A lengthy hello!..

Newbie Joined: May 12, 2014 Posts: 1

Hi, I’ve been lurking for a while, so It’s about time I introduced myself.. I bought a ’95 V6 Cabriolet to drive down through Italy for our 30th Wedding Anniversary in May, taking in the Mugello MotoGP on the way. Unfortunately, it turned out that both head gaskets had gone, which is probably why it was a cheap Ebay buy – Oh, and the rear lights were intermittent, the steering pump was noisy and, the heater matrix was leaking.
Thanks to various posters on this forum and the very useful 12v.org, I managed to replace the boot wiring, stop the leak into the bootlid and, more importantly, replace both head gaskets and by-pass the heater matrix before getting it MoT’d for the missus to shakedown – I missed the anniversary in May, but re-booked the ferry for September enabling us to take in the San Marino MotoGP instead.
I’m pleased to say that after 15 days and 3645miles of Swiss, Italian and French Alpine passes and, the length and breadth of Italy, she performed just great!
The missus did neglect to mention that the exhaust blowed on start-up, which I didn’t discover until I started the car to drive to the Ferry. This gradually got louder and more embarrassing as the trip progressed, (particularly in the medieval walled-towns of Italy and France), reaching a crescendo inside Ferry as we landed in Portsmouth.
Anyhoo, the exhaust has now been replaced and I’ve now taken her off the road for Christmas to replace the heater matrix; I’ve also since discovered the roof doesn’t fully retract as three of the four ties that help fold it have snapped – I’m not quite sure if they can be ‘re-joined’, but I guess I’ll find out very soon and hopefully somebody on the forum has already done this to help ease my pain.
I’m not too sure what to do about the steering pump, (probably have to replace it), but in the meantime the idea is to generally titivate the bodywork before taking it to Spain next Summer.