So it begins ...

With the start of a three week holiday, I started the preparation of the DHC today, for next week’s 10 Countries Run. But before starting with the actual work on the car I thought it a good idea to enjoy the lovely weather first. All under the pretence that the gearbox I fitted last month needed flushing a bit more, and of course hot oil flows better from engine and gear box. Was a nice run around the country side here in the area, but it nearly ended in tears. An oncoming driver clearly wasn’t paying any attention and completely wandered to the wrong side of the road. With my room to manoeuvre rapidly growing smaller I hit the horns to warn him. That clearly woke him up, almost just in time. While driving of the road in between two large trees he “only” clipped my door mirror, which shattered. If I hadn’t reacted the way I did it would have been a head on collision ...

On closer inspection it turned out that only the mirror’s glass was shattered, there was no other visible damage, top marks for powder coating! The guy was rather apologetic and promised to pay for the damage, will see if he keeps his word.

Luckily I do have a few original spare mirrors, so rectifying the damage didn’t take much longer than half an hour, with most of that time spent removing the small glass splinters from the interior. Have to admit that it was a rather unpleasant experience driving without a driver’s side door mirror.

Of course, immediately after returning home I removed the drain plugs from engine and gearbox and headed for a late lunch. After which it didn’t all go to plan. While removing the oil filter the adaptor plate thought it a good idea to stick to the filter. Shouldn’t be much of a problem, only I didn’t have a spanner or socket that fitted to the mounting bolt. Wonder how I fitted it a few years ago? But after an hour’s hassle, mainly caused by the fact I didn’t have my axle stands at hand, I managed to properly tighten up the adaptor plate.

My lesson learned, I went over to the shed to get my axle stands, before refilling the gearbox. Here I learned another lesson, when I rebuilt ‘t Kreng in the near future I’ll make an inspection hatch in the transmission tunnel to make this job easier. And to end the first service day I removed the wheels so I can immediate start on the suspension and brakes tomorrow morning.

List of things to do that’s left now;

• Fit new hi-torque starter motor;
• New front pads;
• Change brake and clutch fluid, as both look rather murky;
• Sort dashboard lights, speedometer side doesn’t work;
• Check condition of thermostat gasket probably renew;
• Check condition of viscous coupling, as the temperature is wandering a little;
• General check over.