|
29th May 2009.....Joanne had everything ready and packed and all it took was for me to load up the two cars. Joanne was going in the Focus because she needs to come back a day earlier because Alex has school and she has work on the Monday. We leave at about ten thirty and take a nice slow drive up to Bedfordshire. I have put a full report of the weekend under 'Gallery', 'Shows and Meets'. Click here for access. It's well worth a read because if you didn't go you missed out on a great weekend.
28th May 2009.....The estate failed to get me home tonight. She started getting jerky so I pulled off the by-pass the turning before I needed, as I didn't want to break down on it. She gave out just before the magic roundabout in Hemel. After leaving her to cool down for twenty minutes she started fine and finished the journey. It's definatly something to do with heat. Either the new electronic ignition, or the coil, or perhaps the timing breaking down. I'm away now for four days so Monday will be the earliest chance to have a good look at her.
27th May 2009.....The estate started fine in the morning and at midday we went for her MOT. She sailed through! No advisories and the bloke said she was a, "nice tidy car". Well bugger me! On the way home she started playing up again just before I reached home, something is breaking down after about twenty minutes of using her. I think next Monday I'll take the electronic ignition off for now and see if that makes a difference. Can't do it this weekend as I'm going on the VBOA International Rally in DHR and I to get her ready for that.
26th May 2009.....I went to work in the Focus today as I flooded the estate while trying to start her this morning. In the evening I checked her over again ready for her big day tomorrow.
25th May 2009.....Spent part of the day checking the estate over ready for her MOT on Wednesday, then I went to Wickes to collect some more sand and cement for the garden. (Yes there's still some more work to do!). Anyway when I tried to get out of the car park it was chaos, cars everywhere and nobody would let anybody else out. After about twenty minutes the estate suddenly threw a wobbly and died, right in the middle of the car park. Do you know people were still coming right up behind me as I was trying to push her out of the way to let people move more easily. Why is everyone in so much of a hurry these days? Well I tried every thing I could think of, I even put the points back in her but she refused to start. (We had put electronic ignition on her over the weekend, you need to read the Spot Weekend report). After about an hour, with the car park still resembling..... a car park (!), she started! I managed to get back into the queue only for her to cut out again ten minutes later. This time I pushed her into a parking space, no-one offered to help, then walked home. At half past four when the mad bank holiday rush was over, I walked back down to find two policemen standing by the estate. As I was in my Vauxhall overalls they knew she was mine. He said someone had phoned them because petrol was dripping slowly out of the filler cap at the back. (I had just filled her up before going to Wickes and she was on a slight slope). I explained that all Viva's empty petrol from the back and oil from the front and at least he laughed. He then spent the next half an hour telling me about his Dad's Viva he remembered when he was a boy. I got in her and she started first time and I drove her home without a problem. I think I have something breaking down when she gets hot. More investigation needed.
23rd/24th May 2009.....Well Saturday and Sunday was the weekend that Spot came up and we started to attack SHW, (in the nicest possible way of course). I had a great weekend but I can't speak for Spot. SHW is now missing most of her boot floor and large holes have been cut in the wheel arches and only one has been filled in to date. To read the full fun report and see the pictures click here. I have been so busy that I haven't had time to do the web site and I think that I'm bound to forget something. My memory isn't my strongest point as regular readers will know.
19th May 2009.....As you can now get to and in SHW, I decided I'd try and get the doors off to make it easier at the weekend when Spot gets here. Why oh why do designer not think about how to fix things when they're designing them? Now I know we are talking of 40 odd years ago but bloody hell, how are you supposed to get to the door pins on a Viva? When I attempted to take them off DHR I could only get the nearside off, Dave took the offside off!!!! Anyway I have managed to get the top pin out using a metal bar with a slot cut in it, a punch, a blow torch, a couple of large hammers and some swearing. I think the swearing did the trick in the end. My left hand, which is the hand that doesn't wield the hammer, now has some nice bruises coming up and the amount of swear words I can utter in any given 30 second period has increased. The bottom pin would not move. The following evening I was to attempt it again, but because it was my wedding anniversary I decided to stay in with my wife whether she likes it or not. This year I did actually remember our anniversary without prompting which is probably a first. Thirteen years....thirteen years.....it doesn't help to keep reminding myself of how long it's been. I was telling Joanne yesterday, after I found that she hadn't bought me any Viva spares for a present, that if it wasn't for her, my garden would be filled with engines, the sink would have some parts soaking in it and I would own about six Viva's. We didn't speak much after that on our anniversary night! Was it something I said?
