Kates Journal

So, this was going to be a whiny depressed post. A fed up rant at all things DAF shaped, at myself for my desire to run classic cars as daily drivers, at the world for frustrating me every time I think I’m wining. That kind of tedious thing.

Why is this? Well, because this weekend an awesome band of wonderful people descended on Slough to aid and abet me in my classic car and MZ fetish. Enablers, one might call them. They rock. Nikki and Kate and John I’ve known for many years and they are known lovely people. Kate has overlooked my initial poor first impression (If I’d've written to Points of View I’d've been ‘angry of Colerne’), and is incredibly patient for someone with no interest whatsoever in classic cars with her partner’s interest and my obsession and came to Slough for a day which would be both long and involve very little of interest to her (she was also awesome because she helped Kathryn out).

Nikki has been mentioned many times, respected EV advocate she may be, but there lurks deep in her soul a dark secret. She still likes classic cars, even if they’ve got an Internal Combustion Engine. And while she’s not quite into the quirky bizarritude of classics that I am (Is it Communist? Is it Obscure and impossible to get new bits for? I’m in!) – she gathered her cadre and brought forth a person who I’d only met once before who possibly wins in the awesome stakes, because he injured himself in the call of getting someone he barely knows mobile in a non-ev.

John, for long time journal readers is a known fine gent. I recall him ferrying me back home after I had my wisdom teeth removed and while I was still under the effects of a general anesthetic. Despite me living 45 minutes from Bristol by that time and the fact it was snowing, he took me home and looked after me for the afternoon. He came, he soldered, and he went. He rocks too.

But Adam, Adam perhaps wins for helpfulness beyond the call of duty. I met him once, and between him, Nikki, Kate and John I felt a pining for Bristol. They are all part of what makes Bristol such a good place to live, and his generosity is proof that good human nature is extant. He came and helped out for an entire day to assist in rebuilding someone’s car who he’d barely met.

Between them they bring ‘rocking’ to a whole new level.

So why the rant?

Well, while disassembling and reassembling the engine I discovered this:

And the general response from the owner’s club was “you’d've noticed if it was a problem by now” – but let’s be honest, that relied on me actually doing my research properly, and I was slack. With the engine very hot it more or less runs on both cylinders, not well, but it does. Pulling the plug from either cylinder produced an engine that ran attrociously. I should, however, have done it when cold. Or looked at the plugs from both cylinders. When I stripped the engine I wasn’t certain how so much oil had ended up in the cylinder bore. I should have thought more about it.

We needed to move the Minor to extract the DAF from the drive. The minor wouldn’t start. I suspect that the fuel pump needs priming – two weeks of baking heat have presumably evaporated the fuel. That has never happened before, though, and was frustrating.

On reassembly of the DAF, on Saturday night, at around ten PM, the engine limped and dragged the car around at the speed of a sloath. It actually required people pushing the car to get it back up on the pavement. After the very unfortunate and expensive discovery that I was on an early shift yesterday, not, as I’d thought, a late (requiring in the end 2 taxis), I came back from work and looked at the car. John, from the club, suggested that the uneven running might be that it was still firing on one cylinder. It was.

Because the side with the cracked head? It’s full of oil. I can make the car run beautifully for about 30 seconds by cleaning the plug, after which the oil fouls it completely and that cylinder becomes a display only one. The car is not immobile, but not driveable. As I contemplated the rust that needs repairing, the miriad of problems it’s had (70k miles is not a huge amount, but I think the maintenance has left something to be desired) and my (perceived) manifold failures in decision making, I was feeling deeply frustrated.

I was feeling a little better today, having at least organised supply of a replacement head for not very much, but it wasn’t going to arrive for at least a week. I resigned myself to at least another week of hire cars, and prepared to go and collect the rental – and then couldn’t find my debit card. I swore and stomped around and cursed the world. Kathryn very sweetly put up with me, for reasons I can’t quite work out, rather than telling me to grow up, which is what I really should have done.

