Frosty morning

I know that you have all come to find out how the wing mirror replacement went.

Soooooooooooooo.................

I watched my little Antipodean friend on YouTube and he had the panel off, the mirror off, replaced and everything good to go in 8:44 seconds including some mechanical verbiage at the start which probably passes for foreplay amongst our engineering friends. Yes, his name really is Bruce. I have a sense that he’s done the whole door thing before and he also had the door off the car and on some technical gizmo which meant that it was at a comfortable height and that when he started pulling the panel off the door didn't move. I watched a few times and noted where the screws were to be found and what tools I needed and which bit to unclip before which other bit and finally declared myself ready for the fray. I assembled my weapons as advised and advanced on my quarry.

I bought this car in October, 2007 according to the logbook. Since then we've done more than 90,000 miles together through fog, rain and snow; balmy summer mornings and harsh winter evenings on the M25 and the M11. We've whizzed along the M6 and crawled along tiny Devonian lanes but it was only after I’d laid out the tools on the driver’s seat and put the mat on the ground so that I could kneel on it that I realised that the door I was looking at bore little resemblance to the one I felt equipped to dismember. At no stage during my meticulous preparations had I recognised that the first task; taking a piece of trim off the handle to access two screws, wasn't a runner as my door didn't have that handle and actually had a load of other gubbins in its stead. I swore. I then channelled Persig and ZAMM and became more focussed. Back indoors to see if I could find more wisdom on the Internet about where the sneaky screws might be hidden on my door. No YouTube vids but I found a few clues on another page and out I went again. All up it took 40 minutes including the extra search and it seems to have worked. The tests I've applied are that a) the window still goes up and down (necessary when using the Dartford Xing), b) I didn't have any parts/screws left over at the end and c) it looks much as it did when I started. The wing mirror itself wiggles and heats up when the correct buttons are pressed and I think that’s as much as any of us can hope for isn't it?

If you haven't read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance I heartily recommend it; it helped me fix this car today :-) And if my chipper Aussie mate wants to come and kneel in a bitterly cold, muddy farmyard in the pale wintry sun and be faced with an unknown door he's more than welcome; I have a feeling that'll put a crimp in his smirk.

The image is an early morning shot. I actually went out to grab a snap of the cattle in the frosty field with their steamy breath and gentle lowing but I preferred this one; live with it. As I moved towards my mechanical Nirvana we hit the equator of the week so we're over the hump and coasting from here. Some of us are working in that London on Saturday but we still have the deliciousness of Thursday and Friday first; grab a handful and hang on tight.