MOGBLOG - I'm off to a new Human Owner!

[Gordi Smith]

MOGBLOG

8th August 2016

Finally! I get out into the fresh air after months in that horrible dark barn with the nasty pigeons and not-so-lovely horse poo aromas.
The owner guy drove me down to that garage servicing place in Glasgow for my MOT test thingummy. (Doesn't MOT meant "Moggies On Tour" or something?)
Anyway, it seems that I did quite well on the test with a good Pass and no bad comments at all.

Later on in the day a different guy came to pick me up... I think it was the same big Scottish guy who was poking around me the other day?
(I wouldn't mind, but he didn't even phone me, send me flowers or anything...)

Anyway, it turned out to be a bit scary because he didn't seem to be very familiar with my little "quirks", and getting through Glasgow city centre onto the M8 motorway can be a bit..... fraught at the best of times.
My "lovely" high and switch-like clutch biting point, and the bus-ride distances that my gear lever likes to travel between engaging gears may have unsettled the poor fella as the buses and lorries bore down on us.
Ahhh there's nothing like the crunch of a gear or the kangaroo style bounce away from the traffic lights to get your oil flowing in the morning.

Of course the real fun began as we approached our first junction at the bottom of a rather steep hill...
I think that he must recently have had a nasty experience of sitting on cutlery or something, because I'm sure that I heard him whisper something about "Forks Ache"?? as he stomped on my brake pedal.
I remember making note of the bemused look of panic on his face as he glanced over to his left, looking for a non-existent nearside wing mirror, before almost giving himself whiplash as he had to spin his head quickly around to see what was at his rear quarter.

Pretty soon though, we made it onto the motorway and the big guy seemed to relax a wee bit. I'd never been on this stretch of road before but it was BIG and WIDE and we tentatively made it all the way up to 55mph before the inevitable roadworks brought us back to 50.
I took the liberty of glancing at his face again, and this time he had a huge weird grin there? A mixture of relief and nostalgia perhaps? Or maybe he was just regretting eating that kebab for lunch...

Well, 20 minutes later after a short and uneventful drive we came to a stop in a lovely wee rural Scottish village where I instantly felt at home as my new human's 2 boys came running out cheering and smiling at me!

I think this is going to work out just fine...

[amgrave]

It's good to hear from a fellow Moggy for a change instead of all those so called owners, all they do on here is moan and criticize when we don't want to play ball with them and asking advice about how to change our bits. Have you been christened, my names Veebee by the way at the other end of the road network to you in Kent. My "owner" has not realised yet that I actually own him but he will learn in time. He had a similar strange look on his face when trying to get to grips with my controls but that has now changed to a stupid grin most of the time. He did the same thing yours did, kept looking over to the left then over the shoulder but he wised up and got a couple of door mirrors and he seems a lot happier now as his neck is healing up nicely. Will be good to hear from you again some time and others if they can get on the keyboard without the "owners" knowledge

[Gordi Smith]

It's good to hear from a fellow Moggy for a change instead of all those so called owners, all they do on here is moan and criticize when we don't want to play ball with them and asking advice about how to change our bits. Have you been christened, my names Veebee by the way at the other end of the road network to you in Kent. My "owner" has not realised yet that I actually own him but he will learn in time. He had a similar strange look on his face when trying to get to grips with my controls but that has now changed to a stupid grin most of the time. He did the same thing yours did, kept looking over to the left then over the shoulder but he wised up and got a couple of door mirrors and he seems a lot happier now as his neck is healing up nicely. Will be good to hear from you again some time and others if they can get on the keyboard without the "owners" knowledge

Hey Veeb!
My new human keeps calling me "Tiddles" for some reason? (Pet name for a moggie cat maybe?)
My real name is apparently "Tiddley Bertie Bob" which comes from his two boys (6 and 10) and wife all disagreeing on what to call me! (Humans Eh!)
I will maybe include the naming thing in a future blog post!
Nice to meet you too.
T

[Gordi Smith]

9th August 2016

Ohhh YEAH!!!!
My new human has got his two boys to help get rid of all of that horrible farmyard barn detritis from my paintwork!!!!
GOODBYE PIGEON POO!!! Hello sleek... shiny... uhm.... dull....flat... green... well... at least it's paint.

Another quick drive (around the village this time) and the big fella is making notes on a little pad and muttering lots of stuff under his breath?
What does he mean hoses and wiring?? Leaks???? what leaks?? Electrics? Fillers and Paint??? Leave my Exhaust alone you maniac!!!
Who does this guy think he is??? I'm too young for surgery!! HELP!!!

