Tuesday started off well - Nikela the GT was ready for collection from the bodyshop and looking fabulous:
such a deep shine, she's covered in reflections
Looking rather different compared to before
Off we set, going to visit a breaker's yard in east Yorkshire to collect white doors and wings for R4 plus armed with several other shopping lists, then visit dc to deliver Nikela, drop off press releases for his collection and collect a window regulator for R7 and a wing he was donating to Ben's wrecked car. Overnight stay in a Travelodge and home to south Norfolk this morning.
Unfortunately, Nikela's battery warning light came on just before we reached the Humber bridge. As the handbrake light was also on despite the handbrake being off, and the washer bottle light was on (I can't believe Jeff didn't fill it after all the careful cleaning) my first thought was dodgy dash connections. Just to be on the safe side, I flashed Al in the Saab so we could pull over and have a look at the alternator - it's been dripped on by the leaky pas pump and sure enough it wasn't working - no belt !! We can only think either the steering fluid had degraded the belt enough for it to break, or it's caused damage to the alternator and it seized. We had too far still to travel to get there on the battery so we found a Shell garage to wait at and at 3pm we rang the breakdown. Initially we were told 4.30, but it was actually 7.30 before they finally arrived. Of course, me being with Al and in a service area, we were low priority. With hindsight, we should have found somewhere safe to park Nikela on an empty stretch of country road and gone off the the garage whilst we waited. They weren't to know we had a second car. Scrapyard visit had to be postponed until today, and evening visit to dc turned into a breakfast meeting, but at least Nikela finished her journey to the Pamper Parlour.
We eventually got a meal at a pub about 9pm and arrived at the Travelodge close on midnight. Needless to say we both slept like the dead !
After chatting to dc and his lovely wife over breakfast we went off to the scrappie with several shopping lists:
white doors and wings for R4
difficult to find parts for the rescues
door and rear bumper for Ben's disastrous bin lorry skid
2 pairs early wing mirrors, one for me (not exactly urgent, I just fancy them on Lily)
second pair, passenger side for Ben, driver's for James
hoses for Norm from their only early car
2.0i badge for william's two tone
subframe for Nigel's Celebration
Luckily, Nigel was already sorted. The two 2ltres both had to same problem with their badges as william's car - the i was missing but I got one for free anyway thinking he might be able to use part of it to make an i. The only early car had already donated its hoses and wing mirrors. I did however come home with a good silver door for Ben. After checking all the rear bumpers, I selected one with no goudges on the corners and have asked for it to be taken off the car - hopefully dc will be able to collect it next week if he's not too busy. To my amazement there were two very white but otherwise OK rear n/s clusters on cars. Once all the screws were off the back and much careful slicing through sealant and tapping on the screw ends with a hammer, both came out with edges unbroken - brill, both the rescue cars here need one so Al will be on polishing mop duties. Maybe then I won't be doing a daily leak check and constant drying out.
After all the excitement of rear clusters I totally forgot to ask about wing mirrors, but the ones on the early car had gone so I suspect he didn't have any. White doors and wings were chosen and loaded along with a few other bits useful for rescues. Having planned on being back around lunchtime, we finally got home about 7.30 tonight and got a real telling off from the cat....
Next week we will be going to Leominster (the other side of the country - that's going to be a long haul) They have an earlyish black car with a good driver's door which will be perfect to replace the rusty one on R5. I've already given them a list of other parts and once again, I'll be shopping. It's the only 480 they have, but if anyone wants parts not mentioned above, let me know. En route home we will be dropping the door off at Jeff's along with a front bumper we are donating to Ben plus the wing from dc and the door bought for him today. Jeff has several spare bonnets and nose cones and is acting as a central collection point for all the parts he needs. There is plenty going on behind the scenes on the rescue work but Jeff gets precious little time for doing updates.
Anyway, enough sidetracking, this thread will now be updated by dc on the GT's progress at the Pamper Parlour.
