a terry cloth. I spend ages getting into the various mouldings etc, especially at the front. The car looks a completely different colour - the blue undercoat is now clearly shining through the purple top paint. It looks bleeding lovely!

Wednesday - waxing over the polished paint - this time applied with a wee sponge, and polished up by hand with a microfibre cloth. By now the car looks really shiny, and almost metallic blue rather than purple, and thats under the artificial lights in my garage - I can't wait to see what it looks like in the sun!

I also clean all the door shuts and polish them up.

Then I wax and shine the wheels.

I need to clean out the insides of the boot shut area, and dress the tyres, but that shouldn't take me long tomorrow.

This might all seem a bit pointless, because it's only going to get manky again, but I quite like polishing cars, it's quite therapeutic. Also, if you do it right, you find that it comes up really good every time you wash it - it's now almost 2 two years since I polished the S like this, and it still looks nice after just a wash. Might do it again though!

:: Thursday, February 18, 2010 ::

Finished off cleaning the Cerbera today - door shuts, boot shuts, then the glass, and dress the tyres. It really doesn't look too bad at all!

Also received a wee parcel - it's a seat mechanism cover for the side of the driver seat in the S - mine has never had one, it's wrapped in gaffa tape so that the springs don't rip the back out of my trousers. Norman has had some remanufactured, so that should make a big difference.

I also phone up about the leather restorer kit I talked about a few weeks ago at the TVR Car Club meeting. I need to send a little sample off the seat, but the S isn't here, so that will have to wait for now.

:: Sunday, February 21, 2010 ::

Took the Cerbera to the Sporting Bears lunch today, about 70 miles away.

The journey there was fine, with the car going like a train (except without having to sit opposite some nutter with a smelly coat and a personal hi-fi belting out "tsh-tsh-tsh" music, obviously). I do notice that the temperature needle is moving about seemingly at random - sometimes slowly rising and falling, sometimes flicking up and down. The symptoms of air in the system. I didn't think I'd got it all out!

The lunch itself is very pleasant, although I'm in two minds about trying to bleed it a bit before setting off for home, I decide that it will probably be ok.

You can guess the rest...

Yep, the temperature range gradually rises, until it overheats about 20 miles from home. I decide not to risk carrying on, so have a wee rest while the engine cools, and then add some water just for the last bit of the journeu.

When I get home, I let it cool again, and then bleed it properly, and now it seems to be operating over the right range without any flickering needles.

:: Monday, February 22, 2010 ::

I phone up HHC to book the Cerb in for a service, and ask them at the same time to investigate this cooling problem. It could just be air in the system, but it might also be loose vanes on the water pump, which affect coolant circulation when the engine gets hot. Could also be a small leak somewhere. Could also be a head gasket or something more serious. Whatever it is, I need to get it fixed because it's driving me nental as it is - I spend more time watching the temp gauge than the speedo.

I agree to take it in on Saturday.

While it's away, I plan to get the S over to the house, to service it and sort out a few minor things, including the interior.

:: Saturday, February 27, 2010 ::

Well it started snowing again at tea time yesterday, and by this morning, the landscape was covered in a lovely think blanket of snow. Very spectacular, but not exactly welcoming for a 100-mile trip in the Cerbera to get it serviced.

So I have to phone and cancel, which means that I also can't get the S along to work on that either.