MadaboutKitcars

That was the year that was…
I intended to post this update around the late May Bank Holiday weekend.

As that marked the grim fact that is it now one year since I last drove my car on the road.

I’ll still working from home in the cramped space under the slope of the roof.
(See photo in previous update.)

That makes it over 14 months now since I saw anyone I work with in real life.

My last update in January was with the car covered in snow.

Since then, it has been covered in rain and multiple hail storms.

This is during one of them.



And this is after another one.



Which meant it was no real surprize to find a small pool over water behind one of the seats.



I mopped that out when I last started the car over the Bank Holiday weekend.

I turned the car around on my driveway to help free up the brakes and get access to the indicator.



These days, I leave the battery disconnected to ensure it always has enough juice to start.



I really hope I finally get a chance to look at my indicator fault this month.

If not, I will book it into the Triumph garage and get them to fix it for me.

As, the only advantage of all the hours I am doing at home is that I’ve improved my bank balance!

The other thing I missed in April, was my donor car’s 40th birthday, so finally ready for free ‘tax’.

But they have changed the rolling 40 years for Black and White plates, so I can’t have them.

In other news…

Out with the old...

2004 (54 reg) Ford Mondeo Ghia X - 2 litre diesel - Bought in Mar.08



And in with the new (to us).

2020 (69 Reg) Ford Focus Vignale - 1.5 litre petrol – Bought in Jan.21



The boot sizes are about the same and the Focus is ULEZ compliant.

First time using 'Click and collect' for something as big/expensive as this.

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The other thing WFH has allowed me to do is continue to improve my fitness.

I’d found some old weights buried in the shed, but the various lockdowns made it hard to get more.

I finally bough this rusty set off Ebay in Apr.21, which included:
- 2 x Barbells
- 2 x Dumbbells
- 85kg of weight plates

All for just £64.57, which is giving them away by Covid / Ebay prices.



I had lots of useful stuff left over from the Swordfish build.



Which allowed me to transform both the weight plates.





And the bars.





This gave me a nice range of weight on the mix of old and new dumbbells.
(Each of these have a matching 'pair'.)



Older readers might remember that my Summerhouse often looked like this during the car build.



Thankfully, this is what the Summerhouse looks like now.



I’d like to lose another stone / 6 kg before the end of the year.

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Fingers crossed that I will be back on the road before the Summer ends.

Hope all is well, take care, Paul.

Nice work refurbishing the weights, I have a set myself which I find most useful for solving all sorts of car building issues. I suppose I ought to try lifting them some day...

Nice to see you waking up your Swordfish, hopefully it won't be too long before normal service is resumed as far as motoring events is concerned. It's a shame about the black plates, I hadn't heard that they'd stopped rolling them together with the MOT exemption, it's probably because we switched to yellow/white reflective ones in about 1973 so black ones wouldn't be period correct on anything later than that. As yours is now on an earlier date letter I can't see any plod making it an issue if you use classic plates.

Hopefully see you out and about soon.

Mr T – A belated thanks for kind words.

At this rate, you will have finished your third car by the time I finally drive to Norfolk.

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A Very Belated Update
I've now spent over 19 months WFH in the cramped space that qualifies as my 'office' in the loft.



Whilst there is a lot to be said for removing commuting from my day.

My overall workload has gone mad through Covid, with lots of long hours and weekend working.

Still, as I’ve said before, plenty of people have had this a lot worse than me, so I try to count my blessings.

I did manage to get my V5C converted to ‘Historic tax’ class, now my spring chicken of a donor is over 40.

However, unfortunately, most of the time, the closest I get to the car is this:

Peel back the covers enough to open the bonnet, re-connect the battery and start her up.



Unfortunately, I haven’t even had the chance to do that recently.

So, yesterday, my attempt to start the car was met with a flat battery.
(Despite it not being left connected.)

I almost got away with briefly connecting it to my battery charger, but no.



So, I disconnected the battery again, removed the vent plugs and left it charging properly for a while.

Eventually, I was able to start her up and drive forward so tackle the pile of leaves underneath.
(While leaving the engine running.)



If you look closely, you will see the front indicator is still missing.



But that remains a job for another day, as I was under strict instructions to finish the cleaning up.



There was a bit of driving back and forth to free up the brakes, before putting the car back into place.
(Sorry the photo is a bit blurred.)



I know I said this months ago, but I hope to finally get some time on the car before Christmas.

If not, then I will bite the bullet and book it into my local Triumph specialist to let them sort it out.

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In other news…

Had a great view of the Red Arrows that did a fly pass over Wembley for the Euros final.





Watched the American version of football at the new Tottenham stadium.



I now have an electric chainsaw to ‘play’ with in my garden.



Which I’m using to chip away at the HUGE tree stump left by the tree surgeon last year.



Did manage a family holiday in Ireland, so my wife could see her family there for the first time since Covid.

Took this photo with my phone (and no digital tricks).

One misty morning just outside the house we were staying in.



Until next time, take care, Paul.

Nice to see your car peeping out from under its covers again and some lovely 'other news' pics too

Electric chainsaw, eh? What will they think of next?

Mind you, I suppose that will make cutting down rainforests much more eco friendly.

Hi Paul,
Nice to see you are trying to sort out the Swordfish. I hope you'll manage to get a few days in it before Christmas.

Quick Update
Work continues to be busy and I really needed a complete break over Christmas.

It was the 9th January before I finally pulled the covers off.



However, it was no surprize to find the battery with little life left in it and it wouldn’t start.

So, it was the following weekend before a fully recharged battery got me going again.

Even if it was still just back and forth on my driveway to ensure the brakes and clutch didn’t seize up.



It is now February and I haven’t been back to the car since.

The only glimmer of good news is that slowly, but surely, I am clearing a backlog of other ‘stuff’.

Which means this car will finally be back on the road in 2022. < Touch Wood >

Cheers, Paul.

PS
Very belated replies&#8230;

Mr T &#8211; In fairness, I did buy three new trees to replace the one that was cut down.
(Which had got so big it was killing the rest of my garden and risking structural damage to my neighbours.)



Not, easy to see in that photo, but one of them was pretty tall.



Deni &#8211; See above, unfortunately, getting back on the road is still on my &#8216;To Do&#8217; list.

The forum seems to be having trouble with posting some characters, so I have tried to remove them.

Almost back on the road
It is hard to believe that 28th May 2020 was the last time I took my car out on the road.

Unfortunately, the harsh reality of the last two years has pushed the car down my list of priorities.

Thankfully, my family have remained healthy and I have had plenty of real work during this time.

Post #502 above shows my home office, where I have been stuck for over 2 years now.
(With just 3 meetings in real life in all that time.)

As per my last post, I have just been pulling off the covers to at least start the engine.
(And drive the car back and forth on my driveway to stop the brakes/clutch seizing up.)



But, without regular driving, leaving the car outside is not ideal.



In fact, the last time I got in the car, I was greeted with spider webs.



Thankfully, I was able to throw a few hours at the car on Easter Monday.

Obviously, the first job was to sweep all the cobwebs out of the cockpit.



Then I changed the positive battery terminal, as I had previously over tightened the old one.





The new one is too big for the cable size, but it will do for now, while another new one is on the way.

Then it was back to trouble shooting why the front driver side indicator had stopped working&#8230;

Connecting the driver side bulb to the passenger side wiring worked.



Then, for the first time in almost two years, connecting to the driver side wiring also worked.



Now there has been a lot of minor tinkering with the wiring and connections in that time.

So, I actually have no idea either what the problem, or the solution, was.

Either way, I needed to keep the positive momentum going.

So, I swapped the rubber housing from this new indicator to the existing bulb holder.
(The original rubber had split when I was trying to fix the problem.)





Then I loosely refitted this to the car and checked it was still working.



Tighten up the bolts and refitted the lens.



Before remembering I had removed the bulb for safekeeping when tightening the bolts up.



After removing and refitting the lens, it was still working.



I moved the car onto the road, to give me a level surface to top up the engine oil and antifreeze.
(Still loving the fact that I made the bonnet hinges myself. )



Before giving the car a bit of a wash.

At which point, I discovered one of the boot lid drain holes was blocked.



Thankfully, nothing a bit of spare electrical wire could not free up.



And here she is.

Part 2

My next steps are to apply in the Post Office for my zero pounds Historic Tax to get the car off SORN.

Then I will book it in for an MOT, even though it is now technically exempt.

Assuming the MOT doesn&#8217;t find anything wrong, I should be good to go. < Touch Wood >

Cheers, Paul.

If the car is tax and MOT exempt you can apply on line.
I have 2 cars that are tax and mot exempt, they are not currently insured but I was able to tax them both online even though they were not insured, a glitch in the matrix?
If you want to mot your car I would suggest you ask the mot tester not to log it onto the system. Even it passes it could throw up a problem with its mot exempt status. Just ask the MOT test to stamp the sheet to show you have taken it in for a full safety check.

This practise can now be done.
It enables a new car owner to tax a car so they can drive it home while waiting for their insurance company to up-date the official records/database.
However DVLA will fine you if it's not insured ASAP!!!!: BE WARNED.!!! nod:

This may not be the correct place to post my question, but in light of the previous few notes, more likely to get a response?......
I did the VED renewal and MOT exemption for my Rickman at the Post Office on 28th March. If I look at the gov site car check it has No Results Returned for the MOT status ('Tax' status is correct).
What do others have as MOY status? I was expecting 'exempt'

Jaguartvr & Micky1mo &#8211; Thanks for the replies and I will give the online option a go next time.
(As I made a trip to the Post Office on Tuesday lunchtime to sort out the tax in person.)

I also double-checked with my insurance yesterday about whether I still needed an MOT to be covered.
(As I was sure I had read this in a previous document, before my car was old enough to qualify.)

Thankfully, my insurance confirmed I just needed to ensure the car was road worthy.

This morning I have just booked a safety check with Enginuity, my local Triumph specialist.
(Although, the first date they had available was 11th June. )

So, I will go over the car carefully myself before then and generally take it easy until then.

Mitchelkitman &#8211; I also get the No results found message, but the fact the MOT box is green is the key.

See here
https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/historic-mot-red-can-mean-go/

Note - This is all new to me, so I am happy to pick up information wherever I can.

Cheers, Paul.

Quote I also get the No results found message, but the fact the MOT box is green is the key. Unquote
Thanks for the clarification. I have colour vision deficiency (what most people call 'colour blind'.) This doesn't mean I can't make out traffic lights for example (thankfully), but does mean I don't always look for colour as the 'first defining feature' eg in the case of the MOT I look for the words
If there was a bank raid, and the Police asked for a description of the getaway vehicle I'd be more likely to say "it had 2 aerials and 7 spoke wheels" than "it was green"

Good luck with the safety test. I would assume it might go a little deeper than a standard mot so it will be interesting to to see what their opinion is. Are they kitcar friendly ?? At least their findings will only be advisory !

Lucky@LeMans - Thanks.

This is where I will be going https://www.enginuity.co.uk/

They are currently booked up with cars being brought out of winter hibernation (or like me, a bit longer).

So, they know what they are looking for and are a friendly bunch too.

Cheers, Paul.

A Small Start
I&#8217;d ordered a new battery, although it wasn&#8217;t a perfect match size wise.



Thankfully, there was just enough thread on the retainer to hold it down securely.



This morning I headed out for my first drive in almost two years to get some petrol.



The car was coughing and spluttering all the way there, but started to run smoother on the way back.

A quick journey of just under 5 miles, so a small start, but it felt great to be driving it again.

Obviously, I was reaching on the wrong side for the indicator switch and kept missing the gear lever.

