1,001 Miles

I got home from Suffolk at about 18:10 and the threatening clouds appeared to be heading North so I decided a de-stressing blat was the order of the day.  First I took Myles up to Ivel Barbarians for training and then Tricia and I went out on a circular run through Obcombe, over Ham Hill to Stoke-sub-Hamdon then over to Martock/Ash before heading back to Yeovil. On the way back from picking up Myles the car tripped the 1,000 point and it's now sitting in the garage with 1,001 miles on the clock.

I'm back in Suffolk tomorrow, via Bristol and Andover so hopefully the good weather will remain until the weekend.

1st Oil Change

Just short of 1,000 miles, following the trip to Dorset on Wednesday, so time for the 1st oil change.  I had to jack up the front of the car to get the oil drainer underneath the sump, then remove the sump plug. After 15 minutes the oil flow had stopped so I refitted the plug, removed the oil drainer, spotted the sump plug washer, removed and refitted the sump plug - this time with the washer!  I then lowered the car and replaced  the filter, access wasn't the best due to the alternator but I managed to get the chain over the filter and ratchet it off/on.  I refilled the oil with Halford's finest semi synthetic - job done - less than 15 mins actual work, £8 for the filter and £16 for the oil, free disposal at the local recycling centre; how does Mr Benz justify ~£400 for this on Mrs H's estate?

Gelcoat Repairs - Part 2 & WSCC Dorset Area Meet

Another sunny day so plenty of opportunity to get out in the car and also take it to the WSCC Dorset meet this evening but I needed to finish off the gelcoat repairs.


Rubbing down with 800 then 1200 wet and dry using plenty of water and then finishing off with cutting paste.   

Results were patchy, the boot surround looks very good but the nose repairs appear to have tiny bubbles in them overall I'm happy enough for a first attempt!

Tricia and I managed to get out for an hour and filled the tank ready for this evening.

3 Westfield's outside the pub with many attendees still awaiting tax discs from the DVLA post a winter SORN.  Plenty of discussions and planning for events over the summer ranging from, gel/flowcoat repairs, evening group blats, weekends away, Stoneleigh and trackdays.  A cold drive back to Yeovil, I should have taken a couple of minutes to put the 1/2 hood on before heading home.

Gelcoat Repairs - Part 1

Two repairs required - 1st at the back of the car where the boot dowel goes into the bodywork and 2nd on both sides of the nose where the original indicator stalks were mounted.





The first step was to fibre glass the inside of the nose, one sheet of standard fibre glass and one sheet of  fibre glass tissue slightly bigger than the standard. 

While the fibre glass was going off I prepared the boot surround with the Dremmel and then added the gelcoat mixed with 2% wax and 2% hardener.













Using the wax should allow the gelcoat to harden without sealing it with tape but I used tape to ensure that there was plenty of gelcoat to wet & dry back.

Then the same again for both sides of the nose.

Now leave over night and start with the wet & dry and polish - hopefully I'll be finished in time to go to the Dorset WSCC meet tomorrow evening.

Headlight Installed - eventually

After a weekend away in Yorkshire I managed to get out to the garage to install the Venom Headlights. I'd done some research and also got advice from Paul & Joe Bromley who fitted them as part of their original build. The wiring is relatively straight forward with the only tricky bit was to rewire the dipped/main beam switch to ensure that the main beam bulbs retained power when the high beam electro-mechanical shield is lifted and to remain legal the DRLs have to switch off automatically when the side lights/dipped/main beam are switched on.  I bought a special DRL switcher and I also replaced the indicator relay with an LED compatible one to ensure that the indicators flashed at the correct rate (eventually fixed with a CF14 LED Relay).
First thing was to mount the lights, I found that the alignment adjusted was masked by the cowling so I went down to Screwfix and picked up some stainless M16 washers to use as spacers.



I wanted to use the original loom connectors so I wired up the indicators and gave them a test with the hazard flashers - all okay

I made a bracket for the DRL switcher and mounted it on the chassis by the O/S headlight and indicator loom to minimise the additional wiring. The sensor wire was connected to the side light supply and I took the DRL power from the fuse box.  DRL switched on at ignition position II

DRL 100% when the ignition is at II and head/side lights are off.








Dipped/Main bean and the DRLs at 50% power for sidelights.  All okay but when I tested the indicators they flashed at double rate so I need to investigate further (eventually fixed with a CF14 LED Relay).  Tricia and I went out for a run  that had to be cut short because the headlights started to come loose.  Once we'd got home I fabricated a 24mm spanner with a cut out for the cable and  tightened everything up.  James and I then went out for another drive with no problems.  Now just have to repair the gelcoat and refit the front grill.