chadders

The BBC are probably slowly diluting gender specific words & hoping we don’t notice, so it fits in with their totally ridiculous attitude to woke. Because as you no doubt know, it will be illegal to assume or suggest any such thing by 2026

I’m now lost in an ironic vortex.

Thanks! You never know if people are interested or if you are just shouting into the void! 
So this Easter trip was back to Spain - ferry to Bilbao, then Zaragoza, Valencia, Toledo and back to get the ferry home from Santander. 2200 miles, 64 hours on a ferry. 
Photos are a bit patchy, as due to my charging skills* my phone was often flat, because I’d plug one end into the phone, but forget to put the other end in a usb socket. Winner. 
Firstly churros. 

crispy hot loveliness dipped in molten chocolate. What’s not to love. For bonus points I saved some down my T-shirt for later.  
 
Lots of old shite around the place - loads of old French luxury saloons still doing sterling service. Car of the trip for me was this one though, what a beauty:


 
for bonus points still apparently in everyday use.
Zaragoza saw me having a squint at this, which was similar to mine but more dieselly:

Weather here was a bit mixed - warm but quite wet from time to time. 
Next stop Valencia, which was endless orange trees that I have lots of photos of but they just look like fields of trees, and you don’t get the lovely smell. It was much warmer and more desert like - this was the campsite:

whilst there I also tried pleb-shite (or cycling as the masses insist on calling it) for the first time in years. 
and I shit you not, found the actual holy grail - I’ve no idea what Monty Python or Indiania Jones were up to, it’s just in a side chapel in Valencia cathedral. if you believe the story it’s apparently the real deal. If you don’t it’s still a pretty impressive cup
 
 
bit more camp action:

Saw another nice caravelle which was for sale - lot less rusty than mine living as it had in the sun:

now I’m not religious in the slightest, but the Spanish catholics know how to build a top notch  place of worship

next was a trip over to Toledo and Aranjuez through the most horrific weather I’d ever driven in - driving rain and sleet. 
Toledo was spectacular, but a bit busy for me, full of other tourists and tat shops (never had so many opportunities to buy a sword).

the royals summer palace was a thing of extravagance - first some carriage shite

their smoking room - not sure what they were smoking though!

and the most comprehensive selection of coffee in machine id ever seen

did enjoy it all, and loved the geckos in the wash block 

started the long trip home and had the first issue. Gears have a dog leg first, with reverse above. Couldn’t select first or reverse. Two options - shagged gear bag (there is a delicate ‘hockey stick’ that controls these gears) or linkage issues.  

popped the selector box off, and found that without the lock out gate in place everything worked as it should, which was a relief. There is a spring loaded ball bearing that slots into an indent that prevents this bellows collapsing, and thus locking out 1st and reverse:



the ball under some pressure released at speed into the car park:

but I finally found it under the white one! Next it needed some cleaning and lube, but I had to improvise 

worked a treat and off we went again. Made it back to the ferry 
where I did spot this 

come on - own up which one of it was you?!
got home 11:30 last night and back at work today. 
Some minor work to do over the next couple of months then off to Finland and Northern Norway…..
can highly recommend Spain, lovely people, cracking cars and some great driving. The long ferry is also worth it I think, although it was just a shade rough on the return leg - I found myself at one point in the air falling, as my bunk was swiftly coming back up to meet me! Will book it agin for next year, give us something to look forward to! 

I had a visitor today.  Regular readers will remember @DirtyDaily offering to come and rebuild the suspension pump for me.  Today it happened.

Here we are, all set up at my back gate.  Listening for leaks...

And the techy stuff begins...




New housing that was part of the rebuild kit is at the top, in his left hand.

What you can't see here is how the lovely new housing broke as DD was tightening the bolts.  We had to re-use the old one.  Fortunately it cleaned up well enough.



And then he reattached this front undertray that had somehow come adrift.  So we went for a test drive.

Oh-oh... and that was only the beginning of the error messages.
So we came home...

