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Got My Wheels Back

2007-07-04T10:59:00.000+01:00

Got my Spitfires wheels back after they were shot blasted and powder coated. 500,-Kr a piece (£45 ish). Very pleased with the results, another part of the puzzle complete.

Project David Brown #2

2007-01-07T20:36:00.000Z

The first week of the new year has seen a flurry of activity. The Wall in the garage is finished and 2 extra sockets are installed and wired up.

There's also been more progress on the old David Brown, albeit, not all of it positive.

Since the last report I continued by taking the sump off for a good look from underneath, not so good, rust in the bores under the pistons as well. A quick scrape with a screw driver and a polish with 800 wet and dry cleans the rust off OK and leaves the bores looking pretty good. Typically one can't get to the bores under the piston.

Next step was filling the pistons with penetrating oil. This didn't help much and only found it's way past No.2 the other 2 remaining dry underneath.

This evening I plugged in the engine heater and, to my pleasant surprise, this works a treat and heated the block up so that you could hardly touch it. Still no joy.

Facing the inevitable, I have removed all three bearing caps with the intention of pushing each piston out on it's own. All shells and the crankshaft are in good condition so, hopefully these will be re-usable.

Working from underneath with a block of wood and a large hammer I have managed to remove no 2 piston, Good... No.1 and No.3 are still stuck solid so I still havn't been able to rotate the crank even the tinyest amount, bad.... With a little careful persausion I managed to free up 2 of the 4 rings on NO.2, these look to be OK, with a little more persuasion, I managed to break the third ring on No.2, Bugger...

So the list of parts required now looks like this.

1: Head Gasket Set
2: New Rings
3: Sump Gasket
4: Clutch

Understandably my financial controller has reservations about my using large amounts of cash on this project. I wil be trying to avoid adding too much more to that list.... More pictures at the next report.

Project David Brown #1

2007-01-04T20:35:00.000Z

New Year, New Goals.

Stunned by the fact that I was up, had eaten breakfast and was not significantly hungover by Midday on New Years Day, I thought that I might as well get straight out in the barn and make some progress towards one of this years aims.

I am quite sure that my 1971 David Brown, Select-A-Matic 880, 2.5L, 3 Cylinder Diesel tractor would prove very useful in this years gardening plans. For this reason I really want to get it going by mid spring. This will be easier said than done as the engine is seized solid.

I have been aware that the next step was to get the head and sump off the engine and see what the state of affairs is. Assisted by one of our new years party guests, and with a bit of a struggle we finally persuaded the head to separate from the engine by tea-time on the first.

What we found, was both good and bad, the state of the bores suggests that they are the reason why the engine is stuck due to a significant amount of rust binding the piston to the bore. The good news here is that it could be something much worse.....

Fleet Maintenance.

2006-11-26T18:13:00.000Z

I'm writing this partly for your interest and partly as a reference for myself of all the jobs that popped into my head as I was driving the tractor down to the petrol station to fill it with Winter diesel earlier today.

Today I managed to tighten the loose ball joint on the Tractors steering so that it now doesn't swing widly from side to side every time you hit a bump. The castelated nut was too far in and hence the split pin did not stop it from loosning. A couple of large washers sorted this out. I also found out where the coolant was leaking out of. I think I fixed this and I filled the rad up with anti-freeze. I also gave the lawn mower a quick brush off and clean and removed the battery for winter storage in the basement.

It's a long list, and some of these jobs won't be started until next summer, but here goes.

The Opel

Pretty much up to date with servicing and the rest, a few small jobs really.

- Replace the bonnet cable (again) so that you don't need pliers to open the bonnet.
- Get a new clip for the drivers side window winder. I lost the old one whilst I was fixing the door handle.....

The Landy

Plenty to do here, mostly because we havn't really finished restoring it yet (even though I've been driving it for the last 2 years!!!). There's a few service type jobs too. Planning to use the Landy through this winter and then take it off the road for a little while next summer (whilst I'm using the Spitfire.... Yipppeee).

Service Items...

- Purchase and install New dipstick, the old one broke.....
- Fix Sidelights, they've got water in them and don't work most of the time.
- Fill grease into all grease nipples.
- Clean Injectors, it smokes a little too much when it's cold.
- Get new springs for the wiper arms so that they don't lift off the windscreen at 50 mp/h

Longer term...

- Treat inside of Chassis with Dynax S50.
- Clean and re-paint/protect outside of chassis members, as there is already some surface rust showing.
- Paint front wings
- Remove the bits of body which don't fit properly, make them fit and attach them permanatly.
- Rub down all of body and spray a couple more coats of Top coat.
- Attach missing door trims.
- Replace passengers door after accident with 4 post car lift
- Install Door Seals
- Mount front grill
- Sort out interior and seats.

Tractor and Trailer.

Since moving in over 18 Months ago, I've been using my Zetor 7245 quite often and I have, ashamed to say, really negleted it's maintenance needs.

Tractor

- Oil change
- Change/clean all filters, oil, air, diesel, hydraulic fluid and so on.
- Fix the heater valve (was leaking so I've had to bypass the heater)
- New windscreen wiper blade.
- Fix demister
- Find out where the brake/clutch fluid dissapears slowly to and fix.
- Fix hydraulic leak.
- Find out why oil drips out of engine and fix.
- Replace all water hoses.
- Fix lights (most of them, half of them don't work).
- General Clean and tidy.
- Fix temperature gauge (or maybe it needs a new thermostat).

Trailer

- Fix Hydraulic leak.
- Straighten bent light mount, change broken light cluster and make lights work.
- Grease as required.

The Triumph

The plan here is to complete this over the winter so that it is 100% ready for the first days of Spring, as soon as the sun is shining and the salt is gone from the roads.

It's out and driving, but there's a fair bit of body work and interior left to do. a very quick summary here, I'll try to catch up with my project updates shortly...

- Finish body work (bonnet, doors and boot lid)
- Change Windscreen
- Interior

The David Brown

Other than towing this undercover, discovering the 3-cylinder deisel engine is seized, taking the injectors out and pouring deisel down the bores, we've not got any further with this either.

We plan to focus on the garden next year and the bucket of the front of this would be very useful, so the plan is to do the bare minimun to get it usable before next spring.

Sorry about the rubbish picture, it's the only one I could find, from the estate agent, taken before we bought this place. The David browns now tucked in a corner with all sorts of stuff in front of it and hence is not so Photogenic at the moment!. Expect Photo updates when I get working on it.

Before Spring

- Persuade engine to rotate
- Persuade engine to run
- Assumming sucessful in above, change clutch.

Longer term

- Restore.... Paint, New hoses, new glass and so on.

The Lawnmower

Again, for the last 18 months we've just used this and not really given it much attention. The price of new ride on Lawnmowers is rediculous so we really need to look after the one we've got. Not much to do really.

I don't seem to have a picture of the Lawnmower, but it's pretty much like any other basic ride on jobbie.

- Oil Change
- Wash
- Top battery up and charge it fully before storing it in the basement for winter.

Snow Blower

Last but not least on our list of Internal combustion engines. I got this as a spares or repair before last winter, got it working and made good use of it. I reckon it's really good, Mrs VL, reckons it's too noisy and heavy to use!!!!

Before the snow comes!

- Check it still runs, we've had no snow yet this year!
- Oil change.
- General Lubrication/greasing.

Longer term

- Restore/Paint.
- Fix clutch so that it always stops when it's supposed to.
- Fix the wire/handle that rotates the spout.

Plenty to do, I'll try to fit time in to post updates as I work my way through these tasks!!

Oil Change

2006-11-08T19:38:00.000Z

As those who know me are aware and those who don't have probably guessed, I am interested in all things mechanical, regardless of age, speed, power, function and so on.

Whilst I am still playing catch up with the Spitfire project reports, I thought I would come right back up to date with last weekends trip to Mrs LS Uncles farm on an Island outside of Bergen on the West Coast.

The farm and the farm machinery is not new to me as I lived there during my first 6 months of our time in Norway. Mrs VL's uncle is house bound and the farm is mostly held in control by some sheep which are grazed on the land. For this reason the last time this very peculiar tractor was used was by myself together with Mrs LS and "the thoughtful scotsman", 18 months OK, to assist us with loading the 7.5ton lorry we used for moving, as seen here.

First job of the weekend was to chop up some large trunks with the chain saw (also not used for over 18 months, started first time) and to fetch these up along with a few other piles which the Sister in Law had already chopped up by hand. So we trudged down through the inevitable mud and found the tractor exactly as we had left it in the bottom of the barn. Did all the normal checks, fuel, oil, clutch still went in and out, brake pedal and lever still moved freely. On opening the fuel valve fuel leaked out of the top of the carb, probably a bit of muck, which I hoped would clear once we got some petrol flowing into the engine (as indeed it did).

I got the starting rope out the little tool kit, wrapped it around the main pully and gave a gentle tug to make sure the engine stil turned, not really trying to start it. "Put, Put, brrrrr", it fired into life first try.

We got our hands on some suitable oil, drained the old stuff out,

filled the new, found out how little it took, drained some of the new back out again so that it wasn't over filled,

found a grease gun, greased the umpteen grease nipples and gave the whole thing a good clean.

Leaving it ready to be put into good service for the weekend. Mrs LS's Uncles wet and hilly litle farm is really suited for such a vehicle. A real full size tractor would make such a mess.

Project Spitfire Update #3

2006-11-07T21:24:00.000Z

After the dissapointment of not making the date for the test, a new date was booked for the 29th of September. At the same time we arranged hood fitting for the 25th so that the car would have a test run before the test and that we wouldn't be so reliant on weather on the big day.

After our trip to England and Ireland in the Opel I had a weekend concetrating on other things before getting back to the spitfire.

I had arranged for a mate to come and help for the Saturday before the big occasion. Before this I had completed the following,

Re-wired and tested the overdrive.

Changed the reversing light switch and got them working.

Sorted out the fuel tank sender wiring, which I got worng such that battery had discharged.

Attached the front quarter valences and got the sidelights and indicators working,

and charged the battery....

Two of the main jobs for the Saturday were to fit the tunnel and to sort out the Carbs, which were still a little bit sticky and tempermental.

As typically happens, my assistent was assigned what turned out to be the days most difficult job. This was drilling/cutting the neccesary holes and fitting the new fibreglass gearbox tunnel. No way near as easy as we first thought.

It took concentration

caused mild insanity

but in the end fitted nicely.

We also corrected the incorrect fitting of the wiper mechanism, fitted new wiper blades and then got those working. At the same time Mrs LS worked on the hood frame, which by now was in component bits.

The next, and again not as easy as expected, job was to fit new seat belts. These took a bit of figuring out and were a little fiddly to get right but in the end we got them to fit.

At the end of a long day we were tired but satisfied,

and felt justified in allowing ourselves the pleasure of a little test drive.

The Carbs had to wait for another day (which meant again we were starting to run short of time). Another update later (who knows, maybe the blog will catch up with real life shortly)....

Project Spitfire Update #2

2006-09-30T15:47:00.000+01:00

After a huge amount of time spent on the body, way more than we had expected as always seems to be the way with body work, we were way behind plan.

Our test was booked for Thursday 17th August, with a 2 month waiting list you have to book in advance. I'll pick up the story on the Saturday before the big day.

Bodywork wise, the situation looked like this

The underside had been primed, painted with a stone chip protective layer and then painted with the blue 2x top coat. The inside was primed and I had started some filling/prep on the outer panels.

Mechanically it was as below,

pretty much as per the previous post but all rear suspension components were more or less ready to install and the engine work was also pretty much completed.

Body wise, I arranged some "hired help" for the Sunday and the Monday evening, 2 guys well experienced with body work and prep so by the Tuesday morning the body looked like this,

ready for painting.

In the mean time my wife cleaned the gearbox

and I reconstructed the rear suspension, complete with new wheel bearings which were changed by a local garage as I don't posess a press.

Tuesday was a frustrating day, the high build primer which was supposed to be on the body by 10 o'clock wouldn't flow from the gun and the compressor I had couldn't keep up. More details of the nightmare I had painting can be found here on The Club Triumph Forum. In the end, again way behind the days plan, I got it all painted with the primer and looking pretty good.

During the few hours the primer needed to harden I got the chassis on 4 wheels for the first time and with some help drafted in we got the engine and box hoisted up, rolled the chassis under and dropped them into place. One job that went well.

I then installed the propshaft and by the time that was completed we were ready to start flatting the body work, this went relatively quickly and with 2 compressors joined together spraying the top coat went relatively well, although finishing at nearly 1 o'clock in the morning was far from Ideal.

Bright and breezy the next morning (Wednesday, 26 hours before the car needed to be road worthy...) we were all ready to re-unite the body with the chassis, which we wheeled out in the sunshine,

so that we could wheel the newly painted body on it's trolley into the garage.

We carefully attached the body to the ceiling and using the 2 chain blocks I had borrowed from work raised it up off the body trolley and high enough to wheel the chassis back under. This whole procedure went well and remarkably enough, all the neccessary holes in the body lined up with the captive nuts in the chassis. Seems we achieved something during all those drunken weekends in my old garage in Cockermouth...

At this point, the photos dry up and about 14 hours of frantic bolting back together ensued. I had assistance during the evening and into the early hours from a mate, and despite extreme tiredness good progress was made. Whether the tiredness and late hour was a factor in the cracking of the old windscreen during installation is a point for discussion.

Not wanting to accept the inevitable truth that the car was not going to be driveble by 10 a.m. the next morning and ever the optimists it was back out of bed at 5:30 am, less than 4 hours after we had hit the sack. Everything continued to take more time than expected and the deadline came and went. However, out of pure stubbourness we were still going to drive the car on the same day.

Around 5 p.m. the engine turned over for the first time in 8 years, but as with all other jobs starting it wasn't totally straight forward due to a blocked outlet valve in the fuel pump. Once this was fixed, to great rejoicing the engine started as soon as petrol got to the twin SU carbs. The occasion warrented the first photo shoot of the day.

If you look closely you can see the fan spinning just above the top of the radiator....

After this momentous occasion spirits were lifted slightly and we set about the remaining tasks of sorting out brakes and installing seats, in otherwords the bare essentials for the first outing. Having sucessfully bled the clutch with the assistance of one of the neighbours lads, Mari was left in charge of bleeding the brakes. This was one of the few jobs that went surprisingly well and quickly. In the meantime I got the seats installed and by 10p.m. we were out on the lane guided by very dim torch light. No speed records were broken and we were far from finished but there was satisfaction that we had managed to get the main major functions more or less in order and there was light at the end of the tunnel. We went to bed naturally disappointed but all the same with a great feeling of achievement.

Project Spitfire Update

2006-07-28T11:59:00.000+01:00

OK, it's been a long time since I announced that we had started this project again, but I hope, from the photo's that it is obvious that I have been very busy indeed...

So, here's what's been done.

Chassis prepped.

Primed

and painted in French Blue, Triumph Colour code 126, as per original.

All front suspenion components have been reconditioned/painted, anything that is made of rubber has been changed and new wheel bearings installed in hubs.

And then bolted to chassis,

Diff complete with new output bearings and seals, rust treated and painted installed on Chassis

Body trolley built

Prinicples of leverage applied

with a couple of helpers

Giving a decent working height and the possibility to move the body in and out of the garage as required.

That's all the pics I have available for now, there's been progress since then (last photo is from 2 weekends ago) but nothing majorly obvious. The job of tidying up the body and welding on the last few brackets is pretty much done. Rear spring has been installed and a couple of brake unions mounted.

Motor, gearbox and propshaft are ready, just waiting rear suspension and a gearbox mount before they go in.

That's all for now, will post another update (in a couple of months probably knowing my schedule).

