:: Diary - December 2009 ::

:: Sunday, December 6, 2009 ::

We're off to the monthly meeting, and because it's been raining, because it's cold, and because the S is along in the garage at the farm, I decide to take the Cerbera again.

I extract the car from the garage - no bother starting it today because it's been on a trickle charger for a week! I check the oil level (it needs a wee bit added) and the water level (ditto) and then clean the car with detailer - the sun's coming out and it looks nice!

I set off for Dave's to meet Mike and Jim - this is Mike's car's first appearance at a TVR meet for over a year!. It looks great though, seeing the clean red chassis through the grille as he pulls up.

We set off with me at the front (again) because the others pretend they don't know any routes. The Cerb is going well, the heater works and it sounds great.

There are 12 TVRs there plus a couple of prospective new members looking for an S.
End up blethering about differentials, cooling systems, ignition connectors, valve adjustments, wheel alignment, as you do. We also apparently plan next year's events but personally I'm none the wiser.

Nice drive home, after I make Mike lead, by the simple tactic of folding my arms, sticking my bottom lip out and refusing to move till somebody else does.

By the time we get home, we've done 80 miles today, making a total of nearly 1,000 miles since I changed the thermostat, with no overheating since we got it bled properly.

The back suspension is better but still a little bit bouncy. I think I'll harden up the shockers a bit, and set the nearside rear camber to the middle of the range (ie 1 degree plus or minus half a degree, at the moment it's one and a half so at its max). I also need to change the front shocks and the brake disks.

:: Saturday, December 12, 2009 ::

Adrian sent me a couple of photos he took, of the Cerbera at the last monthly meeting, and the S in October.
Also ordered a set of wheel nuts for a Jeep Cherokee on ebay. They are apparently the correct UNF thread to fit the Cerb, not the metric wheel nuts fitted tp most cars over here. Anyway, they arrived today, and they looked a lot mankier and secondhand than the ones in the advert photo. A quick check shows that he still has 4 sets of Jeep wheel nuts for sale, all with the same photo - so he's obviously photographed the 20 best ones he has, and is then sending out whatever shite he has left.

Feed back is a wonderful thing...

They looked ok after I cleaned them up with WD40, although 2 of them are a bit bashed, so I fitted them to the car.

At least I know they fit!

:: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 ::

Another pic from Adrian, of the Cerb at the meeting earlier this month.
I have a few wee jobs that I meant to do by this time, including adjusting the rear shocks, tweaking the camber on one rear wheel, and fitting the front shocks and brake disks. Unfortunately the weather has been absolutely freezing so I have spent far too long sitting in my warm house doing sod all. I'm getting stir crazy though so I'm going to have to brave the cold and just get on with it!

:: Saturday, December 26, 2009 ::

I still haven't been out and done those jobs on the Cerbera - I've spent far to much time clearing snow off my drive, even although I haven't actually driven anywhere (even in the day car) for over a week. I've also been busy making a new web site for my own business, which takes a bit of priority over breaking bits off cars.

Santa brought me a very nice present though - a couple of framed cartoons of both TVRs, done by Stewart McQuillian of Clubart, and organised by my son. Stewart does the cartoons in the TVR Car Club's Sprint magazine, and is a genius. I can't recommend his work highly enough. I have both pictures on the wall of the wee room I work from at home, and they look absolutely fantastic. There's a link to Stewart's site on the links page of the site, have a look and see the range of gifts he can offer. Even if it's a gift to yourself!

Really pleased with those.

Unfortunately Santa didn't bring me a fully functional robotic mechanic that I can send out to the cold garage, so I'll have to do that myself.