Time flies, doesn't it? Whats been going on? Not much really - major drama before Christmas though. Engine had sounded increasingly "tappy" for a while & in my usual laid-back (indifferent? reckless?) style, I did little about it. Mentioned it in passing to Anns niece who is friends with Paul at Minichanics who services/fixes/indulges my bus. She told him & his considered opinion was it was probably due to the drivers in the queue of traffic behind me tapping on the rear window asking me to hurry up. Mass hilarity ensued apparantly........Thanks Paul.........mind you, these are people who believes that Minis are a form of transport so obviously are in need of major overhauls themselves :-) I really want a Mini too........
Anyway, one day the tapping became a major banging & then failure to start at all. I instantly went into panic mode convinced that a new engine was needed (see prev entries about the panic need for a new gearbox which was eventually fixed with a roll of gaffer tape), I cancelled the road tax, declared bus as SORN and did nothing for 6 weeks until Christmas/New Year was out of the way.
Mid Jan, decided to bite the bullet & get bus trailered to Paul for fixing. Decided to be devious & called CSMA breakdown prepared to lie that "it just wouldn't start today, was fine yesterday, etc ,etc....". Little man turned up, T4 owner as it turned out & we chatted about VWs in general. He was after a new bed for his so gave him details of where I got mine and showed him how it worked. Eventually got round to the tale, he asked me to try starting up & it fired up first time, a bit lumpy but ran ok. His opinion was that the banging was due to dirt in the fuel lines & pointed out that the fuel filter was rather clogged up. Red face for me, but good news. Drove bus to Pauls who replaced filter & fuel lines in engine bay, cleaned fingerprints off rear window and did a general service, plugs, leads, coil etc.......Runs so much better now, who da thunk it.........
Since then, just general pottering about. So Manc meet in Didsbury at end of Feb (a collection of various VW owners in a pub carpark, last Sunday of every month), Demon Dubs meet in Southport mid March (all kinds of VWs that made me realise that 1 is not enough, Project Fastback is underway) , Tatton Park day campout with Ann (my beautiful wife), Stu, Phil and 2 grandkids, red hot day, perfect cruising weather.
Looking forward to time away soon - me & Stu at Shell (suit) Island for a couple of days 2nd week after Easter (his choice, not mine) so get those Saxos & Burberry beanie hats ready - don't want your shaven heads getting cold when you're revving up at 3am. Will definitely be going to a VW show weekend but not sure which one yet. Fancy BugJam at Santa Pod with drag racing too but that might be a bit expensive so close to the proper holiday in August. All Types in North Wales looks favourite mid May. Only a 1 nighter & close to home too.
That's it for now, loads of little jobs to do, leather steering wheel glove needs sewing on, headlining to be stuck back, carpets fitting in cab, a bloody good deep-clean inside too. See you in another 6 months?
