Saabnut

They may look like wheelbarrow wheels, but they are very different. Every law that applies to a car applies to a trailer and faults are punished as if it were a car (in law, a trailer is a vehicle). Police are much keener on checking trailers these days, after all the motorist is an easy target.

I am not an expert on these, but I am fairly sure the pre facelift will not fit the later cars.

On its own - Wheel rim Similarly Tyre Together - Wheel That is how I understand it

I am going to need my plant trailer over the weekend, so REV was taken the final 15 miles of its journey north, Soon unloaded and Dunc was soon scaring himself! Coneyhatch, where Duncan has his workshop, is the local centre for motorsport related businesses and the arrival drew a lot of interest.

I have three code readers plus tech-ii but only Saab software. Happy to bring them along on Sunday

It is LBFs car, a friend of mine is going to finish the work off so ably started by red5. Full story in LBFs thread.

I cheated and took a third ramp and borrowed* a few students to push it on!

A 1962 (IIRC) Mini Cooper 1071

As some of you may have seen in my thread, I spent the last couple of days nipping down to Worcester and as a result REV is now parked on my trailer outside my house in the North East of Scotland. How the hell did that happen? Pull up a chair to the fire, help yourself to a dram, and I will tell you Over the years on AS I got to know Dez on here, then on the winter zoom meets during Covid and I have met him once at the FOD. During this time (Dez, you might want to look away here, I will tell you when it is safe to return) I found Dez to be young and enthusiastic, especially about Invercars which it became obvious is his passion, to the extent he can become a pain in the arse about them, but that is Dez (you can look back now). When Dez got the chance to buy REV, I was one of the ones who advised against it due to his physical limitations. He ignored me and I was wrong. Whilst owning REV has done nothing much for him physically, mentally it is the best thing he could have done. It has given him something to focus on, and I would go as far as to say Dez is now probably the leading authority on these things, and a by product he has become profficient in dealing with DVLA, and he has helped me out several times over the years. Once Dez had got REV running and completed his chip run, it became obvious REV was far from in good health and fortunately he listened to advice and the true hero of all this @red5 stepped in and offered to sort it. I met Sam today, a true gentleman, and he told me what he had done to REV and believe me it is far more than I could have done! Sam did all this inbetween teaching and having a life and whilst having to wait 5 months for carb bits etc. All that is left is the kingpin on the technical front and a few other jobs which whilst relatively simple will take a great deal of time, which understandably Sam no longer has as life has moved on. Around Christmas time, Dez became a bit frustrated, after all he passed his driving test 2 years ago and has not driven since. In his usual enthusiastic all in manner he asked about a car he was thinking of buying. A lot of good advice was given, and frankly, a whole heap of nasty comments were made at Dez. I was surprised by some people, and several of the worst offenders have posted on AS how they sometimes struggle with their own mental health yet fealt it was perfectly acceptable to pile in on Dez. I will not name names, nor say anymore on the subject, but some of the people involved should be ashamed of themselves. Enough of that, at least some good came out of it. A few days later during a zoom call, Dez MAY have mentioned Invercars once or twice and in discussion agreed with the good advice given that he did not need another car, he just wanted REV back. The piss taking I think annoyed me more than Dez, I am old and realise we need to encourage youngsters into the classic car game if it is going to continue. I told Dez that when I retired at the beginning of March, if it was OK with him and Sam, I would bring it up here and finish it off, probably not to such a high standard but with the quiet roads up here, a few miles could be covered before he got it back in a hope of improving reliability. Whilst this was being organised, my ace mechanic Duncan, one of only 2 people I trust to work on my Cobra, approached with a problem he was having with a car he has owned since 1982 not showing on DVLA despite him having a V5. I contacted Dez, he said it was because it has been archived and it should be possible to wake it up. Dunc asked if Dez would do it for him, which he readily agreed to. There then followed a long argument between Dunc and Dez over how much it would cost, with Dez refusing payment and Dunc insisting! To cut a long story short (much too late, I know) Dunc is going to sort the Invercar, Dez is going to sort his registration and I have managed to help 2 friends. I think that is worth doing! Anyway, some more pictures from today:

After a MUCH better day I am back home. I will post the full story on @LightBulbFun thread to keep it tidy, which is where any updates will also be posted to save some of searching for the latest. Sufficient to say it was great to meet @red5 and some of his students. The Disco covered 890 miles in 2 days, towing, and never missed a beat!

Yep!

