Well quite a lot has happened since my last journal.

Some time ago I replaced the front wiring loom, no real issues, just some very tender finger tips! At the same time I fitted a smart screen intermittent wiper system. God it's good! One click or wiper switch, pause up to 2 mins, another click and it carries on wiping at that interval - just right for drizzle!

I thought I'd upgrade the suspension, after lots of umming and ahhing I decided to go for gas shocks all round. The rear were gas shocks but non-adjustable and the brackets were homemade and a bit of bodge. I now have adjustable front and rear. I may try firming them up a bit, shortly.

It had been using alot of oil. I know it was burning it but a lot was disappearing. Whilst replacing the head gasket (oil in the rad) my friend spotted oil dripping out from a split in the underside of one oil cooler pipes, I have now replaced them with braided ones. These look mighty fine!

There's been quite a bit of fumes in the cockpit so I decided to do something about it. I spoke to people on here and decided to fit new rings and at the same time replace the valve stem seals.

When I removed the pistons 3 out of 4 of the top rings were broken - one of which had smashed the piston and caused quite a bit of damage. Looking at the cylinder there was some damage but not too much. I made the executive decision to risk not having a rebore, since i'm not doing a full rebuild and I don't do that many miles if I get 2 years use I'll be happy. Anyway piston 2 was f**ked, and since they were standard pistons I decided to try and replace just one (since I'm trying to do this on a budget) this wasted about 4 days on wasted leads. Gave up on that and decided to go for a set. My local motor factor said they could get them next day, no worries, and said they'd balance them f.o.c. Fantastic. A week came and went with promises and being fobbed off. I threw my toys out the pram and threatened to go somewhere else and the next day they turn up and guess what? Inspite of giving him the piston as a template, inspite of telling him repeatedly that they were the circlip type he turns up with the wrong ones. So I had to source them elsewhere and put them in unbalanced (it had been dragging on long enough by this point). This I did and it all went together nicely. I noticed that the big end bearings were a bit worn too, so decided to replace those while I was at it. I did it all insitu and had been worried about getting the front sump bolts back in, but as it happened, some patience and jacking the engine up and i managed it.

Started it up and it runs fine. After reading lots of opinions on running in I opted for driving normally but not thrashing it for 500 miles, with a couple of oil changes on the way. Good news is exhaust is no longer smokey, although you can smell a little bit of fumes when you give it some. I think I may purchase an oil catch tank and route the crankcase breather (and make a rocker cover breather) to it.

Once the engine was done it was time for the MOT. It failed on a split steering gaiter, he also failed it on too much play between the kingpin and the bottom wishbone, but said it was borderline. I thought it best to sort it out so tried replacing trunion bolt and bush but as soon as the kingpin was off it was obvious that the wear was to the kingpins themselves. I replaced these and everything is hunkydory. Although I have a horrible feeling that on removing the trackrod ends I might have got the tracking wrong.

The MOT guy said that the front pads were getting a bit low and there was a bit of a burr on the off-side disc and also the bottom rad hose was perished.

Gave the braking some thought and have just purchased slotted discs and greenstuff pads which i will fit tomorrow (as well as the rad hose). Then I plan to get the tracking adjusted by the guy that MOT'd it. I may decide to go for a servo, i'm not sure at the moment.

Then this weekend the Memsab and I are going for a driving weekend, which should be great as we haven't done that in ages.

Vroom-ba!

Last weekend (or was it the one before?) I tackled the clutch master cylinder. What a hassle it was trying to remove the master cylinders cover. The screws were all rusted solid and getting it free took the best part of the day. Once that was done the rest was easy, the only slight complication was having to reroute the clutch hose as the original one routed to the from of the cylinder and the replacement to the rear.

I've fitted a 2 speed wiper motor and smartscreen intermittent wiper and washer thingy. Although I haven't got the washer bit to work (need to look at that today). But whilst I was working on it I noticed there was liquid in the drivers footwell that wasn't there before. My first thought was "how did water get there when it's been in the garage the whole time?" but now I realise it's not water it's brake fluid, and by the looks of things it's the clutch master cylinder that's the problem. Oh joy!

I'm planning on taking it to France this weekend, so the timing is not particularly great. But I'm heading there now and I'm going to see how much of a job it will be to replace it.

On 2 counts!

Firstly I bought the spinner conversion and started fitting it (a couple of weeks ago now) and it was still proving to be a mare - mainly the access and getting the o-rings to stay put. So I got underneath with my leadlamp and had a really good look up inside where it bolts together and where I thought there was no o-ring low-and-behold there it was. Then I looked at the oil cooler connector piece and, surprise surprise, there was one there too. How could I have been so stupid?! In my defence it was an oily mess and i'm sure they've just fallen out in the past.

So I thought since I've gone to all the trouble of getting the spin-on convertor I might as well fit it and it went in as easy as pie. What a surprise, aye? The good thing about it is it with be easy to convert back. As an aside I bought a filter and the necessary o-rings from brown and gammons when i was going to fit the original one and the filter comes with them all - nice if they'd have know that! Still I know for next time.

So that was mistake 1, mistake 2 was I put a spanner on the roof onto of a cloth, when I finished as was clearing up I pulled the cloth, forgetting about the spanner, and yep I've got a nice big chip in the paintwork to sort out now, right down to the primer. Oh joy!

Still we've got oil in the car again!

Next job, sort out wipers! watch this space!

I've got the speedo back and it seems to be accurate. I haven't driven it too much since fitting it. I'm planning to drive it behind someone as a pacemaker. I might photograph it when I get a minute. It would be interesting to rolling road it and see how accurate it is.

I'd tried to calculate the TPM myself for comparison and made it 1217, I must've got that seriously wrong as they made it 1050 (IIRC)!

The refurbished speedo looks really good. They've done an excellent job.

At the same time I thought I'd treat it to an oil change - what a nightmare it turned out to be! When I removed the canister there was no seals - no wonder I had an oil leak! Trying to put it back together is impossible. I had to give up and walk away. I like to try and keep the car original-ish, I'm trying to add period replacements, or ones that aren't too obtrusive, but I think I'm going to have to fit a spin-on filter.

I think [touch wood], no I pray, I have cured the problem of the bonnet popping open. I fitted some rubber blocks that should've been on there but that didn't work. However whilst scratching my head and working out how to get round it I noticed the securing pin was ever so slightly at a slight angle to perpendicular to the bonnet and since it was a new pin I think the where it screws into the bonnet had somehow got twisted so a bit of graunching and I hope it's ok. Did about 75-80mph down the A1M and about 60ish down some twisty-turnies and it stayed shut [crossing those fingers firmly). The other day I bought a pair of Lucas WLR576s and a WFT576 (for the reversing light) I fitted the WLR576s, they're so sweet! I'd picked up some "WLR576"s off ebay a while back but they'd had the LR bit removed and put some sealed beams in, so I'm going to stick them back on ebay. I fitted the WFT576 with the rear-demist switch to operate it. Still waiting for the speedo to come back from Brown and Gammons. Looks like it's going to be 2 weeks overdue. Grrr, I want to know how fast I'm going]crossing those fingers firmly).

The other day I bought a pair of Lucas WLR576s and a WFT576 (for the reversing light)

I fitted the WLR576s, they're so sweet! I'd picked up some "WLR576"s off ebay a while back but they'd had the LR bit removed and put some sealed beams in, so I'm going to stick them back on ebay. I fitted the WFT576 with the rear-demist switch to operate it.

Still waiting for the speedo to come back from Brown and Gammons. Looks like it's going to be 2 weeks overdue. Grrr, I want to know how fast I'm going!