Nick Chan

A green seven and possibly 61 reg. incredibly despite the temp being 28 degrees and sunny, the car had a full hood on. I assume to give protection from the sun rather than the threat of rain!

Following on from Drumster's post, year's ago I made one out of cardboard and covered it in black gaffa tape when I forgot to pack it with the car. It worked fine!

If they are a normal bolt head, this will trap itself in the seat runner and not rotate. If you use a flat head screwdriver under the washer on the underside of the floor to help keep pressure on the bolt downwards, you should be able to undo the bolts. if they are capheads, I'd use Jonathan's suggestion and try and cut a slot in the bolt and use a screwdriver to stop the bolt rotating

I expect there will be plenty of spotteds this weekend... Looked like Martin Smith in his seven around 6.30pm, presumably heading down on the Fish & Chip run. Lovely weather for it :)

I've got a freshly powder coated set of 6" and 8" alleycat wheels in anthracite with CR500's on for a de dion car if any interest?

All sorted now

Does anyone have a tillet seat for sale? Ideally after a single seat in decent condition but happy to take a pair if available. TIA Nick

Thanks for the help - all sorted now

Does anyone have a set (top & bottom) of metric wishbones available to sell? Ideally narrow track, but happy to consider wider track too, for a car I'm helping to rebuild. TIA Nick

Hi Ryan, I reckon if you apply ACF-50 after the primer, the paint will fall off. As mentioned above, apply ACF after the paint is applied and dried

Hi Mark, I'll have it if still available Thanks Nick

Mark Hayes on Caterham FB site has a set he's selling it seems

Hi Rob. Welcome to the club and great to hear the storage expansion plans are moving forward albeit with this white snowy stuff around!! cheers Nick

Hi Matthew I'll give it a go. Can you PM your details cheers Nick

Thanks Neil for the very useful links

Does anyone have a pair of 7" black headlights available possibly after an upgrade to the smaller units? Ideally looking for a pair in decent and unmarked condition. TIA Nick

Pm'd on aero

From memory, on a 5 speed it's very easy to simply remove the top cover plate if you want to suck the oil out with a Pela pump My mention of the big bolt inside the gearbox mount, is only accessible from underneath the car and is much easier to remove than the two small bolts that hold the mount to the chassis. When you have removed the big bolt, and lifting the engine/gearbox assembly out, you will have to lift the tail of the box slightly so that the box comes out of the mounting plate. It's pretty obvious when you do the job

Yes but it's possibly easier to undo the large bolt inside the mount and leave the mount in place. Don't forget that when you tip the gearbox to lift the engine out, the gearbox oil with come out of the tail shift... be prepared with a cloth or bucket to save a lot of mess!

Proxy spot by No.1 son on holiday today. Shame he was in a rented Kia rather than the supersport he travelled down in! Spotted green and yellow 7 on Garda lake road, heading towards Malcesine about 11 this morning Hope you enjoy your trip Cheers Nick

They do make them for imperial S3 cars as one has been fitted very recently to a car in our group. As they are made for special order I suppose they can be manufactured for either variant

I use to lift the pair together but now find just lifting the engine is much easier esp if I am working alone. Pop a small Jack under the bell housing to take the weight when it comes out or reduces the angle when putting the engine back in and I find this much easier Nick

"I have replaced the coil pack, but the symptoms returned. I have just changed the spark plugs; it started instantly and sounded ok. I took it for a drive; it all performed well, then after about 4 miles and with the temperature reading normal, it misfired and lost power. I managed to get back. I let it cool down for a short while. It then started ok, all cylinders firing as shown with a strobe. After about 5 minutes there was no spark on bank 2 and 3. As it's a waisted spark if one lead fails I assume it will bring its pair down?" Hi Martin, I had exactly the same problem with my VX car many years ago (maybe 2003-04). Very occasional stutter that got worst until it would only run on 2 cylinder and limp badly along. Left to cool down, the car would run fine again sometimes for a good run but more likely for 5-10 miles and then back to 2 cylinders and enforced cool down. The final time though I limped it home and even when fully cold, it wouldn't start on 4. One of the lads was an electronics wizz and checked the ignition system and determined that there is a pair of transistors (I think he said) in the ECU and one was breaking down with age when it got hot which sounded very logical. These 50p items were obsolete even then and whilst they could be replaced, it just wasn't cost effective as they were in such short supply as to be not worth trying to locate them. I ended up buying a new MBE ECU with loom costing around £550. Loaded with a base map for my carburettor car and it was plug and play. The car ran perfectly after that and as a bonus, the fuel range went up from 150 to 180 miles/tankful which helped spending the money! As a further comment, I happened to price a similar ECU from MBE last year for a friend having issues with his VX car, and was surprised the price hadn't gone up very much over the last 20-odd years so could be an option for you? Nick

Saw you as you were boarding the 6am crossing from Dover to Dunkirk. Hope you have a great time over here and it's not too hot cheers Nick

I always use a couple of buffs to cover my lower face and my ballistic googles. Having the buff at double thickness definitely helps with any impact from small stones. I use a beanie unless the speed is rising and then i take it off before it blows off. Some of our lads use a buff as a head covering similar to a pirate and that seems to do the trick