The base philosophy behind Thursday Night Pint Club is to have hangovers at work. To stumble through Friday, get an early night and wake up bright for the weekend. You don't want to spend your precious free time feeling flat and as work sucks out most of your energy, once a month it's payback time.
One of the three founding members of TNPC, Pete, is a retired materials scientist who used to work at Harwell, the old atomic institute, now the home of the Diamond Light Project. Pete tells me the carburettor housing is made out of an aluminium/silicon alloy, which has probably become 'embrittled'.
Given his background I was sure he’d have something clever in mind to solve the hole in the union issue, as it happens he just grabs it and goes at it with a handheld drill. I’m crossing my arms and clutching air as the bit slips off and gouges the thread but old Pete is undeterred and you don’t go asking for help with the proviso that the giver does it your way, exactly.
‘Better drill a pilot hole first,’ mutters Pete rooting about for bits on his chaotic workbench. He’s got everything you might possibly need in there, years of crafty accumulation from car boot sales. You’ve got to admire him; he even built the workshop we’re standing in.
Later on at the pub, when the third member of TNPC arrives – product designer, Mike – I hear about Pete demolishing a wall at Mike’s and practically burying him under a pile of bricks. I feel relieved that the hole in the carb thing was a success, in the end. It makes me realise that my confidence as a mechanic has taken a knock and I have to lift myself out of it. If the throttle housing was embrittled, as Pete put it, it’s not surprising it crumbled so easily. Perhaps I wasn’t as clumsy as I'd thought.
I need to get that carb bolted on and get the Black Bullet on the road again. There's still lots to do but nothing will lift my spirits more than buzz up the farm track to the Ridgeway and back. I need this before I tackle the Department of Vehicle Licencing. Shouldn't be negative but somehow I just can't see that being a particularly upifting encounter.
