Wintering

It’s been winter down here in the Southern Hemisphere so there haven’t been any shows or outings. Lucie and I have been out and about a bit just to stay running, and of course there have been days when she didn’t run and so she ended up back in the garage getting her innards looked at.

So she’s had a few little jobs done in the winter season, and every little job is one more way I’m hopeful she gets closer to being my ‘every day’ vehicle.

Back in February I was all set to take her for a long run out into the country but as I pulled out of the driveway and went around the block she kept losing power every time she wound down to idle as I pulled up at an intersection… So I drove her around the block a few times, it didn’t improve so I parked her back in the garage and took the Starlet on my travels.

This didn’t resolve the issue though so I drove it carefully to the mechanic and got him to take a look. If you know cars at all it won’t surprise you that it was a carbie issue… and a couple of tweaks and replacement bits in it and we were away and running, and like a ROCKET! So much better for that little bit of treatment…

Of course, I can’t just leave Bryan and Dave to fix the one thing… there’s always a shopping list she goes in with, and on this occasion I wanted to add on her 2nd wing mirror so she matched on both sides, and to sort out the problem with her liquid suspension the symptom of which was that she kept dropping on the passenger side.

Ok, so in normal circumstances in the hydrolastic suspension system the fluid flows between the front and back suspension via a metal tube. Replacing this requires pulling out the engine and the subframe to refit it so it’s not a job to be taken on lightly, and at some point in the distant past, the passenger side hydro tube on Lucie has been replaced by a PVC pipe. Not exactly able to hold pressure well… nor particularly robust if you fling up a stone underside. So, without boring you with the details (any more than I already had) The mechanics had the brilliant idea of getting a hydraulics specialist in to advise if we could replace the PVC with a metal braided, pressurised tube. Brilliant idea, given the answer was affirmative the end result was a stable car, floating on its fluid filled bags, and staying level! Top Work! (Photo credit: Josh Reeve)

Fast Forward to the first weekend in August and a beautiful day with a bunch of out of town friends all together to celebrate a wonderful wedding. The girls and I piled into the car and drove a couple of suburbs away, enjoyed the wedding and turned tail to come home before the reception. We turned into my street, Lucie coughed a little as we did so, and we pulled up outside the house. I ducked inside to let the girls in to freshen up and came out to check the wee girl out as she’d felt a bit funky as I pulled up.

She wasn’t having it… I could turn the key, she’d turn over, but wouldn’t catch… we weren’t going anywhere.

Bad news she was parked in the driveway… but, what good news! I happened to have 3 friends with me to help get her into the garage…

Hilarity ensues…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXcvXlHA_IJ/

As I’m not sure of the rules about flat towing in Victoria, and actually for safety I ended up organising a tow truck to take her the 13km from my place to the mechanic.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BX4KOdvANxk/

And of course, she went off with a catalogue of issues to resolve while she was there… this time we got the issue fixed, of course which was simply wires needing resetting on the coil, but we got her petrol gauge sorted so I can drive her a bit more confidently (even if I do keep 10l in the boot… a 14l tank doesn’t get you far), got her heater rewired in, so now the thing actually blows warm air! How modern! And actually, to make it truly modern I got a cheeky 12v electrical socket installed… I mean,  a girl needs to be able to charge her phone on a road trip…