I always thought that we would never leave our current property, it was our dream home with massive outbuildings and in a near perfect location. Just recently though it has become too much for us, the business has failed, it doesn't make sense to be here any more. No doubt about it, the time has come to look for something a lot smaller, more manageable and nearer other people, we never see anybody out here because nobody is near.

I had an hour or so yesterday to have a look at the Rover 4.0 V8 I bought while under the influence of Stella and made some interesting discoveries. While the block is still similar in many ways to my 1973 3.5 litre example it's clear to see just how much things have moved on from there. It's now a digital fuel injected world, the days of carbs and mechanical distributors are long gone, clearly swapping 50 year old technology for 20 year old technology is challenging. Pretty much everything will need to be changed to match the engine including the cooling system, fuel system - it needs a much higher pressure pump and a return pipe running back to the tank - the exhaust needs lambda sensor take offs on both sides, the list is quite extensive. Even small things like an engine management light need to be considered. It came without a flywheel I have bought one so I can crank the engine for testing at least but I have since discovered my engine needs a different crank position sensor as the engine came out of an automatic and they are different. 

Very little done this last month, it's amazing how much work is involved getting rid of 15 years of accumulated junk - much of it very large lumps. Definitely getting there though so thought a few hours of relaxation working on the car would be a good thing. It was all of 5 minutes before I realised that tidying up and getting rid of stuff I definitely wouldn't need any more would ensure that my day off would be anything but relaxing. Can't find a bloody thing now and every 5 minute job is taking forever. The first thing I couldn't find was my reel of solder - the reel that I have had since I was 17 years old but still has plenty on it. I found it eventually, hiding behind a can of paint on the shelf, exactly where I had put it a couple of weeks back. Sadly I had put the soldering iron somewhere different - not even in the same workshop. The problem with this sort of thing is that I then spend ages looking and while doing so find things that I haven't seen for a while that need cleaning / playing with. Before I know it 3 or 4 hours have been wasted and I have completely forgotten what it was I was trying to do in the first place. I decided that the only way I was going to get around this nonsense was to do a list and stick to it.

Still struggling to find any time for the car, house hunting, preparing ours for selling and doing stuff for my mate have all eaten in to my time and energy to the point where an hour on the rod is a major event. I did get to look at the oil consumption thing, it's taken a lot of working out to get to the issues but I think I am there now. Just as well as I had discussed selling it, I was at my wit's end with things. So now I have new heads with much better flow, thicker oil and a reduced oil pressure spring. I had been seeing 120PSI, which while impressive is not what you want on an old Rover V8. The book says 30-40 PSI at 2400 RPM, I am still a bit higher than that when hot but it's a hell of a lot closer than it was. Long term followers of my exploits may remember that the oil pump originally fitted to the Rover lump would not clear the steering rack so I swapped it for a pump from a 1970's Buick Grand National that uses the same engine block but gave me the clearance I needed. The Grand National clearly has much better engineering tolerances and runs much higher pressure. The smoke stopped immediately, I don't know where it was being forced through but there is no visible smoke at all now, although it does still smoke a bit when cold - no doubt a result of no valve stem seals, they didn't worry so much about hydrocarbon emissions back in 1973. I could sort it but it will be ok for the IVA test which specifies only that there should be no visible smoke, I will warm it up before I get there.

I have struggled to find time for the car recently as our house move has been more important. I am having to get rid of a hell of a lot of stuff, moving from a 4 bed house with 2 50ft long barns to possible a 2 bed bungalow with one smallish shed is no small task. Most of the bike collection will have to go, which is a bummer as prices are right down at the moment, I will also have to get rid of my big lathe and most of my tools. Much of it has already gone, I am being careful to keep anything I may need to get the car finished.

I finally plucked up the courage to get cracking on the solution for windscreen wipers that I should have gone with from day one. The job started with getting the old Fiat mechanism out, easier said than done as the demist vents had been welded in place after the wiper mech went in and had to be cut out to get the bloody thing back out. With that done it was just 2 6mm nuts holding it in place, 5 minutes later it was out and on the scrap pile. I had to drill out the hole for the wiper spindles as the mini ones were a couple of mm bigger than the Fiat ones, far easier than if it had been the other way round. The wheel boxes fitted quite easily on the near side, not so easily on the off side, where the angry grinder had to come out and make a minor adjustment.

Building a car clearly isn't easy, you need a wide skill set, infinite patience and an in depth knowledge of the rules and regulations. You also need a modicum of luck and most importantly all the parts you need for each job in hand as parts often rely on other parts if things are going to work together. In the case of windscreen wipers a basic knowledge of geometry is useful, as is the ability to correctly read a tape measure. I don't know the exact moment at which Mr and Mrs Fuckup paid their visit to my workshop but it was when I came to look at fitting wipers to my Fiat wiper motor that I realised I had messed up big time. The big problem is that the sweep on the blades is only 90 degrees, for some strange reason I had it in my head that it was 120 degrees. Without going in to too much boring detail the rules say the wipers have to park out of the line of sight of the driver and they must effectively clear the screen in front of the driver, pictures in the manual show what is acceptable. Mine aren't.

After having such a bad day yesterday, it was nice to have a much better day today. I fitted the offside door that is now no longer a door but is actually a panel that just looks like a door, there is no way of opening it from either inside or out. I sprayed up the inner skin and fitted it, while I was at it I fitted the driver's door skin, which I had sat there waiting for a few days now. It all went splendidly, I glued the rubber to the top of the off side running board so now both sides look the same. I used the same ribbed rubber to make the brake and clutch pedals non slip, an IVA requirement.