Project Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - Dolomite in "most reliable" shocker - 08/02/24

[captain_70s]

I'm working backshift this week 14:30-00:00. Pain in the arse...

 

Cheers for the offer though!

[captain_70s]

Things I achieved this morning:

 

Set fire to myself.

Set fire to the car.

Melt the paint off the rear wing.

Blow some holes in some metal.

Find more rust.

 

Things I didn't achieve this morning:

 

Repairing the Acclaim to a satisfactory standard for the MOT tomorrow.

 

Now I must go to work for 9 hours. Cannot. Be. Arsed.

[MorrisItalSLX]

[Tickman]

Things I achieved this morning:

 

Set fire to myself.

Set fire to the car.

Melt the paint off the rear wing.

Blow some holes in some metal.

Find more rust.

 

Things I didn't achieve this morning:

 

Repairing the Acclaim to a satisfactory standard for the MOT tomorrow.

 

Now I must go to work for 9 hours. Cannot. Be. Arsed.

 

That is an excellent achievement*

[captain_70s]

Time is my enemy and welding flimsy metal shouldn't be rushed...

 

There is a plate over the largest hole tacked at the top but searching for decent metal to weld to at the bottom just caused more metal to vanish. I have now chased the rust back to usable metal...

 

I'll be up early making up another plate and fitting it it tomorrow morning by the looks... it is supposed to be welded to the inside of the rear wing but doing that blisters the paint. To the other side is the fuel tank and fuck that...

[captain_70s]

Sitrep!

 

I woke up this morning and realised that life is too short for the average day to consist of 6 hours of car fixing, 10 hours of work and 6 hours of sleep so I phoned the garage and cancelled the MOT. I shall work on the car at my leisure this afternoon and over the weekend.

 

I've been hanging on to the Civic until the Acclaim is MOT'd "just in case" so I may as well use the bloody thing as the backup car it's supposed to be.

[captain_70s]

The key to any good repair is applying enough underseal to it that it doesn't look like complete shit:

 

 

I've done about 1,000 miles in the car since buying it, prior to that it had done 100 since it's MOT in April 2017 and 400 the year before!

 

 

 

[junkyarddog]

That looks a pretty decent repair.

 

I've always liked these cars.

Even sold a few during my "career".

Always a bit tatty and well worn,but reliable non the less.

[captain_70s]

My goal for this year was to have the Doloshite back on the road for Drive it Day.

 

The reality is the Doloshite still lacks an MOT and I bought an Acclaim, which now also lacks an MOT, I technically still own the 1850HL which has been fucked for years.

 

Result = 4 cars, 3 "classics", only one I can drive is the '05 Civic.

[SiC]

As I've said on this forum before, you always need a reliable, modern Japanese car in your life if you run old (ropey) cars. A Civic is a very worthy candidate for that role. You may not particularly like it, but without it, you'd be a bit more buggered transport wise.

[captain_70s]

I've got a Civic Acclaim!

 

If I didn't insist on leaving MOT work until the week before the MOT my life would be far easier... It'd also be easier if I'd simply paid the garage to sort the thing out instead of doing it myself...

[captain_70s]

The Acclaim's life has sadly now ended and I'm a grand out of pocket...

 

[Datsuncog]

DISLIKE!!

 

Aw dude... gutted for you.

 

Deffo beyond the regeneration skills of man or angel (FOAD)? Or just a very harsh tester who found a cat turd in his slipper this morning?

 

Second opinion required, mebbe?

[JeeExEll]

Oh no !!!!

 

Advisories too.

 

Back to Plan Doloshite?

[Felly Magic]

Fucksticks

[Supernaut]

Did I inadvertently use the entire forum's good karma for this month by getting the roffle BMW through its MOT?

 

Too many cars are falling on here!

[oldcars]

nightmare. Is the fail sheet better then it seems, as sills are mentioned a number of times. Does it need two sills and a spot of welding on front inner arch and the rear. Could FOAD help you out again maybe?

Reading the mot check site seems harsh as the car had only done 1000 miles since the last mot, can it have got that bad so quick.

