As always, enjoyed our 20VT pretty much on a daily basis - not so many long excursions now but every so often I treat it to a run.
A bit of serendipidity earlier in '22:
I don't usually take the Coop to the gym - it's quite muscular enough already and anyway I prefer to cycle there - but a trip to the dentist immediately after meant it seemed a good idea... However, a bunch of incontinent seagulls, out for a jolly (I think they mistook St Ives, Cambs for its Cornish cousin) couldn't resist emptying their bowels. The result was actually worse than the pic shows and the damage was pretty extensive, however it finally prompted me to take a visit to my trusty local bodyshop G & C Coachworks as there was some minor (!) rust to attend to.
I left it with them while we went on holiday and was relaxing in the Tenerife sun when a phone call from a very concerned Andrew broke the news we all dread - the small bit of rust was a proper contagion - boot floor, front and rear sills/ floor, etc, etc. I wasn't entirely surprised, I'm old enough to have experienced tinworm on '60s & '70s cars back in the day before galvanising became common. Anyway, after calming Andrew - he was more anguished than I was - by reconfirming that it didn't change my commitment I left them to crack on - understandably, Andrew felt the need to send me the horror-story pics, probably to help his nerves as much as mine !
Custom repair parts were duly fashioned which I saw when making a mid-surgery visit and it brought home to me just how much hidden damage had occurred since its last repair visit and that if it hadn't been spotted I could have faced an almost terminal situation later.
So... instead of taking my 0.177 air-rifle back to the gym car park I gave our feathered matelots a discrete nod and now check the skies whenever a car from the Burty stable has to be parked there.
I regularly look out the gym's 2nd floor window at others running the gauntlet of parking under their loitering perches on lamp gantries - frequently a dozen or more are all lined-up - but rarely do they seem to enjoy a bit of communal shitting - it kind of confirms my long held view that red cars seem to excite them - my other two red ones can testify to that.
Description: Seagulls celebrating their handiwork.
Description: Seagull bombing carnage
Description: Custom repair parts
Description: Ventilated boot