:: Diary - July 2010 ::

:: Friday, July 2, 2010 ::

I decide to have a wee evening run in the Cerbera.

First stop - fuel. I've been told to use super-unleaded only, so I nip along to the Shell station for a tankful of their finest Optimax. As I pull in, there's a wee 1950's Ford Anglia (the boxy one like a Prefect) but with slot wheels and a tasty engine note. As he leaves, he wellies it and goes fishtailing up the road in a fine display of skid correction.

I resist the temptation to do the same. Only just, mind. Half a mile up the road, though, I stop at a set of traffic signals, and as we pull away, the engine suddenly has no power - it's coughing and farting and trying to stall. I manage to keep it going but it feels like it's running on 2 cylinders. Then after a couple of hundred yards, just as I'm starting to wonder if I've put diesel or water or paraffin or something in, it clears, and we're off again.

The rest of the run is completed without problems, the car is going fine, and the speedo passes through 50,000 miles (with the help of lots of tapping on the front to get the digits to move!) and 500 miles since the engine rebuild.

Very mysterious problem...

:: Saturday, July 3, 2010 ::

I decide to stiffen up the Cerb's suspension, and also have a look for the cutting out problem. Unfortunately, because it's intermittent, you have to look for the proble while the problem's there, you can inspect but can't necessarily diagnose.

So it's nearside rear wheel off first, and check the fuel pump. connections are firm (but rusty), no obvious problems. So I wind in the shock adjuster to "full hard" (ooh er matron) and then back out by 14 clicks (less that half way to soft) and put the wheel back on. I go around all 4 corners in the same way.

Then I decide to have a wee run to try it out. I start the car and it's fine. As I go to pull away, though, it splutters and dies. Although it tries to start, it just dies out each time. Bastard bloody bastard buggery bastard. Right, sensible head on, start diagnosing... when I put the ignition on, I can't hear the fuel pump, and I'm sure I could before (you can in the S so I've got used to it, but I'm sure the Cerb does it too). The symptoms are exactly like fuel starvation. After I've tried to start it several times, there's no fuel smell out the exhaust either. I'm pretty sure it's the pump.

So it's off with the wheel again, ignition on, and a voltmeter shows there's no supply to the pump. The earth is fine, it's definitely supply. Both terminals are corroded, and I don't want to start dismantling in case i break it (or it turns out to be something else) but I clean it up a bit. Still no supply with ignition on... Wonder if there's a supply when it's trying to start?

I prop the meter where I can see it out the passenger door, then try to start it again - and the meter shoots to 12V and the bloody thing starts... farts a bit but then clears and is fine.

I leave it running while I put the wheel back on, and take it for a run - and it's runs perfectly... I'm confuseded.

When I get home I switch off, and then go to start - and the pump primes with ignition on. It was definitely not doing that earlier, there was no supply at all.

So - intermittent no supply to pump... could be the immobiliser, or the fuel relay, or a million other reasons, but we'll start with those. Except I don't know where the immobiliser unit is... so I decide to leave it. As I lock the car and walk away, the alarm goes off - when I take the fob out of my pocket, I notice that the button has cracked and is stuck in. and if you hold the button in, it acts as a "panic alarm". Could this be the problem? Key sticking in and switching the immobiliser on? I take the fob to bits, and fix the button temporarily with tape. I also reset the immobiliser with the push-in key, and lock and unlock the car a few times. Then I try the ignition, and the fuel pump primes and the car starts each time.

I should also check the fuel pump relay but it's getting dark, so I'll do that tomorrow.

:: Sunday, July 4, 2010 ::

Once again, as per the start of last month, we have the wonderful Scottish weather phenomenon of weeks of dry weather, even with some sun, then it absolutely pishes down on the day you're going to a barbeque. Great.

The barbecue has been organised by Ty and Robert at the Broomhall Castle Hotel, where the TVR Car Club meets every month, as an "Independence Day" event. The hotel have very generously agreed to donate 25% of their takings to the Sporting Bears, which is great.

So of course, it has to rain, naturally...

Never mind - it's off early to the pre-meeting run, where we meet in the pishing rain before setting off - 6 TVRs and 3 Alfa Romeos. We have an interesting run through some beautiful Scottish scenery, completely masked by the rain / mist, along great driving roads covered in running water. I am driving like Miss Daisy, because this thing wheelspins at these speeds in the dry, so if I get it sideways in these conditions, I won't stop skidding till I hit a beach in Ireland. Eventually, with my eyes on stalks and my bum clenched tightly, we arrive at the Hotel and park up, and wait for the others.

Eventually we have 40 people there, although not all in their TVRs - the weather has put some off, and I don't blame them.

The BBQ is indoors, and it's absolutely superb - choices of meats including beefburgers and pork and apple burgers, spare ribs, chicken in lemon, cajun chicken, two types of sausages (pork and leek, and game), salmon in a sauce I forget, plus accompaniments including baked potatoes, potato skins, potato salad, coleslaw, seafood pasta, risotto - far too much for anyone to try everything. But I try my best, in the interests of reporting fully to my beloved readers, you understand, and I can confirm that it was all lovely.

After the usual chats in the car park etc, the Sporting Bears receive £100, which is a great contribution and hugely appreciated (wearing my Sporting Bears hat for a minute). The money will be donated on to the Clowndoctors, who visit children in hospitals and hospices and help them to relax or understand the treatment they are receiving. There will be a photo here if Adrian sends it to me.

Well Adrian finally sent the photo at nearly midnight on Tuesday, probably planning to send an email first thing on Wednesday to ask about the delay in putting it on, after me moaning about the delay in him sending it... Well I'm still up, so here it is! This shows Ty handing over the dosh, with various members looking on. Apologies for Cami's shirt, which, like Cami, has no volume control. It's one of those "invisible eye" patterns though - if you look at it long enough, you'll see it says "I'm not really gay" in 3D.

By the time we've presented the cash, the rain has moved on, so the journey home is relatively dry. There's no sign of the fuel pump problem from yesterday - I'll still have a look over the immobiliser system and check it out though.

The car has now done 650 miles since the engine repair, and 120 since the pump problem. I would say "it's looking good" but that might be too much like tempting fate. So I won't.

:: Tuesday, July 6, 2010 ::

Adrian sends me the photo of the presentation at 11:20 pm. I add it to the diary entry for Sunday.

:: Sunday, July 11, 2010 ::

I start the S, just to warm it up and circulate the oil. I let it warm till the fans cut in, and go off again.

Then I have a nice run in the Cerbera, and it behaves perfectly - no immobiliser issues, no problem - although in the last couple of miles before I get home, I hear a couple of clanks from the rear. The other side of the exhaust has come loose and is clonking on the chassis.

When I get home, I jack the car up and inspect the loose joint. It's the joint just at the bottom of the right hand manifold. I remember the guy who fixed the other side a couple of weeks ago, loosened this side to align the joints, but obviously hasn't tightened it up again - one of the bolts is completely missing. A quick rummage through my tin of nuts and volts unearths one the right size, so I realign the silencer by the super-technical expedient of wedging blocks of wood under it, then re-tighten the joint - both joints.

And then, of course, you have to go another test drive, don't you? Everything's fine again.

When I get home, Git Jnr asks for a lift - his car is repaired and ready for collection. He's had loads of problems with it - bits going missing in the post, then the wrong bits being delivered, then bits not fitting and having to be re-ordered - and then. to cap it all, the car was finished early this week, but wouln't start. You see, Nissan in their wisdom decided to make the car thief-proof by linking the immobiliser, alarm and engine management computer as a combined security system. If it gets disconnected from the battery (for example while you have the engine out) you have to re-programme it and re- synchronise it with the key, using the master key. Except, he's discovered, the keys he has aren't master keys, so the immobiliser can't be disarmed. It can't be removed or replaced either - the car is dead until the key is re-synched.

The man who sold him the car says he doesn't have a master key either, so that's it stuffed. His only option was to wait until a scrapper appears, so that he could get the immobiliser, alarm, ecu and keys all together off the same car and replace the lot. He thought that would take ages, but amazingly, one turned up today, so all of those bits have been replaced and the car is running!

I take him along the road about 20 miles, and he spends half the time giggling like a wee boy in a toyshop. Mind you. so do I. By the time he's collected his car, mine has been photographed by the man's wee girl, and sent by mobile phone to various mates, various people have had a seat in it, and there's a small crowd assembled to hear it start and see it move away. It's nice to be appreciated, don't you think?

By the time I get home, I've done 750 miles since the engine repair, and 250 since the immobiliser issue.

So everybody's happy!

For now.

:: Sunday, July 25, 2010 ::

I've had a couple of wee runs out in the Cerbera, just to make sure everything's ok, and it seems to be.

I also enjoyed Tuesday night (I think it was) when we had a bit of a storm here, and the Cerbera decided that it would set the alarm off at 3am. And again at about 3.10. After having a look around, in the pissing rain, I decided that I wasn't going to fix it in the middle of the night, but that I would leave it unlocked (blocked in by other cars) until the morning. Of course, by morning, it behaved perfctly, and has done ever since. I was tempted to carry out a final repair involving a sledgehammer and a skip...

