I wasn't expecting it to go this quick, but after being contacted on Sunday by a Gumtree buyer, we arranged for a viewing today and he  it.  Deal was done and now I'm Westfield-less!

Spend: £23.78

Bought a new Racetech rear view mirror as the one I had bought previously was a convex glass (wrongly advertised as flat glass) and it looked like every car behind me was up my *rse.

September 12th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Had the tiniest of coolant leaks on the thermostat bypass side.  Emptied it of coolant and investigated, but can't see where it is coming from, other than assuming it comes from the weld on the aluminium pipe.  Have ordered a new reducer hose and will remove part of the pipe to eradicate it.

Also, having now passed the venerable age of 50, it is time for something different.  Put the car up for sale: https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/140827-fs-1998-westfield-sew-18-zetec/ and will be looking for a Seight once sold...

September 17th, 2020

Spend: £4.61

Reducer arrived, so fitted it straight away.  Filled up with coolant and let the car warm up whilst squeezing the hoses.  Will check tomorrow again for leaks.

September 18th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Pleased to report that the leak has now been resolved.

September 20th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Went for a drive with Q-jr and then arranged to meet up with Jody's dad at the pub to have a good look over his Seight.   the noise 

September 21st, 2020

Spend: £0.00

MOT time...

Last month: £  9654.76
This month: £    28.39
            ----------+
Total:      £  9683.15

Spend: £0.00

What else to do on a sunny day?  Keeping hydrated of course!

Last month: £  9654.76
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  9654.76

Spend: £0.00

First (official) drive!  Can't believe how nice the weather has been this year whilst we were in total lockdown.  Couldn't drive it yesterday as I had to be in London to renew a passport, but I had a little sneaky 40 mile detour around Northamptonshire after work today.  It's good to be back!

June 13th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

And then the weather turned bad .   But this weekend it's been good again, good enough to little trip down to my favourite landmark view.

June 14th, 2020

Spend: £18.00

Noticed on a few occasions that when trying to restart the car after filling up at the petrol station it was cranking a little bit longer than when cold, so wanted to put a heat shield in between the exhaust and starter.  First modelled a little with CAD (cardboard aided design) until I roughly had a shape to cut out and then modelled it further in place.  Don't know yet how efficient it is, we'll see the next time I'll fill up.

June 26th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Modelled and 3D printed an iPhone 8 phone holder over the past days and fitted it today

June 28th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Can't resist taking the Westfield for every little thing, even when the family car would make more sense

Last month: £  9636.76
This month: £    18.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  9654.76

Spend: £0.00

Spending a day on the garage, instead of in.  Got these Mototile tiles on Ebay at a very good price and after cleaning them as good as I could, started to clear out the garage so I could fit them.

May 25th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Found a piece of old 3M carbon film in the garage which must have been at least 7 years old.  It was just enough to create some rear arch protectors and I am quite pleased with how well it turned out.

May 31st, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Took the car out of SORN for tomorrow and went to fill up for petrol after a 40 mile detour.  Very naughty, I know!

Last month: £  9636.76
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  9636.76

Spend: £0.00

Although being confined at home, I have spend very little of it with the Westfield as that's more or less finished and raring to go.  I did 3D print some interior bits to see how they will fare in use.

Last month: £  9636.76
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  9636.76

Spend: £0.00

Not happy with the layout of the new centre console, I moved the USB charger to the dash and moved one of the remote control buttons to the other side of the steering wheel.

February 2nd, 2020

Spend: £11.94

Replaced the saddle clip and re-greased the Type 9 gearbox linkage, hoping it will improve the shifting issue I've been having for the past 2 years.  This time I put two spacers on the extension to raise it slightly as it feels a little better that way.  Can't drive it yet so another one of those to be continued stories...

February 15th, 2020

Spend: £1.70

This came out of the printer a week ago already, but due to other commitments I was unable to fit it until today.

All the wires back in and operational.

I may do a V3 next year or so as there are always things that could be improved  

February 16th, 2020

Spend: £0.00

Everything back together again...

