Photos at Maxey

Drove from Birmingham to photo shoot at Maxey. Road tested Mini 'Wildgoose' camper after photo session.

The 'wrap' party

Got horribly lost driving to Edgbaston for filming BBC's 20th Century Roadshow. Showed off in front of film crew with a dodgy handbrake turn in the car park. Filmed segment with a Fifties Mister Softee ice cream van and another with the gorgeous Jaguar E-type restored by Practical Classics magazine. Recording went well, best yet, probably.

Got lost again on way back to city centre hotel and led the lovely presenter Hilary Kay (Mercedes SLK) astray to boot.

Got drunk at the splendid 'wrap' party in the evening. Filming the last show in the series on the day the first one went out made for a happy coincidence. Didn't hear much of the programme, though. Still, I wasn't in it.

Testing time

Another late MoT test. I gain about a fortnight a year. It will all change when the computerised system kicks in.

The Jaguar sailed through with nothing worse than a blown numberplate light bulb, which I replaced in the test bay. They even did a non-essential emmisions test (cars as old as this require a visual test only) and told me it would have passed that too, easily, so the engine is in very good condition.

Filming at MK

Filmed prototype Mini hatchback for 20th Century Roadshow at Milton Keynes.

More door dents

Drove to Milton Keynes to film 20th Century Roadshow. Parked beside shopping centre and then went off with film crew to make the vintage Daimler feature. Filming went really well until the Daimler broke down on the A5. Suspected big end bearing failure!

Returned to the Jaguar to discover two huge dents in the nearside doors. Somebody must have really whacked it with their car doors to make dents like that. Deeply depressing.

Long haul

Filming 20th Century Roadshow at Goonhilly, Cornwall. Valued and filmed a VW camper and a vintage Austin, plus the 19th driving licence issued in UK.

Going potty

Filming 20th Century Roadshow at Wedgwood factory, Stoke. Valued and filmed a set of workshop manuals.

More filming

Filming 20th Century Roadshow at Bristol Grammar School. Valued and filmed a Triumph Stag and lovely Mini pickup.

On set

Filming 20th Century Roadshow at Brighton. Valued a 1962 Vespa scooter.

TV filming starts

Drove to Brighton for the start of filming for the 20th Century Roadshow. Car ran perfectly. Not happy leaving it in the NCP half a mile from the hotel. Persuaded hotel manager to let me park it on the hotel forecourt - pride of place. Felt good to be turning up for my first TV job as a classic car expert in such a lovely old car.

Exciting opportunity

Visit from researcher and producer of a new TV show called the 20th Century Roadshow presented by Alan Titchmarsh. They came to the office and I did a screen test in the car park talking about the Jaguar XJ6. I thought it went OK. The car is clean, too. Fingers crossed. I might be on TV!

Ace night

Went to classic cars night at the Ace Cafe with Michelle from the events department.

NEC Autojumble

Drove to the NEC Autojumble and put the Jaguar on the Practical Classics stand. People are commenting on the deterioration of the paintwork..

That's a year of the XJ

Finally got round to washing the grime off. It was all high speed A1 filth from the trip up to Yorkshire before Christmas and it looked OK, really. Sort of streaked, like speed blur! But there was salt on there, so I gave the car a good rinse and then a caress with my Meguiar's wash mit.

Started the engine and number four pot doesn't fire straight away. It chimes in after a minute but there's no damp or bad connection that I can see. Suggestions please...

Spent some time on the greasy windows, too, and tidied the boot. It's looking grand for the new year. I feel some relief at having kept this going for 12 months (with a couple of lengthy lapses that annoyed a few of you). I suppose I have to keep going now. CD of the year: American Idiot by Green Day.

North to mum

Drove to Malton to see my mum. Clouds of steam coming out of the grille when I stopped for a sandwich and that ominous hot coolant smell crept into the cabin. I opened the bonnet to discover the header tank cap balanced precariously on the front of the cam cover. I'd forgotten to replace it properly when I'd checked the fluids yesterday.

Torrential rain on the way up and back gave me lots of practice at parking the wipers myself. My timing is perfect now. I will keep your instructions, though, Crispin. Do the wipers' inability to park constitute an MoT failure?

Careful when you switch tanks

Ran both tanks quite low this morning and then switched from right tank to left tank on the garage forecourt with the ignition off.

Five minutes later, the engine lost power on the dual carriageway, showing all the signes of running out of fuel. I switched back to the right tank and the problem cleared, then flicked to the left again without trouble. It's my guess that a lack of current to the changeover switch caused the tank swap to fail and left me high and dry.

Right battery at last

Fitted new Optima Red Top battery - correct size this time. It still needed spacers adding to the rods securing the battery frame because it is about 20mm shorter than the old Lucas.

Much faster turning over now, due to doubled cold cranking rate of the new Optima. Fingers crossed for winter.

Help from a follower

Many thanks to Crispin Thetford who has emailed me extensive instructions for fixing my wipers. That's brilliant Crispin. My big worry is that the work will go the way of many tasks on my list - if I manage without fixing something for a month, I might never get round to it. As long as I can time the switch right, I can live with the wipers not parking themselves.

The other thing I ought to do is set up a page of messages from visitors to this site. I get lots of fascinating emails from all over the world and need to find a way of sharing them with you all.

Wiper parking problems

Driving to work today, I used the wipers and they refused to park. They just stop wherever they are when I turn off the switch. If anybody can tell me how to repair this, please email me: martyn.moore@emap.com

Old battery back

Replaced old battery in anticipation of arrival of new, correct size Optima Red Top. Fixed washer bottle too.

Washed the car for the first time since the Beaulieu Autojumble in September. It was a disgrace. Keep having to go to the window and look at how bright the paint seems!