My car comes home!
This a wordy looking post but I think it’s worth the read for the fun and games we had!
My car has been down the drive just round the corner from me, where it has remained for the last year and a bit, I can work as and when I wanted to on it so there was no real issues.
As I normally do, I lifted the bonnet to make sure everything was OK and I noticed that the Tuff Stuff chrome alternator is not so Tuff after all! The Chrome has a little pitting on it and I ‘aint happy about it to be honest. I am going to review this alternator soon, and I’m not convinced it going to get full marks, or great marks come to that somehow! The damp has started to cause a few issues so we decided that the will have to go in our garage. There wasn’t a great deal in there to be honest just my old stuff from years of collecting rubbish. The charities had a great day as they got books, pictures and old clothes etc. Hopefully they can get some money in for their causes. Anyway, the car was taken of the axle stands and lowered down, left side tyre has a slow puncture that I will have to sort out. A friend of mine Pete came round in his new car which he has only had for a few days and offered to tow her round to my garage. The reason we decided that it should be towed is because the drive is on a slope and there was no way that with me in the car doing the hard work of driving, (OK, steering the car) that the two hired hands were going to push it without booking a visit to the hospital emergency unit to have a couple of hernias sorted out. Mark was playing lookout to start with to make sure that any would be Nigel Mansell wouldn’t meet two and half ton of American Muscle in the middle of the road. After pulling her to the top there is a slight dip down to the road, bearing in mind I have no brakes at the moment so everything had to be done with care and be legal to push it the rest of the way. We managed to stop the Mustang quite well by using the back of Pete’s nice new shiny new car. Oops! Sorry about that Pete I reckon a bottle of your favourite tipple could be arranged for the trouble. Before you ask yes the car is fully comprehensive insured even though it doesn’t go on the road. I think the fact that I got out to check that there was no damage to my car first was like rubbing salt & vinegar into the wound at the time. The car was not to bad weight wise once we got her rolling of course. As the road is a no-through road we weren’t expecting any traffic, but you can never be too sure. A couple of minutes later we were pushing her onto my drive and into the garage, or so we thought. The garage was wide enough by about 3 inches each side, it will even tighter once the mirrors go on. We managed to push the car in inch by inch, Pete was directing the car to the front, Mark was doin’ the donkey at the back pushing and I was on the wheel now and again sweating buckets panicking that I may just have measured up wrong. Pete found out that car was cold as we pinned him to the wall with the bonnet while trying to clear the trunk into the garage. The garage door was lowered down, very carefully and I have about 4 inches to spare with the door shut. It was close if it was going to go in. There is no way a ’67 on would fit in there. But I was happy, she fits and she is tucked up each night now. Just need to get a nice cloth cover and a heater now to make her snug. Perhaps I should ask the wife if I can have some, perhaps not!! 🙁
So there you have it, my car is at her rightful home at long last, gentlemen I thank you for your help. Ooh, I nearly forgot Staci who collected Mark to take him home before his next shift!
The car was in the garage, so the next thing was to rig up an extension to the solar trickle charger for my battery. (A review for that bit of equipment can be found here.) Hole through the garage wall and it was job done, that’s after we spent after we spent the best part of half an hour looking for the clips to the battery so that we could use a length of good quality speaker cable to extend the wire.
A big day for the man and his Mustang it has to be said. I was out there today having a little fiddle around, as you do of course, to see what the next job is going to be. I have a feeling it will be to revisit some of the work I have already done. Such is life, but she is home!
The next installment I doubt will be as long.
