:: Diary - November 2010 ::

:: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 ::

Spent some time today just tidying the S up a bit. Not because it needed it, but because I was passing time while listening to the radio in the garage in peace.

First job involved a bottle of quick detailer and a couple of cloths. I cleaned up the engine bulkhead, the inner wings, and the door shuts.

Then it's on to another dry cloth, and buff up the bare metal on the engine: the plenum, throttle bodies, alternator etc. No polish involved, just buff them up a bit.

Then I got some rubber and nylon lubricant, and sprayed all the coolant hoses and air hoses, and wiped them down.

Then I got distracted because I found a box that I last opened in 1989, when I packed it with my stuff when I left my last job! It included a file that started with a letter saying "I am pleased to accept your offer of a job" and ended with another saying "I resign". Some of the other letters in between were quite amusing - I was a right stroppy git then. Good job I've mellowed...

Anyway back to the car... I guddle around with various bits of rag and clean up various bits around the engine bay. It certainly doesn't look concours, but it's presentable enough.

:: Sunday, November 7, 2010 ::

TVR Car Club meeting day! First job is to extract the car from the garage by moving my Lexus out of the way, and then Git Jnr's 200SX which he is supposed to be trying to sell. Except it's freezing and it doesn't start - it's as dead as a dodo. Out with the booster pack, connect it up, and it goes! That battery booster pack has been a godsend in the 2 years I've had it, it really has. Put the pack back on charge, move his car then at last I can get the TVR out of the garage!

Git Jnr arrives, still sleepy from his pit (well it is only 10.30 after all) and says that he's got somebody coming to look at his car later.

So - roof still off, hat on and I set off to meet up with Dave and Jim. Except I have to stop for petrol first. Oh and then again for cash. Right, faffing over and off to Dave's house... where there's no Jim. His car wouldn't start so he pushed it down the hill from his house. It still hadn't started by the time he'd used up all the hill, but he managed to flag down a passing mug to give him a tow start. Success!

Right, faffing over and we set off for the meeting. 5 miles up the road, and our route is thwarted by a road closure (because of a fire 2 weeks ago that burnt down a hotel that's been there for 5 hundred years or something). We navigate our way around that, and set off anew. About 5 miles later our route is closed again, for no apparent reason this time. Another diversion, but we're hardy souls we are.

We finally arrive at the meeting to find a group of North-easterners have nicked all the good parking spots. Good to see them though. We also find that Mike, who wasn't supposed to be coming, heard us passing his house so got his car out and came after all!

A bit of chat about springs, camshafts, indicators, weather, spectacles, Cerberas, leather, racing, television and urinary infections, and it's soon time to go home again. We have a game of "Well I'm not going in front" (extended play version) just before we leave the car park, and then head back. It's at this point that I realise that one thing I haven't checked on the car since I put it all together, is that the lights work! Fortunately, they do.

I arrive home to find Git Jnr shaking hands with some bloke standing beside his car - so the deal is done! He's coming back for it during the week, and I get 15 feet of my drive back!

The S has performed faultlessly throughout the day, even although the roads are wet in places, and there's lots of fallen leaves. The car handles like a dream, still maybe a notch too firm, but you can't fault its cornering! The engine sounds great, everything works, it's just superb - and all at speeds that are (almost) legal!

I just need to fix that sodding drivers door!

:: Tuesday, November 9, 2010 ::

I was having a look around the car today, just to see what I could do to tidy it up even more. Apart from some stress cracks, the bodywork looks pretty good, although I do need to fix that drivers door. The chassis is ok but I vcould do with repainting it around the radiator etc, and also repainting the front suspension. The engine bay looks fine, the wheels could do with a polish but is OK. The interior, however, is a bleeding mess. The carpets are falling to bits, and the seats (especially the drivers seat) are cracked and grubby.

I planned to buy a leather restorer kit last year, but with the priority I had to give to boilng Cerberas, I never got round to it. Well today, I finally ordered the kit from the furniture clinic in Gateshead. I sent them a bit of trim I cut off the door card when I had the armrest off, to match the colour.

:: Friday, November 12, 2010 ::

The leather restoration kit arrived yesterday, so tonight I decided to remove the seats so that I can recolour them over the weekend.

I start with the driver's seat. Each seat is held on with 4 bolts, 2 through each seat runner. The bottoms of the bolts stick through the floor and are rusted to hell. The head of the bolts is inside the seat runner and it's very difficult to get a spanner on - impossible in fact. The 2 rear bolts are a nightmare. I end up clamping a large mole grip on the top of the bolt very tightly, and then removing the nut from underneath, a tiny bit of a turn at a time. The inside nut is tight but does come off, but the offside one won't budge. I have to cut through the nut with a Dremel to get it off.