...and DD found that the battery voltage was reading low.  Apparently this is something these cars are sensitive to, so ok, we whipped it off and brought it in to put on charge.

Once he'd finished laughing at the tiny battery that was fitted!  It's little more than half the size of what should be there.  And it's on charge now, as you see above.  We'll refit it over the weekend and see what difference it makes, if any.
DD now totally understands what I mean about this car fighting me at every turn!  He is, in many respects, mystified.  And this is a man who has the correct tools, the correct JLR diagnostics, and the experience.  I am immensely grateful that he took the trouble to come up here for the weekend from Stockport in order to help out a frustrated old bloke.
DirtyDaily, thank you so much.

Renewed today, turns out it's 3,000 mpa. But tbh that was more than enough for the isle of Skye and Cornwall. 

Good news!
A new home for AROnline
Great British Car Journey are taking it on.

Nipped down to the Malt Shovel but spotted some old motors outside the New Inn, so went there instead. 

A Rapier! 1,100 twin cam with pre selector gearbag. One of just 46 built. Popped in the pub, barmaid a bit thin in a black T shirt... And then another appeared. All of four foot eight in a white T shirt with pneumatic breasts. I'd swear that they swelled up as she pulled the bitter. So I had a second pint to check.

Probably underbody lift generated at 82mph, like Mark Webbers Porsche at LeMans.

Probably underbody lift generated at 82mph, like Mark Webbers Porsche at LeMans.

PS Plus is only just over £2 a week and you get access to hundreds of games for free too. Including online play.
Me and my son both have PS5s and he signed my ps into his account so I get everything free. Everytime I switch my playstation on it logs him out of his mid game or whatever leading to some pretty fierce arguments 🤣

Is that displayed on one of those old Airfix bases to make it look like it's flying?

Small doors let out less heat in winter is my guess about small doors.
And Norwegian forest cats are large males can weigh around 10 kg.
I think mine is a Norwegian forest cat or is quite close. she has big paws, thick fur and is quite big guess 5-6 kg?

It is indeed. 
I had to replace a couple of missing tyre valve dust caps today. 
I didn't need to remove the bumper.

I accidentally fixed a car at the weekend.  Took the Visa for a spin on Sunday, and on a deserted bit of road I decided to try an emergency stop to find out just how shite the brakes are.  It pulled up from 40mph reasonably quickly - certainly not the worst brakes I've ever experienced, but I'd rather they were better.  I decided to give it another try with handbrake assistance, and bugger me if that didn't bring the brake pedal up to where it should be.  And it's stayed there since.  So I assume the excessive travel was due to the rear shoes not having adjusted themselves and yanking the handbrake on while hard on the footbrake woke them up.
So that's one major job ticked off the list - now I just need to find someone who knows what they're doing to give the engine a service and tune-up and it'll be ready for regular use.
I also took the Volvo for a quick drive, just far enough to get it up to temperature.  I popped the bonnet when I got back to see whether the new gaskets I bought from Skandix at great expense have managed to stop the radiator cap leaking.  They do appear to have done the trick (touch wood), but the coolant level was still very low - fortunately it was obvious where it was going, the Jubilee clip holding the radiator top hose onto the thermostat housing had rusted away and snapped.  I had a new clip the right size in my stash so that was another easy fix.  Unfortunately the Volvo needs rather more TLC than the Visa before it's properly sorted - it's mechanically OK now but needs several bits of welding and the brakes sorting (I'm probably going to renew the remaining steel brake pipes this year as well).
Then I went round the block in the Innocenti.  That drove perfectly, as it always does (couldn't go far in it though as it's not MOT'd).  Actually I tell a lie, the brake warning light flashed up a couple of times going round corners, but that's a result of me fitting a standard Mini master cylinder which is not designed to sit at the jaunty angle it does in the Innocenti.  I need to take the car to the garage at some point and get a quote for the welding it needs, which is quite fiddly and would be much better done up on a ramp.