Bit of a different day today. I did a little bit of work on the MG, more on that later, but I also tackled a couple of jobs on the Japanese fleet, namely my Suzuki Cappuccino and my daughter’s Honda Jazz. Both these vehicles had badly hazed headlights and I have never had a go at them, being a bit worried about ruining them. As the recent Jazz MOT had noted the hazed headlights we decided to have a go at cleaning them up using Meguiar’s single step kit (bought from Halfords). The kit comprises a fluffy disk which fits onto your drill, a polishing compound and a couple of abrasive pads with grades from 1800 to 4000 – that’s fine! Ellie and Matt (the BF) were both present to help with this job and I let them do as much as possible once we had proved the concept as I wanted them to feel ownership of the finished result. The instructions were really clear and it all worked very well as you can see from the pictures below. Apparently they can fade again in as little as 12 months so we are not kidding ourselves, but as a quick freshen up of the old Jazz, it was impressive and easy to do. I used the abrasive pads in one area where the compound didn’t remove all the marks and it worked alright, but I would be nervous about using this on any large area because you sort of have have to make them worse for them to get better if you know what I mean, so a risk of messing it up.

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As this job had gone so well on the Honda, I moved the crew onto the Suzuki Cappuccino which had one really badly hazed headlight and one that was in reasonable shape. We decided to give them both a polish and the difference was remarkable – see the pictures below

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So two good jobs done. Back to the MG…. I had received the long awaited parts order from Moss so I just tackled one job, but it is an important one as it releases a whole sequence of work. This was to fit the adjustment pillar to the alternator. The original had inconveniently sheared off under the slighest provocation a few weeks ago, but here I was with the replacement so I got on with fixing the alternator and fan belt. Needing a willing volunteer to put some tension into the fan belt while I tightened up the securing bolt, I roped in Matt who was happy to help. First attempt went well, but then when I went to nip it up, I managed to undo it, so Matt had to heave on the alternator again as I repeated the process. So there we are, we are clear now to install the radiator, heater controls and pipework and thereby get close to completing the cooling circuit, prior to charging the system with a suitable coolant. A nice day, decent progress across the ‘fleet’ and some good company. Rounding off the day, Matt and I cooked a chicken Korma and Saag Aloo for the family and it was well received.

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