Review of the Year - 2020

Before I review the year, a quick update; Zedster won't start at the moment. After my last update, I jump started and went for a short spin, all fine. A couple of weeks later, I tried to start him again and the starter motor was very lethargic.

I took the battery to Halfords, they tested it and confirmed it was dead, so I bought a new one. Took that home, connected up and still no starting. The starter motor was still a bit slow but not that bad. After much checking of HT leads, coil pack etc, I finally discovered that, after disconnecting the battery, the Emerald ECU had lost my map and resorted to a default map which did not have the cold start adjustments Emerald sent me a year or so ago.

So I re-loaded the map but now, the starter motor is back to hardly turning. I'm worried I may have killed my new battery (I did do a lot of cranking after I first got it, before I found the map problem). First off, though, I'm going to check the connections to the starter motor - maybe they're loose/dirty/corroded and that is why it's not running well? Being lazy, I may not get to that before the New Year...

So to the review of the year...

For most, 2020 has been one to forget; pandemic, lockdowns, furlough, widespread redundancies - it's been horrible.

But, ironically, not for me...in fact, I have arguably had one of my best years, from a purely selfish point-of-view. I went on my dream holiday, a tour of the Alps in July which was AWESOME!! I then went on a superb family holiday in August to... the French Alps! Very different to my trip in Zedster but still amazing.

Work-wise, I've had 2 promotions this year, with associated pay rises and now find myself in a management role that I've wanted for years. I honestly feel a bit guilty that it has worked out so well when there seems to be so much hardship elsewhere. If I believed in Karma, I would be really worried... 

I've done my rant on the whole Covid situation; suffice to say, I do not know anyone in my circle of friends/family/colleagues who have even been hospitalised, let alone lost their lives, but I know of several made redundant or had their contracts reduced drastically - for them, a life-changing disaster which could have been avoided.

Hopefully, normality will return over the next few months and I really hope some analysis will be done for the next time this happens (it will - we're all damn paranoid now). Perhaps some more common sense will be applied?

In theory, I am booked to go on a trip to the Alps again next year; I paid a £300 deposit for the postponed June trip with the SKCC. Worryingly, the main organiser has been trying to sell his kit, so not sure how keen he will be to continue the organisation - hopefully, it will go ahead as I'd be happy to go again. There is another SKCC trip to Scotland scheduled for around the same time but I cannot commit to that and I have the feeling al the hotels are full for that one even if I wanted to go.

So, it's been hard at times and hopefully, the dark clouds are just a smudge in Zedster's tiny rear-view mirror, with sunlight glistening on the road ahead, the perfume of blooming flowers teasing our nostrils and the burble of exploded hydrocarbons leading us forward (Shakespeare, eat your heart out).

A great holiday and New Year to you all ...

I see you

 Bit of work needed to finish off the camera setup - first off was a simple metal plate:

Attached to a friction hinge:

Bolted to the side of the aux panel:

Just some velcro on the back of the camera, to make it easy to remove if necessary:

Need to think about how to tidy up the wiring further but otherwise, job done.

I wanted to go for a drive but, annoyingly, the battery is almost flat - strange when a multimeter shows 12.5v across the terminals? Although Zedster hasn't been driven in over 2 months, so maybe to be expected. Battery charger on...

Un-tangle the Snakes - part IV

 Well, wonders will never cease...re-wire finished and everything STILL works. Miraculous...

I did have to change from one 12-pin DT plug to a 6-pin and 4-pin but fortunately quite simple to remove the pins in a DT plug, so not a big pain. I had to do that because some of the wires come from the dash, others come from the main loom on the scuttle:

I routed the rear camera cable down the centre tunnel and wired the main unit into the ignition circuit, so the camera comes on with the ignition. Wiring behind the aux panel is now much neater:

Finally, in what was a productive day, I fitted a rubber cover round the gearstick rose joint, while the tunnel panel was off, which is supposed to cut down on the stick vibration. I bought this a few months ago but I really could not understand how it was supposed to get round the rose joint without me cutting it in half, like I have done. This doesn't look right but I can't work out how I should have done it, it only cost £2 and I'll be amazed if it makes any difference, even if it doesn't drop off in 5 minutes:

Most importantly, with the dash back in, all the electrics still work and my horn works again. I'll hold fire on calling this a complete success until I go for a drive and check it stays in one piece.

Un-tangle the Snakes - part III

 Taking a while this project - most people will probably do this in a day. But I am trying, for a change, to do a decent job.

