:: Diary - September 2003 ::

:: Tuesday, September 2, 2003 ::

Blatt blatt blatt - a day dedicated to the sport of pointless hooning.

...

:: Wednesday, September 3, 2003 ::

Today's mission, should I be stupid enough to accept it, is to realign the driver's door so that it doesn't sag against the body when you shut it. An apparently simple task. Sanity and reason will self destruct in 10 seconds.

First task is to remove the door trim. Speaker off, then hand in speaker hole to remove an awkward inaccessible wee nut up inside the door. Ping out other clips, disconnect interior door handle then remove trim.

This is then supposed to give access to the door hinges. This would be fine if I had a ferret with a City and Guilds in car mechanics and superhuman spanner-turning powers, but I haven't, so it's well-nigh impossible with hands placed awkwardly on the ends of straight arms, and fingers that can only bend in one direction. Eventually I manage to find a socket and spanner combination that fits, and loosen the two hinge bolts, jack the back of the door up and tighten them up again, then refit the door trim, the fiddly nut and the speaker, then because it's getting dark, I lock the car up and put the tools away. Except that I can't find the nut socket. Realisation dawns - it's stuck on one of them bolts, innit? Remove speaker, remove fiddly nut, remove door trim, retrieve socket, then throw door trim in boot in disgust and lock the car up.

:: Thursday, September 4, 2003 ::

return to the car to refit the door trim, and decide that the little wood effect trim on the panel looks cheap and nasty - it's chipped and plasticky. I have heard that they are made of alloy so let's whip it off and have a look!

right enough! Once it's off you can see it's alloy. I think it would look better in plain alloy than with tacky wood effect trim.

Step 1 - sand off the wood effect paint and the (unbelievably thick) two coats of primer underneath.

Step 2 - once all the wood effect is off, sand it again with a very fine paper to remove any scratches

Step 3 - Then a good polish with a good polish!

Step 4 - Refit to car.

Just as a reminder, this is what it looked like before (This is the other side - I haven't done that yet, it took me 2 hours to do one!

Unfortunately as I refit the door trim, the door suddenly sags back to its original position. Take it to bits again and find that the hinge bolts are worn in one position and are impossible to tighten into any other position. It really needs a new hinge but I realign it as best I can anyway.

:: Friday, September 5, 2003 ::

Another two hours to restore the other door trim.

I pull the aerial cable out and am sure that the "funny connector" is actually the broken off bottom of the original aerial, which has been removed and a cheap one shoved in its place as a cosmetic botch. It's not even wired in.

Quick trip to Halfords and buy the cheapest aerial they have. Deliberately choose a non- retractable one because they eat into the limited boot space. Back home and refit it into the bodywork, no problem.

After jiggling, pulling and rattling the cable, and listening, I come to the conclusion that the aerial lead travels down through a panel behind the nearside door. Just at that point I find a loose bit of carpet covering an access hole into the body frame, I push my fingers in and there's the aerial connector!

I use the old cable to pull the new one through the double skinned panel, plug it in and... sorted!

I then have a 40 mile blatt just to ensure that the radio reception is ok.

:: Saturday, September 6, 2003 ::

I decide to remove the brake dust shields because I think they look crap, and also impair the cooling of the brakes. Jack the wheels up one at a time and remove the shields.

Drive to the TVRCC meeting, good natter, and meet Noel who runs a specialist TVR repairer and restorers in East Lothian. Handy man to know!

He is organising next year's week-long trip to the 24 Heures du Le Mans, which TVR take part in. Very tempting - the others all say it has to be seen to be believed - and the TVR factory are VERY keen to help their customers enjoy the week, with special members events etc. Very tempting... I've always wanted to see this...

Then while we are outside nattering, we see a photographer with loads of men in kilts. He comes over and asks if we can create a sports car backdrop for his photos, which are to promote a kilt-making company. We line up the cars and their models move in... while we stand nattering (with some measure of taking the piss, obviously!). Then they ask for a photo of the "lucky owners" so they can put us on their web site to say thanks.

Car receives complements from other members who can see the progress since last time. I try not to look smug - especially since they start talking car values, and I say nothing (well you never know who I might want to sell it to at some stage!)

:: Tuesday, September 9, 2003 ::

A discussion on the Pistonheads forum highlights that the S3C has hydraulic tappets. Could this explain why my attempt to adjust the tappets seems to have not helped the slight hesitation etc I have noticed?

I check with the Haynes Granada workshop manual. Right enough, it says that the S3C was the only model to have hydraulic tappets and they shouldn't be adjusted. No advice on how to reset them though.

TVRMark on the PH forum has a Ford Technical sheet that explains it all, he says. I ask him to email it to me.

:: Friday, September 12, 2003 ::

After an exchange of emails, TVRMark faxes me the Ford Technical sheet. Resetting procedure looks pretty simple.

:: Sunday, September 14, 2003 ::

Remove alternator and rocker covers and reset valves. Unfortunately it gets dark before I get the engine all back together.

:: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 ::

Home from work early and put engine back together. A short trial drive shows that it is very much smoother than it has been since I got it, and also more powerful and louder. Only problem is that the idle speed is too high. I had noticed that the wire was hanging off the idle speed control valve, and I didn't remove it. Idle speed is ok if I disconnect the valve again.

:: Sunday, September 21, 2003 ::

Nice day for a blatt. Car runs fine with ISCV disconnected, but idles too fast if it's connected up. I deduce that it must have been accidentally disconnected some time ago, and has therefore clogged up.

When I get home I remove the valve and flush it out with carb cleaner. No time to try it on the road again though.

:: Monday, September 29, 2003 ::

After a busy week of rubbish weather, too much work and not enough blatting, I finally decide that I will start my "winter projects" schedule.

All of the alloy wheels except for the nearside front are showing signs of corrosion, and I don't really want to get them refurbished going into the nasty salty rust-provoking winter, do I?

I have decided that, at least temporarily, I am going to tidy the wheels up, starting with the nearside rear (cos then I have two decent wheels on the same side so that car will at least look ok from one side!).

Jack the car up, remove the wheel, and go through a careful process:

1. Put on lovely pink marigolds to protect my lily white handies.

2. Brush on (the wheel not the marigolds) a tiny area of Nitromors paint stripper. Agitate it gently with the brush until the lacquer starts to lift.

3. Wash off the paint stripper with a little sponge and plenty of water.

4. Continue to next tiny area, repeat steps 2 and 3 until no lacquer left on wheel.

5. Scrub wheel with steel wool, used wet, to lift the tiny corrosion pits left where the lacquer had been chipped off. Again, do a tiny area at a time, rinsing frequently to ensure the wheel is smooth.

6. Polish the wheel, a tiny area at a time, with a good metal polish, and buff off.

7. Coat the wheel in a good car wax, and buff off.

This procedure transforms the wheel from this:
to this!
An excellent result, well worth the nothing it cost me (although I will need to buy more metal polish to do the rest!) I can reconsider getting the wheels refurbished in the spring - I'll see how they last out the winter.