If you still have all the skin in place on all your knuckles as well then you can consider it a great result ;-)

Where did the 15% duty cycle figure come from?

Yes, that’s the sort of stuff. Mine is narrower than that and white . . . . . . . but I’m hoping nobody will notice on the inside of the ducts ;-)

Controlled aggression is the key . . . . . and a bit of patience. The ducting is made of ‘tough stuff’ so can take a fair bit of ‘abuse’. I find it’s not so much the ducting that can be damaged, more the surrounding cable looms, switches and connectors so some ‘care’ is also required.

PS: I note RAVE says some ‘helpful’ things like ‘remove ducting’ and ‘replace ducting’ or words to that effect, as though it is just a straightforward simple task!!!

PPS: I also have a reel of ‘bog standard’ window/door self adhesive seal that I use instead of trying to track down pukka replacement seals. It’s pretty narrow so three layers side by side usually fits in the female part of the ducting - make sure the ducting surface is stringently clean before application and it sticks pretty good.

New seals, gash thin foam rubber strips, hot air gun, BF&I and duct tape.

Fit seals. Fit ducting nicely in place on one end. Heat the ducting up and it becomes more pliable. Apply brute force and ignorance to get the other two ends of the ducting just butted against each other. Apply more BF&I to pull both ducts the same way to get the male end just starting inside the female end and then wiggle whilst pushing the ducts in line ‘folding’ the male into the female. Push gash foam strip into gap with small screwdriver or similar. Wide duct tape around joint. Jobs a good ‘un . . . . . or as good as it’s going to get!

Just Heat and BF&I to remove.

“Could hardly ask a breakdown firm to move a broken car to one place and then come out again and move it to another place.”

I did just this. When my P38’s crank position sensor went AWOL on home from work one Friday evening I had no idea why the engine had just cut out and wouldn’t restart. Green Flag came out and couldn’t diagnose/fix the problem at the roadside so the recovery truck was summoned. Normally I would have this recovered to my Indy but it was late, Indy shut for weekend and his yard secured behind locked gates and nowhere to park outside. I asked if I could be recovered home that evening and could they then come back out on Monday morning and transport the vehicle from home to the Indy. They did this without quibble.

I’ve had good and bad service from both the AA and RAC although it was all a long time ago. Apart from this they are just so expensive and a complete pain at renewal time. Of colleagues, friends and family/relations this seems to be the biggest gripe with both of them.

I have been with Green Flag for years and have called them out on three occasions each of which they have dealt with efficiently using local contractors. Note that they do two types of cover - Personal and Vehicle. Personal only covers vehicles under 16 years old, Vehicle covers any vehicle age so make sure you select the right cover.

Spec for the P38 is an 069 battery - 70Ah and ~600CCA. Positive terminal on front left (back right when fitted). The battery tray can take large batteries so L x W isn’t that important but H <= 225mm. I would treat this as a minimum spec. Batteries with positive terminal front right can fit but may have problems getting the positive cable to reach the terminal if the battery is very wide but that shouldn’t be a problem if you’ve already had a MF31-1000 fit.

Normally the bigger the Ah & CCA the better but the relatively low compression ratio of the V8 means that It spins over quite easily so CCA is not overly critical for an engine in rude health. Same for Ah is the alternator is in rude health. Standard as opposed to AGM is also not that critical.

Currently I have a ‘bog standard’ Halfords’ Calcium HCB072 battery (which is pretty much the minimum spec above) fitted that has just passed its 5th birthday in the vehicle and hasn’t put a foot wrong in all that time. It was procured in an ‘emergency’ but has done really well. I have also had good service from Yuasa 5000 series batteries (in other vehicles) which seem to be reasonable vfm and can be had with relatively high Ah and CCA.

Unfortunately my history with Varta and Exide batteries has never been good!

Although there isn’t much to the reservoir tank mine suffered a leak in the weld where the neck of the airline tube housing was welded into the main tank body. Took ages to find as I put soapy water all over the collet and air pipe, and the drain plug, but not around the weld on the neck! Eventually I did and, hey presto, the tell tale bubbles - only a very slight leak but a leak all the same.

I didn’t have a welder at the time and my current diy home MIG welder isn’t up to the job on that thickness of metal anyway. It was more expensive to pay someone to weld it up and test it than buy and refurbish a second hand one off the bay of e. It looked pretty ropey when I received the eBay offering but it was just surface rust and cleaned up really well, was treated with rust prevention and then given three coats of Hammerite. Looked like new.

Ha ha, yes the automatic mode for leaving roundabouts had crossed my mind as well. Mine only does this ‘trick’ on initially turning right, it doesn’t do it when initially indicating and turning left. I realise it’s a first world problem, I just wondered if it was a common ‘fault’ with a simple diy fix.

I have a slight problem in that my indicator stalk, when self cancelling after a turn, cancels but then continues on to start indicating the opposite way - it shoots through the centre position. Now it only does this when the ambient temperature is cool/cold. During the summer it doesn’t do it but now we are entering Autumn it’s started doing it again. Is this a common problem with an easy fix or should I start looking for a replacement stalk?

When I replaced all my cruise control vacuum tubing I bought it on eBay from a supplier called pc_industries. Quick service and good quality.

The last vestiges of the icons on my steering wheel controls had finally disappeared so they had to be replaced:

There are plenty of suppliers on the bay of e. I use the reinforced silicon rubber hoses (they have the material webbing down the middle) for both for vacuum as well as coolant hoses. If you search for E10 resistant or compatible fuel hose there are plenty on-line - Google is your friend.

Forget the request, the piccies have appeared in my post. Must have taken some time to get through the ether to the server!!!

What's the secret?

I have my own web site space which I've pointed to but the pictures are not showing?

Herewith Rangie in all its glory:

It’s a Clarke (Machine Mart) blast cabinet attached to an AirMaster compressor. Just set the compressor output at 80psi and, quite literally, away you go with the supplied nozzles with the cabinet. However, the choice of material to blast with will make a difference so a bit of experimenting is needed but it’s hardly onerous to screw another nozzle on and have a go. I am currently using Sealey Glass Shot Blasting Beads. They are quite aggressive as most of what I clean is hard metal car components that don’t need a nice smooth finish. There are a multitude of lesser ‘soda’ type materials that are somewhat less aggressive for a better finish.

Apropos of nothing in particular I have brass door hinges around the house and they always tarnish and during redecoration I like to clean them. Used to be a complete PITA but the blast cabinet brings them up nice and shiny with next to no effort. I also now lacquer them before refitting to keep the shine more permanent.

You don’t need 20cfm on a small blast cabinet. Mine requires just 5cfm at 80psi to run adequately. Indeed the blast cabinet is not to be run at more than 80psi. My small compressor can supply ~8cfm at 80psi and it’s absolutely fine for small jobs.