I've drawn up a circuit diagram but it's always difficult to translate that to a real set of wires; you can't decide lengths without being in front of the actual kit, for example. Also doesn't help when you have a brain-freeze and suddenly forget how electricity works - but I got there in the end.

I created 2 wires for the positive and negative feeds, spliced wires into them and heatshrunk it all up:

Two of my switches have those horrible 13A plug-type screw terminals which are rubbish in the heavy vibration environment of a car. This is why my horn has been so hit and miss, with my horn failing every time I do anything to the aux panel. 

So I bought a box of shoelace ferrules (never heard of these before) which should work better. As the name suggests, they look like the end of a shoelace, with a small metal cylinder and a plastic boot. The problem is, they're rubbish; my set came with a special tool to crimp the plastic boot onto the wire but it is just nowhere near firm enough - the wire comes out with gentle pressure. However, the cylinder on the end is what I want, so I hacked the boots off and soldered the cylinders onto my wires, tidying up with heatshrink:

Looks pretty neat, I thought, and should hopefully be much better. I now have everything on the aux panel going into 1 DT plug:

Still looks messy but much better than it was and hopefully less prone to bad connections, with all plugs crimped AND soldered. 

Next stage is to do the other side of the DT plug which is going to be a it trickier as I have to do the soldering sitting in my car, rather than on the bench. 

Un-tangle the Snakes - part II

 The camera I bought has a front and rear camera but, unlike my bike version, the 2 cameras look the same and the wonderful Chinese-English translation in the manual neglects to help in suggesting which is which (the front camera is higher resolution). So I took a punt on it and, guess what? Yup, 50/50 chance and I got it wrong! So I'll need a few minutes to swap them round - lucky I tried the thing before fully installing it.

So this is the snakes nest I'm trying to tidy up:

First job is to label everything before I take it all apart. I've drafted up a rough idea of where the wiring currently goes and how I'll need to wire the DT plug - I have 9 inputs, so I'll use the 12-pin plug.

Next stage is to work out an efficient wiring diagram, without the 4 separate positive wires I currently have, for example.

Un-tangle the Snakes - part I

 So time to do something reasonably major; sort out the damn wiring behind the aux panel!

After my quickshift was repaired, which required the aux panel to come off, my horn stopped working - damn wiring AGAIN! 

So I'm going to do 2 things; re-design the circuit to hopefully simplify it and use some more professional plugs and crimping techniques. I've spent some research time on YouTube, investigating good crimping techniques and I've bought some DT-type plugs, which are waterproof (not that I need that) and have an excellent clamping method. But the idea is to rationalise the 3 plugs I currently have to undo to get the aux panel off, down to 1 larger DT plug.

Obviously, with wiring, this could go horribly wrong but I'm sick and tired of something stopping working every time I so much as look at the aux panel.

Included in this rewire, I'm installing a front and rear camera system (same as the one I have on my motorbike). This has a 3-fold purpose; as a dash cam in case I have an accident, as a reversing camera but mostly so I always have my drives recorded, so I can always make a video if something unexpectedly good happens. At the moment, I have to fit my camera and then turn it on at the right time - as the battery only lasts an hour, I regularly find I think I've recorded something but then find out the battery died 5 minutes in and I've got nothing.

First thing tonight, though, was to test out my LP pump. Someone on the forum had a similar starting problem that I have and it turned out his LP pump had died, so the HP pump was having to suck the petrol all the way from the tank. Seemed like a possible cause of my problem but, after pulling the pipe off the swirl pot and turning the pumps on, petrol came out, so the LP pump is working - damn. I spent some time cleaning the filter which had some paper strands in it (like a mouse has made a nest in my tank?!), so maybe that will help? Unlikely...

While I had the rear panel over the diff off, I made a start on the rear camera. After some thought, I decided to attach it to the top of the number plate light, so I drilled a couple of small holes in the top of the unit and then, scarily, a hole in the rear panel for the wire:

A grommet and that's done - not too intrusive:

The wire will go through the tunnel up to the dash and the main 3-inch screen. I have yet to decide where to put the front camera or the display screen - that's for next time. It has to be integrated into my new wiring, as it needs an ignition-switched power supply.

Here Be Dragons

 The SKCC Rogue Runners Wales 2020 trip started at stupid-O'clock (4.30 am) at Newlands Corner - and ended in horrible failure for me, a day early - but more of that later.

Day 1 - Surrey to Llangollen

Once again, we met in the pitch-black of Newlands corner and set off at 5am - the 2 Elises of Graham and Roger (1 more was late and Steve would catch us up later), the Quantum Extreme of Rob, Duncan's Caterham, Tony's Quantum and me. Our target was breakfast at Newport, to meet the final member of the group, Linda and her Tiger.

