Stuff directly related to my Beloved Moggie Minor
So, uh, Thursday was Treys Birthday. Which rocked.
We headed up north, to my spiritual home (which, incidentally, is not dodgy); Birmingham. Remembering from oh-so-many trips up there and when I lived there I expected moderately bad traffic on the motorway. So; off we went incredibly early; and we arrived…. incredibly early. No traffic at all.
It’s really bizzare; it’s another place that although the detail has changed the rhythm is the same, if you get what I mean. (more…)
Lord it’s tiring these nights/days.
And to be honest my last night of nights sucked. Sucked and was truly crappy. (more…)
So, I awoke this morning with a really bad headache, knowing that I needed to get [at least one] vehicle sorted before tomorrow I set to on the minor to get it at least back to the state we were in before I approached the weekend.
It’s now back together; and I’ve taken 400mg ‘brufen and 1g of paracetamol. 2 hours later and my headache’s actually gone. This is a first for medicine. Normally we get reduced pain, but today it’s gone.
So I can actually get some uni work done… [prevaricating]
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Frustrating, this is.
Today with much effort Nikki and I trecked off in search of the holy grail of scrap yards; one with a minor (or any other A/A+ series cars) in. We set of at halfpast 9 and at about 10:45 managed to find one with 3 minis and the remnants of an Austin 1300. Woot!
One exhaust manifold (and an 8 track with matching speakers, but we won’t talk about that) later; we headed home (via the Freecycle’d hoover collection & Halfords). Having got home I set to on the 8 track, it being so hot that even being outside caused fluids to run screaming from my body and head sunwards in a cloud of evaporation so fast it looked like a steam vent.
Uh, yeah, so we got that to work (well, okay, John cleaned the head and capstan and then we tried it…and, despite 10 years in an open-top’d 1300 it worked straight away. Quality Waltham Product. Anyway, yeah, when it got cooler (after that e’re so funky Dr Who episode) I set to. Angle-grinder in hand the new manifold was reduced to an exhaust only manifold.
It took about 30-40 minutes all in, but there it was… and then I matched it with the ‘log’ MG/Metro manifold I’d been given which I’d ever so carefully assembled onto it’s body…. and made discovery number one.
The ‘log’ manifold is thicker than the standard exhaust manifold. The mounting flanges don’t match. Not one bit. Ignoring this, on the basis that I could ‘design’ a bit of metal to make up the difference, and then ‘slot’ it together so it was all tightened up nicely I carried on.
There’s more pipes on the Ital carb. And yet, where the oil breather goes? That remains a mystery.
As it got dark, eventually even I had to concede defeat, at which point the second query about whether the Ital/1275 air filter would fit arose. It doesn’t.
I can only presume it does when it’s on the Ital manifold. I’ll check tomorrow. Otherwise, I have *no* fucking clue. No clue whatsoever.
But with the log manifold, it no go.
So now I’ve got a chopped up mini manifold that’s sweet f-a use, and a log manifold that I can return to Andrew, and an engine that’s going to continue to run hideously lean :-(
Bleh.
And Trey; she’s gone home for the weekend, so no snuggles :-(
And my hayfever’s fucking sucked today. Bad day. Yes.
So I have this thing about challenging my habits. I’ve not eaten – at least not on purpose – celery since I was a kid and declared it revolting.
The only time I ever even suggested eating it was as a joke when I was going on a mountain walking expedition (Duke Of Edinburgh’s Award) – when I suggested that our emergency rations should be Tab Clear (0 calories) and Celery (-ve calories). I was a sarky kid.
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So, the strobes arrived today from China; which has reawoken my “oooh, finish the sign for pride”. So um, need to finish essay becomes more urgent as desire to finish sign is strong :-)
I did however just check that a: they work and b: you can kinda see them behind the orange of the plexi-glass. Both of which are true – although if it’s a bright sunny day, which is apparently likely, then the flash will probably be invisible. But hey.
At least I’ve started on the essay now. Which is always the worst part. More to read. Way more to write.
The problem with getting up early is it means you have to wait for the rest of the world to find out what your day is going to be like.
In other news I spent last night sorting out the bits for Rebecca for Pride. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, Rebecca’s going to be in the Pride parade – assuming I can actually get the carb sorted* by then. In the mean time I’ve been knocking together the props for Rebecca. I am dead chuffed with how it looks so far… I think it’s going to work at least as well I hoped :-)
* She’s running with the carb off the 1098 engine which makes her a touch breathless and probably means she’s running very lean :-/
it’s 7.34. Which would be fine, but I’ve been roughly awake since 6:30. I then singularly failed to get back to sleep; despite my best attempts.
At the moment every muscle in my body aches; I remember this feeling the first time I started working full time at a hospital. It felt like each shift was killing me until, of course, I got fitter and started to *manage* just fine; but for the first few weeks it left me exhausted.
And I’m exhausted now.
It doesn’t help that 1000 miles of trecking over the country at the weekend, lugging engines (and transmission parts) about means that this is really my 7th day on the go. (more…)
It’s a bit of a scary time at the moment. Scary, frustrating, good, fun, bad stressful….
With the money situation, I suppose, actually having remained static – insofar as I worked for half my bloody holiday just so that I could…. spend it all on repairing Rebecca. So, my attempt to get back into credit with Lauren failed somewhat (I had hoped that I’d end up paying her rent in advance, not in arrears, as I seem to constantly be).
I had kinda hoped to buy the paint to do up my bike, and maybe the gear to get the welding done. But nooo.
Noooo.
I don’t quite know how I’m coping. I’m faced with a huge disaster of monsterous proportions. Rebecca’s engine is dead. Dead dead. Not, as I hoped, a bit dead. But seriously, not taking the piss, dead dead dead. Two cylinders are now screwed. The entire cylinder head appears to have been suffering from serious overheating for a long time, hidden by the fact that the one bit of engine that coolant was really flowing through is right by the damn thermometer.
I need a new engine, and 700 quid is the cost of a rebuilt one, so that is just not going to happen. A second hand engine, from uh, Liverpool, seems to be my best current option – but it’s a 1300 engine (which I’d like) but um, may require work to fit. What the fuck do I do? I don’t know. I’m still panicing if I’m honest. I’ll just have to see what the guys at the MMOC suggest tonight.