The Daimler V8

Some may remember I had purchased an LPG converted Daimler V8, which I had intended to use as a daily driver. Things changed and I ended up buying a BMW 7 series instead (as above) but before I sold it I got some photos of the Daimler V8.





















It was in fabulous condition; better than our Super V8, but I did not have the space to keep two of them.

A nice day out in the Daimler

In May 2021 we enjoyed a nice day out in the Daimler. We went to the "Jaguar Breakfast club" meet at the Gaydon British motor museum.

I took the Daimler for Petrol the night before, and she drove perfectly. But then on the morning I started her up and this appeared!... I thought sod it lets give it a go, and she made it all the way there and back, suspension felt fine, but the light stayed on the whole time.



On the way home we stopped for dinner, in our home town. To my surprise when we left, just 10 miles from home, the fault cleared!.. suggests something needs investigation I suppose.

Here's Aston settled in.



Spencer looks less impressed, perhaps he prefers the Lexus?



We also managed to get into the video made by the museum:



Then as a wonderful bonus, one of the Jaguar forum members called Mark made Aston this lovely plaque!



He 3D printed it, and it has a kind of metallic finish to it. Not sure where we shall put it? Could not be more grateful, such a kind thing to do.

After this trip I decided I needed to spend some more time and cash on the Daimler, but since I was so busy I took the Daimler off the road on a SORN.

The Daimler needs a home

Because the poor Daimler was getting rather dirty sat outside, and because I needed somewhere clean and dry to work on it, I decided to finally give the Daimler a proper home!

I'm building a 9m x 9m oversized triple garage, which means I have plenty of space to not only house the 3 household cars but also somewhere for all my tools, and all the other things that Lindsey affectionately refers to as "all your crap".

The first step is a sturdy concrete base, and I drafted the below:



I got this quoted by a groundworks contractor, then they could not do it so I found someone else. Work was eventually planned for January 2022.

I was going to build the garage myself originally, using timber. But I since found someone affordable, which was inevitable as I just do not have the time to do it myself.

This was part of the first draft I did.

 

Another Cherman joins the stable

While I love Jags, I also love German cars, and in particular I have a soft spot for Mercedes.

September 2021 I saw a Mercedes CL500 at auction on Ebay. They car appeared pretty tidy, and was going for very little money. It stated it had an ABC fault, which I knew could be expensive, and suspected might cost over £1,500 to fix. But at the right price I was interested.

The advert did not mention it, but it appeared to have keyless entry, Nappa leather. The car was on 110,000 miles, and an MOT history search threw up nothing scary (I got the registration from the owner so I could check).

I ventured a bid in the last 10 seconds of the Auction, and won the car for £2,150.... it was very unexpected, and I had the sudden realisation that I now had to tell my wife I had bought another car...





I'm not happy with Santander

It was a complete fiasco when I went to collect the Mercedes. I went one evening thinking I could simply do a wire transfer like I usually do. I did a test payment the day before, and it all went through to the seller perfectly.

But on this occasion Santander decided to block my account when I tried to transfer the rest of the money. It seems they are being a little more strict due to all the scams going on at the moment. I spent half an hour on hold, then when I did speak to someone they said I needed to speak to security... and back on hold I went.

At 8pm I was played a short message saying their offices had closed and the phone cut off!!

After a bit of thinking, I realised I had an unused credit card, and a Paypal account. After my wife kindly gave me the credit card details over the phone, I managed to transfer the money using Paypal instead.... phew... and the seller let me take the car home!

I should add that the seller was not best pleased when he realised that Paypal hold the money for 7 days before releasing it.... but I did not realise that at the time

It turns out that Santander security are actually 24hrs, so I could have got them on a different number, but of course I did not know that at the time...

I feel another video coming on

I am really thrilled with the car, I just love it. I think it even has more "coolness" than the 2009 W216 I had a couple of years back.

Yes the suspension did play up, and there are occasional ABC faults that seem to clear on a cycle of the ignition as mysteriously as they appeared. But I did notice other things:

1) The water temp climbed to 90 degrees, but seemed to drop to 80 degrees later in the journey.
2) I noticed a horrid "burnt coolant" smell a couple of times. The sort of smell that fills me with dread... let's hope that's nothing.
3) When idling, there is a very odd sound coming from the front of the engine. It sounds like it might be the bearings in the cooling fan? (if there are any?)
4) When you put your foot down, it occasionally flies off like a scolded cat... then other times it hesitates before accelerating rather disappointingly.