No, hang on... he's fiddled with my exhaust and I now realise that, well... I may have been... making somewhat more "windy" noises than is appropriate and acceptable in these modern times.
Talk about embarrasing...
Oh my.... he's rubbing my front wing now and I have to say it's a not unpleasant experience. The only trouble is that he seems to have exposed some.... erm... "extra ventilation" holes that I may have aquired over the years in the barn.
He's stuffed some white goo in there and it's gone hard, and now he's rubbing at it again... This guy's definitely a weirdo. He's doing it AGAIN!!! Seriously??
Hang on.... it's a bit different this time, it feels like he's spraying something on there now..... oooohh yeah... I like this much better, but now he's mumping and moaning about "paint-codes" and stuff? Something about non-standard?? Hey!!! I'm a One-Off. Unique in my own special way.
I'm guessing that he'll have to find a local paint store who can mix up a batch of paint to match my lovely faded (non-standard) green colour before he goes messing too much with the rest of my.... ventilation features! Serves him right too.

Apparently, at my age... it's not uncommon for slight.... erm... fluid leaks to happen, and this was one of the things my human had noticed on our little drive around earlier.
Seems that I am in line for a new Rad Top Hose (whatever that is?) a set of plugs (because I have supposedly been "leaking" directly onto them) and he is going to try and find the source of an unpleasant odour! (Fuel)
In fairness, he did pat me on the roof today, so he's not all bad...

[Gordi Smith]

11th August 2016

We're still waiting for some parts to arrive, but my human decided to get on with trying to freshen up my smile, since my grille had been showing signs of well... rust coloured staining. (I swear that I've never smoked...THAT much! )
But, a quick coat of a nice ivory-cream coloured paint and he reckons that my smile is lookin' pretty good (for an old fella my age...) especially since he did the teeth whitening bit outside between rain showers!




13th August 2016

I've not been out for a few days. My human didn't want to drive me around with all these random fluid leaks but my new top hose arrived this morning and he's fitted it, so I can get running again and he can now look closer for the fuel leak.
It's not easy being this age, with stuff leaking everywhere and the list of "jobs to do" on his little notepad seems to be getting bigger instead of smaller?

My new set of spark plugs arrived today too, and I heard the big guy talking about how "cheap" my bits were. Cheeky bugger.

Success! A slightly loose jubilee clip on my fuel pump was letting a tiny and occasional drip of fuel leak out, but it was a bit of a worry because of the strong smell (and the fact that they built me with a red hot manifold sitting directly under the carb/fuel line! Ahem!)
So, the fuel leak is now sorted, a new set of plugs has been gapped and fitted... and we've been out for a very short test drive... woohooo!



15th August 2016

Oooooh! I got to go and see where my human works today. He makes signs and cut-vinyl graphics, decals and stuff in a little office.
Everyone there seemed to like me very much... lots of them saying that they used to know someone who looked just like me, which was nice.
I think that I may have upset the big guy a wee bit on the way home though.
When he started me up I was misfiring a tiny bit... (I blame lunch and my being nervous about meeting all these new people) and I even had a backfire or two...

Pulling over for a few seconds seems to have cleared it up so far.... but I think I may have caused one early birth, two heart attacks and the local armed police unit to arrive en-masse in a helicopter, looking for a hidden "shooter".

My human has since noticed that there may be a slight leak at the exhaust manifold and is going to "tighten my nuts"??? What did I ever do to him??

He's also wondering if the little spring which runs up to the throttle cable from my exhaust clamp has been disturbed during the exhaust tweaking as it's sitting at a funny angle. I never felt a thing.
2 minutes later and my nuts are tight and the throttle spring mount has been adjusted, so it's off out for another short test drive...

Good news! All is well, and no further.... "tummy troubles" to report. The big fella reckons it must have been the leak at the manifold? but it is all still a bit confusing for him (well, he is very new to all this...).

[Gordi Smith]

17th August 2016

He's been scrubbing my interior now!!
He's cleaned all of my little private cubby holes and stuff, binned all of the rubbish, found a cute little brass plaque which suggests that I may have been a "show-car" (well, I was a bit of an exhibitionist!) a while back, & he's swept and vacuumed all of my carpets for good measure too!
Am I looking HOT or What??





Never happy.... the big guy has now discovered that (despite being GORGEOUS!) my Red Interior was never fitted to a Green car... this news kind of confirms his earlier suspicion about my non-standard exterior color!
But the smile returned to his ugly fizzog when someone remarked that driving me must feel like Christmas every day... because of the Green and Red Christmassy colour scheme!


