The estate is filled with the sound of...

The estate is filled with the sound of boomboomboomtchtchtch lakkalakka boomboomboom. Yes, thats right my happy little reading peeps. The car went to say hello to Sextons Portsmouth. I will come back to this, but need to explain why I felt a bit of a tit on the way to get the sounds sorted.

You may recall from the last blog that I had 1 gorgeous shiny white alloy looking like new and one similar with a few nicks and chips out of it that I dropped whilst the lacquer was still wet. You'd think that would be the end of the bad luck for the wheels aspect. You'd be wrong. Yet another dog eared fate dealt card came to my hand. The third wheel (rear passenger side) was a dream to rub down, paint and lacquer (I learnt to leave it til dry) and went back on like a shiny shiny white disc of satisfaction. If you're keeping up, you'll have realised I now have 3, yes three, white wheels and 1 silver one at this point of the tale. I use the phrase at this point, what this extends to: is I have 1 odd sodding wheel that won't come off.

The problem with locking wheel nuts is you need a specific attachment to your tyre iron to get them off. This, I have. For the other 3. For some obscure reason which I cannot fathom, I have 1 wheel which has a completely different head on the locking nut than the other 3. Effectively, if you look at the car from the drivers side, the car is looking good. If you look at it from the passenger side, it looks absolute toss. Short of taking it to a garage and having them drill it through (expensive and damaging), or hoping for a miracle, theres really only one way forward with this and that is to get a socket which would fit snuggly over said nut, and hammer it into the nut destroying both but leaving me with hopefully enough depth to simply prise the nut off. This is the technique I'm planning to use. When I get the time.

I was hoping to have the wheels all sorted before driving down to Sextons this morning, but it didn't happen so I looked like a small child with odd socks on when I turned up with the scumrunner and it's wheels. However, before I arrived at the boombangabang shop, I had to drive 7 miles to get there. No biggy. It is a biggy if it is hammering down with rain and your roof doesnt close properly. I'm not sure yet where the seal is gone, but I was soaked by the time I arrived. Proper damp as if I had sat with my right leg under the cold tap for 15 minutes. This less than enjoyable drive was given the extra edge of driving with near on zero visibility. Not just because of the extent of the rain, but because I haven't driven the car since I used a machine rotating polisher on the bonnet. This rotating polisher has polish on it and spins very quick. When something with liquid on spins, there is a spray effect. This spray effect had hit windscreen and with the aid of rain, run down the glass and settled on my wipers. As soon as I turned the wipers on, translucent goo was spread across the windscreen. Bugger.

The car was booked in for 10:00 am with an hour slot. The plan was get them to run power to the amp, ground it, and if they had time, hook the CB up as well. The hours labour was going to be £40. The wifey ran me back down there at 11 and we drove past the fitting bay to see it with various cables and wires hanging out. So we figured we'd leave them to it. Half hour passed by, so we drove past again to see (albeit different coloured) wires hanging out. By 12:00 I was starting to get a little worried as this is an hour over the anticipated timings. Wifey dropped me at the shop and went home.

Anyway, a rambling story short, at about quarter past it was ready. Apparantly there was more work needed than first anticipated as presumably "some complete tool" had installed the stereo and not followed the colour coding of the wires. I used my best shrug and wasn't me face. The amp is running as it should be and powering the sub nicely and the CB is also installed but I havent had a play with it yet. I assume it works. Anyway, after over 2 hours with 2 guys doing it, I was a little curious about what the bill was going to end up as. The original quote was £40, one man, one hour. Over 2 hours, with 2 guys I figured would be a tad on the painful side. Nope. Sextons, you are todays Blog hero's (might make that a regular thing, BH's). £40 total inclusive of all additional cabling and labour. Very happy with that.

I have spoken to a chap at HSP who reckons that our grovel graphics should be ready real soon. I'm hoping so as the boot and bonnet are looking a tad naked. As soon as they're ready, thats a small thing off my mind.

I'm looking at my notes on the phone (woohoo - got my iCrap back) and think the only bit left to say is the Ferry is booked by Scumrun Ltd, just waiting for the confirmation details. All I can tell you is that we're not going from either Newcastle or Harwich so thats a bit of relief.

Thats about it for the last few days, but as and when stuff happens, will keep you posted.