No one can expect that their creation will be perfect from the first time that it turns a wheel. my car has been no exception.
The biggest problem that I had in the first few weeks after registration was a tendency for the car to vent its coolant and to overheat. after having the radiator reconditioned and making some shrouding for the fan did not fix the problem someone suggested that the radiator cap might be faulty. It was, and a new one has cured this rather serious problem.
The radio CD player that came out of my engine donor has proven to be a waste of time, at any speed above 60 kph it was inaudible and it showed a distinct dislike for any kind of moisture when it shorted out after the car was rained on while parked. I removed it and made a small glove box, that is handy for sunglasses ect in it’s place.
My wheel alignment was very much a case of getting it as close as I could “guesstimate” it and, frankly I got the camber rather wrong this became clear when i noticed the wear pattern on the tyres, after consulting with my mate at the local servo I decided to wind the camber inwards by two turns on each of the top joints the wheels now look right and hopefully that will be enough. The front tyres were replaced as the originals , which were on the wheels when I bought them were no longer legal.
A couple of weeks ago the speedo began to dance around wildly and sometimes just drop back to zero an inspection of the drive on the gearbox showed that the retaining bolt had fallen out but fortunately it was still sitting in the transmission tunnel, so it was easy to fix.
The new fuel tank has made a huge difference to the usability of the car I can now travel at least 250k between fill ups and the car is doing about 10k per litre, even when diving in the most spirited manner. Maybe I could do better than that if I tried but really being miserly with the petrol is not what these cars are about.
Iain Hall
Iain's Seven 