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Back to school for me, finally sorting my tools out on a couple of ‘shadow boards’ 🤣. They are a motley assortment, collected over the years and not all in very good condition but at least I know where they are, and what I have now so can build from here. One board more woodworking for home DIY and the other for the car and other mechanical stuff. Work bench is fully operational now so I can actually get on with doing things now. I finally managed to get the car sorted and started at the weekend so perhaps a first trip out for the year is not far off. Not sure I dare brave a Cullompton trip on Wednesday, depends on the weather. EDIT Added a couple of pics of the bench now it’s finished. Nice to have a sorted place to work now. The Avon Tyres sign was tucked away in the garage when we moved in. My old man worked for them years ago when I was small, so it needed to go up 👍

Thanks @John Williams (Panda) - Joint Manchester AO for organising a good night, not a Westfield in sight but a good catch up with @John Williams (Panda) - Joint Manchester AO @W Shep@Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator @Terryathome and the other halves/bosses for a good chin wag, drink and curry 😎 After a couple of pre drinks in the hotel bar we set off from the digs in bad weather luckily @Terryathome aka Ranulph Barber was prepared 😅 The chosen curry house in Gargrave was that small couples ended up segregated which I think the Ladies preferred ! and the boys struggled a bit tbh.. A lady who worked in the hotel took this picture of us all, we were telling her how we all got to know each other.. Happy Days! and hopefully we can get more folks attending if we do this again in the future 😎

Have a great day @Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup) 🎂🍺

Hi Nick. It's been a lovely day. Full of lots of little surprises. Thankyou for the wishes.

Happy Birthday Geoffrey, hope you've had a great day and not too windy

Happy Birthday Geoffrey. Michael

Happy Birthday Geoffrey, all the best from me and Amanda.

Thankyou so much Julie. I really appreciate your message.

Thankyou for the message Marcus. I was actually on a barn roof this morning and on my scaffolding for a different reason this afternoon and it's nothing to do with my birthday.

That would be lovely. You can call round and the kettle will be on.

A quick update. With thanks to AIMS Technologies I now have fully working dash 🤞 The gentleman there (Kevin?) was a great help, he remotely connected, updated my dash software, pointed me in the direction of a poorly connected wire, once made good then normal service resumed. Top service! A big thanks to everyone who offered advice. Much appreciated!

@Stuartproblem my end then. I have called and emailed Westfield so hopefully it’ll be sorted soon. Thanks.

Happy birthday @Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup) , next time we're over the east coast, we'll have to meet up.

@Marcus Barlow - Show and Events Co-ordinator Booked holiday inn and travelodge. Looking forward to a long weekend in the sunshine.

MHR @Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup) have a good day (probably a bit windy for roofing!)

many Happy Returns, Geoffrey, have a great Birthday! 🎉

Just struck me, this thread is starting to edge towards technical, so it might be time to either get it moved, or maybe start a new tech-only thread on the car in Tech Talk?

I’ve not looked at ‘quick racks’ for the car, but ISTR that they are out there. I’d probably look at Rally Design, Retro Ford and similar for a suitable Mk2 Escort rack. I don’t have any input on what quality you’ll get though! There are threads on here about this topic. Before buying, do check what you have already though, measure rack travel per turn of the wheel, or alternatively, pop the boots off to check there are no rack travel stops then count turns for lock to lock as this, sadly, seems to be the default way of defining rack ratio. You might find you have rack limit stops to prevent the cycle wings hitting the tub. If so, given your use, it might be worth looking at widetrack so you can restore full travel. This has already been mentioned, but I repeat it here for clarity (I hope). We have the Silvertop on ours and a Dunnel (I think it was) modified sump. The good thing about the all-alloy one is they can be modified to retain the oil capacity, unlike the Blacktop design. Raceline seem to be the sump of choice, but not cheap as you say. Good luck with the engine hunt. I still kick myself that I didn’t buy a spare crate Zetec when they could be had for a few hundred quid. Not so much these days. Forgot to say, personally, I always prefer to take the engine out on its own, rather than engine & box as an assembly. While on the subject, I’ll add, to make things easier and safer, make a couple of alignment pins using spare bellhousing bolts with the heads cut off. Helps keep things aligned when removing and refitting. See my recent ‘winter tinkering’ thread in Tech Talk

I looked at the Travelodge today Julie and will def book it now I know there's gonna be at least one more Westy in the car park......

Really boring, just did an oil change on the MB - the 'A' service that was due. This was the first time I did the service on this car, as it was on a service contract up until last year to keep the HV/battery warranty active. I did replace the 12V main and aux batteries last year though, and a couple of door handle LEDs prior to that so have done a few small jobs on it. I bought one of those oil sucking gadgets to do this one. Not used one before and although it was a bit slower than I expected, it did a great job, absolutely zero mess or hassle. Also, zero crawling about on the floor too, which was nice. That said, I did do an undercarriage inspection so some crawling was involved I guess. It'll be really useful on the other cars as well, particularly the Midlana as some idiot put a solid panel under the engine bay and even without that, the sump plug is very awkward to get at due to the placement of a piece of chassis. Oil & filter swap done, I went to reset the service reminder, another thing I've not done before. The method I got from the internet didn't work on my car, perhaps because it's a hybrid(?) or maybe I just got it wrong, so I had to use the iCarSoft MB2 scanner I bought to go with the car. All seemed well, reset the indicator, told it which oil I'd put in, all good....then the car told me the 'B' service was 365 days overdue..... Messed about with it some, tried to restore then reset again, nope, it wouldn't reset the 'B' service alert. Checked there wasn't suddenly a fault with the dash, nope, no codes, got nowhere so decided to just live with it. I have documentary evidence it was done. Put the car back on the drive, re-checked the oil, final check over and.....service warning now gone away. I guess turning it off & on again did the trick. I took lots of pictures during the procedure and even a short video at one point. Don't really know why though tbh - either my word I did it, and properly, is acceptable...or it isn't. Pictures wouldn't really help. Looking to move this one along this year - time to go full EV for me.

Weekend Ticket and camping booked👍😁

I’m in Hotel booked👍

I may tag along on the sunday as its half an hour to scotch corner for me if I can get the sunday night off work.

Sorry we can't make this one😭 I'm working.