Mike Harman's Journal

Well Lil Blue made it back home after the rally and one thousand miles of driving .
When i first thought about the rally the plan was to trailer Lil Blue down to the event after I had driven to our sons place in Rotorua but as always plans can change and mine certainly did. As the car was running so well I decided to drive her the 304 kms to the event the road is good but has alot of hills and is full of twists and turns. it takes 4 and a half hours to drive and that is not mucking around.
We made it safely to New Plymouth and the motel right by the beach.
On Sunday it was up and give the car a wash and wipe down tomake her all spik and span for rally registration in the afternoon, that completed and meeting alot of new people etc we had to hang around for the rally opening and briefing back to the motel to rest ready for the next day and the first drive. We had four tour driving days and one competition day which I will cover day by day.

Well today was a nice fine really hot day so I decided to flush the radiator as I had noticed a bit of gunk around the cap.
Put the flush agent in and went for a spin around the block then drained the radiator not much came out but the water looked dirty so i think that this exercise has been worth while in readiness for the big trip.

Today I took Lil Blue down to my workshop as we are not open after the xmas break until next week and put her up on the four post flat bed hoist. After knocking the wheels off we removed the hubs which was a bit of a mission as some one before had made a hash of putting the cotter pins in anyway we eventualy got them out then it was a piece of cake to do the rest of the removal. The bearings had not been very well packed before so I was very pleased to have made the decision to check them before the big trip next week for the vintage car rally.
After repacking them it was just a matter of reinstalling the hubs and wheels. So that is the main job off the list before the big trip.

The mirror that I ordered a week ago finally turned up today. It is a Tex quarter light mirror. Instead of fitting it onto the quarter window I checked the door to mudguard gap and fitted it onto the door as the gap was 5mm and with the mirror hard on the door the measurement from the base edge to the door was 4.7mm.
This way I can still open the quarter window. The only thing that I had to watch out for was that when the door is shut the mirror base didnt touch the windscreen rubber. That checked out OK so tightened the screws and it works well and looks good. also as the car is totally factory original I didnt want to drill holes in the body. The only reason that I wanted an extra mirror was due to the idiots on the road today it gives me a better view of the outside lane.

After a period of rain and waiting to go for a long spin it finally happened today. Bright sunshine and not much traffic what a great day, took a long route to my mates place at another beach and let Lil Blue have her head (or should I say my foot was a bit heavy on the pedal ) any way the miles flew by and we got there and back home safely checked everything over as this was the first real good long run 88 miles since the head job. cannt wait until next month for the big trip.

Well after the trip around the block last week another fine day so I and Lil Blue were all set for another spin. Started her up and no rev counter working gave it the usual tap checked connections all to no avail. As this has happened before more than once I thought that a quick spin and rev may do the trick again and make it work. Well that didnt happen and my patience has worn out with this rev counter so I had a spare luckily.
I checked the spare out before installing it and it worked fine. I removed the old one with a bit of trouble short wires. so extend3d all of the wire 100mm and installed the new tacho it works fine so hopefully another spin sometime soon.