Having found it I went and collected the card, and came back to find an incredibly nice e-mail from another star of incredible proportions. A fine gent in Ireland offered to send me a spare 44 cylinder head, potentially such that it would arrive this week. Potentially enabling me to get the car back on the road at the end of the week. If I catch the colleague from work, the welding might be done, and lo, the DAF shall rise again. Hopefully I&A will ring soon with a “the car’s ready” message and all shall be right in the world. Ish.

It’s been really hot and dry all week. I’ve been lying here being appropriately sick. Today the plan was to put the engine together and clean up and spray some bits of the car that are somewhat rusty, and wire brush/sand down/fill the bonnet and spray the passenger door for the other DAF.

I get up at 7:15 to have breakfast, look out the window and… it’s raining. It’s forecast to be stormy and rainy all fricking day. Apparently it might clear up a bit after lunch.

Bloody pants, is what I say. I’m hoping it’ll be dry tomorrow because if we get the engine back in tomorrow then I could do spraying tomorrow too (assuming Vixy’s back) and then put the front of the car back together on Sunday, after work :-/

While my throat gets quite sore if I don’t drink regularly (and, relatively speaking, a lot) it feels (and looks) a hell of a lot better. Although I forgot my antibiotics at lunch time – I’ve just spent about 20 minutes staring and going ‘did I take 2 doses the first day, or one’?

Having finally settled on the fact that I did take two doses it became apparent that I didn’t take my lunchtime dose today; which is presumably why I feel postively much better than I did. I’ve just downed it. Better late ‘n never. I’ll just shuffle the dinner ones to somewhat later. Maybe eat a crunchy bar with it.

Anyhow, I know I’m feeling better because I’m bored and antsy. I can see the car sat outside, but I promised not to do anything taxing today. And I’m off sick from work so I should rest (I keep telling myself that). *But* I did have some dink-jobs to do. The Technics amplifier that used to be my dad’s which was swapped out a while back because the volume control was nadgered? Well, I realised that I finally have some pseudo-contact cleaner in the house, and while I’d love a new Cambridge Audio amp – but since they don’t offer it with a universal power supply I am saving myself for when we go to Canada – and I was missing my vinyl.

I know, I’m a weird old freaky woman who likes her music on vinyl. I listen to MP3s just fine, but when I want music, pure plain music, music to *listen* to, then I want vinyl. Or of course crushed beetles and excreta – there’s nothing like a crushed beetle and goo as a music storage medium. At any rate, so I wanted to have the record deck working again. And since the Denon MD50 which I have been using (dead CD Changer) is devoid of record-deck inputitude, I whipped the cover off the amp, unclipped the volume slider PCB and gave it a good old clean with brake/clutch cleaner (on the back in small print is the text which says you can use it on electrical connections and components too :) ). The amp is now back in service and you can move the slider without crackles and without, perhaps more importantly, randomly losing one or other channel.

Feeling positively buoyant after fixing that I stripped down the bread maker. I needn’t have. Had I have been more open in thought when I looked at it, and less set on ‘these screws hold it together’ (they do, but not in the way I thought) – then I’d've found (one) of the faults much quicker. It’s obviously been apart before, I’m not quite sure why (which worries me) – but the person who put it together (who I can’t say I’m greatly impressed with, in quality or competence terms) managed to leave the element disconnected.

Neither of these are exactly greatly complex repairs, really. I’m just running the bread maker through a cycle – of course, we’re still short part of the kneading mechanism anyhow… And it’s just finished the cycle. It didn’t burst into flames and only made normal hot metal smells – so I’m guessing it might be worth forking out for the bits to go in it to make it work.

That done I’ve settled in to listen to a selection of singles which I’ve not heard for a long time, and just to generally relax for the rest of the afternoon. Temptation lurks outside the door where Jejy sits with her rusty front end looking hopefully at me, but I am strong. That and my throat’s feeling a little sore after spending a while talking to my mum on the phone.

