:: Diary - January 2009 ::

:: Thursday, January 1, 2009 ::

It's January the first, the roads are quiet, it's dry (but freezing cold) so what better way to start the new year, than having a run in the car?

Roof off, hat and gloves on, and off we go! No idea where I'm going, mind!

I cross the new Kincardine Bridge and head north, the road verges white with frost, but the roads mostly clear, but with icy bits in shadowy places. Up past the hotel where the TVR Car Club used to meet, now sadly closed and shuttered up. Over the "rumbly bridge" and then up a hill where water has run across from the field alongside, and frozen. Great fun.

Onwards through Glendevon, where the sun finally comes out. The air is cold and crisp, but clear, and the views along the glen are spectacular, a panorama of winter golds and browns with the blue sky above, and the village of Gleneagles snuggled into the valley ahead. It's almost a shame to spoil the peace with the twin roar from the exhausts. Almost. On through Gleneagles. past the hotel and golf course, and then to Muthill and Crieff, where my grandparents came from, and where they were married.

On around Perth and then down the M90 because I need a pee, and the services at Kinross will be open. As I return to the car, I realise how filthy it is - the front caked in road grime, the wheels manky with brake dust. It looks great. Just great.

By the time I get home, I have covered 120 miles today, just because it seemed like a good idea.

The S is now parked outside, and it's getting dark. The car is filthy, the wheels are manky, it's sitting there ticking as it cools down.

Sometimes I get tired working on it. Sometimes I despair (as I did in the last entry in November) that I'll never get it back to looking good again. But I noticed the other day, as I was looking through old photos to complete an article for the club magazine, that it was just as manky at this time last year, and the year before.

Tomorrow I'm going to wash it, clean the wheels, hose underneath and get rid of any road salt. I'm also going to finish another couple of jobs over the weekend.

I guess it would be easier not to use it in the winter, and to keep it for only the good weather. Easier, but not nearly as much fun. I didn't buy it as a financial investment, I bought it to enjoy. And today, I did. I loved it.

:: Friday, January 2, 2009 ::

Spent quite a lot of today washing both cars. First the Lexus,, which tuns out to have really bad corrosion under the paint along the ;eading edge of the bonnet. Since the whole car has already been repainted in bits ince I got it, I'm not impressed...

Then I wash the TVR, giving it a good wash and rinse, but it's too cold to dry it off, so I leave it. I do manage to get a pressure washer underneath and clean out the wheel arches etc, although I should really take the wheels off and do it properly.

The wheels come uo reasonably ok as well. They still need a polish though.

:: Saturday, January 3, 2009 ::

Well the car has dried off overnight, and shows up the bits I missed when I washed it.

I polish up the headlamp rings and fittings, which are showing surface rust spots. WHile I have the polish out, I also clean up the handbrake lever and gear knob.

The good new is, that there doesn't seem to be any water inside the car, after washing it yesterday.

I was meaning to finish tidying up the edge of the windscreen again, fixing one of the long fresh air hoses where it has detached itself from the bonnet, and maybe mark up on the crankshaft pulley where the ignition timing is, so that I don't have to faff about with it again. Unfortunately I'm just too knackered (and it's freezing out there!)

:: Sunday, January 4, 2009 ::

Didn't get the air hose re-attached to the bonnet, because the hose clip has fallen off and disappeared, and I don't have another one the right size. Never mind - on to the next thing, which is...

adjust the windscreen washers! I've remembered this every time I've tried to use the bloody things, but never when I've had a chance to do anything about it. The problem is that the drivers side one is aimed too low, and hits the wiper plade, and doesn't reached the middle of the screen. Adjust it up a bit and out a bit, and it hits the wiper arm. There is only a tiny gap for the water to skoosh through to actually hit the glass. I get there, though!

Then I notice that the little green "operating" LED on top of the Ruststop box isn't flashing. I know it was working yesterday, because I looked at it to see if it was dim (normally a good indication of battery condition). Today it's not on at all, even with the engine running.

5 minutes with a voltmeter and a needle confirms that voltage is reaching the unit, and that the earth is working. I remove 4 screws and take the top off, and there's water all over the circuit board. Water and green copper corrosion. And some brown bits where the board is burnt out. I realise that the LEDs stick through holes in the case, and it's not in any way waterproof - I must have hit it momentarily with the pressure water yesterday. But the damage doesn't look like it's only happened since yesterday.

