Water and pressed wood = warped gunge

So, you've found your old car radio in a dusty box in the cellar, you have four nice shiny speakers to drown out the neighbours christmas carols. You inspect the door and rear-quarter panels and note the mis-shapen mess they have become after 40 years of british weather and abusive owners.

You pop onto the various traders sites to price out replacement and think that cutting big holes into 300 € (excluding postage & packaging) might not be a good idea (especially if you get it wrong)?

This is where DIY stores are very handy. I am recycling the old vynil and spongy stuff, replacing the hardboard, and more importantly, using some not-legal-anymore-in-België bin bags to plastify the rear of the hardboard, making it waterproof. If I muck up and have to start again, I will have wasted about 3€. There again, I'm not paying myself the time I'm doing the work, and doubt that the quality of my work is as good as what the three or four reputable Triumph specialists supply, but it'll do the job, and well :)

In true Blue Peter style, here's one I made earlier...

Bah Humbug.

Well, Christmas has come and gone. The good news is I'm on holiday. The bad news is my wife is drawing up a list to keep me occupied and out of mischief...

I'm slowly, but surely installing an old car radio I found in the cellar into the Triumph. "Why??" I hear you cry. Well, I probably won't need the radio... bar that... the CD player whilst driving, as I won't be able to hear it without a 2000 watt amplifier, BUT The road from Here to work, despite being a motorway, rarely moves over 50 miles an hour (if that), due to an amalgamation of Dutch and French Wagons, maniacs in their very big flash cars, old people crawling along in between lanes, and the masses of workers that cannot afford to purchase a house in the country they work in (I think Luxembourg is unique in this respect).

So While I'm sat in a traffic jam in the middle of the summer, I can Drop the roof, stick on a Primus CD and irritate all and sundry :)

But first, I'll have to find out how to make a bracket...

Dirty little bugger!

Well yes, OK. The car is 40 years old, has a dubious history and needs quite a bit of work to tidy it up, but I expected it to be toilet trained.
As I was rooting around looking for future expense, I noticed a slight lack of oil in the gearbox. I say slight, a whole litre was missing...
And as you can see in the picture, there would appear to be a slight leak from the gearbox, and I can confirm that gearbox oil is not the nicest smell you'll come across in your lifetime.
Still, the brake pads are new(ish), so that's one expense I can put back.

Next, to sort out the carbs and hood before the summer!

Hairy Chrimble everyone :)

Chihuahua...

Well, after months of doing absolutely nothing, The four of us got toghether for a couple of beers last night to decide a course of action.

The band has been going a couple of years in various formats, but the last six months or so have seen no progress whatsoever, despite having enough raw material for a couple of albums.

So, the others appear optimistic, I'll wait to see if we get my last four songs finished before banging on about motivation and stuff...

Ah, the first post.

Where to start?

Well I'm falling in with the masses, and have decided to attempt to keep a blog. It will probably mostly consist of my musical adventures, as I'm currently in two groups in Luxembourg. I'll probably also scribble a load of rubbish on the restoration of a 40 year old car I have recently purchased, and maybe I'll complain about all sorts of things, like the weather in Belgium, the way people drive around here, my amazingly boring job, my lovely wife, etc...
Well, at the tender age of 33, I'm learning how apparently mundane things can be published for the world to see, so I'll start with the Rust, and post a pic of the rustbucket that is sat in my garage...