Ian Mckeen – Rosalita Undergoes Major Surgery

Words and Pictures by Ian Mckeen

In the beginning, God created heaven and Earth. The Earth was without form, and void and darkness. And God said, “let there be light” and there was light.

Billions of years later in 1977, the rock band AC/DC followed this with; Let there be sound, and there was sound. 44 years on from this, Jill said “let there be music”, wishing to hear the great sounds of Bruce Springsteen coming from the stereo in her beloved Figaro. But there wasn’t any. Rosalita was poorly. She had succumbed to the pandemic that had befallen many of us over this past year. She was hot to touch, losing fluids and her seats were sticky. She was in need of emergency surgery.

Jill didn’t know what the outcome would be. Would Rosalita pull through? Was she destined for the great breakers yard in the sky? Could a miracle happen? So many questions. Why her, why now? What if she doesn’t get better? She would leave an empty void. (Well, an empty garage at least). There was no other option, Jill had to phone for assistance.

Help was dispatched and Rosalita was manoeuvred onto the car ambulance. She was on her way to the Figaro hospital. Would Jill see poor Rosalita again?

Fearing the worst, Jill had started to pace up and down with a bottle of her favourite tipple in one hand and a bar of chocolate in the other. She moped around for days dreading that fateful phone call. I on the other hand had started to plan a workshop for the now empty garage.
And then it happened, that call, Jill went quiet. She started to shed a tear. I thought OMG what can I do? It was then that Jill said Rosalita was going to be fine. She was at that time of life where changes happened. She was in need of HRT (Hose Replacement Therapy).

Well, to say I became emotional was an understatement, not because Rosalita was coming back, but because I had just lost my workshop. My dreams had been shattered. I had so many plans. I had already given my tools a liberal buffing. My workbench was built and ready to go. It was then that I realised that once again, I had lost out to this remarkable little gem of a car. Jill’s Figaro, Rosalita. (See my previous article from 2017 where I lost & gained brownie points).

Rosalita returned. She was fixed. Her cooling system was now cooling. The HRT was working. She kept all her fluids in and was looking fantastic once again. Better than this, Jill was happy. What more could a man want? A workshop would have been nice though. On her return, I took the opportunity to add my own touch to Rosalita by stripping and refurbishing the seats. Lots of hard work, but as you can see the rewards have paid off.

Rosalitas next adventure will be as the main wedding car for our niece. A perfect tribute to this fantastic little car (see above).

We would like to say a massive thank you to the guys at The Figaro Shop. Without them, Rosalitas destiny would have been different. What an amazing job. You are real professionals. Thank you sooooooooooo much

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