Oh before I forge,t Happy Anniversary Joanne.
18th May 2009.....Had a mail today from Gregor Marshall asking to pop round to look at HB headlights and my cars. We arranged that he would come round about 6. We had a nice evening talking cars and Viva's in general and I think he left about 8. I then spent another hour putting more stuff in the loft of the garage. I really hope those rafter hold up!
17th May 2009.....Up with the lark and I drive to Dunstable just to go all the way back to Tring. I needed to do this because Steve said he couldn't get a stand for the show so we needed to meet up before hand if we wanted to park together. I arrived first for a change, quickly followed by Aaron. A few minutes later and Keith turned up. We sit waiting and Aaron said he'd heard the others were running ten minutes late and that John and Steve couldn't make it. Steve due to work and John because of his back. While we were talking, Tony sails on by, totally oblivious to three Viva's in a car park. I drive up to the lay-by where we thought he would be waiting, only to find that he'd carried on to Aston Clinton. When I get back to the car park Rob and Paul had arrived so we all set off and the other mugs were following me. I got them there without getting lost, (although I will say I'm sure I could have got there quicker if I'd done a right turn at  the bottom of the downs). We all park up in the section marked out for 1960's to 1970's cars and Tony ambles over. "Why aren't you parking on the club stand" he says. "Because we haven't got one" I replied. "Well I'm on the club stand over there". I thought he was having us on because he forgot where to meet us, but he wasn't. Sure enough we had a stand roughly where we were last year. Another Mike joined us a bit later in his Le Mans blue GT making six cars in total. Then it happened! The rain! Tony says we can put the gazebo up so five grown men start grappling with some metal bars and plastic clips as the rain starts getting heavier. After a while most wanted to get out a grinder and welder to make the poles fit. In our defence we didn't have any instructions and the poles weren't marked up. Still the people in the next gazebo had a field day, rolled up with laughter as we tried combination after combination only to find that, either we had something left over, or that one side was bigger than the other. In the end a bloke from the 'Ford' stand next to us felt so sorry for us that he came over and helped us out. How many Vauxhall men does it take to put up a gazebo???? With the gazebo up we all huddle together underneath, holding it down because  not only did we have rain, we had a force ten so'westally to contend with. When it eased up we had a look around the auto-jumble and the fine array of cars. I only bought a couple of keys from the jumble, one of which I gave to Keith as he's setting up a couple of locks for me for the estate. Taking into consideration the weather, it was still an excellent turn out. I had three people ask me about DHR and the Total Vauxhall article. Oh how I wish Spot was standing next to me when they asked, I'd have loved to see the look on his face. As most of you know I find my fame very hard to live with! (I'm going to get some stick for that). Tony and I we the last to leave our stand at about four. It was a pity about the weather but even that couldn't spoil another good day. To see more pictures of the show click here.
16th May 2009.....A bit late with this but we are really busy at work at the moment. Here goes...on Saturday I started to clear the garage in readyness for the visit of my esteamed leader and Viva gura Spot next Saturday. This demi-god of a man is all things Viva so the garage has to be right. I was nowhere near finished at the end of the day so this will need to be done over the following weeks evenings. Sunday is another show.
14th May 2009.....Had to pop into Argos on the way home from work to collect something for Joanne. As I was backing out of my parking space the bloody gear stick came out in my hand. Trouble was it wouldn't go back in again, the linkage was in the wrong place somehow. I also had put all my tools in DHR at the weekend and hadn't put them back in the estate. As she was stuck in reverse I had to switch the car off, put one foot on the clutch and push her out of every bodies way with the other foot. Using the tyre lever I managed to knock her out of gear and put the gear stick back in. I could then tighten the cover up as best I could with my hands and she got me home. I spent the evening tightening the cover up properly with a set of stilsons. It's always fun in a Viva!