But, at least I was able to take a photo of the car that was not on my driveway.



Unfortunately, we had friends coming around for a BBQ, so that was all for today.

Cheers, Paul.

Good to see you're still enjoying your car, Paul. Hopefully we'll have a nice summer and you'll find the time to blow the cobwebs out more often this year

Mr T &#8211; Always good to hear from you.

I really hope that I get to use the car more this year, as it still brings a smile to my face.

Plus, it still seems to raise a few smiles, waves and thumbs ups from others out and about too.

You might be able to see what is wrong with this photo.



Which is supposed to be all the new tyres I ordered for my Swordfish.

Clearly, I am one tyre short of a set, but I&#8217;ve been told the fourth one is on its way.

The problem I have with my current set is that the previous owner bought them new.

Then he took years to restore my donor Spitfire and then I took years building the Swordfish.

Which means that all the current tyres have an almost new thread pattern&#8230;



But they are actual 14 years old!

Which certainly explains why the back end occasionally steps out when I&#8217;m not expecting it.

With a bit of luck, I will have 4 new tyres fitted for the Bank Holiday weekend.

Take care, Paul.

Getting there&#8230;
The 4th tyre finally turned up a day after the first three.

So, all 4 were loaded into the car on Friday afternoon, with the seat belt keeping them in place.



I then went to the garage that gave my car its first MOT back in Aug.16 to get them fitted.

I had to drive the car into the bay and then go for a coffee while they fitted them, so no photo.

I just had time to stop for one photo on the way home and that didn&#8217;t even include the tyres in it.



Yesterday, I had a few chores to do, but took the car out to continue building my shakedown miles.

Still looks small compared to other cars in a car park (mainly because it is small! )



Before dropping by my mate&#8217;s house, which is undergoing major building work.



Then on to my Mum&#8217;s for a flying visit, before heading home on the A40/A406, where I even reached 50mph!

Which has certainly helped &#8216;clear out&#8217; the engine a bit, as stop/start London traffic doesn&#8217;t help.
(I&#8217;d also forgotten the &#8216;taste&#8217; of pollution you get when driving this in traffic.)

I ended the day by taking two of my neighbour&#8217;s children up and down the street (one at a time).

Both loved it and the eldest said &#8220;I remember you building this when I was going to Primary School&#8221;.

With a bit of luck, I will get a decent run out on Bank Holiday Monday.

Cheers, Paul.

Nice to see you out and about again, Paul

Your car does look like a matchbox model even when parked amongst 'small' cars like the Civic and Corsa.

Imagine what it would look like parked between a couple of modern SUV Behemoths!

They're a pet hates of mine as I just don't understand why anyone would need a 'car' that's so big it can't actually function as a car, more as a compact HGV.

And I say that because there are now quite a few customers at the gym I use who park their Audi/Mercedes/JLR SUV's in the disabled spaces, not because they're disabled, but because they can't open the doors if someone parks next to them in a standard slot. These selfish tw*ts don't seem to care that someone who is genuinely disabled might actually need that space. What a nonsense.

Mr T - Here is a photo from 2018 showing just that!



I think you would be hard pressed to justify that pickup around NW London.

Cheers, Paul.

Ah, another pet hate of mine: people who drive pickup trucks as part of an 'active' lifestyle.

I can sort of understand it if you're a builder or landscape gardener and want just one vehicle for work and as a daily driver, but if all you do is take a couple of mountain bikes to the woods at the weekend, you don't need a monster truck, just buy a bloody roof-rack!

Rant over...

Couldn't agree more. When I see one of those Warrior tanks I think 'Shouldn't your reg. no. be TO55POT?'.

Ha ha! I bet someone already has that number on their truck, and WNK 3R on their BMW X6 (surely the ugliest car design since Walter White's Aztec).

Mr T & Mick O'Malley - I know I've used this joke before, but it goes with this photo I took yesterday.

Here is a mini next to one of those cars that BMW make.



Cheers, Paul.