There are lots of other minor issues, but these are the ones that are alarming me at the moment.

I have booked it in with Alex Crow, who is definitely the best mechanic I have ever dealt with, and (hopefully) he can sort the suspension out, as well as give the car an examination, and a jolly good service!

But its not all doom and gloom, as the car looks lovely and these are a few highlights:

1) The bodywork is lovely, with rust in only a few minor, very exclusive, places. It's more "distinguished" than rusty.
2) The interior is Nappa leather... I thought it was from the photos, but you can never be sure. It also has the lovely suede head lining too.
3) The dreaded parking sensors all work!
4) The Bose audio system all works!... no blown channels or speakers as far as I can tell.
5) The heated seats work - yes!
6) The tyres are all premium brands (Michelin rears, Pirelli fronts) and all have good tread.
7) The soft closure works on both doors.
8) All the other electrics seem to work.
9) There is a fridge between the rear seats! (but it might not work)

It goes back downhill from there... but I am trying to keep positive.

I think the best thing will be a nice introduction video, with a walk around the car, and a bit of nice footage. I managed to do such a video very recently, and here it is for anyone interested (I may have stretched the truth about how the car was purchased when I told my wife as you will see):

You Tube

A bit of a let down

The Mercedes went to my usual Mercedes Specialist garage Alex Crow, but to my surprise he was not as friendly as usual.

He said he did not like that model of Mercedes, and that the owners tend to be unhappy people due to the problems that occur. He also said he might not have time to completely fix it on this visit. Then the biggest bombshell he dropped was when he gave me the keys to the courtesy car and said he'd need it back by the end of the day. Very odd.

Later that day he called me.

He had serviced the Mercedes, but done little else other than confirm it needed the things it had gone in for. I was actually rather annoyed.

The week after than, Aston got quite ill, and we did not do much more in 2021. We very nearly stayed in hospital over Christmas with Aston, but luckily he was discharged on the 24th December.

Here's Aston playing with his toys at Kings Lynn Hospital:

 

I have to say I love your thread so thank you. I hope Ashton is well on his way to a full recovery - nice to see the full head of hair! - but I do look at your signature and wonder about his future ability to develop any kind of brand loyalty!

 

I am glad you are enjoying it Ken, thanks for posting.

The posts are getting close to bringing the thread up to the current day now - then I can post more current updates. There is a lot going on here at the Clark family home!

As you have noticed, I'm not really loyal to any one car brand these days. I was a die hard Jaguar fan in my teens and twenty's, but when the Jaguar X351 came out in 2010, I did not like the styling, and it left the Jaguar brand with nothing to interest me for my day to day transport. I don't hate the X351, and I think the interior is actually very nice. But I don't think its very "special" either; and given the reliability issues of the X351 I'd rather steer well clear of them.



Sadly the X350/X358 were a little basic even in their time, so I am reluctant to buy any more of those; particularly as I have already had 3 of them, and the value of them is actually higher than it was 10 years ago; I think the value of the X350/X358 is being kept artificially high due to there being no direct replacement model, and it being considered last of the "real Jags" by many people.

Things got even worse for me when Jaguar removed the XK model, which was the only other car in the range I liked. These days I think Jaguar has more in common with Alfa Romeo than Bentley, Mercedes or Aston Martin, a very sad thing to me. I can only assume they are pursuing the younger buyer; or those having a mid-life crisis who buy the "boy racer" F-type models .

I notice similar line up changes with the Cadillac and Lincoln brands, who have moved to a lot of SUV models. I guess people are not interested in big luxury saloons and GT coupes anymore, but those are my favourite cars. I just hope the likes of Maserati, Bentley, Mercedes, and Porsche continue to offer the interesting cars they do now. They are all on my potential list when I have a shorter commute.

 

You're welcome Chris... I just call them as I see them.

As for the future collection, good luck! If Ashton is going to be conflicted, that's a good foundation for it. Maybe you'll both have a full head of hair by the time it's assembled.

