Now that the MOT is over and done with and eBay says most of the parts to fix the judder will arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping Saturday is the next big step in having a smooth operator of a car.
The old mechanic I used to use when I lived at my parents is back to work on Monday. I think I'll ask him to do the clutch slave cylinder one morning before work and hopefully that'll fix the last of the gearbox issues.
Smokey said 3-4 weeks potentially until he's ready for a new car to work on. Currently working on a ricer MX-5 which the owner had in hot pink with glitter in the paint. Vile looking thing in our opinion, which the owner considered to be a show car. It had a garish body kit, wide track, colossal alloys, stickers everywhere, 1 frayed bucket seat, a questionable steering wheel design,weird leopard print, blue and pink coloured tape that was stuck on a front strut brace and half of a door card, along with a gear knob that looked like a plastic handle from a screw driver except it had no colour, but was the size of a half pint glass. Utterly bizarre tastes - but at the end of the day, a car enthusiast. So you know what? Fair play to her. Smokey - having worked on a Porsche motorsport team (saw some awesome old photos of his), said he wasn't a fan of the car in no uncertain terms.
Speaking of odd colour choices - i'll admit the colour on my LMS inlet manifold wasn't what I was expecting, and yet it might work in the engine bay. Reminiscent of the green the puma came in which is probably what model it came from:
I think the Puma looks sleak in silver and once the arches have new metal in them and are waxoyled I think the car will look very tidy. I toyed with the idea of getting exterior modifications done, but I don't want to draw unnecessary attention to the car. The looks are striking enough.
I was thinking of getting new anti roll bars and wishbones when I eventually get the poly bushings. I'm tempted by coil overs if I could get them properly set up along with the wheels aligned and possibly wheel spacers. Nothing drastic, but if I can get the handling sharpened and setup properly for a fast road driving style I think it'd heighten the experience. That's not to say the Puma doesn't add a lot of confidence to corners in it's standard form - because it really excels in that department.
J said he'd do the engine cover in black. I think the struts are red, so I might ask to have those recoloured. I'm sort of tempted to try a similar colour as the inlet manifold to see if I can make the 2 colours work a little better if there engine feels more dichromatic.
Ed