Left for Carlisle on Wednesday 4th around 8pm. Had spent the late afternoon sorting out some of my Glasgow stash of parts to take back to Dublin.
As well as it blowin' a hooley, it was also "pishinitdoon" with much of the A74(M) covered with surface water. Somewhere around the first quarter of the journey I heard a loud clunk as I (presumably) had a wheel disappear down a bloody pothole in lane 1. Pulled in further up the road under a bridge and there was still air in all the tyres, so pressed on.
In the morning the damage was more clear:
Arse! Still, at least the tyre didn't suffer a blow-out.
After doing family stuff on Thursday, I just had to nip round to Michael Douglas's (not that one,
the other one). Unfortunately, there were no new 300s in (a couple of years back there were six) and the two that were there were both 360s. I think both of them were there last year too. Nice of them to hang on to the oldies a bit longer.
360GLE:
360GLS:
The GLS turned up October 2010 I recall, so was fairly fresh in when I saw it December 2010. I had all the locks (it was a two-key car), various bits of trim, clocks, driveshafts. For any one interested it still has the motor/torque tube/gearbox/diff in it.
I started the morning by raiding the wiper motor/linkage/arms
which means I can get rid of those stupid pin attached things I've got at the minute
(MY 1983 means it still has the LHD wiper sweep) After getting those, I thought about going back for more - whilst I was there like - and so I gave MCHUDD a bell to see if the bumpers floated his boat as he's a bling merchant.
I also came back with a couple of windscreens and a heated rear window (thought about the hatch complete, but then thought I already have a spare and I've somehow got to get this stuff back).
Asked if they could bring it round to bag the front struts. Answer was they were drilled (part of the draining of fluids). I said doesn't matter, I'll have a look at the holes, but I can't see it making a difference. They also found a pair of 340 ones off the shelf too. So bagged them too. Scrappy also took a hammer to my dinged rim so it looks a bit happier now, but needs touching-up. Mrs MacP wasn't too happy (my "I'll be about an hour" was more like four
) and I had arranged to go to a friend's for tea, so that was a bit of mad scramble. After leaving there at 8pm, went to the Asda to get some cheap baby consumables (4 boxes of nappies, in addition to the two bought on Hogmanay), etc.
Then left myself with the conundrum of packing the car this morning at 6am, with a long drive to Holyhead and a boat to catch before the check-in closed at 1305. Plus loads of parts. Trailer already had a couple of front panels in it, along with a prop. So some more stuff went in. Also had the headache of a huge teddy bear that wee MacP got from Granny and Granddad, along with a jumbo bag of bean bag refill polystyrene balls. I split down the nappy boxes and took out the two wrapped packs from inside, and laid them all out as a bed for the glass in the roof box. Then the two windscreens in with a couple of blankets and the rear window on top of that. Then I emptied about half of the poly balls into smaller bags and resealed the remainder of the big bag and put it on top of the glass in the top box.
*I haven't opened the roofbox yet, as I too scared to see if the glass is intact or in a million pieces.*
Rest of the stuff was either in the car or trailer. Although having had some of the stuff out of the trailer 1 of 6 bags of poly balls had caught a jaggy edge and gone pop. Could have been worse I suppose.
Left Carlisle at 8.15am this morning and despite three stops (two for fuel
) made it just in time for the boat.
Interesting though was this spot when I pulled in for the first break/fuel stop at Killington Lake Services (M6 Southbound)
Nearly de-badged 3-door (only had the last "VO" on the back) and windows heavily tinted. Anyone know the car or owner? (I didn't see anyone around)
The trailer wasn't that nose heavy, but I thing my rear springs are a bit past their best: