January 2001

ell I haven't updated the site for ages and lots has happened so here's a re-cap of what's gone on. It's not in any particular chronological order.

December 2000

Purchased a cotton cover for the car for the Winter to replace the old cotton duvet cover that I had been using. It is much bigger and fits the whole car even down the sides. I also put up some blankets over the doors and placed a small electric heater in the garage. The heater is one of those type used by gardeners to keep their greenhouses warm over the Winter. It has a thermostat on it so it helps keep the chill from the car and the condendsation forming.

I seem to be plagued with leaks from the cooling system. Last week I noticed that there was a small weep from the radiator itself. It appears to be coming out near where the bolt runs through to secure one of the Kenlowes. I'm not too pleased to see this, but it does now push me in the direction I've been thinking about for some time, and that is to get a custom made aluminum radiator. A friend who also has a Crendon has just had one made by Pace Products Anglia Ltd the price was £350 plus VAT. They have a website at www.paceproducts.co.uk

After the track day I did back in August, I noticed a smell coming from the car. On the day I put it down to the brakes getting a little too hot as a result of the speeds I was getting up to - yeah right. But I smelt the same smell the next time I took the car out. After a lot of looking around the car I tracked it down to the fuse box. I've included a picture of it the latest pictures entry - there used to be a 30amp fuse here! I guess I was really lucky to spot it before it did too much damage and I ended up with a fire. So I've had to replace the fuse box but not before trying to track down what the problem was. Well I track it down to the thermostatic switch on the Kenlowes. Now I have to admit some stupidity on my behalf here. When I initialy installed the switch I put in on the inner bulkhead directly in-line with the fan belt. Now because I'd been having a lot of problems early on with leaking headertanks, the excess water had been been dripping onto the fan belts and then flicked into this thermostat housing. I had been diligent about wiping up the excess water and because it contained antifreeze I'd been flushing it off the bodywork. But I had not been to particular about the thermostat. So I supose the antifreeze had corroded the trip switch on the thermostat. So I ordered a new thermostat and this once fitted sorted out the problems.