I dry it out with the edge of a paper towel, and then a hairdryer, but it's clear that at least one resistor and one capacitor aren't properly fixed to the board any more - their connections have corroded right through. I remove the unit in case it's short-circuiting (and hence maybe draining the battery eh?). I'll see if I can pick up another one (and see if I can seal it before I fit it. That or fit it in a place inside the car, that stays dry. Ahem that might not be easy either!

I was going to have a drive but it starts raining, so I decide not to bother. At least if it rains, I'll be able to check if the windscreen is waterproof yet!

:: Sunday, January 11, 2009 ::

TVR Car Club meeting today, and I am planning to go in the TVR even although it's been bucketing rain for two days, just to see if it's waterproof. Except it isn't. When I open the door, I can see (never mind feel) the pool of water on the drivers side carpet.

At this point I decide that, rather than keep trying to find and seal leaks, I'll go out and buy a new registration number - U 47 - and just fit a periscope. Either that or I'll buy a diver's suit and scuba mask and just keep myself dry.

Where is this bleeding water getting in now then? I've never had the time (or the inclination) to look for the leak while it's still raining - it's always been a couple of hours or days later. This time, though, it's still tipping it down so I decide to get in there and see where the water is coming from. Much groping about behind the dash reveals that all the wiring is still dry. I use a mirror to see right up behind, and there's no sign of water. The sides of the footwell are dry so I don't think it's coming in around the door seal etc. I reach right down, and the bulkhead, behind the pedals, is wet. Aw no, not the steering column bearing again!

Fret not young tvrgit - the carpet is wet even above the steering column bush hole, and mainy off to one side, behind the brake pedal. As I feel the wet bit on the carpet, I realise that the backs of my fingers are also wet. A quick look and I find...

Water is coming through the brake pedal hole! It's running through, then around the edge of the hole before running down to one of the mounting bolts and dripping off the bottom, into the top of the carpet.

This photo highlights the route of the water, and you can just see the two drips about to detach from the bottom edge of the red pedal box.

Then I notice that the clutch pedal is exactly the same. In this photo, it looks more like clutch fluid, I admit, but it isn't, it's water. Now that doesn't look like a lot, but I time the brake pedal leak at a drip about every 5 seconds, so when you add on the water running in past the clutch reservoir, it won't take long for half a litre of water to fill the footwell! Overnight is certainly long enough!

Anyway, on to the TVR Club meeting (in the Lexus). 7 hardy owners turn up in their TVRs, and none of them have wellies on, so theirs obviously aren't leaking as much as mine at the moment.

As for fixing the leak, I don't have time today, because it's dark by the time I get back home. I should take off the brake and clutch reservoirs and seal behind them, but in the meantime, I'll try sealing it with Sikaflex or the magic Captain Tolley's.

Later on at night, by the way, the rain stops so I go back out to check the leak again. It's not dripping any more but there's about 1/2 an inch of water sitting on top of the carpet. I bail it out with a sponge and hang the carpet up to dry.

:: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 ::

Been out the last couple of nights after getting home from work, trickling some of the Capt Tolleys around the brake and clutch cylinders. Last night I noticed that the brake pipe that goes to the brake balancer thingy is held on to the bulkhead by two wee plastic clips, that fit into holes through the bulkhead. I pull them out, and there is definitely ecidence of water at the bottom of the front one. I put some sealer round those as well. I also put some sealer around the two bolts that hold the pedal box in place inside.

Well tonight it's raining again, so I go out for another look. I won't post photos because they're the same as the ones at the weekend, except without any trace of water! I'll have another look after the next downpour, which seems to be developing outside as I write! I don't want to get my hopes up, but there's nowhere left that it could be coming through... I think.

The carpet is still hanging up, but isn't dry yet. Only moderately damp though.

:: Saturday, January 17, 2009 ::

Well it was bucketing rain all night, so let's have a wee look at the footwell. I'm expecting to be disappointed as I open the door. See if there's a huge puddle of water in there... well let's not go there until we've hidden all the hammers and matches.

But it seems to be better! The floor is almost completely dry. There is a tiny damp bit just behind the throttle pedal, but not the inch deep puddle there was after the last downpour! Although I dried the floor, and tried to squeeze as much water out of the carpets as possible, that little bit of water could have just drained off the side off the footwell. At least, that's what I tell myself.