Last month: £  9623.12
This month: £    13.64
            ----------+
Total:      £  9636.76

Spend: £0.00

Having won a £50 voucher to spend at the Westfield Parts department with @Julie Hall - Peak District AO's Battle of the ODO's just before Christmas, I decided to replace my battery cut-off key with a proper FIA kill switch.  I had one previously fitted, but that broke within a week, so having spend nearly all of the voucher on the switch, it better last longer!

January 12th, 2020

Spend: £123.64

As mentioned in last months blog post, I wrecked my tacho and because I could not see myself undoing the speedo face change again, I bought a new speedo and tacho.  An expensive lesson learned!

January 25th, 2020

Spend: £8.39

Slowly putting a new centre console together with my 3D printer and in the process of optimising the ergonomics mounted my remote keyfobs (for garage and security gate) on the dash so I can see the buttons in the dark rather than guessing.

The centre console is progressing nicely, but it takes forever to print    Here's a little taster of a practise piece.  The final version will take over 2 days printing...

January 30th, 2020

Spend: £5.99

After 38 hours, I can finally present V1 of my new centre console!

Unfortunately, the back of the console broke when screwing down, and because I'm not happy about the clearance of the FIA key, V2 will have to be developed...  to be continued!

Last month: £  9485.10
This month: £   138.02
            ----------+
Total:      £  9623.12

Spend: £36.99

Continuing with the badge fixing.

And then I moved onto the next thing, replacing the odo display.  This turned out to be a bit of a 'mare, but hopefully once put back together, not very noticeable where I had to damage things to get it apart.

I'm taking the opportunity to change the face of the gauge as the plan is to replace all gauge faces in a similar style.

December 8th, 2019

Spend: £6.69

New number plate and gel badge from Westfield completes the replacement nose cone.

Having replaced my sausage filter not too long ago, I thought that the bonnet hole could have been slightly bigger so it doesn't squash the filter as much.  Out comes my new favourite tool, the power file

Just need to replace the rubber edge trim.

December 14th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

With my son's input and execution as graphic designer, we settled on the following design.  Printed on thick glossy paper, but it soon was apparent that it had to be laminated and have a black backing to prevent backlight from bleeding through.

And then assembly is the reverse of disassembly

December 15th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

And that's where I should have stopped.  But no, I wanted to redo the gauge face of all my gauges, so with the speedo done successfully, how hard could it be to do the tacho?  The ring went smoothly, but then I had to remove the needle, but unlike the speedo, this one is fused solidly on the tiniest of metal and after a few twists the metal just broke.  

I've tried to solder it back together, but it's too fragile so I'm afraid I will have no choice but to replace the gauge with a new one.  Which means that I will have to either undo my speedo again (so it looks the same as the new tacho), or replace the speedo (so it looks the same as the new tacho).  Dumb fck! 

December 30th, 2019

Spend: £5.17

Odds and sods today.  Got the rubber trim fitted around the bonnet hole and fitted some spire nuts to hold the dash panel instead of the rubber rivnuts I've previously been using.

And I also joined a new club  

Last month: £  9436.25
This month: £    48.85
            ----------+
Total:      £  9485.10

Spend: £10.00

Winter upgrade time!  After cleaning the car last weekend, today I finally made a start with replacing the damaged nose cone.  Part of the hesitation to do it 'in season' was that I wanted to go from 2 bolts holding the nose cone down, to 2 dzus sliding fasteners.  I had @Ben (bunje) create two M8 to M4 reducers which would allow me to re-use my rivnutted M8 mounts on the chassis.  But once they've been screwed in, there would be no unscrewing.  But I shouldn't have feared the job, it turned out to be quite simple!

Now I just need to fit a new stripe and grille

November 23th, 2019

Spend: £13.99

It took some effort to get the stripe on neatly (I'm not a sign writer!), but it does look tidy, even up close

November 30th, 2019

Spend: £10.00

I bought a nice badge from @marcusb again, but it has no fixings on it.  I didn't want to drill screw holes in it, so I got some JB Weld SteelStik and improvised.

And then I 3D printed some fixings that will hold it into the grille I bought from @Steve (sdh2903).

Last month: £  9402.26
This month: £    33.99
            ----------+
Total:      £  9436.25

Spend: £0.00

Earlier this week I had a small electrical faux-pas as my carbon cycle wing had slowly worn away at my wiring and caused a short!

