Aston Martin Rust Oration

Another fun weekend on the farm. But stupidly I forgot to take some photos of the work I was doing… so close your eyes and imagine.

Well no, don’t close your eyes until after reading the blog.

Friday evening I stopped off to see a friend who has a lovely old Aston in his garage – and found a DB9 Volante in the lane outside. DB9 far too cramped for my taste – I like the grand tourer comfort and style of the V8.

I spent most of Saturday under the parts car in the barn, as I need parts of the handbrake and brackets for ROJ. Foul job. After the Barn flooded last time there is all sorts of … well you really don’t want to know what’s under the car now. In the end I didn’t get the bracket off and will need to drill out a bolt next time I’m up.

Saturday evening usual pilgrimage to Ye Three Fishes in Turvey for a steak and stilton – cooked to perfection – bled all over the plate the moment I cut into it.

Sunday I spent riveting the bulkhead panel behind the dashboard into place and bolting on the fuel filter bracket. I also riveted the headlight cowl retaining ring back into place on the side of the car that Billy repaired for me.

The rear shocks came off again as I will replace the oil in them (EP90 is apparantly recommended) and refit those next time round.

My tool of the month is a 24 inch breaker bar from Halfords. I could have done with lt years ago for taking apart ROJ – but it works a treat on the spares car.

Only one more weekend to play before Christmas…..

I do apologise for the complete absence of the blog over the last couple of days (I hope you enjoyed the photos of Nigel on the error page – I’d been trying to find an excuse to post those for a while).

There was a vulnerability in the blog software and someone had hoped to exploit the bug to send emails, though fortunately all they did was break the blog.

I’d like to make it clear that MI5 were in no way responsible for causing the disruption. It was the Finnish security services.

Malcolm

I had forgotten that this weekend was bonfire night…

I got up to the farm to find a HUGE bonfire being prepared (it was the best yet), and Saturday night we had a BBQ, bonfire and fireworks – Karen brought one with a price tag of £99.99, and boy was it spectacular! It was very civilised sitting round the fire drinking beer and watching the pyrotechnics.

Either side of the fireworks I spent the time in the garage happily bolting bits together.

I debated replacing the original lever-arm rear shock absorbers with new Konis, but decided the car would not be driven really hard enough to justify the handling kit – so the old shocks went back on (they still need painting).

Of course the lovely shiny new brake servos were a joy to fit.

Having stripped down and cleaned the brake calipers I painted them with special caliper paint. This was a mistake. They now look horrible. What was supposed to be gold paint turned out to be a sludgy brownish gold – thank goodness they are inbound brakes where they won’t be seen. The paint was awful to use too.

One of the reasons brakes sieze up is a build up of rust/dirt behind the rubber seals. This pushes them outwards so that they tightly grip the pistons. The grooves in which the seals sit have to be cleaned out carefully – a fiddly job requiring the use of dental tools.

I shall not fit the new seals and stainless steel pistons until just before the calipers are fitted to the car, I don’t want them seizing up in the meantime.

Well I missed my deadline of the rear wheels being on by autumn – but I’m getting there.