At this end, the history is probably also eclectic at best: '52 Pontiac, '60 Volvo 544, '62 Volvo 544, '58 Borgward Isobella, '72 Celica', '74 Fiat Spyder, '56 Jensen 541R, '72 Datsun pickup, '75 Volvo 264, '80 Chev Impala, '85 Olds Cutlass wagon, '88 Olds Cutlass, '87 Jag Series 3 VDP (still miss this one), '84 Grand Cherokee, '85 Grand Cherokee, '98 Camry, '02 Camry, '92 Jag Series 3 VDP, companion '92 Jag VDP, '01 Jag XJR (being picked up in May to replace one of the '92's)... I might have missed a few but you see what I mean.

 

New addition to the family

I have realised that I dropped in a reference to my second son Spencer a few posts above, but I forgot to add when he arrived. So casting back to the 16th February we welcomed a new addition to the family; my second son Spencer.

Aston was very excited to have a new brother. But due to Spencer's arrival 2021 became a fairly quiet year, as having two little ones to look after did not leave much spare time for anything else!





Revisions to our garage

In September 2021, I revised my garage design. I spoke to a chap who builds stables for a living, and he gave me some pointers on timber building construction. Turns out you are better off without the engineering brick course on a timber building. He says the bricks tend to crack when you drill into them, and without the weight of a brick built building they can lift due to the frost. He gave me a different way of protecting against damp, and told me its best to build all the way to the edge, and then overlap your outer coating of timber so that the water never touches your concrete.

I decided to keep the concrete pad the same size, and that has given me a 200mm wider/longer garage which is a bonus.

Then I also took away a lot of help from friends. This gave me the following list of improvements:

1) Add a ramp or lift.
2) Add LED lighting and electrical sockets.
3) Fully insulate the walls (I shall be doing this at a later date to keep initial costs down).
4) Make more room at back for cupboards, by moving/removing rear windows.
5) Have a wider garage door, as 2.6m will be tight for some big cars.
6) Paint concrete floor to prevent dust.



Laying good foundations for 2022!

Fast forward to January 2022, and work on the garage base started.

I moved the Daimler out of the way.



But the Mercedes? Oh that very naughty Mercedes!!

I only moved the Mercedes a month ago, but would it start now? No it would not... I even treated it to a battery swap with the Daimler, and there was no change. Everything lit up on the Mercedes Dashboard, but it would not even try to turnover.

So we pushed the Mercedes out of the way, and I needed to investigate further on another day!



I demolished the garden shed, the remains resting on the back fence, in a corner with lots of stuff we are either going to throw in a future skip, or we are OK with allowing to get wet.



Anything valuable was moved in the house, or conservatory, but that still left a lot of kit. So we errected the gazebo next to the Daimler to offer it all a little shelter (things like the BBQ, garden furniture, tubs of stuff etc).



Rubbish everywhere (in part due to our En-suite being gutted, and Pantry being re-tiled), but at least by Sunday night we were ready for the concrete people to turn up on the morning of 11th January.





We all love Mondays

The excitement started!

Proper men (by that I mean ones who do not spend all day in an office like me) came and marked out our garden for both the shed base and garage base. Then they got the digger out and started surgically removing parts of our lawn and drive.



Exciting stuff! (for me) Lindsey was merely concerned that they might damage her Wisteria.

Fast forward and we had this:



The shed that killed me

If anyone ever demolishes a shed, my advise is bin it, and buy a new one.

By the end of the following weekend, I had intended to have the garden shed back up, and the Mercedes purring like a Siamese show cat. But Lindsey had a lie in on Saturday morning, which meant I was stuck looking after our pests most of the morning and did not get to start the shed until just before lunch.

Then on Sunday Lindsey again lumbered me with the pests until lunch so she could visit her masseuse friend Laura for what she clearly considered an "Essential" massage, but was most likely a lot of chatting, and a break from the children (and me?!). I do question a woman's priorities sometimes (just never out loud).

To make matters worse, as part of his treatment Aston was on an aggressive dose of Steroids that week, and had been eating like a race horse; as well as being unbelievably difficult (it's like we have a different child). He was as much of a pest possible that weekend, and that may in part explain Lindsey's essential appointment on Sunday morning...

But anyway this was the progress:

I think a new shed of this size would be around £1,500, so I am re-using the old one. I am making the shed slightly wider and longer in the process (so that it fills the base that I clearly mis-measured... lets not dwell on that...), and some repairs are necessary along the way. I am also going to add a damp course to the underside next weekend.