At the same time my engine would turn over but not start, so after a lot of failed attempts at diagnosing the issue, it actually turned out to be the damn idle adjuster screw again.  Have now marked it's position, so I can spot it earlier.  Repaired the wiring and all is good again...  other than knocking off my centre mirror when refitting my scuttle 

October 26th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Found a (temporary) replacement mirror cheap on Ebay only for it to be not as advertised with flat glass, but having convex glass.  It now looks like every car behind me is riding my A***...

Got a refund after complaining.

October 31st, 2019

Spend: £0.00

As my commute to work is 98% motorway, and the risk vs reward is low, I've decided to SORN the car until the weather is kind again next year...

Last month: £  9402.26
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  9402.26

Spend: £0.00

I'd never been to the Peak District, so when I asked on the forums if my planned route for today was ambitious or not, @IanK (Bagpuss) kindly volunteered to show me around.  What a day it was...

We started out as four with @LukeW and @Nemesis joining @IanK (Bagpuss) and my son in his Mini Cooper S in Ashbourne.

Afer some driving we met up with @Paul Hurdsfield, @bioman and Kibriyah (NWKCOG) at The Devils A***.

More driving was done and my son and I arrived home 12 hours later than we left, with near enough 300 miles more on the clock.  The full story can be read here.

Last month: £  9402.26
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  9402.26

Spend: £0.00

A lovely evening at the pub with likeminded people

July 17th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

My son and I both wanted a 3D printer, and with the great thread from @nice_guy on all things 3D, we bought an Ender 3 Pro which was delivered a couple of days ago.  Biggest hurdle for me is the CAD side, but after a few tutorials I was confident enough to print my 1st car part: a backplate for the Hella 3rd brake light mounted on the roll-bar.

My first attempt was already a great fit, although I had not considered the wiring, so on to v2

And here's it fitted

Last month: £  9402.26
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  9402.26

Spend: £18.45

Too hot this weekend to do anything on the car, but did manage to spend 5 minutes replacing the coolant sensor in the thermostat housing that is connected to the ECU.

June 6th, 2019

Spend: £174.00

Ever since I had been messing with the suspension, I had this profound knocking, mostly audible at low speed.  Could not figure out what it was, so handed the car over to NMS and left them to sort the geometry and eliminate the noises.  Turned out I had wound the suspension up to high and it was knocking at full extension .  But it's sorted now and driving like it should.

June 23th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

With the lovely weather continuing, taking a quick moment to wash the road grime away

Last month: £  9209.81
This month: £   192.45
            ----------+
Total:      £  9402.26

Spend: £78.00

My ECU had arrived back from Ian at Oddified and of course I could not wait to fit it.  Just in time for Stoneleigh!  My joy was however short lived as when I started the car, the engine would not settle in an idle, and kept trying to stall again. 

But as Ian had told me that he was going to be at Stoneleigh as well, armed with laptop and lead...  If I could get the car to him and find him, he could tweak it.

So I continued ploughing on.  I wanted to raise the car's height at the rear as I noticed the car bottoming out a few times when driving it previously.  And looking on Westfield World, the recommended height is 170-175mm, whereas my car sat at 120mm.  This is where I should have stopped, as by the time I had raised the suspension high (not having the right tool should have been a warning) and tried to drive it, I discovered there was no longer any suspension travel left.  Trying to undo my mistake, I ripped the fuel pump connector off and then had to spend half an hour trying to re-crimp it and making sure that still worked.  When I then continued with the suspension and got caught out in a hail storm, I downed the tools and resigned to driving to Stoneleigh in the tin top.

May 5th, 2019

Sold: £100.00

Had arranged for a little convoy to Stoneleigh, and of course we had the best turn out ever.  6 Westfields, 1 Caterham and myself in the Mondeo.  Jody had brought his dads V8 and his mate Paul with the FW400, but Jody had suffered a slight snag with one exhaust mount.

Whilst we were waiting for Jody to do his repairs, I looked around the car park and noticed a familiar number plate...  It's only my old Westfield!

Now on it's 6th owner, but at least it is back in the area 

@Craig Scammell then lead us to the show ground without issue.  Perfect!

I didn't spend anything, but picked up some hubs/uprights for @mikey p and sold my old wheels to @1960dave .

When I had enough, I went home and as Amazon had delivered a C spanner, I continued with the suspension until the car was drivable again.  Maybe I can still get it to the show and meet up with Ian?

May 6th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

I emailed Ian, passing him my phone number and hoped he picked up emails.  And sure enough, in less than 30 minutes he phoned up and we arranged for me to meet him at his car (a very nice Metro 6R4 replica) so that he could have a look at the car.  I stuck to the motorways just to avoid stopping for junctions and limped into the show ground.  Ian fired up the laptop with Easimap and with some old fashioned engineering and tweaking he soon had it purring like a kitten.  A quick spin around the area confirmed that the tweaks had worked.  What a legend.

I returned to the WSCC stand which was near enough empty, so after a short walk around I returned home, taking the scenic route 

May 19th, 2019

Spend: £44.10

No chores around the house to do, so fitted the new fancy Denso ITV16TT spark plugs I had bought a couple of weeks ago.  Topped up with oil and coolant and then finished the day off by giving the car a wash.

May 20th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

To mark the start of National Drive Your Westfield to Work Day (Week) I fell at the 1st hurdle as the car wouldn't start!  In the evening I went to investigate and of course my first thoughts were the new spark plugs I fitted yesterday, so swapped them back with the old ones.  Made no difference, but then I noticed that the idle screw had become slightly loose and as such the car didnt get enough air in at idle/starting.  After a little adjusting, all was well again 

May 21st/22nd/23rd/24th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

As mentioned yesterday...  Drive that Westfield to Work!

May 25th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

So back to the spark plugs.  Removed the old plugs again and on cylinder 4 was met with this little issue.

I must have broken it whilst trying to remove it, but the upshot was that a little splinter of ceramics was lying on the edge of the plug hole .  And of course it fell in .  Thankfully with some suggestions from the forum and internet I managed to vacuum it out... 

Double checked the chamber with my endoscope camera and could not see any more debris, so started the car and it ran fine...

Last month: £  9187.71
This month: £    22.10
            ----------+
Total:      £  9209.81

Spend: £62.00

And we're off for the new season!  New Pipercross filter arrived, so installed that and then put the car on the charger so I can drive it a little later when I finish work.

April 14th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Went for some coffee at Caffeine and Machine in Ettington.  Nice place!

April 15th, 2019

Spend: £30.00

MOT time!  Great service at Nene Auto Repairs as usual.

April 19th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Lovely weather for a drive, so Q jr and myself had some breakfast in the Cotswolds 

April 22nd, 2019

Spend: £40.00

Picked up a luggage rack from an ex-Westfield owner in Bozeat.

April 30th, 2019

Spend: £8.04

Discovered that my programmable fan switch no longer switched the fan on, and upon inspection discovered that a faux-pas in my wiring caused it to overheat and blow up the rectifier.  Ordered a new rectifier to replace it, but that didn't fix it, so had ordered a W1209 temperature controller to replace it.

Last month: £  9047.67
This month: £   140.04
            ----------+
Total:      £  9187.71

Spend: £98.33

If you need to vent frustration, I can recommend replacing wheel studs...  hammering those in allows a lot of venting

But in they went, and so did the half shafts.  Had also ordered new Pagid brake drums from Euro Car Parts (9" drums for a 1978 RS2000) and they fitted nicely.And finally the new wheels 

They still stick out a little beyond the arch, but I will decide on any action after I've driven it like this first.

Have changed the brake fluid as well for some new Pagid DOT4.

March 3rd, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Not much to show for it, but I disassembled the top mounted pedal box so I could bend the clutch pedal a little to the left so it clears the steering column mount.  Gained about 1cm in pedal travel.  Can't wait to see if this finally gets rid of the crunch in 1st/2nd gear.

March 9th, 2019

Spend: £65.31

Finally took delivery of a new fuel sender and fitted it.  Range on the sender is 0 (empty)-190ohm (full), whereas the VDO gauge I have uses a range of 10 (empty)-180ohm (full).  Going to add a 10ohm resistor so that it doesn't report the tank empty, until it is near empty.