This year, the route was less M4 and more A roads, which was much better but slower and we got to breakfast around 8.30am. The weather was glorious and would remain so for the rest of the trip - incredibly lucky.

I took very few photos and the only video I thought I had taken didn't, so apologies for that (but you may be sick and tired of my videos by now).

After the breakfast farce of us sitting 1 table apart and waving across the room at each other (then standing inches apart in the same space for coffee and toast), we set off north, towards the evening hotel at Llangollen. We were prepared to alter our route if we were somehow forced to avoid the 2 Wales counties supposedly locked down (I was excitingly looking forward to driving through a police roadblock like a scene from Smokey and the Bandit) but there didn't seem to be anything on our route, although we were avoiding the large A-roads.

The route was an improvement on last year, with quieter roads although traffic was a bit heavier as well. I must remember to buy food at one of the petrol stops next time - I was expecting a nice cafe stop for lunch but everyone seemed happy to skip it!

The drive was wonderful - sun shining, lovely roads, great views - it all flew by too quickly (literally). We even, at one of our stops in a layby, saved a sheep that had got stuck in a wire fence! Annoyingly, my hot-starting issues continued, so every fuel stop was a battery-sapping cranking before Zedster fired up.

Sat-nav issues were, as always on these trips, numerous. I was the only person not to have a TomTom, so mine kept choosing a slightly different route to everyone else. Normally, I stayed in the middle of the pack and just followed others but this didn't always work and at some point I lost everyone and so spent the last hour or so on my own. I cannot remember how I lost them but it wasn't the end of the world - gave me a chance to just concentrate on driving and my route was brilliant - Zedster was flying. Even the last few miles into Llangollen wasn't as bad as last year and I was second to arrive at the hotel (after Tony, who had also got lost at some point). We need to recruit navigators!

The Hand hotel in Llangollen was right in the centre of town and it had virtually the only car parking space in the centre. The hotel did not reserve guests spaces, so getting us all parked was tricky but we finally managed to squeeze us all in. I went for a wander to buy some tourist tat for my family:

A few beers and then a nice meal in the hotel restaurant capped a superb day.

Day 2 - circular North Wales route

After a hearty full English, we set off on a new route devised by Duncan and it was a corker - starting up the famous Horseshoe Pass to some lake (sorry, I'm never good with names), it was an amazing sweeping road, although it is a notorious biker racetrack, so now has average speed cameras along it. However, averaging 60mph is pretty difficult on those roads, so it didn't bother me (although I await a brown envelope in the post in the coming weeks!). At the lake, my sat-nav seemed to miss the coffee stop at the lake (very annoyed about that!), I think because I was just enjoying the road too much and not looking at the screen. Tony and Rob did the same thing and so the 3 of us decided to just carry on and meet up with the others later:

Shortly after the above pic was taken, on a single-lane road with no passing places, a huge tractor appeared around the bend. We had to reverse 200m or so before he managed to squeeze on a kerb and let us past. We took turns to lead and managed to keep together as far as Llandudno, where we stopped for a coffee and a chip butty for me (why does no-one else eat lunch?!). With amazing timing, we set off for the toll road round the Great Orme just as the others pulled up behind us.

The rest of the day was a blur - Conwy Castle, Llanberis Pass (I'm told), great roads, lovely scenery, all bathed in sunshine. Predictably, I missed a turning, with Rob following me while the others went off. I should have just turned around but I HATE turning round and Rob and I spent the last hour alone, occasionally hearing the others over the radio. Later on, I lost Rob as well - I'm like a reverse people-magnet! Annoyingly, I missed the stop at the Ffestiniog (sp?) railway but the drive was just awesome and I pulled up back at the Hand, the first back, with Rob arriving soon after.

That evening, after a couple of beers, half of us de-camped to a local Indian for an enjoyable meal.

Day 3 - Llangollen to Llandrindod Wells

Today went very pear-shaped for me. It started ok, with the group splitting up and half (the ones who got ready sooner) leaving first - I left in the second group. We had a great hour or so, on a lovely road towards Bala.

Around this time, I heard an ominous clunk from my gearshift. I mentioned it on the radio and we agreed to have a look at it at the next stop. Ten minutes later, just after a hairpin bend, my gear lever went loose and there was a clank noise as something dropped in the tunnel. I rolled to a halt in a layby and took the tunnel top of, expecting to see a bolt having vibrated loose. Sadly, it was MUCH worse than that:

That is the top pole of the GBS quickshift which had completely snapped. Game over. Without welding equipment, none of us could think of a fix, so I called my breakdown company and the others left to carry on. 

Now, I'll have to admit, the ensuing chaos was mostly my own fault and I'll write it here to remind myself - feel free to skip this long paragraph. It starts with the fact that my first MOT was due on August 1st. I thought I was entitled to the 3 month MOT extension because of Covid but, no, that ran out on July 31st!!! So my MOT was due August 1st, which I discovered a week before and I couldn't get a test done before that date, so it eventually got done on August 8th or so. Unfortunately, this meant my direct debit for my road tax failed on August 1st because the DVLA system said my car had no MOT, so I had no road tax. Now, my breakdown cover is through ADAC, the German version of the AA. They have an arrangement with the AA but when they called the AA, they said they weren't allowed to come try fix the car because it was, strictly, not legally allowed on the road. All they would do was tow it to a 'storage area' until I paid the road tax. I then discovered that my ADAC cover would only allow £300 towards recovery home - AA wanted £800 to do that! So even if I got the AA to come out, all they would do was take it to a garage (this was Sunday, none would be open) and I'd have to hang around while someone tried to fix my car, for some exorbitant rate. I just wanted to get the car home where I could do the fix myself. I used an online emergency tow service and got some bloke who would recover me for £400 but he would take 3-4 hours to get to me (he was in Manchester). ADAC agreed to pay £300 of that, so I asked the guy to come get me and settled down to wait.

By this time, it was 2pm and I'd already been sat by the side of the road for 3 hours. Bored, I started rummaging through my tool kit to see if there was anything I could do as a bodge to get me moving. Thinking it was like a broken leg, I looked for a splint and bandages - Allen keys and gaffer tape, maybe? After a few tries, I had this:

And, amazingly, it seemed to work, although I had to use 2 hands to change gear - one to push the rose joint in and stop the bodge from pulling off, the other to move the lever. Just then, a guy from the RHOCAR forum returned my message and invited me to stay at his place overnight and he could fix the part on the next day. Only problem, he was 70 miles away in Tamworth. I cancelled the recovery guy and went for it...

I set off and I managed the first 15 miles in 4th gear but the traffic started getting heavier and roundabouts are a killer when you don't want to change gear. Also, gaffer tape doesn't like heat and the heat from the engine was melting the glue. Suffice to say, I had to stop 3 more times to re-do my bodge job (I ended up using half the roll of tape), although my last version was much better and felt like it would last longer:

Luckily, most of the last 40 miles were on the motorway, so I could stay in 5th and I got to Rich at 7pm. And, in a way, it was the luckiest part of my day...

Day 4 - Tamworth to Surrey

Anyone reading this from the RHOCAR club may know Rich - he is a legend. Thirty years at JLR means he knows his stuff, has a garage (the neatest I have ever seen) filled with 'stuff' and what he doesn't know about engineering 'aint worth knowing. His garage contains his immaculate, V8-powered Zero, a mini-caravan he built himself from an old trailer and an awesome hard-top for the Zero, complete with interior light and roof vents. He's the guy who made the doors on Zedster. For him, welding up my gear shift literally took him 30 minutes - I've never seen anything like it. It took me 10 minutes to get my dash off and another 10 minutes to get the quickshift unscrewed. Rich looked at it for about 30 seconds and then started drilling, grinding, welding and painting:

I was actually very useful - I moved Rich's coffee mug so it was always close to him as he scurried round. Essential, I think...not that Rich stopped for long enough to drink it. If it had been left to me, Zedster would have been off the road for months.

Moral of the story: if you have to break down, make sure you're near Tamworth.

With Zedster back together by 11am, I considered trying to re-join the others but I would just end up driving to get to the overnight stop, missing all the days route and great roads. So I set a vague route for home, skipping all the major towns and main roads.

I actually had a great drive back - there are some surprisingly nice roads just a few miles from the edge of Birmingham and the Cotswold villages are very scenic. Strangely, Zedster's hot-starting was much improved over the day and the extra weight in the quickshift means the gear lever vibrates less - result!

Overrall, it had been a fun trip, even though I only did half of it. The weather was ridiculous (I look like I've spent a week on a sunbed), the company was great and even breaking down was a useful learning experience.

Sorry this post was so long - for more detail from others on the trip, check out this SKCC post.

I do NOT need this...

 Holy Cow, what an horrendous couple of days! A couple of posts ago, I worried about changing anything in case it endangered my Wales trip, so what do I go and do...?

In my defence, it seemed innocent enough - sort out the throttle cable so it didn't keep popping out of the bracket on the throttle body and clean out the fuel filter to maybe improve the hot starting - what could go wrong?

I worked out a much better way of re-using the old plastic pieces on the throttle cable to get it running smoothly and securely - much better than it was, thought I.

The fuel filter is supposed to be cleanable, so I unscrewed it and actually replaced the plastic insert with a new one from a spare filter I had.

Now, I thought, let's go for a drive and see if I have cured my hot-starting problems. Start the engine and....Holy Feck, what the Hell?! Engine started but wouldn't idle or run unless I kept revving it, popping and running like a 3-legged dog in a bag.

Fired up the laptop and re-calibrated the TPS, no change. Re-loaded the map - no change. The Lambda sensor was all over the place, not getting anywhere near its target AFR. So many things were wrong, I couldn't work out where to start.

At worst, I thought maybe I had somehow fried the £700 ECU, or maybe introduced dirt into the fuel system while changing the filter. Most likely, given my history, was the possibility that I had knocked a wire out somewhere, maybe to the fuel injectors? The possibilities were endless...

I started with the cheap options and tried to reverse the changes I made. So I disconnected the throttle cable and actually completely removed the plastic insert in the fuel filter, as well as re-calibrating the TPS again. Now, I could get the engine to idle, just. But any small throttle input caused the engine to stall.

At this point, I noticed that when opening the throttle to half way, the Emerald software showed it just open to 17%, which was strange. I re-calibrated the TPS for at least the 3rd time but I had spent so long cranking the engine, my battery was low on charge, so I left the charger on while I got back to my day job.

After work, I reluctantly dragged myself to the garage for round 7 of a battle I felt I was losing, turned the key and.....hey presto, Zedster fired up as normal, settling to a normal tickover, with the throttle working as normal!! WTactualF!!!

So it looks like the ECU was just not saving the TPS settings properly? I dunno, it's just weird - the TPS calibration function is pretty straightforward - how could I have got it wrong 3 times but then it worked on the 4th? I didn't do anything differently. Maybe it was doing it with a fully-charged battery?

Whatever - the relief is wonderful but, damn, I really didn't need that stress.

One bonus - I went for a test drive and I seem to have 100% throttle travel because Zedster felt like a rocket ship! Seriously, I really don't remember him being that fast since I finished the build. Have I really had that little throttle travel for 3 years!!!

So, lets hope nothing happens between now and Friday morning - bring on Wales!

Feeling the pressure

 So time to try sort out my hot-start problems. Online research suggested fuel starvation is the most likely problem and the most likely cause of that is simply clogged up fuel filters.

I recently added a filter in the HP circuit and it is supposedly cleanable so I took it apart. It looked OK and I couldn't seem to get the filter part any cleaner just using washing-up liquid. Luckily, I had a spare filter (actually, it was a mistaken order), so I just took the filter section out of that and the old one does look quite bad:

...but I don't know if that is 'clogged' or just age.

I was going to go on a test drive to try it out but I thought I'd have a look at my throttle cable first - on my last drive, I'd had the Emerald datalogger running and I was again getting a maximum of 70% throttle only. Looking at the horrendous botch job I did last time (see, it seemed good at the time but, with less biased eyes, it's not), I'm going to have to work out a better solution. I'm not good at 'thinking outside the box', so I've put a post on a forum to see if anyone has any bright ideas.

Needs to be sorted by Friday for the Wales trip...

Sorry, controversial stuff

 I have tried to keep clear of all the Covid-19 issues the world is going through right now but it's impossible to ignore and I really need to vent, so my apologies for the following (and you may wish to skip this post). 

This is triggered because my Wales trip in 2 weeks is being threatened due to all the restrictions...yes, I am a selfish so-and-so.

For posterity, let me summarise - a flu mutation called Covid-19 has spread around the world since January, 2020, so far killing over 800,000 people.

Sounds horrendous, huh? And it is BUT...

• 800,000 people represents 0.01% of the population.
• The vast majority of deaths are old (65+) people who are already ill.
• In a bad year, normal flu kills 600,000 people.

So, an individual has a 99.9% chance of NOT dying from this disease, even better if you're basically healthy and under 65.

But what has the world done? Shutdown, that's what. Lockdowns, restrictions on going out, eating out, working, schools - EVERYTHING. And for what? To save 0.01% of the population, most of who will probably die in the next year anyway.

Once you are dead, your problems are over but for the millions of people left behind who risk losing their jobs, their source of income, the ability to feed their kids and provide a home, this is FAR more of a disaster than the minuscule chance of dying from this disease.

