Imprisonment - Day 68

Imprisonment - Day sixty eight
Thursday 28th May 2020

Cars - 25
Motorbikes - 1
Bikes - 6
Dog walkers - 3
Walkers - 1
Runners - 4
Horses - 0
Horse walkers - 0
Molehills - 0
Cycling temperature - 10.5c

It's strange that people all seem to go out at the same time some days and not others. It can't be the weather as all mornings recently have been similar slightly chilly and sunny. Five out of the six cyclists said good morning I think I'd seem them all before so I feel I have trained them to be courteous and I hope they will start saying good morning to other early risers they meet.

The Bentley took two steps backwards today as I woke during the night thinking I'm not happy with the paintwork around the windscreen. At various stages I have thought that I should have removed it as it would have saved time masking off and would have been easier to paint but as I'd not done it at the outset I carried on regardless. Also the last time I removed it it was a bit of a pig to fit it back on. So this morning I threw caution to the wind and remove it. In just fifteen minutes it was off and I was rubbing down the surface of the skuttle beneath and an hour later an undercoat was being applied.

I then decided to fit the headlights which was actually an easy job and in no time the offside light was fitted and working. Great I was on a roll the nearside went on easily too and with a flick of the switch it too powered up but on the second attempt it would not power up. So I dismantled it and checked the wiring and it came on but as soon as I put the reflector on the car it would not come on but if I took it out it came on. Scratching my head I moved on and fitted the sidelights which again went swimmingly with both working first time on the fick of the switch.

After lunch I went back to the nearside headlight. I tried another bulb and power unit and that seemed to work but the original one worked too but only when the reflector was out of the car. I mentioned my dilemma to Ros at teatime and she said that if you get a difference when preparing accounts if you stop and go back to it later you usually fall up on it straight away. And that's what happened after a cup of tea and a piece of cake. I went back down to the Motor House and started to look at the two wires close to the bulb. The outer case on one of them had cracked and was shorting out when the reflector was earthed to the car but when the reflector was out of the headlamp unit there was no earth and therefore it did not short out. I wrapped some amalgamating tape round the offending wire then bound it to the other wire which made a neat job and more importantly did the trick and the nearside light is now working perfectly.

That done I just had enough time to rub down the skuttle and aply the top coat with my little airbrush which is great for these little patch up jobs. By six o'clock it was done and the car back in the Motor House.

After tea we rebuilt our bed as the paint was now well and truly dry and had lost its cellulose aroma. I'm even more impressed with the design as the whole thing was rebuilt in less than ten minutes. It looks like new and it will be nice to sleep in a bed again opposed to a mattress on the floor.