Peter 'ferny' Fern

blueyedmuffin.co.uk

what did you do Saturday?

meeting up and the first night

Hi honey, I’m home

Accalim pads

something about an Acclaim

Stoneleigh

Cold air at last!

you can’t beat a small car fire in the morning

nicely chuffed

going green

what did you do Saturday?

A nice early start Saturday morning, which made a change from the weekend before when I had another nice early start to swap the engine and ‘box on one of the cars. I’ll blog that later.

We met up outside Ikon. I’d gotten there a touch earlier than the others and did some people watching. It was gone 7am yet the club opposite was still allowing people to enter. When the others arrived we started the twenty minute walk to our pick-up via a stop to McDonalds. It’s always interesting ordering items in another country when you don’t speak their language. Neal seemed to be a bit of a pro at it yet my attempt to order the same as him failed until the lady at the counter brought out the idiot board so I could point at the pictures. Maccy D’s tastes the same in all countries it seems. The sausage is as joyously greasy and the eggs just as potent. Our journey continued and when we got to the end we settled down. Coats were off at this point as the earlier rain had cleared and it was already getting warm and very humid. We had stopped off at the supermarket we’d end up using all weekend on the way. The pastries there were surprisingly good but the main reason was for water for the day ahead. It took me almost three days to get the hang of not accidentally buying carbonated water. They appear to go mad for the salty fizzy stuff out there. Phil and Rob had bought some bread and cheese so settled down to a picnic as I showed off the photos of curious animal prints and strange Jesus themed painting from my apartment I’d taken with my phone.

Soon we twigged that our chariot had arrived and we went and joined the crowd for the Mercedes Sprinters. What we thought was going to be a quiet trip with just eight people transpired to be a day out for over 30. Not ideal but nothing could be done. We (actually it was mostly Kevin, Dennis and Neal) sorted out the money so we were all square for the rooms and that days trip as Neal, Rob and Kevin had paid out for the rooms the night before and then we hopped onto the second of the two vans.

We had Nick, a PhD student in ours who we were able to ask all sorts of questions. He’s doing his thesis on tourism so gets lots of trips to Chernobyl. Oh, did I forget to state where we were going?

The long drive was… interesting. The roads out there are crap and our driver wasn’t the worlds best at over taking. He always forgot to pull back in and only drove on the correct side of the road when an oncoming car got within two feet of his front bumper. There was an old CRT at the front of the van which played a constantly jumping video about Chernobyl. What happened, why and where went on afterwards. Neal, Kevin and me were in the back row with Dennis and Rob in front of us and Phil in front of them. We probably ruined the trip for everyone else with our loud talking and laughing. The scenery to Chernobyl was amazing too. Looking out the window and seeing all the different houses and cars was like looking out into another world. Which I guess in many ways, it is.

We pulled up to the boarder control and were allowed to stretch our legs and take some snaps before getting out our passports to be checked by the guards. Back onto the vans we jumped and were driven to a cafe area. This is were we had our briefing for the day ahead by our guide, Yuriy. He’s an interesting chap! Mental and serious at the same time. Nick read out the list of rules whilst Yuriy changed his clothes and we signed the forms which pretty much said “if you die a horrible death because of today it’s your fault”.

Yuriy hopped into the lead van and we could hear his voice over CB radio. Our van followed his and he described what we passed as we drove along. At this point I was beginning to wonder what was going to happen that day. We appeared to be driving past all the interesting places and not stopping. I needn’t of worried as we often double backed on ourselves. We stopped at an abandoned laboratory next to a lake, a monument to the firefighters whose courage saved many lives at the cost of their own and then headed to the local shop to buy water. The whole site is still highly active and this is where they buy their local groceries. It was like stepping back to a 50′s America.

Back onto the vans again and lots more driving. It’s pointless reeling off a list of where we went and stopped. My memory won’t allow me to and you’d get bored. Points of note however were the bridge where we saw a mahoosive catfish, a half built reactor which was abandoned and obviously reactor four. This is the site of the large kaboom on 26th April 1986. You can find all the info you want about it and what’s happening now on wiki and it’s far too much to write on here. One point of note is that it wasn’t until 15th December 2000 that the site actually stopped producing power when reactor #3 was turned off. I personally found this extremely surprising. We never got to see the vehicle graveyard. Rumour has it that it’s too radioactive for people to see. The truth is that it’s been sold off for scrap to the Chinese. Our next stop was Pripyat.

Again, wiki has all the info you need but the synopsis is that it was a city created for the workers and families of the nuclear plants which was later abandoned. Yuriy took us to many places, up to the top of a couple of buildings, the school and the fairground being some. I missed out on the pool as I got lost in the school and spent my time making asbestos angels instead. We can’t go into most of the buildings in Pripyat. Partly because they are unsafe due to decay and also because they’ve been stripped leaving boring shells. In fact, soon no-one will be allowed into the buildings as they’re concerned about the safety of it. One sobering sight was all the gas masks. The floor of the kitchen and cafeteria of the school was full of them, as was a room at the top. Each one a child’s mask.

Then that was it, the tours was done for the day. The only thing left to do was to eat. After we’d been tested for radiation of course! A fun little contraption was used which you have to stand on and place your hands onto the metal plates on the top. Green means good, red means bad. Very bad. The machine must have a sense of humour as although we all passed it some people had a bit of a wait before it showed them the green light.

The food was alright, sort of. The starter was a salad with a form of salami and pate on the side then it was onto the main. I’d never had borscht before. It’s a simple soup made from beetroot and not at all enjoyable. It came complete with random bits of meat floating in it. They do things differently in the Ukraine and next up was mashed potato and mystery meat surprise with a side of meat stuffed pancake parcels. Nick (the PhD student) was at my table and was telling me how in the previous weeks they’d not been able to tell whether it was pork or beef. When we first arrived we saw a large number of cats wandering outside yet when we left there were less. I think that answers any questions.

After successfully keeping down the meal it was time to go back through the boarder control after another radiation check at a much more elaborate and far larger machine. The drive home was just as eventful as the one to the site. The driver most definitely had his foot down and overtaking was a little more exciting.

That night we revisited Ikon where I had a nice cold beef salad and some ropey Corona. The food at this place was excellent but we didn’t make it back there again for the rest of the trip. I could happily eat there every day if I ever had to. We then retired to our beds a little later than planned. We needed plenty of sleep for tomorrows drive to Pervomaysk.

Chernobyl

[View with PicLens]

Pripyat

[View with PicLens]

posted by ferny http:// 02nd September 2010 2:58pm gmt

meeting up and the first night

Back in April some people I knew were mumbling about a rather different trip from the norm. This turned out to be perfect timing for me due to various events at the time and was the catalyst for a rather excellent long weekend.

On Friday 27th August I was meant to meet up with some people at Gatwick at 8am. This meant getting up at 4:30 so I chose to get a later train and sweatily staggered into Frankie and Bennys ten minutes before check in at 9am. I’d only ever met Neal before so sat down at the table with Dennis, Rob, Neal and Kevin and as they tucked into their breakfast I quietly recovered from the crispy chili beef and special fried rice I’d eaten the night before. When they finished I took custody of Dave the Duck and we made our way to the desk for Ukrainian Airlines.

Kevin and Rob had slightly… over packed their carry-on so as they gritted their teeth and managed to get through the procedure without question the rest of us talked and got to know each other. Then Phil, Dennis’ wifes cousin (cheers for the correction, Dr D!) arrived. Unfortunately because he was behind us it meant we weren’t able to take up the entire back row of the plane and I had a random next to me for the flight, but he slept the whole time which was welcomed and allowed Dennis and me to shoot some breeze. Rob, Neal and Kevin took up the naughty side of the plane for the flight leaving England.

Touching down in Kiev we were slightly perplexed when the head stewardess finished her welcoming speech with “good bye, and good luck”. Well, that’s a lie. What the five of us actually did was burst out laughing for the whole plane to hear. Speaking of the plane, I’m not sure it was the newest model in their fleet. The CRT monitors down the center of the aisle and 8-track in an overhead locker being the give-aways.

Leaving the plane by steps and bus was painless. Getting through passport control wasn’t so much. No-one seemed to be doing anything and rather than an orderly queue behind the big signs saying “foreigners” a mob was forming. Eventually we were allowed into the country thanks to the oh so pleasant airport staff. Maybe eating too much borscht makes them grumpy and mildly surly? Afterwards off we went to find out taxi – a rather nice Mercedes. The driver was an interesting character. After almost scraping the side of the van getting out of the carpark he picked up a passenger and whilst looking back to us said “nice girl, yes?” It would have been rude to disagree, most likely insulting to her and would have been a lie. Let’s get this straight, Ukrainian women, or at least the ones in Kiev are stunning. They turn gay men straight and straight men to jelly. And… I’ll stop there!

