S122A project commencing

[Eccentric shaft]

It was so windy on the day i did that video, the beautiful twin-dizzy sound simply blew away. Here's a sound sample to make up for it:

[Eccentric shaft]

Our roads might be bumpy, but not a lot of traffic encountered on the flight up and down the valleys today. 260 trouble-free kms of pure joy. 

[Casey]

Great news and progress - well done for persevering with solving the carb problems 

Still working on cleaning up my 4 barrel Nikki:

[Eccentric shaft]

Looking good! We might need a "Nikki of the week" thread for this one! 

MoT went reasonably well. Brakes stuck on the front (mechanic had to be more heavy-footed than me, I suppose), horn works only when button is being dismantled or reassembled (fault finding a bit nerve-racking and the neighbours are not best pleased), and there's some earth connection problem on the indicators. Should be manageable.

[Eccentric shaft]

MoT passed! 
Undersealing next.

[Casey]

Wooohooo, good news on MOT 

[Eccentric shaft]

Last Sunday Noriaki went in for undersealing. A nice rural drive of some 45 miles away. Monday reports ticked in that RUST  had been found and sand blasting was needed. So, the spa and tar mask resort stay was extended and expanded to include peeling as well. Company sorted this brilliantly and did a great job. Car was not best pleased, though. Apparently, the workmen made a mess of the start up, so it flooded. And when they brought in the battery booster, the main fuse for the ignition went. So picking the car up became a full exam in de-flooding, heating plugs and firing up. Driving home was far from the magic carpet ride of getting there. Noriaki was and grumpy and acting up a bit (not willing to pull properly uphill). Now facing a big job of cleaning up the engine bay. Hopefully, whatever faults have popped up during the ordeal/treatment can be put right as part of the tidying up. Most importantly, car is now painted and rust proofed. Only exhaust system to replace now. The rest qualifies as tinkering & detailing. 

[Casey]

A bit of a setback but, hopefully, easy to put right, given you had a good journey to the "Spa and Tar" place.

Good to know they found and dealt with the rust they discovered though!

[Eccentric shaft]

The messy engine bay. That s**te got absolutely everywhere. And it sticks, too. Just gotta roll up those sleeves tomorrow and get on with it. 

[Eccentric shaft]

First of the small winter projects: replacing the lost spare wheel. Got hold of a nice, straight rim. Surface rust was pretty bad, so sent it in for sandblasting and priming. Now it's in the paint shop and will come back nice and satin black, hopefully. I went for satin black as per original. The other rims are currently some form of charcoal metallic. Once that paint starts wearing out, I'll repaint them satin black, too, of course.

[Eccentric shaft]

Ahh! Nice to have a tidy engine bay again. 
I have been thinking a bit about those "dog-eared" bonnet corners. And I remembered my MX5 NA pop-up headlamp covers: If they have sagged, put on a pair of gloves and bend them gently back into position. I thought the same might work for the Rx2 bonnet – and it did! Problem solved!
I suppose over the years the bonnet has been lifted by the corners a few hundred times. Just needed a re-set.

[Eccentric shaft]

Working abroad is a welcome change, but the garage is now 2000 miles away, so the Rx-2 project is temporarily put on hold. Next thing that will happen is to sort the badges out (as some of you might have suspected after reading my half-rant in the pic-of-the-day thread) 

When it comes to those antelope badges on the c-post, I can't make my mind up which to choose. The 1972-model came with Series II antelopes. They are bigger than the neat little blue antelopes on the 1971-models. The latter are much nicer, but the "heffalump-sized" ones are original on my car. So it's a case of purism vs aesthetics. I'm listing towards aesthetics. Any strong opinions out there? Place your vote!

(The photos below are different scale, of course, the antelope heads are roughly the same size, but the circle is wider on the Series II ones)

[clive]

OK, being pedantic, if it's right on a change over year, very few people are ever going to know if you have the wrong badge on.

If the same model came with both, unless you told people, they will never know the difference.

So in other words, fit the one you prefer and done with .   

[Eccentric shaft]

Well spoken! I guess a set of big fat Capella antelopes will be coming up for sale soon. 
I remember being transfixed by that blue antelope emblem at the age of 4.

[clive]

Well spoken! I guess a set of big fat Capella antelopes will be coming up for sale soon. 
I remember being transfixed by that blue antelope emblem at the age of 4.

You have answered your own question