I think Sweetpea towers is the new Roswell. You see quite some time ago a silver space ship crash landed on my drive. This thing…
I’ve just been too busy to go and see if it’s full of dead aliens.
Well, I say it crash landed on the drive but in reality it never hit the drive and has been hovering about 8 inches above it for several months. I’m not sure if failing to actually hit the ground constitutes a crash but where aliens are concerned I’m not arguing.
Some old chap was wandering past the gate at the weekend and I overheard him asking Mrs Sweetpea if “I’d given up with it”. It was about this time that I remembered that it wasn’t a crashed space ship but a classic and valuable MR2 that was at serious risk of winding up in the ‘Abandoned’ thread.
Anyway, “given up with it”? Cheeky git. Hope he’s quick on his feet or he might not be getting much older.
Oh, and if you are wondering why the cover is covered in gaffer tape it’s because it’s falling apart. And then the local bird life decided that it’d make excellent nesting material and ripped it to shreds for a fortnight.
Underneath we find this immaculate piece of Japanese engineering.
A quick recap is probably in order. This thing is fresh in my mind but it’s probably not the first thing you all think about.
The previous owner stuffed the rear wing round a post of some sort and it looked like this when I got the car.
I did bash it out a bit and, believe it or not, it did pass the MOT. However the MOT man was starting to get a bit twitchy as increasing amounts of it turned to oxide and fell off the car.
So I cut the wing off and started working on a second hand replacement. I got as far as repairing the replacement, priming it, and getting it lined up and pinned onto the car. Then life interrupted progress and this is how it’s sat for way too long.
The wing needs the inside painting black, the weld areas preparing, and then welding onto the car. Then it needs the outside painting black and clear coating. And then the window can go back in and the car will be water tight again. That’s the goal. Get the car water tight and get rid of that poxy cover before the birds pinch even more of it. Or buy another cat. That might help too.
So… I’ve done my chores for the weekend… What’s to stop me doing something on the car? Well, er, nothing.
Right then. One place where the wing doesn’t quite meet the car is the rear valance. That is because the rear valance is either missing or full of holes and soon to be missing.
It’s not a large area so let’s chop the duff bits out and make some new bits.
Now yes, I know, if this was
teaboy's thread or
commycouper's thread we’d be making a complete new rear end better than the original. But it isn’t and I’m not. I mean, there are some vents in the lower part of the valance that have more holes than standard so it needs some serious work but not today.
Even worse, I’m not even going to make this in one piece because I don’t have to. Bloody amateur hour here at Sweetpea Towers. It’s going to be some bits of bean can, some pigeon poo welding, a load of filler, and you’ll think yourself lucky!
Where am I going to find a bean can big enough to do all that? Going to be like ‘Blazing Saddles’ at my house…
First though we need some music. As it happens I’ve been ripping the CD collection onto the NAS box from where I can play it via DLNA to the amp in the living room or direct to the media centre in the garage. Did that make sense to you technological dinosaurs? No? Well it doesn’t matter. The point is I’ve had an opportunity to listen to some old stuff that I’ve not heard in years. Like this…
Pendragon!? Who the hell were Pendragon?
An album cover that probably cost more than the recording of the record?
A three part tune lasting over 20 minutes?
Got to be Prog Rock right?
Yeah. Prog Rock. I quite liked them back in the day. I reckon they could have been quite big if it wasn’t for three small points.
1, They were beaten by all the other prog rock bands that did become big.
2, They really needed a better singer.
3, Nobody else agreed with my thought that they could have been big.
Anyway, I quite enjoyed listening to this again. You’ll all hate it because - see point 3.
Back to the car.
I had an enjoyable afternoon listening to Pendragon’s music while bending bits of baked been tin into a ‘build your own MR2’ kit.
Glue PT 1 to PT 2. Then glue PT 3 to PTs 1 & 2…
Then glue that to the car (PT 4).
I’ve got to that point where I can keep tweaking it for a perfect fit but as soon as the welder gets near it the whole thing will twist out of shape anyway.
Then I ran out of time and had to go in for tea. Not ‘tea’ as in ‘cup of…’ but tea as in that meal that Northerners have in the early evening that Southerners refer to as ‘dinner’ because they don’t know any better.
looking’ at you Mrs Sweetpea! I did get her onto mushy peas briefly but I haven’t got her to put gravy on her chips.
Guess what we’ll be doing this weekend then!?
That’s right!
A day with the bus. Cutting the lawns. Some work round at the Gatehouse. Trip to Canterbury. Hmmph. Thought I was done with chores.
James.
)
