@Micrashed: seems to be a more excited skeleton when cold. Not got around to investigating it due to a complete lack of spare time, funds and enthusiasm, but I shall investigate in a few weeks... maybe.
I've been umming and ahhing about this car and whether or not he's a keeper. At present, I'm in no position to move him on and I think I was suffering from that age old car enthusiast malaise of having a car that was reliable, sturdy and not wanting for much which as we all know is terribly boring. Another problem I was facing was the state of the car having been unable to find the time to wash or vacuum him for at least a month, so today I set about fixing that. Polishes up pretty well, considering how knackered the paint is.
I made a start on the engine bay, but didn't get very far. It's quite respectable under the bonnet and very easy to clean, but today I just wasn't feeling the engine bay cleaning vibe, so I'll do it another day.
While I was under the bonnet, I wanted to find out where the engine codes were so I could work out whether or not I had the good 1275 unit in there. I'm told that the red topped 1275 is the one to have and is the tunable lump, but the numbers would let me know more definitely I think. Are these the numbers I'm looking for?
I've decided that Steve can stay for now. I have to remember that there isn't anything inherently wrong in having a reliable, practical, cheap to run car and that tinkering constantly with a car is not normal these days. Instead, I've been putting my energies into how to improve the car and researching expenses for things like repairing the rear arches (about £50-60 for the panels), refurbishing the wheels (around £150 for powdercoating, much less for paint) and replacement panels (bonnet and tailgate sourced, interior plastics likewise). So we'll stick with him and put my plans to get an A40 Farina on hold for the forseeable. See me use my sensible head!
