It’s the middle of March and it’s snowing. Again. The snow also dissuaded me from taking Clarence up to Coniston when we went up for my birthday last month. It was probably the right call, although I’m not sure Matt would thank me for making him take his new car down the road from Langdale that goes past Blea Tarn. It’s a touch on the narrow side. We had a cracking few days staying at the Black Bull, although sadly the snow stopped us from getting to the top of the Old Man. There was plenty of delicious beer though!
March is also when Clarence’s MOT is due and back in November I had taken advantage of VW Heritage’s Black Friday deal and ordered a new steering box. After 6 years I really didn’t think we would get him through another MOT with the current set up. Unfortunately by the time MOT time had come around, the new box hadn’t arrived so I had to cancel that order and order one from Just Kampers instead. Because of the rarity of LHD early bay steering boxes I decided that we needed to go down the route of converting him to a late bay box. Amazingly, he only failed the MOT on one item:
Nearside Rear Inner Drive shaft which forms part of the suspension coupling gaiter damaged to the extent that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc (2.4.G.4e)
I was super looking forward to giving the new steering box a good test that weekend as Ginger Mat and I were planning on popping up to Harrogate for this year’s Spring Dub, but the snow stitched us up on that one also, the show being postponed to April. Hopefully the weather won’t affect that, or the Clique 53 Spring Classic at Newstead Abbey next weekend.
Instead it got a decent work out last weekend when we headed down to the Waterloo Inn at Biggin to catch up with Darryl and Jo, Tess the dog and the Pageant 7. Naturally it rained, but at least the snow stayed away. And what a difference the new steering box made! Sadly it couldn’t stop England losing to France in the rugby, but it is so much better, especially on some of those winding Peak District roads. It wasn’t the cheapest thing I’ve ever had done but it makes driving far more relaxed.
Years ago I had the idea of repainting the bug’s old hubcaps and because of some paint issues it was a job that never got completed, I’m not sure what rekindled that idea but I decided to have another go. When it gets a little warmer I’ll be stripping them all again because we had an unfortunate reaction…….
