:: Diary - October 2009 ::

:: Thursday, October 1, 2009 ::

With all this bleeding, one of the coolant rail valves on the Cerbera is knackered. The garage broke the wing-nut bit off it so you have to open and tighten it with pliers, and it's only brass, so it gets crushed. I thing it's going to disintegrate next time I try. So I ordered a new one on Monday, along with new stainless steel screws for the two underbonnet panes (seeing as I lost one, and they are going rusty anyway). Well they all arrived today so I decide to quickly swap over the coolant valve tonight. Easy job - keep the pressure cap on to create a vacuum so that not too much coolant can run out, unscrew one, screw in the other, done!

So that's what I do - except that when I take the old valve out, the system is still inder pressure (after 6 days!) and covers me in antifreeze, straight in the chops. It tastes effing horrible, but despite that I try to fit the new valve - it doesn't fit, it's a completely different size innit?

I screw the old one back in for now and then decide that since the antifreeze is now stinging my eyes, I'd maybe better wash it off. Then I go back outside (It's dark by this time) to inspect the damage.

Now the more avid readers amongst you might remember that I did something similar before, when my pressure tester blew out of the filler cap and blaste water over half of the street. It doesn't take much pressure to look as though you've nearly emptied the system! There's antifreeze all over the car, all over the drive and even up the side of the house. Better hose it off before it dries in.

So there I am, in the dark, hosing down the car, the drive, the fence and the side of the house, illuminated by the security floodlight on the garage. The new neighbours are impressed I'm sure...

While I'm doing it, I start to think about ethylene glycol poisoning... didn't I read that even a tiny dose can be fatal? I can still taste the bloody stuff, so how much did I get? Now the neighbours have the added entertainment of watching me trying to wash my mouth out with a garden hose...

Back inside, I get on the ole interweb - yep, apparently even a 30 ml dose can kill. My mouth holds about 10 times that...

OK what's the symptoms... dizzyness or light-headedness (well that could be me at the best of times) then 2 to 4 hours later it crystallises in your liver, and if that doesn't kill you then the heart failure at 4 to 12 hours might. Bugger - it happened at 8:00 so I'll have to stay up till midnight to see if I'm dead...

:: Friday, October 2, 2009 ::

Still alive!

I check the bleed valve in daylight - yep it's definitely a different size. Have to send it back!

Then I fit the new stainless steel panel screws. Nowt to go wrong there!

As I am putting the final tighten on the very last one (the one at the front of the rear panel, on the nearside, if you must know) the allen key slips from my fingers, hits the side of the airbox, slides down the curve in the lower panel and disappears over the front edge.

Did it fall right through and land on the ground? Don't be silly that would be too easy.

Did it fall down onto the top of the box section under the radiator? Nope.

No, it went through the fanblades and is now reposing between the fan shroud and the radiator, well out of reach... I can't just leave it in there because if it moves, the fan could hit it and then I've got that to replace as well.

It's not funny this...

After trying long nose pliers but being almost a foot short, I decide that the right course of action is to take off the panel, then the fan, to retrieve the allen key. There's only one problem: I can't be arsed.

So first I try some parcel tape on the end of a flexi-drive (sticky side out). Except it's not sticky enough and won't lift the key out.

I need a magnet. I spend 5 minutes staring at the shelves of stuff on the garage wall, trying to think where I'll find one... I could take a speaker out and hold a metal rod against it and use the other end of the rod... no wait! the endoscope! It's got a little magnetic end! And a light so you can see what you're doing! It works perfectly - look through endoscope, guide to end of allen key, then watch as you extract it, that you don't bump it against a fanblade and knock the key back off...

:: Saturday, September 3, 2009 ::

I bleed the Cerb's cooling system again (and I was right, the valve did break off so I had to take the whole thing out to let the air out) then I take it for a trial drive, and it seems fine. I'll give it another bleed when it's cooled, just to get any remaining air out.

Then I decide to tidy the S up a bit because I'm taking it to the TVR Club meeting tomorrow. First I clean up the engine bay - a bit of a wipe over the rocker covers and the plenum, alternator etc, then clean up the rubber hoses and wiring. I take off the coil and disconnect the big electrical connector underneath, and give it a spray with contact cleaner. It carries the main engine loom back the the ECU so any funny resistances bugger up the readings and the ECU's responses (characeristically demonstrated by the symptoms, if you'll forgive the engineering jargon, that the engine then runs like a wet fart).

