Diary Page
14/01/02	I have found the company that originally produced the seat covers for DMC back in '81. They have agreed to do the work on my seats, even though they now do aircraft interiors. These should be finished by the end of next week. They will be totally leather with no PVC/Vinyl panels. Brake pads have now been sourced to solve the Hand Brake issue. Rear pads for both hand and foot brake are from a 1979 Jaguar XJS front pads are from 1979 Ford Cortina. Both easily purchased from my local Motor Factor.
20/01/02	At last... today brings success.. I have managed to work out what the issue is with the hand brake, and it's not the pads. The self adjuster mechanism had seized, the pads had worn slightly and were now not making contact with the break disc. With a good soaking of Penetrating oil and a pair of mole grips I was able to free the nut and bolt. I was then able to tighten the adjuster until I could no longer rotate the brake disc, then back it of a half turn. As I need the pads for the driver side (fell apart on removal) I was only able to do the passenger side, however with this side alone I can now hold the car firmly on a hill. Time to book the MOT re-test......
03/01/02	First seat is back from the trim company. VERY, VERY, VERY Happy with the result.
24/02/02	What a month!!!! MOT re-test? Did not happen, on the way to the test centre the Brakes started to get really spongy, to the point where I thought they were not going to work at all. On arrival at the test centre I took a last look around the car only to find the rear drivers side covered in brake fluid. Closer inspection showed a fracture brake pipe.  No point in even trying to pass today.... On getting the car home it was off with the wheel... What a mess the top bolt of the two that hold on the brake calliper had broken the aluminium housing off the rear hub carrier, causing the calliper to rotate and snap the brake line.... NOT GOOD. A quick trip to the boys that did my frame repair, and using their magic built the aluminium back up, re-shaped it drilled and tapped it and its as good as new, probably better. Today saw they whole assembly back on the Car and the car off it's stilts. Monday will see the completion of the drivers seat and the end of the week should see the MOT certificate. Watch this space
28/02/02	That's it... The seats are both done! and back in the car, and looking good I might add. Total price for the total leather recover, No vinyl and labour £300 Leather used was from Jaguar.
02/03/02	It pays to check everything before you buy a replacement!!! Yesterday I decided to try and complete all the little jobs that have been niggling at me since I got the car:-         Oil Pressure sender         Washer only squirting when the wipers were on slow mode         New label set applied         Refit all carpets         Full wash and detailed clean/Tyres Blacked. All bar two jobs were simple, however time consuming. Washer, meant re-wiring the entire switch. This is due to the fact that I replaced the OEM column switches with 1989 Austin Mini switches. Only difference being the OEM has 5 wires and the Mini 6. Slightly different colours so this meant a lot of trial and error, but I got there eventually. The Oil Pressure sender was a different matter. The needle has always pointed skyward since I got the car. My guess was the sender was defunct. Before buying a new one and fitting it I did a full circuit test and found a break in the wire about 12" from the sender. Fixed this and the gauge works perfectly.
16/03/02	At last I finally have a MOT on the car, after a lot of agro.  After failing twice because of the hand brake, the test guys realised that the car was too wide for the rolling road test rollers. therefore the tyre was not effectively griping the rollers to stop them, and failing......... Still it's done now. Tax it on Monday and the open roads wait......
25/04/02	Time flies when your having fun........ I can't believe it's been over a month since I last updated the site!!! I've done so much in the last 4 weeks I'll probably miss some of it off. so here goes.... The biggest challenge was the fact that I moved house, not from one town to another but from one country to another.... Northern Ireland to England. A total of 257 miles. Not that far, but far enough for a car that's only been driven to the MOT station and back. The beauty of Gull wing doors Watching everybody struggle to get out of their cars on the ferry ( as they pack you in real tight ) made me chuckle as I swung open my door and easily got out. The whole journey was quite uneventful with three exceptions Bunch of lads taking photos as they passed me twice on the M6 These car can be dangerous to drive on the Motorways..... Why?? People tend to sit in your blind spot to stare at your car. You have to take a real go look before overtaking, because there's always one sat there!!!! 7 miles from its new home my D showed me a lot of steam in the rear view mirror... 7 miles!! to go. It turned out that the water hose from the pump to the header tank had drooped with heat onto the alternator belt, which in turn rubbed it's way through. Luckily I could cut the offending piece off and re-attach top up with water and get home.

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