MadaboutKitcars

Sunny Sunday
Racked up another 20 miles today, still just easing the car back into it.
(With a few 50mph sections to help blow the cobwebs out of the engine.)







Cheers, Paul.

Anything is better than nothing

Just had the chance for another short/20 mile trip out last Saturday (14th May).

Glorious sunshine, proper shorts and a t-shirt weather.

But I must remember to put on sun-cream before I go out, as my arms got sun burnt!

Didn’t really stop for photos, so just this one outside our local shops.



I also had one slight mishap, when I hit a pothole just after I’d adjusted my wing mirror.

No chance of catching the glass, spring or seal as they flew across the road.



The mirror has popped out while the car was under the covers a while back.

So, I guess I didn’t re-fit it properly, but at least the replacement has already arrived.



I also managed to squeeze in a trip to Sainsburys during my lunch hour on Wednesday (18th).





Earlier today was the first chance I had to fit the new mirror and the good news is that it was a match.



This meant I just had to remove the access panel and I could re-use the base from the old mirror base.



Turned out to be one of the easier jobs on this build.



I also noticed that my speedo had a run of 4s going on.



Which means I’ve racked up a little over 4,500 miles in the car so far.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Only another twenty thousand miles to go before it's "All the fours, 44444"

Mr T – I dread to think how long it would take me to rack up 20,000 miles at this rate.

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A tale of two car parks
It is now dawning on me why it took me so long to get my car back on the road, I have little free time.

So, I have to take the small chances when I can and heading off to the first round of shopping.



My plan was to stop for photos on the top of Harrow Hill on the way to my next stop.

But there was some event at the school (the boys in their tails and lots of well-dressed parents).

So, I ended up just rollin’ through slowly and turning a LOT of heads while I did.

Next stop was Sainsburys.





By now, I was beginning to second guess both my choice of car and clothing (shorts & a T-shirt).



Thankfully, the rain held off, but on the way home, the car was spluttering like there was a fuel problem.

A quick stop at the industrial estate to check the fuel filter and plug leads.

They all seemed OK and I might as well take a few photos while I was there.







Until next time, take care, Paul.

Catch Up – Part 1
Lovin’ the run of good weather that we’ve been having lately.

In fact, when I took the car to Sainsburys after work one day I had to find some shade to park in.



The night before my safety check at Enginuity, I parked the car on the road.



This reduced the noise for my neighbours when I set off early on a Saturday morning.

It also allowed me to do a final oil check/top up before I set off.



I parked around the corner to unlock the bonnet, so it was just held by the leather straps.



I trust the guys at Enginuity and they had the car for a hour for a full check, including on the ramp.



They tightened up a few things and gave me a short list of (very) minor advisories, but a full ‘pass’.

Just time for yet another Sainsburys car park photo before I had to take my wife to the airport.
(And there was no way see was going to let me take her there in the Swordfish. )



End of Part 1…

Catch Up – Part 2
Yesterday was Classic Car night at the Ace Cafe and I was able to spend a couple of hours there.



Had a great chat with the Volvo owner, whose car was in mint condition.

Before I left, I gained a couple of new ‘neighbours’.



Didn’t get to talk to the Lotus owner, but the bonnet ‘patina’ suggests a major fire at some point.



Not a great photo, but I had a good chat with the owner of this yellow Robin Hood.
(He liked my mirror raising plinth on the passenger side, as he also can’t see anything out of his!)



A few other photos from the evening.










Really liked this little Frogeye.



But the ‘Most dramatic entrance award’ went to this DeLorean, that pulled up and popped open both doors.



It also had a few ‘Back to the Future’ accessories.



That’s all for now.

So, until next time, take care, Paul.

...and a 'DOC' reg. no. Excellent!

Regards, Mick

Some lovely cars there, Paul, thanks for sharing them.

Hi Paul,
Great to see you enjoying driving Swordfish and that there were no big issues with the safety check.
Nice photos from the classic car day too, there were some very nice cars there.

Cheers, D.

Mick, Mr T & Deni – Thanks gents, it is certainly nice to be out and about again.

I took some build photos to the Ace Cafe & people couldn’t believe how much stuff I’d cut up & re-joined.

Although, when I look back at all the work that was involved, I can hardly believe I actually finished it either!

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Weather Dodging
I’d taken the scenic route to Sainsburys on Saturday, but kept getting stuck in long traffic queues.

Then I could feel the first drops of rain and thought this could end up being a massive downpour.

Thankfully it stopped & I parked under a tree, to give the open cockpit a bit of shelter, just in case.