Then I polish up the little throttle body bit on the front of the plenum, a part that's a right pain to clean and, I've noticed, often lets other cars down (and this one!). I don't get it perfect, but it's a lot better.

Then I clean the bodywork with quick detailer, clean the windows and wheels, and go back inside before my arm falls off.

:: Sunday, October 4, 2009 ::

TVR Car Club day again!

We have arranged to meet at Dave's, to leave at 11:00. Guess who's late. We've arranged also to meet Ian who has spent the winter tidying up the S he bought at the back end of last year.

Off we go, then over the Forth Road Bridge to meet Adrian. I notice that my drivers door mirror has begun to droop, and I can hardly see what's behind. It's turning on the mounting, which has obviously been loosened slightly while I was replacing the glass, and needs to be tightened up. As we wait in a layby a couple of Lambos go past. Very nice! I also try to tighten up the mirror but only succees in catching the window seal across the top of the door and pulling that most of the way off. Clever...

Then it's on again, after we've cleared past Mr Angry in his Renault Scenic, who seems to take exception to people moving in laybys until he's passed, and then does his best just to get in the way...

Once you get off the motorway, the road over to Menstrie is great - nice and twisty! The car is going well but maybe a little bit bouncy - maybe those shock absorbers need to be tightened up a click or two. Great drive though!

We get there first and park the S's up in a row - and very nice they look!

There are 19 cars there in total, including John and Hugh who arrived in their S later but had to park at the side.

After lunch with the S crowd, I go and comiserate with the two other Cerbera owners. One has spent a bleeding fortune on his engine, but he's had to take it back 3 times for stupid niggles, and it's still not right, despite a brand new MOT. I have serious doubts about the competence of the garage he's using, a so-called specialist, not in Scotland.

Great afternoon, good chat, then it's time to go, so again we form up in convoy, me at the back this time (for a nice change)! Unfortunately the front 3 get out of the junction at the hotel but I can't, and by the time I've waited for traffic to clear, including the queue following the learner driver, the other three are well over the horizon. I follow the queue I am in at a funereal pace for bloody miles, until we catch up with a tractor going even slower, that nobody wants to pass...

By the time I turn on to the motorway, I reckon I'll never catch the others up. Doesn't stop me trying though, so off I go... I catch them up shortly before the junction where we turn off, then we follow in convoy back to Dave's house.

When I get home I take the mirror to bits and reassemble it with a tiny serrated washer on the screw. That does the trick!

Then I stick the window trim back on. All sorted!

:: Monday, October 5, 2009 ::

I phone up the place I ordered the bleed valve from - he recognises right away what he's done, and says that if I send it back, he'll send me the correct one. So I do.

:: Saturday, October 10, 2009 ::

Still no sign of the bleed valve for the Cerbera. I was hoping to get it bled properly this weekend so that I could have a run in it!

Never mind. I have a lot to do today anyway, but in between, I potter about with the S and a tube of metal polish. I tidy up the throttle bodies again and then the idle speed valve, alternator and various other metal bits. I'm really just faffing about to pass the time but it's nice to see a shine on all these wee bits!

I'm trying to get it to look tidy, but without a mass of different colours. Black and silver with a bit of blue, and the red chassis, is enough contrast for me. I'm not a big fan of coloured radiator hoses and bright green pulg leads...

This is the car in its new home. Note the wall hooks for cables etc, made from carefully sculpted wire coat hangers clipped over the rafters... I'm not going to show a photo of the other half of the garage (the half behind the camera) because it's not exactly organised.

:: Friday, October 16, 2009 ::

The top bleed valve for the coolant rail on the Cerbera arrived on Wednesday. I fit it today, fairly uneventfully - no water running down the walls of the house or anything. Nobody got soaked and nobody got poisoned. Pretty boring really. Then I raise the front of the car and run the engine to bleed the last of the air out - there seems to be quite a lot in the radiator so hopefully tilting the car backwards will help.

