No Aston Martins this weekend. Instead my friend Mel and her brother John donned their super-hero costumes and came to help us move out of the house - All our worldly goods are now encased in a self storage unit alongside all those other people’s secret lives, wrapped in bubble-wrap.
This weekend gone I was unable to do any work on ROJ as we had too much to do moving boxes into storage - and of course Angus was coming down from Glasgow. But that didn’t stop me getting in an Aston fix while no-one was looking!
My friend David was driving his father-in-law’s Aston in a classic car ‘rally’ around Surrey and needed company, of course he really had to twist my arm!
Stephanie came too and rode in the back - most unlike her, but either testament to the comfort of the car, or David’s driving - she was not car sick at all!
David was the rally’s official photographer, so we kept stopping to take pictures of the other cars.
Such as this beautiful Lagonda:
Or my favourite contender for the ‘Slow Car Club’ - this ultra rare 2CV pick-up:
In the end it was David’s wife Amanda in her orange Beetle who ‘won’ the rally…
It was really great to ride around Surrey thinking, ROJ will be like this one day!
Sheep?
Oh yes, and happily chomping their way through Gary’s vegetable patch.
There was I removing the array of Weber carburetters from the engine
when I heard this roar of dismay from the garden - I emerged to find Gary, John and Malcolm herding up a flock of sheep that had escaped from the field at the top of the farm - shame I wasn’t quick enough dashing back in for my camera - but here’s one of Gary taking them home…
Nostalgic central
Over the past few weeks I have been digitising most of my record collection, so have been listening to music I haven’t heard for years - all those Santana albums I never have time to listen to at home I can now listen to on my Zen, The man is a genius - but even he had a few dud tracks which I can now skip without fear of scratching a precious record.
I am also throwing out piles of cassette tapes - but before doing so I am listening to them one last time and it’s just as well. While I was working on the engine I put a tape on and found it was a recorded letter I sent to my parents from Hong Kong at the time of the Falklands war - I was doing some work for the Military in HMS Tamar, and it was interesting to hear what I had to say, in very guarded terms, about the war and the thoughts of some of the people who were due to join the conflict. Clive B - my Best Man - was one of them. It all seems so very long ago now.
Diff and brakes
Back to the car. Getting the brake calipers onto the diff was a fiddly old business, There are shims to ensure proper clearance between disk and caliper and I had to do the job at least six times each side to get this right. But now they’re done, the brake pipes are all fitted and the diff can go onto the car.
Followed by the rear axle and at least two wheels!