Another upgrade this year is the weedy horn I installed last year.  Barely audible over the engine noise, so this time around I went for a compressor horn...  the MOT man is going to **** himself

March 10th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Couldn't do much today as my new daylight running lights haven't been delivered yet.  Just relocated the electronic fan switch to a better location and started to fit the new indicators to my cycle wings.

March 14th, 2019

Spend: £34.69

DRLs have finally arrived, so when I had some time at lunch today I started to fit them.

The Sikaflex needs to cure so I won't touch them now until Saturday when I can complete the electrics and re-fit them on the cycle wing stays. 

March 16th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Finished off the cycle wings.  Took a little longer than I expected but the result is nice  

March 17th, 2019

Spend: £7.10

Added the 10ohm resistor to the fuel sender and it now reports empty and full exactly synced with the VDO gauge.  Replaced the manky foam that sits underneath the bonnet with a new strip of much better quality.  The weather was rather unpredictable today, with one minute blazing sun, and the next a hail shower, but I had my mind set on starting the car...  and it did, on the button!  Left it running till the fan kicked in and then put the car back in the garage.  Bring on April 1st!

March 23rd, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Have decided that I am not happy with the way the headlight/indicator/cycle wing wiring has ended up like, so ordered new connectors and more thin wall wire.  And then as I was cleaning the car the Pipercross filter disintegrated in my hands.  New one on order as well.

March 28th, 2019

Spend: £30.45

After I posted my 1st/2nd gear selection woes on the forums, @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary may have well discovered the root cause.  Fuchs Titan Race Syn 5 is what I was recommended by @windy, but that is a GL5 oil.  Fuchs Titan Race Synchro however is a GL4 oil.  Changing the oil with the gearbox in is not a great job, but fortunately the Pela 6000 got most of it out.  Proof will be in the pudding next week.

March 30th, 2019

Spend: £62.34

Can't believe I just spend 3 hours to crimp 8 connectors...

March 31st, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Can't believe I spend another 2 hours on some connectors and am still not finished.  Day cut short due to F1 and mothering Sunday.  More fun tomorrow!

Last month: £  8749.45
This month: £   298.22
            ----------+
Total:      £  9047.67

Spend: £0.00

The sun is out and the urge to go out in the Westfield again is growing.  Time to start cracking!

Agreed to borrow @Marto303's sliding hammer so that I could remove the half shafts.  What a difference the right tool makes to a job .  They were out in 5 minutes, although I could not remove the OS without also removing the brake drum back plate.  And that means replacing the brake fluid as I've had to disconnect the lines.  Oh well, just another job to do...

February 23rd, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Sometimes all you need is a second pair of eyes.  @dombanks had kindly offered to machine down the half shafts at his place of work and when I popped round to hand them over he had a good look at them and said that it looked like there were some kind of collars fitted on the hub.  And you know what?  He's only bl**** right!

Spend 10 minutes with an angle grinder and off they came.  Aarghhh!

February 24th, 2019

Spend: £0.00

Whilst waiting for parts to refit the half shafts I focussed my attention on the fuel tank, and the non-working gauge.  Emptied as much as the pump would into my sons Mini Cooper S and removed the half bodged VDO arm that I tie-wrapped onto the V8 pump.  After thinking long and hard I've decided to fit a VDO compatible (so the sales blurb says) reed/pole sender most commonly used in boats.  Does mean I need to drill another hole in the top of the tank...

Also removed the front cycle wings so I can re-fit my DRL/indicators in the new cycle wings after my little accident last year.

Last month: £  8749.45
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  8749.45

Spend: £0.00

Oooh, it's fresh today...

November 29th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Realistically, I'm not seeing the weather being nice enough to drive the car to work and back without getting p*ssed on, so I SORNed it today.  I need to get the half-shafts machined so my new wheels fit, and I need to take the petrol tank out to re-fit the pump so it reads on the gauge again.  Plenty to do this winter!

Last month: £  8749.45
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  8749.45

Spend: £0.00

What a muppet...  ran out of petrol on the way into work.  Must! Fix! The! Petrol! Gauge!

