So is it twisty like that at both ends or did he turnaround and come back down again? I didnt factor in the added obstacles of people with guns, dogs and white furry things running around aimlessly, so maybe I would approach it with a little more caution but then again I could bag a lamb for roast dinner.

Still be more fun in a 500 though, he just put dramatic music on so it looked like he was going faster

It's twisty at one end only. When I was there I saw no-one....cars or people, but plenty of sheep. It's not really the gradient that slows you down, but the sharpness of the bends. After the hilly bit the road is pretty straight for about 4 miles, which is why the torture bit was worth building in the old days. Scotland is full of this sort of thing and we'll worth the effort to get here.
After all the filthy road salt we picked up this week it was time for a bath. Although there are some rusty bits that weren't there before this winter, he scrubbed up well and I jacked the car up and hosed out the wheelarches and under the floor.

I just watched this:
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/great-british-car-journeys
I suspect that it won't be accessible from outside the UK. It starts just a few miles from where I live and covers the drive I did in my previous posting and other routes I regularly cover in a Fiat 500. These two amiable chaps needed two and bit days in a modern Morgan but I can do the return journey in a day. It's just slightly above average TV of its type but very enjoyable.[emoji3]

Although just covering old ground, I'm having a busy week with Murf having to stand in for my modern car which is awaiting spare parts
So we've continued to show the reliability and competence of the little Fiat, with 190 miles covered today, 150 yesterday and it will be 200 tomorrow.
We faced up to the challenge of the Bealach na Ba to Applecross and tackled it it both directions.
https://www.dangerousroads.org/europe/scotland/60-bealach-na-ba-scotland.html
I was pleased that the higher drive ratio didn't affect the car's ability on these very steep gradients. On the downhill section it was so cold outside and there was so little work being done by the engine that the heater became quite useless.
But the Highland roads are even better when free of the summer traffic. [emoji3]View attachment 198345

Today we were being filmed by a small production-team for a promotional video which will be published at some point.
From my suggested locations they decided on The Bealach na Ba; a place from which I have often hoped to get good footage. It was fun day although I had to moderate my speed so that they could film me from the back and side-doors of a moving vehicle. They were shooting the sorts of angles I can only dream of and the weather was at its impressive Scottish winter extreme.
They seemed very pleased with what they had seen of the initial rushes and I'm expecting a mini-masterpiece in the near future with Murf as the star-car.

fiat500 said:

Today we were being filmed by a small production-team for a promotional video which will be published at some point........ I'm expecting a mini-masterpiece in the near future with Murf as the star-car.

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Hey Hey, Murf’s going to be a film star! :slayer: Is there no end to the little fella’s talents?

Can’t wait to see the finished video.

IanEmery said:

Hey Hey, Murf’s going to be a film star! :slayer: Is there no end to the little fella’s talents?

Can’t wait to see the finished video.

Click to expand...

No updates on the video.....we were over in that area today in brilliant sunshine and heat...hard to believe that it was winter just five weeks ago.

It was incredible being able to cruise around without any discomfort with roof and windows open for most of the 170 miles. Maybe I'm just hardened by the four days I spent recently alongside my brother in his permanently open-topped Lagonda. Pushing the limits on old cars must run in our genes because he confidently belted up and down the UK covering almost 1500 miles in an 85 year old car; more than half of that with a broken suspension spring.

Having just re-started the restoration of my campervan I am now distracted by the need to do some welding repairs to the front of the floor of Murf. It was completely replaced ten years ago but the panels are extremely thin and they contain several channelled sections which amost certainly start with inaccessable inner surfaces which get no paint treatment; having said that, I haven't treated Murf in a particularly sympathetic way for a 50 year old gent, have I?

fiat500 said:

I haven't treated Murf in a particularly sympathetic way for a 50 year old gent, have I?

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Hmmm!!!!! you can read that two ways! Who is the gent and potentially is someone trying to pass himself off as 10 years younger than he really is? Is it a midlife crisis scenario or is Murf only 40?