This photo shows the bulkhead above the pedal box. The two bolts numbered "1" hold the pedal box in place. The smaller bolts "2" hold the brake balancer thingy on. The two clips holding the brake pipe in place are shown as "3"

This is looking at the same bits, looking upwards from the footwell (if you had an eyeball on your big toe, you wouldn't put your back out seeing this)! You can just see the top of the brake pedal pushrod and gaiter, at the bottom of the picture. Again, the two bolts at "2" are the brake balancer thingy. You can see the bottom of the back one of the plastic clips, and the circle shows approximately where the front one is. The big red bit is the pedal box: the pedals are mounted on that round red bar. There seems to be some evidence that somebody has had a go at fixing this before (or that somebody at the factory has spread some sealer on the back before bolting the pedal box in)

Any water leaking in the front clip (which is where I think it was, because the inside of the hole was wet when i looked in on Wednesday) is going to end up lying on top of the pedal box. From there. it will tend to seep down between the pedal box and the inside of the body, until it reaches the first place it can escape - ie, the holes that the pedals go through.

If it's bucketing down, and the water can't seep down fast enough, then it'll lie on top, and then run out over the rear edge of the pedal box when you accelerate or go up hills - exactly the symptoms I had.

I hope that's it sorted...

While I have the bonnet open, I decide that the plenum chamber looks manky again. The blue Hammerite I painted into the recesses is slightly flaking off, and the rest of the casting is dull and corroded. First I strip the Hammerite off (I only painted it on in the first place because the recesses were corroding), because I've noticed at shows that just about everybody is doing it, so I want to put mine back to bare metal. I give it a clean and then a polish and it comes up right nice. I also do the alternator. Funny how that short paragraph took me bleeding ages to do!

What that does do, is show up some other parts, such as the coil and condenser etc, that also need cleaned up. I also need to clean up the exhaust manifolds.

Not today though because it's not too cold, the sky is blue so I decide to have a drive for an hour or two. Magic!

:: Sunday, January 18, 2009 ::

Another look at the footwell. A tiny damp bit at the lowest part of the footwell (where the rubber bung is) and some wet marks showing that it has run down from the wee bit of carpet behind the pedals. It's still very wet, so maybe it's still the last water wicking downwards. We'll see...

It's bleeding freezing though. I was going to finish a couple of tasks but the wind is cutting right through me. I noticed that one of the two air hoses had detached itself from the back of the radiator grille, and now I see that both have come off. I fix them back with new clips.

Second job is to clean up the condenser on the top of the ignition coil. Except that when I unbolt it, it falls apart, the wire falling out of the end. Well that's that then, I need a new one.

Off to the motor factors, with this uneasy feeling that I can't remember my old Granada having an ignition condenser. Why would it need one, when it has electronic ignition? Condensers are only there to save the points burning out too quickly. The man at the factors confirms that the engine never had an ignition condenser. As I walk back to the car, the penny finally drops. Sometimes (well let's face it, fairly often) I can be a right thick bastard.

It's a radio suppressor to prevent the radio whining in time to the engine. Since I can only recall actually listening to the radio twice in 25,000 miles, I decide it's not important so I go home, remove the remains and throw it away. It still starts and runs, and the radio seems to be fine as well so that's how it's staying.

:: Thursday, January 22, 2009 ::

It's been raining, it's been snowing, it's been frost and it's been windy. So I decide to see if the car is still leaking. And it is. Not a lot but it's still running down from the pedal area, although I can't see any evidence of where it's coming in. I sponge the water out of the floor in preparation for the weekend.

:: Saturday, January 24, 2009 ::

Today the footwell only has a few tiny drips, just under the ignition switch. Just where it lands on my ankle when driving. Right, follow the trail of water drips back to source. Except that I can't get my fat carcass under the dash without taking the steering wheel of or taking the seat out.

I use an inspection lamp and a mirror to see up behind the dash, The water is dripping off the lowest part of the wiring loom, just under the steering column. How is it getting there? Well it's dripping off one of the corrugated air hoses that goes to the eyeball vent in the centre console, and then runninbg down the wires to the lowest point. How is it getting there? Well it's running round the hose from the top, where it's dripping down from somewhere else. I can't see past the hose though but it looks like the bottom of the windscreen. Right in line with the.... wiper spindle!

I tried to seal that with silicon sealer before, but perhaps is just not sealed it properly. I put some of the Captain Tolley crack sealer on, but that seems to just disappear. I remove the wiper arm from the spindle, noting that it seems to move the spindle against the body (the sealer moving in and out of the join) so I use a tiny pair of tweezers to pick the silicon out of the joint.

I find a tube of Sikaflex that's well past its best by date, and is starting to set from the nozzle backwards. I manage to dig some out though, and spread a small bead around the join between the wiper spindle and the car body. Replace the wiper arm and leave to cure.

While I'm at it, I also pull out the two wee clips holding the brake pipe to the body, and put some sealer around those as well, before replacing them. We'll see how that goes.