The new concrete pad was a dream, and gave us much more room for our armada of cars. I could see there would be plenty of room for doors to be kicked open inside, which was my intent with two naughty children. I think you could just squeeze on four cars side by side!

I had made the decision I would be contracting the garage build out. If I cannot find time to finish a shed, it's going to be a miracle for me to finish a triple garage and workshop.

 

It's a small world!

I was minding my own business when someone chimes in on my "Detailing world" forum thread to say that I have bought their old Mercedes.

It turns out that in May 2018 he had sold the car on to someone in Bournemouth, and before that it was a proper show car. This is a picture the gentlemen send me:



He then send me a ZIP file on a drop box link full of further photos from the car's better days. I am staggered that the car had been so badly abused in the few years that had followed.

Work... Work and more Work

December and January were a busy couple of months here at the Clark household. I felt like all I'd done for weeks upon weeks was work.

We had gutted and refurbished our downstairs pantry, and upstairs en-suite. Both looked so much better. I could not take all the credit as I paid a contractor to do most of the tiling. I just finished the tiling off when he had not got time to do it due to other work commitments.

Then I had been re-assembling my outside shed and making it slightly larger in the process. 9th February 2022 and it was finally finished... Just needs a coat of stain or paint to make the new wool blend in with the old.





Time for that Mercedes

As the last few weeks had all been spent busy busy on the house and garden shed, on Sunday 6th February Aston and me made some time to see if we could get that naughty Mercedes to fire up. It fired up perfectly a couple of months ago, but when I had to move it so the shed base could be laid, it refused to start, and we had to push it into the corner.



First of all we checked fuse 78, which supplies the ECU.

Fuse 78 was absolutely fine, as was every other fuse in the box. But we did find all this rubbish.





This was from when someone added a Pure audio DAB unit. I hate this sort of hack, as it looks so out of place; so I'll be removing all this.

This will have to go later.





...so anyway, that was pretty fruitless...

Next we tried unplugging the alarm siren under the passenger side wheel arch. This has been known to short out and cause problems, so worth a look.

Had to jack the car up as its down on its struts.





Got it released, and unplugged it. Made no difference...

So that was me stumped again...

Forums have great people

Then on the evening of the 8th February, a friend off the Mercedes forum bought over his friend Oskar. I owe them a debt of gratitude!

I had lost a lot of enthusiasm for the Mercedes, but Peter and Oskar helped me get it back. They popped over to see me, in the dark! We read the codes on the CL500 and tried to see if we could start it.

Sadly the battery I fully charged at the weekend was already getting low, but it gave us enough power to get the codes read, and then when it started to fail, we used the BMW to power it through some jump leads!

There was an absolute nightmare list of codes, and we could never have investigated them all. But one code in particular stuck out for Oskar - it pointed to the gear selector not allowing the car to start. It turns out the gear selector is not giving the right signals out when it moves, and is not allowing the engine to start.

The gear selector must still be doing something, as the little gauge on the dashboard changes from "P", "N", "D" etc. as you move it. But the car says it is not receiving the right signals, and the selector locking system is not engaging to stop it moving when you do not have your foot on the brake. You can mush the gear selector up and down the positions as much as you like.

In addition to this, Oskar noticed he could not read anything from the main ECU. He suspected either a relay is not changing over, or that there is a separate battery somewhere under the dash that has died. Along with the fact that the engine cooling fan continuously runs full pelt when you try to start the car, there is definitely something odd going on here!

So we have:

- When you turn the key, the dash lights up but the engine does not crank at all.
- There is no "spring back" on the key ignition slot when turning to start the car.
- The gear selector can be moved up and down the positions without the foot brake being applied.
- All the fuses have been checked, and are intact.
- A code reader can scan the car, but cannot connect to the ECU at all.

Some forum members confirmed there is no second battery in a Mercedes C215, so I was at this point intending to pull apart the gear selector.

So then I found this:

https://forums.mbclub.co.uk/threads/...n-full.197599/

The thread details similar symptoms to mine, and it turned out to be the ECU that had died. As this may also be affecting the gear selector, and as a new ECU is both cheap to obtain for these, and easy to change... this seemed a good place to investigate next.