The solution is simple; everyone carry on as normal and if you are in a risk category, isolate just yourself at home. Yes, horrible for those that need to isolate BUT just them, not the entire damn population!!

I just wish someone in power had the courage to say this but they never will - it is political suicide (but they often ignore the restrictions in private, as we have seen).

You may think I am a sad example of a human for saying this - in my opinion, I am just a realist. Our entire society is based on many people doing small things - we cannot afford the damage if we prevent that happening and if it goes on too long, we may not survive that damage. 

Spock said it right, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few".

By the way, my mum is 74 and has type-2 diabetes. She lives alone and has no friends, her only joy is seeing her grandson (my sister's son - they live 200 miles from me). I have suggested she not do that and isolate but she refuses - she would rather take the risk. If anything happened to her, I would prefer she enjoyed her life as much as she could rather than hiding away for however many years a vaccine takes (assuming that even works well - the current flu vaccination is only 60% effective).

Does it ever end?

 So I spent some time on odd jobs - cable ties in the rear bodywork to keep the high level brake light wiring in place and new foam strip round the engine bay to try keep the catches working.

A bigger job was trying to get more throttle travel. Ever since I replaced the cable on my French trip, I've had even less travel than before, which made over-taking a little hairy at times. 

The problem is that the metal end which attaches to the throttle body seems to be slightly longer now than my original cable and this is limiting how far the throttle butterfly can turn. 

I've butchered the plastic piece to give the metal end somewhere to go and it has definitely improved the amount of travel I get. However, despite recalibrating the throttle in the ECU, I get a stutter when accelerating hard, just on the initial burst - a half-second delay before the power comes in. I don't know if this is has always been there (because I have never had this much travel) or if its a symptom of my fuel starvation issue, if there is one.

I know I enjoyed building my car and voluntary upgrades are also fun but trying to fix little niggly problems is not enjoyable.

I really don't want to do anything too major before my trip in 2 weeks but I also don't want to get stranded 200 miles from home.... urghhh. I'll try a few more test drives over the next 2 weeks, see if things settle down... 

All legal and above board

 So, today was MOT day...

The main beam problem was, as always, wiring. As soon as I took the dash off and wiggled the wire on the main beam switch, it came out the stupid butt connector. I don't recall but I must have had to extend the loom wire, which I did using a butt connector...out with the soldering iron and all fixed.

Following a recommendation, I booked in with an MOT garage that has experience with kit cars. Now, I'm not going to name names here but the test was a tad...brief. I know Zedster was fine but, if he hadn't been, this test would have been unlikely to detect that. To his credit, the guy was very thorough with the bits I don't check (brakes, bushes etc) but there were a few glaring omissions I won't go in to.

Suffice to say, it was a pass and we're all legit...

Saying that, a new problem has arisen - hot starting. I switched off when I arrived and waited 10 minutes for the paperwork to get started and when I tried to restart and drive into the bay (I sat in the car the whole time, which I liked), Zedster wouldn't start. After a few minutes, he did eventually but it wasn't reassuring.

The tester suggested fuel starvation but said there were lots of possible causes - I'm wondering if I have knackered my HP fuel pump after a couple of very hot days in the Alps on my recent trip. Also, the battery was very low after 2 weeks sat in the garage - maybe it's just that? My GPS speedo has a permanent live feed direct to the battery which is supposed to only use a few micro-amps but I guess this might add up if left for weeks? I've got the trickle charger on now.

Another couple of minor fixes needed - all the extra wiring I added for my high-level brake light needs more cable ties to keep it in place; they keep dropping out the bodywork and getting perilously close to getting tangled up in the wheel. 

Also, one of my bonnet catches keeps popping up. I noticed this in France and it never caused an issue but could do with sorting. It may just be enough to renew the rubber strip I put on the chassis rails that the bonnet sits on. It's very worn in places now and compressed - a fresh set may give some extra depth for the bonnet catches to hold on, if that makes sense.

Need to do all this before my Wales trip in 2 weeks, a repeat of the trip I did last year. Really looking forward to that...

Back to the grindstone

 So, 2 weeks after my mega-trip, I went on a family holiday - to the French Alps! A very different holiday of rafting, cycling, walking - anything but driving (apart from the drive there and back).

It was actually a good comparison of a proper sports car and a modern family car, in this case my Lexus Rx400. Twice the power of Zedster but almost 3 times the weight, and it showed. Whereas Zedster scoots round corners with minimal roll and need for brakes, the Lexus rolls like a ship in a big sea and understeers horrendously. Obviously, not a fair comparison but interesting...

So time to get Zedster ready for his first MOT. 

First up was the reverse light which hasn't worked for a while. This was just because the bulb holder was a dud from when I first got it, so it doesn't make a good connection. Not wanting to have to replace the whole unit, I thought I'd change it to an LED. Obviously, I couldn't just put in a new bulb as it would have the same connection issue. I ordered a weird collection of LED pads and bulbs for £3 on ebay - they took 2 months to arrive! But the little LED pads are pretty good and I wired 2 of them up to the existing wiring and stuck them (they have adhesive pads on the back) to the inside of the lens, facing the reflector - job done.

Next, the horn which hasn't worked for a while. Turned out to just be the wiring (no, shock!) - replaced a couple of spade terminals and all good. While there, I noticed another wire dropped out of a spade terminal, which explained my non-working LED interior light - now working. 

The last thing to do is the main beam which hasn't worked for a while. A definite wiring problem because the main beam flash works but needs the dash to come off - job for another day. 

Alps 2020 - Day 7

As suspected, today was a lonely slog to Calais - 300 miles of mostly dual-carriageway and motorway. The weather was good - a mix of sun and cloud until Calais, when it got darker and started spitting rain.

The weather report said it was raining at home, so I put my roof up for the crossing and, Holy Cow, lucky I did. As I drove off the train in Folkestone, the rain was torrential, some of the worst rain I have ever driven in. The standing water on the motorway was unbelievable - for the first few miles, I thought I might have to stop to bale Zedster out! Great welcome home, England!

So, the trip is over:

And some stats, useful for future trip planning:

Total mileage: 1,892 miles
Fuel costs: £371
Accommodation: £280 (6 nights)
Tolls: £55 (does not include the one-off £30 to get the Liber-T tag).
Food: £110

My Eurotunnel crossing is usually zero (Tesco vouchers) but I had to pay £80 this time because I changed my date from early June to July and they wouldn't let me pay the extra in vouchers.

They say "don't meet your heroes" and a driving trip to the Alps has been a dream of mine since not long after I passed my test. In this case, however, my 'hero' was all I imagined - the best trip I have ever done, bar none.

Unfortunately, this sort of trip is very selfish; it's all about the driving and that does not really cater for passengers - no museum trips, shopping, sightseeing (except through the windscreen) etc. So it is difficult to get spare time to do it - and you need the right car.

Which brings me to the star of the show - Zedster. Built in a garage by a semi-competent orang-utan (me), Zedster took all in his stride, racking up the sort of miles few would put their factory-built cars through. Surprisingly comfortable over distance and a hoot when the going got twisty, I had an amazing time and until I can afford a 911 (probably never), nothing else would have been better.

Who knows, I might even give him a wash.

Map of today's route:

Alps 2020 - Day 6

Another scorching day greeted us for the start of our return trip.

Breakfast of Kings at McDonald's,  although probably wasn't a good idea to have a coughing fit inside. Luckily the place was empty otherwise they would probably have had to burn it down.

At this point,  my faithful guide, Graham and I split up to go our separate ways. I'd like to take this time to thank Graham for his work this week. I hope he doesn't  mind me saying that when I get to his age, I pray  I'm half as organised, physically fit and as sociable to everyone as he is. Despite owning a sat-nav, he never used it,  preferring those papery things with coloured squiggles on them. They must work because he always knew where to go and whenever I misread my sat-nav, he would take the correct turn and be patiently waiting for me after I'd turned round. His knowledge of all the routes and history of them was like having an audio version of a guide book with me - fascinating stuff.

Many thanks, Graham.

Shortly after,  I arrived at Lake Annency and it is very beautiful. I wished we'd left a bit earlier and I might have gone for a swim - it was damn hot and the water looked amazing:

Unfortunately,  I had 280 miles to get to my overnight stop and it was already almost lunch time.

I started on what I thought would be a slog along A roads but I noticed my sat-nav had suggested a route through a green bit, so I chose that. That 'green bit' turned out to be the Jura mountains and the D991 was 30 miles of heaven; twists and turns, green forests and best of all,  hardly a soul around. It turned into one of the best runs of the week and I'll add some video to this post in the next week,  hopefully. UPDATE: darn, I started my camera but I didn't realise the battery was flat, so no video, annoyingly.

The next 200 miles gradually got duller,  although that is relative - the roads had some interesting sections when it looped and dived through local forests.

Finally arrived at my gite for the night - tomorrow is a definite slog for the tunnel.  My train is booked for 6pm but I should get there before that and hopefully, they'll let me get on an earlier one.