Garage Storage Solutions #2

2006-06-08T10:12:00.000+01:00

The Misses suggested that the old coat rack lying around in the top barn would be useful on the wall in the garage. My response was that there is no way that I am hanging clothing up in my garage. However, women have an annoying habit of being right. When confronted by the problem of where to hang Spitfire bits for painting, here is the solution

The 200 @ Japfest 2006

2006-05-27T19:44:00.000+01:00

Japfest seemed a long way off when I was worrying whether or not I had got a spot way back in January. The SXOC sessions at Japfest are always over-subscribed, so when the announcement was made that they were taking applications I jumped at the chance.
After a very early start on the Saturday morning I met the rest of the SXOC South East crew at Chievly services on the M4. After catching up with the lads, we set off following Phil who knew a shortcut. Little did I know that I would end up 4th in the procession and that I would lose the first three! I ended up leading a convoy of about 40 cars while not having a clue where I was going, or a map! As usual i 'winged it' and we turned up at the circuit at the same time as the three front runners, just from totally different directions!
After parking up and catching up with a few of the SXOC, I had a wonder round the stands. A large amount of it was utter crap, lambo doors and big stereos, but the Driftworks stand was good to see, but not as much as the Driftworks' demo runs. Burnouts down the pit lane, bloody good lads!
So after seeing a few offs, it was now time to hit the track. Stupidly I hadn't studied the track before hand and I had never spectated at Castle Coombe before. I nervously hit the track, after 1 lap I expertly pointed out to my passenger that you should not follow other peoples lines unless you know they are shit hot. I promptly broke that rule and followed someone missing a chicane, but no harm done as there was an escape route. Very lucky really! I was glad to see that most of the SXOC were driving well and had listened to the briefing, after having seen some of the incidents earlier in the day this made me a lot more relaxed. Having made it back to the paddock in one piece the 200 hard started making a rather interesting noise, and a different one to the Brands Hatch noise. After much searching, which involed revving the nuts off the car (and several people videoing the exhaust!?!?!) it was traced to the AFM moving in the cold air box. Phew.
So, was Japfest good? Well queuing for 1 hour for a burger was a bit shite, and the birds in the pink outfits were rank, and the track time was dicey, but I think I will do it again. Got to be a laugh....

Picture coutesy of Juz from SXOC

Garage Storage solutions #1

2006-05-22T11:07:00.000+01:00

As many of those who had the pleasure of working in my garage in England will know, organisation and tidiness were not among my stronger points. What will surprise you, is that I have learnt from this, and I am not going to end up in that situation again.

I am already beginning to see that the time and frustration saved by having everything in a specific place is significant. I am also enjoying the benefit of having a clean and painted garage floor on which you can find the nuts and such that you drop.

What has been frustrating up until now is that all my tools and garage supplies have been kept in the basement due to the lack of shelving in the garage. On Saturday, by completing a very rare "1 day project" this problem was solved.

I made use of a drawer unit that my wife acquired (good and solid, with metal drawers), bits of wood from the wood store in the top barn and some of the paneling, which, if I have done my calculations correct will be left over after the other side of the wall is complete. It was a bit of a design as you build affair, but the end result is satisfactory and all in all very solid. Drawers for tools, shelves for parts and a nice clean top for Haynes manual/Drawings/clean parts..... By the end of Sunday the shelves were adorned with most of the Triumph parts, new and old all carefully segregated and labeled, paints, nuts and bolts and so on.

So now that things are beginning be in order it's full speed ahead with the spitfire. I'll attempt to write a report of progress to date and what's planned for the next few weeks soon.

The wall #3

2006-05-21T10:31:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I was finally back in the country after an unexpectedly long stay away from home with work.

Since then it's been all go, both in the Garden (see some reports on Norwegian Wood) and in the garage. The garage wall is now paneled completely on the garage side and is awaiting the installation of a light switch, sockets and cables before insulation and paneling can begin on the other side. This job may now wait until the completion of the Triumph project, which, as it is now summer has a higher priority.

At least with the Spitfire chassis sitting on stands in the middle of the garage I am satisfied that the garage is more than big enough for the sort of work I have planned, could be a different story with the Landy or the David Brown tractor in there though. Time will tell. Now all I need to do is organise lighting and sockets, sort out some shelving and keep the place as tidy as it is now.

Gratuitous Track Action

2006-05-09T20:05:00.000+01:00

Here are some shots from the SXOC track evening at Brands Hatch. I only managed 2 sessions - 1 with an instructor and 1 with my mate Rob. After that my rear pads were shot so it was end of play for the day. This was probably just as well because shortly after I pitted the heavens opened and it got very dark, which made for an amazing display of flamage from exhausts!

picture courtesy of raw action photography

Pictures courtesy of Jem from SXOC

The car didn't feel as good as it should - I was struggling to make 110mph on the main straight when I was happily doing 125mph on the last outing at Brands. This was confirmed at a recent SXOC rolling road day at Surrey Rolling Road. It appears to be running standard boost which means I am missing about 50bhp. The theory at the moment is that the actuator has gone weak, I will try and get this fixed for the next outing at Castle Coombe for Japfest in a couple of weeks time. More track action to follow...

Track Day Season is nearly here...

2006-04-09T08:10:00.000+01:00

With my first track day a little over a week away I thought I should start getting the 200 ready for a bit of track action. First on the list was to adjust the drivers seat that I fitted in December - I found that it was too far to the right and I was sitting at an offset to the steering wheel. This was easily fixed as the Bride subframe that I fitted has a bit of sideways adjustment. Having done this I still feel that it sits a bit far to the right, but a lot better. I may tackle this again if I get time, I think the subframe could be modified to give me even more adjustment.

Next up was sorting out my summer wheels. The winter wheels and tyres were looking a bit sorry for themselves having done 1 track day and 1 drift day as well as several thousand slippery winter miles. So I dropped the summer set off at Bracknell Tyres for 2 new Eagle F1's to be fitted. Unfortunately the machine chipped the laquer a bit on one wheel so I may have to get that resprayed at some point, this is a common problem with the type of finish I have on these wheels. Anyway Bracknell Tyres has to be the cheapest place in the South East for tyres, even cheaper than ordering them from an Internet tyre place. They even swapped my wheels over free of charge despite being very busy. So while I ran the car round the block to warm the oil through ready for the oil change I took some arty shots...

As the old F1's had a bit of tread left on them I thought I would keep them for a bit of drift action later in the year. Unfortunately my garden now looks like this. I don't think the missus has seen it yet...

Next job was to change the oil and oil filter. I had already picked up a filter on my last trip to Nissan, and yes, another classic Nissan joke price - over a tenner! The oil came from Opie Oils who had advised a Silkolene 10-50 rating as the 200 does all sorts of journeys so this is a good all rounder.

So after a days hard work the 200 is ready for some track action (apart from a wash and polish), the next task is to get me ready and purchase a helmet. So it's off to the local motorbike shop next weekend.

A Project is Reborn

2006-04-05T20:03:00.000+01:00

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

It is for exactly this reason, combined with the experience of the Landrover project, which although on the road is a long way from finished, that my dear wife has been elected project manager for our latest under taking. This appointment is with my full approval. I relish the idea of being told that I'm not spending enough time in the garage and hence falling behind plan. Also, on a more practical front, being forced to think through the order that I am going to do things and what parts I need in advance should save a lot of time and wasted effort.

This project is not new, however. It's been with me long before I met the project manager. I acquired my 1975 Triumph Spitfire 1500 as a student in 1995. Whilst it could look good, in the right light when it was raining... (as with so many of my cars) there was never any doubt that one day it would need serious work. Every MOT was a bonus and I kept it on the road for the best part of 4 years covering around 40,000 miles in that time.

After it was taken off the road, it was worked on at times with great, often beer fuelled, enthusiasm and at times it went months without any attention at all. Filling my garage with the landrover, in pieces, was the final straw for the Triumph, and work became impossible. Since then it has been in the back of a lorry along with everything else we own, been stashed in a damp car port on the west coast of Norway, been in the back of a lorry again and finally landing here.

So after a long (around 4 Years) break, planning is nearly complete and work has begun in earnest. I hope to present the plan in full detail very shortly and give regular progress reports.

I hope you enjoy the little photo history of the project before the rebirth......

The Wall #2

2006-03-07T16:43:00.000Z

Progress. After a few hours on Saturday and Sunday, the frame for the wall, as you can see is completed and mounted in place. I have decided that it is a good idea to include a door in this wall due to the difficulty to open the sliding garage door when it gets stuck with all the snow under it. So, there was a little bit of redesign and a few extra joints to cut.

The only slight weather related delay this time was that I had left the wood glue outside and it was frozen solid come Sunday afternoon when I needed it again......

Snow Blower

2006-03-05T10:24:00.000Z

OK, it hasn't got a Turbo and it's only got 5 Happy Power but there is something deeply satisfying about working on and getting an old piece of motorised equipment up and running after a number of years lying around outside out of function.

Much to my wife's disapproval I couldn't turn down the offer of 2 non functioning, identical snowblowers which another hoarder had finally been persuaded by his wife to dispose of. I picked them up a few weeks before Christmas.

Myself and "the other cold one", who was part of the family crowds over Christmas had a couple of sessions on one of the units out in the workshop and after an amount of dismantling came to the conclusion that there was no spark and the Magneto/ignition system was defunct.

After all the Christmas chaos was over I managed to track down a local workshop that specialises in Garden machinery, old and new. I came away with 2 used Magnetos to try, a new set of points and a new spark plug. Fitted the best looking Magneto and the other bits and got a spark first time.

Engine still wouldn't fire so I poured a little bit of fuel into the cylinder and it fired first time, but wouldn't keep running. Pouring fuel into the carb had the same effect. So it was off with the carb, a quick dismantle and clean out with petrol, put it all back together and off it went. A little bit of fiddling with the mixture and off I went blowing snow.

Since then it's been put to good use. Hope to tidy it up a bit more once the seasons over. I'll probably give it a lick of paint and a little bit more of a service to get everything working properly (it's quite difficult to disengage the blower drum and it doesn't always disengage the wheels when you put it in stop). In the mean time, I'll cope with it as it is.

F**cking North Wales Police

2006-03-02T08:51:00.000Z

Motorist's friend Richard Brunstrom and his band of merry men have been at it again. This morning's post brought me the unexpected pleasure of a "Notice of Intended Prosecution". It would appear that I am to be charged with the heinous crime of accelerating out of a 30mph limit into a derestricted area, and attaining the dizzy speed of 36mph just before passing the national speed limit sign.

I did see the revenue van with it's blacked out windows parked in the layby just before the derestricted sign, but, come on, have they got nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon than go out of their way to catch us hardened criminals?

Well, actually, they probably have. But last time I was the victim of a crime, when my car was nicked, they couldn't even be bothered to drag their fat lazy arses out of our village police station. "we'll look into it" they told me over the phone. 1 week later I get a letter saying they were closing their enquiry. Truth be told they probably never even bothered opening their enquiry.

But if someone gets to 36mph, f**k me, they're there like vultures.

The Wall

2006-02-27T13:38:00.000Z

It may seem strange to all of you out there who have struggled to repair cars in garages that are hopelessly small and wished for more space but I am building a wall, to make my workshop/garage smaller.

There is method in my madness. Where I live, the temperature does not rise above freezing for more than a few days from early December to late March. I have had ice stuck to my garage floor for weeks, not ideal working conditions. However, with the dark evenings, I see winter as an ideal time to be out in the garage. During the summer there is grass to cut, vegetables to plant, bar-b-q's to build and use and so on. When there is a meter of snow on everything and it's dark, it's either mope around inside or get out in the garage.

As you can see from my pictures, the bottom level of my barn, which makes up my garages is internally completely open and hence, impossible to heat. By separating off the left hand side (where the Landrover is in the pictures) with an insulated wall, I should be able to have a garage which sits at outside temperature and a Garage/Workshop which is insulated and possible to heat. The other big advantage is that I will be able to use my welder and angle grinder without worrying about damaging the car parked in the other half of the garage.

Progress was good on Sunday morning/ afternoon. We fetched the required wood for the framework down from the top barn using the tractor and trailer. We cut the main pieces to length, making the required joints and test fitted the frames before lunch, things were progressing swimmingly. Unfortunately, after lunch it proved a lot more difficult to reverse the tractor and trailer through the deep snow than it was to drive out of the top of the barn forward. So, instead of finishing off the framework the afternoon was spent getting the trailer wedged at all sorts of funny angles, digging the front of the tractor out of the deep snow etc, etc, etc. I intend to get my warm gear on again this evening and continue the good work, without using the tractor this time....

Updates of progress should follow in a timely fashion.

Operation Autograph, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.....

2006-02-22T08:09:00.000Z

Thursday afternoon, a couple of weeks back, Ryan air delivered the Nikster and Sideways to Torp Airport, near our place in Southern Norway as planned.

Thursday evening progressed with a bit of off roading in the snow, a nice home produced roast, a bottle of wine (or two), some aquavit (Norwegian spirit), and a few tax free beers. Very pleasant it was indeed.

All this combined with the fact that I hadn't actually packed meant that our "Early Start" on Friday morning was not all that early. The journey into and half way across Sweden seemed to take forever. The plan had been to get there in time for the last forest stage. When it became apparent that we were not going to make it we decided on the sprint. When we didn't make that either our only option was the Final service of the day after the sprint. You have to remortgage your house to fund a weekend at rally GB and a trip into service costs at least £20 a head. In Sweden, incomparisonm, a weekend pass is 350 SEK (Approx £30) and this includes access to everything except parking, which is pretty cheap all the same. So, in Sweden at least, I can highly recommend a trip to service as part of the rally weekend.

In service, you can get quite close to the top teams working on their cars and see the drivers out of the cars and helmets. You will be very lucky indeed, however, to blag autographs from the top drivers here. On the other hand, the lesser teams, such as Suzuki (Guy Wilks) and Stig Blomquist, are shoved down the far end where hardly anybody bothers to visit and here it is possible to get much closer to the teams, drivers and cars. We took this opportunity to get my photos of the drivers signinautographshs signed. Sadly Petter Solberg proved to belusiveve and on we didn't come close all weekend......

More on our weekend, with some great photos in the snow, to follow.....

Autographs (The Lads are going to Sweden)...

2006-02-01T08:32:00.000Z

The packing list has been updated since last years trip to the Sweedish Rally, plane tickets have been purchased and Nikster and Sideways are all ready to make the trip over here to Scandanavia.

Some of the additions to last years packing list are a large indelible black pen and these 3 photos of drivers signing Autographs, printed out in a suitable large and framable format.

The photos of myself and Stig and Myself and Guy are from last years Sweedish Rally. The photo of Guy Wilks was taken just before I asked for his Co-drivers (Phil Pugh) autograph, to which the reply came "What, do you want his too, but he can't write!!!!". The photo of Myself and Petter is from the 2002 British Rally (the first WRC round that he won). I remember it well, it was the Saturday evening, before the final run of the Cardiff super special. I had a little chat with Phil Mills whilst the car was being washed. I said "Tell Petter to keep it on the road tommorrow and you've won this rally". Phil Mills replied "Don't worry I've been telling him that all day!". It's great that these guys show that they are just human and if you are lucky enough to get them in the right situation they make time for you and have a good sense of humour.

Anyway, the plan, if you havn't guessed already, is to get the Photos of myself recieving autographs signed by the respective drivers and co-drivers. To have a signed photo of a driver (especially if we suceed with Petter Solberg) signing an autograph for you must be pretty unique... Of course we also plan to get a photo of this event so then we'll have a photo of a driver siging his autograph on a photo of the driver signing his autograph, which you can be assured, if we suceed, will be published on this blog........

No doubt, if we find time there will be many photos and storys to publish from this weekends events. It's been a full year since the lads last gathered for a full blown Motor Sport weekend, so we're sure to make it a good one.....

Added After Posting
Opps, Forgot to give credit to Nikster of Petrol Art for the fine photos. See many great motoring shots including our visit to Sweden 2005 (under events) here.

Practical Performance Car Magazine

2006-01-24T22:05:00.000Z

I was wandering around Oswestry on Saturday morning, having just had my hair cut (insert MX5 hairdresser gag of your choice here) and I found myself in WHSmiths. I had a look through the car mag section about to buy one of my usuals, when I spotted Practical Performance Car Magazine. Not having seen this mag before, and I've read most car mags (even Max Power once), I had a quick scan through...

