N19

Kilburn, north west London.

Was I on Plantagenet Road? That photo shows up the differing headlights, one was from an earlier Bluebird. A shame, I miss that car... Looking through again there's lots which I go "ah I know exactly where that is" and a whole bunch more that I recognise even if I couldn't say the location off the top of my head... The M-reg Mk1 Mondeo and the two rovers, I used to live around the corner from and pass daily. When I first moved there, there was so many old bangers around, sadly much depleted. There's still a fair few that I see around. One of my neighbours has a G-reg Merc saloon, somewhat battered, (my lack of knowledge of Mercs shows in that I have no idea what it is) and still uses it regularly. A J-reg Honda that used to live off Bells Hill has gone, but appeared at FoTU so would appear to be in safe hands now.

As expected quite a lot of familiar cars there, I'm so glad you've got pictures for posterity! There's also a very familiar looking Bluebird...

Superb - this lived two streets down from me and I only noticed last week that it'd disappeared. I'm very glad it's been saved.

Rear washer - to pin the cause definitely on the nozzle, I bought a generic one online (£1.99 delivered). Fitted and a good flow. Will try blasting the genuine one with compressed air at some point over the coming weeks. The headlining wasn't for staying up, then I remembered it had spring clips on when fitted. The nearest thing I could find were these re-usable paper clips, fitted a couple of these. Once the paint is done, I'll be re-fitting the nozzle, then clipping/taping the headlining and the rubber seal will go on top of these, so I'm not too worried about minor imperfections. I've got a few weeks off work upcoming, and I'd quite hoped that the car would be back from paint so I could get on with it during this time. Best laid plans and all that! There's also a niggle in the back of my head that I'll run into problems re-assembling, but I think most of that is me worrying purely because it's not in my nature to not be doing anything, if that makes sense.

I've organised large events with catering traders and, as you say, the balance is incredibly difficult. Too few, and people complain. Too many, and the traders won't come next year because they made next to no money. Add to this the foibles of the weather, plus a venue with poor phone signal (lots of people expect to pay on a card), the general hard work they have to put in, if your event doesn't pay they'll move on elsewhere... You can engage lots of event companies who can provide services like the traffic management, allowing the organisers to concentrate on the organising. I say this not knowing the experience or background of those who currently do the organising - but even wearing my hat of having Done This Sort Of Thing Lots Of Times, being able to palm off a segment of the work is infinitely easier. I didn't go this year as I didn't have a suitable car and was reasonably busy, but hopefully will be there next year.

In the next month I'll probably be doing London - Bristol, South Yorks, Lincolnshire - back to London, and London - Norfolk and back. If dates and locations match up let me know.

I've been squirrelling away various parts to go onto the Capri, including this timing belt... but then I looked at the company name, and the phone number... T&N Plc - the lot who went bankrupt from all the asbestos claims.... in the 90s. And phONE day was in 1995. I know UV light etc etc but I may get hold of a newer belt... I'm not sure they'd respond to any Telexes about a failure.. I did a pre-MOT check on the Mondeo today, I'm putting it in two months early to try and space things out as I currently have three MoTs due in late September, together with half of the country so it seems. This wing is corroded to heck but it's not, as far as I can tell, a prescribed area. I'll tidy it up after the MoT (I would rather present it in an honest condition than slap some shiny underseal on it).

Seen at Baldock Services yesterday. This car lived within the ULEZ as expanded in 2021, so I am relieved to see it is still around. Apologies for the appalling photo.

I think mine has the original starter on. Although it's perfectly fine, I'm lucky enough to have an old fashioned firm of refurbishers in the next town who will give it a once over, clean up and check for a contribution to the beer fund. Another job for when mine goes back together!

Endeavouring to avoid any Annie Lennox moments. Windscreen temporarily living in the corner of my living room, as it's less likely to have any accidents than if I keep it in the garage I think.

Long nut and bolt on the other side and the bush was in. All tightened up and back on the ground now. I'd had the car back-to-front in the garage to how it usually sits, and because of the windscreen being stored (albeit wrapped) where the passenger seat isn't, I decided the safest thing to do was to climb in from the back again... I'm not the smallest chap in the world, but I managed it! and she was out! (ft pre-1991 tyre, and carpet offcut to prevent the boot latch locking) The engine had a nice run up to temperature and I went up and down the drive a few times, in the hope of keeping things moving a bit!

Capri is going away for paint on Monday or Tuesday of next week. The bushes ordered above came in the post earlier in the week ,so time to get them fitted. Getting the inner metal bush into the poly bush was a pain in the absolute arse. I went with a very long nut, bolt and some washers in the end. Assembly instructions strictly demand that you do not over tighten these to avoid shearing the stud on the other side. I'm always left with slight paranoia in these cases! I've got three weeks off* during August, if things go properly I may have it back by then which would be fantastic as I could spend a good few solid days working on it, but the best laid plans...

I took a trip up to Biggleswade to pick up some wheels for the Capri. I'm not sure how to interpret these tyre codes, but I think it's pre-1991... New tyres will be fitted anyhow. The wheels could do with the vinyl stickers for the slots for full authenticity, but they look alright enough. To be honest, the ones I've got on the car right now are decent enough anyway, just mucky - but these were half an hour away and a good price and in decent nick, not an opportunity I'd expected! If I get the new tyres on this set, the original set still has decent tyres and with a clean and polish up can be kept... maybe I'll go all OMGOSF and have a different set for best (!)

