One of the things noticed on the trip to the MOT station was that the fuel gauge seemed to be stuck on full, with the pump starting to suck air on the return to the street.
So before the gales struck, I pulled the tank from the car and made a few changes.
The breather pipe was routed to the filler neck, rather than vented to air at the foot of the tank, the pick-up on the sender unit was blocked off, as I suspect it wasn't reaching the bottom of the tank, and the one on the side of the tank used instead.
Finally the water bottle holder, which had been on upside down, was cut off and replaced by one rescued from a Scimitar GTE, along with the water bottle, as the one fitted was leaking.
These will need painted tomorrow, assuming the wind has dropped.
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After giving the tank a couple of coats of paint, it was fitted back into the car, where a quick trip to the shops was in order.
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One of the advisories at the MOT was to change the tie rod bushes, so at the same time I decided to order up replacement adjustable tie rods and bottom arms. These will need to be fitted later as I have organised a meeting with another Coupé owner next weekend, and won't have time to set them up correctly before the trip.
In order to power/charge various devices in the car, I added a cigar lighter to the car. This was places in a bit of angled pipe to allow the plugs to miss the heater controls.
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One of the things needed to be done, is to paint the car, I made a start by coating the inside of the bonnet, engine bay and engine cover, in black to seal the glass fibre.
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A dry evening on returning from work, allowed the interior of the car to be painted also. On further inspection a few more parts need doing, but the darkness descended before these could be tackled.
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A day out to meet another Scottish Coupé owner was organised, at the Brechin Castle Centre. This was the furthest I have traveling in the car, so I packed a few tools and several rolls of tape, just incase, but the 120 mile round trip turned out to be problem free, and the car sat comfortable on the dual carriageway at 65mph.
Once we arrive, at the centre, it was a short wait for Stevie to appear.
His car is a slightly later 1988 model, but identical is most ways, apart from his being finished in white gel coat which is in good condition, showing how badly my car needs painted. After a coffee we went outside to compare notes and to check out the cars. Stevie's car is well finished with stainless sill covers and a carpeted interior, complete with CD player.
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The last day of the month allows me to swap over the lower arms. The first arm releases no problem,the bushes had perished quite a bit and the crush tube was seized, but I have made sure I had a set of replacement pins ready. The second put up quite a fight, meaning I have to cut the pin in half then cut the tie rod at the subframe to release it. But once out the replacement arms and tie rod were adjusted to the same sizes and fitted.
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As darkness was falling I decided to leave setting the camber/castor to another day. But these should be quite a quick adjustment.