Brilliant! There's kit cars, classic cars, retro cars, all those cars you played about with in the 80's and 90's. It was also good to see some familiar names on the editorial staff like Will Holman, Kevin Leaper and Simon Goldsworthy, all refugees from Practical Classics, Dave Walker from CCC (RIP) and Dave Vizard (I cut my tuning teeth on A-series engines after poring through his book "Tuning BL's A-Series Engine" many, many years ago).

A top read and gets the More-Power thumbs-up!

Oh, and if you read Will Holmans progress report on his V8 Capri in the Jan 2006 issue, you'll see that he's fitting power steering. In fact, it looks like he's finally fitting the steering rack he bought off me years ago (together with the LSD axle) when I was breaking my old Capri 2.8i. Fair warms the cockles of my heart to see the old beast still lives on!

Not really what I had in mind......

2006-01-23T16:04:00.000Z

On saturday I finally had a little bit of free time so I thought it was time to get out and take some photos and put a post on Norwegian Wood about the recent snowfall and winter weather. I also thought that this was get some photos of the landy in the snow and put a post on more power singing it's praises in the winter weather. Apart from the complete inadequacy of the heater and window wipers, it's been as faultless as a 1963 Landy can be. Solid on snow and not bad on ice. In low ratio it manages in snow up to and a little over it's axles. Been very pleased with it all in all.

Having said this, it doesn't matter how good your 4x4 is, it can't compensate for driver error. I was on the way back from a successful trip to get a new magneto, points and plugs for my recently acquired old and defunct (as many of the things I acquire are) snowblowers (Hopefully the subject of another post shortly). I was on the 2Km lane way up to the house, which the neighbour does a great job of ploughing. It snowed solidly for 5 days last week so we have been very grateful for this.

However, the problem with ploughed roads and deep snow is that you can't always tell where the edge of the road is and how deep the ditch is. You can probably guess where this is going, driving up a hill, in a straight line, no cars around and in perfect control I realised a little to late that I had infact hooked my inside wheels off the road. The reason that I realised was that the 4 inch drop on the side of a road suddenly, under the snow, turned into a 3 foot ditch. As I wasn't really aware that I was off the road I drove into this hole at the sort of speed that the landrover tends to manage up such a hill.

When I realised that the landy was still the right way up, stable, unharmed, I thought "heyho, just as well I have the camera handy". Photo's galore followed by getting the shovel out the back and moving a load of snow. After a quick attempt to extract myself came the sad realisation that there wasn't enough weight on the wheels that remained on the slippy road to have enough grip to get out. Quick phone call to the neighbour, embarrasing as it was at least he got me out with his 4x4 without resorting to the tractor.

Really, the pics are pretty self explanatory.... The first is posed in the deep snow outside the house, the rest are not....

Top tip from the garage #2

2005-12-11T18:10:00.000Z

Just a little tip from the garage. If you ever find yourself in a similar position, it may help. I should know better really:

Picture the scene. It's a Sunday afternoon. You wash your MX5. You notice that one of the rear tyres has got a couple of huge thorns sticking out of it. "Hmm..." you think. But you do nothing about it.

Until... later that Sunday afternoon, obviously when it's gone dark and everywhere has shut for the day (you can guess where this is going can't you?) you decide that perhaps you should remove said thorns before they cause a puncture.

You grab a trusty pair of pliers and pull......

Pssshhhhttttttt.....

Arse.

Another Day Out at Silverstone...

2005-12-09T16:29:00.000Z

...only this time I get to drive!

Having owned the 200 for over 4 years I have been aware of the drift culture growing in the UK through the owners club (www.sxoc.com) and more recently Driftworks (www.driftworks.com). I have been intrigued by this scene for a while but never had a chance to have a go, so when Pistonheads (www.pistonheads.com) decided to arrange a days basic drift tuition with Drift Academy (www.driftacademy.co.uk) I jumped at the chance.

Preparation for the day started a few days before by ordering a Bride subframe to allow me to fit my Cobra Monaco bucket seat that was destined for the Mini project. It now resides under the drivers arse in the 200! Having read a few articles on drifting mods this sounded like an inportant addition to the car allowing the driver to better judge what the car is doing and how ridiculous an angle you are drifting at. The subframe was quite expensive but went in without trouble (after figuring out the Jap instructions!) the seat is a little to the right of the standard seat and sits a little higher, but this takes no time at all to adjust to.

I also took the time to change the oil and fit my winter wheels, which as it turned out were ideal for drifting due to the stretch on the tyres. Stretching a narrow tyre over a wide rim stops the sidewall flex and gives you a better feel for the drift. I then packed up my tools and my 4 spare wheels and tyres (standard) ready for the next day.

After a bleary eyed start I made it to Silverstone just in time for the driver briefing. After the briefing it was time to asses the track surface and what tyres to use. Fortunately the track was wet and the tarmac very smooth, this meant that tyre wear would be a minimum. So after a chat with one of the Drift Acadamey lads I decided to leave my winter wheels with Toyo tyres.

With the car ready to go it was time to check out the kit that the other lads had brought with them, half the lads were driving the Drift Academy MX5's and the other half had decided to bring their own toys. The line up consisted of an S2000, Viper, Beemer 5, Beemer M3 CSL, TVR Tuscan S, and my 200. Everyone turned up with some spare rubber expecting to finish off their current set, the most impressive though was the Viper which was using 335 rears!

So it's time for the first session and everyone is telling me that I have the perfect setup for drifting. Arse, no pressure then. The first course was a figure of 8 which meant that there would be a transistion from drifting left to right involved. Our instructor, Declan, took each of us out in turn to show us how it's done, he drove initially, then we took over. I was rather shocked to discover that less is more in drifting, you really do need to understand how the car will react to be able to drift sucessfully. The key to this was forgetting everything you had ever been told or learnt about driving quickly, it was simple, let the back come round and let go of the steering until you arrived at the angle you need for the transistion then hold that angle and control it with the throttle. Easy to say, hard to do. I manged to get the transistion once, then it was onto the next step.

The course was the same but with one very small addition - a soft (thankfully) cone placed between the two cones already there. The aim was to clip the cone with the outside rear wheel, then glance were it had landed and hit it again and again... I managed to hit the cone a lot, but only a couple of times in the correct manner. This is a VERY difficult task, but it does make you start to think about the accuracy of your drift.

Most of the cars seemed to be driftable, but the beemer 5 series suffered from a lot of understeer, probably due to the weight of the engine, so swapped to grippier tyres on the front. The M3 CSL did the job very well whilst making a wonderful noise. The TVR seemed to suffer from lack of steering lock and random setup, but did seem to donut rather well :) Surprisingly the car that really struggled was the Viper, which even the pro's had trouble drifting!

After lunch a competition course was set out to make things a little more intersting. The course consisted of 4 roundabouts a fast corner and a donut cone. I was a little confused as to which route I should take, I expected to be told which route to take and to be timed, but drifitng is different. It's not judged on time, but on style! I did a practice run and was confident that the donut cone would give me a winning score, little did I know that the main score was from high speed transistions. Off I went on my scoring round and it all went out the window, I had forgotten the 'less is more' approach and was wrestling the steering wheel which landed me on a cone which took a lot of force to remove. I did manage a couple of transistions and a rather good donut, but it wasn't enough to seal the deal.

All in all it was a good day and I will be looking to learn the next level of drifting as I think it helps with car control. What ever form of driving you enjoy it can't do any harm to learn what happens 'beyond the limit'.

15th Dec 2005: Edited to add some action shots.

Pictures courtesy of Dean Reardon and Drift Academy (www.driftacademy.co.uk).

See the rest here: Gallery

A day out at Silverstone

2005-10-02T17:48:00.000+01:00

With nothing much planned for this weekend I e-mailed my old mate Ben to see if he had any spare tickets for the racing at Silverstone on Saturday. Ben races in the Caterham Academy, and as luck would have it he did have some spares which he kindly dropped off.

