So with 4 days to go i only had to fit the newly repaired and painted bonnet, test the car, test the bus and pack everything up ready to go. Wednesday evening i went to my parents to fit the bonnet and see it for the first time since dad had spent 20+ hours repairing and spraying it. And i must say i was impressed!! I never thought he would achieve such a good finish in a dusty cluttered garage, but it looks great!!! How long it will look this good is questionable though!! I attached all the new fittings (headlights, bonnet pins/catches etc) and dropped it on. The car looks a bit of dogs dinner in its multicoloured state, but other than the rear body work i have got all the jobs done on it over the winter i intended and felt confident the car was sound and ready for the season. So i loaded all he tools, spares and car into the bus ready for Abingdon on friday. One thing i have noticed is that it is very difficult to strap the car down with the spare wheels ratcheted to the side of the bus as they get in the way. I will need to find a different place to store these!
6am Friday i went to start the bus and it was totally dead! It had been fine all week, so there must be a leak somewhere draining the battery over a few days. I tried to jump start it off my car but the battery wasn't man enough, so we pulled dads car up along side and connected that up to my car at the same time, i have no idea if this is the best way, should i have connected each car directly to the bus (although this wasn't possible as the jump leads weren't long enough)? It still didn't have enough juice to turn over properly which we couldn't understand until we saw smoke pouring from the jump leads connected top the bus! I had used the cheapo thin leads for the final connection and they were red hot!! We swapped the leads over as the other set were big thick heavy duty leads, and luckily this time the bus fired up. Now i can't be having this all the time so i'm going to have to fit a battery isolator switch and maybe get a trickle or solar charger.
Eventually i got on the road, it was the first proper trip out in the bus so i was really interested to see how it went and had my fingers crossed nothing broke!! After a 2.5 hour journey down to Abingdon i was blown away by the bus, it drove great and cruised at 70mph no problem with no need to change down for hills! I had to keep reminding myself how big it was and be careful not over shoot junctions or go for overtaking manouevers that were more suited to the Fury!!
After unloading and enduring the "briefing" (please note MSE, the clue is in the name!!!!) i set the new hans specific harnesses up and trundled round for the sighting laps. I hate airfield days and hadn't been on one for years, i hadn't forgotten how bad the briefings are, but had forgotten quite how rubbish the circuits are, there is no racing line as there is either a massive area to let the car go where ever it wants to and then you are on the straight, or the "chicanes" are so narrowly coned off you can only just fit the car through. I was glad i had only booked the morning as i knew i was going to be be bored rigid, but kept telling myself that its just to test the car is working, not improve my driving or learn a track. I'm even bored writing about it. First session showed that the side pod was not cut back enough and the exhaust was going to cause it to set on fire and the brake lights weren't working. I removed the ali panel from above the exhaust and discovered that the top of the side pod (under the ali panel was so soft from the heat i could cut it with a stanley knife, so i hacked it all back and put it back together. I removed the rear light to find that one of the bulb holder connections had snapped and was shorting out on the other contacts, so i removed it with the intention of getting a new one later on in the day. I did 2 more sessions in the pouring rain and packed up. I will never do one of these days again, if you ever hear me suggest it again please remind me not to!!!! Anyway, it had done its job, the car was tested and i'd blown a few cobwebs away.
I set off home, rushing as fast as i could as i had to be home by 3.45 to take my lad swimming, this all fell apart when the bus ran out of diesel 15 miles from home!!! I now know the gauge is a little dodgy, i had been waiting for the light to come on like the last time i drove it, but it never came on! Luckily i broke down outside a farm, so i waded through ankle deep cow muck, knocked on the door an bought a gallon of diesel (i was an strange pinky colour) off the nice farmer!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment