When dreams fade a little

Or , as has been said "the kids need new shoes".

The MG fund has hit rock bottom. Just when I was beginning to dream of summer skies and long uninterrupted weekends working on YooPoo ( The MG, her new name, involving the letter suffix of her registration plate).
Last post I commented that the cash fund was growing quite nicely.
Well now its down to nothing, nought, zero, null, nuffin, zilch.....even bugger all.
Why, well let me explain. You knew I would.
Just before Christmas, Christmas eve actually, wifey asked me to put washing( Towels) onto radiator in conservatory.
Being a good ole Lostsock, and in a good mood I obliged. Only to see a strange bubble in said radiator with a little brown streak running down below. Pushing said "bubble" lead to a very thin stream of water jetting out horizontally into room. Despite my best efforts with the epoxy glue and latterly Mig welder I could not stem the flow. So, after a quick look see from the plumber to empty the rad and cut it out of the circuit a Christmas was spent with one room freezing cold. A Rad would not be available till the first week in Jan , and so it was but with me £ 100 quid poorer. Trouble was that Jan is a very expensive time for us and most people, and Feb sees most of the accumulated Xmas debts paid off.
And it came to pass I felt rather smug at using my hard earned cash to buy the rad and pay the plumber without too much extra debt incurred and some light at the end of the festive financial burden.
As Feb emerged from the torpor of a belt tightening Jan and the light at the end of the tunnel distinctly visible I did the same kindly thing again, yes hung the washing on the radiator, this time in the front room.
Horror of horrors. A huge brown stain down the wall behind the rad and a soaking wet carpet with rusty wet water. It was a big radiator too ( 72" x 37") A quick call to the plumber, a date was set and a price obtained.
£170 fookin quid. And guess what, guess how much I had in my MG pot left ?

No......................... £160 quid, exactly !!   That's OK wifey said I'll lend you the rest, its the least I can do.
I quickly and politely reminded her that its "our" house, to which, made her look ready to rev up for a real argument, so I desisted and went back to feeling smug but a little wazzed off.

Just to make matters even worse, the great windy weekend saw my cover ripped to shreds and the clothes dryer ( The aluminium pole with washing line round ) went and snapped clean into two. A replacement is only £35. Since wifey is in charge of where the washed clothes are dried I kindly offered that she might buy this item. I wish it had been the other way round ( she pays for radiators,I buy rotary dryer) but ,Hey Ho.......it all comes out of the same bank account and does nothing to hide my guilt at having (or not, as of now) actual money to fritter away on a "hobby".
As the title says the kids forever need new shoes. I don't know why ? Son is 17 and spends all day in bed, rises at (usually after) lunch and wears JimJams till bedtime. The only expense he generates is food (Lots and lots, normally beans,cheese on toast, scrambled egg, pies and sausage rolls- I keep telling him I'll not perform the colonoscopy in 10 years time) and an electricity bill that could run a small city from leaving every light on possible and making his x-box so hot you could fry eggs on it. Daughter has a penchant for clothes she never wears, creams and emollients to decorate the bathroom, 45,0000 different hair products and again has the same effect as son for the electricity supply ( Namely leaving lights on) Good ole wifey spends, like me, bugger all but has more of a conscience.
At least she gets to spend the £80 or so quid a week on shopping, which was once a joy now denied me as she does it online.
At least I'll be qualified this summer and hopefully in a job within our good old NHS system.
Perhaps then I/we will then have money ? Methinks a holiday is well due first though, if only. A lottery win of modest proportions will do fine. Not much to ask is it ?

So, in a nutshell I'm well and truly skint. I've already told the landlady ( a couple of months ago) at the pub where I work Saturday evenings I'm quitting come March. So, I am well and truly stuffed, skint, wazzed off (MG wise) and not a little frustrated.
On top of which my health ain't been so good for the last 6 weeks and I'm on my 3rd set of antibiotics.
It could be worse though..........I could have bought a Triumph !!

More soon hopefully, if I've not slit my throat before.

The Bodger strikes

So, a major spot of "bodging has been found on the LH suspension parts.
Half of the stuff was removed a couple of weeks ago without too much trauma. Except the top "A" arms bolt was loose, (Kingpin top) ( Nay...not enough thread actually).
Removal of the castleted nuts and lowering the spring pan was easy enough. I even managed to undo the drop link from the anti roll bar to the spring pan. It was a struggle on the other ( RH) side as the ratchet head was a little too large to allow the socket to sit on correctly and get enough purchase.
So how did I acheive it on the LH side then ?  Simples....I used the universal joint thingy in my ( sorry wifey's) Kamasa socket set, doh ! Its a lot narrower.
So where was the bodging then ?
Since I had free access to the spring pan and the drop link was off I undid the nuts holding on the lower "A" arm. During wire brushing I noticed a large blob of weld ( I first thought it was grease, as one end of everything was covered in 30 year old "stuff") but no. It was weld. I was annoyed and a bit in pain since I was using the scary grinder with the flat wire brush disc in. I managed to "wave it gently" accross my lightly surgical gloved finger, and it stung a bit.
I flipped said arm over to see the full extent of why the weld was there.