So Saturday came, me and Dad drove up to Silverstone to watch the racing. I was really looking forward to seeing Ben race, but I was also hoping that I would get a glimpse of the D1 drift cars from Japan that were due to race the next day.

The great thing about the club-level events is that you really get to see all of the circuit and paddock so when we arrived we managed to park in the centre of the circuit right behind the pit lane. We wondered around for a bit (via the bar) and found Ben, who had conviniently set up opposite the D1 garages. Even better he had qualified 3rd out of 28!

We all wondered into the pit lane and stood on the World famous pit wall to watch, erm, 2CV racing! It sounds strange, but was great to watch with some VERY close racing:

We were then extremely lucky to be in the paddock when the D1 cars where driving through, we saw some famous faces and a lot of the cars stopped for me to take there pictures. Many of the drivers gave us a wave or the thumbs up. Brilliant.

It was then time for Ben's race so we wished him luck and headed up to the grandstand for a good view of the startline and the complex. I couldn't believe how close the racing was, Ben went from third to fifth then managed to battle his way back up to third. He managed to avoid several spinners in front of him, and we were very surprised to see that the car only had a couple of tyre marks on it after the contact that had apparantly happened. Here's Ben proudly holding his third place trophy, at least he won't struggle for an egg cup now!

Some cheeky blagging enabled me to take some pictures in the D1 garage.

Nikster Gets Married!

2005-10-02T16:22:00.000+01:00

OK, so you are probably wondering what getting married has to do with motors. Well, as ever, I managed to put an automotive spin on the proceedings. The lads had always said that we would hire some saucy motors for such an event. So before the missus had a chance to pick a dress, honeymoon, or even her shoes I had spent a % of the budget on cars for me and my best men (SidewaysMatt and Viking Longship).

Having set the date in summer (August 20th) they really needed to be convertible, but what would it be and where would they come from?

While at a Caterham Slalom day (excellent value and great fun) at Silverstone about a year ago I discovered that Caterham had a fleet (3 conveniently enough) of hire cars. So I got them on the blower and booked the whole fleet for the weekend.

After a rather stressful journey up to Caterham on the Friday we eventually managed to pick the cars up which consisted of a Yellow Roadsport SV for me, a Blue Roadsport SV for Matt and a Blue Roadsport for Andy.

We gingerly headed off into the Friday rush hour traffic of the A22. The weather looked like it was going to pour with rain at any minute and we were all tired and stressed - not a good start. After a quick stop to consult the map to avoid the M25 misery we nervously headed off again. The alternative route took us through Redhill, Reigate and then onto Dorking. It was about here that Andy suggested we take the roofs off, instantly the mood lifted, this is how these cars are meant to be used! We blasted home with grins on our faces and parked them in a row outside my house much to the amusement of my neighbours.

After a few beers, curry and not much sleep, Saturday arrived. The weather looked good, brilliant we thought. So we took the roofs down and headed off to the reception venue to set up for the evenings party. Thanks to Sue and Mari for washing the cars and putting the ribbons on, the cars looked awesome.

So after a lot of rushing around and sorting things out we eventually did the deed at 4:15 at the Hotel Du Vin in Winchester. After the ceremony we took some time to get everyone back into the cars, surprisingly the wedding dress caused the missus no problems at all with getting into the car. We then set off for the drive to the reception through Kings Worthy, what a great drive! The weather was beautiful.

So after a great party and a good nights sleep ;o) we had some work to do. Most of the family had come back on the Sunday expecting to have a ride in the cars. So we spent most of the morning ragging round the town with various Mums, Dads, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Friends in the cars.

Next stop was the pub - The Flowerpots in Cheriton which is a local haunt for classic car and bike enthuiasts. The Caterhams were sharing the car park with various Nortons, E-Type Jags and Morgans, but still managed to get most of the attention. The bbq's burgers were great.

After the refresment stop we headed back into Winchester at a sedate pace with the roofs and the doors off which was great fun, everyone was waving and the cars seemed to put a smile on everyone's faces. That evening was spent smoking cigars and sampling various whiskies at the hotel.

Monday was a bit of a shock - we had to return the cars which was bad enough but we had to drive them round the M25 in the pouring rain. We got them back with 30 minutes to spare on the 2:30 deadline. We were all quite sad to give them back so to cheer ourselves up we perused the excellent showroom and bought some souvenirs.

So a great weekend to remember. I can highly recommend hiring a Caterham the cars were in excellent condition and the staff at Caterham were very friendly and keen to help.

A big thanks goes to Matt & Sue and Andy & Mari for helping out all weekend.

Nikster

Cheap petrol in Britain

2005-09-14T12:01:00.000+01:00

Particularly topical at the moment on the day of fuel protests here in the UK, where most of us are paying on average of 96p per litre for regular (95 RON) unleaded petrol, and 105p per litre for super (98 RON) unleaded petrol (I don't know what diesel users are paying, but hey, who cares? Cheapskates!), More Power bring to you a new way of buying fuel and saving money.

A new company has launched a website http://www.petroldirect.com/ that allows people of the UK, who are tired of our exorbitant fuel prices, to source their fuel from other European countries, duty paid, at vastly reduced prices. As an example, 95 RON unleaded can be purchased at just 60p per litre!

I myself have just ordered 30 litres of Perfuel™, a fuel specially aimed at MX5 drivers, and eagerly await delivery.

A novel idea for selling fuel but some of the customer testimonials put my mind at ease, so I could order with confidence:

"I can't believe how cheap they are - I ordered thirty litres of super unleaded and it was there, next day, left on my doorstep in 2 litre plastic bottles."

"They've certainly cornered the market in high-perfomance fuels. They even sell petrol with NOx already in it which saves on the costs of an expensive conversion."

"If you don't mind driving slowly, the Ultra Low Cost Value Unleaded is amazingly cheap."

"At last a company that understands the importance of real lead in petrol.. and lots of it!"

"They're not just a pile-it-high and sell-it-cheap merchant, it seems that they are working with partners to develop a lot of environmentally friendly fuels, plus some really advanced stuff for the future."

So More Power say, start saving now!

Lessons Learnt Present #1

2005-09-14T07:12:00.000+01:00

so you don't have to....

Picture the situation.

Yesterday evening, I decided that instead of lying on my back on dirty concrete I would would Use the car lift at work to take the sump off yet again.

All went well........ to begin with..... as follows.

1: Drive car onto lift, no problems.
2: Raise car.
3: Have a good look underneath the engine and begin to plan.
4: Drop Car.
5: Open passenger door and retrieve bucket to drain oil
6: Drain oil.
7: Raise Vehicle, wonder why the lift starts making very strange noises about 1 third of the way up.
....
....
....
....
8: Realise through your assistants pigeon English that all is not well.......
....
....
....
....

"What happened next".... Please comment.

Before you guess, I will give you one more important piece of information. Someone had wired a pipe accross the top of two of the posts on the lift to hang parts for painting over.

Landrover Oil Pump Change

2005-09-07T20:42:00.000+01:00

Ok, so it's been a while, finally My 1963 LWB Safari is back on the road, but only just...

I intend to indulge you in a "multi-post" history of the Landrover from when I first set eyes on all of it's bits scattered around an old barn in a farm shed in Cumbria to where it is today, unfinished but on the road. I But that's for later. Today, I am pleased to say, I have been able to drive it to and from work with the oil pressure light out (well most of the time anyhow).

So how did I do it.?

I started having oil pressure problems about 2 months ago. Suspecting the pressure relief spring valve, I decided to begin with a look at the oil pump. So for the first time, sump off and oil pump off. Found that the pickup was loose, set about fixing this and checked the spring relief valve, which appeared OK.

Problem not solved. Changed the oil Filter. Still no good. Took the sump off for the 2nd time and change the spring in the pressure relief valve. Still not fixed. Did change a few other gaskets (Deisel pump and sump) at the same time, which will hopefully mean lower oil usage.
Gave up with cheap bits and decided to change the oil Pump.

On Tuesday evening I halled myself out of my sick bed to conduct procedure as below.

