February 2002
Tuesday 26th February 2002
I'm driving round in a spanking new Mondeo LX at the moment. The new Mondeo engine is very smooth, but not as nippy as my 1.8 Series One in the old Mondeo. I was at Microsoft at Reading yesterday, Crawley today, and Manchester tomorrow. Glad its nice to drive. I was promoted to manager recently, and the job involves much travelling and lots of meetings.
Popped in to Woodford Trailers this afternoon, and had a look at their collection of completed trailers. Quite tempting, but I just need to make sure that the Fessie will fit, as the width of the trailer bed is 65" and Beccy is 64". A quick double check, and I'll know for sure.
I notice theres a few guestbook messages from other readers (Hi) that have had problems with TAS and their extra-ordinary delivery times. I've not had a chance to see if the shortened bar has been returned yet, but I'm in Leicester tomorrow morning before going to Manchester, so with a bit of luck..
Friday 22nd February 2002
Posted one of the sections from the panhard rod back to TAS. Needs shortening by 50mm. Hope it doesn't take too long to come back.
Fitted the 2nd of the two aluminium covers to the boot space. Just need to clean and spray them red. The metal box shown, covers the fuel cell filler and breather nozzles. It completes the firewall between myself and the fuel cell. It looks kind of odd, but its a solution to the firewall problem. The box is pop-riveted to the sheet, and the box-lid can be removed to allow me to refuel the car.
Friday 22nd February 2002
The Panhard Rod doesn't fit! Its too long, by about 50mm (2"). TAS say that they based it on the standard rod, and it doesn't fit because I've lowered my car. I pointed out that the reason I ordered an adjustable rod, was because I'd lowered the car! Why else would you want to adjust its length! Like, whats the point in making an adjustable Panhard rod, if you can't adjust its length so that it's shorter than the original! Sometimes, I just want give up! But I wont be beaten. The longest piece of tubing is going back tomorrow, to be shortened, by 50mm.
Aluminium box arrived from Maplins today. It covers the fuel filler on the ally tank cover that I've made. I'll take some photos tomorrow and post them on the site, when I've finished fixing it on.
Spoke to Woodford Trailers today. Their cheapest trailer is £700 + VAT, and is 1.67M (66") wide, and as the Fiesta's wheel base is 1.62M (64") wide, it should go on (just). The length of the trailer is 3M (120 inches), and with the tow bar on the front, easily fits in my 6.4M (17 feet) long garage. I'm going to pay them a visit on Tuesday afternoon, on my way back from Crawley, to see one of their trailers for myself.
We saw Monsters Inc last night. Pretty cool film, though I found the short film shown before the main feature, One for the birds much funnier.
The membership pack arrived from the Midland Speed Championships. For some reason they hadn't put enough postage on the envelope, so I had to pay 56pence for the privilege of collecting it from the Post Office. Strange, as the Loton park regs also had insufficient postage, and I had to pay 64pence for that too. Either someone's trying to set a new trend, or my local Post Office is trying to make a fast buck.
Monday 18th February 2002
The reason why it's been a three week gap since the last update is because I've just returned from a business trip to the Middle East. I was working in the United Arab Emirates from the 7th - 17th February, and all I can say is WOW, what a country! Incredible, and if you ever get the opportunity to visit the UAE, don't pass it by. The strange thing was that I didn't see a single Ford in the city where I was working. Lots of Mercs, Beemers, and Lexus, and thousands of Toyota taxi's, but not one Ford!
I took over 120MB of photo's and video's and I'll get some uploaded as soon as I've finished the unpacking, and I've recovered from the jetlag. There was a four hour time difference, and its been a struggle so far to get used to GMT again.
The Panhard Rod has finally arrived from TAS. Four months! Can you believe that? Four months after I ordered it it arrives. Its nicely engineered, and well worth the £64, but four months delivery is probably the longest I've had to wait for any of the parts I've used during the project. You have to agree thats pretty bad service from Trans Auto Sport.
Now I'm back home, I can get the last few bits finished over the coming weeks and have the engine rolling road tuned at ****.