Weld ???

Ovality bodge

So, some heathen had welded on a bog standard washer over the oval hole. What a cheapskate. This even makes me look positively generous.
A quick check with MG hive see the arms a a couple of quid each.
More weld was to follow. Whilst engulfed in a cloud of rust tackling the spring pan orifice I noticed a partucularly difficult patch of rust/old grease which the wire brush did its best to worry.
Once the dust cloud cleared and fufferfour had a good look, this is what I found.

Looks like rusty metal in the base was replaced with 3 tons of weld. No wonder the wire brush struggled a bit.

Anyways, I did'nt bother to paint the two "A" arms since I decided to buy new ones. I did paint the pan though, together with all the other stuff removed. Since the weather was good I also removed the anti roll bar ( sway bar for US readers) and had to find a novel way to hang it to dry.



So, there's nothing like showing your undies and smalls in public then, Ha . Hope wifey dont read this.

Mefinks this may be the last of my efforts till springtime, as the feet were freezing as the light faded.

One last point, will the tw*ts who keeps offering me medical "products" via this blog please f**k off, thankyou.

Late addition. The t***s who keep sending me the offers for financial and medical crap have hopefully been thwarted.

Aparrently its the title of the blog post that thier meta-phisers search for. So I've changed it. Lets hope thats an end to it all.

Since not much will happen in Lostsock land MG wise here's wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy new year. If you don't believe in either sorry, your missing a good holiday. 

My cover is broken

That about sums up the weatherproofness ( such a word ?) of the cars cover.
I remember when I bought it and had high hopes for it. One long year ( or is it two) the elements and ruby the cat + other vagrant cat Colin have had their toll on the then excellent Argos cover.
At £15 though I can't complain. Other than it could be better spent on the long list of items I'm likely to need hopefully before winter really sets in.
All I've done since the last post is re-paint the RH  side suspension parts a little, more like touch up. Then managed to remove the LH brake caliper, pads, pins &  back plate. Hopefully on a sunny weekend soon I'll removed the rest of the LH suspension, then pray for cash and more mild weekends so as to assemble both corners and make it moveable again.
       Right now placement at hospital and academic work seems to be taking up all of my time. That and fretting about a sudden inward leak of the elements. In fact, I remember now,  during an odd moment I actually taped up the rear window with black plastic which should stop the annoying dribble of water right into my toolbox. What prompted me to do this was a Saturday intended to be devoted to the RH suspension cleanup/touch-up. On peeling back the cover I was met with the trusty plastic tray toolbox about 2" deep in water. it took a good 2 hours to dry up the boot puddle, tools and tray.
So, next on the must do is another trip to Argos for said giant elasticated silver cover. Hope they still sell it.
More soon peeps with photos..........donations or even comments of encouragement gratefully accepted.

watching paint dry

So, here are some parts painted today. Actually I'm a little disappointed with them. I rushed somewhat due to the imminent rain/wind/darkness since it was mid Sunday afternoon. What would have been ideal is a blasting cabinet and industrial cleaning tank. The Armstrong damper and the inside of the kingpin Assy where caked in years old grease. I did several coats of the foamy degrease stuff and a good wipes down but the grease just seem ed to be "pushed" around. Spent a not long enough time wire brushing like mad then decided to paint. Which paint though ?. I had two options. The Matt black stuff  I did the rear axle with or the Hammerite smooth Matt I purchased by accident. The axle Matt stuff was a doddle to apply and quite runny. Trouble was it lacked the " body" of a newly painted/refurbished  item. It looked more factory finish, i.e cheap for the mass market. The Hammerite was definitely thicker in consistency and not easy to apply ( or clean brushes ). Anyways, due to the parts ( stub axle and Armstrong damper mainly) being less than spotlessly clean I opted for the Hammerite. Looks good though, if not a little too thick and glossy.
                  Since "er indoors" was shouting 30 mins to evening dinner ( Nice homemade Prawn curry with all the trimmings) I packed it away to review next week.
The list of parts needed grows for this corner of the car, viz
Rubber bushes complete set
Inner rubber bearing cover
Grease gun + recommended grease
Top wishbone nut,bolt & washer
New set of split pins
New brake disc
New Brake disc back plate
New Pads, pins and strap/lock tab
New Bolts (4) and nuts - Disc to hub
mixed set of bearing shims

Then probably same for tuther side some time maybe in spring.

And that's on top of the new large oil cooler pipe, small oil gauge pipe/union, clutch rubber hose, brake fluid, clutch fluid.

Its gonna be a long hard winter............more soon folks.
( p.s WD40 is great for cleaning Hammerite off  brushes)