1: Drain Sump into very clean container (as oil will be reused). Be very careful not drop sump plug in oil.
2: When the sump is drained, re-insert sump plug to stop dripping. Drop Sump plug in oil.
3: Undo the 24 Bolts that hold the sump in place.
4: Remebering that it is heavy and if it has not been taken off for a while it will be stuck in place, carefully remove the sump. Advoid this landing on you head.
5: Carefully flatten the retainig tabs on the oil pump reatining bolts.
6: Undo these, and remove oil pump. Again, this is heavier than it looks. Avoid it landing on your head, and remember that it will have an amount of oil in this. Wipe this of your face before proceeding.
7: Attach new pick up to new oil pump. Spot that the pick up pipe is shorter on the new oil pump than the old one. Think nothing of this, it is a new part after all.
8: Install new oil pump, attempt to keep this clean and grit free during whole procedure.
9: Clean all grit from gasket, and gasket surfaces and remark to yourself that the sump is indeed heavy whilst you hold it in place with one hand whilst trying to arrange the gasket and screw a couple of bolts in with the over hand.
10: Install the 24 bolts holding the sump in. Tighten all of them 3 times in a paranoid attempt to be sure you got all of them.
11: Wipe clean Sump, engine, chassis and front propshaft of oil and muck so that you can identify future leaks.
12: Try to pour oil from bucket back into engine with a dodgy old funnel.
13: Allow funnel to fall down side of engine whilst half full of oil.
14: Swear.
15: Repeat 11.
16: Test. Be very pleased that you get oil pressure, be not so please that you only get oil pressure on the flat and uphill.
17: Reflect on the difference in length of the new oil pick up...... Nuts.

Time Taken: 1Hr 20 Mins
More Power Job Difficulty Rating: 6/10 (5/10 by the third time you've done it).
More Power Job Enjoyability Rating: 2/10 (Not the most pleasent of jobs).

Simple then, hopefully, it'll be sump off one more time, swap to the old pick up on and that'll be that.

Turtle Wax CD2 Engine Cleaner and Detailer

2005-09-05T16:16:00.000+01:00

Turtle Wax CD2 Engine Cleaner and Detailer is an American product but is available here in the UK from your local Halfords, priced £7.99.

For that you get 2 large aerosols. The first one is the cleaner / degreaser, while the second is the "detailer".

After hearing many people singing the praises of this stuff, I decided to give it a go on the very dirty engine of my Impreza.

First problem was that after using Gunk many years ago, I remember the mess that degreasing an engine can leave on your driveway. This coupled with the big warning on the can of CD2 engine cleaner, stating that it should not be used on an asphalt driveway, led me to cover a large section of driveway with a 20 foot square tarpaulin, cunningly arranged to channel down a drain.

Anyway, the process basically starts off with getting the engine warm (but not hot). The turn it off, cover sensitive electronic stuff with your handy stash of Sainsburys carrier bags (although I just covered the alarm unit), and blast everything with the aerosol of cleaner. You then leave it for 10 minutes to work its magic. I took the opportunity to help it along using an old wheel cleaning brush, as parts of my engine were particularly grimy.

Then start the car and with it idling, gently hose off the engine. Note that it's probably best not to reach for your pressure washer at this point as this has a habit of blasting water into all sorts of things that don't like having water blasted into them.

Once you've rinsed off, leave then engine idling for 15 minutes or so to dry it off. Stop the engine, and mop up any remaining large puddles of water that might be left.

Now get the second aerosol, the "detailer" and cover everything with it, noting that the instructions say to not squirt it into your alternator. Once you've soaked everything with this, start the car again, close the bonnet and leave it idling for 20 minutes to bake.

Stop the car, open the bonnet and marvel!

In my case, there has been a vast improvement. Although it might benefit from a second cleaning (my engine was bad!), it does look a lot more presentable. Only thing is you now notice the odd rusty bolt etc that might look better replaced with a nice shiny stainless one!

Overall More Power rating: 4/5

The lads visit Quadmania Scotland

2005-08-25T14:12:00.000+01:00

3 weekends ago the lads were dealing with the matter of "The Stag", in preparation for this past weekends big event (Which more will be written on as there was very much a car theme to the Niksters wedding).

Of course, due to the "law of the stag" we are not at liberty to reveal many of the finer points of the weekend, but one thing that we can include is a review of our trip to Quadmania located near Dunoon in Scotland.

The Saturday morning activity was the 2 1/2 Hour "Big Quad ATV Trek". After very detailed instructions on the use of the quads, we set off teamed up with the other groups that were out for the morning. We were taken up, down, across and so on round a field at a disappointingly sedate pace to begin with "to get the feel of the bikes". Then we set off on the trek, still together with the other groups.

Just as it was beginning to seem a little dull, we separated from the other groups and set off on our own. Immediately having to hang ourselves off one side of the quad to stop it from falling into the pond which dropped sharply to our left, then swinging sharply to the right down a steep incline into a stream. "Brilliant" we thought. The rest of the trek followed a similar vein, with alarmingly steep inclines up and down on both grass and narrow paths, some medium-high speed sections and some "technical off road".

Needless to say there were some comedy moments. At one point, there was a shake of the head by the instructor and a comment asked of my being a bit of a "throttle jockey". Also as we stopped for one break, (Sideways) Matt couldn't contain himself, jumping off his quad and shouting "You can get them very sideways", unfortunately, the ex-marine instructor was none too pleased with this remark and made it quite clear that sideways was not an appropriate direction of travel. Our cards were marked, didn't stop us though.........

The afternoon activity saw us dressing up in rubber and getting to terms with a spot of "gorge walking". Despite some of the party worrying themselves nearly to death and enquiring of the validity of there life insurance in event of injury from such event, this was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Not a typical lads activity, but the opportunity to muck about in a 6 Deg C water brought the kid out in all of us (o.k. some more than others....) as the group made it's way up the steep and narrow gorge through the Scottish forests.

All in all, Quadmania, comes highly recommended from "The lads". Professionally run, nice people, a good mind for safety but at the same time understanding that people are there to enjoy themselves. See Norwegian Wood for a review of our choice of acommodation in Scotland.

MX5 High level brake light fixed

2005-08-17T13:15:00.000+01:00

When I took my Eunos Roadster for an MOT a couple of months ago, I noticed that the high level brake light (on the boot lid) wasn't working. I assumed it was just the bulb but a quick check with the multimeter confirmed that the bulb was fine.

So the other day, after carrying out an oil change, I spent a couple of minutes investigating. Sure enough, there was no power getting to the bulb holder, although the earth was good. It took a couple of minutes to notice that there were two wires going to the bulbholder, but following the loom back along the underside of the boot lid, there was only one wire going into the main loom by the fuel tank cover.

Stripped the insulation tape back from the main loom and the loom to the light and found that the feed wire had snapped. Apparently, this is quite a common problem on the MX5 / Eunos Roadster and is caused by the wire flexing as the boot is opened and closed. It was a couple of minutes work to splice in a short length of wire with a couple of butt connectors to join the two wires and hey presto, one working high level brakelight!

That's another job off the list and it cost nothing. Result!

Hammer Burns

2005-08-15T09:17:00.000+01:00

Whilst working on my land Rover yesterday evening, I managed to burn myself on my hammer.

Now, I can admit to many hammer related injuries but this was a first even for me.

How, I hear you ask.... Hooge spotlight standing on wing of Land Rover, hammer about 2" directly in front of said spotlight. Move spotlight and rest arm on hammer, which by now is, of course, red hot.

Fitting clear side repeaters (indicators) to the MX5

2005-08-04T13:05:00.000+01:00

Some people love 'em, others hate 'em. Aftermarket clear side repeaters that is. It seems you either think they modernise your car or make you look like a chav. The debate gets more heated when dealing with a classic or "modern-classic" car such as the MX5. Personally I think it depends on the car, the colour and the overall look, but I think I'm in the first camp. To me, there's no better way to lift the look of an older car than to replace the orange indicators with nice, shiny new clear ones.