The two front bolts are a bit easier - a nut has been put on to each bolt and tightened up, before installing the seat, then another nut under the floor when the seat is in. That means that the bolt can't turn when you're unbolting the seat.

So that's the driver's seat out!

You can see here the worst of the cracking on the seat and side bolsters.

I start on the passenger side but that's even worse!. One of the rear bolts takes ages to get out, even with molegrips on the top. The nut has rusted so badly that it's rounded off, so I have to use those Irwin bolt grips I used to get the exhaust manifolds off a couple of years ago, to grip what's left. Eventually I get it off, but I don't have time to start the other one. Again, the front bolts have locknuts holding the bolts into the frames, so should be easy.

:: Saturday, November 13, 2010 ::

Managed to remove the passenger seat - although the first bolt last night was a nightmre, the rest came off no problem.

First step is to clean and degrease them again. I know that I only cleaned them a couple of weeks ago, but let's just start again and get it right eh? Besides, there are areas that you can't clean while the seats are in the car.

Then I order new stainless steel bolts (Allen screws this time so that you can get a key in to stop the buggers turning) plus washers and nuts.

Various other things to do today so that's as far as I got.

:: Sunday, November 14, 2010 ::

Bit more time to spare today so I decide to see how this leather restoration goes. Rather than do both seats at the same time, I decide to concentrate on one (the driver's side because that's the worst) so that I can see how it goes - if it doesn't work, at least then I haven't ruined both seats!

So - first step is to read the instructions! Yes, I know it's unusual, but the kit is full of bottles and bits of stuff and I have no idea what they are all for, so I need to figure it out.

Step 1 is to clean them. Done that!

Step 2 is to prepare the leather by removing the existing colour, amd abrading the leather so that the new colour has a nice surface to stick (or soak in) to. The kit includes cotton wool balls and a couple of abrasive Scotchpads. You wrap the abrasive pad round your balls and then read the instructions again once your screams have subsided - ah you wrap the pad round the cotton wool balls! Then you soak them in a leather prep, and start to rub the leather. You can see the old colour coming off onto the pad. Once you've done the seat, the seat back and the headrest, you take a bit of cotton cloth and wipe the leather over with leather prep to take off any residue.

My seats only have the facings in leather: the backs and sites are vinyl, so you don't prep them at this stage.

Step 3 is to use a separate cloth and some alcohol cleaner, and wipe over the whole seat including the vinyl, to clean off any waxes or silicones.

The seat now looks crap - some of the colour has come off the heavy wear areas, and the creases look worse than ever. You have to leave it for an hour while it dries, (and while you go indoors to watch the end of the last GP of the season, where a petulant Spaniard snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, and Eddie Jordan does a brilliant impression of a man trying to climb up Bernie Ecclestone's arse, which isn't easy when it's so close to the ground).

Now the fun bit, step 4 - applying the new colour. I lay the seat out flat and shake the colour bottle. Then you pour some on to a small sponge, and wipe it over the whole seat including the sides. The first coat soaks into the leather and almost disappears, it's so thin. I dry it off with a two and a half kilowatt floor heater (seeing as I don't have a hairdryer. Or hair.).

I apply another 4 or 5 coats, drying it and waiting a bit between each one. By the time I've finished that, it looks not too bad at all! And the colour match looks absolutely perfect.

This is the same seat as the 3 photos on Friday. I am impressed! This kit is absolutely bleeding superb!

The next step is to use a wee airbrush to spray the same colour on to the seat so that it goes on nice and evenly. Before I do that, though, I am so impressed with the kit, that I decide to bring the passenger seat to the same stage, and continue both in parallel. Not today though.

Here's the workshop! Note the strategically placed junk all over the floor in the foreground, including the bits of metal I practiced my welding on. Note also the fine collection of grease-encrusted rags.

And here's the interior with the seats removed. I need new carpets.

:: Monday, November 15, 2010 ::

Spent a couple of hours tonight getting the passenger seat to the same stage as the drivers one - first cleaning it, then prepping the leather with the abrasive pad, then wiping it down with the alcohol cleaner. 4 or 5 coats of colour later, it looks not too bad - but it wasn't as bad as the drivers's side to start with.

So that's both seats ready for colour spraying. I'll have to leave them to dry a bit first though.

:: Tuesday, November 16, 2010 ::

Right - I set up the cheapo airbrush that comes in the kit, which works on cans of compressed air (also in the kit). Now the problem with those, in my experience, is that as you spray, the air coming out starts to freeze as it depressurizes. This isn't helped by the fact that the garage is already effing freezing as it is, so the can temperature doesn't have to drop far before the air brush no worky no more.

So, I've filled a basin with hot water, and dunked the air cans and the colourant in there to warm them up. After a couple of minutes, I connect up a can to the airbrush hose, fill the wee glass pot with colourant, and set it up so that it gives a reasonable spray pattern. So far so good.

I give both seats a spray, paying particular attention to the piping which was blue but which will now be magnolia to match the rest of the seat. The cheapo airbrush needs constant adjustment though, because it clogs easily, and combining that with swapping cold propellant cans with warm ones, and then drying off each coat with the fan heater again, progress is slow.

After a couple of hours or so, though, I've ot a reasonable finish on the front and sides of both seats, I need to leave them to dry and then turn them over and colour the back surface of the backrest.

Better clean the airbrush out though - don't want it to be clogged with dried paint. I take the gun, hose and bottle indoors, along with a can of propellant so that I can blow through the nozzles. I fill up the kitchen sink with hot water, with a bit of washing-up soap in there. I chuck all the bits into the water to warm up, and wash out the bottle. Then I connect up the air hose to the can and open the valve to clear the nozzle, and the air hose splits underwater - it takes me half a second to realise that the hot water has (a) increased the pressure in the tin (although I had that out in the garage as well) and also (b) that the hot water has softened the air hose so that it canny take the pressure Cap'n. I know just how it feels.

Unfortunately, during that same half-second, the rapidly escaping air combines with the soap in the sink to develop a mass of foam that would extinguish a jumbo jet, and almost pins me back against the kitchen door. I manage to close the valve off again and inspect the damage: one hose burst beyond repair.

I nip to the nearest model shop (which is about 10 miles away) but their airbrushes (althouh doubtlessly very much better than this one) are hugely expensive, and they don't sell spare hoses.

No hurry, I'll either buy another hose, or a cheap (but probably still better) airbrush. And maybe a compressor so that I don't have to mess about warming up tins of air.

Just to rub salt into the wound, the postman then delivers the bolts I ordered to refit the seats to the car - I thought they'd be finished by now!

:: Thursday, November 18, 2010 ::

Can't do much to the seats until I fix the airbrush, it needs a new hose. I manage to nip into a model shop, to find the owner and his assistant talking to two customers who are dressed like a cross between Bear Grylls and Crocodile Dundee. They are busy regaling each other with stories of their national service (honest!) and don't seem to have very much time for inconveniences like customers who actually want to spend money. I suspect his shop fulfils the same purpose as my garage - ie it keeps you out of the house and out of trouble. I can't find any airbrushes, but eventually the assistant finishes trimming his nails with a knife the Swiss Army would have rejected as being too complicated, and shows me that they only have one in stock, behind this huge pile of remote control helicopters. It costs more than I meant to spend (in the entire month, not just on an airbrush).

So I head off into the big city, to Machine Mart to be precise, and buy an airbrush for under £30. I also buy a wee compressor, so that I don't have to keep tins of propellant in buckets of hot water.

When I get home, I read the instructions (yes I do!) and set up the airbrush and compressor, fill the jar with colourant, and give it a go. I set up the seats at an angle so that I can do the backs at the same time as the front, by propping the back of the seat frame on an axle stand. Then I spray one seat and then set up the fan heater to warm it up and dry it while I paint the other one. This airbrush is much more controllable, much more reliable, and it takes me about 10 minutes to recoat both seats - that took me about 2 hours yesterday between changing tins, unclogging the airbrush, etc.

I spray on 3 or 4 coats of colour in no time at all, drying the previous coat with the fan heater.

I leave it to dry overnight - tomorrow it's gloss sealer time!

:: Saturday, November 20, 2010 ::

Not a lot to report for yesterday - I sprayed on 5 coats of gloss sealer, trying to get it as even as possible, again drying the seats between each coat with the fan heater. The airbrush worked faultlessly, and the seats looked fantastic!

Today, the final steps - you select whether you want a gloss, matt or satin finish when you order the kit. If you want gloss, you leave the sealer as it is. The other two finishes have to be sprayed on top. I chose satin, so that's the last step!

Again, set up the airbrush, and fill the jar with the satin sealer. It's much thicker and milkier than the gloss, but the airbrush works fine - until I stop for a few seconds while I refill the jar - then it just won't spray at all, it's clogged up inside. The temperature today is a little bit lower than it has been lately, so maybe the sealer is too thick. I fill a bucket with hot water and dunk the bottle of sealer in it, while I strip and clean the insides of the airbrush.

When I get it all back together again, it works fine, but I notice that it works a lot better using a paint cup than the glass jar - it's a bit more fiddly because the cup doesn't hold very much sealer, but it gives better coverage.

