It's been a quite couple of weeks - well, relatively quiet.
The other half has been driving the 500 to work once a week to build up some running-in miles. With a lot of the most modern cars, there isn't the usual "don't overdo it for the first so many miles" advice, although to be fair, I've always thought it wasn't a bad principle to live by. Improved manufacturing tolerances, more reliable components (to some extent) and more rigorous QA and pre-delivery checks means that modern cars are expected to be good to go as soon as they leave the showroom.
This isn't the case with older cars and certainly isn't the case with a restored car. Although he has had some running checks as part of the restoration and has been MOT'ed, there hasn't been any serious long running and he's no longer a standard "off the peg" car - the engine and gearbox isn't the original design or size (and has in fact be slightly modified as well - slightly bored out cylinders, lighter flywheel, plus one or two other bits) and the brakes are now all discs, so there is plenty on the car which isn't standard. This makes for a more interesting and in some respects a more drivable and safer car, but does mean that there is an element of unpredictability to any problems that may flag up.
An early start was made on Thursday to head off to work. I panicked slightly when the other half returned 5 minutes later, only to find that it was because he'd forgotten is work pass - panic over.
Second panic of the day happened at about 4:30pm when the phone rang - the other half was less than a mile from home when everything cut out - engine stopped, electrics all died. There wasn't much I could do apart from worry - not only about the car but also my other half. I knew exactly where he was and it's not the sort of place to be stationary, especially coming up to rush hour. After an hour of worried washing up and kitchen cleaning (anything to take my mind off things), he arrived home, car running, same as normal. It turned out to be a loose connection to the battery - it had worked its way to a point where one bump was enough to bounce if off the terminal - hence the total lack of power.
So, after an initial feeling of panic, then the thought of an evening or weekend spent playing hunt the loose connection, it was an easy fix.
With regards to the snagging list, so far there isn't a huge amount. The main thing at the moment is a slight adjustment to the carburettor just to smooth out the running. The main inlet jet fitted is solenoid controlled (this helps to stop run-on compared with the original fixed pin). It's probably just a quick clean of the main inlet and a tweak or two to the idle adjustment - nothing too drastic at the moment. There's still a few miles to go, but hopefully there won't be anything more dramatic.
