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*Takes a deep breath*
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Ok, words and photos time.
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As always there will be many of both, so nip to the bathroom or put the kettle on now.
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We took a trip down to Chez Mason at the weekend.
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The home of some awesome roads, others a little more Moon surface like.
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It's about as far south as you can go on the east coast of the mainland UK and is where many MANY cars have lived over previous years.
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One of them is a certain UK Rev 5 NA, which is to be the main character in the next chapter of this story.
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*Cue appearance of main protagonist*
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![Image](https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8683/28985453706_d791e9618c_k.jpg)
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As you can see; nature had decided to claim back this little car.
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So out came the washerising accoutrements and scrubing ensued.
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A wave of the
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(foam) wand later and it's all a little cleaner.
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Far from perfect, but that can
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(and will) be achieved later
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Two generations.
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So very similar but oh so different.
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After banishing the surface dirt, as well as creating a spider displacement crisis
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(there was so many living in and around it!!), we set about snagging.
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First up was fitting a new rear OS droplink.
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![Image](https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7498/28398085284_ef809ee37c_k.jpg)
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Needs a good surface scrub and Waxoyl!
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Shots of the new cancer bars Pete fitted.
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Oh.
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.
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stickers.
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.
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.
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problem! What to do?!
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Inevitable
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Time to head out for a shakedown run.
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Maybe a few cheeky photos while we're at it.
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.
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Yes, I drive naked
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All in all it felt good.
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The new clutch, gearbox, brake service etc have all made a big difference.
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Outstanding work by Mr M
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Needs a damn good drive, due to being sat for so long, but a solid and fun little car.
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Then it was time to set about putting together an initial snagging list.
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Daisy kindly allowed her to use her notebook
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Best doctor's handwriting
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By no means is that an exhaustive list.
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More an initial download of our observations, walking through the various parts of the car.
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Some are important, others ideas and nitpicking.
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One of the jobs we could tackle there and then was adjusting the angle of the spoiler.
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It was set at 3, which to my eyes looked wrong.
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Aesthetics over theoretical performance on this one.
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![Image](https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8651/28985251096_480a84b54f_z.jpg)
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Oh no, dirt! That's not how we do things here
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And it's oppo.
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To my eyes setting 2 looked better.
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It may change again.
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Cleaned and back together.
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The other litle job was deleting the EGR.
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Fully reversable if required, but I felt it a necessary change.
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The process was: Undo hose, plug hose with bolt, undo pipe, plug with a bit of can, trim
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(not shown, but it was neat
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).
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Time to turn the Eye of Sauron to the Mk2 V6.
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After taking it out for a drive I'm now fully sold on the wonders of a V6 in these little cars.
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The power is perfect and the extra torque makes everything effortless.
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Oh, sounds alright too.
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While it's a lovely car, it doesn't get to dodge a snagging.
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Out with the notepad again
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This time I did the walkaround and observations.
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Should keep him out
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(or in, depending how you look at it
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) mischief for a while.
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.
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A few team photos.
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Needs Mr Ben to make it complete.
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But Ben wasn't there, WERE YOU, BEN.
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Time to bid farewall to the Mason family and the warm summer's breeze of the south coast.
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Time to go north.
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220 miles of T bar off driving, a Dartford crossing and the death of MANY flying natures later, I was home.
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On the whole it felt good, with no real dramas as such.
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Most of it was spent crusing along at 70mph
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(ish
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), enjoying the wonders of T bar driving.
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It did start to get a bit nippy later into the journey.
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The solution? Whack on the heaters! Now we're in a world of luxury! Especially as I was driving bare foot, as you do
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One thing I did notice was that there was a feeling that the car was reluctant to accelerate hard.
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Once you hit ACIS range it was good, but up to that point things felt a bit hesitant and stuttery.
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First thoughts were ignition, so the following day I popped out the plugs and leads to see if there was an obvious cause.
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There was.
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.
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This could simply be the result of time having passed, or the car having sat for ages ec etc.
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This was the first time the plugs had been out since we'd purchased it, so the obvious approach is to clean them up, check the gaps, refit and test drive.
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So that's exactly what I did.
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The difference was instant and significant, a marked improvement and an engine that was much happier
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After another chunk of miles I took it home and repeated the process.
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The two wet plugs were now dry, one of the others was now pretty wet.
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So I gave it a clean, cleaned the wells etc and went for another drive.
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.
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.
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Better again! More miles down it was back home, rinse and repeat.
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This time everything was now clean and dry, which was a positive.
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I'll keep an eye on it over the next few weeks.
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Could simply have been what I mentioned above, or maybe a leaky gasket.
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I'll report back when I know more.
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So, I guess that's probably enough words from me for now, huh? I'm planning on putting together a proper lis, with priorities etc and starting on the jobs this weekend.
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But for now.
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.
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toodle pip
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