in venlo in eastern holland for a smoke and a pancake.. and it's flat, raining and i'm being persecuted by mosquitos. or possibly just one mosquito that's been riding in the bus since antwerp.......
set off on sunday from dover and got into boulogne in the evening , a quick blat south to condete and an overnight. waking up to coffee and fresh croissants - bliss !
the weather was not great so i decided to head inland and find something warmer. so off to brussels, with torrential rain all the way. the rear wiper that i fixed last week (cobled together from the motors of two broken ones.) works fine, it still wont park in the right place and has taken on the charming habit of occasionally becoming a in intermittent rear wiper.. not stoping its occasional wiping unitl the ignition is turned off... fortuitous given the circumstances i guess...... :)
the rain doesn't and neither does the fuel consumption, i'm doing 60 mph everywhere and the consumption isn't bad-for a bus....... but the fuel is around E1.48 per litre. depending on the exchange rate that's more expensive than uk....
this could end up being a seriously expensive trip..
so far i've covered around 700 miles, all trouble free though i keep freaking out abouit every small noise & burp that the bus makes.. the problem with having done 700 miles is that i have to travel back 700 miles (hopefully less if i don't spend hours lost in the one way system of brussels and antwerp as i have done so far)
tomorrow i'm heading off to nuerburg to have a look at the nuerburgring and camp in the forest, although i know it's a stupid idea but part of my mind has to believe there will be less biting insects there.. at this rate i will end up looking like an extra from startrek. you know the type, bipedal, air breathing, englishspeaking aliens with bits of copydex and tissue paper stuck on their faces.
being snuggled (or huddled as i lie in the dark waiting for the zzzzzzzzz that announces a mosquito has landed in my ear to start lunch) up un der the duvet ion the back of the van all that is exposed is face and ears and hands and that's whats been munched......
ah well..
more later if i can get a connection...
:)
see yáll at spa
all packed up and ready (ish) to roll for the continent...
built a platform to go on the load bed of the bus so that when the seats fold down there's a level bed... i bolted in the fridge & sink and the cooker boxes and filled them with food, mugs plates glasses and all sorts of other junk...
i got a set of spare bulbs, some beam benders for the headlights, RAC european breakdown and a large set of bolt croppers (as my friend nathan once said 'with a pair of these you can go anywhere...')
off to nuerburgring and then on to Spa.
i also pulle out the last of the tshirt stock i have in the house and i think i might take it with me and give it all away across europe. I've got a LOAD of new designs and when i get back i think i might start work on version III of akciddento.
louie and his friends have been off on a road trip around the south west, visiting all the skateparks and dirt jumps they can find.... three of them in a 1.0l vauxhall corsa loaded with bmx bikes and spare parts and a 1,000 watt subwoofer in the boot. they like the idea of an akciddento ride team and who am I to stop them ?
btw if you see me on the way then say hi grab a shirt :D
later !
i called up to raceshack, i've been refitting the office for them as a favour and while i was there asked conor to have a quick look at the pierburg carb on the wedge. its got a gurt big flat spot in it and i though he might be able to help it a bit.
'take it off and i'll rebuild it for you this afternoon, i've got a set of carbs to do off a lambourghini miura so i'll do it at the same time....'
so i pulled it off and started to strip it into pieces on the work bench in the clean room. bear in mind,
a i hate carbs, they're old and stupid.
b, i've never stripped a carb before in my life
c, pierburg has a reputation as being stupid, complicated and unreliable
d, there are no spares or rebuild kits available
e, i have no idea what i'm doing
so i rip it apart. conor helps with the last bits i'm too timid to take apart and we dunk the majority of it into the sonic bath for a few hours.
hey presto !
clean carb!!!!
i reassembe it - trying to remember where everything goes. until i get ot the choke. its a kinda bi-metallic semi electronic thing that has a water feed from the colling system that runs through it . needless to say i cut and capped that off months ago so there's a brief discussion whether the choke is actually dooing anything now.
so....
the i decide to remove the whole unit and all the gubbins...
the carb is now much simpler, lighter and smaller and i have a nice pile of bits left over on the workbench - about a third of it if truth be told...
so advance to bus, fit carb. fire it up.. it takes a few worrying moments to get fuel through and it springs to life...
... and all is MUCH happier... smoother and better throttle response. still got a bit of a flatspot but i'll get the strobe gun on it tomorrow and check the timing - i think it might be somewhet over advanced...
and i fixed the rear wiper motor that i built the other day - but thats another story !
:)
well its about that time that i ought to write something :)
i've been busy with all sorts of things, doing lots of stuff on the new wedge,
ripped out all the minging carpert and recarpeted the whole thing, picked up som emore of the missing trim. I even obtained a new/old headliner form gazt3 in galstonbury (top bloke BTW !) t3gazspares.com and fitted that. and i didn't make too bad a job if i say so myself...
the engine build is progressing slowly the rods haven't been rebushed so no progress there - however i did pick up a new in the box engle120 cam from ebay so that will do for now. i was going to get a TCS 20 turbo grind on but the 120 will be fine.
i also picked up a slightly butchered westfalia cooked, fridge & sink unit from a bay on the bay of E. hey presto some carpet & spray glue and a bit of elbow grease later it looks like a dodgy old cooker unit with cheap carpet glued on it !
and not long now until european road trip... onto the ferry in a week or so and then onto nuerburgring for a bit of round and round on the 'one way toll road' and then the following weekend off to Spa Francorchamps for the annual Belgian Buggy show. much fun :)
i'm even starting to look forward to it :)