Vitesse said:

Hmmm!!!!! you can read that two ways! Who is the gent and potentially is someone trying to pass himself off as 10 years younger than he really is? Is it a midlife crisis scenario or is Murf only 40?

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I thought it was clear who the gent is...it self-evidently isn't me... mid-life sailed past quite a few years ago.

Re-write:

.."I have been a complete b*st*rd in the way I've sometimes treated gentle Murf; river-fords, forest-tracks, salted roads, snow, rain, hail. It's just a shame that the molten, tarred roads of last summer didn't add any preservative powers."

Great picture. I'm soooooo jealous! Looks beautiful up there Peter!

It is beautiful...especially on a day like this; get your little car up here.

We've been ripping up the miles lately even by my standards. Yesterday, in Ullapool we encountered a young couple from Milan who were photographing Murf. They own a blue, 1971 "F" in which they have visited Germany; obviously they were very excited, especially being blue, which apparently is rare in Italy, and showed me an image of their own car.

Today I noticed the car was getting a bit breathless when pushed to high revs. In a beautiful location, high in the hills and a long way from home, I checked the main jet in the carb..it may have had a blockage...inconclusive. But then I dropped it on the cylinder head whilst trying to refit.:bang: This entailed very carefully removing the rocker cover in order to find it. Things were better but not right, but when I got back, with a very hot engine, I thought the tickover was a bit uneven....it's usually like clockwork. So a flash of inspiration and thinking to a recent vapour-lock incident which I confided in someone, I wondered if I had a weak mixture resulting in overheating and this latest issue. A quick tweak of the mixture and we're fixed. I also checked the plugs and we're back to that perfect tan colour and no widening of the gap at all after 5,000 miles. I also felt guilty as the very low oil level wasn't helping; this engine fairly drinks the stuff without smoking! I reckon I must put in an extra sump's-worth of oil in between oil changes!
Tomorrow we're off to the island of Raasay for the day, which is a fair old trek, maybe 300 miles there and back; but unfortunately we won't have the sun like today.

Post-script to the above: After removing it to get at the rear spark-plug I had forgotten to click all three of the spring-clips which secure the air-cleaner lid (650 engine).When I noticed it and started to fasten the clip I realised that the elbow part of the lid, (which on the 650 is made of plastic) was slightly detached from the lid itself.

So this means that air could be sucked in without passing through the filter....it will almost certainly have been affecting the air/fuel mixture. I've repaired it using my second favourite adhesive...black PU, and I'll probably find I need to redjust the mixture once it's all set.:bang:

I should have used my number one favourite adhesive....epoxy. The spigot-elbow of the air-cleaner lid has only a very narrow joint surface and even leaving it overnight made a repair that didn't last very long. Consequently, 90 miles into what turned out to be merely a 250 mile journey the engine was sounding very annoyed, losing a lot of power and backfiring. Of course, it was the elbow that had become completely detached. I tried taping it up which failed and then inspiration hit, and finding my bag of miscellaneous repair items, one of the Jubilee-clips was just the right size. So with a bit of insulation-tape as packing I was able to seal it up Tomorrow I will dig out the steel version from the 499 engine and work out a way to make the larger intake pipe of the 652 make a good seal.

More tweaking of the mixture followed and after a 20+ mile 60mph sprint I pulled over to check one of the plugs. It looked slightly weak to me so I adjusted the screw out a fraction. For the journey home Murf really found his second wind and we absolutely flew; I love it when you see cars behind accepting that there's no need to overtake the insane old dodderer in front driving slightly above the speed-limit at 60+mph. The incidental image of the thermostat-flap shows that the temperature has definitely settled down because despite the thrashing it is still not fully open.

Raasay wasn't very sunny but still impressive and another Scottish island to add to the list of those that Murf has set wheels on. The ferry man was amused by the size of the car and said he felt bad having to make me pay full price when I took up so little room. On the way back we were so agile and confident he had to restrain me from tucking the car in too tight and I ended up worryingly close to the leaking bow door.

This all illustrates how finely tuned the carburation of the engine actually is and gives more than a hint of just how much you are literally playing with fire when substituting any components in this system....no wonder overheating is such a problem with tuned engines.

