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27th September 2008.....Sorry, nothing to report on the car front. As I said before gardening is taking preference at the moment. The fish need a new home more than I need SHW. If I remember I'll take a picture to prove I'm not just skiving.
24th September 2008.....Well I had good intentions of spending the evening in the garage, but my mate two doors up was having a bonfire to burn all his building rubbish and he had beer. I spent the evening drinking beer by a fire while putting the world to rights. Good night.
23rd September 2008.....I was gutted tonight as it was raining and I couldn't work in the garden! (he,he). I had to spend the time cleaning up the spare big valve head. I managed to get the head de-greased and clean and all the valves out, bagged and labeled. I've now set about cleaning the ports out. I got 3 done and everything looks okay. It's all been ported properly so all I'm hoping now is that it keeps raining! Don't tell the missus.
22nd September 2008.....Managed to spend about hour and a half in the garage last night. I was stripping a spare big valve head I have, but broke two plugs off in the holes. It was very rusty before you think it's all my fault. But I didn't give up. I drilled out as much of the plugs as I could, then used an old wood chiesal and a big hammer and knocked hell out of them. Eventually I managed to get them to break so I just knocked the rest off. I got them both out without damaging the threads and then made sure I could put new plugs in all the holes after a good oiling. I've now got the head soaking in my parts washer, (well half of it, it's to big) and will then give it a good clean up before removing the valves.
21st September 2008.....Up early for a Sunday, as Spot's coming up and we're then off to Keith May's open day at Vauxhall Green Parts. He arrived in the V8 at nine and was dying for a cuppa as usual. Before we went he wanted to do some timing settings on DHR to see what she was running at different revs. I don't really fully understand it even now. He's tried explaining it to me so it's not his fault. Still all I had to do was rev the car...even I can do that! It's something to do with the distributor springs and weights and the vacuum advance. So are you any the wiser? Met up with Flod, Deon, Tony Steve and John. I never bought anything but I saw Steve sneak out with a GT steering rack and some other bits. After much micky taking about me now being a 'celeb', Spot and I returned to my garage where he adjusted his suspension, talked about things I need to do on DHR and drank more tea. Then he headed home and I headed for the garden. I'll keep my gardening adventures away from these updates but needless to say the garden must come first for now, so updates may be few and far between for a while.
20th September 2008.....Had a surge of energy today and pushed on with the pond in the garden. I was knackered by the end of the day but still had some time to check on this 'small' water leak that seems to be gradually getting worse on DHR. It's coming from the inlet manifold where it leaked when I first put her back together. I tried tightening the bolts up a bit more but I think she's still leaking. Bloody cars!
17th September 2008.....News for you all. Yesterday I was asked to go on a photo shoot for Total Vauxhall magazine. With DHR of course not just me. If it was just me it would be for Top Hunk or something similar. It came totally out of the blue. I got an e-mail from them, then a couple of phone calls. I really thought it was a wind up at the begriming because the lads had been taking the mick, because of the Billing article in Total Vauxhall. Anyway Matt, the photographer and Marc, the journalist, turned up at ten and after a little chat they had a look round the garage and took some pictures of SHW and the half a car. God knows what they will look like if they use them as the garage is a real mess at the moment. We then drove up to Paul's Mum's farm where we spent the rest of the day, me talking to Marc about DHR and Viva's in general and Matt laying on the floor taken about two thousand pictures of DHR. I didn't realise how many pictures they were going to take. I got home at about 5:45pm. We did nothing else and didn't even stop for lunch, so about six hours of picture taking. DHR had big lights all around her and every  little bit of her was photographed, even down to the petrol filler cap. The stickers in the back window, the gear knob, badges, everything! It was certainly an eye opener. The last bit was good because they wanted some action shots which I thought they meant me driving down the taxiway, (it's on an old airfield) and them taking pictures. But I was wrong. What it involved was Marc driving Matt's Focus estate, with Matt hanging out the back with only the seatbelt holding him in and me driving DHR about twelve inches from his bumper. Now this would have been exciting enough without the fact th at a huge great flashlight was
put in the passenger foot well of DHR and it was flashing every few seconds as Matt took a picture. I had a great day and really enjoyed it. I don't know when, or even if, it will ever appear in Total Vauxhall, but I'll let you know if I hear anything. Another great thing about the day was as we arrived. Jeff the bloke who owns the farm, asked if we wanted to use the barn for any shots and opened the doors of this 300 year old barn  and guess what was inside.... a Lister Jaguar, a Morris Traveller, a Morris Minor, an old Range Rover, a very unusual BMW estate
the likes of which I'd never seen before and an old soft top Alfa from the early sixties. All were covered in bird poo and as dusty as hell. Sorry I forgot to take any pictures of them.Sod's law was
the 'shoot', (as us in the trade say), was on the Tuesday and Monday night DHR sprung a small water leak. I thought it was coming from the temperature sender, so changed that late Monday night and loaded it with PTFE tape, but during the shoot she was still leaking so another job to look at.
14th September 2008.....Vauxhall Heritage Centre open day at Luton. Quite a few there for this again. I had a long chat with Tony, Paul Bottomley, Keith May, Dave Wheatley and his Dad, Colin, etc. etc. Some clubs had used it as a proper 'gig' and had grouped together in the car park area. Got a look at Paul's new Astra which reminded me of my old company ca,r which I always thought was the best one I had. Even the same colour as well.
7th September 2008.....Well the rain has given me a chance to get in the garage so although half the country is underwater I don't mind. My half built pond is nearly as full as the existing pond and the garden looks like the Somme on a bad day, but I'm getting there. I've finished off the linkage to the new 32/36 Weber and it's now working fine. It was just slightly catching on a bolt, but that has been sorted and the new plate I made has been cut down to the correct size and painted. All the linkage has also been painted. I then got the chance to change the jets in the carb. Now this is a trial and error operation so it should be right up my street. It might work, it might not work, so I can't be held to blame. What I've done is written down all three carbs jet sizes before I move things around so at least I can put things back how they were. Clever huh! I've put some bigger jets in DHR at the moment but haven't had the chance to test them on a run yet, but she started okay and I think she ticked over better. I'll let you know how I get on. I've also started to re-paint the rocker cover as I wasn't happy with the finish and if this paint flakes off I'll be very disappointed as I've put at least a dozen coats on. Yes a dozen. A picture will follow.
3rd September 2008.....Well have you missed me? Sorry it's been so long but I've been overtaken by my workload. This includes work and after work activities. I went on holiday the week after Billing to Majorca and had a really great time. Just relaxing, swimming, drinking and eating all day everyday. I came back and had to build my Dad's conservatory, which includes everything from the plastering to the plumbing. I also had to help my neighbour build a garage the same as mine. As I write both are not fully finished but my role is easing off, hence I can get back to updating 
this. I also promised the missus that I'd move the fishpond before I started car work again and have made a good start by digging a bloody big hole in the garden, which is not yet finished either. After I returned from holiday I didn't even take the blanket off DHR for 3 weeks. Last Tuesday I started her up and drove her to work most of last week. I've now put a 32/36 down-draught weber on her and have had to modify the linkage and am testing different jets as we speak. The modification of the linkage is no easy matter and isn't complete yet but does seem to work, so fingers crossed. Well I'll try and get back to updating more regularly again now and once the pond is done will be starting on the next GT!!!
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