[Howie666]

I have been musing for some time over how to put this. I enjoy belonging to the owners club. I have enjoyed, to a certain extent, attending meetings of owners in various places. I have met one or two people from the forum who are very nice, and seem to me to represent what I imagine the club is all about.
Sadly some people appear to be under some misapprehension about me and my car/reason for belonging to the club.
I am painfully aware that our car is far from the best example of a ZT out there. When we bought her she had a dead battery and all of the breather tubes were fractured. The bodywork is scratched and dented. The inlet manifold has been messed with and needs replacing. We have decided that we want to replace it with a brand new one, despite the expense, because every job we do on the car is done with long life and service in mind, and a new one will provide many years of motoring for us.
The seats are ripped and worn in the usual places, and yes, we are planning to have them reupholstered but again that is a large expense and it will have to wait.
The upgrades I have made thus far have been partly with the help of forum members (to whom I am eternally grateful) and partly with the help of a local mechanic who very kindly loaned me the space I needed to do the biggest job so far, that of replacing the radiator fan with a two speed Kenlowe unit from Jules.
We see the car as a long term investment, with the eventual goal of returning her to brand new condition, or if possible, better than new. The problem is we are trying to do all this on a non-existent budget. The car is parked on the street outside our house, prey to the elements and the local scumbaggery walking past on their way home from getting bladdered. Not to mention idiots in cars with a total lack of spatial awareness when it comes to maneuvering near our car.
I am not too proud to attempt work on the car but I do know my limits. I managed to fit the rear sunblind with a lot of printouts from the how-to and not a few heart stopping moments, not least concerned with whether or not I would be able to put it back together right.
She is a major expense for us and we have had to make sacrifices to keep her on the road. When Sandra was being treated for cancer the car was essential. Many of her clinic appointments would have been inaccessible were it not for the car. We see the car as a member of the family. I will continue to attempt to attend meetings because it is nice to own a car that has a group of people who care about them as much as the owners on here (or at least most of them). If I am an embarrassment or unwelcome I will keep myself to myself.
I admit I feel a little invisible on the forum. I contribute what I can when I can but seldom if ever do I get any feedback on my comments. I was/am planning a 'how-to' on an aspect of upgrading the car that I think I can do but I'm worried I'm just going over old ground or that my efforts will be derided for their amateurishness. In essence, I belong to the club, but in many ways I don't feel like I 'belong'. If you've read this far then thank you for reading, and I apologise for taking up your time.