Not Italian

Well it is on the trailer

After a fair nights sleep I am now drinking tea before going out to put on the overalls and head off to the collection point. Just have to hope the traffic is better today! The view out of my hotel room. At least no one stole the trailer as I forgot the lock yesterday!

Nowt to me! As usual I have a stand there. I have a discount code (saves 3 and a half quid iirc) but I MIGHT have a spare exhibitor pass. Drop me a pm nearer the time if you want to go, I should know if I have spares soon

After four and a half hours stationary on the M6, eventually I made it off at Junction 15. The motorway closed as I passed J16 apparently! Usual chaos, some very grumpy drivers but these things happen. Waze took me along back lanes to avoid the carnage so once off the motorway I was back on at J14 within 15 minutes. Now in my nice warm hotel near Worcester which I had pre booked. Nice hotel, friendly staff but they forgot to tell me the bar and restaurant are closed for refurb Awiting on a pizza being delivered, that in itself is a novelty as they won't deliver to me at home!

Still here

It was all going so well. The M6 south is closed due to multi vehicle accident. Been stationary for an hour but had to get more diesel at the services. Took nearly half an hour to get to the pumps (HFM diesel?). 20 mins and nearly back on the motorway

First fuel stop 50 miles in

And we are off…….

A week retired and I still have no time! The difference is this time it is up to me what I do and where I go, and that makes a huge difference. The last few days have been spent getting my Classic 900 'vert Saab ready for MOT as it has been laid up off the road (OK, abandoned in a corner outside) for over 2 years but in 2 and a bit weeks it is going on display at the NEC for the Practical Classics show. No pressure then. A new rear half exhaust was fitted (I have welded it for the MOT for the last 4 tests), serviced it, checked and lubricated everything and tightened up the bolts on the cat. I managed to get an MOT slot today so off we went. Started off great, but going through Dundee the brakes started to stick on after gentle breaking, but were fine if used enthusiastically. For about 8 years, the brake light switch has been a bit sticky requiring a pull up of the brake pedal with your foot to make sure the brake lights were off, so the sticking brakes were also cured with the same pull up. The brake light switch is a bastard to get to on these old Saabs, being behind the dash on the passenger side, so I have just lived with it. Got to the MOT station by which time the brakes were back to normal. The tester put it on the ramp, and whilst he was away logging the car on, the brake lights decided to come on (no ignition required on these) so before he noticed, I quickly pulled up the brake pedal up to turn them off. The test started, and the exhaust was blowing, not badly, from the cat joins, yes, the ones I had tightened yesterday. Of course, the brake lights refused to work at all (never done that before) so a failure ensued. Not a problem as the left hand indicator repeater (tested yesterday) decided to call it a day, the wiper blades fell apart in the rain on the way down (new for the last MOT and done virtually no miles), the bungee cord that holds the battery in lost its stretch so an insecure battery and the movement had destroyed the insulation on the starter wire. The good news is despite the exhaust leak, it just scraped the Lamda sensor, everything else was fine. Finally, on the rollers, the offside handbrake decided not to work. I now have two weeks to get it tested in time for the NEC. I have ordered the bits I need but I cannot start on it until Monday as tomorrow I am off on a collection mission. It will take a few days as it is nearly 500 miles from here, needs to be trailered and my friend and many good beers is on the way back! I will update the collectioning when I can, but it will not really be a live collection as I will be on my own so only update when stopped. Looking forward to meeting another shiter I have not met before on Thursday for the collection.

We have had a couple of lovely sunny days and things are just starting to dry out a bit..... More rain forecast though

My inner front wings were not as bad as that but I replaced mine with easy on panels from froggatts Inner Wings by Froggatts Land Rover & 4x4 Specialists Not cheap but excellent quality. I had mine powder coated and they are now bolt on. Will never need anything again!

Going from memory which is never a good thing but I am old enough to have been driving and towing before the regs were brought in. I believe the rule was if the GVW of the trailer was less than the kerbside weight of the tow vehicle, you were allowed to display a "50" sticker on the trailer and that was the max allowed speed (the 60 for trailers came in with the regs). If the trailer/tow vehicle weights did not meet the requirements, no 50 sticker allowed and a maximum speed of 40 was enforced. Towing was a slow hobby back then!

Well a day of mixed emotions as I am heading to port (Schiedam) to demobilise for the last time. Sad to realise it will be the last time I will look closely at rigs from the sea after 35 years - glad it is all over! Tomorrow I fly home and Saturday morning I start my retirement! It should mean more pictures of cars and less of the sea on here..... The sun setting on my career;