If you don't want the story of my grief over weekend, please skip to the question at the bottom.
The family dray (97 Pulsar) failed a wof on Friday - excess oil leakage
It left about a 6" puddle on the WOF shop floor. I knew that begging wasn't going to work.Oh - I knew it was leaking oil, I have generally despised the car since something happened about 50,000km ago, my wife coming home from work, phoned me to say something went ker-bang then whoosh, and steam erupted under the bonnet. Terminally cracked cylinder head. So I bought a used motor and whacked it in - a beauty $300 (&GST). I bought an engine crane from Super Cheap to do the job, and sold it on Trademe a couple of days later (got back what I paid for it
) . Cheaper than hiring gear. Good idea? Well no. If some people suggest that when you buy a tool, then keep it, do as they say, in case you might need it again. It's a karma thing - tempting fate, "oh hell I'll never need to use that again" final last words... I bought an engine crane from Topmaq on Friday. I'm keeping it. If you want to borrow it in Chch, PM me.When people suggest replacing the rear main seal when ever you've got the engine or gearbox out, just obey them. Do not do as I did and presume that she'll be right. She was not right, about 10,000km after new engine it started dripping, then more generally leaking, then haemorrhaging, then settled down to a gusher BP would be proud of.
So Sunday, I got the old toolkit out. I didn't make my mind up whether to drop the trans or lift the motor until I lifted the bonnet, the trans is theoretically the easier option, but with these nasty wrong wheel drives, the easier sounding option may not be so easy. I lifted the motor - in retrospect it was probably the better option. The Nissan FSM says you can't do this - but it's wrong - it's written for American service technicians, not kiwis.
After about 5 hours, covered from head to toe in the black stuff, I scrubbed up (took about two hours) and we went out for a curry with some friends. We took the MX5. Stop in at mate's place for coffee, it's piddling with rain. I'd had a few so my wife drove. She's reversing out the driveway and there's this kind of disturbing scraping sound. Oops I think, that didn't sound so good. Get home, jump out and take a look. Damn Damn Damn. The front bumper seems to have scraped along a concrete wall. Only the bumper fortunately. I figure I'll get it painted, and I may as well take the bumper off myself and drop it in while I do some other winter maintenance on the car.
The rest of today I replaced the seal cleaned up a few things, and whacked the engine back in. I've run it for an hour or so, and not a drip, nothing. Back to the WOF shop in the morning - before something else goes wrong, which it will, because I hate this car, and it knows..
But I love the MX5, and it's hurt:
So the question - can anybody recommend a good painter in Chch who'll be happy to fix stone chips, the forementioned scrape and respray an MX5 bumper?
Cash payment and no real hurry.
