A day spent fruitfully working then. I fixed the reverse light. That was the 3rd major on my list of stuff. It was a break in the cable where it runs through the body. I've secured the wires around there so they can't rub any more.
I finally removed the temporary fix on the gear linkage and put in the new link arm.
The power steering belt went on pretty easily and the tensioner (manual not sprung) took up the slack nicely and doesn't slip at all.
I did an oil filter change (and yet another oil change) and found that the access is poor, but you can get a G-clamp onto the filter to get enough leverage to get the old one off. Since the amount of crud that came out of the sump during the last oil change in May was pretty horrendous, I thought it couldn't do much harm to do a bit of a flush through on the oil change. I warmed it up and drained it. Then I short filled it (not below the mark, but just on it) and ran it up for 20 minutes with the occasional rev up a little. Then I re-drained and topped it up with fresh. After a 5 mile journey I did a sump check and the oil is a little clouded. It was probably overkill but I don't really know how well treated the engine was in the past and I'd like to give it the best chance to last a bit longer.
Then I washed it. I know. There's no need but I did. So I saw all those dark oily fingerprints on the paintwork (white car 15 years old so almost no lacquer). Since I'd started... I wandered along to the local car bits shop and asked their advice. I actually trust them to be honest. They pointed me to a choice of Auto-glym mark remover or a white colour restoring polish. The auto glym stuff was pegged as an expensive but gentle form of t-cut where the colour restorer should apply some stuff as well as do a mild t-cut. The price wasn't much more for the restorer and an added bonus included a chip stick.
It took off fingerprints and made things all shiny with quite a lot of elbow grease. The chip stick is slightly useful in places. It actually stayed stuck into quite a lot of minor chips in the bonnet.
As SWMBO headed out to walk the dog, she commented that she should probably take my car down to Daventry for the freestyle dance evening she's off to since it was all clean, working properly and the most economic car we have. I pointed out that I hadn't cleaned the interior. Our three year old then pointed out that we could clean the car for mummy to use so I vacuumed it out, we polished the dash and then did the windows.
Flipping hell a 3 year old isn't half a slave driver. "Daddy you missed a bit!"
Only the courtesy light (jammed switches presumable rotted wiring too), rear wiper (likely to be damaged wiring at the join but I need to get the voltmeter at it), dodgy hinge (someone did a botch and there are 3 washers welded to the hinge) and the trip meter (jammed solid but I don't need a seal to know my miles so breaking it won't hurt anyone) to go and it'll be as good as new.
On the appearances front, who suggested a blow torch to restore bumpers and plastic appearance? One the light grey solid stuff that the bumper is made of it has no effect, but anything that is a softer plastic it is superb. A gentle pass with a torch on a medium flame makes all of the age lightening vanish. I gave the wife's car a brief check too. Hers has more lacquer than mine and the quick couple of passes had no effect on the paint work but did what 'back to black' claims to do.
Tomorrow I get to service the Skoda. That's a lot easier to work with since there is nothing wrong with it. My wife may expect it to be cleaned too though.
Warwick -- you know you can go sun blinded polishing a white car on a hot day?