So, Amy has provided sterling service so far. Yesterday she racked up 220 almost faultless miles*. There are a number of issues, small ones but ones none-the-less…
There’s a hideous oil leak from the rocker cover. It’s particularly noticeable when you drop speed rapidly and then the gentle smell of hot, burning oil hitting the exhaust provides a distinctive character to the air in the passenger cabin. The idle is also, I think, not quite right. A smidge low, perhaps. The heater drifts from cold-to-hot of its own accord and I’m not convinced that the fan is blowing air anywhere but inside the dash somewhere… I’ve still not switched the steering wheel over, so she’s still sporting that ridiculous go-cart wheel. And of course, there’s the mangled dashboard that I’d like to replace. Oh, and no carpet to speak of, along with a hideously painted rooflining and visors that are incredibly ill fitting. I’m not planning to rectify everything, but the mechanical faults, steering wheel and, if I can find one, the dash would be nice to fix.
At any rate, my original plan was to fill today and yesterday with agency work. Then I remembered I’d arranged for the exhaust to be delivered today and realised that obviously I should schedule things that involve being at home and not being outside the house for today. Not hard, because I cut my finger a couple of days ago so gardening is a little tricky, as are other outdoor pursuits.
This plan was because I’d assumed that the exhaust would arrive at some random time of day, usually just late enough for it to be impossible to do anything else.
Hence I took the shift yesterday that finished at 2330.
110 miles away.
So I didn’t get home ’til after 2:30 in the morning.
Which is why, obviously, the universe decreed that the exhaust should arrive at 0800 this morning.
Gaaaah.
I’m really too tired to safely fit it. I know me, I will get grumpy, pissed off and start swearing and cursing**. Not only that I realised that the numpty who measured it gave me the wrong diameter for the non-custom section of tube (the bit of metro exhaust). So the custom joining segment, that has been made up to the wrong (slightly too large, thankfully) diameter. However, I think I can get around that fairly easily. But it’s still annoying.
Incredibly, the temporary exhaust has held together for the 500 or so miles we’ve racked up since getting the car.
Anyhow, I’ve ‘scheduled’ some housework and paperwork for today, so that’ll be fun. And scheduled the exhaust for another day. I’m thinking I might service her on the same day, because we’ve had a bit of a shakedown now, and nothing terribly exciting’s come to light. I do wish I could find a new dashboard for her though, because she’d look so much nicer with less ganky silicone sealant pretending to be vinyl, and with the dashboard mating properly with the vinyl roll at the top.
I’ve also just discovered that for two of the jobs I wanted to do today, paperwork wise, I need our flight number for our trip to the states… which is in Kathryn’s e-mail.
* The starter stuck, so I got back to her at midnight to start for the 110 mile journey home, turned the key and was met with dimming of lights and silence. A swift tap with the end of a largish spanner and lo, she started first time.
** I’ll do that anyway fitting an exhaust, but I’d rather start off in a calm and happy frame of mind.