As a side point, summer very definately seems to be here. It’s warm enough in the house to be uncomfortable – when I’m back to being well I’m going to have to pull down the fan. I’m contemplating bringing down the ’30s fan – I wish I knew how to get that grill repaired, or the grill remanufactured. I also need to dig out a bearing supplier to replace the broken sintered bearing – which while I oiled it and turned it around so that the worn surfaces aren’t in use so much – it’s not really quite right – and the oscillation function doesn’t work. The whole thing needs a more thorough strip down than I did the first time – but the motor still works. I’d also like to know if the motor will deal with 110v/60Hz (because that’s useful information).

["Come join the revolution, get yourself a constitution; Come join the revolution now!"]

Sorry; distracted for a minute there.

Had a sudden weird moment contemplating the fact that the music in this room spans from 1918 (one of my gramophone records) to 2009. That’s nearly a century of music sat in the lounge. The next single on my playlist was pressed from vinyl in 1961. And the current one from the year I was born. It’s a bit weird, sometimes.

Anyhow; I think I’m done rambling. I think I shall go in search of morphy richards spares (the inside of that breadmaker was one of the most depressing insights into modern appliances that I could have envisaged) and hope that I can get the missing bits… especially now I appear to have ‘fixed’ it.

Unless I’m lying in bed feeling like I’m dying I feel guilty about taking time off – more and more the better I feel the more I feel like I should be at work. Today I was feeling positively guilt ridden – especially since I was feeling well enough to take back the rental Car (a Ford Ka, the less said about the experience of driving such a ‘car’ the better, I feel*).

Anyhow. So I gently got myself in the car; I wasn’t feeling awful but not brilliant either. By the time I’d dropped off the car and got back home (with a lift from the enterprise people who are continuing to impress me. They’re open on time, they give you a lift home, they even returned my house key that I left in the car!) I am back to feeling pants.

Therefore I am right to take today and tomorrow off.

Apparently Vixy should be back with us soon. Ra!

* The more I encounter modern cars the less I feel I understand why people like them. Okay they’re quick, but soulless too, and the interior of the Ka Style felt like cheap tacky plastic stuck on a cheap tacky body. It sounded like it still had a Kent engine, and apparently it possibly still has** (I’m having a bit of difficulty deciding which engine it’s got).
** Question: Why does Britain hate its engineering heritage so much? Is it shame at our past? Because when Rover kept using the venerable A-Series derivatives; a fantastically designed petrol engine, it was derided; when Ford keep using the Kent engine (also a 1950s derivative) which I think is no-where near as nice, they get to call it a Duratec and it’s all okay?

Heh.

I’m good at the whining, no? *cough cough* ;)

Seriously, a few thoughts that have occurred today:

+ I really should update the website, I’ve not been 26 for a while…
+ It doesn’t even link to my flickr page – the photo gallery has been unchanged since about 2k6 too..
+ I need to get out there with my camera some more. I’ve been neglecting that hobby badly; and my old SLR is feeling sad too.
+ Antibiotics still make me feel crap, but my tonsils have less pus on them than yesterday, which has got to be a good thing.
+ My beloved wife is the most awesome person, she turned up at home today with an innocent smoothie, an a copy of practical classics (and half a twix bar) :)))
+ “I was going to get you New Scientist but I couldn’t remember if you like it” *grins*. She rocketh.
+ She’s making a cake! For us! And she’s letting me sit on the couch and loaf because “you’re sick”. She is *such* a wonderful person to me. I totally don’t deserve someone so awesome.
+ DAR
+ We ate peas and beans from the garden today and they were hell-a tasty.
+ Carpenters appear to have similar time keeping skills to builders. I.e. none at all. Looks around at all the carpenteering that’s gone on today (i.e. none) and mutters darkly.
+ Builders are very happy to put off work. ‘Can you come in a weeks time’ ‘oh! no problem’.
+ I&A Car Services, in Slough, continue to inspire me with ongoing competence.
+ Some e-bay sellers do not, although the world is tormenting me by supplying all the things that didn’t arrive while I was working on the car in my week off.
+ The final season of The Wire starts off damn harsh. Last season though. Why did I not know about this when it was on?!
+ I’ve opted to take the other 2 days I was meant to work at the beginning of the week off sick. Pustular tonsillitis I’ve decided, warrants a few days off. More importantly the feeling like crap on antibugs warrants it.