While the bonnet is up, I give all the rubber hoses a bit of a dust, and then polish up the plenum chamber.

THe weather forecast says it's going to snow tomorrow, so I take the car back along to the garage. I want to start tidying it up a bit - it's been sitting outside so the wheels need a bit of a polish and the bodywork needs washed. Time to start sprucing it up for the summer (I know it's still winter, but it's best to be prepared!)

When I get out of the car I can see where the Capt Tolley's has been dripping onto my ankle. I quick look with the mirror and light shows a trail of Capt Tolleys exactly where the water was before, which would tend to suggest that's where the water was getting in as well!

:: Sunday, January 25, 2009 ::

Spent the day along in the garage just tinkering about.

First job is to polish the chrome headlamp rims, which are a bit marked and suffering from the car sitting outside for 3 weeks.

Then I polish up the brake pipes under the bonnet (ie to and from the servo and the wee brake balancer thing on the bulkhead, plus the balancer thingy itself). Careful not to pull the pipe back out of the sealer I set it into yesterday!

I also polish both radiator caps.

Then I remove the front wheels, the calipers and the disks, so that I can repaint the front hub carriers. I had them painted gray, with the rest of the suspension red, but they looked manky, and the paint is coming off in places. I knock off any loose rust and then wire brush the carriers down, before painting them with the same red Hammerite as the rest of the chassis and suspension. I also paint the track rods from the steering rack.

Then I get some matt gray paint, and paint the fuel rail from the regulator to the injectors, where the paint is flaking off in big chunks, and it's starting to rust.

Finally, I bring one of the wheels back to the house so that I can clean it up and polish it before I go back next weekend.

Believe it or not, although that doesn't look like very much, I spent 4 hours doing that today!

:: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 ::

Took a 1/2 day today to try to get the car tidied up a bit. I thought that the TVR club meeting was next weekend, but they might have changed it to this Sunday. Or they might not. I'll find out the night before (or maybe on that morning).

Anyway, whichever day it is, the car's in bits and in need of some tidying and reassembly, so I might only have Saturday morning to do it!

So... first thing is to wire brush the brake caliper brackets again, and then stick a couple of bits of wire through, and masking over the threaded holes so that they don't get clogged with paint. I also try to mask the machined mating surfaces. A couple of coats of Hammerite blue and then leave them to dry.

Right - on to the wheel. I wish I had taken a "before" photo - it was absolutely bogging - totally matt, corroded and with ingrained dog-piss stains around the rim. Wonderful. A wash with wheel cleaner gets the worst off, so that it looks clean but still not very shiny.

First I polish it with Meguiars metal polish and a polishing ball, and that makes a big difference, then I polish it again with Autosol. It's been a while since I used Autosol and I'd forgotten how good it is! The wheel is soon gleaming - not as good as when it had just been machined and resurfaced, but still pretty good.

Then I take that wheel back along to the garage and bring back the other front wheel, and clean and polish that up as well.

:: Saturday, January 31, 2009 ::

Just discovered yesterday that the TVR CLub meeting isn't next week, it's tomorrow, so I need to get my car back together today.

The edge of the windscreen looks terrible. I buy some black gloss spray paint, and a huge roll of masking tape. Armed with those and a weeks supply of old newspapers, I set off for the garage. After an hour (at least) of masking around the outside edge of the glass, and the inside edge of the black trim, I have the whole car (almost) covered in newspaper, except for that black strip.

I wipe the glass with white spirit, then I spray the trim in slowly, a little bit at a time, in light coats. After about 15 coats, I have a nice gloss trim finish. Lovely. Then while it's drying, I realise that the wind outside the garage has picked up a little bit, and although it's coming from the back of the garage, it's full of tiny wood chips from the new all-weather surface that the farmer is laying behind the barn. Tiny flecks of sawdust settle nicely onto the drying paint. Bastard!

I shut half the door to keep the worst of the wind out, then get on to the easy bits. I reassemble the front brake disks and calipers, and replace the front wheels.

Then I remove the two back wheels and polish them up outside (so that I can keep the door shut). Now I have wood shavings everywhere - all over the polishing cloths, all over the wheel, all over me and in my eyes and up my nose and it's a right pain in the arse - not literally, I have my shirt tucked firmly into my trousers to prevent real "builders bum full of sawdust" agony.

Dave and Claire turn up half way through so a wee blether is a welcome diversion. We arrange that I'll pick up Mike tomorrow (his exhaust repair is taking longer than TVR took to build the car in the first place).

When I'm finished, the car doesn't look too bad at all!