I replaced the air-cleaner lid with the rugged steel version from the 500. With a bit of head-scratching I came up with a hybrid combination of pipes and clips which fits perfectly and involves no bodges.

In the course of all this I also found that the carb had been slightly dislodged, which won't have been helping things. For the short term I have tightened the nyloc nuts which were quite loose. But if it comes loose again I'll remove it and do things properly with new nuts and gaskets. I also checked the tappet clearances which were still good.

Now comes the horrid bit where my diligence in chasing up the rust in a "small" hole in the floor has lead to this huge void. I've had to make a lot of pieces including a reproduction of the "U"-channel which crosses the floor in front of the seat-runners; I have put bigger and an extra drainage hole in this.

It's ten years since I replaced the floor and the unused, old-stock panels I used did have a lot of "patina" at the time and seemed very thin. The car also sat in a leaky shed for four years after that and subsequently it has been subject to Peter-abuse. I think the leaking windscreen that took me so long to sort out has added to the problem. But I'm sure that the basic reason for the problem is the way the car is designed....if you use it as originally intended it rusts away as the cars originally used to do.

At least I'm in a bit less of a rush this time and have the opportunity to spend more time putting protective coatings on hidden areas, including those which aren't accessible when you buy a ready-made floor-panel. The Catch-22 is that there are so many bits that are affected by the heat from welding that paint-treatment is patchy whatever you do. :bang:

I'm hoping to get the welding done tomorrow...I hate it when Murf's off the road.

It all started when I began to give Murf his annual under-body clean and paint....I haven't dared to look at the other side yet.

fiat500 said:

.......Now comes the horrid bit where my diligence in chasing up the rust in a "small" hole in the floor has lead to this huge void. .

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that's some small hole!!!
I know the feeling though... a small rust patch caused by a bottle of water left under the seat tap tap tap with eth little hammer......... replaced the whole rear foot-well...

Does Murf live outside? I take it that you’re parked on grass, not that your car is green underneath? It looks quite tidy underneath still though.

Vitesse said:

Does Murf live outside? I take it that you’re parked on grass, not that your car is green underneath? It looks quite tidy underneath still though.

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... effectively, for most of the time he does. He usually has the garage for evil weather but this winter only an open-sided porch. For this work he's parked slightly on the grass, out of sight of a bloke who often annoys me when I'm working. The reflection is because he's painted light grey underneath...the epoxy paint is the only think that ultimately can fight the elements thrown at it. Apart from this outbreak, the floor is pretty good and avoiding the thick underseal goo has helped. Unfortunately the rain has come down and there'll be a delay welding it all back in.[emoji57]

I was beaten by the weather today, but I primed all the bits I had made. I also did the existing support mounting that had to come off and is most easily de-rusted and painted when detached from the floor in any case. There is also an image of how it all fits together under the car. There's quite a bit of work in working that all out so no it shows how tempting it might be for some lesser restoration operations to take shortcuts.

I've primed all the areas that don't involve welding...there's not much left! I could have used weld-through primer but I've found it awkward to use with m.i.g. and once the heat kicks in I'm not sure how much more effective that stuff is in any case.

I finally got the chance to weld up the floor. As I'm doing this outside I needed a break in the rain and some of the time it was actually raining slightly.:bang:
New glasses make a difference because even with the bright light of welding it can be hard to follow a line and to gauge the burn-through point if you can't see close-up! So I think it was neater and more consistent welding than usual and because most of it could be done from above, there is no messiness underneath. Thankfully, the gas bottle just held enough to finish the job.
Next thing is to get a couple of coats of primer underneath and above, seal the seams and joins with PU and then I will be re-sound-proofing the inner floor with a better quality of insulation than I used previously.
I have an idea to take this further and to modify add to the lower part of the wheelarch by fitting captive nuts so that I can fit mudflaps. This would help to reduce the amount of water and crud that gets flicked onto this front and outer part of the floor; I also need to check all this on the other side:bang:

Ooohhh guess what just came up on my Facebook page? A little film Brilliant.

I won’t spoil your thunder and post the link. I’ll let you do that.