While I am doing that, I decide that the engine bay is a bit manky so I get the metal polish out and polish up some of the metal bits on the engine. Not great, but better than it was.

No time for a trial run though. I'm saving that for tomorrow.

:: Saturday, October 17, 2009 ::

Take the Cerb out for a trial run, and it goes like a dream. A rather warm dream in places, but at least not a steamy one. The needle is still moving about a bit but maxes at about 92 before going back down again. Moving or stopped, it's fine.

I do about 80 miles, over a variet of roads. At one point, about 15 miles into the drive, I stop at the side of the road, convinced I have a puncture - the car is vibrating at about 70-ish. A quick look around shows everything ok, I drive off and it's fine. Very strange. Maybe just a crap road surface? I dunno.

On the way back, I stop in a layby at the Forth Road Bridge just so that I can have a wee drink, then notice there's been an accident on the bridge, so rather than sit in the queue, I have a wee walk. As I'm walking back I can't help thinking how great that car looks even standing still. They are beautiful, they really are, and I'm reminded of how I used to admire them as they arrived at the club meetings. I'm a lucky boy (especially as it seems now to be running right!)

:: Sunday, October 18, 2009 ::

Another wee run, this time through the centre of Edinburgh, where it copes with traffic queues and delays no problem - again the max temp is about 92 before it starts to go back down again. It's looking good! Famous last words or what?

:: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 ::

Bleeding of a different kind tonight!

You see, since I moved house, I've been gradually tidying rubbish out of the garage, and sorting what's left into shelves or wall hooks. Sad, I know, but I want my shiny new garage (the first I've ever had) to be a usable space, not just filled with storage. My mission isn't helped by my son's propensity for removing the interior from his car for months on end, to help him shave a couple of seconds off his quarter-mile time on his not-very-frequent-but- frequent-enough-to-leave-his-interior-all-over-my-garage-all-the-fecking-time excursions to the local drag strip (on an old airfield).

He's also got two knacked wheels from his off-roundabout adventure a couple of months ago. And a handbrake cable. And... well you get the idea.

So. I have loads of shelves and wall hooks, but nowhere to take bits to bits, apart from the floor and it's doing my knees in (both my own, and the knees of my trousers). So I've been looking around for a work bench, but the ones I see are either too flimsy, or too expensive. I've got a wee metal one along at the farm which is handy for putting things on or for fiddling with small parts (oo-er matron!) but you couldn't put a vice on it, for example. I need something a bit more heavy duty. I built one into my last shed using a broken kitchen unit and a bit of scratched worktop, and fixed it to the floor and the walls. Unfortunately, I think that if i took it out, the shed would fall over.

So I went out on Friday and bought some wood and chipboard, which was delivered yesterday, and tonight I decide to knock together a work table. I mean, how hard can it be?

Cut all the bits to size with a jigsaw - no problem.

Build up the frames from 4 x 2 using 3-and-a-bit inch screws - no problem, although by this time I'm on to my second cordless screwdriver (I have 3, all with different batteries and chargers - forward thinking or what?

Put the 3/4 chipboard top on and screw it down with 1 and 1/2 inch screws - all goes well until until the 3rd last screw which turns over sideways and the cross-head screwdriver (well, posidrive if you want to be precise) pins down the finger holding the screw and then chops a hole in the side.

Now I remember when I would just give it a suck and stick the sides of the cut back together, but that doesn't work now, especially as I've got a flappy bit hanging off. So it's into the kitchen, wash it under the tap to get any shit out (which is bloody sore) and then dry it and stick the bits down and stick an elastoplast over it. Seems to work, so after I've stopped feeling a wee bit dizzy, I go back and finish the bench.

Finished! After taking this photo, I mounted a vice on the left hand edge, and finally got most of my tools on the shelf underneath, so that I don't have to go searching in several different places.

You can also see what the interior of a Nissan Almera GTi looks like when it's not actually inside a Nissan Almera.

I also screw a bit of MDF to the wall above the bench, with carefully crafted tool holders (hand-sculpted from nails) to make sure that the more regularly items are easily to hand (the hand that doesn't have a semi-amputated finger, that is).

It's all good fun, and not as serious as setting yourself on fire, for example. Not that I've ever done that, oh no. No, not even when welding. Not me, nuh-huh.