Happy 35th Birthday!

According to https://mot-history.net/, the Beast was first used on 22 October 1980.

Happy 35th birthday!

MOT 2015

Oh yes! That's two years in a row with no advisories either. Obviously the buggered LH suspension gaiter, hole in the floor and blown main beam dashboard bulb don't count as a failure?!

Hurrah!

1000 miles in 3 years?!

Pershore Plum Festival 2015

Via Hallow or duel carriageway?

I desperately need to change the gearbox oil before the Pershore Plum Festival show on Bank Holiday Monday. 

It is a long way after all!

Engine Bay Tidy

'Tother day I decided to have a look how hard it might be to clean up my engine bay. Not easy with the engine still there, but I am going to have a go. 

I started off with a rag and some water and found the original Persian Aqua colour! It looks much better clean.

But, I spy a hole in the inner fitch panel. Yikes!

Rust on a fitch panel on a TR7?

Boot Lock

I have a boot lock that was liberated afore the death of MNX500V. 

It has a key too, which is why I want to change the one on the Beast. 

How the chuff to you get at it?

Crunchy Gearbox

Hopefully this little lot will sort out the crunchy gearbox problem ...

Driver's Window

I have eventually done it! It's been buggered since I bought it. Took nearly 2 hours as my sausages are too big and it's stupidly designed. Mr Haynes was his usual useless self. 

From the finished picture, you might notice I have busted a pin off the interior light thing when reinstalling the trim. The cost these things are, it'll be like that for a while.

Here we go ...

Finished, not that you can see from this picture

Rust Cure & Repainting ii

Here is what we did a few weeks ago. Bit of over spray but no more rust. I can't get it to polish out but no more rust. The paint that Halfords mixed does not match but no more rust.

The paint tin I had with the car suggested that the paint used on the respray was HFF. It is the right colour but HFF isn't a metallic paint. 

I'll try a metallic green some time ...

Gearbox

3 gears left ...

I now have the gears, first, third and fifth. Second and fourth are bypassed as much as possible due to the crunching. I really need to change the oil ...

Sunshine! Finally!

Covers off, here we go...

Rust Cure & Repainting

Time to get rid of some rust. I have been concerned about where the sills meet the floor for some time, rust everywhere.  Brought tears to my eyes this did. Time to start chiselling ...

Add a bit of tape

Hole on the arch

Rust and hole on the sill

Cure rust applied

Rusty Beast bits

Another arch

More rust!

Hole

Agh! There is a hole in the floor! Right where the jacking point is. Bugger!

Seats

Why is the seat bolt that needs a nut the one that is over an arm's length away and underneath an exhaust pipe?

Door Mirror

Found! One shafted door mirror, temporary removed in October to save it from falling off. Located in the rags which were soaked in clutch fluid after the bottle fell over. Bugger. 

Clutch Master Cylinder

Shiny new one in place

Fitted on 31st May, no more crappy ASL fix it kits! I needed to use a glamorous assistant who had a nice flexible torso and great little hands, perfect to climb upside down in the driver's foot well.

New bits

Dead cylinder

Dirty hands

Carpets & Seats

Harris, I dunno if you had anything to do with these seat bolts, but they really are crap. 

Two went in eventually, one is spinning around freely for a laugh and the other one, the one in the picture needs a nut on the end. To apply said nut, one needs to be very small and very flexible to reach round the exhaust pipe.

Seat out, sill carpet to go back in

Dead, broken seat out

WTF?

Just looked at this first time in ages; where have all my pictures gone?!

Not on the road yet

OK, so it's nearly June and the Beast is still under covers. The excuses are three fold...

. Decorating the back room has taken ages and cost too much;
. Holidays. I have an enormous caravan and I like to use it!,
. The To Do List. It's massive. I don't really know where to start and I don't really know how to do it and I stutter at the likely cost.

But a start has finally been made with the carpet and the seats. Still to do: gearbox, clutch master cylinder, tune engine, weld the little hole (more later), unrust and paint the sills which is getting a bit crucial now ...