Topic

I was inspired to check my throttle pedel after looking at the Bruce135 article, it's now in the workshop having new bearings fitted; it took me longer to find a sharp enough tool to do the job than to turn them up. Thanks Bruce, good job.

Replaced the rear nearside sill panel and repainted same. Will give it another coat in a week's time once it has hardened and then lacquer it with 2k. Looks all right! Found a CD player to hack and the tracking lasers have now arrived. Off to Cardiff in it on Sunday for another concert.

Drive it Day; down from West Yorkshire for a drive round the Derbyshire Dales.....

minimax wrote:

..........swallow hard and buy some tyres.

Demon Tweeks have Toyo TR1 at a good price for mail order.

They do indeed but the fitting costs added in meant that Asda do the best deal and they get them fitted by my local tyre fitter. I am going to be a heretic and put 195 section on the front rather than 185 as I think it will give me a balance I will like better.

It has been a busy week. The tracking has ha a very quick look at and is about right, pening a deeper check and the rear wing has a lot of 2k lacquer to flat and polish on Monday.
Went to look at a TF for a friend but it was on a driveway with six other nondescript £500 at auction because nobody wanted it cars. The estate looked like Mariupol on a bad day and the TF only slightly better. We passed. Tomorrow I'm booked. The MGF in Tamworth is leggy but clearly loved (new spheres, dress up kit, stainless pipes and 52mm tb) so Gordon has bought it and I'm the transport up there. Fellow has lots of spares so I am heading up there in the Ford with the intention of coming back with some goodies like stainless pipes and a TF rack.
The CD player arrived with a jammed mech which I freed off. The magazine contained some pretty horrid discs but one is being used to do an analysis of the logic to get the line inputs to open up to my Ipod. So far, the widget I designed can fool the radio that it has a CD player attached but it needs a handshake to get it to think that the CD is actually playing.

Well, that was the theory. The Tamworth car was not very nice and the vendor pretty abusive so I am waiting for Gordon to get his deposit back and we will drive back home.

Today was all about sanding the lacquer flat and then polishing the whole lot which was tedious and 99 per cent effective. You'd have to look hard to see the work and I shall settle for that. The rest of the car got a very thorough machine polish followed with hand polish, gloss protection and a step back to look at the stunning results. The car is visibly well cared for now and beneath it's cover until next playtime.

Duplicate post, sorry!

I had no luck hacking the i2c bus between the cd player and the radio. I could convince the radio that there was a cd player connected but couldn't get it to open the audio inputs no matter how much time I spent with the logic analyser so, as the cheap radio I bought had awful reception I needed a plan B with an auxiliary input. £12 bought me a Pioneer with Bluetooth, ear bleeding volume, DAB and full iPod control from the set. It even worked with my hacked 2TB Ipod. Success. £10 for the antenna and microphone. Sorted. The underbonnet got a load of stainless screws and a few brackets painted and I bought the stainless coolant pipes, a set of nice six square spoke wheels, a mark 2 T-bar and speakers and a passenger wing as mine has a little rust behind the mudflap. Stainless hose clips and new coolant naturally. Tomorrow is the 400 mile trip to gather them all up and hopefully it will be third time lucky for Gordon who is going to look at a VVC on the way home...

Eventually found Gordon a car. Took the F down to deepest Devon yesterday afternoon and found an honestly mildly scruffy 1.8 MK2 with three issues, one of which is a minor water leak when parked, another looks like a leaky sphere. A month to go until Le Mans, I am going to be busy! Proxes going on mine Wednesday.

I made a spacer to centre the rear silencer which needed moving over a little. I used a piece of 7/8" Tufnol tube which I cut a section out of to make a C section and drilled a hole which was then extended to the edge in order to make a clip on fixture that would holsd itself in place. It worked like a charm. Delight. I finished polishing the lacquer on the sill where I had fitted a repair panel. I wasn't quite happy with it and wet sanded it again before frightening it with power tools. I stood back and looked at the result. If you look for them, you will always find the flaws so I asked myself: had I paid to have this done, would I be happy with it? Actually, yes. so that is done then. The microphone for the radio arrived as did the DAB antenna but I am still waiting for the speakers for the t-bar. Once they arrive, I shall get enthused with the audio system. I have one bolt to replace under the bonnet, the one for the battery earth which will need to be removed once I have shunted the terminal to earth.