Not so fast

So he does live, but all is not right with the world...

We charged up the battery as instructed, and then Jonathan decided to take him out for a drive to get him filled up with fuel in advance of our trip on Saturday. He returned after about 10 minutes, which meant there had to be something wrong - the garage is easily 15 minutes each way from here.

There is just no power in the engine. It starts fine, and revs OK, but when you try to use it to move Bertie, there's almost no response. Jonathan said with his foot to the floor he struggled to get above about 10mph, and as soon as he got to any kind of hill, he thought he was going to stop altogether. So, in that 10 minutes he had only been about half a mile, turned, and inched his way back.

How quickly we return from celebration to despair.

Looks like I'll be back on the phone to Mr Kitchen tomorrow...

HE LIVES!!!!

Rob came at 10, and took less than an hour to get Bertie going... The sweetest sound to my ears :)

He had to replace a few bits and pieces, and some wiring, and apparently there is still an issue with the carburettor filling with fuel, but he goes!

We need to charge the battery up, but we should be good to go to Awesome (at last!) on Saturday...

Thank you so much Rob Kitchen from Norfolk Classics.
http://www.norfolkclassiccars.co.uk

And a very shiny rear end...

Well, the day is getting slightly better, in that Bertie is home.

At last, the welding is finished. We went back to CWD today, and towed him home... I'm still not happy with the look of the boxes, and they seem very low to the ground, but I am just so relieved that it's all finished and we can move on to the next stage (assuming he ever runs again!)

So here's his shiny rear end:

And here is the crew pushing him into the parking space outside our house:

A knight in shining armour?!

I think we have a mechanic!

Dan sent me an email with details of all the work he's done so far, and then also some suggestions for people to contact. Since the engine is not dissimilar to an early Land Rover, and since those engines go on for ever and are pretty fixable, it seemed a good idea to maybe try a Land Rover garage or specialist (though not really a main-dealer type!)

Anyway, I had a very useful chat with a guy called Rob Kitchen today who works over in Swaffham, and I think he may be the man we need - and he (after some gentle persuasion) has agreed to come over tomorrow to check Bertie over.

Hoorah.

OK, this isn't funny now...

So, we still don't have Bertie back - apparently he'll be done by Tuesday, but I've heard that before - and now we don't have a mechanic either - and he's still not running.

This is not funny anymore.

I spoke to Dan on the phone this morning, and he wants out. I totally, totally understand - he has a very busy life building his own cars (check out the Trident Iceni, Dan's baby: http://tridentsportscars.com) as well as trying to find time for his lovely family... And Bertie is turning out to be more than just a quick fix for a friend. So, I totally get it - but now we're in a bit of a hole!

I need to find (and find the money to pay) someone who can come to us, can fix Bertie, and can do it within the week so we can keep on schedule...

Happy Bank Holiday weekend everyone!

Not a happy bunny

OOH, I'm so cross!

We went to pick up Bertie from the welders as we had arranged, and he's STILL not finished. And they didn't even call to let us know.... So we turned up, and Pete was working away, surprised to see us - as though we'd never agreed to collect him today. But he's not done, so what can you do?! We agreed to come back tomorrow to get him; I'm not pleased at all.

But also - I'm really unhappy with the aesthetics of the back boxes. Pete had said he was going to put a couple of side lockers on, as well as the central box, to add to the storage space, but it doesn't look anything like I expected. There are big gaps between the three sections, and it's all so shiny and so angular - I guess these guys are industrial welders, so I maybe shouldn't have expected anything more, but it's just so ugly.

Poor Bertie - What have I done to him?!

Happy details

I got loads of samples of fabric in the post today to choose one for the bunks - and I think I've made a choice :)

Who cares if he doesn't go - he will have pretty things!

Here are a few of the samples

This is the one I have chosen. It's a heavy weight canvas, blue and stripy, and comes from these lovely people:
http://www.kidscurtaincompany.co.uk

I have made it into a little Barbie-sized bunk with some straws to help explain to the children how their beds will work in Bertie!