Ian Perry

No alternative vehicles, sadly. I don't imagine the organisers would be particularly impressed at my entering in my only other car - a 2012 Skoda Fabia estate!

Er, sad to say... check your e-mail Tim 😞

I've got one that's going back into the barn 😞 Gearbox, diff, brakes and electrical problems all showing up (plus crucially I can't get Anthony to fit into the driver's seat!) so we've taken the difficult and very sad decision to withdraw 😞

Thanks all I have a spare 1500 head somewhere which may have been converted (Note to self: I really do need to find it, unpack it and have a look at the valve seats), so I won't worry too much in that case. With the impending change to that veggie unleaded that rots the seals, I'll be running on super unleaded anyway.

Not that much difference in terms of driving position, internal space or comfort! 🙂

It's got good seats, thanks, I went to a lot of trouble to get the seating positions as comfortable as possible...

Hi Yorks - yes, first time in a Spitz. I've done it x3.5 in Toledos and Dolomites (the 0.5 was last time, it ended near Carlisle with no.3 conrod bent into an interesting shape and most of the big end cap in the oily sludge at the bottom of the sump)... Yes, hardcore is a good word. The car is a lot of fun at the moment, but not exactly restful. It's got a targa top (made from a ratty hardtop) on it, but I'm waiting for a full GRP hardtop to turn up, a friend is supposed to be collecting it for me from south Wales... I hope that would make it quieter at least 😉

OK, now the car's running... The engine is the best bit of the car and runs well. It has always felt as if someone had at least looked after that part of it if nothing else. But I have no idea whether it's had an unleaded head put on it. Short of taking the head off**, I don't suppose there's any way of finding out? Either way round... I don't imagine any harm would come from using an additive, in which case does anyone have a suggestion which one to use? ** After the horrors of a last-minute change to an unleaded head on the old Toledo, and blowing a couple of, doing a head gasket change on the morning of the RBRR last time... I am NOT doing that again. VMT

And of course I took the Spitz out. Now wondering what we've let ourselves in for, with the RBRR. I haven't had time to do the overdrive conversion so the car is a bit under-geared for motorway cruising, and it's noisy and cramped. Feels more like my occasional drives in a FF1600 single-seater in years gone past. But the engine feels quite healthy and pulls well, and nothing has fallen off yet after about 50 miles...

😄 definitely! Anthony and I will be out next weekend, but I might take it out tomorrow too. I was supposed to be working (I am a freelance cricket scorer - yes, such things do exist!) but the match in question has fallen through. It was to be The Brigade of Guards CC v Harrow old boys, but I suspect most players of both sides will be at Lord's tomorrow getting ver' ver' drunk old boy... so it's a toss-up between trying to blag a game playing for my local club or taking the Spitz out. Tough choice!

Well, the Spitzenfeuer went off for its MoT a month ago, and came back looking a bit shamefaced with a split rack gaiter, knackered wiper blades and a small rust hole. But redemption came ten days ago, so the wee blue car is now road legal! I've done a quick blast up and down the main road so far but not done more than that, hopefully over the next couple of weekends I can start doing some actual driving around to get some miles under its belt and see if anything falls off. And also see if Anthony can fit in...

Thanks, Ben. It doesn't take anything as complex as that, for me to end the day none the wiser...

Thanks, Tim and Danny - much appreciated both of you. Being an instinctive traditionalist, obviously I would prefer a re-cored OEM radiator - but sadly, at the moment (lack of) money is a significant factor. I haven't priced up getting the existing rad re-cored, but would be very surprised if it cost less than a radiator like Danny's. The other thing to consider is that the car isn't in all truth particularly original, the previous owner fitted a number of GRP body parts and it now has a pair of (authentic, period style) bucket seats rather than OEM recliners. So sacrificing several weeks' food in return for an OEM radiator would be somewhat esoteric if I could get an aftermarket radiator that works and actually eat for longer...

