The Assessor Cometh

So, the insurance man came to see the Fury. I chuckle at this sort of thing. The total bill for the repairs is less than £1500, so the absolute most he can save the insurance Co. is £1400 (excess is £100) less the cost of his visit, say £100/hr x 3 hrs, so max possible saving = £1100. The recovery is a fixed cost, as is the radiator, the engine mount & while the bonnet could theoretically be repaired, it’s far cheaper to buy a new one, so that’s a fixed cost too. There is no labour to negotiate as I’ll be doing the work myself, so the interests of reducing the cost to the insurance Co. are best served by not sending an assessor & thereby saving his fee are they not?

Whatever.

He seemed happy enough that there had been a crash & my list of replacements parts was reasonable, so now I'm waiting for the word to proceed. The new rad has arrived & been fitted, hopefully the bonnet lead time won’t be too long, I’ll need a number plate – toying with the idea of a square one offset to the passenger side & there’s a club run  this evening, so hopefully, I’ll finish that without incident.

Initially I had little enthusiasm for putting the car to rights, but – keenness returned & I felt the need to get back out in the garage, especially after I saw Mrs Blatter writing out a “jobs to do” list, only one of which was something for her (I expect that’s because she does all her jobs so efficiently, she has no need to write them down). So normal blatting service should be resumed soon.

Hurrah!

Last weekend (as well as completing one of Mrs Blatter’s listed jobs) I mechanically repaired the car – this time the fan is on the back of the radiator, I also improved a couple of parts that were looking a little the worse for wear after the road trip. The rear alternator mount had snapped – I thought at first this was metal fatigue, but on taking it apart, I found that the spacer tube between front & rear mounts had pushed into the front mount of the alternator making it too short, & over-stressing the rear mount. So it’s re-made & this time there’re two much shorter bolts & no spacer, so lighter as well as better.

I also made up a brace for the idler pulley. I really wasn’t convinced what I’d done before was stiff enough, so the new brace cures that & makes the rear brace, the stiffener & the bracket to hold the cam-belt cover away from the alternator belt redundant. As it was dry on Saturday, I glassed the bonnet back together so it can be used while I’m waiting for the new parts to arrive, it looks “a bit rough” but the sharp edges are taped over, so it shouldn’t grate any passers by.