The weather was shite and the driving iffy, but we got to our apartments. We were renting three between the six of us. Dennis and Phil took the two bed one, Rob wanted to share with Kevin to use his sensor cleaning equipment and so Neal and I competed in a mighty battle of rock, paper, scissors to see who would share with them and who would be Billy no-mates. I was valiantly defeated and got the apartment to myself which turned out to be a blessing. I got to shower and do what bears and the pope do in the woods as and when I wanted. And I had the only apartment which came with obscene amounts of lurid animal print which made all the others jealous!

Later that evening we met up in a club come restaurant called Ikon. I really liked the place. The food was good and there was a naked lady in one of the toilets. Ok, she was only painted onto the walls but she was nice. Not sure who did her make-up though! Luckily I did nothing more dodgy than take a photo of her as people at the bar could see through the spinning propeller blades on the wall next to the throne. You should be getting an idea of how epic this place was now. Most of us had the chicken Kiev – it seemed the right thing to do! It was stuffed with crab meat and was ever so tasty! I wasn’t sure mine was cooked all the way through but so far I seem to have passed the 72 hour food poising scare so should be safe. They also had Hoegaarden on draft. It would have been rude not to have one, so some of us had two. In half liter glasses of course! Oh, I almost forgot to mention the snail and caterpillar animation playing behind a clear glass panel which had water running down it and the other toilet full of ears!

After a few jokes, a bit of banter and getting the attractive waitress to take our photo we retired to our homes for the next few nights. Tomorrow we were off to a place which made the news in quite a big way in 1986.

posted by ferny http:// 01st September 2010 9:03pm gmt

Hi honey, I’m home

Oh my gosh I’m tired! Got back into the UK around 11:30 this morning. Where did I go? Take a  guess.

Friday – Gatwick to Kiev
Saturday – Tour of Chernobyl and Pripyat
Sunday – Tour of Pervomaysk missile base
Monday – Wander around Kiev
Tuesday – arrive home

I know it’s not Triumph related, but I’ll blog this to CT anyhoo as I think it’s rather cool. I’ve got 600 digital shots to wade through and around 150 film shots to get developed. This may take a while…

posted by ferny http:// 31st August 2010 8:58pm gmt

Accalim pads

I’m not happy with the pads in the Acclaim. I used it last weekend to see friends in Oxford and the route saw me going down a long winding hill. I wasn’t using the brakes a great deal but I don’t think my passenger was overly impressed when I proclaimed “hmm… not sure we’re going to be able to stop here” as I approached the give way sign at the bottom. There was rather a lot of brake fade along with a rather strong smell. From the pads, not the passenger.

The fluid is new but I’ll give it another flush seeing as I’ve got a set of new front hoses to go on. I’ve decided to replace the cheap pads from eBay with something better. But what? I’ve done some research and the choices are slim. I’ve trawled websites from many manufacturers and I’ve got a list of part numbers and other cars which share the same pads but nothing “sporty”. I’ll throw it out to the forum.

For the record this is what I’ve found. Use it at your own rick etc.