Map of today's route:

Alps 2020 - Day 5

Glorious weather all day today, with an amazing run starting a few miles from our gite, up to the small town of Beaufort. At the top was a beautiful lake,  one of several we'd see today - a great place for an early coffee stop:

Next was a run up to Val d'Isere and the highest pass of the trip, the Col d'Iserian at 9,100 feet:

The next 100 odd miles was more of the same; bumpier roads than the Swiss passes but a bit quieter and a real workout for the arms.

I was quite surprised how few nutters we met - most other traffic were locals or tourists in family cars. One guy in an Elise wanted to go faster but his wife in the passenger seat obviously kept him under control. There were a group of Porsches we caught up with who briefly provided some fun and then we passed a couple of bikers by the side of the road - they caught up with us shortly after and I did my best but,  man, they were quick. I let them past as i was slowing them down but it was damn fun trying...

The last 30 miles of the day were a gentle cruise in lovely evening sun (with McDonald's for tea - classy) - I was just too knackered for any more.

Sadly, tomorrow I head for home although I'll try fit in something interesting on the way to Nancy for an overnight stop.

Video for today:

Map of today's route:

Alps 2020 - Day 4

The day started dreary and wet but it soon dried up and the first 70 miles were a relatively straight run west along a valley, with towering mountains either side. Tame compared to yesterday but pretty and a great cruise.

At Martigny we turned up to the famous Grand St Bernard Pass. Being one of the oldest passes and with a modern replacement, this one is narrow and bumpy, almost like Applecross but it goes up to 8000 feet:

At the top is the Swiss-Italian border and the less inhibited Italians loved our cars; one woman insisted on a photo in the driving seat, then a couple of kids. For our few hours in Italy, loads of locals stopped and stared and every time we stopped, someone came up to ask a question. They like their cars...

On the way down, I followed a lovely, new Renault Alpina. It was surprisingly wide and quite quick but I think the guy got a little worried of crashing his very expensive toy - he let me past after 3 or 4 miles with me tied to his rear bumper.

The last stretch to the gite we were staying at was relatively simple but always stunning scenery all around:

A bit of lack of planning meant a meal of coke and fruit bars - so rock and roll.

Tomorrow is a loop round the French Alps...

Video of the day:

Map of today's route:

Alps 2020 - Day 3

Wow, what a day! Sun, rain, hairpins, a breakdown - we had it all.

The day started a bit cloudy and on the run down from Grindelwald to Interlaken, the heavens opened. I just managed to pull in to a petrol station with a roof in time and put my roof up,  much to the amusement of a local family who were fascinated. Graham is made of hardier stock than me and soldiered on,  although he also hasn't got a roof anyway.

Somehow,  we got split up so I did my first pass (Brunig) alone. Unfortunately, after the first mile or so, i got stuck behind a slow line of cars but the view was amazing - peaks, drops, glacier-blue streams. Coming back down, I met up with Graham and were headed for the Sustenpass which heads up from Inertkirchen and what a stormer that was. Traffic was light, the rain had stopped and it was a long run up, with what seemed like 1000 hairpin, curving roads - I hope my camera got some of it.

The run down was even better - in 4th, squirt along the few straights, cut the corners on the gentle curves,  hard on the brakes for the tight corners - exhilarating and tiring.

Next was a hop past Andermatt, a very fancy ski resort, and up the Oberalpass, where I had a little play with a Mini Cooper, who kept up with me - I really hope he was trying and was at his limit otherwise I need to get a turbo!

We stopped for lunch and now might be a time to mention Swiss prices - pretty much all food is double the price of home. My burger and chips was £16 and was good but nothing to rave about. However, petrol isnt too bad, only a little more than home.

Next up was the Furkapass, quite rough and bumpy compared to the others but just as awesome up and down the other side. The top was at 8000 feet and the view? Out of this world:

Then the Nufenenpass, more of the same, down past Amermatt again and the Furkapass again.

It was on the way down here when my throttle cable went ping - lucky it was on the way down, I was able to roll to a stop in a layby. Also lucky,  I had ordered a new throttle cable from GBS just 2 weeks ago because I knew the cable was a little frayed. Putting the new one in took an hour, with some nice rain halfway through to keep me cool.

With the delay, we skipped the last little run up past our hotel for the night and went straight there instead for some well deserved macaroni and apple sauce (don't ask but it was very nice).

What an awesome day, probably my best in my driving life. The roads, the views, in a car I built - it doesn't get better.

Tomorrow we go to France via Italy...

Video of the day (although I was having so much fun in the morning, I forgot to turn my video camera on):

Map of today's route: