Great Stuff

All is fine once more. More than fine actually. In summary everything is working, planned jobs are progressing and lots of checks have now happened. All supporting the fact that Amy is a solid little car that *SHOULD* be what I'd hoped for.

Had adjusted brake pedal a bit tight, loosened that off this morning. My dad was coming over to help with the whole job, but since I'd finished during lunch hours and evenings in the week, we'd changed tack to do some general firtling.

Oil filter, still wouldn't budge. Dad's band tool gave no space to turn.Was considering removing the whole assembly from the side of the engine. Then Stu from across the road got home and popped over. (He's got an old Land Rover that he's working on and he's a proper mechanic!)

"I've got a tool that'll do that" says Stu. And sure enough, 5 minutes later it's off. Brilliant. So oil and oil filter done.

Next job, to see if we could bleed the brakes and check the condition of everything in general, so all wheels and drums off. Good news mostly, all wheel cylinders (bar driver side front pair) are newish looking. Also confirmed that most pipe work is also newish - copper. All brake shoes looking good, again bar the aforementioned driver side front pair which were crumbling a bit. Fortuitously had a spare pair which were in better condition, so fitted those. All bleed nipples are stuck solid however. So no go there for now. Soaking with penetrating fluid for now, half an eye on giving them a go at some point, but as mentioned everything is working OK for now, so I'll not worry!!

Generally crawled (literally) all over the underside of the car. Nothing of any particular concern, except that the existing underseal is probably doing more harm than good now, as it is all cracked, water can sit in between that and bare metal and accelerate deterioration. Nothing urgent but will need to give it attention as planned.

Put everything back together, drove around a bit. All fine, brakes good as ever and the "new" shoes are bedding in, so drum is a little hot, but nothing to write home about.

Good day !!! Very satisfied once more. Still need to tackle thermostat, engine a bit lumpy when pulling away. Probably carb - best guess. But all in all, seems like things should be fine for a while. (touch wood!)