New Aerial

Hi

Just an update before heading off to work on Monday or Tuesday for another month.

We have been away for a little break to Appleby in Cumbria and stopped at the Manor House Hotel, the break was supposed to be the first outing for the car but unfortunately the weather forecast was pretty bad due the remnants of Hurricane Bertha hitting the UK. So we decided not to take the Panther as I had not finished sealing in places that I thought were in need, mainly because the sealant hadn't arrived in time.

Anyway the weather wasn't as bad as predicted and we still had a nice drive around a very packed Keswick, Ambleside and Lake Windemere in the Lake District.

On arrival home my parcels had arrived and the part I had been searching for for quite a while and that was a new aerial, the one I had fitted was a Rubber Duck and just did not look right, especially as I took a pair of scissors to it and cut it down in size.

The problem with finding the aerial is that not many are on sale with the base, lots and lots of bee stings out there but are just the aerial stick ready to screw into the base already on the car, I wanted the whole thing.

I finally found one while searching through eBay

It was reasonably cheap at £15 which is not bad seeing as it is for show only but the downside is that the chromed area is on mild steel which we know from experience will not last all that long.

To try and preserve it a while longer I stripped of the rubber and covered all of the metal area in wax and replaced the rubber then once fitted I waxed the upper chromed section, should last a few more years before changing.

So out with the old and in with the new, it can also unscrew from the base for when the cover is on.

The main worry when buying blind is that the angle may be out and it would stick out of the side somewhere but it is perfect, the booklet says it is at 52.5 degrees which I guess is just what was required.

The sealant also arrived and is a RTV sealant adhesive used on fitting sunroofs and the like.

So I got at it sealing everything I could, the main problem areas when I bought the car where around the leading edges of the doors under the quarter light seals so apart from the masses of wax oil that I sprayed in that corner I have now sealed the entrance area. I did try this when first fitting but soon found that the fluidness of the sealant allowed the rubber to be squeezed out instead of being trapped and compressing down between underside of the quarter light and the door. So it all had to be cleaned before fitting dry.

I have also sealed under the windscreen rubber and frame sides plus the step rubber separators, in fact any damm thing that got in the way of the sealant gun got a good squirt.

We have had a good run around the coast and have mostly emptied the tank and what a thirsty car this is, I originally filled with £50 of fuel and topped up at a quarter tank with another £40 to bring it back to the full mark and have only done 120 mile. With the difference in price of the original fill to the second fill I am getting around 20 mpg which is around 8 mpg short of what I should be getting so I think the carb requires a little more fine tuning as at times I can smell a little unburnt fuel in the air when pulled up and as there are no fuel leaks it must be from unburnt fuel in the exhaust.

Still its a great drive with plenty of power on tap and is a totally different drive from a modern car.

Not much more to do with the car apart from tuning which I shall take to a carb specialist when I can find one locally, then look at a twin exhaust and possibly wires but they are for the future.

Back to work for a month

see ya Paul