However after calling several Mercedes specialists they told me the above symptoms could be anything... they all said the same thing "You need to get the car to a garage". I started to become rather fed up with it again, and I could not seem to find a mobile mechanic willing to come and take a look.

Final spin of the garage

I decided to make a couple more small adjustments to my garage, this was the final design.





I have never had a garage, and I was getting incredibly excited!

 

Congratulations to all on Spencer's arrival!

On Aston's behavior, it reminds me of the old story confirming how insanity is hereditary - we get it from our kids. He'll outgrow it and you'll forget it despite his getting a full head of hair back while we don't (not everything in life is fair).

On the Mercedes, good luck.

On the garage, you have lots of room from the back wall to the fence. If it was mine, I would reconsider deleting those windows. There is nothing like natural light along with the ability to open some windows for cross-ventilation when it's not nice enough out to open the garage doors. If you're going to spend a lot of time in there (and something tells me you will be), you want to keep it as bright and airy as possible. The nominal loss of potential shelving or storage space is a really small compromise. The only other suggestion I would make as I see a lift is already on the list would be to make sure your attic/rafter space is both readily accessible and sufficient for storage (even if just for wheels or tires or the boy's pool and wagons and bikes etc.). Neither should be expensive add-ons in the scheme of things.

 

Thanks for the comments Ken, yes Aston has a full head of hair back now. I am hoping he'll keep his longer than mine! For some reason he has been very lucky during his Chemotherapy in that regard. A lot of children have patchy hair all the way to the end, but after the initial intense Chemotherapy, Aston has grown his back and it has stayed.

Oh I am going to need luck with that Mercedes... it is a very naughty car!

The garage is now in progress, as a future update will show. I have no idea if I will regret the removal of the windows, but the idea is that I can always cut them in and add them later if I need to.

 

Out with one Cherman invader, in with another...

Here I go again...

It all started at the beginning of February 2022. We have purchased a commercial property in our local town, and the idea is to convert it into three flats that we can rent out. When the sale went through the reality of the situation started to dawn on me. We all of a sudden have a big refurbishment project to take on. If we do it right I get all the money I put in back, plus I get to keep a nice money-making asset in the form of 3 rental flats. If I get it wrong... well lets not think about that!

Yes I like to make life complicated... for those who are curious, this is it, when white one with green widows. It is basically a shell, as the shop went out of business around 20 years ago.



So because of this, I decided that I could do without the ongoing lease payments for the BMW, and with the value of it being considerably higher than I owe, it also seemed like a good opportunity to cash in on the current financial climate; i.e. the inflated used car market.



I was swayed by the tempting, and vixen like seductive wiles of an Audi.. and I am now the owner of another Audi A6 Avant... history is repeating itself. It will be nice and spacious for hauling things about in, and nice an economical on the fuel.

So its bye bye BMW soon!

This is the Audi I purchased:



It will no doubt seem mad to many, I bought this without looking at it. I spoke to the owner about it and thought it seemed very well looked after. It has been meticulously serviced it's whole life, never missed an oil service, never missed a gear box service, never missed a cam belt service. Last owner had it since it was 4 years old and seemed to take very good care of it. He's obviously not a detailer, so it's not mint condition, but for the age and mileage I was impressed.

Bad part was it's done 170K miles, but I bought it cheap for a 2010 facelift A6 estate with a good spec and automatic gearbox.

Only other bad thing I notice is it appears to have had paint in a couple of places. The rear passenger side door looks a slight different shade, but the shut lines are good; very odd. There is also overspray on the rear drivers side quarter panel.

It also has loads of extras I've never seen on one of these. Things like:

• Electric heated seats.
  • Premium large screen Navigation.
    • Bose sound.
      • DAB radio.
        • Bluetooth.
          • USB/Aux input.
            • Bluetooth audio.
              • Powerfold mirrors.
                • Front/rear acoustic parking system.

Very odd for these 2.0 diesels to have any extras at all, so I was thrilled with this.

Sadly it has a de-chromed black grille which I hate...



Turns out the chap had also replaced the alloys with a decent used set recently, and it has decent Goodyear tyres all round too.



Wheel badges look stained.



Few chips, scratches, and scuffs on body. Muck in shuts too.

















Dirty pipes!



Interior not too bad. No wear on seats which is amazing for a car with such high mileage. They are very shiny though!







