:: Diary - September 2007 ::

:: Sunday, September 2, 2007 ::

Had a nice run down to the borders today with the Sporting Bears, to a nice hotel in Otterburn.

The borders roads are hooching with bikers. Every car park, every petrol station, every layby is full of the things. This suggests were are on good driving roads - and so we are! The car sounds great - throaty and loud, even in the company of a Porsche and a lovely MGBV8.

It's a really nice hotel and an interesting selection of cars (and people).

Good chat then another 90-mile blatt back up the road, again the car sounds great and is going like a train (except for the stops at stations and for wet leaves of course).

:: Friday, September 14, 2007 ::

Wash and polish the car to be ready for the Selkirk Rally car show this weekend. Fortunately the washing elf has got most of the muck off by the time I get home from work.

The washing isn't removing the ingrained insect collection though, so I apply Meguiars 3-stage to the front bit then polish the whole bonnet, applying the wax with my fingers like I was told recently - it's easier to feel exactly what you're doing, and also to watch out (or feel for) grit before you rub it into the paint. After an hour or so, it's absolutely gleaming!

By this time it's getting dark though, so I give up.

:: Saturday, September 15, 2007 ::

I give the underbonnet a bit of a clean up, wiping down the paintwork and cleaning dust off the engine etc. I notice that the paint on the radiator swirl tank is peeling and cracking off - a couple of minutes with a srewdriver scrapes off all the loose stuff, then I paint on a coat of red Hammerite for now. I think I'll take it right off over the winter, strip it down and tidy it up a bit (well, a lot, to be fair).

I clean the wheels and dress the tyres and it doesn't look too bad!

The weather forecast, on the other hand, looks horrible.

:: Sunday, September 16, 2007 ::

You know what weather forecasts are like: never right. How many times have they predicted sun, and it's ended up pissing down? Unfortunately, they don't ever work the other way round - when they preduct rain, they generally mean it, and today is no exception.

After sneaking out of the street before 7am (it's Sunday and my neighbours don't seem to get up till about 11) I drive off to meet Dave, then we drive off to the rendezvous with the rest of the Sporting Bears (who seem to own a high proportion of MGs!). We then set off in a genteel convoy down to the Borders to the Selkirk Rally.

On arrival, we are delayed at the entry gate mainly because the marshalls appear to have failed the qualification exams for brewery piss-up organisers, and seem to be hell-bent on stopping everybody while they answer inane questions from people who can't either read road signs or, for the more literally-challenged, at least follow the car in front.

During all this delay, I casually flick the over-ride switch for the radiator fan to "on", but when we get to the Sporting Bears stand, the car stops in a cloud of steam and expletives. Quick inspections shows that the expansion tank is boiling over and boily water is spraying all over the engine bay, which at least removes some of the remaining greasy bits. After I allow it to cool I can't find any reason why it's overheated. I put more antifreeze in and have a think.

Then I remember - on July 29 I ordered waterproof connectors for the front lights, and said that "I forgot to order one extra connector, to replace the two-wire plug that goes to the radiator fan. Ah well..." Well, guess what? Yup - I twiddle that connector and the fan comes on, I let it go, and it stops - twiddle again, goes again, let go, stops. I take the connector apart and clean it up again, so it works without me dangling under the bonnet all the time. Still needs a new connector though as a long-term fix.

Then the rain gets heavier, then just for a change it gets heavier still, We are there for a total of 7 hours and it rains for 6 hours and 50 minutes, going off just before we leave. I didn't take any photos as I had an umbrella in one hand and a collection tin for the Sporting Bears in the other.

I found a stall that sold headlamp rings though, so bought a couple. They'll need a wee bit of modifying to fit a TVR but with my engineering skill, that's no problem. Tinsnips and a pop-riveter, I can do that.

At the end I am faffing about when this wumman appears trying to scrounge jump leads - so I took mine up to start a dead Triumph Stag, and enter another comedy of errors. The owner of the Stag isn't there - he's gone off on the scrounge as well. His wife is there though and so are the keys so we can still start it. Except that they don't know how - apparently you can't jump start an automatic Stag from a manual one (don't ask me - I'm only saying what they said - I have never heard such pish either) so they spend ages trying to find an Auto one (while most of them are leaving).

Eventually they find one, and he drives up, then is determined that the jump leads won't reach (they will - they're enormous). Then they are determined to connect them the wrong way round. Then the car won't start because the other one is on tickover and needs some revs - then he asks me to give it a little revs with the carb lever - except it's parked in "Drive" with the handbrake off so starts to move forward, fortunately missing the just-started car. I take my jump leads and piss off in the huff.

The drive back (just Dave and I in convoy) is slightly less genteel.

:: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 ::

To prevent further inadvertent boily-boily episodes, I order another waterproof connector for the radiator fan.

I also order a pair of new anodes for the rust stop system - only available from the good old US of A.

:: Sunday, September 23, 2007 ::

Started the day by fitting the waterproof connector to the radiator fan circuit. The fan is now working better than it ever has! In the process I notice that the chassis (and indeed the whole of the underside of the car) is absolutely manky after the Selkirk trip.

Then I decide to have a wee run for the day, the car is going really well, but I notice that a couple of times when I stop, it's idling really fast (about 2,000 revs). Maybe the ISCV, maybe something else - I'll have to have a look. It's intermittent though so no doubt a right bugger to diagnose. Probably something getting a better earth through the new improved radiator fan connector (TVR's are temperamental like that!).

I then decide to fit the new headlamp trim rings, which I find are slightly different - they have a slight raised lip around the back edge. No major problem, they still fit.

Because they are standard Mini and not TVR ones, they don't have the fixing tab at the bottom. I drill out the pop rivets holding the wee metal tabs onto the old rings, and then pop rivet them on to the new rings (noting that I have to flatten that extra lip to get the tabs to fit).

I see a load of stuff to be fixed over the winter, including untidy interior trim (needs refixed and cleand) but mainly the state of the wheels. I need a permanent easy-maintenance solution. I also should fix the fuel gauge and the rear suspension.

:: Saturday, September 29, 2007 ::

First I fit a new rust stop anode to the rear - it came off when I was changing the trailing arm, and the sticky pad wasn't sticky any more so that's it stuffed - the sticky pad is also an electrolyte so you can't just use double sided tape. You can't buy the anodes in the UK and it costs more to post them from the USA than it does to buy them. Ah well...

I clean off some waxoyl from the rear suspension upright with white spirit, then make a scratch through the Hanmmerite to bare metal, then stick the anode on and wire it up.

Then I clean the iscv and throttle pot connectors, to see if that cures the occasional fast idle problem.

Finally I have another go at checking the ECU diagnostic connector but I still can't get a signal.

:: Sunday, September 30, 2007 ::

Nothing much planned for today but when I get up out my pit and open the curtains (early!) just as it's getting light, the sky is clear and it looks like it's going to be nce, so I decide to have a wee drive, rather than fix anything on my enormous list of things that need fixing.

After a nice run through Stirling and Fife, I stop on the coast beside the cliff where King Alexander fell off his horse and started the chaos that led to William Wallace, Bannockburn and a sudden patriotic run on Tunnocks Caramel Wafers.

Then I take the car back to the garage (to leave the driveway clear for delivery of a skip tomorrow)

I notice while I am driving there (in the dark) that the headlights are still aimed too low. Not good for the winter!