That’s part of the rearranged trip from last week done, which started with a very early departure on Wednesday morning…
Full cambelt service carried out on Roger’s 2011 TF 135 aka N-series, paint code 288, in Newbury. All went well, no awkward bolts. We’d taken a control arm with us, as it had come up as an advisory on the first MOT, but then on the follow-up test it wasn’t advised on, on inspection it was in good order so Roger said to leave it for now.
Thursday was a busy day, with our first call in Shinfield for minor service, replacement of the slave-cylinder on Simon’s Y reg MGF VVC, in paint code HFF. Good to Simon again, briefly, in between his meetings.
We then went over to Finchampstead for minor service and replacement of the underfloor coolant pipes on Frances’s 2004 TF 135 (paint code MBB). Thanks to his wife for especially baking Jon some muffins!
For the last call of the day we were only another 2 miles along the road to Nick’s house for minor service and check over on his 2004 TF 135 (paint code MBB), the only other things required were some HT leads as his were a bit on the tired side. Nick’s carried out a lot of work himself since buying the car in June. Didn’t get to meet him as he was at work.
Friday morning found us in Andover for work on Paul’s latest acquisition. He’d bought himself another doer upper, a MGF 1.8 mpi in paint code COF. Full cambelt service carried out, alternator belt and a replacement throttle pedal fitted. The throttle cable had been replaced, by the previous owner, with an aftermarket one, but was still stiff as at some point, during its installation, it must have been kinked causing more resistance than is acceptable.
Bit of a delayed start to proceedings as previous owner had fitted awful spline bolts to the engine cover. Eventually removed and subsequently replaced with the correct bolts.
Good to see Paul again, when he came back from work, and have a catch-up, whom we’d last seen when we’d done a load of resto work on his then Abingdon some years ago.
We should have been over in Farnham too, fitting some headlights on Robert’s MGF, but a miscommunication in who was actually buying the lights! Not to worry, we’ve a date booked in when we return for the next part of this trip.
So that brings us to yesterday, Saturday, and we went over to Bramley, near Guildford for work on James’s TF. A 2004 135 (paint code IAU) that we’d last seen five years ago for quite an extensive list of work.
Full cambelt service carried out for him this time. Shame not to see James as he was working, but we met and had an interesting chat with his good friend Tom. It was nice to see the car again, which is still in fab condition.
We stayed over in Newbury for 3 nights and were in Fleet last night. Two very good lodgings.
Heading back up the M1 now with a call in to the workshop to swap vans, as the ‘interim’ van we’ve been using developed a problem with the duel-mass flywheel as we set off for this trip, so we’ve limped it along. Its served us extremely well so it will be booked in to have that replaced. It’s the first problem it’s had in the 25,000 miles (once around the world) we’ve done in it about 6 months!
Our regular van is sorted, but we didn’t want to use it straight away on a big trip like this, we’ll just run it about ‘locally’ for a while.
Had an earlyish finish one day we so being nearby we visited ‘Downton Abbey’. Jon’s leg has been bearing up fairly well considering. – https://ift.tt/SDfNLWU
