:: Diary - January 2012 ::

:: Sunday, January 1, 2012 ::

My main maintenance task today has been updating the web site here, to add a new year. It's written in simple html, it's not an auto-dated "blog" so every entry is an edit. Every month means adding a new page file and then changing a few other page links to suit. Adding a new year means updating all the navigation bars on the left as well. It's not hard, it just takes ages - albeit only once a year!

I also need to write a couple of new "how to" pages, on replacing carpets, and on replacing brake master cylinder.

:: Monday, January 2, 2012 ::

I have spent most of today not working on the car, but writing up 3 "how to" articles for the web site: one on replacing carpets, one on fixing dash panels, and a third on replacing the brake master cylinder and servo. THe third one isn't finished yet because I haven't wired up the brake fluid warning light yet, but the other two have now been added with this diary update.

:: Tuesday, January 3, 2012 ::

More work on the web site today. I had a system of "nesting menus" over there on the left, so that when you clicked on "how to" for example, you got another navigation bar with all the different articles. The diary archive was particularly tricky - if you clicked on that, you got another menu pane to pick a year - and then once you did that, you got a different menu pane again to pick the month - so there was a different menu for each year. That seemed like a good idea when I changed from 2003 to 2004, but it didn't seem so clever when I had to change 9 of the bloody things to add 2012.

So I decided to simplify it, both to make it easier to update, but also, mainly, to make it easier for everybody else to use. Now, when you click the menu window, it stays the same, and the links come up here in the main window. I still have to do the "cars I have scrapped" articles, but otherwise, I'm happier with the new menu system.

However, that doesn't mean it's necessarily better - I'm not an IT person, but how many times have we heard the IT mantra "this new system is much better" when what they really mean is "it's cheaper" or "it's easier to maintain or backup" or "it's much cleverererer coding" or some such claptrap, while you are trying to tell them "aye but it doesn't do what I bloody need it to do!" Witness the recent Pistonheads upgrade to their classified sections - "it's much better", "it places less load on our servers" and other such platitudes, overlooking the fact that you couldn't find what you were looking for any more.

So, at the end of that, I hope that the new menus are easier to use.

I also noticed while I was doing that, that there's no article for the seat restoration that I did last year. I'm sure that I wrote a page, but it's not on my computer or on the web server, so I am a bit mysterised. I am going to retro-compose that article from the one that I wrote for Sprint, and add it to the site.

Anyway, to recover from that, I went out and had a wee play with the car. I managed to connect up the brake fluid warning sensor in the reservoir cap. I replaced the Saab cap, then cut off the connector wiring (at the loom end) and soldered in two longer bits of wire, with heatshrink over the joints, then taped the two wires together from the loom to the reservoir.

Now I can finish the brake servo article as well!

I also removed the steering wheel again, to tidy up the leather - I think that condensation I spotted a few weeks ago has led to damp mould on it. I give it a clean with leather cleaner, and although it's fine on most of it, it seems to remove the surface finish on about a quarter of the circumference (just where your right hand would be). I give it a bit of a polish but that bit of the surface is still matt compared to the rest.

:: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 ::

I decided to take a photo of the completed servo, with the fluid sensor wiring extended and reconnected, just to complete the servo "how to" article.

The second photo, from the front, highlights one thing: the master cylinder is already starting to rust, even although it has never been outside. This condensation problem needs to be addressed!

In the meantime, though, I get a wee tin of gloss black paint, and paint the cylinder as best I can, with everything still in place. Important tip, then, if you buy what seems to be a pattern part: paint it before you put it on!

Then I finish the servo article for the "how to" bit of the web site. There's dedication for you - and it's still only 11 am!

Back to thinking about the condensation problem. The weather has been exceptionally wet and windy again for the last few days, so again, maybe it's water being blown in through the ventilation bricks. But it's not rain on one part of the car: it's condensation everywhere. It's clear that the garage isn't being adequately ventilated, and I suspect that's because I sealed up every available gap, including the bottom of the garage doors, to keep those millions of bloody millipedes out a couple of years ago. Not that it was particularly effective - they still got in by the shovel load.

I think I need to take the draught excluders off the bottom of the doors and see if that helps.

:: Thursday, January 5, 2012 ::

My only TVR-related task today was ordering some dark blue leather paint to highlight the piping on the seats - it has taken me a year, but now, with the new carpets in, I've realised that the seat piping needs to be dark blue, like it was originally.

I spent far too much time today tidying up the web site - it has taken on a life of its own and seems to need more work than the car! I have re-composed the "how-to" article on seat restoration, ad added that. I also removed the last two sub-menus on the left, so now there is only one menu bar, and its the same for all pages - it used to change, depending on where you were on the site, and some of them were getting too long, so there were scroll bars in the menu frame and it looked pish. Seeing as it's my site, I decided to change it so that it doesn't look pish (to me, at least).

A very welcome side effect is that adding more months, or even more years, and more articles, will now be a piece of cake, and involves changing only one page each time.

I am contemplating another more radical change to the site, and how it looks, but that would be a lot of work, and I don't think it's really necessary. I obviously spend a lot of time editing and looking at these pages, so I get bored with the look of the thing probably long before anybody else.

:: Sunday, January 8, 2012 ::

It's TVR Car Club day!

I went out yesterday just to make sure the Cerbera was ok, and to fill it with fuel. After an hour and a half I was home, but the fuel gauge had mysteriously dropped again. Funny that.

Today we headed down to Daves to meet up for the run through to the meeting. There's been no sign of Jim for 2 weeks - we suspect he's on holiday which is Jim's way of saying he's found new places to get lost in.

The run through is good, and the meeting is also great - it's great to realise that OCD is more widespread than people think. Cars pulled apart and cleaned and painted over the winter - you can't beat it.

There's one noticeable thing though - it happened yesterday and again today. Why do people in saloon cars feel this obsession with either driving right up your boot, or even passing when you're already in a line of traffic and their overtake isn't really going to get them anywhere? What do these people feel they have to prove? Fortunately I am old enough not to give a toss - I don't feel my willy shrinking just because somebody in a German or French eurobox manages to extract the last ounce of power or torque from their engine, to get two places further up the queue. But why eh?

Again it's dark by the time I get home, but I know the way so the two sickly glowworms that pass as "headlight bulbs" aren't really needed.

I did find a soaking wet carpet behind the driver seat, and a wet bit in the corner of the boot - but seeing as the car has sat outside in some of the worst rain and wind storms in living memory, that might not be all that surprising.

That's almost 3 years that I've had the Cerbera - it's still superb!

:: Wednesday, January 24, 2012 ::

I haven't touched the S for over 2 weeks. I've had a couple of runs out in the Cerbera, but that's about it.

I've just been too busy with other stuff. I left my old company (23 years before the mast, Jim lad) to go out on my own, so I've spent weeks just getting that going, contacting people, getting work, and just setting the new company up. I just haven't had the time to devote to going out to the garage for a few hours.

Besides which, it's been wet and freezing.

But I need to get back to it - not just to get the car sorted, but for my own sanity (or what's left of it).

Maybe tomorrow (I've been saying that for a week as well).

:: Monday, January 30, 2012 ::

I took the Cerbera for its annual service today. I decided to treat it to a major service this time, seeing as it had little more than an oil and filter change last time.

So it's out at 6.30, scrape the frost of the windows, get in, seat belt on, then start it up and drive away before it wakes anybody. Well, before they can get to their curtains to be sure it was me. My security light on the garage kind of gives me away though...

The green "it's bloody cold" warning light is on the whole way, going to red "now it's bloody freezing" on the tops of hills. Despite the bum-clenching effect of this particular warning, the 100-and-odd mile drive to the garage is very pleasant - it's even light by the time I get there.

Now the arrangement is "turn up early - leave car - piss off till tea time - empty wallet - collect car - drive home". Halfway through the "piss-off" stage, I get a phone call. It needs rear brake disks (which I suspected), and the aircon has a leak. Worst of all though, is the news that two of the Gaz Gold shock absorbers are cracked. I read about this on the interweb thingy a year ago - Gold Pros are ok, but the ordinary golds from that time have a tendency to crack round the bush housing. To be honest, I thought it only affected newer ones than mine), but I did check mine at the time and they seemed ok, but now they're not. Failure of the bush means suspension collapse, which is unlikely to improve the car's stability or handling. I've got 2 knackered, on opposite corners of the car. Anyway, net result is that I won't get my car back today.

So it's the train home for me... just as I am getting off at the last station, the garage phones - at least the shocks will be replaced under warranty! So that's brought the bill down to a level where I probably won't need an RBS-sized chairman bonus to pay it.

Cerberas are great cars, but they ain't cheap (cheaper than most other things with similar performance though!)

:: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 ::

Dear Mr Goodwin,

(I was going to write "Dear Sir" but that might rankle a bit after today's news)

I am writing to ask if you can spare a bit of loose change for a man down on his luck?

I'm just an ordinary poor bloke with a purple moneypit to support. Not for me the biggest house in Colinton, with enough cameras to confuse Stephen Spielberg. Not for me the Bentley, the villa in France and the other one in Spain. Not for me the helicopter, the private jet, and all the trappings (if not the honours) of royally screwing up the Royal. No. What I have is a car that I've worked like a bastard (not a real bastard like some I could mention, I mean a hard- working honest one) to be able to afford.

Well yesterday the car went in for a service. Today, the news is that what it needs isn't so much a wee service, more of a born-again baptism. Like me, you'll know what it's like to be in shock tonight after receiving such bad news - but at least mine won't be in all the papers tomorrow. And you can still afford to drown it in better whisky than I can afford.

Here's the list:

1. Service.
2. Replace every rear brake component including disks, pads, brake shoes, handbrake cable, and brake flexi-hoses.
3. de-rust front disks and replace flexi-hoses.
4. Replace all 4 springs / shockers under warranty (they are honouring a warranty against defective workmanship - pity banks can't offer the same, eh?);
5. Replace rear wishbone bushes while dampers are off.
6. Replace defective gearbox mountings.
7. Replace aircon condensor and recharge system (that means filling it up, not charging twice for the same thing, just to help you understand)

As you can no doubt imagine, this work is not inexpensive. In fact, it costs so much that it would have taken even you about 5 seconds to earn that much in interest on your meagre pension.

So I was wondering - if you should unexpectedly and uncharacteristically feel the need for some form of atonement, bung a couple of grand in an envelope and post it over here old chap. So that it doesn't get mixed up in the junk mail, please mark it with your personal code phrase "DO NOT SHRED".

TIA.