Anyway, enough hilarity. Today, the Sporting Bears have a stand at Coldingham Gala, in the Borders. I've decided to go in the Cerbera, in case the weather does its usual trick of being nice all week, and then pissing down at the weekend. And so it does!

The rain goes off early on Sunday morning though, so it's not too bad. I don't even have to leave that early, so hopefully I won't upset my neighbours (too much). The drive there is very pleasant, the car sounds good and it seems to be going well. I like driving early on weekend mornings - the roads are pretty quiet, and you can go at your own pace (whatever that pace might be).

The ride still feels a little bit bouncy though when I'm in it myself - it's a wee bit better with a passenger. I think it needs to be just a smidge harder.

First a stop for petrol, and also to extract some money from the ATM - which isn't working, so I set off penniless. I have plenty of time so it's just a gentle cruise along, while contemplating just how good a car the Cerbera is (when it's working properly!). I stop in a wee village and walk to the ATM there, and while I'm walking back, the sun comes out, and the car looks absolutely fantastic as you walk up to it. Will I ever stop being impressed at how good TVRs look?

I arrive at the show first, so have plenty of time to visit the bacon roll stall and then sit about. I end up chatting to a guy who owns a Mk2 Escort RS2000, (plus a couple of Aston Martins) and he tells me he's had it from new in 1979, was offered about £1,000 for it as a trade-in a few years later, and he's just rejected an offer of £20,000 for it.

When the other bears arrive, we get the tents up and all the display stuff out, then it's down to the business of selling bears and collecting money. And showing kids around the car. It's a busy life, as you can see...

The rain stays off, it's even sunny later on, an my head is now nipping!

The drive home is a bit less pleasant, because the roads are a bit busier, and a very large proportion of weekend drivers don't have a bleeding clue - the phrase "Sunday Driver" wasn't coined for no reason, you know. The last 10 miles, along a single carriageway A-road, are completed at a dizzying 35 mph behind some 4x4 thing piloted by somebody who has obviously bet that they can get 101 miles per gallon out of it by driving "smoothly". He is followed by 3 other cars then me. They are too close together to pass one at a time, and too far apart to pass in a oner, in the limited straights available, and between oncoming cars. I decide to try to pass at a couple of roundabouts, but notice first, that they stop for a look at the roundabout, even although it's clear that there's nothing in sight between here and bleeding Norway, and also, that their lane discipline on the roundabout itself is shocking, so I decide not to risk that either. No choice but to hang back, cruise along and go with the flow. Or lack of it, to be more accurate.

By the time I get home, I've covered just under 1,000 since the engine rebuild, and over 500 miles since the episode with the immobiliser a couple of weeks later. Everything seems to be fine - not a single drop of water or oil used, temperature right on the button - I'm really happy with that.

Which doesn't bode well, in my experience...

:: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 ::

They know, you know. Just when you think you're happy, they get you. They wait their chance for maximum effect, to bring you down from a high. TVRs are bastards.

I was reading a thread on Pistonheads about lifting the body off the S, to do chassis repairs. A lot of cars (even some of the nicest examples that have won trophies!) have needed work done, especially to the outriggers. They are, after all, 20 years old now, so it's hard to believe that there won't be some problems. Well, I was reading this thread, and thinking to myself "glad I don't have to do that yet".

(You're away ahead of me now, aren't you - you can already see where this is going, eh?)

I was planning to strip and repaint the chassis outriggers etc after the summer (what summer?) - it's 3 years since I did it last time, and I've noticed that most of the waxoyl has been blasted off the outriggers in the meantime.

So... went out today just to have a look... everything seems ok, surface corrosion and paint chips only... then I get to the front of the nearside outrigger, just behind the front wheel, and alonside where the body plate bolts on... and there's a 4 inch crack in the paint. "Oh bother" thinks I, before deciding to give it a little poke with a screwdriver, just to remove the loose paint... and the screwdriver disappears. A few taps with a hammer and I've opened up a 4 inch gash along the bottom of the outrigger beside that mounting plate.

I'm sorry the photos aren't great quality - the car is still on the ground so it's hard to get the camera far enough away to focus properly. The fact that I was crying probably didn't help either.
As usual, the rust you CAN see is probably not the worst - the tops of the outriggers are likely to be worse. I can also feel a fingertip-size hole just above and behind the plate - so it looks like a body lift required!

