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01/10/21 Fri. Took out the old instrument panel today, cut two pieces of 12mm plywood to fit the recess, soaked them in thinned resin and glued them in place with epoxy glue.
02/10/21 Sat. Laid two layers of chopped strand matting and resin over the ply this morning, then when dry I put on the first layer of filler.
03/10/21 Sun. A bit of a non-event day today, we ran out of gas first thing this morning (luckily we have a portable ring with gas cans), the wind is up and blowing us around a little, so it's a case of having a rest day from working!
04/10/21 Mon. Into town for a new gas bottle, some shopping and a few electrical bits. Raining during the afternoon so no sanding today! I made an appointment to see Dr Melinda Tong in KK on the 28th as I have a worrisome 'growth' on my right shoulder again - I feel another op coming on!
06/10/21 Weds. Having a few problems with the epoxy filler this morning. I sanded down the 3rd layer and found that some of the first layer had not hardened properly! I had to dig out the soft parts and start that area again.
08/10/21 Fri. I had to repeat yesterday's work again! I changed tins of filler and tried again this morning and this time it hardened ok, so it must have been the previously used filler which had failed. It's gone in the bin now!
09/10/21 Sat. A fairly relaxing day today, I sanded the instrument panel and sprayed it in readiness for refitting.
14/10/21 Thurs. After several days of very blustery weather, today is a lot calmer. We fitted the 'old' instrument panel back in place this morning, now awaiting the delivery of the new glow plugs - which cleared customs in KL on the 24th of last month and still have not arrived in Kudat! A brief resumé of the instrument panel job here.
16/10/21 Sat. Funnily enough, the glow plugs turned up in the yard yesterday, so today I removed the old, which involved removing the air intake manifold to gain access, fitted the new plugs and made new gaskets for the manifold. Then I rewired the new plugs (they are in parallel rather than series like the old) and removed the now defunct ballast resistor. I ran out of time to complete the job, so tomorrow will be another hour of wiring.
17/10/21 Sun. Took it easy today and didn't start the wiring until almost 5pm. It didn't take long to complete, but the engine battery alone is not starting the engine and I suspect either the main battery cables or the battery itself. Tomorrow I will test it under load and replace if necessary.
19/10/21 Tues. Happy Birthday Dad wherever you may be. Strange battery symptoms - the other day the engine would not turn over using only the engine battery, status was about 12v. Yesterday I charged it up to 13v and put a load tester on it which showed no problems, I measured the voltage with a multimeter, and that showed 12.82 at the battery terminals and at the starter motor terminals, and the engine started without any problem. This morning, it started again without any problems! I guess I will just have to see how it goes over a few days.
23/10/21 Sat. Still on electrics - another attempt at finding the problem with the Smartbank yesterday. I thought I had found it with a loose terminal block which I bypassed and soldered new wires direct to the circuit board but it made not one jot of difference, the Smartbank still refuses to connect all batteries when it should! I am really at a loss with this problem and will have to bite the bullet and buy yet another unit to try.
26/10/21 Tues. Given up on the Smartbank problem now! I tried a factory reset today but it made no difference to the performance (or non-performance to be more accurate), so I have ordered a new one from the UK.
27/10/21 Weds. Went into town to do a few things and to rent a car for tomorrow's trip to KK. A small problem - no cars available! Not to worry, the guy told me he would have one by 0630 tomorrow and deliver it to us at Marina Jetty.
28/10/21 Thurs. 0630 and right on time, the car turned up! Filled up with juice and set off to KK. We had a good run down, stopping just once for toilets. On arrival, I called in to the Alliance Bank ATM to draw money, the machine made all the whirring noises as it counted money, gave me my card back........but no money or receipt! Have to check my bank to see if it's actually gone out when we get back to Kudat. Went to the Doc at lunchtime, she had a look at my shoulder, stuck some needles in and squeezed the lump a few times, then said "I'll get a bigger needle". This should be fun thinks I. "If it hurts, kick her not me," she says (pointing at the nurse). Upshot was, she couldn't get anything out and so she did a biopsy to send off to Kuala Lumpur. Now have to wait a week or two for the results. (Note: No nurses were hurt in this episode!)
31/10/21 Sun. After a couple of days shopping for various bits and pieces, we headed off from KK to make the journey back to Kudat. We chose to take the scenic route up to Ranau and down to Kota Marudu, a longer trip but worthwhile for the scenery and views of Mount Kinabalu. We were fortunate to have reasonably clear views of the mountain, but the journey down again was in torrential rain!
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