Same aluminum trim as the last one of these I had, which I passionately despise!





Steering wheel has a bit of wear.



Some stuff in the spare wheel for me to go through. Spare is an alloy, but looks old and is shod with a budget tyre; not that I mind that on an old banger.



I'm pretty pleased for a cheap run around. It drives perfectly, and the audio system is fantastic.

A quick going over...

The Audi is my new transport to work, so I decided to give it a quick clean. I had to do the BMW anyway, so it was not much extra work to do this too.

Looks pretty clean from a glance.

https://i.postimg.cc/Fztdbr1y/20220220-123650.jpg[/img









Those wheels were incredibly good. Just a couple of tiny scuffs on two of them.



The interior came up particularly well. Mequiars super degreaser always does a great job.





Something nice to surprise me on the car's audio hard drive.



The seats look so much better with most of the sheen removed.

 

The faithful BMW

The real reason I cracked out all the cleaning gear was to give the BMW a thorough going over. It is now listed for sale and I not only needed some fresh pictures, but also wanted it ready in case any potential buyers came knocking.

The poor old BMW had not been washed since before Christmas, and my daily commute had taken it's toll on the poor beast.







https://i.postimg.cc/XYgs0d1X/20220219-100431.jpg[/img[

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/CKFbC2Nx/20220219-100434.jpg



















Not a pretty sight...

In the end I had to wash the poor BMW three times to get it all off. I did it very carefully though, as I did not want to cause any damage when cleaning.

Completely worth it though, and the BMW not sits gleaming at the back of the drive.









I will certainly miss the BMW, mostly due to it's cossetting ride and abundance of gadgets. It has spoilt me this last year and it has been every bit as reliable and dependable as I wanted it to be.

But it's hardly an exciting car, just like it's Audi A8 and Mercedes S cousins, and has none of the passion and romance an older luxury car used to have. I often wonder if I would have been able to sell the Maserati Quattroporte so easily, had I bought that instead.

In general I think cars are getting more bland with each generation, and it occurs to me that I have no idea what I might buy next time I have the opportunity to get something nice. The Mercedes S class is far to bland for me nowadays, and the S class coupe is not the statement of opulence and excess it once was. The Audi R8 and Jaguar F-type are far too raw for me, and I doubt BMW will replace the i8 when it is withdrawn... perhaps a Lexus LC if the prices drop... we'll see.

I'll be sad to let the BMW go, but at the same time it's not really a big deal... easy come, easy go.

 

Move aside Noah's Ark - this is Clark's Ark!

But first a bit of news about the Mercedes - it has moved!



I persuaded an auto electrician to come out and look at it. He went through all sort of diagrams before finding what should have been a permanent 12v feed was dead. He checked the fuse which was OK, so the fault appears to be where the wiring disappears behind the dashboard.

So he linked out the terminal on the ECU as a temporary fix, and the Mercedes went off on a trailer to hid garage this morning, so it could be fixed properly.

The sad thing is that although the suspension rose when it was started, it took less than 12 hours for the back to sag back down. So the ABC issue has got worse.



I also noticed a worrying new fluid leak from the front. It seems oily but clear. I am thinking it might be the ABC hydraulic fluid.

Anyway.....

The thread is now up to date. This is from just yesterday!

Once the Mercedes was gone, I cleared the driveway, the Daimler moved to the corner once inhabited by the Mercedes.

Then the workmen arrived to start work on the garage.

This was the first load that arrived today (photo from the suppliers workshop).



Then by lunchtime it was this!



By the end of the day everything was used up. Workmen left to load up for the next stage.

We were left with this (Clark's Ark).











Aston admiring his reflection...







Everything has to come back out this afternoon so that work can continue tomorrow (Thursday). It should be finished Friday afternoon, except for the 5 meter roller garage door. That's going on separately, and I may be fitting that myself.

 

Let it snow

Today work on the garage should be continuing, but I woke this morning to this...



The workmen are still coming to work on the garage, but I am not sure if this will cause any problems or slow them down.

I am rather hoping this purchase I made at the weekend from the Gods will help my case...



But when I got to work things had got worse, this is the view from my office window!



We shall see how the day unfolds.

 

Today's progress

I am not sure how the garage went today, but this is a shot my wife sent me not long after lunch. She said it was extremely windy and the poor chaps had been subjected to rain and snow while up on the roof.