So I decided that my black Eunos Roadster needed clear lights to replace the original 14 year old orange items. A bit of a trawl around the usual suppliers produced few options, as most seem to supply the items produced by IL Motorsport in Germany. However, MX5Parts are selling two versions, both made by IL Motorsport, one set at £35 (though currently on offer at £24.95), and then a set of Budget Clear Side Repeaters at £12.75.

I must admit to grudging paying £25 for a pair of indicators, let alone the £35, so after reading the reviews on the site I decided to order a set of the budget clear side repeaters. As usual with MX5Parts, they arrived next day and it took all of, ooh, 5 minutes to fit them:

Remove the old repeaters from the car by pushing the towards the back of the car against the pressure of the locating spring clip. Push as far back as you can, and then whilst holding them in this position, you should be able to pop the front edge out and then the whole lot falls out.
Turn the bulbholder anti-clockwise to remove it from the lamp unit.
Remove the old (clear) bulb from the bulbholder, simply by pulling it, then push in the new orange bulb (supplied with the new indicators).
Fit the bulbholder and bulb into the back of the new repeater, noting that the repeaters are handed ie. there is a nearside and offside one.
Pop the new repeaters into the holes in the wing and you're done!

I think they look great, especially on my black Eunos. And if anybody is in any doubt as to the quality of these repeaters compared to the more expensive ones, I say, don't worry, just buy them! The fit is as good as the standard factory items, and although some reviews say you can see the glue around the edge, I can't on mine. I suppose time will tell how hardwearing the chromed plastic surround is, but at this price, if they last a year or two, just replace them!

Nik's 200SX

2005-07-30T20:48:00.000+01:00

4 years! That's right I have owned this car 4 years, Noris McWurter will be on the blower any minute as, of course, this is a World Record. I purchase this as a suitable sucessor to an Integra TypeR (stunning motor, more to come on this in a future post). The criteria was RWD, more than 190 happy power (the Teg's output) and half the price of the 'Teg. Pretty tall order that, the 'Teg had to go to free funds for an impending house purchase and I didn't want to end up in a boring motor.
After a lot of research the 200 came up as prime candidate. I bought the 200 from a car supermarket in Andover. I got a pretty good deal as they couldn't shift it - not your exaclty average punters idea of an ideal shopping car! After being told 'be careful sonny, it's very powerful' by the salesman, I then proceeded to fishtail it around the closest roundabout and nearly wrapped it around a lamp post. Brilliant, I thought, and promptly purchased it.

'I'll never modify it' was proudly proclaimed on the day it arrived 'It really is fast enough already'. Besides I had the new house to worry about and pouring all my spare cash into that. Sorted, I thought..

Until I discovered a Nissan 200SX site and forum that was later to become the SXOC (www.sxoc.com). Damn, you could almost hear the bank manger weeping into his balance sheet. I think you know what is coming next, yes, I modified it, and it's even more brilliant than it ever was and spits flames! Here it is in it's current guise:

The current spec list stands at:

Blitz Nur Spec R Exhaust, decat pipe, Apexi air filter and stainless induction box, boost upgrade, Blitz dual drive vent to atmosphere dump valve, Autometer carbon boost gauge mounted in carbon plate, HKS springs, Ferodo DS2500 pads (f), Mintex 1144 pads (r), Brembo 10 groove discs (f&r), BK121 18"rims (refurbed in anthracite with diamond cut rim), 20mm spacers (f), 25mm spacers (r).

At this spec I have seen 250 happy power at the hubs on Abbey Motorsports dyno while Criterion games were recording it to appear in Burnout 2 on the PS2.

Next on the list are some subtle body mods, so expect another update soon.

In the meantime make sure you visit the SXOC (www.sxoc.com) and Driftworks (www.driftworks.com) and get yourself into the Jap scene. It's Kakkoii ;o)

More Power - The history

2005-07-30T20:27:00.000+01:00

So here is a little bit of history of how 'The Lads' met up.

It all began when we were at Brunel University 'studying' for our degrees. One fateful Tuesday afternoon in September we all found ourselves drawn to a particlur club stand at the Fresher's Fayre. Now this stand was unlike any of the other stands, there was no promise of free beers, or travel around the country to roll around in mud every Wednesday, this stand took up half the car park and boasted a total of 1,500 horsepower! The stand was Brunel Motor Club.

Little did we know how much this club would effect our lives, or how long we would be involved for. The MC became a second home with a new family, each of us took a turn at running the club in our time at Brunel. There are many stories to come out of the MC days, there is not time to recount them right now, but stay tuned as I'm sure they will emerge!

Here is the team circa 1995.

Matt's MX5 (Eunos Roadster)

2005-07-27T22:30:00.000+01:00

Picture the scene if you will. You like cars, perhaps even consider yourself an enthusiast. There are any number of nice cars out there for a petrolhead. Indeed, you own a Subaru Impreza Turbo, a petrolhead's car if ever there was one.

However, there is a problem. You have to commute 90 miles a day, 4 days a week. Using an Impreza for this not only piles on interstellar mileage, but 20 miles per gallon at (at the time of writing) 91.9p per litre of Shell Optimax does work out hugely expensive if you ever sit down and work it out.

I had realised this a couple of years ago, and in a rare moment of sanity, donned my "Sensible Hat" and decided to buy an old diesel as a commuter-mobile. Without further ado, I went out and purchased a Citroen Xantia Turbo Diesel. Hmm, nice. Someone say "Taxi!" ? Anyway, said vehicle was used for 3 years, covering 75,000 miles until one day, my sensible hat well and truly fell off and I decided that I was bored and needed another commuter that was more fun.

I decided on a Lotus Elise Series 1 on the basis of price and mpg, and viewed a few. But at the last moment, my girlfriend bought me a new sensible hat, and I decided that an Elise wasn't perhaps the most practical of cars for daily use.

The suddenly I thought "hmm, what about an MX5?". And in my usual manner spent a couple of days of work time trawling the web to find one. Just happened to be going through the small ads on Pistonheads, and there it was, a 1991 Mazda Eunos Roadster V-Spec, 60,000 miles and at an absolute bargain price. Decided that it was worth a look, max-ed out my ATM cards to get my hands on the cash, and went and had a look. Quick test-drive, look over and haggling and it was mine for even less than advertised. Result!

It came up pretty damn good after a good polish too. Not perfect, especially the leather interior which is a bit jaded. But not bad. And it even had a full service history from new (mostly in Japanese, but hey). It's even got lowered suspension, thats perhaps a bit two low judging by how many times I've grounded out the chassis rails!

Over the next couple of weeks, the only real problem that came to light was one of the rear calipers was seized. A £11 rebuild kit and some new rear pads sorted that out. Nikster came to visit and we spent a good Saturday doing a full service on it, aided by the power of Corona Beer. Easy enough to work on, the only real faff being replacing the transmission fluids with luverly new Red Line synthetic stuff.

Over the last couple of months, I've also replaced the cam angle sensor oil seal, cam cover gasket, gearshift boots, repaired the electric aerial (fitted a new mast), fitted a new stereo and CD changer, fitted new headrest speakers (well the driver's side but got bored and haven't done the passenger side yet) and a couple of other odds'n'sods, all courtesy of MX5Parts.co.uk.

But now the time is ripe to get modding! Watch this space...

The Cars, the Blog

2005-07-26T17:09:00.000+01:00

Follow three lads, with a common interest in the automotive world, through their lives journies with all things petrol (and one or two diesel....) powered.

See our efforts to keep our vehicles on the road, make them faster (or just get them to go in the first place), better, cleaner, dirtier, stop the oil coming out, get the oil out..... You name it we've tried it and normally failed at the first hurdle.

Keep up with the fast moving progress of our restoration projects. Well, maybe the pressure to write an update might encourage us off our backsides and into the garage.

Get pictured reports from motoring events around the UK and the world, from the comfort of your office, we'll do the hard work so you don't have to.

With more-power, the blog, you can expect tales of success and failure, pain and pleasure, profit and (mostly) loss but hopefully no tales of divorce. Amazingly we've all avoided that one so far. Probably because only one off us has actually bothered to get married already.... But that's all changing with a forthcoming long weekend enjoying three hired Caterhams, oh and a wedding.