New Car.

External one, David. It appears to be a generic GM three flat pin unit, so should be easy to find.


The good.................


The bad............


And I just couldn't help popping on a couple of BL bits! Airbox was flopping about, so the good old Mini exhaust bobbins were pressed into service.

Interior is mint - I'm warming to the little beast. Front screen wash is the other guaranteed MoT fail - no volts at the motor, so some circuit tracing required. I'm getting a bit old for doing upside down under the dashboard.

Chris.

We never did get this sorted, so it's hiding behind the pub on SORN. Pot 2 (of 3) is the culprit. Marginally down on compression, big spark, lots of fuel, no bang. Bobbed on an injector in case, but made no difference. I really don't want to take the head off...........

Anyway, MrsP has bought another one. A blue one. She likes it, because it's got a name - Bluebell. This one goes like stink, however, there's a catch.

I spent most of last weekend and this evening welding the offside inner and outer sills and rear wheelarch back together. I am now qualified to weld up a paper doily as the d@mned thing appears to be made of tissue paper.

Skim of filler and a rub down tomorrow, then I'd better find some paint for it.

Grrrrrr.

Chris.

Further to welding up the off-side sill for the MoT, today has been interesting. Now that the little horror has got a ticket, I thought I'd tidy it up a bit, so acquired a front bumper from that universal source of cheap bits, eBay. It's held on by 7 pop plastic pop studs and four screws. Took 20 minutes to get off, which revealed the smashed in crash bar across the front. Big hammer and a steel bar managed to straighten enough metal to get the d@mn thing off, before sorting the mountings. Having a donor car is useful, as it had a straight crash bar. Fitted that, replacement bumper and set about shutzing the entire underside of the car (Well, having spent £40 on the thing, it's now got to last.). This led to swapping the exhaust and manifold from the donor onto this one. And the lambda sensor.

I thought things were going quite well really. Rubbed off a couple of rust scabs at the top of the r/n/s wheel arch, treated them and refinished them, and decided to do the same to a couple on the end of the sill. It disintegrated in exactly the same manner as the one on the other side. Grrrrrr...... This time, I took pictures:


Front of the wheel arch.


Sill - 18" of "Why am I doing this?" welding.


Tidy it up a bit.


Nearly there.


Not too shabby, eh?

I definitely hate it. 11 hours on my day off - back to work in the morning for a rest.

Chris.

Oops, at least it was the sump guard and not the sump. Still not sure what to do with the one sitting in the corner of my garage that came with the Wolseley.

For that sort of $$ one could get one made?

I have not yet addressed the sump guard issue due to the more immediate problem of getting the little b@gger running again. Left Cornwall on Saturday at 9.30am, drove 23 miles and the cambelt went. Got back home at 12.40am. Lights off in pub - not a happy camper.

This evening I have replaced the cambelt and tensioner and the auxiliary belts. It now runs on one pot while making horrid noises....... Got head off - two bent inlet valves and one bent exhaust valve. Fortunately, they're all dead cheap, so we shall re-engage with it tomorrow.

I should have guessed really. The service interval should be 60,000 miles or six years. Looking at it now, there's no service sticker to say it had been done, so our own fault really.

Chris.

'Tis done. Only five hours to strip out and replace the valves....... Mick the Mechanic is popping up tomorrow evening to check I've got the cambelt fitted properly and we'll see if it goes.

Service interval is there for a reason, folks!

Chris.