The start of the European drive.

The start of the European drive.

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Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
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Well today is the day down to Ashford then onto the Le Shuttle and across to mainland Europe. Since picking up the Chimaera Wednesday lunch time we have covered just over 1,000 miles. These miles have been useful for finding and sorting the little niggles that often crop up after a restoration. Yesterday found that they had not used all new worm drive clips and the one behind the water pump was weeping coolant onto the top rear of the pump to got a couple of new one and swapped that out yesterday afternoon.

There are two LED's on the dash not working one was and has now stopped, wonder if I pulled something when swapping the stereo head unit?, but the headlight on one has not worked since picking her up. main beam one works. Am hoping to keep a photo record of the drive.

irocfan

40,152 posts

189 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
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lovely - look forward to following this

pb450

1,301 posts

159 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
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Are you driving all the way to Bulgaria???

N7GTX

7,822 posts

142 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
quotequote all
On the early cars there are 3 warning lights for the lighting system.
On the far left the LED is for the rear fog light - orange.
Middle LED is for the main beam - blue.
The LED nearest you is for when the sidelights are on - green.
There isn't a separate one for the headlights on dipped beam, it just uses the green one.

HTH.

TR4man

5,207 posts

173 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
quotequote all
A great adventure, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

If Ben Coombs can do Pub To Pub, then your car will find crossing Europe to Bulgaria a doddle.

Look forward to your updates.

Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Friday 13th April 2018
quotequote all
pb450 said:
Are you driving all the way to Bulgaria???
Indeed I am. Currently in a little town of Fachbach in Germany, just finished breakfast, and planing next part of the route. Czech Republic is the next stop over for us.

Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Friday 13th April 2018
quotequote all
N7GTX said:
On the early cars there are 3 warning lights for the lighting system.
On the far left the LED is for the rear fog light - orange.
Middle LED is for the main beam - blue.
The LED nearest you is for when the sidelights are on - green.
There isn't a separate one for the headlights on dipped beam, it just uses the green one.

HTH.
That explains why it does not light up then.

The top center red LED has stopped lighting up. Nor sure if I have pulled something as this happened after I swapped the head unit over for the Sony DSX S-100 that I fitted.

Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Friday 13th April 2018
quotequote all
TR4man said:
A great adventure, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

If Ben Coombs can do Pub To Pub, then your car will find crossing Europe to Bulgaria a doddle.

Look forward to your updates.
Ahhh the difference is not only the distance but that Ben owned his car long time before this so knew it. I have owned mine since last year but only got to meet her 9 days ago. There are slight niggles that I will sort out once home.

pb450

1,301 posts

159 months

Friday 13th April 2018
quotequote all
Brithunter said:
Indeed I am. Currently in a little town of Fachbach in Germany, just finished breakfast, and planing next part of the route. Czech Republic is the next stop over for us.
thumbup Epic. Good luck. Keep us posted.

ianwayne

6,243 posts

267 months

Friday 13th April 2018
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I think there's confusion over the warning lights. The lamps N7GTX is referring to are under the light selection buttons, they are not LEDs.

The warning LEDs are in the dashboard close to the instruments.

N7GTX

7,822 posts

142 months

Friday 13th April 2018
quotequote all
ianwayne said:
I think there's confusion over the warning lights. The lamps N7GTX is referring to are under the light selection buttons, they are not LEDs.

The warning LEDs are in the dashboard close to the instruments.
Yes, sorry they are not LEDs but there is no dipped beam light if that helps.

Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Friday 13th April 2018
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Sadly after an overcast but dry start the heavens opened. Torrential rain and even some hail the spray was so bad it was almost impossible to see where one was driving. Not fun day really it did bring home that the Chimaera really needs two speed wipers.

The Chimaera outside the hotel in Fachbach the weather was at least dry.



At my lunch stop spotted this Mk4 Spitfire on French plates the rain had eased to spitting jut then but soon returned in full force





Even spotted an MGF 75th Anniversary for sale in Germany not far from Fachbach a sliver on with red roof. I didn't bother trying for many pictures due to the horrid weather. It did brighten up near the Czech boarder and into the Czech Republic but then the weather caught up with us and heavy rain with some hail and then some lighting. Let's hope for a better day tomorrow on the drive across to Slovakia.

TR4man

5,207 posts

173 months

Friday 13th April 2018
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My Chimaera has two speed wipers (and intermittent too) although it is one of the last ones made. Perhaps earlier cars didn't have them?

TR4man

5,207 posts

173 months

Friday 13th April 2018
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With all that rain, is your car water tight?

