First Outdoor Drive

It's been a long time since my last post, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything on the car.  After the last one, I went back to the brakes and bled them properly.  Not surprisingly, I got a lot of air out all round, especially from the front right, but eventually eliminated air bubbles.  There was now a good feel to the brake pedal, so I felt it was time to let the car see the sunlight.

Before getting the car out, I needed to raise the exhaust.  When I bought it, the back section was separated from the car, and one of the resonators was missing.  The last owner didn't have the correct mounting brackets, so he had tried to hold the partial exhaust up in place with wire.  Unfortunately he had attached the wire to the heat insulator, which the exhaust's weight had pulled down.  So for this first run I managed to get the wire onto the actual brackets for supporting the exhaust and raise it far enough to give me decent clearance.  At the same time I put in my order with SNG Barrett for the correct exhaust hanger and rubber supports.

I managed to persuade Steve to forego his lunch break to spend time to see an historic event (!!), and my eldest son, Jamie, came along for the entertainment.

The car started no problem, and I let the temperature rise before moving it.  We put down two pairs of wooden planks to give me a ramp out of the garage to the driveway, and I put the car into drive.  Very tentatively I let my foot off the brake and let the car creep forward ............ and it crept!!

The car came down the ramp fine, my confidence in the brakes increasing continuously as they held the car with no feelings of sponginess whatsoever.  If the car had eyes, it would be blinking thousands of times per minute to get used to actual daylight after being inside in limited light for so long.

At the bottom of the ramp I turned the car to the left and actually drove my E-type Jag around my other car.  At this point I noticed that the temperature gauge was up at hot .......... then I noticed the steam coming from under the engine.  I pulled over and turned off the engine, fearing the worst - did I have a crack in the block?  See below for a brief video of this event, ending with torrential rain coming from the bottom of the engine.

Fortunately, it wasn't the worst case.  Actually it wasn't too bad at all.  One of the bottom hoses had not been pushed properly onto the stub connector, and the jubilee clip was just compressing the rubber hose. So with pressure and a bit of movement, the hose had pulled back and let the coolant escape.  The unfortunate part was that the hose was right at the bottom of the engine, and the coolant was very hot, almost steaming.  I ended up having to wait for the coolant to drain out before I could get to the hose.  I got it back over the stub pipe, and the jubilee clip tightened properly, so now it's secure again, although later I'll do a full adjustment of all the hoses.

To get the car back into the garage, I filled the system with water (after a long walk to the office toilet and back for enough water) and what little anti-freeze I had, and just drove it straight in.  Steve had had to leave as his lunchtime was over, but Jamie did a good job of guiding me back up the ramps and into the garage.

Keep checking back.  I've had the car out a couple of times again since this first one.  I'll update on those "adventures" soon.