Had my first drive and outing today, 27th August 2006, to Knebworth Classic Car Show.

No surprise, I cried my heart out today when my Little Mo drove away with her new owner.  It was a very hard decision to make, one not taken at all lightly, but I think we made the right choice.  It isn't right to keep a car like that in a garage for six months so all I can do is wish Paul all the very best with his new 'partner'.  It was his birthday today, so Little Mo was a birthday present to himself.  Hopefully, you will all let me know when she is spotted and how she is doing!

So there endeth another era in my life.  I am now looking at my nice black Mazda MX-5 on the drive, still not at all sensible for me but she has doors! 1.6 ltr, 16 valve, 110 bhp, 0-62 in 9.7 seconds, top speed 119 mph and enough room to at least do the week's food shop and of course I will still have my collection of handbags to travel with me. 

Having parted a little reluctantly with the Marlin, I set off for the October meet saying to John: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if someone is selling their car at the meeting today’.  Well, true to my usual ‘talking up of things’ when Mario drove up he told me his car was up for sale.  So, with the agreement of John, we bought the car and it arrived the next weekend.  Mario and his brother had built the car so he must have been a little sad to part with it.

John being John, felt that it was in my best interests to have a good look at the car.  I had already decided that I wanted to replace the low back seats with Cobra Roadster seats, from both the safety issue, driving support and also looks. 

The following is a rather long list of things that needed sorting, no offence Mario!

Removed throttle pedal and mounting, repositioned to give clearance to brake pedal also set to rest lower than brake

Fuel pipe: nearly cut through – replaced

Spark plugs: no clearance – adjusted

Carburettor worn out – replaced with John’s DGAV

Rear brakes: cylinder leaking, shoes damaged – replaced

Made up washers for handbrake cable and set adjustment

No ignition key: - removed broken steering lock and fitted Lucas type ignition switch

Rear shock absorbers incorrectly fitted – removed rebuilt with new bushes and refitted

Speedo cable broken – cut hole in side of transmission tunnel to enable new cable to be fitted

Tightened front suspension, repositioned flexi hoses, fitted anti rattle springs correctly drilled out front strut mounting bolt and fitted correct size one!

Made up and fitted plates to floor and rear wheel arches to cover holes in floor.

Re-mounted spare wheel stud using a spreader to stop rear panel flexing

Removed and shortened rear number plate mounting to fit flush with spare wheel

Fitted new yellow gear knob, gaiter and hand brake gaiter

Fitted battery master switch

Fitted radiator cap – old one was not sealing rad

Still lots to do but it is now drivable

After a good clean and polish the car is looking very nice.

Disaster ! after a few miles of Helen's hard driving the clutch failed it was dragging so much that it was almost impossible to select gear.

That evening out came the engine a new clutch assembly fitted while the engine was out the cambelt &viscous fan assembly were replaced oil and filter changed and the engine bay tidied up.

Also when helen filled up with fuel there was a terrible smell of petrol caused by the tank sender seal leaking, A new seal was made up and fitted .

The doors are now on and it feels like a different car it drives really well we now feel like it is getting there.

Using a little bit of thought managed to make a handbrake gaiter out of a gear lever gaiter so they both match.  I love the leather yellow gear knob and yellow surround to the dials.  The seats look so smart with the yellow piping.

The smile says it all!!

9/11/03 doors fitted

Next job was to replace all the interior vinyl in black, A new dash panel was made up in plywood as were the two side panels. Helen also had some money for christmas so she treated the car to a new set of 5 michelin energy tyres I managed to get these for a good price and fitted and balanced them myself, I was suprised to find that 3 of the old tyres had inner tubes fitted !!!! we also went from an 80 profile to a much better looking 70.