Classic Chim

12,424 posts

148 months

Friday 13th April 2018
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TR4man said:
My Chimaera has two speed wipers (and intermittent too) although it is one of the last ones made. Perhaps earlier cars didn't have them?
Yeah, I thought they all had two speed. This is a very early car 4.3

Even in the murk the car looks very nice and a classic colour.

Mine had a new roof, my answer when asked this question, not when I’m moving along smile

This is a huge road trip compared to what most of us are likely to do and before getting to know the car must be a bit nerve wracking but hopefully the trusty old V8 will calm that feeling for you.

You’ll hit better weather soon enough hopefully.
Keep up the pictures as you’ll remember this for some time I’d estimate.
thumbup




wuckfitracing

990 posts

142 months

Friday 13th April 2018
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My 430 also has 2 speed wipers and its probably earlier. The bloody intermittent stopped working coming back from Burghley though.

fivetenben

589 posts

169 months

Saturday 14th April 2018
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Brithunter said:
TR4man said:
A great adventure, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

If Ben Coombs can do Pub To Pub, then your car will find crossing Europe to Bulgaria a doddle.

Look forward to your updates.
Ahhh the difference is not only the distance but that Ben owned his car long time before this so knew it. I have owned mine since last year but only got to meet her 9 days ago. There are slight niggles that I will sort out once home.
Yeah, I'd owned Kermit for 6 years before Pub2Pub, which certainly goes a long way to put your mind at ease when setting off on a big trip.

That nerve-wracking feeling of setting off on a cross-continent drive in an unknown car can be quite distracting at first; however the satisfaction of taking a 'he who dares' approach, putting it to the back of your mind and reaching your goal is massive - good luck with the rest of the trip. smile

Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Saturday 14th April 2018
quotequote all
TR4man said:
With all that rain, is your car water tight?
Nope the passenger window does not go up well and fully and it needs new seals. the roof needs a refurbish which I knew about. Heath said it's about 70% condition. When parked on the slope nose up at Burghley my new baseball cap on the passenger footwell got wet. And driving for long in heavy rain I get a drip onto my left foot. Once I get Home will look into these issues.

Then again the MGF leaks around the passenger "cheater" so am sort of used to it.

Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Saturday 14th April 2018
quotequote all
Classic Chim said:
Yeah, I thought they all had two speed. This is a very early car 4.3

Even in the murk the car looks very nice and a classic colour.

Mine had a new roof, my answer when asked this question, not when I’m moving along smile

This is a huge road trip compared to what most of us are likely to do and before getting to know the car must be a bit nerve wracking but hopefully the trusty old V8 will calm that feeling for you.

You’ll hit better weather soon enough hopefully.
Keep up the pictures as you’ll remember this for some time I’d estimate.
thumbup
Thank you for the kind comments. Today the weather was glorious at the lunch stop I considered trying to get the top in the boot but it's jam packed so would have to unload it all to fit the top in. Tomorrow is forecast around 23 degrees so will ahve a look in the morning. A sign on the motorway said air temp 20 road temp 40!!!
The dog leg small hose behind the water pump will need replacing as it's weeping and even a new clip has not stopped it fully. Due to no easy access I think they left an old hose on there. We have covered just over 2,000 miles now as I did about 1,000 in the UK. This was in Austria:-







Saw those standing stones so thought it would make an interesting photo.


Am currently in Bratislava in Slovakia and am using just over a tankful a day of fuel. Stopped off at Kollers Old Timer museum in Austria and took quite a few photos no TVR's but they did have an MG TD.




Brithunter

Original Poster:

599 posts

87 months

Saturday 14th April 2018
quotequote all
fivetenben said:
Yeah, I'd owned Kermit for 6 years before Pub2Pub, which certainly goes a long way to put your mind at ease when setting off on a big trip.

That nerve-wracking feeling of setting off on a cross-continent drive in an unknown car can be quite distracting at first; however the satisfaction of taking a 'he who dares' approach, putting it to the back of your mind and reaching your goal is massive - good luck with the rest of the trip. smile
Thank you Ben. We did have her checked over before I even saw her. Heath went over her and did some things he found and that I requested like swap the head glass for LHD ones. Then after we had driven a few days and some miles Mat gave her the once over and we noticed the leaking oil pressure switch and she got a brand new MOT. We knew she uses a bit of oil and we have that small coolant weep so bought a thing of ready mixed coolant and 5 litres of oil so can top her up as required. Check levels every morning before setting off and top up if needed. Seems to be every other day oil needs topping up as I don't allow it to get down to the low mark.