I think he's planning on using the creamy tooth whitener on my wheels next!!!
He says the colour will look great against my fresh green paint.... IF he ever gets round to finding the right colour match that is...
What's wrong with my nice green shoes I say?? huh??

We went out for a longer drive tonight, to make sure my tummy troubles were behind me, and to test that all of the recent tweaks to my hoses etc were all OK...
I have to say, I've never seen him smile so much.
Apparently he's pleasantly surprised at how "eager" I am, and I've had no trouble at all keeping up with the inferior modern cars on the winding country roads up here.

One tiny teeny teensy weensy wee thing.... my horn has stopped working...
Oh, and he's noticed that when he switches my wipers on... my heater fan stops working until he turns the wipers off again. (He thinks that I just do it to annoy him!)
It's just another one of my quirky "features" I tell you!


I think his list is still getting longer.....

[Gordi Smith]

18th August 2016

It was raining today and the big guy has noticed that my windscreen rubber has a wee tiny leak... (he didn't realise that I was just crying because of the results at the Olympics! - I overheard the TV commentator say that Britain had got all of the "Minor" Medals! Brilliant!!)
I think my human is a little upset because my insides were seemingly dry as a bone... but of course.... I have lived in a big barn for many months without being out in the rain.... so...
He's been peering at my rubbers most of the day... keeps swithering between trying to apply a very thin line of transparent silicone or just bite the bullet and order new rubbers and trim?
He's never fitted windscreen rubbers like mine before, and thinks he'd probably have to buy the fitting kit tools too... hmm... would the brand new chrome strip and rubber look a wee bit out of place?
I think he's going to sleep on it, as he's moved on to trying to find out why my horn stopped working...

Rain has stopped play. He got soaked before managing to fix my horn. Poor guy looks miserable, and his "To Do" list still isn't getting any shorter...


21st August 2016

He's still not decided what to do about my screen rubber, and he seemed a bit ill-at-ease when he came home from work today, so I coaxed him out for a wee drive and what do you know but didn't we bump into his old pal Davie!
Now, Davie had seen my photo on the Facebonk thingummyjig and was apparently a wee bit jealous, because unbeknownst to the big man, Davie had been thinking about getting a classic like me for a while now.
The two of them used to pal about when they were younger and they giggled like teenagers for the whole time that they took a wee "run" down memory lane on the country roads around here.
Both of them seem to agree that I'd bring a smile to anyone's face, despite my many.... quirks & foibles!


22nd August 2016

The big fella came home from work early and, since the weather was quite dry, set about trying to trace the fault in my horn...
His jaw hit the floor when he traced my horn wire back to the little fuse box, only to see that BOTH of the fuses there had been doctored with a length of copper wire jammed INSIDE the glass fuse casing!!!
He is not a happy bunny! but luckily had replacement fuses to hand! (Unfortunately this did not fix my horn, but at least my fuses are now a bit safer!)

A fine bit of detective work later and my pet human has traced the horn issue... It's just a bad connection on one of my horn wires, up near or at the fusebox itself.
It's working again just now, but the big guy thinks that he'll have to replace that wire and clean up the fusebox connections pretty soon to stop it from happening again.

Hang on.... I think that's one thing onto the list (Fuses), and TWO things OFF of the list!! (Fuses and Horn) So... his list is actually SMALLER today!!!!
Finally, an excuse for the big man to break out the Aberlour Single Malt for a wee Dram before bed!



Cheers!

[samuria]

this stuff is great for leaks etc ...
i used it for mine and no leaks since.
there was a post about this but i did not find it
got mine from a boat yard and cheaper than ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... r&_sacat=0

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Captain-Tolle ... TBYwzI7i-A

[irmscher]

I didn't realise you had a creeping crack Les .A very nice car Gordi

[Gordi Smith]

this stuff is great for leaks etc ...
i used it for mine and no leaks since.
there was a post about this but i did not find it
got mine from a boat yard and cheaper than ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... r&_sacat=0

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Captain-Tolle ... TBYwzI7i-A

Now THAT looks like a GREAT idea!
Thanks very much samuria, I shall order some on Tiddles behalf...

cheers,
Gordi

[panky]

I can recommend it too, great stuff but you need to re-apply every few months as it eventually gets washed out.

[Gordi Smith]

I didn't realise you had a creeping crack Les .A very nice car Gordi

Thanks irmscher,
The interior is superb, but the outside still needs a fair bit of TLC... and filler... and paint.... and....
But we're getting there!

(And thoroughly enjoying it too!)

cheers,
Gordi

(PS - I think he put Cap'n Tolley in his crack, so it should be a lot better now? ahem...)

[Gordi Smith]

I can recommend it too, great stuff but you need to re-apply every few months as it eventually gets washed out.

ooops, I nearly missed your post as I was replying to a previous one when it popped in!

Hi panky,
Thanks for that - well worth knowing. Doesn't seem like too much bother, once every few months?
I think I'll give it a try.

cheers!
G

[panky]

Yes it looks like milk and disappears under the seal, after a few applications it seals up very well. My traveller was letting a fair bit of rain but Captain Tollies cured it

[SteveClem]

It cured my leaking (house) radiator joint too. Useful stuff.

[Gordi Smith]

Excellent!
Thanks guys,
G

[Gordi Smith]

29th August 2016

"Oops, I did it again..."
Nope, not Britney... my tummy troubles and misfire are back!
The big guy is looking bemused, he thought he'd fixed that one.

He's checked on the forums and narrowed it down to about 20 possible causes.... I think "aarrggh!" was the word he used?

There doesn't appear to be any leak at the exhaust manifold now.
He's removed my aftermarket fuel filter completely, and checked that the fuel pump is working well.
He's checked that the choke cable works and returns ok.
He's put my old spark plugs back in (just in case the new ones weren't up to scratch).
He's checked the distributor cap (25D), which looks ok (no cracks or damage), and that the points are operating and correctly gapped.
All of the wires & connectors seem to be in place and solid.
He's even had a go at sucking on my little black vacuum pipe! OOER!
He mumbled that the little spring on the dizzy baseplate moved.... but only by a couple of mm... but he's not sure if it should move more than that when being sucked??
He's removed most of the wires on the ignition components (one by one) to clean their contacts, but they too looked ok.
He's cleaned the exterior of the coil which was a little bit grimy.

I think I heard him say that he's going to start replacing my "bits" one by one next...
Does anyone know if this hurts?? I think I could live with my tummy troubles and the odd back-parp! But I don't think the big guy can.

Oh, I forgot to say that, before my tummy troubles returned, the big fella fixed a small leak that had allowed water to get past my windscreen rubber!
He used Captain Tolleys creeping crack stuff!!! As recommended by fellow MMOC members (thanks guys!)
He also started to paint my wheels a nice creamy white colour.
He's done the drivers side ones so far, but he keeps walking from one side of me to the other and back again trying to make up his mind if he likes them better creamy or green!
Only time will tell!

[Gordi Smith]

31st August 2016

What a day!
The big guy had a day off work and some service parts arrived in the post, so he set about fault-finding my "tummy troubles".

The LT wires checked out OK.
Dizzy seemed nice and clean, with nothing loose or showing obvious signs of anything wrong, so he started replacing my ignition bits 1 by 1...

He said he was going to do the "simple" things first but I haven't seen his wife all morning so I don't know what he's on about?
Anyway... on to sorting out my bits...
First off, the Rotor Arm was replaced - Made no difference. I was still misfiring badly and threatening to backfire at any moment.
Next up, the Condenser - and.... HUGE difference! Misfire completely gone, no backfiring at all.
Quick test drive and all seems well (maybe just a very slight "miss" but MUCH better than before. (The big guy thinks he might need to re-adjust the mixture and timing again now that the misfire issue is sorted.)

So - it was a simple little condenser causing all that fuss.

My new Stainless Steel Exhaust system arrived today too!
And since the Misfire issue was all but resolved now, the big fella decided to crack on with that job too.
(The old exhaust was rusted through and had been patched at some point, it was also buzzing against the bulkhead.... so time for it to go!)

The big guy was moaning about how difficult it was to remove the old (one-piece) exhaust without a proper Ramp or Pit, but the new 3-piece one went on quite easily and no longer buzzes against my underparts! FANTASTIC!

I am now running smoother, and quieter than before and my human has got his weird grin back!

Job Done.

[panky]

He's so kind

[Gordi Smith]

1st September 2016

Well, the big guy's been busy again... and he's finished painting my wheels a snazzy creamy white colour.



It's a little bit rough'n'ready, but I think I like my new look.

We've also been out for a longer test drive today and, though I'm not quite in Tip-Top condition, I'm definitely performing better than before, so I'm hopeful that it just requires a small tweak here and there to properly sort me out!

Only time will tell.