FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron ***Big car show photodump 21/7***

[fatharris]

Feel your pain dude, always two steps forwards and one back running a fleet of old cars!

Very true, it's a constant uphill battle at times, but still worth it when you're on the right road with the right weather, in the right vehicle!

[fatharris]

Well, as the Rover is still broken, and the school run resumes on Wednesday, it was time to train MrsH in the ways of all things BX.

It went well, despite what my facial expression would suggest.

Whilst out, we got the email saying our batteries were ready for collection!

So, when we got home, the BMW and MX5 were fitted with their new units.

I've been informed that the MX5 uses a special sealed type of battery. Bollocks to that, a 063 fits no dramas and is a fraction of the price.

With that done, it was time to drive the Mazda for the first time since the MOT in May and check for binding brakes or any other issues.

Happily, I can report there were no major issues, so the Mazda can be pressed back into service to catch the tail end of the good weather that we were supposed to be having 😅

Still awaiting the replacement struts for the Rover, so tomorrow I'll be looking at the intermittent speakers in the Mazda 😅

Cheers!

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, fatharris said:

BX.

It went well, despite what my facial expression would suggest.

 

Uh, RHD or LHD? 😀

[fatharris]

So, the day every parent feels somewhat guilty for enjoying - the last day of the summer holidays.

We started by going to the top of the village and doing a bit of berry picking into hedgerows.

Weirdly, despite my daughter collecting blackberries for over an hour, her tub remained empty. 

CAN'T THINK WHY 🤣

Luckily, we soldiered on and got a decent haul which went into a lovely crumble for our tea 😁

Buoyed by this, I decided to do a couple of jobs on the Mazda. First one required it to go up on the ramps at the rear.

As I was alone on the driveway, I reversed up onto the ramps with the door open.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Ah well, most of that should polish out.

Anyway... *ahem* ready for MOT next year.

Next job was to investigate the speakers - one side was completely inoperative, the other side would work intermittently.

Didn't take long to find the cause.

These were speakers I fitted back in 2018 - ordered because of their supposed ability to operate fine in a marine environment 😅

Luckily, I still had the speakers that didn't fit in the 620ti back in March - these fitted into the Mazda with no dramas, with new leads solder sleeved back in. I did the other side too 😅

Obviously, everything was going too well, and operating the passenger window resulted in a twanging sound.

Bollocks.

Tywrapped in position for now.

Either way, fuck all I can do about it now, so the car was punted across the road to make room.

Got this big lummox up on ramps.

Roped in my apprentice again!

And under the watchful eye of Mini the cat:

We changed the passenger side front shock absorber.

Zero photos were taken during this, because it was a pure fucking arseache to change. I'm still getting over this broken arm thing, so I had MrsH help by lifting and manoeuvring the shock into place, which was fiddly and awkward to do.

We were going for the drivers side when we decided to knock it on the head for the day and spend the evening with the kids, so we reassembled and took it off jacks.

A quick lap around the village has proven that the crashy ride has gone away, which means this shock might have failed ages ago, because we've been complaining about the front end ride for a while - although it had never stayed stuck down before so it was clearly getting worse.

We'll get onto the drivers side tomorrow, and that'll be the Rover all good to go again.

Cheers!

[Jenson Velcro]

You’re incredibly lucky to have a willing* helper. It wouldn’t matter what ailment I had but I would be told to FRO

[fatharris]

2 hours ago, Jenson Velcro said:

You’re incredibly lucky to have a willing* helper. It wouldn’t matter what ailment I had but I would be told to FRO

MrsH is a bloody saint, and this period of downtime has been no exception, picking up the slack for the jobs I couldn't physically do.

As the Laguna is hers and off the road, the Rover needed to get back to fighting fitness as soon as possible, so it was in her best interest to help out!

Either way, she took the BX to work today, and ticked past the 3,000 mile mark since the rebuild - TO NO BLOODY FANFARE 😂 She had a bit of a faff getting it started with the manual choke when the car was warm, but other than that, she's taken to it well

Just had the customs bill come through for the Laguna spring cups - £60, which hurt my soul to type. God knows how much the front shocks have cost me so far, but I'll tot it up in the end - the spending is not quite over yet!