Again, there was just a few drops of rain on the way home.

Thankfully, the car was under the covers before the heavens opened.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Nothing Much

Just extending my ‘garage’ to give myself a few more inches of parking space.





Cheers, Paul.

Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!

Finally had the chance to get out for a 50+ mile drive yesterday.

Complemented my shorts and T-shirt with some Factor 30 as it was baking out there.

Just a couple of stops and photos.

The first was old tech next to new, at this public electric charging point.



Then finished the day at the top of Harrow Hill.





Note - Looking at the last photo, I'd forgotten to sit on the passenger side to settle the suspension after climbing out the driver's side.

Don’t know if it was the heat, but the car getting even more of a positive reaction than usual.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Paul,
I think you car has shrink in the rain!

peterux – OK, one last time…



This car is small…



And this car is far away…

Just in case anyone is unfamiliar with the original Father Ted sketch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5kZ4uIUC0

Occasionally out and about…

Don’t ask me how it is August already, as time just seems to pass me by.

Haven’t managed to get any decent photos of the car in interesting places.

So, just parked up will have to do.

Mid-July, just before the heat wave hit, but still hot enough to make parking in the shade a good idea.



A week, or so, later, I had to tag an errand onto the end of my journey.



Finally, on Saturday I aimed for the shade again.



The car is still generating a HUGE amount of positive interest every time I take it out.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

A bit of a blur…
Don’t know where the Summer has gone, but here are some belated photos from August.

Might have forgotten what car I went to Sainsbury’s in and got too much shopping!





Another day, another car park.



My wife’s brother came to visit and because he is over 6’ 3” I gave him some safety googles.
(As the Brooklands screen is too low for him.)



There was some very minor tinkering.







Swapping the fuel filter was straight forward, apart from petrol pouring out everywhere.

However, when I restarted the car, petrol started to pour out of the collector before the carbs!



So, the dodgy hose was removed, the pipe cleaned up, jubilee clip repositioned & retightened.

Thankfully, there was no more petrol leaks after that and it was a good spot given the long journey to come.

A quick shakedown run managed to just catch the sun setting.



I also finally got around to modifying the handbrake lock I bought years ago.

The problem was that the end of the handbrake lever was too thick.



Thankfully, I resisted the temptation to take a hacksaw to the lever.

Instead, first I removed the rubber end surround, but that wasn’t enough.



So, it as time to mark up, cut and bend…





After filing down the sharp edges I had a good fit.



At some point I will weld some metal back into the ‘gap’, but that will do for now.

As it was now time to pack the car on the street ready for the Goodwood Revival.

2022 Goodwood Revival – Dawn ‘til Dusk
Around 6.30am, the first job was to pack the car cover into the boot.



Then there was a final check on the engine oil levels as dawn was breaking.



I then pushed the car down the street to start it up away from my immediate neighbours around 6.45am.

Stopped off for petrol not far from the circuit to make sure I had enough for the drive home.



Because I was a last-minute replacement, I was too late to book a slot in the Classic Car Park.



Instead, I ended up parked next to this!



The really good news was that as well as free entry, I also got these.



I passed the Duke of Richmond on his way out, as we went into the March marquee for our first cup of coffee.

The March grandstand gives you a great view of the start/finish straight.







We also had access to the pits.







As well as the traditional ‘old’ cars, there was an Aston Martin Valhalla in the ‘Earls Court Motor Show’.







End of Part 1…

Goodwood – Part 2
But the highlight of the day came at lunchtime back in the March ‘clubhouse’.

Whilst we just had sandwiches and crisps, rather than the sit-down lunch option…



We were there when Sir Jackie Stewart arrived to give an interview and ended up just a few feet away.



Which is a good excuse to give a plug to his charity.

https://www.raceagainstdementia.com/

I’ve only got this one photo of me at the event.



I did see the ‘Discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb’ area that Slartibartfast was on, complete with camel.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to say hello to either him or Mister Towed.

There were some very light showers during the day and by the time I was leaving, the sky looked like this.



I also passed this car on the way out, that I remember seeing when Mr T took a photo of it years ago.



Thankfully, I managed to get home as dusk was falling.



As it turned out that somewhere along the journey my headlights had stopped working.
(I had front side lights and high beam on both sides but no ‘normal’ headlights.)

In all, I did over 170 miles in the day, which took almost 6.5 hours!

That is my longest single day total and, after filling up today, I think I got around 37 mpg.

Which is not too bad, given the fact I spend as much time in 1st in traffic as I did in 4th cruising.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Hi Paul, some lovely pictures there and it sounds like you had a pretty special time rubbing shoulders with the Duke of Richmond and Sir Jackie Stewart.

