Working till our fingers bleed?

[JohnB_SPY8808053]

If you are interested in working on your Stratos "till your fingers bleed", I highly reccomend trimming fiberglass parts with a roto-zip. Apparently power tools go through flesh much quicker than most other things and if you start early, you'll can get bandaged up in time to have dinner & a show before bed. It's also a good excuse for dodging various household chores with the missus. ;-)

Seriously though - I'm OK but if I hadn't been careful about how I was cutting, it could have done a lot more than just nick my thumb. The bit broke and then jumped out of the piece before landing squarely on my left thumb. It split my thumbnail and got the cutical a bit. Should heal up in a week or two but it sure makes typing more difficult. Just thought I'd share my misfortune and remind everyone that we should always be careful both in and out of the Garage.

Ciao,

John B.

[chris.richard]

My sorry tale of the weekend was snapping the mandrel on my rivnut applicator part way through making / fitting my outer bulkhead. I can't get a replacement in Scotland today, and it's a bank holiday in England, so that's a no-go for a few days. Luckily it's started raining, so i can't do the garden! Maybe I'll get the *meter finished.

[guy mayers]

Trying to get the car back on the road in time for Stoneleigh in a fortnight.... Time to check it over for the MOT and the list got longer! One light bulb, no washer jets, split CV joint gaiter, perished steering rack gaiter, two front tyres worn out in the centre of the treads and a blowing exhaust.
Light bulb was easy.
Washer jet, check the pump - ok - so that's why the carpet's soggy! Pipe reconnected and carpet hung out to dry. Easy
Split inner CV joint gaiter - easy, did both on the driveshaft and dismantled the CV joint, cleaned all the old grease out and rebuilt with new grease and new boots.
Steering rack gaiter, easy, new one came from Rimmer Bros in 2 days and nothing was seized up so it went back together as easily as it came apart.
Two front tyres - Hmm. The car was such an improvement when the Yokos on the back were replaced with Pireli P Zeros, especially in the wet, that I refused the offered Yokos at my regular dealer and insisted on 225/50/50 P Zero Assimetricos. Needles to say, not only were they not in stock but they didn't even know they existed. Good job I had looked on the Pirelli website! They should be priced and availability checked on Tuesday and delivered next Saturday I hope.
Exhaust............. It was blowing from the flexipipe section on the piece under the engine. The 2 nuts on the silencer end had to be hacksawed off, one on the manifold came off ok and the other sheared. Anyway, Geoff managed to open the pipe up and carefully weld the flexipipe back onto the solid part of the system before stitching everything back together, I managed to remove the broken stud, find a couple of spurious gaskets that would do the job and it all went back together today. I think there may still be a slight leak somewhere but I'll let the MOT man find that if he can! A bit of gun gum should sort that out. Temporarily.
So, unless I'vew missed something obvious she should be MOT'd next weekend and taxed at the begining of May!!
And the sorry part? I just know those tyres are going to cost a fortune if they are available!
Guy