The same procedure as last year?

"The same procedure as every year, Michi"

I should have known. Initially I had not much work planned on my car and wanted to leave early into the bush. But then I notice some dents in my rear door behind the spare wheel. A vertical object must have kissed the wheel in my absence and the tyre transferred the impact onto the touching steel body. Now, bending work is necessary to get it straightened. Afterwards I also end up repairing 25+ deep scratches all over the vehicle body, welding a new fire extinguisher bracket for my front seat, doing some woodwork on the bed, closing the ventilation inlet with a grid in order to prevent rats from entering my car during my absence (they love to build nests on my ventilation filter), getting my old linen pants patched up, getting new linen pants and a linen shirt tailored, delivering some German donations to an orphanage and talking a lot with Eckhard.

Finally, once I am fully packed and ready to leave we notice a new squealing sound from the engine bay and I loose two further days 🙈: The bearing of my Toyota's "power heater assembly" is at the end of its lifespan. Funnily, the local models don't have such a heater installed because nobody requires heating a car here. This means that getting spare parts is difficult and expensive. Our pragmatic solution is to install a shorter V-belt which simply bypasses the heater. Silence!Read more