Another to-do list

Really for my reference, but my flock of readers may be interested ...

• the old dear really needs a clean & polish! She's been out in the rain a few times in the last month and is looking very mud-spotty - a flaw of the darker colour, I suppose. But as it's getting wintery, it's hard to find a time when I'm free and it's not cold, raining &/or dark!
• the air cleaners were sanded off and primered the other week, now I need to get correct-looking silver paint (Hammerite?) and a warm-ish, dry day to finish them. I painted the fusebox cover and starter shield gloss black - a big improvement on the chipped, rusted appearance they had before. I might do the fan cowl as well once I have the silver paint.
• more painting: I should do the front valence 'box' and clean/rustproof/underseal the 'crow's feet' and everything at the front of the car. There's a rust hole at the base of the grille that I should get seen to, and the front bumper is quite rusty on the inside (although the chrome is very good on the outside).
• Dad has been busy on my behalf: he's found the missing screw for the distributor; made me up a socket so I can use a common-or-garden socket handle for my jack; found a new fanbelt tensioner to replace my rattly-squeaky one; and I sent him a wish-list of little bits and pieces to look for at Dunsters, a Canberra-based Jag service/wrecker place that's going out of business and having a big clearance.
• The front passenger-side door lock has gone doolally again (already!). Which means I need to take the door lining off again. Which means I should buy some plastic sheeting and take off all the door linings and have a good pre-winter waterproofing/rustproofing session. If I was really organised/dedicated, I should also get some new rubbers from Scott's - at least the main window strips if not the quarter-light ones - and organise some new unbuckled backing boards for the door linings ...
• something is rattling/resonating in the dash all of a sudden and it's very irritating. I suspect it's something in the radio/heater bit, which means I'll probably have to pull it all apart (again!) and make sure it's all tight.
• I have a bit of 'spare' money now that Kathy's sold Gussie (a long and complicated financial tale I won't bore anyone with), so I can finally get a few things done that require paying other people - a new rear window seal is top of the list; then a service for the auto. Next will be some quotes for replacing the headlining around the rear window (I'm hoping just that piece can be replaced and not the whole thing).
• Tony & Ennio the 'diagnostic technicians' at Kingsway (who have done work for us in the past on both Gussie and Beryl) are drooling at the prospect of putting their heads under Zara's bonnet - Tony used to have a V8 himself once upon a time, so he knows from Daimlers. Once I get the crucial screw from Dad, I'll fit the second set of points then perhaps entrust her to them for a full tune-up with all their machines that go 'ping!', checking the dwell angle, timing, tune of the carbs, kick-down, etc. Fingers crossed we'll finally get the 'hesitation waltz' cured by the time we've done all that!
• the left-hand exhaust is banging on the underside of the body somewhere when the car's idling. Need to get under there and see what's up - probably needs a new rubber washer of some sort. The exhausts are pretty rusty all over - I suspect I'll have some holes before too long. How much is a stainless steel system, I wonder? I think I'll be wondering for quite a while before I can afford it!
• I'm still losing coolant. I know I could do with new top and bottom radiator hoses, and I'll have to take off the fan and alternator belts (both of which need replacing as well) when I fit the replacement tensioner, so I think now it's *really* time to flush the radiator and heater and check all hoses for leaks. I suspect, though, that I might have weepy plug on the engine block - when the car's been sitting in the garage for a few days there's a little puddle of coolant that seems to be coming down the left-hand side of the engine from somewhere under the exhaust manifold. Tricky to get to and messy (hence potentially expensive!) to fix, I fear.
• when dad was poking around the other week, he noted that my spare tyre is a near-new Kumho and that I have three Kumhos and one Hankook on the road wheels, so I should probably put the spare with the Kumho on the back and use the Hankook as the spare ... but the spare wheel itself is the grottiest of the five, with chipped paint and some rust.
• the brakes are pretty good but I noticed that the vacuum tank in the right-hand front wheel-well seems to have a pipe coming out and back in to it in a loop, so I suspect it might not be connected into the system at all. It's more than likely that the tank was leaky from rusting out, so that will also need to be replaced in the fullness of time.
• I still haven't succeeding in completely quieting the buzz in the radio, despite replacing the suppressor on the back on the alternator, putting a noise filter in line with the radio's power supply and running a new earth wire from the radio body. It could well be that the stereo itself - a 70s Eurovox AM/FM/cassette player - has just had it. I had been thinking that I would buy an iPod and one of those FM transmitters and just use the existing radio for now, but more and more I'm thinking I should put the original Radiomobile back in the dash (working or not) and get a brand new stereo with a remote and put it under the passenger seat (or maybe in the glovebox - but I don't want to lose the storage space for 'stuff'). There are already two speakers in the front footwells, and they seem quite decent, so I'm sure they'll cope with a new CD player. The rear parcel shelf is so narrow I don't think even 5x7" oval speakers would fit there - where do other V8/Mk2s put rear speakers? I'd rather not put holes in the rear door linings ...
• in the longer term, I will get some colour-matched seatbelts, hopefully with period-correct metal buckles (At the moment she has ugly black 70s ones in the front and none at all in the back).
• winter nights seem like the perfect time to start on sanding back and revarnishing some of the simpler interior wood pieces - I'll start with the door tops, which are just like rulers. Even I can't mess those up!