There are a couple of LEZ cameras in Barnet which I am assuming will become part of the ULEZ monitoring. Whether traffic cameras for congestion or bus lanes etc will be... I've set up the Mondeo with auto pay active, so the worst that'll happen is I pay the £12.50.

This is what I've been noticing. I'm drawing a map of the ones I know in the area, I will send over.

I enquired about my Mondeo, and Ford were able to pull me the Nox reading out within 15 minutes (not bad for a random 23 year old car). Unfortunately it didn't pass the standard, but had it done so, I believe tfl would have reclassified it. It's a pain in the backside, and not justified in many ways. I don't drive down Oxford Street, that would be insane, but are you really telling me that the outer suburbs are the same?. I've bought the focus to do most of my trundling around, the Mondeo isn't compliant but for a few times per month, long trips or carrying lots of stuff, I'll swallow the charge. I can also get to my lockup and back without passing a camera.

The bushes are entirely seized onto the old shackles and not for coming off. A bit of measuring, in which I almost felt like I knew what I was doing... Ordered up some new ones which, I hope, will go on and then everything can go back together for one last time. Hey, I suppose it's all part of the fun* of a project! I noticed when parking up the focus that the headlights seemed to be varying with the engine revs, which worried me a bit, although there was a lot of draw on the system at that point with ac, headlights, wipers, radio etc so I suppose it's a fairly extreme test. An eye will be kept.

A lot of swearing, levering, grumbling, prising and coaxing later and... ... Oh what's that, Only forgot to move the bushes over to the new shackles, small thing. Bollocks.

I was quite surprised to see this smileyface transit on my wanderings today. I used to see it all the time around my old area, and then it disappeared, and lo and behold the same van appears on a backstreet in Barnet, now with a welded plate instead of the entirely disintegrated rear door. It still does a reasonable mileage each year. And is showing as ULEZ compliant, which is curious, because from what I gather this generation of Transit needs modification to meet even the old LEZ. Perhaps said mod causes it to fall under ULEZ?! (if I had the space, money, and the ability to weld I'd definitely have one of them for the purpose of general usefulness and it being a Proper Van...) This is further down the road - off the road since 2014, tested in 2021 and a few failures but nothing too drastic?

Rear spring shackle had sheared off. Replacements have been ordered, so in the meantime, better get the old ones off. Easier said than done! They are a bit of a pain. When the two parts are separated, I jacked up the rear body so the chassis rail sat higher than the spring, to give a bit more room for manouvre. One half popped out after some careful prising. The other half remains in there, seemingly held in purely through being stuck fast in the bush? Bit worried that I'll have a right game getting everything back into position on the car. I've never worked with spring bushes, so I don't know whether this is practical or if I'll end up taking the springs off to do it on the ground! EDIT: Although, now I think about it, the bit that's in there now is perfectly sound - it's the bottom section (the part that's out) which has sheared off. I could save myself some hassle by just replacing the broken one (and copperslipping it!).

A few rear end jobs today, so I turned the car around in the garage. Getting out was fun* especially given that the black parcel on the passenger side is the windscreen and rear quarterlight glass! The trusty off-brand cola was deployed. Everything runs through fine, except when the washer jet is attached. I'll have a fiddle with that and try to unblock it. Meanwhile, new fuel lines arrived and fitted. Shiny! When cutting the old one up to be put in the rubbish, they are actually all in perfectly fine condition, just covered in years of underseal. Can't hurt though. There was also an issue when the car was away being welded, I can't remember if he said the bolts were sheared or lost but there's currently a cable tie on the rear bush of the leaf springs. Another rear end job. Heat has stopped play for now.

The rear washer hasn't worked in the time that I've had the car, so now's the ideal time to give it all a clean. Time to pick up some cleaning agent... I've flushed the line through with it, and left the nozzle sitting in a little pot overnight. I'll get the pump out over the weekend and try shooting it through.

Capri returns! Now fully solid and just in need of paint. Feels very odd without the windscreen. But it's a great feeling to drive her, even if that's just manoeuvreing around the yard. While I wait for her to go in for paint, I've got a couple of jobs to do. I've got some new nylon fuel line here, plus all the rubber bits, and I've also taken the headlining down to look at the rear washer system. The pump works, so there's a blockage somewhere...

I hope so, but we shall see. Unfortunately a combination of needing the space, lack of time and insurance running out pushed me to sell it on quickly, but it's with a Bluebird enthusiast now. I did hold on to the old numberplates, which I've now mounted :- The Capri should be returning this week, to go to a local paint shop - I have my list of Things To Do To Reassemble it. I'm trying to think it through logically so as to make the process easy and avoid any double-handling and repetition. As well as the actual re-fitting of parts, a lot of other bits will be replaced - fuel lines etc, the coolant will be getting a wash-out and replacement. The rear washer has never worked on this, and is an absolute pain in the arse to get to, but it makes sense to tackle the job now whilst the car is in bits. There are a mere 51 items to do before the car is road legal! That will be a particularly nice (and rewarding) moment, when I'm able to take it out and about again. The remaining 43 items (thus far) are cosmetic, interior etc related. Of course, although some of these items will take about two minutes (re-fitting of the grab handle) others will be a much larger job. A little more reasonably satisfying tidying while I've got the space. These mushroom trays (the green one with the angle grinder) are reasonably light duty, but are very handy for keeping things together - one for the angle grinder and bits, one for crimps, wire, crimp tools, another for lamps and fuses, another for sockets, another for pliers/mole grips... and most fruit/veg shops have a few dozen hanging around that they're happy to get rid of. Stackable too. Nursing a sore mouth as I've had a wisdom tooth out today.