Another week has whizzed by! I’ve been meaning to do a blog, but it’s just been too busy, work wise, and the admin has been even busier, head spins, but I’ll get there. 😵💫
A frosty start on Monday morning found us up in Hartlepool for work on Rob’s 2003 TF 160 (paint code LQW) that he’d recently taken ownership of in July of this year.
He’d experienced a problem with overheating, so asked when we could come up and sort, initially we had to turn him down as we didn’t have an opening, but then one came up due to a cancellation, at the workshop, for a subframe swap. So I got back in touch to let him know, and he asked if we could do the cambelt service too while we had the chance, which makes perfect sense.
Unfortunately, things weren’t as we were all expecting and something had definitely been going on a while long before he’d noticed any issues. We couldn’t even remove the cylinder head as the inner timing cover casing was melted on to the head and the block, and had to be literally chiseled off. Not a good sign.
When we, eventually, removed the head it had been skimmed many times before, and had fire-ring indentations. Despite Rob’s, understandable, disappointment it would have been completely unethical to refit it.
Plus, given the severity of heat and Rob’s subsequent explanation of how things went, we suspect that there may well be other issues further down in the block and sump. Therefore, situation discussed, a date arranged to collect the car and take back to the workshop. Nothing that can’t be sorted, although the respray that he had booked in, for next week, will have to wait a little longer.
Lovely to meet Rob, we look forward to getting his car back to rights for him, which is actually employed as his weekly commute to Scotland and back.
We called in to Tockwith to see Rich, on our way back home, as his TF 135 was still playing up. The air pressure sensor had been damaged when he’d had the cambelt service done, elsewhere on the car, earlier in the year, so we have tried to resolve this issue, Rich has since reported back that it is still causing an intermittent problem now, so next on the list is to replace the wiring loom on the fuel rail, which we have, and will wait for him to report back further.
On Tuesday morning, we hauled the big old bearing press out with us and headed back over to Swinton, near Manchester.
Front offside wheel-bearing replaced along with the top ball-joint, front top suspension arm packed with grease, reverse-light switch replaced and drivers door lock replaced on this visit.
Really great, as always, to see David, Juliet and bouncy Bodie dog! Some really interesting chats, along with cracking brews. Plus we were honoured to receive our BAFTA award for our upcoming TV show! 🎭
Thursday morning found us hooking up the trailer, and heading up to South Cleatlam, in order to collect ‘Jugs’ and take back to the workshop for some welding. Unfortunately, she’d had a slight mishap with a jack, so needed some attention. Sill repaired this morning and then sent round for an MOT this afternoon. So ‘Jugs’ their MGF 75th (in CDM) is all ready for Tony and Caroline to collect tomorrow, we look forward to seeing them.
Work has continued at a pace in the workshop on ‘Princess’ and she’s almost there, we’re pleased to report. Leona is popping over tomorrow with the new inside bits, so it will be nice for her to see how she’s coming on.
Hope you have a really good weekend everyone. 🌞 – https://ift.tt/5k0jtsA
