I can see clearly now the rain is gone.....

After a bit of a quest, I have managed to find some new windscreen wipers that match the old ones. With flat windscreens, GGs used the older style of flat bales without the built in spring mechanism that modern wipers have to keep the blade in contact with curved windscreens. They seem to be quite hard to get these days - after quite a bit of web searching, I found that Britax / PSV Wypers still make them and as they sell to trade only, I then tracked down a specialist 'screenwiper systems' company called Transwipers in Worcester. Result, for not much more than modern wipers, a pair of classic wipers which are far more suitable and look the part! Oh, and which move water off the windscreen!

Bad day at the office, darling?

So, having planned to pop up to put on the new voltage regulator, I set forth with much in mind and a list of jobs to do. Arrived, set up, extention lead out, fan heater on in the cab. Great.

Old regulator came off easily enough, wires matched what Dan and Rhys from RSOLES had been talking about last night, marked them up with masking tape. So far so good. Popped the new one on then realised that my small fine screwdriver set which I would need to connect the two smaller wires to the terminals was at home on the box room. Fair enough. Anyway, started to screw on the nuts to hold the unit on and as there is now much more thread exposed than there was, do I have any white spirit and a cloth to de-grease the thread? Nope, that's under the sink at home. Can I get a socket or spanner into the right hand nut (which is the earth as well) which is now sandwiched in a narrow gap between the box and the cab side? Nope. Anyway, rough fixing done, will complete next time.

Next - I'll whizz the bulb out of the rear blue light on the roof which doesn't work. Cover off no worries, gently working the bulb out - snap! Base now stuck in the fitting, no small screwdrivers to work the remnants out.

OK - I'll take off the rear nearside light as the bracket is badly bent from where I reversed into a tractor on my original test drive so I can take it home and straighten it. Hooked the work light up, sat on my cardboard with all the tools and a wire brush and WD40 - clang! Work light falls off, buld dead, spare at home, no light. Job finished, so a scrape with the brush and a squirt of WD40 for next time.

Hey ho - did get the rusty badge off the front for re-chroming and remembered the windscreen wiper so I can replace the blade. Also discovered that weirdly, the heat exchanger taps at the the front don't have a matched flow / tap handle set up, so what I thought was open (handle pointing along the pipe) was in fact closed! Anyway, opened and a small amount of water came out after I jiggled the pipes but not much.

After that, I thought it was time to go home really. I'd only break something else! Friday the 13th? Pffft, try Sunday 15th.... I guess some days just go like that.....

Duncan.

It's always good to give your tool kit a good scrub

Well, what better way to spend a tedious new year evening when there's nothing on telly? Sad but Christmas at a very nice hotel in the Lakes and Hogmanay in Edinburgh seem a lifetime away.

Having acquired a hearth kit, it had sadly seen better days with quite serious rust progressing nicely as the contents hadn't just been damp but submerged! The bag was given a wash in my almost volcanic hot water with a little washing-up liquid and a stiff brush before drying. The tools required a little more work.... It's amazing what 3 litres of coke does! The tools were soaked in this most festive of drinks (think about that one....) and other than an occasional prod and scrape, came out in much better shape as you can see.

Sadly, the 2 saws will need even more TLC and I'm not sure that coke is the answer here!