A Highland Z3 1.9 roadster

[Pls]

A mild Sunday morning, with lovely ethereal pre-dawn light, so we got up and went for breakfast at the Slaughterhouse coffee house by the slipway in Cromarty.



They serve great Van Dyke coffee, roasted and ground in house, provided by the cheery antipodean host, and with an equally cheery woodburner going. And not too crowded before the sun came up. Still feeling a bit seasonal, we had a piece of stollen with our coffee!



Home again, Ratty had a good wash and polish, as it had become rather muddy.



Yesterday I had done some further work on the coil pack, which, it turns out, had a split all around the socket "tube" for the ignition lead plug for cylinder no 1. So I cleaned it all up, warmed it up and glued the "tube" back on with Araldite, inserted the ignition lead plug, and held it in place with cable ties.



I think I shall leave them there for the meantime. I also filled the crack in the body of the coil pack with glue at the same time. Anyway, it runs fine, starting with no misfiring. So I hope that will prove to be an effective medium-term repair, until funds are available for a new one from Bosch at £70!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

The weather's been a bit wintry, but mostly above freezing. We had a lovely run to Elgin the other day, very windy but no rain, and the A96 was unusually clear, so a good pace was maintained, and Ratty was flying! Hood down of course!
And nice and warm too, keeping the radiator topped up.

Anyway, Ray had obtained new matching seats and door cards for his Z3, with the former installed yesterday, with new bushes. Door cards later this week.


So it was then off to Fortrose for coffee and scones.



There's Sara about to have a trip in Ray's car to try out his new seats, suitably attired in her Highland winter Zedding gear.



Later, on a shopping trip to Inverness on the way back through Avoch, where Ray lives, this was spotted near the harbour:



So, some investigation is required to see if its belongs to an inhabitant or a visitor!

Anyway, Sara later emerged from Morrisons with a shopping trolley piled up with the month's groceries, and we managed to get it all in the capacious Tardis-like Zedboot (and footwell!). Just.

Cheers

Paul

 

[t-tony]

Just as well you shop bi-monthly then Paul?

Tony.

 

[Pls]

Just as well you shop bi-monthly then Paul?

Tony.

Well, if the boot was any smaller it would have to be semi-monthly, but we can usually manage monthly with the Zed. But bi-monthly or quarterly would definitely need the Volvo!

Bright and blowy today, so I washed the mud off Ratty this morning.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Will Gordon]

Spotted a nice, rather salty covered Z3 with the roof down in Muir of Ord today, no stopping you!

 

[Pls]

Spotted a nice, rather salty covered Z3 with the roof down in Muir of Ord today, no stopping you!

That could well have been me, Will. I think we went through Muir on the way to and from Beauly to fetch something! Actually, before Ray had the car, I think it lived in Muir of Ord. I do keep cleaning the car, but it's a bit of a losing battle with wintry roads. And doing a thousand miles a month, it keeps getting dirty!



That's Ray and me at Rosemarkie today.



Looking decidedly grubby! But it was a nice day for a spin, and we were out for lunch, in my case a wonderful bowl of Cullen Skink. The cafe owner was admiring our Zeds outside and asked if we were a car club, so I said we were the Black Isle Z3 Owners Club and would he consider giving our members a 10% discount? (I did tell him that membership currently stands at two.) We ended up with a drinks loyalty card each, after nine you get one free. So I suppose that's 10%!

In the distance, that's Fort George, home of The Black Watch, across the Moray Firth.

Ray was trying out his newly obtained seats and the matching door cards which we had installed this morning.



They are a real enhancement to his interior: next up is a deep clean, as well as a new gear knob.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

A nice Zedding trip to Findhorn the other day, for a healthy lunch at the Universal Hall cafe. Nice beach too.



The new Nimrod replacement, the Poseidon, was showing its paces at the adjacent air base while we were there.



Then yesterday, a run to Beauly and a the car seemed to be wandering a bit and on arrival, had a (newish) rear tyre going down, with what looked like a large piece of stone stuck in the tread. So I changed the wheel, putting the unused space saver on. Fortunately there was a garage dealership there. So I took the wheel in and they took the tyre off and removed a one inch long shard of granite that had cut clean through, leaving a gash that no puncture repair plug, or aerosol tyre inflator, could fix. So I felt justified in buying the new space saver! Anyway, they can supply and fit a matching tyre tomorrow, so I came home on the space saver.



So that's four punctures between the two cars in six years on Highland roads!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Mint]

Bad news about the puncture Paul but goes to show it's worth carrying the spacesaver spare. Good to see you out and about

 

[Pls]

Bad news about the puncture Paul but goes to show it's worth carrying the spacesaver spare. Good to see you out and about

Some of the minor roads up here aren't too good, but the winter weather can be glorious. In between the gales!



