N19

Fitted a new battery today (so I can return the borrowed one to the Bluebird!), gave everything a clean up and it seems ok now. An eye will be kept...

It did various odd things this morning including randomly beeping the horn, some relays throwing etc. The central locking has always been a bit vague during winters, I've disconnected the boot from it to avoid issues since I couldn't get it to lock otherwise!

Cold snap this week, the Mondeo's battery gave up. I think it's about ten years old so fair enough. Swapped it with the Bluebird's 096 until I can get a new one (the Bluebird starts, albeit sluggishly, on the knackered battery). Although the Mondeo's central locking has started acting up, which I assume is something to do with low voltage.

With ULEZ unpleasantness ahead, if any shiters require inspection of a car, or pickup and bringing to the outskirts - anywhere in North London I can usually do, work permitting.

I was just thinking "cheeky get, retro, whacha on about that's an early naughties camera" then realised, it really is. Complete with low ISO speed bubbles. There's probably a load of photos of then-insignificant things that past-me took in the early naughties sitting on a HDD somewhere.

The ironic/infuriating thing is that I live approx 100m from the boundary, so even popping out of the area is £12.50 purely for that last 100m. Looking at how they did the inner ULEZ, there are cameras at practically every point on the boundary. At the moment, the boundary for the heavy diesel van/lorry LEZ doesn't seem to be fully camera'd. I also wonder if there will be cameras along the 5-minute trip through suburban backstreets to my lockup (which I do in the Mondeo regularly to cart stuff down/up from there). I think I will set up the auto-pay and see when it triggers. I think I'll reinvest some of the money from the sale of the Bluey into something small and Ulez compliant (but suitably autoshitey) - as old as possible - maybe a Ka or something of that size - to blat about locally in the suburbs in. In fairness that will save money in tax and fuel as the Bluey and Mondeo are both expensive in those regards. Unfortunately, I somewhat doubt it. It would have been nice to have some sort of 'taper system' or 'sunset period' but I doubt it.

The postman arrived with some shiny new number plates. See the reproduction Vs the original. Spot on. The original was actually in two pieces when I took it off! The front has always had a motorfactors plate, so it gets a treat. Ironically, today is the day that the Bluebird's fate was sealed. The ULEZ will come in from August and so it'll be £12.50 to even move it. Within the fleet I can justify holding on to the Mondeo for long journeys and big item moves, but I'll most probably be putting this up for sale in the spring, sadly.

Preparation on the Capri has pretty much stalled, I've stripped out everything I can right now, so it's waiting for the garage to take it onto their ramp. The sills and wings have had significant "corrosion assessment" to expose the weak bits although I'm quite sure they'll be more once the wings come off. I took the main beam relay off to clean it out, it was a bit lazy in throwing which meant that the reliable way of getting the lights on involved popping the bonnet and a tap of a spanner in the right place... Nissan has a slight exhaust blow somewhere, need to have a proper look at that, and the Mondeo has a flat tyre (discovered at 0549 on a Monday morning).

Chucked some money in, thanks to all for their hard work keepign this place afloat etc.

Looks a great space, I know you've had merry hell with space to work, so hopefully the garage will help - great to be able to just close the door and leave when you're fed up. And I'm sure there's a way of sorting the rear door issue so you can keep a car out the back, by hook or by crook...

Continued joy of 1970s Fords.

Borehamwood

I think the general rule with fords of this era is to expect about three times as much work as you first think. I've stripped mine down with the interior and dash out, and been poking around, which has resulted in several more jobs than I had anticipated. Repair sections are available for the strut tops I think, CCI etc should do them, if you need them.

I don't understand why people do things like this. Surely a quick message to say "Sorry - something's come up, I can't go through with the sale - hey let me send you £20 for the hassle/fuel wasted - apologies" would, for most of us, result in a sigh/rolled eyes, but certainty and an ability to do something else.

I find with mine - it probably isn't a thing and certainly isn't scientific - but it feels like it runs nicely when it's had a good few runs and 'blown the cobwebs off'. What oil are you using? this in itself turns into a debate on any capri forum. Check the timing, you may be able to give it a bit more advance. Not sure what carb is on it - is it the original VV? a replacement Weber with a manual choke makes things much better, you can also get a replacement exhaust which is slightly larger without being OTT.