This is just me musing and maundering, rather than any particular request for help... The Spitz is not yet in regular use, so it doesn't run every day. And starting it the first time after a break is a bit of a hassle as it seems to lose all the fuel in the pipes, pump, hoses and fuel bowls. The pump then struggles to pull it up from the tank and the last couple of times I have only got it to start by actually sucking the fuel up to the pump myself. Then it stops and starts ok. There isn't any obvious sign of leakage from the float chambers, hoses, pump or tank (all the hoses are new), though I have noticed a bit of petrol whiff in the boot - but I had put that down to what appears to be a missing screw (to be fixed tomorrow, hopefully) in the fuel tank filler neck. So I'm not entirely sure what's going on. The pump has been apart a couple of times, so I am not 100% confident of the quality of the seal between top chamber (full of fuel) and the big bad world outside, although (as above) I haven't found any signs of leakage. Annoyingly, one of the things I had bought for the Toledo (before it died!) was a fuel pump...

Two months later... I'm still waiting for the no.3 radiator bloke to replace the leaky one, so the car still as the manky-finned no.1 radiator in, but the car still hasn't been anywhere so I haven't found out how ineffective it is yet! Still hoping to find the Holy Grail of an affordable, decent quality and condition wide radiator! But then I looked online at those cheap ally radiators and wondered if canting it forward very slightly (max 1" at the top) would help with the top hose angle... So long as it cleared the bonnet ;-)

There's nothing quite like the knowledge that you've greased your nipples thoroughly 👩‍⚕️

I have tried so many times to use an Ezibleed. It currently ranks alongside a set of "Easi-out" thread extractors as "worst tool of the millenium" I have come to the firm conclusion that any tool that's called Easy-Anything is just a complete load of rubbish. Sorry!

Oh goodness, how can I look any of the tools in the eye and have them know that they aren't my favourite? The angle grinder would win, for its unparalleled ability to turn metal into sparks, but it nearly bit my thumb off, so it's in the dog-house... The welder is pretty special, and it's amazing how many jobs become welding problems - until you burn through a glove and leave your hand permanently scarred... The humble chisel is a noble beast - until you slip, stab yourself in the thigh and end up in front of your landlady with your trousers down while she straps you up... The cordless drill is very good, but I seem to end up putting holes in my hands, and the versatility of battery power means it happens anywhere... I'm kinda leaning towards my set of palm ratchets. At least they haven't tried to kill me. Yet.

Hi Jason, can you just change the colour of mine please (car 161) - no longer "white with rust" but now "blue" Many thanks 🙂

This in a car that has a home-made Targa top made out of an old hardtop, glassfibre rear wings and front end, bucket seats and lairy harnesses, it's in an eye-melting colour, and you're worried about the windscreen trim? 😄 It's not coming on too terribly, thanks Tim - Anthony and I both fit into it (a good thing, as otherwise I was going to have to modify Anthony, and the screaming and blood might not have gone down well with his wife...) and we took it up the lane and back OK the other day. I spent the BH weekend cutting the rotten bonnet-hinge boxes off and welding a pair of recovered (solid) ones on, so hopefully the front end won't fall off on the first bump. Comedy moment. Anthony hadn't seen it for ages, and the last time he saw it it was white, now it's blue (yes, Tim, I'll update the RBRR entry). But all the workshop crew joined in and for about five minutes I had him convinced it had always been blue :-D

And too much chrome is just ostentatious.

Thanks folks. I know that often the chrome is cited as helping secure the glass, by effectively pressing the seal into shape/into place, but the old seal (which I cut to get the old screen out, as it was perished to oblivion) never had any chrome in it. OK, so I won't bother 🙂 Sorted!

Hello all, A few months ago I bought a windscreen seal for the Spitz and last weekend I successfully fitted the laminated screen. Hooray! But I don't have the chrome finisher (it's in two halves I think for the MkIV/1500) and so far haven't seen any for sale. How much of an issue is it? Does it affect the security of the screen/seal, or is it purely cosmetic? Can I use one labelled as MkI-III or does it have to be the MkIV/1500 one? Or are there any generic ones that are suitable? VMTIA

Thanks, both of you. The vendor of the leaky radiator (my no.3 rad!) has acknowledged the fault and will replace, so when I get that one (hopefully soon) I can stick it in and see how I get on. I am hoping that - unlike the 2018 RBRR with the Toledo - I can actually do some "reliability growth" running in the Spitz this summer, and get further than Shap Fell in October.