Aston Martin Rust Oration

The weather was perfect. Cobalt skies, diamantine sun, pristine pistes. My heart sang.

A full six days skiing, bliss.

Slightly sobering were the number of accidents on the slopes - why is it that some people just don’t realise what a dangerous sport skiing can be. On the first day, without any warm up or stretching, one of our group rushed up to the top of St Jakob black run and snapped a tendon on the way down! There were also some very nasty head injuries during the week - I’m so glad I did a first aid course. In all the years I’ve been skiing I’ve never seen so many blood spills on the snow.

The best bit, off the slopes, was the evening of ice go-karting. I just have to imagine myself in the race scene from On her Majesty’s Secret Service everytime I get behind that wheel.

Second best bit was chatting up the stunning East German girl in the sauna…. If I ever take ROJ I might just get somewhere.

US President George W Bush said the news should mark the beginning of a transition towards democracy for Cuba.

“And we’re going to help. The United States will help the people of Cuba realise the blessings of liberty.”

God help the Cubans!…

Guido Fawkes with a finger on the pulse, has pointed out that MPs are more likly to commit fraud than benefits claimants..
http://www.order-order.com/2008/02/mps-are-four-times-more-likely-to.html

And check out which MPs have been put forward to investigate! http://www.order-order.com/2008/02/three-mps-to-investigate-mps-expenses.html

Now that’s going to be an interesting lyric to work into the title song…

Fantastic! I am delighted that the producers can still draw on original Fleming work for the Bond films - and he’s still driving his DBS.

I am a life long fan of Bond in literature and cheer every time a film is able to follow the original stories. My favourites still remain From Russia With Love and OHMSS - but young Daniel Craig is creeping very close.

Last night I spent the evening researching my flights to Salzburg in Austria for a week skiing next month.

All of the so called ‘cheap flights’ left from Stansted at silly times of day and night - then charged extra for check-in, for luggage, for taxes and for letting you stand in a queue to board the plane! (I bet they have coin slots on the toilet doors on the aircraft). On average the return fare worked out at about £320.

Changing tack I decided to check out flights to Munich and found a Lufthansa return flight from Heathrow (so much easier to get to) at very sensible times of departure for £182 inclusive of everthing. And it will only cost me an extra ten Euro to get to my hotel in the Tyrol than it would from Salzburg. What a bargain!

Some of the scenes in The Living Daylights with James Bond in his Aston Martin V8 were filmed around the Tyrol - and some of the places I visited in Morocco were also used as locations in the film. Cool.

Popped up for a quick weekend on the farm with only one job in mind - one of the handbrake cable brackets was broken while getting it off ROJ and the spare one was pretty badly corroded. I got a quote from Aston for a new one - £98 plus vat. ‘Sod that’ I thought I’ll repair the one I’ve got - only to discover that I’ve actually got two left hand ones! So I spent a cold cramped weekend in the barn cutting a right hand one off the donor car. (After all, what’s the point of having a donor car if I don’t use it for parts?)

I was damned if I was going to lie on a cold wet floor to drill out the bolts on this very rusty old bracket, so I cut through the old handbrake, cable got inside the car and cut away part of the rotten rear panel to expose the bolt ends and captive nuts. Then using a grind stone in a drill I simply ground them away until with a hammer and punch I knocked the complete bracket out.

And this is what the fuss was all about.

So did I get anything ONTO the car? Well, yes I did. This electrical connector thingy.

A small achievement - but significant in it’s own way!

Aged parent’s birthday and skiing in the Tyrol prevents me doing any more for a while. You never know, a wheel or two may appear on the car in 2008!

I went into town to do the last of my Christmas shopping today - what a nightmare!

Fortnum and Mason’s was heaving so I left in a hurry and cut through Burlington Arcade on the way to the Apple store for a hard drive. As I came out of the arcade I spotted a beautiful white 1978 V8. Got chatting to the owner and discovered that we had been close neighbours for over 10 years when we lived behind Madame Tussaurds - and I had never once spotted his car!

All the very bestNigel

Classic car restoration is most definitely not a winter sport - epecially on the frozen steppes of Befordshire!

Thermal underwear, heavy pullover, woolie hat - and that was just for inside the workshop.

Once again I over-estimated what I would be able to get done in three days.  I did achieve quite a bit- but there are still no wheels on ROJ.

My first job was emptying the sludgy old oil from the rear dampers and refilling with EP90 - a very tedious procedure that involved using a syringe to inject the oil while pumping the lever arm back and forth.

Once filled I put them on the car - but the left hand side damper proved problematic as one of the mounting bracket retaining nuts needed cleaning out and retapping - of course it had to be the most inaccesible - sitting on the cold garage floor has probably given me piles.

Malcolm pointed out on the Oscar India that the Watts linkage bolt is obscured by the diff mounting bar metalastic bush - and this shows in this photo of ROJ’s mounting too.

The second job was to fill the diff with LS oil, and I would have fitted the brake calipers - but decided that the mounting bolts were too badly corroded - will order new ones after Christmas.

Instead I fitted the windscreen wiper motor and attached the mechanism.

 

Next trip up i shall be trying a different approach to fitting the rear running gear. Malcolm attached the axles to the differential then lifted and attached the whole mechanism in one - I shall try to fit the differential first and then attach the axle , Dedion tube and Watts Linkages as a second operation.

The brake pipe I bought via ebay has disappeard into the ether - the seller has a very strange idea of customer service - after having packed the pipe so badly that the accompanying tools bent it, he said - ‘we’ve never had any problems before’.  I don’t care, I have a problem, sort it. So last time I buy from them. Annoying because i now need to order more pipe from elsewhere.

My son Angus came home from Glasgow School of Art this weekend, which has brightened the house up considerably - we had been enjoying the extra space and absence of loud music at all hours, but missed his charming smile and very quick wit. Sadly he is still not interested in helping me rebuild ROJ.

Came across a great blog on classic aircraft the other day - problem was it was in what looked like Swedish - still the photos were spectacular. There was even a video clip of a 747 coming into land at Kai Tak in Hong Kong - an experience I know only too well.

Imagine if you will all those magnificant flying machines and my consternation at suddenly coming across this magazine cover!

 Malcolm - you are not alone!

 It then reminded me to post some photos my friend David took while we were in Marrakech:

Pissed off with Fleabay

I’m cross with myself again. I have had some really good experiences with ebay - and some real stinkers. Well last week I bought a pair of replacement bumpers for Stephanie’s Escort (Both cracked - long story). Delivered by courier on Saturday, and the rear one was the wrong type. So I looked on ebay and there was a rear bumper near Heathrow. Great, cheap too. So I bought that and off we went to collect it. Got stuck in traffic so took 3 hours! Got home to find it was not an original Ford part, and had been modified. Grrr. I now have two rear bumpers that I will have to put back on ebay, while still looking for an original.

A roll of brake pipe and flaring tools looked like a good deal, so I bought that too, but when it arrived the pipe had been crushed by the tools in a rather shoddy package. Sent the pipe back for a replacement - nothing. Seller claims not to have received it.  Double grrrrr.

Oh well I’ve got a couple of days off before Christmas so I hope to get up to the farm for some Aston therapy.

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…..