[captain_70s]

I've not heard from the garage yet, just got home having driven home from work in a dazed silence with only the sound of the Civic's binding brakes to sooth* me. Sitting here with a cup of tea and assessing my options.

 

I can only assume I got an utter bastard of an MOT tester or the car's prior testers were very lenient/bent:

 

 

I took it to the same place that did the Doloshite and found little rot and passed the Civic despite it's fucked brakes...

 

What I expected as problems:

 

Rear shock absorber leak.

The exhaust in general.

Potentially rust towards the rear N/S of the car

Potentially suspension rubbers

Electrical gremlins causing problems

 

What I definitely didn't expect:
 

Rot at the front of the car aside from the valance supports.

Fucked sills, given I gave them a fair prodding while it was at Foadwerx

 

Reading the fail sheet seems to suggest inner wheel arches/sills are the big problem here, it may well sound much worse than it is. I shall pop round the garage once I finish my tea and compose myself... Naturally sill panels are NLA for these things so all repairs will have to be fabricated

 

Not only has the car only done 1000 miles since the last test I've done 900 of them in the last month! I was hoping to get a year's ticket on the thing so I could do the bodywork in less of a panicked rush.

 

While I'm there I'll press them on the Doloshite as well...

[oldcars]

Good luck with it, be good to see it on the ramp where they have marked the rot spots. 

[davehedgehog31]

Gutted to read this, have enjoyed reading of your exploits. 

 

I hope it maybe just looks worse written down than it is, but it's mighty dispiriting to see that after the amount of work you've put in. 

[SiC]

Balls.

 

Aren't the back end corrosion issues ones you knew about? Could FOAD store it short term until you get a chance to go up and weld it all up yourself?

[cort16]

You might find that isn’t quite as bad as it sounds . You’ll not know until you see the chalk marks.

[trigger]

But if there's more chalk underneath than the white cliffs of Dover then you know you've got problems... Good luck!

[HillmanImp]

This probably sounds worse than it is. The prescribed area will be the 30cm they used to say (or whatever) and it could just be a small patch on each bit. As others have said, look at what they have highlighted for repair. 

[cort16]

Exactly I’ve had this before and it’s been a little 2p sized hole.

[Tickman]

I don't think that is going to be as bad as the list makes it sound, the sill and arch points that are separate in the list will no doubt be connected (or not hence the failure) so it cuts the list by a lot.

[Split_Pin]

At least apart from 1 item, its all welding, no advisories at all for bearings, ball joints and other hard to find parts.

[captain_70s]

Balls.

 

Aren't the back end corrosion issues ones you knew about? 

 

Some of it, aye.

 

Leading edge of the N/S/R inner wheel arch, seems to be fibreglass:

 

N/S/R sill, annoyingly where I accidentally dropped the car on to an axle stand just the other day...

 

Trailing edge of the N/S/R inner wheel arch, this is properly fucked in fairness. Sadly my welding wasn't sufficient as there wasn't much metal around the patches...

 

Beside one of the jacking points, I forget which one:

 

Over toward the seatbelt mounting area, looking from the rear axle.

 

O/S/F Inner wheel arch:

 

Beside another jacking point:

 

I've left the Acclaim at the garage to have a new shock fitted, they also quoted for the welding. 12 hours work at £45 an hour. I told them I'd get back to them about that after the shock is fitted. Looks I'll be getting my money's worth out of my shitty little stick welder...

I'm in too deep to get rid now, it's fucking worthless without an MOT and I've already sunk money into the damn thing. (Also I really rather like it). 

 

Oh, they also hinted that they didn't really have space to store all of my fucked Triumphs so I took the Doloshite home. God it runs fucking terribly. It also shat all over the RX8 parked behind it...

 

 

Sitting outside has done it few favours, I'll try and sort it's brakes out while it's here.

[Split_Pin]

That tester has really gone looking for excessive corrosion, almost sabotagery.

[Felly Magic]

I get the gut feeling the MOT man eas hoping to give you scrap money, bodge it up with a new tickect, and hoik it on ebay for £1495