And the Irish adventure doesn't end there...postscript 28/04/14

It was late, dark, we were all starting to flag a bit, and after dodging idiot lorry drivers trying to race each other on the A75 (one of Scotland's more dangerous roads), we crossed the English border sometime in the wee hours of Monday 28 April. We made several stops en-route to relieve ourselves, refuel on coffee and rest up a little, one of said stops being at Wetherby Services. It was here we found ourselves questioning why a WH Smiths on a motorway services would be selling both scarecrows and wetsuits on offer...one of life's little mysteries at 3am, and still unsolved!!

Your blogmaster collapsed into his own bed at around 0430hrs for the first time in three days, quite a surreal feeling getting home when the sun is coming up with no alcohol involved! But there was no time to be lazing about at home recovering, after a few hours sleep I was back up and en-route to Nuthall (nr Nottingham) to meet up with Paul Waplington and our other mechanical ace, Gary Crosby, at the yard of Hearson's Coaches. I must be mad!

So at 11am, we found ourselves meeting up in Hearson's yard, and after a brief chat about the plan of attack, we set off firstly to Partic Autoparts in Bulwell, who were assigned the task of relining the brake shoes we had purchased from Tony Challons prior to our Ireland trip. After parting with some cash, Gary and I continued our journey onwards to Langar to 2599, while Paul kindly sped off to McDonalds to get the coffees in (cheers leader!). We regrouped at the farm, coffee in hand, and work began.

Gary conducted a quick inspection of the bus, before gathering his tools together from the minibus and we made a start. The first job on the agenda was to attack the damaged wheel stud that the man from Tanvic said had given him much grief while changing the front offside tyre. While he did this, I made myself comfortable in the cab, with my coffee, turning it into an impromptu office and sat down with paperwork spread everywhere to begin pouring over 2599's books and making sure the financial aspects of the project were kept upto date and documents were filed correctly. After a bit of work, good news came from Gary that we would not have to go to the lengths of removing the wheel and hub assembly to sort out the wheel stud, and that the problem had now been rectified. A huge sigh of relief all round.

The next job, while Paul and Gary set about inspecting the front springs and the throttle linkage, I set to work with the WD40 and a bit of elbow grease in an attempt to free up the jammed exterior emergency exit handle, in the hope that we would be able to repair rather than replace. With much persuasion, I managed to free the jammed handle, but on closer inspection it appears we may have to replace it using the one sent over by Robert and the lads from the Ards group.

In the meantime, closer inspection of the throttle linkage revealed that the support that the linkage sits on was completely rotten, and that the area around the battery box would need some strengthening. That was the bad news, however the good news from Gary was that we may be able to retemper the front springs, rather than replace them at this stage, saving us another massive expense. Gary's final conclusion was that, all in all, 2599 was in pretty good condition for her age and that with a bit of time and effort, he had no doubt that we would succeed with our mission to return her to the rally scene in the future. We went away feeling even happier, in the knowledge that the project was beginning to move in a positive direction.