22nd February 2009
It's been cold. Really quite cold for quite a while. It was almost like winter. But the last week or two has seen things warm up a bit, and this weekend it was almost spring-like. This motivated me to think about getting the car back on the road, or at least what preparations are needed to let this happen.
So, yesterday I pushed the car out and started it up. That's usually pretty good motivation to want to get back behind the wheel. And today I started with a bit of fettling which is needed. First things first was to get the car back up in the air, get the wheels and nose off, enabling access.
I think the things that need doing are:
  • Change the oil and filter (even though it is still in good condition, it's been in there a while now)
  • Change the coolant (it's been in there since it was built, so probably ought to)
  • Inspect and potentially replace the spark plugs
  • Clean the air filter
  • Maybe replace the fuel filter
  • Maybe bleed the brakes and clutch
  • General spanner and visual check over of whole car
  • Re-fit the repaired front anti-roll bar
  • Have a good clean up everywhere
  • Fill and finish redundant holes in scuttle and aeroscreen
  • Repair some scratches in gelcoat
    • Hmmm, that's quite a long list now I've written it all down. To get the ball rolling, I spent a little time cleaning up the mounts and droplinks for the front anti-roll bar. I got the bar repaired after it broke at the end of the last season, but never got around to doing anything about putting it back on. It also needs a coat of paint, so I prepared it for that, and will build up some paint on it over the course of the week.
         

    28th February 2009
    So, a fairly clear weekend means some decent garage time on the horizon. I got a couple of coats of paint on the ARB during the week, but it doesn't look great, I think it needs flatting back a bit and a couple more coats. Not urgent right now.
    I ordered some oil for the oil change during the week, and it has turned up, so time to get on with that job. It's been a while since I dropped the oil, after a spate of removing the sump pan if I remember correctly, so I am going to give it a thorough one by removing the oil tank, cooler, etc to fully get all the old oil out, and give me a chance to give the engine bay a good clean up.
    This is somewhat time consuming, and messy. Not helped by spilling half a litre of finest black gold on the garage floor in the process. After a couple of hours it is all out and apart, and I leave various parts to drain out overnight.
       

    ©2002-2009 David Hackett UDM4