Sun's up, so I'll be off to collect the replacement tyre today

Cheers

Paul

 

[t-tony]

Not looking good for later in the weekend Paul, take care up there.

Tony.

 

[Pls]

Not looking good for later in the weekend Paul, take care up there.

Tony.

Thanks for that Tony. 'Our' 3000ft Ben Wyvis, out of the kitchen window, had a blanket of snow last night.



The wind is due to be up to 50mph this afternoon, but the snow not till Monday evening. And as the tyre for Ratty won't now be arriving till next week, it may be a bit of an 'expotition' to get it! We shall have to watch out for heffalumps and woozles.

Cheers

Paul

 

[t-tony]

Snow predicted for northern England next week I read. I have heard of Heffalumps but not Woozles?

Tony.

 

[Pls]

Snow predicted for northern England next week I read. I have heard of Heffalumps but not Woozles?

Tony.

Chapter III of A A Milne's Winnie the Pooh, in which he and Piglet nearly catch one! In deep snow.

I did clean Ratty last week, but it won't last long! I was going to this afternoon, but it's already blowing a bit of a hoolie.



Straight from the south west across the Firth and open fields, then our house! Fine now, but a deluge is due from 3:30 according to the weather radar. Hoppalong Ratty's tucked up in the garage, awaiting a new tyre.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Stevo7682]

Paul its coming we're just outside Oban and the rain is now proper on ( roof down till half hour ago though)

 

[Pls]

Paul its coming we're just outside Oban and the rain is now proper on ( roof down till half hour ago though)

Just over forty years ago I was living on the Isle of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, and there I remember we got all the Atlantic gales first - except St Kilda of course. This was my soft-top steed then, a thirty year old Alvis TA14:



I bought it in bits, and I notice that I paid a hundred pounds more than I paid for Ratty! This was it when I had just put the body back on the chassis:



And of course nowadays you just have to Google a registration number and you can often find images of your old car, as the search engine uses numberplate recognition - big brother is watching! Here the car is more recently:



Good to see it's still around, although its MOT ran out last August.

Anyway, to get back on topic, I've been wondering about replacing the centre panel of door cards on Ratty - taking out fabric and replacing it with suitably dyed leather (in Violett purple, like the seats). Ray has a spare set of door cards, so I may be able to do it to them. Has anyone tried doing that? It left the factory with Tannin Rot trim, but I like the Violett in Ratty:



Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Last Wednesday Ratty's offside rear wheel got an irreparable puncture, and I took the wheel in to the nearest garage to ha e them get a tyre to match the other three. They succeeded, although it took till yesterday for it to arrive. Its snowing so I fitted it in the garage, where there was plenty of room, especially using the car's jack.



The tools supplied do the job very well, as you'd expect from BMW. The space saver is stowed away again under the boot, so I'll be back on the road again, after six days, the longest time I've not driven the car!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

After a windy and snowy week languishing in the garage with the space saver wheel on, Hoppalong Ratty emerged today. We went in to Cromarty to drop off, with hair in place for a social occasion. Under a crisp blue sky, with duty done, I was able to put the hood, and the foot, down off along the long straight road towards Rosemarkie, double track and not too many pot holes. Slightly twitchy where trees on the south side of the road had shaded patches of ice untouched by the low sun, but I'd eased off and Ratty behaved well. Funny how they go faster with only one person aboard! Must be the lack of extra weight.

Anyway, home again and with bucket of hot water to keep hands warm, the car had a thorough wash and brush up, followed by an application of body lotion, aka Poorboy's World "Black Hole" polish - excellent on black paint.



All ready for the next outing.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Progress this week has consisted of avoiding puddles as you can't tell how deep the pothole its hiding is! Acceptance trials on the new tyre are now complete! So today it was another trip with the hood up in the rain and sleet, over the top road from Avoch to Cromarty,





And on to the main refuelling stop at Cromarty:



With the old hemp rope factory buildings next door.



A great place to sit with a dram in a force 10 westerly coming straight down the Firth!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Needed mushrooms yesterday, any excuse for a spin in Ratty, but after last weeks polish, the run to Cromarty left the car looking like this



Oh well, much of the local traffic is farm vehicles shedding copious amounts of mud, straw, dung etc, so everyone's daily drivers look the same! I even had the tail go out on a corner covered in barley grain once, spilled off a farm trailer. Like little marbles!

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Simoniz and Poorboys World to the rescue!



Can't be letting the side down!

Cheers,

Paul