Last month: £  8749.45
This month: £     0.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  8749.45

Spend: £4.99

New exhaust bobbin of 4cm high instead of 3cm, to give it a little more clearance.

Last month: £  8744.46
This month: £     4.99
            ----------+
Total:      £  8749.45

Spend: £511.02

An early birthday present!  I desperately needed new tyres and as I was also considering going to a smaller wheel size or having the wheels refurbished into a different colour, I weight up the options and costs for each permutation.  New wheels won!

They are John Brown Wheels Smoothie's in 5.5J 13" for the front and 7J 13" for the back.  They fitted them with Nankang NS-2R tyres in 185/60R13.

I've ordered some low profile black wheel nuts to complement them.  Also need to reduce the spacer on the rear.

August 25th, 2018

Spend: £10.49

New wheels do not need spacers at the front, so shortening the wheel studs a bit so they can fit underneath the hub caps as well.  Who knew you couldn't rely on the weather forecast? 

August 27th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

With a son who tries to make a career out of photography, who better than him to shoot a new desktop background...  Visit Devoted Media for more information 

Last month: £  8222.95
This month: £   521.51
            ----------+
Total:      £  8744.46

Spend: £0.00

Oops!  Did something stupid and will now pay the price for it.  Ran into the crashbar of a truck (he didn't even notice) and damaged my cycle wing and nose cone in the process.

Made some roadside "repair" and got the car home.

July 8th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Met up with @richyb and went to the Kimbolton Country Fayre.

July 15th, 2018

Spend: £120.00

Lovely new replacement cycle wings from @carbon-nv!

July 16th, 2018

Spend: £100.00

With the help of @6carjon and @KenP I also managed to find a replacement nose cone for my Kit bodywork, and in the right colour!  Fitting this is more of a "winter" job though.

Last month: £  8002.95
This month: £   220.00
            ----------+
Total:      £  8222.95

Spend: £0.00

Cleaning the car for the big day tomorrow.

May 6th, 2018

Spend: £30.00

Stoneleigh.  Arranged for breakfast at McDonalds and was happy to see I was not alone.  @richyb and @dombanks had both just arrived so we got ourselves some unhealthy food and coffee and just as we finished up, @lewis arrived in his 'regular' car as he had broken his car the night before.  Doh!  As we set off, about 5 minutes into the journey I noticed that the car would try to stall again whenever I needed to get into 2nd or 1st gear at a roundabout or traffic light.  Thinking that maybe my fuel gauge is lying to me I changed route desperately for a petrol station.  The first one we came across was in Southam, so filled up but this made no difference.  We did manage to make it to the show and once parked up I started to look at what could be the problem.  Start the car, blib the throttle and when the revs drop again, blipping it again would make it stall.  Think @Northampton Motorsport need to have a look at it, as it's nothing like I've ever read about on the forums.

Picked up a new 2" fuel filler hose and the electronic fan switch from CBS I ordered earlier this week.

May 7th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Came back from shopping with the family and walked into the garage to be greeted by a puddle underneath the car.  Because I had not parked it in the usual place (on the carpet) it was now quite apparent that there is something leaking from the tank.  A quick look revealed a 4cm gash in the bottom of the tank from which the petrol escapes.  Absolutely no idea how that came about, but now I know, I need to empty it quickly.  Not helpful that I brimmed the tank yesterday on the way to Stoneleigh .  One of my sons friends popped round and we filled his tank up with my petrol.

May 8th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Working from home today so I can remove the fuel tank from the car in the afternoon.  There was still a surprising amount of fuel left in the tank, which the fuel pump did not manage to pump out.  Once removed and emptied, I hosed it down with copious amounts of water and then left it to dry.

May 10th, 2018

Spend: £33.80

Fuel tank dropped off at Precision Welding and it's now fixed again.  After work put it back into the car and fitted the new fuel filler hose.  Just need to wait till a new fuel pump seal arrives before I can fill it up again.  Also temporarily fitted the electronic fan controller so I can reach it from the drivers position and set it up 'on the go'.  When it is working satisfactory I can hide it from view as it's not the prettiest of boxes  

May 15th, 2018

Spend: £7.19

The seal finally arrived, but unfortunately it doesn't fit.  Another £7 wasted .  Re-used the cork gasket and struggled a bit to get the arm back on.  I feel another winter project coming on...   Went for a short shakedown and am surprised that the stalling issue seems to have gone.  How?