10th May 2009.....It's show time. Went to Langleybury Farm today, my first visit to this show. It got a very good turn out and the weather was lovely. Steve and wife, John, Paul and wife, Rob and myself met up at junction eight of the M1. I was last there and I live in Hemel? We had a great day drinking tea, eating cake, talking Viva and sitting in the sun. DHR is running well at the moment and her sluggish starting problem seems to be getting better, I'm wondering whether she's loosening up a bit! I left at about four for the long journey home and at five past four was sitting in my new garden drinking a cuppa with my wonderful wife! A fine end to a fine day. To see my pictures of the day click here.
9th May 2009.....Finished the water feature now as well so the  garden is all but done. Joanne doesn't want me to put the grass seed down just yet because the kids are off school in a couple of weeks and we always end up with ten screaming girls running all over the garden. If nothing else they are helping to flatten it! I spent some time in my veg patch, which was nice, so from now on I should be 'garageing'. The little face on the side of the feature is how I felt after I finished.
8th May 2009.....I've finished the crazy paving! How good does that sound. No more bending over knackering my poor knees, no more mixing up cement knackering my back, no more moving tons of earth and paving, knackering  any  others parts of my body which haven't already been knackered. I celebrated wildly with a nice bottle of Newcastle Brown and a cheese sandwich. I know there are the odd couple of little things to do, but all in all, the garden is done. Alan Titchmarsh I'm not but it does look okay by my standards. I come from the 'rustic' school of thought, where things shouldn't be level or straight. My thoughts are that your eye should wander from one thing to another, telling you that a half trained monkey probably could've done better, after drinking 15 bottles of Newcastle Brown. But saying all that, I like it and when the grass seed grows it will look better still. Eat your heart out Capability Brown!
3rd May 2009.....A day off from digging and mixing cement and laying crazy 'bloody' paving and moving earth etc. etc.... Shuttleworth here I come. Now I hadn't been to Shuttleworth since I was in short trousers, (17), so was looking forward to this. I met up with Tony, Steve and Paul at the Luton branch of Homebase at nine.  All arrived on time and off we go, Tony leading the way. On the way I noticed that Tony was taking a picture of me from his car so I thought I'd do the same. Got some good ones too. On arrival I followed Tony through the gates with Paul close behind and when we pull up, we find out that Steve ended up paying £13 for him and Ann to get in. Paul and I just said Tony had our ticket! Oh how we laughed. The others weren't to happy because evidently they had parked us in a different place than usual and we were away from the airstrip. They said that usually the planes were doing their stuff over your head, but today we couldn't really see  them. Then they said that the auto-jumble was also much smaller. Still we all still had a good rummage round and even Tony spent a pound on some drills. What I did notice was how bloody cold the wind was. I only put my coat in the car at the last minute, lucky I did. I enjoyed the day and Tony told me about Richard Shuttleworth on the way over to the air field which was interesting. (Although he thinks I was just being polite. I wasn't, I like historical stuff). He also then told me he use to doing parachuting! In the days before you got stuck to someone's stomach. I told him I'd love to do that.....if I could stand heights.....and if I wasn't scared of flying.....and if hell froze over! Why would anyone want to go up in a perfectly good plane then jump out holding a big bed sheet? What kind of brain says "that seems like a good thing to do" and what kind of body lets them do it! I'd have to have a bloody big nappy on and not just to make the landing softer! I also got talking to a bloke called Rick who was into big Yanks, (cars that is) and he said he'd just bought an HC for his boy who was 18. The lad seemed full of it and was changing the seats etc. Just like us when we were young and in our prime. They were after information about the 1256 engine and as luck would have it Colin and Steve Coote arrived so helped me out with technical stuff. Turns out they only live in Luton so may pop in to the Compasses sometime. Grant turned up later in his gas powered HB but I didn't get to talk to him about it so will bore him on Wednesday night. To go directly to the Shuttleworth picture page click here.
Back to top |
|