It's not fun... but I am off now to read the blogs of others, and we'll just have to get on with it, eh? At least now I know, and I don't have to worry any more that it MIGHT be rusting away where I can't see it!

:: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 ::

Well then. I've done a bit of reading on how to lift the body off the chassis by about 6 inches (or 150 mm for those of you who pretend to be too young to remember before we were all metricated). There's a fair bit to do, but it's just a case of working through it.

The advice is that should be enough to cut out the rust and weld in new steel. It's also possible to take the body right off, but that's a lot more complicated so we'll leave that for now, unless the partial lift reveals extensive rust throughout.

So... I have two basic choices: 1. Lift the body myself, repair the chassis, repaint and rustproof it, and rebuild; or

2. Pay somebody else to do it. Now this doesn't really appeal, because (a) it costs a lot of money, (b) all the TVR specialists are down south and I don't want to have to trailer the car all the way there; and (c) What's the point of having a web site and a hobby if you're going to pay somebody else to do the interesting bits?

So... I think I'll have a go at it. That leaves me with another two choices:

1a. Do it in my garage here at the house, where the advantages are that I'll be able to do bits and pieces when I get a few minutes, and I'll have all my tools to hand, but the disadvantages are that the car will be stuck in my garage for god knows how long, and that, if the last chassis strip and repaint 3 years ago is anything to go by, I'll cover everything in the garage in red dust, so that it looks like a set for a Mars space station film; or

1b. Take the car along to the garage at the farm. Reverse advantages and disadvantages as above. I'll have to do sizeable chunks of work at a time, and make sure I take ALL the stuff I'm likely to need. At least the mess and dust will be in an otherwise empty garage. And that garage is huge so I'd have more space to work. However, I do remember the owner saying, when I first rented the garage, that he didn't want me painting or welding in there, or anything that might mark the floors or walls.

So I nip along to the farm to ask him - and he says that was when he didn't know me, he's happy that I've looked after the place, so welding is fine. Good news!

So it looks like option 1b - partial lift and weld repair, along at the farm. That suits me almost perfectly.

I need to invest in a welder and get some serious practice in - I used to be able to arc weld but it's years since I last did it. Mig is supposed to be easier so we'll give it a go. If I find I can't do it, I'll get a mobile welder manny in - I know just the man!

All systems go!

:: Friday, July 30, 2010 ::

I take the S along to my garage at the farm - the first time I've been there since I picked it up in March. Fortunately, they remember who I am and give me the key.

While I'm there, I meet up with the man who helps him service caravans - he also has an Escort RS2000, so I tell him about the one I saw last Sunday. As we chat away, I tell him about my wee chassis problem, and he tells me where he buys tube for building frames for stock cars - they do all sizes, and will cut it to length. The good thing is, it's only about 1/2 a mile from the house!

It's also apparent that he knows how to weld, so that's another prospective helper if I get stuck.

I've had a think about this welding business. I don't think I'm happy with just butt welds (even if someone else was doing them) so I think I'd prefer the joints to be sleeved - but if you sleeve the outside of an outrigger, the body probably won't slip over. So here's the plan, Batman. If I do have to replace tubing (and we'll see what horrors await when I get the body off), then I'm going to sleeve the joint on the INSIDE - drill some holes in the outer tube, slip the smaller tube in like a dowel, and then plug weld the holes on each side of the joint - and then seam weld the joint all the way round. This is assuming, of course, that there's enough left of the existing chassis outriggers to actually weld anything to... They don't look too bad along most of their length, but I'm not kidding myself.

I have also picked the welder I'm going to buy - it's not a cheapo, I want something I can use to make brackets, hinges etc, but that I can adjust down for car body repairs (not for the TVR obviously, forcos it's plastic, but there's no point buying a welder and not being able to use it for other stuff if you have to). Compared to the going rate that the TVR garages charge to do this job, I can afford a half-decent welder, eh? I just need to buy it and get some practice in!

I'm also going to change the shock absorbers while I've got the body raised, because I'll have better access to the top of the rear ones, in case they are as seized as the front ones were. I was going to change them anyway, they are shot, but I was hoping to do it over the winter. I still might, if the body lift takes that long!

When I get home, I decide to adjust the rear shock absorbers on the Cerbera - having driven it about, I think the problem is that the rear is slightly too stiff compared to the front, so it's pitching a bit over bumps and undulations. I decide to soften the rear rather than stiffen the front - and after a couple of clicks, it's exactly in the middle of its range, where I set it when I put the bloody things on in the first place, before I started footering about with them.

A wee drive suggests that's much better!

So the moral of the today's bedtime story is - don't play about with your stiffness kiddies, you'll only break it.