I use the glass jar to scoop up some hot water when I've finished using the airbrush, and then spray the hot water through the brush so that it doesn't clog between uses.

After 3 or 4 coats of sealer (I forget, you just get carried away with these things don't you?) the seats have a lovely satin finish.

I clean out the airbrush and then get a tin of satin black Hammerite, and paint the bits of the seat frame and the seatback pivots etc that are visible, and leave the whole lot to dry properly.

I am very impressed with the leather refinishing kit, it does everything it says, although the airbrush they give you isn't very good - it would probably be ok in the summer time though, I think that using it in Scotland in the winter isn't giving it the best chance. The results, even on leather in the state mine was in, are pretty spectacular. The kit is available from The Furniture Clinic in Gateshead.

Now I need to leave them to dry, and refit the seats to the car. Probably tomorrow.

:: Sunday, November 21, 2010 ::

The seats have now dried out, and look really good. Now to refit them to the car!

I ordered new stainless steel bolts (with allen heads), flat nuts, full nyloc nuts, and some penny washers. I've also got a new black cover for the seat recline mechanism - mine broke off, and disappeared so I couldn't even repair it. I found it wedged under the driver seat when I took it out but it's broken around the mounting screw and I'm as well fitting the new one now.

I fit the bolts through the runners, and fit one of the half-bolts underneath, then holding the bolt with an allen key, tighten up the nut to the frame. That should hold it in place and make fitting and removing the seats easier, if the bolt can't turn when you're undoing the nut from underneath. I only tighten up the front ones at this stage - I leave the rear ones a little bit loose, to allow me to adjust them slightly to fit the holes in the car floor - the rear ones are easier to reach in the car if you push the seat right forward.

Then I fit the cover to the seat mechanism - pretty easy, it's just held on with one screw.

Then I fit the seats into the car - it's a little bit fiddly getting all four bolts through the penny washers and the floor at the same time, then I tighten up the rear half-nuts and fit the washers and nyloc bolts underneath.

Here they are refitted to the car - perfect!

I think they really transform the car - I had the outside looking half-reasonable before, but the interior looked like the inside of a skip. Not any more! I could still do with new carpets though. Buying carpets isn't a problem, neither is cutting them and fitting them. The tricky bit is putting the piping round the edges - you either need an industrial sewing machine or a team of hand-sewers!

The next job is replacing the front brake disks - I have a bit of a brake wobble going on, and seeing as this is the third or fourth set of disks that have gone the same way (largely I think because of the disks getting wet and then corroding unevenly while the car is sitting between uses). Or it could be because the disks from the local motor factors are rubbish, I don't know. I think I might buy better quality disks this time and see how they go.

I was thinking about a brake upgrade to bigger disks, bigger calipers off the later Sierra XR4i - they are 260 mm diameter rather than the standard 240mm, and fit straight on - provided you can also get the XR4i caliper brackets, which are apparently on the same warehouse shelf as the hens' teeth and rocking horse shit. So unless you buy used and then get them refurbished, you're pretty stuffed. In any case, I find the standard brakes are fine, I don't tank the car that hard that I've ever had a problem. So I think I'll just replace the standard ones again.

:: Thursday, November 25, 2010 ::

I go out to buy new brake disks for the S, from the local motor factors. They have them in stock and they cost less than a quarter of what I paid for the Cerbera ones.

There's a bit of a nip in the air, and the weather forecast says that there's going to be a sprinkling of snow over the next few days, so I decide to drop into B&Q to buy some rock salt, tp [revent the drive icing up. As I get out of the car, a Chimaera arrives and parks in the next row. As I'm walking past I wait for the owner to get out, and I can see the "Oh Christ another nutter" look on his face, but he relaxes when I tell him I have a Cerbera and I've seen hin about but not while in a TVR. "A purple one?" he says. Turns out he lives in the same street as a Porsche-owning friend who is involved with the Sporting Bears.

We have a bit of a chat, then his car won't lock, because the fob is knackered, and he doesn't know how to fix it. I do! I tell him where to order a replacement.

:: Saturday, November 27, 2010 ::

Well as forecast, it snowed today. Not as forecast, it snowed hard all day till it was about 2 feet thick. A light sprinkling? Arse.

:: Sunday, November 28, 2010 ::

It snowed again today.

:: Monday, November 29, 2010 ::

It snowed again today.

:: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 ::

It snowed again today. It stopped long enough to let me clear a bit of the drive, and get the Fiesta out for essential supplies. Coming home was like driving up the Cresta run (I live at the top of a hill) but I got there. Or rather, here.