Corby Glen Sheep Fair

Just back from a cracking day at the Summer Fair at a village a couple of miles away.   Weather was perfect, lots to do, eat and see.   I not only took my car but also persuaded 5 other members of the Club to come as well.   We joined about 40 other 'classic' cars (up from 7 last year) and as usual ours generated lots of interest and chatting.   Hardly stopped talking for 6 hours.

A lovely collection

Including a very long serving member who has had to sell his Robin Hood but has treated himself to a Mazda MX5.

Finale was a fly past by the Battle of Britain Dakota, who flew exactly over my car.

Already looking forward to next year.

Should I replace exhaust mounting ?

Having raised the front ride height (see here) and fitted a sump guard (see here) I have had no problem with grounding the front.   So moving onto the next culprit, I find the rear exhaust mount occasionally grounds, particularly on speed bumps.  If I have a passenger in then it grounds every few hundred yards, particularly going round right hand turns. 

The problem is that the bracket is a 1" piece of angle iron.  This is incredibly strong and as you can see from the picture has suffered no lasting damage as a result of the multiple groundings.

 On the face of it the solution is simple, just replace the angle iron with a piece of 5mm steel plate.  That would increase the ground clearance by 3/4" and probably prevent any further grounding.

However, there is a downside.  If that was carried out the next part that is closest to the ground is the bottom of the handbrake mechanism which protrudes almost an inch below the bottom of the car floor.    And if that grounded there would be major consequences and subsequent repairs.

So the question is:   Should I leave the angle iron as a protection measure for the handbrake and accept the grounding, or should I replace it to stop the grounding with the risk that if ever I did hit a substantial bump in the road I might damage the handbrake mechanism ?

On balance, particularly as the angle iron does more damage to the speed bumps and none at all to the car when it grounds, I am tempted to leave things alone.   Watch this space.

Repair Exhaust - Again

Eventually got round to fixing the exhaust blowing. 

First thing was to remove all the crud from the 2 pipes.
  
Then an exhaust bandage and plenty of Gun Gum.  

And this time I have used a solid piece of steel rather than a Baked Bean can as the final cover in the hope that it will provide the joint with much more support which, in conjunction with the new rubber mount on the back of the exhaust, means I might not have to do it again for some time.  

Only time will tell.    

And then I remounted the heat shield, this time with 3 self tapping screws, fully tightened so it is properly anchored.  I hope :-)

Rear view Mirror - revisited

When I lost the original rearview mirror I am convinced I looked absolutely everywhere in the car to find it.   But recently, whilst helping someone strap into the passenger seat I saw it had slipped down into the small gap between the seat and the bodywork.

So I put it back on the windscreen, intending to remove the new extending one.   

But when I took it for a ride I actually found it was quite useful.  The original one is very solid and does not vibrate but has the drawback that it is very wide-angle.  So you only see another car when they are right behind you.  The other mirror is has a narrow field-of-view so you can see individual cars from some distance away.

So it makes sense to keep both, although I keep having to explain the reason to interested onloookers.