The misadventures of a fatbloke and 13/60 Herald named Poppy

[Fatbloke]

What was the Rich? "can we have pics of the stellar?? i used to own a pony...." Don't worry, So did My Mum. it was a really early one too with the square front.

My Stellar ownership was pre digital cameras so I will have to search the old albums which I think are in the loft! I'll try to dig them out for you...at some point!

[rich.]

thanks mate i had my pony for about 6 months, it was only 3 years old & rather quick although the play in the steering box was quite scary at 100 mph.. went through the mot fine though... my dads neighbour wanted it for his daughter so it got sold.. id like another

[Fatbloke]

The next 18 months was a busy time for my family. 2 terminal illnesses and bereavements, 2 weddings, 3 new babies. My eldest learned to drive and passed her test 1st time, passed her A-levels and got into the University of Westminster. My youngest continued to pursue her career in dance and studied for her GCSE’s. Mrs FB completed her Master’s degree and passed with Merit. She is now a Nurse Practitioner in a local GP surgery. Poppy and I continued with our occasional forlorn visits of reassurance.

It is now January 2014. Talk in the Fatbloke house turned to my youngest daughters Prom which is due on 23rd May. I was banned from uttering the phrase “HOW MUCH?” under penalty of pain.

I have to say that the thought of having to take part in all the girly chats about dresses, shoes, hand bags, hairstyles, make-up, shoes, nails, shoes and everything else that women seem to need for these occasions (again) didn’t fill me with joy. So, I hatched a cunning plan!

“Erm…Would you like to use Poppy as your Prom transport in May?” I said to my Youngest.
“Oh Wow! Yes please! That would be really cool.” Replied my youngest. I then gave my wife the sort of look that said, “Tell her we can’t do it and break her heart and ruin her Prom if you dare”. Mrs FB rolled her eyes and asked me if I thought I could do it? I paused and tried to look like I was pondering on the project before saying “Well, it will mean a lot of work, but I think I should be able to.” Mrs FB rolled her eyes again before giving me the sort of look that said “Don’t think I don’t know what you just did. Remember the callipers!” before saying “Well you’d better get on with it then”. At this point, I tried to look nonchalant as I walked out of the house, down the street and round the corner out of sight before jumping up and down shouting with glee and dancing a jig. I then walked nonchalantly back to the house to plan my campaign.

I wanted to find out the scale of the task before me and decided that before I did anything else, I would see if I could get her started. Her reluctance to change lock ups suggested that the 14 year old battery had probably “expired”. A new one was sourced on line and collected from Europarts on my way home from work with another stop being made to collect a gallon (sorry 4.54l) of freshly distillated unleaded. I then went straight to the lock up, opened the door and said “Here we go Girl. If you behave yourself we’ll soon be back on the road!” I’m sure I saw a shudder of excitement run through her frame!

I quickly drained the 2.252L or so of old fuel in the tank, connected the new battery topped up with the new fuel and primed the pump. I then had a passing thought that I should really change the oil before starting her, but as I didn’t have any fresh stuff or a new filter I thought “What the hell!!” I did pull the dipstick out which showed that the correct amount of very black stuff was in the sump.

I opened the driver’s door and saw that the under dash courtesy light was glowing excitedly. I lowered myself into the now pitifully padded driver’s seat and inserted the key into the ignition. I turned the key to the 1st position and all the dash lights where present and correct and glowing with anticipation. I pulled out the choke. Then, with much trepidation, I turned the key to the start position. The starter motor turned over vigorously and a surprisingly short time later…”HARK THE HERALD ANGEL SANG!!”…I whooped with joy, told Poppy what a wonderful, gorgeous, good girl she was and kissed her steering wheel… I was quite pleased… After a couple of minutes I put the choke back in and she continued to tick over beautifully (even with a very rumbly water pump.) Feeling slightly light headed, possibly with jubilation but more probably from the build-up of carbon monoxide in my small lock up, I smoothly selected 1st and lifted the clutch. Poppy was moving under her own steam for the 1st time in 3 years!!

It was at this point that I realised I’d forgotten something rather important in all the excitement. There was no fluid in the brakes, and therefore, no brakes! Frantically reaching for the hand brake, I managed to pull her up in front of the lock up door opposite with mm to spare. Sheepishly and carefully, I reversed her back into my lock up trying to position her so I had enough room to work each side at the front of the car. I told Poppy again, what a good girl she was and with a wink and a smile at her, I shut the garage door. I’m sure she winked and smiled back at me.

With a spring in my step and a smile on my face, I went home to give Mrs FB the news and order the parts I would need.