May 19th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Trying to avoid the Royal Wedding by following @GaryD1971's example and cutting a little bit away on the steering column bracket that prevents the clutch pedal from providing enough travel.  Hopefully this takes care of the crunching in 1st/2nd gear.  After a short drive I can report it is better, but not yet resolved.  Looks like there is more travel required, which from studying the pedal box can be created, but is a little more involving.

May 23rd, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Took the car to work for National Drive your Westfield to Work Day, and on the way back stopped for petrol.  Then the engine stalling issue appeared again, all the way home.  Parked up and took a video showing the revs dropping to the point of stalling when blipping the throttle

May 26th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Had a look at the car again in Easymap 4, but the stalling behaviour was gone again.  Had the engine well into running temperatures, but could not get it to misbehave.  My theory at the moment is that twice it happened when I had briefly driven it (to Sixfields from home & to petrol station from work), then parked up/filled up with fuel, and then continued driving it.  Next time I need to fill up we'll see how that theory holds up.

Last month: £  7931.96
This month: £    70.99
            ----------+
Total:      £  8002.95

Spend: £0.00

Big day today.  It is dry, almost sunny and now it is time to enjoy it!  Checked oil/coolant levels again before I started the engine and then set off to fill up with petrol 0.7m away.  1st and 2nd gear still not feel right so I returned home and adjusted the clutch cable slightly.  But it was a step too far, so undid the work and then tried to go for a longer run.  Unfortunately, the engine now kept on stalling as soon as I dipped the clutch.  Didn't even make it out of the street before I returned back home.  How to make a grown man 

April 2nd, 2018

Spend: £0.00

After putting a message up on Facebook, got a text from Jody (who rebuild the engine) with some questions and a suggestion of checking for an air pocket in the thermostat housing where the coolant sensor sits.  He explained that he had that happen once and the result was that the car kept on feeding duff information to the ECU who countered that with feeding in too much/little fuel.  As the car also smelled like a petrol station, that seemed all too plausible.  Run the engine again, this time squeezing as much as I could the hoses to move air around and out.  It ran much better, but because I'd fiddled again with the TPS and throttle body stop it was high on RPM.  Decided that I'd leave it for another day.

April 5th, 2018

Spend: £1.90

Wife complained about the stench of petrol, so went home to check.  Couldn't find any leaks, so must have still been residue from Sunday/Monday's tinkering.  Received a new throttle cable end, so fitted that as the old one is a pain to do up.

April 19th, 2018

Spend: £474.00

Big day today.  Car was given into the care of Troy at @Northampton Motorsport to remap it.  Initially couldn't write to the ECU due to a PIN block on it, but after the executive decision was made to erase and rewrite the ECU with a map from another car with the same/similar engine all the options were enabled again.  Troy did his magic and after 3.5 hours was told of the end result; a healthy 177.8bhp @ 6931rpm / 142.2lbft @ 6064rpm.  Suits you Sir!

April 20th, 2018

Spend: £0.00

Finally the thrill is back.  Car behaved impeccable for the 120 miles I drove today (and work is only 36 miles each way ).

April 21st, 2018

Spend: £0.00

I complained on the forums about my gear knob which keeps coming off as the grub screws have to bridge a large gap, and @Ben (bunje) worked his magic and turned a sleeve for my gear knob so the grub screws got something better to grab into.

April 22nd, 2018

Spend: £17.47

Changing the oil after running it in.  Started with 5W30, but was advised that 5W40 would be a better choice for this tune of engine.  Never had to do one with the engine in the car, and I'm already not looking forward to next year's change.  Emptying the sump is straight forward, but access to the oil filter not so.  Removed the alternator and bracket which allowed enough access for my wrench to undo it.

Maybe next year I'll be organised enough to install some flared arches, or a remote filter housing...

Last month: £  7438.59
This month: £   493.37
            ----------+
Total:      £  7931.96