What did you do today?

[mercrocker]

I was like that until I got a tape dispenser. Having a 3lb weight on the end of the tape also dissuades me from hurling it at the sideboard.

[paulplom]

A mate is selling an '09 zafira for £500 with mot till November. 1.6 pez for added reliability too.

[BusmansHoliday]

Went off to the compound where we store the motorhome and spent 3 or so hours just cleaning the outside of the bastard.

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It gets a full spring clean, including the roof once a year and today was that day. Still have inside to do (looks at Mrs BMH).

Day started off badly, got to compound and there's the smell of burning brakes. Quick walk around the Ibiza and there's the tell take smoke from the NSR. Handbrake lever will have seized I thought, did it with OSR a few years ago. Oh well.

Gets to van, wouldn't start. Not really surprised, only been to start it once since November. I cannot praise enough Lidl's combined boost charger, tyre inflator thingy. It was only about £50 quid and it starts almost anything, despite it's small size,.I know because I've used it many times on various things, usually not mine

Having washed the van, I attacked the handbrake fitting on the Ibiza with a hammer and no problems going home (it's less than 2 miles away). It's happened before and I know you can keep spraying the lever but eventually it'll go tits. As I use the Ibiza for the runs to Xtriple land and the airport you know it's going to fuck up at the wrong time. Been looking at a replacement, fuck me are GSF or ECP taking the piss !! Between £70 and £90 for a new caliper, eBay £34. It's only a brake, it'll be reyt....

[Split_Pin]

An MOT pass for the Saab, was on the ramp for about 25 minutes and they called me saying it was ready. I keep meaning to sell this but I'm going to hold off as it's been a brilliant car.

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The A8 - I am not enjoying ownership any more really. Most of the 6 previous owners have had faultless service from it but it seems to have stored up issues just for me. It spends more time waiting for parts and then for me to try and get time to fix it than I do being able to drive it.

Replaced OSR caliper as it was pissing out fluid:

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It was an absolute bastard of a job as all the bolts were fucking tight. On the bright side its lovely being able to see a complete absence of corrosion as just about everything is alloy under there.

I transferred the Rover's vanity plate to the Audi as my late dad's plate is going on the former. The Audi rewarded me by pissing out coolant from somewhere under the front bumper so it's off the road yet again. Getting time to even investigate that is a real problem at the moment as I am incredibly busy with both work and general life.

It also throws up a plethora of warnings at random points about the key. Latest was that it told me that there was no key in the vehicle, when I was actually driving it Cue frantic pocket- searching, thankfully it was there. I should just stick the key in the ignition in future, whenever that will be!

MOT is in July and I do know it needs a suspension arm or two which is fine, let see what other surprises it throws up.

[LynehamHerc]

MoT pass for the MGB but they still have it to look into the 'flickering' oil pressure when warm.
Normally it's steady at 65-70 but has recently started rapidly flicking between 75 and 80. I suspect a stuck oil pressure relief valve but am no expert.
It's 50 years old now so is entitled to have a bit of a tizzy.

I also started clearing the carport out, fortunately without any nesting Robins this time, so I can rattle can it again, this time checking the aerosol batch numbers so I use the same batch, as much as possible, on adjacent panels.

Once that's done I'll touch up some of the paintwork on the 'Burning Bus', assuming the existing stuff hasn't been burnt off by then. There's also a bit of work to do on the interior.

[mercrocker]

My Transporter is out of storage but I have yet to find the spring-clean mojo so it is still grubby. Used it a couple of times already but too bloody cold out there still so I am still indoors using up Mrs Rocker's heating allowance.

[xtriple]

Decided I was fed-up of driving the Merc so swapped cars. Whoop! But I did do a 'thing', I bought another bottle of leather dye, this time from the 'Scratch Doctor/Clinic' and went out and tried a dab...

It only bloody matches the sodding cars leather, perfectly! What started out as a tiny bit of creasing ad general wear has ended up as a complete fucking bolster as I have tried 4 different types of dye and two colours. It seems that the code SEL was used by Jaguar for two different colours, 'champagne' and 'Barley' everything said my car was 'Champagne' but guess what, it fucking isn't!

It is 'Barley' though so the first coat is on and drying and, so far, looks good.

[xtriple]

Hold the front page!

I did another 'thing', there is a tiny ripple in the leather door pocket on the driver's side door, I removed it (only broke one bit, good going for me) completely, took it indoors and re-glued the errant bit, much to my surprise, it worked perfectly. Fitting WAS the reverse of removal.

[Hooli]

So you broke one more bit on refitting?

[mercrocker]

No, it unbroke upon reversing the procedure.