What have I been up to of late?

Not a lot.

Even over our four day national holiday with three days being wet and I did my "back in" and trapped my sciatic nerve so have been spending the last week hobbling about. Oh the joys of getting old.

The only small job I did on ROD was to fit the new battery to the carrier and take measurement to make a new battery clamp.

I now have three people who has expressed an interest in ROD but I still have a few silly small jobs to do on him, like find some mirrors, interior and exterior. Finding something that looks "right", of the correct period and actual is of some use is rather a problem. 

I often think why have mirrors? Every time I look in mine on OBL432 I know what I'm going to see, a long line of cars all desperate to overtake and gain my 12 feet of road. This is always the case no matter what speed I'm going at.

I have had good news that the bodywork repairs will be started shortly on OBL432 by the specialist Morris Minor and J type body shop MTR Restorations. (07778 690783) ask for Maurice! He has promised to do a "blow by blow" photographic sill and van side bottom edge replacement, to be featured on his blogsite and also here.

A master class of MIG Magic.

On a different note I was asked what was going to happen to our number plates when the year goes into double figures. (I get lots of car questions fired at me as people seem to think I know about vehicles).

To me it was obvious, here is the official view.

New number plates change every six months to indicate the half year using a zero or a five before the year itself. For example, the first half of 2008 is shown as 08 and the second half as 58. QUESTION: What will happen when we move into double figures next year? Will number plates have an extra digit to indicate the year? The style of number plates changed in September 2001. The format since then has been two letters, known as 'local memory tags', two numbers to indicate the year of registration (first or second half) known as 'age identifiers', followed by three more letters known as the 'random element'.  From March 2010, the age identifier will be 10, changing to 60 in September 2010.  In March 2011, the age identifier will be 11, changing six months later to 61.  The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) says this pattern will continue until all permutations are exhausted.   Local memory tags show in which part of the country a vehicle was first registered.   For example, London registrations start with the letter L, while West of England registrations, which include Exeter, Truro and Bristol local offices, start with a W. Since the new format was introduced it has been illegal for new or replacement plates to use anything other than the approved typeface which is easily read by speed cameras.   The letters I and Q are not used in the new format and the letter Z is used only in the random element.