BEDFORD – RASCAL Bus – 1.0 07.86-06.90

BEDFORD – RASCAL Box – 1.0 07.86-06.90

BEDFORD – RASCAL Pickup – 0.8 07.86-06.90

BEDFORD – RASCAL Pickup – 1.0 06.86-06.90

BEDFORD – RASCAL Pickup – 1.0 All-wheel Drive 07.86-06.90

BEDFORD – RASCAL Flatbed / Chassis – 0.8 07.86-06.90

BEDFORD – RASCAL Flatbed / Chassis – 1.0 06.86-06.90

BEDFORD – RASCAL Flatbed / Chassis – 1.0 All-wheel Drive 07.86-06.90

HOLDEN – SCURRY Bus (NB) – 1.0 09.92-08.98

HOLDEN – SCURRY Bus (NB) – 1.0 07.85-12.87

HONDA – CIVIC Hatchback (SB, SS) – 1300 L (SS) 09.79-09.83

HONDA – CIVIC (SL) – 1300 L 09.80-09.83

SUZUKI – ALTO 0.8 1981 – 1993

Make and OE #

BEDFORD 5521078

HONDA 45022SA0660

HONDA 45022SA0670

HONDA 45022SA0999HE

HONDA 45022SA0N50

HONDA 45022SA0N51

HONDA 45022SA0N52

SUZUKI 5512078460

SUZUKI 5520056850000

SUZUKI 5520056851000

SUZUKI 5520060B50000

SUZUKI 5520070860

SUZUKI 5520070860000

SUZUKI 5520070861

SUZUKI 5520070862

SUZUKI 5521056A50

SUZUKI 5521056A50000

SUZUKI 5521078450000

SUZUKI 5521078460

SUZUKI 5521078460000

SUZUKI 5521084500

SUZUKI 5521085000

SUZUKI 5521085000000

SUZUKI 5521085200000

SUZUKI 55210M84500

SUZUKI 55210M84520

SUZUKI 55210M84550

SUZUKI 5520056852000

SUZUKI 5520070820000

SUZUKI 5520070820

TRIUMPH GBP264

TRIUMPH GBP269

VAUXHALL 91144333

Brand and code

Mintex MDB1184
QH BP191
Tarox 1220 (maybe)

posted by ferny http:// 09th August 2010 09:14am gmt

something about an Acclaim

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!

posted by ferny http:// 06th June 2010 9:57pm gmt

Stoneleigh

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.

posted by ferny http:// 13th March 2010 3:25pm gmt

Cold air at last!

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.

posted by ferny http:// 10th February 2010 1:43pm gmt

you can’t beat a small car fire in the morning

This is rather topical with all the talk of electronic ignition.

Started the car up to get it warm so I can put it back in the garage to try and sort out this low oil pressure issue and went into the kitchen to sip on my cold coffee. I could hear the car chugging along with a low exhaust note when it suddenly stopped. Normally I’d not take much notice then pop out in a few minutes to start it again but this time I took a slow waddle outside. Sat in it and wondered where the smoke was coming from. At first I thought it was my breath but then there was a little bit more. And it was coming from under the near-side of the bonnet. And then the off-side. Opened it up and through the smoke saw some cute little flames. The leccy ignition was a little warm…

Swapped it for the old points and an old dissy cap (the rotor arm gets pushed higher with the leccy and it’d damaged the center contact) and off we went.

It’s an Aldon bought two maybe three years ago and has done God knows how many miles. 25k+ at a guess.

posted by ferny http:// 08th December 2009 12:28am gmt

nicely chuffed

Just got back from the Acclaim’s MOT. I was proper cacking it for some reason. MOT’s have never been an issue in the past. If they’ve failed they’ve gone through again with no advisories in the end. Anyhoo, long story short. The tester came back into the room with joy and comments such as “that car is in crazy condition”, “better than a car a year old” and “she flew through that”. Cue big smiles! See, I can look after a car, sometimes… And she’s possibly one of the oldest surviving Acclaims?

posted by ferny http:// 13th November 2009 1:54pm gmt

going green

The Herald has it’s MOT at last. It ran out last Friday so a few days before I took it down to a station I’d not used before and got them to do it. It failed on the handbrake as the off-side wasn’t working properly. I took it back home and adjusted it and took it back the next day. The near-side had improved but the offside was exactly the same. So, it must be an issue between the compensator and the shoes on that side.

It took all the rear brakes apart. The hydraulics were fine but I thought I’d strip it all down and put it all back. That way I knew for certain everything was ok. I also pulled the cable about and could find nothing wrong. The only idea being that perhaps the chassis bracket was catching, possibly worn so it was grabbing the cable. But no, it’s all clear and free.

Work got canceled at 6am this morning so after doing some small jobs I nipped down to see if he’d slip it in. He was going to put it on the rollers for me to see whether or not it’d pass before putting it through the full MOT. Rather good of him! He told me to bring it down in half an hour which I did and it was all fine. So the car has another nice advisory free MOT.

Gotta say I was impressed with the local station and although the guy testing me is only helping his mate out whilst he’s on holiday I know I’ll be taking the Acclaim and 2000 down there. He got me to be his assistant, going up on the ramp, checking the steering etc. He also got me to do the handbrake test today. It’s rather refreshing to go somewhere and not be treated like a fool or find someone scared of the health and safety police.

On the first day I bumped into someone who knew of CT. He was getting his Lotus 7 tested and used to do our old Autosolos in it as part of an invited club. Today an old Ford Popular was in there before me. Old cars are brilliant instant ice-breakers.

posted by ferny http:// 01st September 2009 4:44pm gmt

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