Colin Lindsay

Following the advice of members here on the forum I recently bought a tube of Mintex Cera Tec and have tried that on both shoes and pads. My local Autofactors has it for around £4 so don't pay too much for it - there are forty prices online and some quite inflated ones.

As someone who wasted over £40 pounds recently trying to buy Dulux bathroom paint I know very well the problems of paint matching! At least with car paint many suppliers will offer a scanning service and match the mix to the current shade, if you can supply a small part. It won't work from a photograph, by the way. One interesting thing is that they may look good in daylight, but if you've ever parked a red car under orange streetlights you end up looking at a number of unbelievably different shades! I did it once with a Spitfire and couldn't believe the patchwork effect.

It may be that as you line them up, it becomes obvious - perhaps they're sized to fit in one orientation only and so one can only fit behind the other without distortion.

Seized solid - completely! I think the seller wanted rid of it. It was well beyond economic repair. It still yielded a lot of good parts, though, being a MK2 GT6 engine, so repaid some of the outlay.

No; the original from the fixed-spring is still fitted. I have the heavier version but never quite got round to fitting it.

I've already got an estate.... it's a 1200... BUT: this is directly opposite our house, and the youngest Lindsay has been told to camp outside if necessary and secure the first-born son...

My daughter is under strict instructions: from me, it's someone exotic from somewhere hot, preferably by the sea, so I can go out there and live at their expense. From her mother, it's someone wealthy with an equestrian stud farm, or stately home with lots of land.

GT6 MK1 running on GT6 MK3 swing spring; it's been converted since about 2002 and has run very well ever since, but much better with the GT6 spring than the Spitfire spring I originally used.

Just off the top of my head - if the only difference is brackets for the lower wishbones and the shockers in the wheel arches (maybe the handbrake cable as Pete says) then by removing the brackets, and replacing the current shock mounts with the chassis extensions that used to be available, and using the assemblies from a swing-spring Spitfire... possible? I'd prefer a proper GT6 leaf spring... but if the brake pipes and hoses were as the Spitfire... interesting. Sorry, David, not much help other than musing, but it must be possible.

Can't help it, Pete, I'm just a born worrier. If anyone else's car passes, it's fine. If mine passes, I'm wondering what they let me away with or what they didn't spot.

'Cookies' are worse; I was on a newspaper site recently and they would not let me choose - it was accept or get lost. They had 174 'partners' who were interested in what I was reading. Some sites are sneaky in that they will hide cookies on your computer so that you can't get rid of them, and they will perpetually return even if you remove them all.

Very true! I can picture it now as Ian says so yes, a nice concept. Worth the extra effort... surely someone makes remote switches for cars? Must go search...

I've never had such a traumatic morning and am still recovering. MOT is bad enough, but the horn only worked if you turned the steering wheel at the same time and of course there was the indicator problem... which, when I was four miles from my house with 30 minutes and eleven miles to the test, decided to stop working altogether, along with the fuel and temperature gauges and the wipers. Blown fuse, and I had no spare. I drove home and replaced it, and seriously considered abandoning the test, but now had 15 minutes to cover 15 miles. Four miles on, the main road was closed for roadworks, so I diverted left. Next road along was also closed for roadworks. I ended up driving seven miles to reach a main road, which still left me eleven miles from the test centre and already one minute late, and to be honest I was on the point of going home again. I got there twenty five minutes late, legs shaking from the speed and embarrassed at being late; the tester told me not to worry, disappeared off with the car, and reappeared with the certificate about half an hour later. I still think they're playing a trick and will come to take it back shortly. They were very impressed with the GT6 so I think they went easy on me. Since then I've stripped out the indicator stalk, which was not staying on as there were no springs in the mechanism of the new stalk - I took them off the old one so that problem is cured - and found seriously chafed wiring on the overdrive, which may have been blowing the fuses; switch now replaced and all back in place. Now I just need to lie down for a bit to quell my racing heart. I'm too old for that sort of thing!

PO is previous owner, POs might be multiples of previous owners, but POS is what I call my car when it goes wrong.

If only CT could get all of the non-paying members called 'bot' to contribute it might help. Does TSSC have that many, too? Big Brother is tracking you... I make it 78 bots in all?

Lol yes was being slightly... mischievous... ... but it was cloaking a serious question: if you replace a white reversing light with a red fog light, then you'll obviously have to wire it in to a different circuit and run extra wiring to the reversing light unit to power the additional circuit. I can see it being easier on some cars, than others. It's do-able, but just seemed like a lot of bother. PS I only get grumpy when called an Irishman. https://www.theulsterscots.com

Northern Ireland; usually we do the first part of the test with the tester shouting instructions so it all depends on whether I'm working the controls, or the tester does it himself. If a car fails here it can't be rectified on site; you have to go away and book a retest. I was out from the early hours this morning but the cowl isn't the problem, the switch is not staying on long before it reaches the end of the cowling. I broke the old one off at the base whilst working on other things and replaced it with this identical version, but for some reason it won't click and stay on. I have all of the cables properly and very tidily routed so the entire column wiring would have had to be disconnected and replaced. Not enough time!! The test is in 45 minutes so I'll just have to find out the hard way; any retest has to be officially booked and won't be before August.

Nya nya, £180 for mine back in 2001 and they threw an engine in too.... but it was seized solid. It was a 3-rail with J-type and I can very definitely recommend it.

So you can reverse in fog? I'm wondering how you turn it on for driving forward? I have a LED bulb with an audible buzzer than you can use as a reversing light, when you move into reverse the buzzer sounds to warn anyone behind you. Never tried it yet.

Minor point I suppose, but the switch is perfect; only the outer cowling is faulty as the slot won't allow the switch to fully operate..! We don't get advisories over here, it's either a pass or fail. In the morning I may take a Dremel to it and lengthen the slot slightly, just for peace of mind. Normally when it's tested I sit in the car and operate all of the switches for the tester but with Covid 19 I've been told they will collect the car from outside the centre and I will stand outside, with no access to the inside - "dress for inclement weather" says the instructions, while the tester does all himself.

Wish you'd posted that a few months back; my old gauge was reading 10 psi at rest on the bench so I binned it after a quick stripdown just to see what it looked like inside. I suddenly realised I'd bought one of the Michelin digital gauges way back which was zipped up in a case on the shelf in front of me, and had completely forgotten about it, so have been using that ever since. I'd have liked a shot at adjusting the other, if I hadn't been so hasty...

I've sent you an e-mail this afternoon - I was away overnight from yesterday - so let me know if it helps any. Colin

That's the counterbalance springs, all normal there.

Does anyone know the EXACT legal requirement for indicators to pass an MOT? My GT6 is due tomorrow; during a last minute check I've remembered that the indicator stalk broke last year, so I replaced it, but the new stalk for some reason sits further back in the cowling. This means that it works, and operates in either direction, but does not move far enough to stay on by itself - if you take your fingers off it, it will revert to 'off'. Handy, as it means I never leave it on, but does it matter to an MOT tester? They flash at the required rate and all work (and there's no hazard facility) but must they stay on by themselves?

My GT6 wheels go way up into the wheelarches on reverse; I've been told this is due to rear toe being out; but there's no sign of excessive tyre wear on any part of the tyre. If it passes MOT tomorrow I'll get it checked on the way back.