Been Away

 Not much to report on the car front I'm afraid, I've been to Scotland in the Cactus - the THIRD time it's been there this year. This time I just set the cruise control for 55 & sat in the slow lane with the lorries. I find I don't have to concentrate full on & so don't get so tired, so don't need to stop as much. Also, the Cactus does an astonishing 100mpg at that speed on the flat! When I used to go to Scotland in the 80s it cost MORE in petrol than is does now in diesel & Petrol was £1 / gallon.

The point of going was to spend some time with my grandson & his family all of whom are lovely. My grandson is just at that stage where he's a bit unsteady on his feet, occasionally smelly & says one or two words at a time - he's 15 (no he not, he's twenty months).

On the car front I took the Quantum out on a club blatt & I have to admit it disgraced itself. Coming into a village the engine died, I was still moving so bump started it, then when clear of the village I pushed the clutch - it died again - & again. It was at this point I remembered the tool box was still in the Cactus, so I turned for home, keeping the revs up at each junction. When I got home, I eased off the throttle & the engine idled at about 400, I opened the bonnet & the Idle Speed Control Valve connector was dangling by its wires, I plugged it back in, the revs climbed to 800 & that was it fixed - I could've stopped & fixed it at any time (sigh).

Work on the Stylus continues only slowly, I'm not spending any money on the cars this month as I rather over did it last month, but I've taken the master switch off & moved it both electrically & geographically, so it's now tucked under a front wing & in the live wire rather than an earth. I've ordered a resistor for it, so it'll all work properly & also ordered some red heat shrink & re-used the earth wires it was connected to before.

The other thing that's happened is the passenger seat has gone off to an upholsterer of my nephew's acquaintance to have seat pads made. They'll be like the ones in the Fury that are easy to remove & easy to remove the foam from, so if they get wet they're easy to dry ready for the next day. Unlike the Fury they'll be curvy & diamond stitched to make the seat look a little more "late '60s" like the styling of the car. They're costing a lot of money so I'm hoping they turn out well.