S2KI Honda S2000 Forums - It Started with a Wedding Invitation

For some time I had wanted to tidy up the engine bay, and it was my intention that this would include refurbished (powder coated) cam & coil covers from Garage-R. About two months ago we received an invitation to a wedding being held in Blackburn Cathedral on Saturday 4th December, with champagne and canapés afterwards in the North Transept. Uh-ha, I thought. Blackburn isn’t too far from Barnsley, where Garage-R is based, so, the planning commenced!

Arrangements were made with Rob for him to fit the covers on the Friday morning, and then we would look round Holmfirth (Last of the Summer Wine country) in the afternoon, so a local hotel was booked for the night leaving an easy run over to Blackburn the next morning. Now, whilst we’re up here why not take a break in the Lake District? I found a lodge on the Langdale Estate for Saturday, Sunday & Monday, at a reasonable price, which would allow us to visit the Keswick Christmas Fayre on the Sunday. Then at that moment, I received an email from Macdonald Hotels for two night break offers. We usually visit the Lake District each year, and I had always wanted to stay at their Leeming House Hotel (on Ullswater), but, at from (!) £250 per night, double B&B, it was somewhere we had not stayed before. This offer was about 35% of the normal rate, so we booked for Tuesday & Wednesday. A quick search of ‘What’s on in the Lake District’ came up with a cruise on Ullswater and a Christmas lunch in the medieval hall of historic Dalemain House, so that was booked as well.

With all these arrangements made I started the under-bonnet clean up. First, a degrease was carried out, with the major electrical items shielded from the light water spray used to clean up. There was slight rust starting on the bonnet catch, and the bolts near the front were rusting. A selection of stainless steel bolts was purchased from Namrick (who I had used when I built my first car – wait for it – 60 years ago!). The advantage of this site is that you can purchase individual items!

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It was at this point that I noticed that all was not well with the air con condensing radiator which sits in front of the cooling water rad.

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Whilst it was the cooling fins which were becoming detached, and not the vanes, I decided to ‘bite the bullet’ and rectify the problem. I was shocked when the local dealer quoted £770 to S&F. When I queried the price I was told that the rad itself was over £600! I enquired at my local independent and was quoted £280 using a pattern rad, and this is what I had done. Ouch!

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Next, the slam panel trim was removed, the bonnet catch was cleaned up, regreased and repainted with Hammerite, and then refitted with SS bolts and washers. You can see the new air con rad in the background.

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About this time I started getting random false alarms, and I thought it may be related to the cleaning of the engine bay, but this does not appear to have been the cause. There is a separate thread on this issue entitled: Help Please! Alarm keeps going off.

With the alarm system sorted by a call-out engineer, everything was ready for the run up to Garage-R on Friday 3rd December, but then, it started snowing. What the heck, I thought, it’s not even December and it’s snowing. Not the usual come & go snow, but thick stuff which is causing havoc in the North of England where we are off to in just over a week. On Monday 29th November I PMed Rob with detail of our itinerary, and asked him to PM back on Thursday to let me know what the weather was like in the Barnsley area. He responded by saying that the road giving access to his garage had ten inches of snow and was on a hill. “You won't make it!” he advised.

We set of later than we had intended on the Friday morning, as it looked as though we would not make it to Garage-R. This also meant that the roads would be clearer than if we had left at six o’clock, as we had intended. We stuck to the M1, and progress was very good until we reached Woodall Services between J30 & J31. I had planned on seeing what the road conditions were like and to ring Rob from there. However, in the final mile or so before the SC the depth of snow at the roadside suddenly increased from two inches to two feet in depth. The snow in the car parking areas had been bulldozed to the sides, and as the white lines were not visible, car parking was chaotic. The journey into Barnsley was definitely not on!

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Having advised Rob of the situation, we set off for Holmfirth, and when we arrived it was to see everywhere covered in a thick blanket of snow, and not suitable for sight-seeing! It was with some relief that we reached our overnight stop safely, and parked up for the night.

The motorway run into Blackburn next morning was fine, and the wedding service was extremely pleasant and well organised. We left the reception early, as we were now faced with what could be a difficult journey up the M6, through Kendal and Ambleside, and into the Langdales. Most of the roads had been well gritted, and with careful driving were passable, but once again we were grateful to reach our destination without incident, and park outside our lodge. As you can see, the heavy covering of snow made the area quite magical in appearance.

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The next morning we were able to drive into Keswick for their annual Christmas Fayre, and walk part of the way around Derwentwater. Then, on Monday we walked around the Langdale Estate, and the local village of Elterwater, and saw the difficulties which some people were experiencing in the snowy conditions. This Honda had come a cropper, and the coal lorry was having difficulty making progress to complete his deliveries.

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Tuesday morning we awoke to find that there had been another six inches of snow overnight, and this was of some concern, as we were due to move on to Ullswater, which would entail using the Kirkstone Pass! At 1,500 feet, it is the highest pass in the Lake District, and it is often closed in inclement weather.

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Nothing ventured, nothing gained, we will keep to the major approach roads and see if we can cross it. So, we’re on our way up:

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We’ve reached the top:

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And, we're on the way down:

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Interestingly, once down the other side we came across a large sign saying PASS BLOCKED

On Wednesday we were booked for a cruise on Ullswater, followed by Christmas lunch in Dalemain House. However, the mist on the lake did not clear and it was not safe to leave the jetty. These two pictures show how misty it was.

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However we did make it safely to Dalemain House for the lunch.

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The final picture shows the state of the roads in the Ullswater area.

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The following day we had an incident free run down the M6, M6 Toll and the M1, back to good old Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire.

I PMed Rob to arrange exchange of the cam and coil covers - which, if you remember dear reader, is where this whole story started! - so the thread is

TO BE CONTINUED!