I'm now off to drop the BMW at the specialist garage, for an "inspection" service, and a fresh MOT. I have someone coming to look at it Sunday, hoping they like it.

In other news, the Mercedes has been picked up, and the haulier has very kindly agreed to keep it on the trailer at their compound, and return it tomorrow after my garage is finished.

 

^^

Bwaahaahaa...

Just in case you're wondering what a morning really looks like when it snowed the night before Chris:

 

Now you've done it Ken... I'll end up with that tomorrow!

These are some pictures from tonight.











I have no idea why they have wedged a 4x2 under the large opening and trusses. Perhaps while they walk on the roof.

 

^

More likely to keep the door header beam from sagging until that wall section is fully sheeted inside and out...

 

A bag of Revels

The weekend was a bag of a mixed bag of events...

On my way home on Friday, I pass a junction for Sainsbury's leading up to a roundabout. The road tends to get quite busy, and you do get quite a few near misses as people dive out of the junction on to the main route.

As I came level with the Sainsbury's turn, a small silver car darted out of it, and I thought nothing of it as I assumed they would tuck in behind me, between me and the Lorry that was following. Imagine my shock when they came crashing into the side of my car!

It was an elderly lady, and she claimed she thought I had already passed. I think she was either not looking properly, or did not realise how close she had got to me. This is the offending damage!

The lady's car:



Her car appeared to hit the front of my rear arch, scrape across the wheel, and then graze off of the back of my rear arch/bumper. This is my car:







I am not really one to get nasty; after all it's just an accident. We all get careless from time to time, and I try not to judge people when I do not know their circumstances. However I felt relatively comfortable it would be a clear no fault claim to me.

She was very polite, but very dismissive of what had happened, she was not interested in taking my name, number etc. So I took a photo of her car, took, her name and number, then as I had to get back to Kings Lynn for COVID swabs for Aston's surgery on Monday, I did not waste any time getting on my way. I told her I would give her a phone call later, when I got home.

I picked up Aston, got our swabs at the hospital surgery, then we headed home. I was pleased to see our finished garage!









I need to sort out the front roller door next.

So after taking a look around the garage, I called the three numbers the lady in the silver car had given me (her mobile, her husbands mobile, and her landline). No answer.

Tried them all again... no answer. Annoyingly all three had no answerphone, and the mobiles had a message saying to send a text.

So I sent a text.

I phoned my insurance company, and explained the situation. They told me that unless she was going to admit fault, if I made a claim I could end up losing my no claims, even though the damage was very obviously not my fault. They suggested I persist and speak to the driver of the other car, to ensure they would accept liability.

I tried again and again, but the numbers never answer, and my text has been ignored.

So I have the choice to either chance it with my insurance company, or pay for it myself. I'm more than a tad annoyed!

I have asked for a quote for the repairs, and when I know the repair cost I will decide what I want to do. this is really the last thing I would expect from an elderly woman.

So moving on, over the weekend Spencer helped us put everything into the garage; there are now 4 cars in there!



I took the opportunity to give the BMW a really good clean on Saturday before I put it away, and I gave the front panels a polish too. I will do the rest of the car over the next few weekends and hopefully it will sell soon!

Then Aston had his surgery on Monday (yesterday). That was a full day at Addenbrookes, and I am pleased it went very well. Aston had a small growth removed from the underside of his chin, and the surgeons think they got it all, so it should not come back. However this is the second time they have removed it, so there is no guarantee. The doctors do not seem to be sure, but this appears to be a side effect of his chemotherapy.



This coming weekend I hope to get on with some more work in the house, so the garage may take a back seat. If I do get the time to work on the garage, I would like to install a spur for the electric door, and an electrical distribution board.

 

Hopefully this will make you feel better about the Audi regardless of how you choose to handle the repairs:


Although I was quickly determined to be the "not at fault driver", that doesn't lessen the pain of losing what was our daily driver for 15 years.

On the plus side, we have found a perfectly acceptable and 10 years newer replacement that should happily replace her for the next 15 years:



She will be picked up and driven home - 16 hours/1,500 km on the current route planning - early next month.

 

Hey Chris!

Thats very annoying about the accident, has a traffic offence been committed which you can report to the police?

Was thinking about you over the weekend at the lakes- you were missed

Good luck,
Alec