[kstrutt1]

You are lucky your daugters are keen to go in a classic, mine prefers to go in a modern to any of my classics , I can sort of understand the lack of appeal of the landie but can't see what her problem with the Elan or tr7 v8 is.

Kevin

[kevin]

You are lucky your daugters are keen to go in a classic, mine prefers to go in a modern to any of my classics , I can sort of understand the lack of appeal of the landie but can't see what her problem with the Elan or tr7 v8 is.

Kevin

I must be luckt too, both my kids love the singer and the mazda!

kev

[Topaz]

…”HARK THE HERALD ANGEL SANG!!”…

Great news - congratulations you both you and Poppy

Mike

[Fatbloke]

You are lucky your daugters are keen to go in a classic, mine prefers to go in a modern to any of my classics , I can sort of understand the lack of appeal of the landie but can't see what her problem with the Elan or tr7 v8 is.

Kevin

Yes I am very lucky. My eldest is into all things cars and has become a walking encyclopedia on F1. but my youngest just loves Poppy and has no real interest in other cars.

I don't think either are fully "into" classics, but they've grown up with Poppy and we've had a LOT of family fun in this car so it has good memories for them and me. I think this is why they love her so much and want to use her for their Prom transport. I'm not sure that they would be as keen to go in another classic.

[Fatbloke]

Thanks Topaz

[Fatbloke]

Funds are still somewhat restricted so all work would have to be done myself in my council lockup. As the lockup is ¾ of a mile away from home, has very limited space, has no power, lighting, washing facilities or, more importantly, tea or bacon butty preparation areas, conditions were far from Ideal. With my comparative lack of spanner skills, I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge. Surprisingly enough though, I was really looking forward to it and couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

I ordered the plugs, points, HT Leads, filters and fan belt along with a new water pump and everything I thought I would need to sort the brakes out. As it had been sat without fluid for some time I’d decided to replace the seals in the master cylinder and replace everything else except the metal pipes

Unfortunately the recon callipers and water pump were not in stock but I asked for the service parts to be sent so I could start work. The rest would follow when available.

The parts arrived the next day and I couldn’t wait to get started. Saturday morning dawned cold and grey. I donned my best mechanics clothing which consisted of a pair of track suit trousers with holes and an old Leicester rugby top. (Well I wasn’t going to get my Gloucester one dirty was I?) I’d also thought long and hard about the limitations of my work space, outlined above, and came up with a cunning solution. I took a flask of tea with me!

I arrived at the lockup at the ridiculously early time for a Saturday morning of 8am, opened the bonnet and enthusiastically set to work. I soon had the plugs points and leads changed and fired her up to see if it all still worked. It did, which was good. I then removed the cheap pancake air filter I’d fitted some time ago because I thought it would look “cool” but actually seemed to reduce the power available. I refitted the old airbox, which I’d kept, with a new filter element and fitted it back to the car. I then adjusted the carburettor until smooth running was achieved.

Next, I removed the brake master cylinder ready for its new seals, drained the coolant and refilled with the correct mix of water and antifreeze. I’d remembered to bring some water up with me in our caravan water drum. I haven’t told Mrs FB about this yet and could really do with some advice on removing oily fingerprints from plastic water drums before she finds out.

It was about then that I remembered that I was going to change the water pump. So I drained out the correct mix of water and antifreeze loosened the dynamo, removed the fan belt and removed the water pump and fan assembly from the water pump housing, only to discover that there was not room to remove the pump and fan around the radiator, hoses and engine etc. I loosely refitted the water pump and set about removing the radiator so I could then fully remove the pump and separate it from the fan. I put the nuts and fan in a safe place for reassembly when the new water pump arrives. I did all this without using any bad words and benefitted from the added bonus that I now had much easier access to turn the crank whist setting the tappets.

I was feeling rather proud of myself for my achievements so far. Now, my old Granddad was forever telling everybody that would listen that “Pride cometh before a fall”. If I’d have remembered this, perhaps I wouldn’t have been quite so confident when I dived under the car to drain the oil.

You see, I’d forgotten that Triumph herald drain plugs don’t have sensible hexagon heads that a standard socket/spanner would fit nicely. No. they have square heads that get rounded off when you try to remove them with poorly fitting sockets, spanners, mole grips, pliers or whatever you can think of at the time. So when I dived under the car to drain the oil, I was greeted with a nicely rounded off squarish drain plug. I decided to call it a day and went home to order a new drain plug being fairly certain I was going to fully butcher the old one.

To be continued…

[kstrutt1]

Not sure it will help with your wife (for some reason mine does not see the benefits) but dishwashers are great for cleaning up plastics .

It bought up the mx5 air cleaner like new, light lenses come out great as well.