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LOTS going on with the Herald right now. But, I thought I’d wait a while before I blog about that and instead ramble on about the Acclaim. :-p

I’ve been attacking that lump of rust under the rear off-side light recently (well, about a week ago!). It’s rotten through and I’d been gearing myself up to repair it with grand ideas of creating new panels. So, I gave it a go. It’s bloody hard work!

The rust is rather bad and in a horrible spot. In fact, slightly worse than I expected. I whipped the rear bumper off and thankfully all the bolts were easy to undo. Some even had their factory blue finish!

It doesn’t look too bad here.

But then I had a bit of a scrape and poke.

It was time for a bit of thinking! So I whacked on some Bilt Hamber and left it bumperless for a couple of days. Check out this lovely blue colour! It dries black and last ages. I had some on my rain channels on the A-post of the Herald for a year and it provided a perfect bit of protection with no issues.

I decided to try and replace it all in one piece, using a crease in the metal to simulate the join in the seam located there. It was all going well until I tried to shape one of the edges and the crease snapped. Better now than later! It also means I’ve got to do it in at least two pieces, maybe three. I’ve done some more poking and I might be able to use the very edge panel, the one with the curve. I’ll have to wait and see. It’s rusty on the inside but the metal doesn’t seem to have thinned at all. It’ll make my life easier if it turns out to be ok.

Here’s the panel I’ve been shaping, before it snapped. It’ not 100%. I’m at a stage where it needs trimming and I want to tack it on and carry on shaping it afterwards as I go. But, I’m happy with how it’s coming along. I had to stop at this point as I had no access to the workmate so couldn’t get the grinder out. Plus I don’t actually have any paint for the car yet… I’m off to get some colour-matched stuff tomorrow.

So, as it stands. I’m got a bit which is 70% there ready to go on. I might have to shape some more metal, I’ll have to wait and see. I need to get some paint. And the car has no rear bumper. It actually looks better like that!

Oh, I also tarted up the inside of the bumper whilst I was at it. It had rather a lot of rust.

The Herald is waiting for it’s engine and gearbox swap, I just need a propshaft. Plus it got another new bit bought for it today. It’ll probably be looking slightly different soon!

Well Stoneleigh was almost a week ago now and I’ve finally gotten around to typing about it.

My Stoneleigh started earlier than some. I was due to help out setting up the CT stand and was told to get there for 12:30 on the Saturday. I chose to jump in the Acclaim as although I’d hoped to use the Herald I wasn’t fully confident in it. When I got there it turned out the oganisers had changed their minds and the sheds weren’t going to opened up until 2pm. Oh well.

The stand took some time to erect and arrange but was simple enough. Tim Bancroft busted some killer moves when vacuuming. The camera on my phone couldn’t get a shutter speed fast enough to capture him!

When it was all sorted we set off to the hotel. Following Bob King with Tim Hunt navigating him in his *ahem* Pajero we got to the hotel 20 minutes later. A quick rest in the hotel and it was back to Stoneleigh to collect Doogle, sorry, Doug, in the Acclaim. Except I forgot my keys and Bob had his on him. Ooops! So with the aid of my sat-nav we got back to the show grounds, via Stoneleigh Abbey which we found out you CAN’T drive through. Then back to the hotel, arranging how to get to Leamington Spa to meet others on the way.

Hotel meal done and Doogle and Tony Pullis (whose Stag you’ll have seen on our stand) jump in the Acclaim to head off to a pub. On the way there the car felt a little strange but I put that down to the fact three beefy men were in the car. The tyre was rolling despite it still feeling like the tread was in contact with the road. The normal dodgy lot were in the local Wetherspoons, Richard Brake, James, Clive, the Bancroft geezer and others. And some midget with red hair. A while later… and Doug, Tony, Jess and I jump in the Acclaim, do a quick tour of Leamington Spa (lots of Mk1’s around that area…)and head back to the hotel with the Acclaim feeling slightly odder. Must be the ice too!

The next morning and after breakfast the same group jump into the fire-breathing Triomatic and head to the show. Only to be met by Bob waving his arms and pointing out we had a puncture as we left the carpark. That’ll explain the handling then! Doug jumps in with Bob and Tony and I do the worlds fastest wheel change and off to the show we finally head.

All in all it was a very nice show. Lots of laughs, lots of talking, lots of rusty bits I didn’t buy and nipples so cold they could have been snapped off. The club won best stand too, which was rather nice. The show seemed to go on for ages but when most people had left we took the stand down and parted ways.

The next day I started the Acclaim up before heading into work and saw white smoke/steam from under the car. That’ll be the exhaust fudged then! That afternoon I got the punctured tyre replaced as the screw which was embedded in it was too close to the edge of the tread for it to be repaired. I also grabbed a packet of Holts Flexiwrap Ends & Bends from Halfords. The next day I got under the car and had a poke to find some nice holes. So, a new exhaust is needed, but I’m not sure which route I’ll go yet. A new rear silencer is needed but I’ve got a few ideas for what to do with the rest. Anyhoo, I’ll end this blog entry with four poor-quality pictures on the religious zorst.

I thought I’d have a tinker with the rear screen de-mister in the Acclaim today. I’ve tinkered and now it’s got 12v going to through it so hopefully it’s all fine now. I also stripped the switch as it was a pig to get to stay on. Old dry grease was causing the problem and now it works perfectly. Whilst I was at it I gave the fog light switch the same treatment.

The heater in the car has never been 100%. It always put warm air out to your feet no matter what you did and recently the screen de-misting performance has dropped off. I assumed it was the cable (number eight on the image below) for the air distribution which had snapped. I’d not looked at any manuals but I assumed it couldn’t be too different from the Herald. After getting on my knees with my nice and bright BMW torch I saw what the problem was. The cable had popped off and it was floating behind the dash in an awkward spot. I managed to get it back on but what and effort that was. The cable sheath sits in a metal clip and is a tight fit. The end of the cable itself has a loop which appears to simply sit on a prong on the plastic mechanism. It has a natural kink too which means it isn’t exactly a straight job. The only way I could get it back on was by laying on my back in the footwell. I tried pushing it on when on my knees but my arms obviously aren’t long enough as I was crushing my trachea with the steering wheel. Nice!

Anyhoo, it’s all on and working. I put the fan on and heard dust and debris hitting the windscreen – the cable must have been off for years! For the first time I have air going where it should. I can cut off the air going to the feet. The top vents actually put cold air out (I thought they only provided simple ventilation when coasting along which never made sense). So, I’m properly chuffed now. But not so happy about the scratches on my wrist from the plastic of the dashboard. It looks like I’ve tried to slash my wrists whilst blindfolded.