Our Bob Is An Awesome Bob!

One day shy of six months after Bob arrived and she’s finally being used as nature intended. Alfie & his friend George are out in the back garden having a sleep-over. Helen & I shall be trying it out on Saturday and you never know – we might even go to a campsite one day!

This week will see our first night/s in Bob. It’ll be in the back garden and on Helen’s Dad’s drive as test runs but still…!

Also, with the arrival of a new day-to-day car for me we’ll be able to get Bob booked in to have her gearchange sorted properly (and a little more permanently than I can manage).

We went over to Thaxted last night to see Helen’s family. Bob was wonderful. Long may it continue…

Second gear is a little notchy at times but things are looking up. After the accelerator pedal pin coming out on Thursday, Friday’s journeys to and from work were utterly uneventful – apart from the fact that they took place in Bob.

We’re taking her out for a trip through the country lanes tomorrow such is my faith in her. Excellent.

I’ve added a new category – gears – because it’s becoming something of a saga in its own right now.

With the Mazda sold we’re back down to two vehicles and I’m using Bob to get to work each day. I set off for work yesterday to find that the gearchange had degenerated again, so before heading home at the end of the day I had a fiddle with it. My efforts didn’t help much and it was a tricky drive home.

This morning however was shocking. I found myself unable to change down at all, so what should have been a 30-40mph down change from 4th to 3rd had to be a 0mph struggle into 1st before working my way back up through the gears again. My fellow work-run motorists loved me. 

Another stop plate adjustment session took place before coming home and although 1st is a bit vague she’s driveable again. I wonder what the gearchange will be like tomorrow…

In other news, I need to top her up with oil for the first time and don’t really have the kit to reach the awkwardly posiitioned oil cap (I’ve sorted it now I think) and the windscreen washer bottle seems to have spontaneously developed a leak. Like they all do I’m sure.

I’m aware it’s been nearly two months since I last updated, but simultaneously a lot has and has not been happening. I’ve been back at work full time, we’ve been abroad on holiday for several weeks, and Bob is at risk of becoming a very expensive garden ornament.

Here’s a Bob update in a series of bullet points :

• I spent the Saturday after this post again playing with the gear change. After a day getting very mucky (again) and a trip to Colchester where Les at Superbeetles lent us a gear stick to try out I finally got it to work. Very smugly we went out for the evening to visit friends and Bob didn’t miss a beat. Fantastic!
• That week I used Bob to get to work every day. The Smart was about to be sold and so I thought it was a good opportunity to start using out VW as a daily driver. As was good for the first couple of days until gradually the gears became harder and harder to find. I presumed the stop plate was gradually slipping, but as Helen was off on holiday at the weekend I was able to use her Citroen and so didn’t worry too much about it.
• We decided whilst on holiday that Italy 2009 was going to be come Possibly-Italy 2010. We simply haven’t had enough times out in Bob to make sure we’re ready for such an epic trip, and besides a rookie-trip to Italy with an 8-months-pregnant Helen is perhaps a little foolhardy!
• On our return from holiday I tried to start Bob up. Nothing – a flat battery. Thankfully I bought a power pack from Halfords and so was able to get her going. I tried again to adjust the gear stick but failed. As I had just bought a cheap MX-5 to use day-to-day I gave up trying to sort out the gear change for the time being.
• Frustrated with having Bob on the drive and not being able to drive her I booked her into Schilward Motors as had been suggested by MOT Services Halstead. I chose them because they’re much nearer to my work than Superbeetles so driving a vehicle with only two-and-a-half gears isn’t such a problem. They couldn’t fit her in until the 11th May though.
• May 5th, Helen’s birthday, and we’re planning to go out for a meal. As a treat I thought I’d have a go at the stop plate again – with just half-an-hour to go before we left the house! I had a theory that last time I’d simply pushed the stop plate too far forward, so I loosened everything off, pulled it back a mm or two and had a drive around the block. Success! All the gears worked – up and down. I did have to use the power pack to start her up though so I left her running for a while to recharge the battery. When the time came to go out we jumped in and…I needed the power pack again. She ran like a dream to the restaurant, and it was lovely to have her sat in the car park knowing she was ours. Following another great meal at The Bulmer Fox we talked of camping out in Bob that night (but deciding that my snoring would keep Alfie awake on a school night – not a good idea!) before heading home. Sympathetic glances were given by fellow diners as they drove away in their new cars watching me have to connect up the power pack again, but we were soon off and home again.
• Bob’s still booked in at the garage next week because although you can now change gear it’s not A1 and I don’t necessarily have enough faith in my mechanical skills to think that it’s a permanent job. Maybe they won’t be able to do anything but at least then we’ll know that what I can do is good enough. We also need to sort out the battery. Although the power pack has already proved invaluable it doesn’t charge batteries so we’ll have to look into that. Having to link up the power pack each time you want Bob to start is a bit of a downer.

The summer weather is coming, Bob is running well (when she’s going) and I’m feeling much more positive about her. I can even bear to look in the classified section of Volksworld : Camper & Bus and see how much prices have fallen since we bought Bob, because it is lovely having her and the possibilites for the future outweigh the problems. Just!