I don't usually do this but.......

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/37784

Those annoying politicians are at it again. There is a move to prevent modifications to older vehicles and to even outlaw those modifications already made. This is crazy, it potentially makes it illegal to fit seat belts to a car that never had them in the first place or prevent the fitment of modern headlights or stop lights. OK so the idea is to prevent unsafe performance modifications but the regular MOT will pick up inherently unsafe modifications already and we don't need this daft and costly legislation. Bin it and spend the money on fixing the roads!
Please read the petition and make your own mind up but if you have an interest in cars it affects you, get involved.

Boing

A bit of an impulse buy that's turned out to be a bit better than I thought. I saw a set of updated lowered suspension on eBay that failed to sell so I contacted the seller and made him a low offer, surprisingly he accepted and it all arrived today. I was working on the basis of getting the springs and taking a chance on the shockers, it turned out the springs are new and unfitted, the front spax are old but appear to have covered very little mileage and the rear lever arms look like they were fitted but never saw the road.all this for less than the cost of the springs new.
This should improve things a bit as the current set up is a little tired.
Now if only I could sort the electrics out and get lights and indicators back!

Sitting pretty

Well what an epic that was, took me the best part of three days to rebuild the seats on the TR. The covers were very good and so they remained, the frames were excellent and the rear webbing was great but the foam and diaphragms were totally shot!
New diaphragms and foam were bought from Dave at Canley Classics, although he doesn't publicise it much, he does do a lot of TR stuff.
Spray glue and webbing had been bought up front from eBay. I didn't need the webbing and clips so if anyone wants some, shout and you can have it at cost.
The biggest problem was that whoever fitted the covers over the old foams had trimmed a bit off here and there making it quite tricky to refit. The end result is so much better than they were, it's the difference between sitting on a sofa and sitting on a stone!
Other jobs done include fitting the eBay bargain new sun visors and replacing the coolant hoses. I usually do the hoses on a new car as they are something I have had issues with in the past and when one lets go in the middle of nowhere on a dark night it is a pain to fix!
I am pleased I did this as I uncovered a very corroded steel bottom hose which had a nice tidy outside but a scaly inside. Inspection revealed a tiny pin hole so that stopped me but with the TR national on this weekend I will be there Sunday with a shopping list as long as your arm including a stainless pipe!
Other jobs done include a DIY rebush of the throttle pedal which was so worn that there was in fact no sign of the original bushes, no trace whatsoever!
There were corroded contacts on the Kenlowe controller and the fittings of the fan to the radiator, all a consequence of storage I think. I have made up some new mounts but they need work, I'll see if I can find a better solution. The controllers terminals have rusted away and it's seized solid so I bought a new one.
In general the car has been fighting me every step of the way, the nut splitter has been out on several occasions and I have lost a bit of knuckle skin to the car but I think we are making progress. The objective is to get it reliable and use it as much as possible before the RBRR keeping modifications to a minimum unless opportunities (ie cheap parts!) present themselves.
The paint job is good and I'm pleased with the work Brian did for me which came in on time and within the modest budget set.
I'm off to see my parents for the weekend and will be at Malvern on Sunday, probably with my Dad in tow.
Anyone want a rollover bar? I didn't like the look of it on the car so it's on eBay now.

She's home

After a 100 mile trip back from Essex my 'new' TR6 is home and in my garage.

The trip home was uneventful until about 60 miles in when the overdrive dropped out, not the end of the world. Then I noticed that the fuel gauge was dropping so I was a little relieved as I realised it was just an electrical issue. My releif was a little short lived as I realised I had lost windscreen wipers and indicators, not great on the motorway under dark skies! Never mind, my wife following would be my indicators and well, it's the summer, it won't rain! I think I lost brake lights too but let's just ignore that for now.


I got the car home and slipped itin the garage just before the heavens opened and it pissed down. Of course ww had actually been away all week so there was a lot of work to be done before I could get out and play. That included flat pack furniture assembly, unpacking and getting some dinner together, oh and falling asleep on the sofa - so tomorrow I'll have a proper look and see WTF is going on.


I can then go about making lists and figuring out what bits to do first as although the car looks lovely it does need some work, that's why I bought it!

It's painted

Collecting the new toy tomorrow, really looking forward to slipping her top off and jumping in for a bit of fun ;-)

Sorry, couldn't resist as I'm watching QI and they've just been talking innuendo and double entendre.