I had a far more modest Goodwood myself, although my MG did at least get to spend its weekend in the company of Classic Car Royalty in the classic car park -



Sorry about the awful selfie, I always end up looking like Clarkson's smug-face, and I have no idea why the image reverses when you take a selfie on a mobile.

Highlights for me were finding a car for sale that matched my watch strap, even though it was a bit over budget -



...and the WWII Supermarine Spitfire beer cooler display -



Yes, a few days after D-Day, Spitfires were really put into service taking barrels of beer up to Angels two-zero (20,000 feet) for twenty minutes so the squaddies below could enjoy a cold one while they saved the free world.

Anyway, nice to see you out and about in your car and we'll have to have a catch up soon

Mr T – Looking very dapper sir.

I did see the Spitfire with the barrels, but didn’t read up on the history.

Seeing your black arm band reminded me that I only made mine the night before.
(After finding something I could cut to size and re-sew in one of my ‘might come in useful one day’ boxes.)

I figured that it would be ‘era appropriate’ for the Revival and a lot of people were wearing them.

Which leads me to these two photos…

The Queen
I originally posted this photo way back in 2012.



We had taken our daughters to the London Aquarium the day after the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee party.
Taking in some sights on the way home, we were on The Mall as things were being dismantled.
However, my ‘Londoner’ senses noticed an increase in Police, given that nothing was supposed to be going on.
So, I suggested we all wait around for a few minutes ‘just in case’ and we got a great ‘bonus’ to our day.
Without doubt, we were a lot closer than many people who had queued for hours the day before.

Roll forward 10 years…

I took the Swordfish out on Sunday to check out possible spots along the funeral route to Windsor.
I watched the Westminster Abbey service on TV until around 12.10 and then headed to the A30 near Staines.
Unfortunately, the local road I planned to take was closed (but not on the official list of closures).
I would have thrown my MTB in my estate car boot if I’d known just how far I would end up walking.
But it was still well worth the effort, as I was at the edge of the road, with no one close to me.



I set the camera to video mode, so I didn’t have to ‘take’ a photo as the coffin passed by.
Door to door was just over 4 hours, a roughly equal split of driving, walking & waiting.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

Oh how I laughed…
A few weeks ago, I took the car out to do a number of chores, at a variety of shops.

As I was taking the battery cut off out at one stop, I fumbled and dropped it.

Note – The following photos were taken after the sorry saga had ended.

The cut off key landed in the dropped corner at the edge of the seat.



Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room to pick it up cleanly, so I had to carefully balance it on my fingertips.

No sooner had I thought, whatever you do, don’t push it under the seat, or you’ll never get it back…

Obviously, the key slipped out of my stretched fingers and came to rest, out of reach, under the seat.

I may have turned the air in the ScrewFix car park a rather dark shade of blue.

Took my tool bag out of the boot and started to loosen the allen bolts holding the seat in place.



Now, at one stage I spent literally hours trying to get one seat fitted during the build.
(And that was with the car jacked up to make access easier.)

So, the last thing I wanted to do was accidently unbolt the seat.

Instead, I did this is small stages, but just could not get my (now grazed) fingers in far enough to reach.

Thankfully, I had this flexi-screwdriver…



And I was able to get just enough room to ‘flick’ the key back to the side and remove it.

At which point I could tighten everything up, take the photos and be on my way.

First job when I got home was to make sure the key wouldn’t fit in any hard to reach places again.



Anyway, a couple of photos where I was packed without trauma.






The only other news I have is that my car cover & tarpaulin are clearly leaking.



So, I’ve now got a replacement tarpaulin to cover just the cockpit area.



And I’ll change the car cover in the Spring after the old one has taken the worst of the Winter.

Cheers, Paul.

PS
My headlights are working again.

Catch Up
Don’t ask where this year has gone, as I can’t really believe it is now 2 weeks to Christmas!

My attempts to get some nice photos in November, with Autumn colours, didn’t really work as well as planned.







In fact, I had more luck in the car park at Sainsbury’s.



Last week, I had just about enough juice in the battery to start the car after I’d left it for a while.



I just moved it back and forth a few feet on the driveway to keep the brakes and clutch free.

I also remembered to disconnect the battery this time.



Then the frost arrived and it reached minus three outside.



However, this is what my driveway looked like this morning.



Hope I get the chance to take it for a spin in the next few weeks.

Cheers, Paul.

Spin? I rather hope not!

Season's Greetings, Mick

Mick - You're right, probably not the best choice of words given the weather.