MoT at last

Following the problem with the used wing mirror I bought a new third party one.  For some loony reason it didn’t come with a mirror glass, but fortunately I could use the old one.  After a great deal of pain I managed to screw it on and re-fit the door panel and now I have an MoT. I mentioned the concern other places had had about the exhaust fault to the MoT people and they were most dismissive.  I think

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Malcolm Mitchell 44xx kit

For my forthcoming model of Princetown station I need a GWR 44xx Class locomotive as these were practically the only type used on the line.  Unfortunately, since only 11 of the prototype were ever made, model options are limited.  So far as I can discover, no ready to run models have been made but several manufacturers have made kits over the years.  Unfortunately, all of the kits are currently out of production. The Malcolm Mitchell kit seems to be particularly

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A tale of an exhaust

This morning I took my Golf round to the tyre and exhaust place I normally use on Churchfields. I showed them the MoT failure certificate and asked them to fix the problem. First they went into huddle round the certificate as if there was something they didn’t understand. Then they put my car up on the ramp and for about 15 minutes a succession of people came and stared at the certificate and then peered at the car with the

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Gad, I hate working on car interiors

What I pain I have had trying to change my wing mirror.  My trusty Haynes manual says that first you must remove the passenger door panel.  Sadly, it doesn’t contain photos related to the passenger door, only the driver’s and rear doors.  However, the instruction and almost the same for both front doors.  So, it started by basically following the photos for the driver door and didn’t get anywhere.  I levered so hard I nearly snapped some of the plastic

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Rapid delivery

Good God, the wing mirror is here already and it’s come all the way from Edinburgh to Salisbury with free delivery.  So far I am impressed by SCB Vehicle Dismantlers.  The mirror seems to be in reasonable condition and was well packed.  There is even a sticker on it with the registration number of the vehicle it was removed from.

Finding a wing mirror

Following the Golf’s MoT failure I have been hunting for an inexpensive replacement wing mirror.  It looks like new ones are jolly expensive, but I have found a used one on eBay for £25 with free & fast delivery.  It is plain black whereas the current one matched the blue of the car, but I don’t intend to worry about that!

MoT troubles

Today I took the Golf in for its annual MoT and sadly it failed.  Firstly, the indicator repeater light on the near side wing mirror isn’t working.  This isn’t totally surprising as that wing mirror has been hit several times and has a big hole in the casing.  The other problem is apparently a leak in the exhaust.  I thought that it might have been sounding a bit different recently, but certainly not as loud as the failure note makes

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What Chekhov said

Нет того урода, который не нашел бы себе пары, и нет той чепухи, которая не нашла бы себе подходящего читателя. There is no such freak that would not find his match and there is no such rot that would not find itself a matching reader.