Patchy's Fawlty Towers risk management. Enter at own risk

[StanTheMan]

Then at one stage, it was raining cats & dogs. ECU got flooded. Gawd!!!!!



I cleaned it up & put it back in. But reality is, the ECU was toast. Patchy started & seemed to go OK , but then died 5 min down the road. Thats where I left her.

Unfortuately for me it was just a few hrs too long. By the time I got a new ECU Patchy had gotten vandalised . They broke in, took the fire extinguisher & smashed the front wind screen & left a dent in the bonnet from the swing. Far out. That really hurt. I drove her home & left her sitting there again. I did get a new windscreen & eventually stated fixing the dent in the bonnet.

[StanTheMan]

a while later I got motivated to put the door & front panel on.




Result.

[StanTheMan]

So One day i was driving her she was overheating a little & she stopped. mmmm.
wouln't start again. Dead battery. got the wifey to rescue me. With some jumper leads. Got 500 m and she stopped again.
gotta figure out what the problem is.
Tuned out it was the fanbelt. ripped. with having so much disinterest wth cars. I'd stopped thinking straight too. it took me a while to figure this out. rescue mission abandoned. Left the car in Redfern. gawd!!!!

I get there the next day with new fanbelt & some tools. & some whater. id been having some overheating issues. Which I'd been ignoring. Just stopped when it got too hot & let it cool down.

get the fanbelt on. replace some water......but it just drains stright through the watercooler. awww sh*t. LOL shaking my head time. Its all my own fault too. Should have fixed it earlier. With that state. patchy wasn't getting dríven anywhere.
Tow truck time. all the way home.
This must have been sepember 2013 or there abouts



new radiator was installed a week or 2 later. also all the coolant piping was fixed/replaced. To stat making Patchy more reliable. It was time to start preventative maintenance rather than this risk faulty towers managmenet over the last few years.

This would never have happened when she was in her prime. I can honstly say. i was always on top of anything. last 5 years Ive just been reaping the benefits of the maintenance patch had the previous decade.


also ealier in 2013 or late 2012 some kids having a party ripped my back window tring to break into my car.

[StanTheMan]

late september
new radiator got installed

as well as a 10AE glass top.

youuuuu beauty.

[StanTheMan]

then it was time for thre bonnet

bit of effort involved in this. really tried hard to get this right.



and painted



I didn't realise this until about month later but I maneged to get micro bubbles in this. no idea how but the job on the bonnet is crap.
It seems the best result Ive been getting is directly over the top of factory paint.

nayhow thats how it is. redoing the bonnet has been put on the back burner.

I started cutting back some of the panles I'd painted over the weeks & ended up with RSI in my elbow. LMFAO. ohhh geeez...LOL.

so painting got put on the back burnet for some time

[StanTheMan]

Mid october comes around Patchy stops again. I eveutally I figure is the fuel pump. I just gave it a massive thump & she would work again. Eventually she stopped completely.

It was an intermitten thing. I even took the pump out to test run it & she was fine. Only to put her back in & it wouln't start.
long story cut short. Patchy must have been off the road for a good month until I re[placed the pump with a new one.

Shes been going good since.

At chrismas Patchy ran out of rego & was parked again likle the previous year. Finacial contraints. eventually being re-registerd a few months later. We also moved back to our own house where she had a nice front yard.she was parked there the night before rego ran out.
can't recall exactly how long she was unregistered but it wasn't quite the full 3 months . Might have been 2months.

[StanTheMan]

May 2014

RSI is gone finally.
time for the rear bumper
as it was.


the final product



completely smashed the beaver panel in a moment of impatience which will have to be replaced & painte at one stage or another.
also my son was playing soccer & hit the sideview mirror. Broke it off. Its been replaced & is the shiniest bit on the car now.

[StanTheMan]

Time for some painting dodgyness

I have 2 bumpers. I decided to go with he one thats fitted to the car. simply because it easier to paint. But it has the ATM slot. Never mind. The spare bumper is a white one but parts of the paint are peeled off so I would have to remove most/all the paint before painting.

so the bumper got removed & painted.



dodgy as


it got sealed with some plasic primer. and painted red. so did one of the headlight covers. I couln't get the other off so I left it for cheekyness effect.



so the bits left are the rear bonnet, beaver panel, & the panle between the roof& bonnet. ohh an the driverside light panel.

then its done.

[StanTheMan]

This is where Patchy is right now.
As far as reliability goes she's going great guns. She made it to Mudgee & back last weekend. Very happy with that.
recently i replaced the Idle controll valve to sort out some idle issues. She runs smooth again & is a joy to drive once more.
timing belt replacemnt is on the cards too.


Please don't hesitate to laugh with/at me & my faulty towers risk management. I hope you enjoy the update.

Once she's painted completely. I'm going to dream about more power. I used to be a N/A freak. Just because. But with age, I think turbo is easy power. I could deal with that.

[93_Clubman]

Great updates STM, but what a saga! So glad she's back on the road.

[bruce]

I like reading this.
I am gonna learn how to paint like you (no dijon though).

[hamx5ter]

So happy to see Patchy getting back on her feet again... and it looks like you're finally ready to get it all sorted.
When this is all done, we need to do a run to celebrate this.

[Mr_Q]

Good to see Patchy is still kicking around!

[StanTheMan]

celebratory run should really be a night run up Putty. LOL. But I'm not confident with that sort of stuff anymore. I may look at a MX5 Club run as a guest since I haven't been a member for some time.

club run i could cope with. It would be a controlled eviroment & usually very social. I probably wouln't know anyone anymore apart from Queen Jean.

Todays's job wil be the window rails. There is a good chance the new door has perhaps never been cleaned & is seriousy slow.

[Craig]

celebratory run should really be a night run up Putty. LOL. But I'm not confident with that sort of stuff anymore. I may look at a MX5 Club run as a guest since I haven't been a member for some time. club run i could cope with. It would be a controlled eviroment & usually very social.

Ohhhh you poor old fart you, time to buy an NC and a Cardy!

HTFU and just do a fush and chups run old chap!