Eunos Chump

  Look, an almost mythical RTX3070!  I needed it to drive my Quest 2 VR headset. I only go places virtually now - it's been weeks since I've been more than half a mile from my house.

 It was on a knife-edge there for a while when the ABS light came on, but 2020 finally delivers some good news.

  Will this pass an MOT today?

Visited Norfolk for the first time in months, and was reunited with my GTV. I'd forgotten quite how tatty it is... it'll take more than repairing the lacquer to make it look even half-decent.  It started immediately though, and moving it backwards and forwards a bit confirmed the gearchange, clutch and brakes are all in excellent order. Interior has got a bit mouldy. I've lost my rubbish-car mojo at the moment so didn't start any work on it, but do plan to come back to it at some point, when I can think of a use for it.

 Lockdown has made me realise I don't need all these cars and I want out.  147 is currently roffling on the Autoshite...  CLK up for sale there too, CHEAPY CHEAP @ £1500 You'd better like wood. I'm going through another monkeybike-desire phase, it happens when the sun comes out. I want a tiddler bike to roam local lanes on, but they're not a cheap toy and might be hard to sell on (insurance group is surprisingly high).  So what about a WK Scramber?  Chinese but less than half the money.

Social distancing, honest. 

Have had Mrs Maimboy's CLK up for sale outside the house, as we get a fair bit of foot traffic now. Had a few folks having a look around it, dunno how I'd actually sort a test drive though... but that could be academic anyway, 'cos I've discovered my tatty CLK has holes in the inner wheelarch and won't see another MOT without welding.  Given the other faults it has, I'm probably going to sack it off and maybe keep this one instead.  Or try to get through the winter in an Alfa GTV.

Used a Holts headlamp restoration kit for these, it worked pretty well but basically it's some 800/1000/1500/3000 grit wet''n'dry paper, some fluid which I'm sure is T-Cut, and some polish which looks and smells suspiciously like ordinary furniture polish.  Rotary polishing mop is good though. Finally refurbished the silver CLK alloys, saved £200 doing it myself but it was extremely laborious.  That car is being prepped for sale, it looks bloody good after many hours of cleaning and scrubbing of the interior.  Pale grey interior + dogs = nope  sorting the rusty panel on the VFR too.  I'm even tackling the oil leak on my CLK - it's the rocker cover gasket, easy enough just never been arsed. 

This was a year ago yesterday; can't believe I've just SORN'd it until further notice. Berlingo was sold to a nice chap from Autoshite, went a day before the lockdown started.  Have given the 147 it's first proper clean, was hoping to sell that too but it'll have to wait now.  This would be a good chance to replace the cambelt, but it would mean getting the parts delivered via mail and that's hardly essential, is it? This is SORN'd too, along with the silver CLK.  I'm keeping the other road-legal, so I can at least have the roof down on my weekly visit to the grim, Soviet-era Sainsburys.

£500 to you, I reckon that's top value but it's not getting a lot of interest on Autoshite.  I decided to see how much it would cost Monkeyboy to insure as his first car - £1522!

CR-V bought today!  Got fed up looking at battered examples at dealers who were asking top money, so instead bought a really clean one from a private seller for 2/3rds of the price.  It's not this actual car, but identical. This is the 4th car in 5 months, and I'm not even trying.  I've really upped my shite game and some kind of award must be due?

 Small sportyish car is here, after a swapover in a remote Midlands truck stop.  Ride up there was very comfy in the Vel Satis, but the threat of breakdown was never far away. It is really quite small, almost Mini size.  Firm ride but not unacceptable, certainly better than a Cooper S.  Gearchange is comedy-bad, like a spoon in a bucket of gravel. Airbag light on, rear tyres are toast, fairly mucky.  17" wheels with tiny brakes.  This is the 1.6 Twinspark, only 120 BHP but it's very eager.  Gearing is quite low, turning over at 4000 RPM at 80mph.  Apart from the gearchange, it feels pretty tight and rattle-free.  And here is the cause of the gear issues, this shaft seizes and the plastic bushes wear out.  It's taken me about 6 sessions to remove this due to awkward access and my bad back stopping progress.

I have bought another Alfa, based on a single photo and a description. And it's still 200 miles away, residing with the chap who's having the Vel Satis.

Unfortunately the Vel Satis clutch issues have continued.  It is going to need a clutch slave cylinder and that means the 'box has to come off, and it would only be sensible to sort the rattling DMF and replace the clutch at the same time.  I like it, but not enough to fix that so it's going to another AS member in Bolton - group-funded by Autoshite folks. The Moonbus (the nickname Michelle invented for it, for example "your fucking moonbus is hemming my car in"), departs in a couple of weeks, when I'll be getting this Alfa instead (partly to solve the logistic issue of getting the Renault up north). Exciting.