Ups & downs

Starting with the down I noticed that when I was setting off to take Anita to work Becky's driver's window was open. I took a look and found out that she'd been broken into but fortunately, nothing was taken (there was nothing worth stealing) and the ignition barrel was intact. I don't know why the aireheads would want to steal this car as she looks like a shed at the moment and the interior is a tip. I suspect that hotwiring is becoming a lost art and even so, Becky's battery is flat (needs replacing anyway) and needs a jump start every time. I rang the guru and he has one in stock so I can get it replaced. The first night Becky's out of the garage and this happens! As soon as I've finished the welding on Margaret Becky's going back in the garage.

On a slightly more posititve note I made a start in welding Margaret's sill. After a couple of minutes with the grinder it looked like this.
I welded a plate on the rearmost hole but I was blowing holes in the sill even with the voltage settings on the lowest. I think the remaining steel where I've ground off the rust is too thin so blowing holes can't be avoided. Maybe I should've cut a section out. I'll look at doing that on the other section. At least it is a step in the right direction as you can see.

I took off the wiper arms and I've found out why they were loose. The part where the spindle fits in has worn away. When I was on the phone to the Acclaim guru he said the cause was lack of regular lubrication. Becky & Blue are fine so I need to lubricate them both as soon as I can. As a fix I'm going to try to build up some weld to replace what has worn away as the entire spindle assembly is rusty.

There's a guy (I'll call him Craig) who's local who has bought an Acclaim. His car is a beauty and he came round today to see my own collection. I couldn't resist the opportunity to take a photos of all 4 of our Acclaims. This must be the biggest collection of Acclaims in one place that don't belong to the guru. (even though I bought Margaret from him) Craig's car had a new exhaust as the old one was blowing and as a result of this the exhaust bracket was surplus as he'd had a later type exhaust fitted so he gave me the bracket which will go on Margaret as she has an early type exhaust. I gave him a spare parts catalogue on CD-ROM which came from the parts I got from Nick. I'm going to give him one of my spare handbooks as soon as I can find them.