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It's been almost a year since the 240 passed its MOT after being welded back together. At one point I mooted the idea of doing a post-mortem of sorts on the whole project, to have a look one year on and see what worked and what didn't. Since I'm now at the point of going over the car again for its upcoming MOT, this is as good a time as any to do this. I think the main thing you'll probably want to read about is how well it has held up to rusting further, and if any of the expensive chemicals with big promises actually did anything useful to help. It's important to mention that I haven't babied the 240 in any way whatsoever. It's been driven in snow, ice, deep water, on beaches, along forest roads, and I've never bothered my arse to wash any of the mud or salt off after use. I absolutely love the 240 as a car, but I've followed Volvo's marketing advice and Drove it Like I Hated It. It gets stored outside permanently. I've put around 6000 miles on the car since December last year so I don't reserve it as a weekend classic either. I'll break this down into sections, and I may slot in some more photos after I'm finished with the text and have a chance to upload them. Rust-proof primers / zinc primers Screwfix Galvanising Spray Paint First up is this stuff from Screwfix. If the description is to be believed this is a zinc-rich cold galvanising spray which is also spot-weldable. This sounds ideal for coating panels before you get back to top coating them properly. The idea is that the zinc is a sacrificial layer which corrodes in a harmless manner before the steel itself can be attacked. I used this on the external surfaces of the passenger side A-pillar and sill repairs while I got on with repairing the rest of the car. I also gave most brackets, bolts and nuts a quick blast with this after bathing them in acid to remove the rust. I also gave the steering rack a quick coat of this to freshen it up a little. Unfortunately, it's a bit shit. The first sign that it isn't really up to the job is the weight of the tin. If the paint really is zinc-rich, it would be much heavier than it is, plus it would dry a fairly cloudy, matte grey. In reality this appears to be nothing more than shiny silver spray paint. Most of the bits I painted in this began to rust again within a week or so. That's just putting up with atmospheric moisture, never mind abrasion, water and salt spray. In fact, the unprotected inner surfaces of the steel I welded on didn't look any worse than the bits I painted with this. Verdict : 1/10. Bilt Hamber Electrox Primer - Aerosol This is the so-called professional version of the above zinc spray and as such costs over twice as much. However, you can tell right away it's a better product as the tin feels significantly heavier. I did some sections of the floor and chassis outriggers using this. This dries a much more believable matte grey colour (ie: it looks like zinc). The outriggers were left painted in this while stored inside the damp, leaky car for months without any signs of rusting. It does appear to do what you expect it to. The outriggers were then welded on and overcoated with some underseal. After a year, they look just the same as when I repaired them. I've also painted the leisure battery enclosure on my campervan in this, which is quite exposed underneath and comes into contact with all sorts of spray, grit, salt and mud. That has been on the van a couple of years now and shows very little signs of corrosion except where the coating has been damaged. I have to say I'm quite impressed. The major downside to this is the cost. £40 per Litre for the brush on version is eye watering, and I find that coverage is a bit disappointing so you tend to use quite a lot more than you expect. I also find that this flakes / chips very easily so you'd probably want to topcoat it, although it seems to stand up to the claims that it can 'self heal' going by the campervan battery housing. Verdict : 6/10 Zinga cold galvanizing system - brush on. Being impressed with the Electrox but not the price and coverage of it, I thought this would solve both problems. Zinga are careful not to call this a paint or a primer, and are keen to reinforce the image that electricity pylons across Europe are painted in it. This was (back in 2020) much cheaper than Electrox - around £45 for a 2.5L tin, although this is sold by weight rather than volume. This is a good sign as it means you are buying actual zinc by weight rather than fresh air and binders. The tin itself is spectacularly heavy for its size, another good sign. I used this to paint the insides of the rear wheel arches, the insides of the sills, and the internally facing sides of repair panels. I also used it as a primer for the outer rear arches and the front windscreen surround (after giving up on another product). I've also used this as a primer coat for the inner arch and boot floor repairs I did on the 205, coated with some underseal. This stuff works really well. It brushes on nicely and dries quickly. It's easy to topcoat despite Zinga being coy about calling it a primer of any sorts. I also find it gets into crevices and holes much easier than the Electrox spray, purely because you can coax it into place using a brush. There's less wastage as you don't have overspray to deal with, so the tin lasts a surprisingly long time when brushed on carefully. After a year of this being on the car, I'm very impressed with it. I haven't spotted a single sign of rust breaking back out anywhere where it has been used. I have some offcuts of panels that have been lying around my garden exposed to the elements that were coated in zinga before being chopped. None of those have started to rust either. It 'self-heals' very well, and in fact if you take a wire brush to it, you can see how it has bonded with the steel underneath and changed its colour. The repairs on the 205 have also stood up to a similar level of driving it hard without giving a shit. Recommended. It gets negative points for being an absolute pain in the arse to clean off of brushes as it's not dissolvable in white spirit - you need to get 'Zingasolv' to thin or clean it and it isn't cheap. I also find it's a bit fragile. In some places you can scrape it off with a fingernail and minimal effort, which doesn't inspire confidence. It does seem to hold up though which is the main thing. Verdict : 8/10 Rust-Anode Cathodic Protection I found this while looking for another tin of Zinga, which seems to have rocketed in price over the years. This is around 25% cheaper than Zinga for the same size, yet the technical data seems very similar. I've used this only on the Amazon so far but I'm mentioning it here because it's relevant. I've not had a full year to test it out, however the Amazon is sitting outside being battered by wind and rain and sleet, with shit door seals and big holes in the engine bay. I've painted the Amazon floor in this and despite it regularly filling with water which lies for days, there is not a single speck of rust to be found, even where the floor was previously a bit rusty! I'm convinced this does the same job as Zinga but is a fair bit cheaper. I also find that this covers better and is less prone to flaking and scratching (it feels more paint-like). You can also thin and clean with white spirit which makes life less complicated. Verdict : 9/10 Plastikote Zinc-Rich primer I bought this as a stop-gap when I ran out of Zinga and just needed to finish off a couple of bits of welding. The tin isn't very heavy for its size, which suggests to me it's not as Zinc-Rich as it claims to be. I didn't do huge amounts with this, but it does seem to have worked fairly well. The shock absorber top mounts are a notorious rust trap on the 240s and I used it here before covering in underseal. So far there's been no rust breaking back out there. I have used it in a couple of other locations where the results weren't quite so good. Admittedly the metal had previously been rusty, and as such had been cleaned and treated before this was sprayed over. Zinga and Rust-Anode managed to keep the rust from breaking back out, but this stuff struggled a bit, showing blebs of ginger in places. It would be fine for clean new steel, but not for anywhere you had to de-rust. Verdict : 6/10 Rust converters Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 I had really high hopes for this as it seems to be highly regarded in restoration circles. The idea with this is that you wire-brush off the worst of the rust, then paint this over it in two coats, one perpendicular to the other. In theory it should form a stable barrier that smothers the rust and prevents oxygen from continuing the corrosive reaction. It comes out of the bottle a sort of milky white colour, and then as it reacts with rust and steel goes a very dark blue. It's quite mesmerising to watch and sort of gives you the impression it's doing 'something'. I used this on nearly all of my original suspension parts which were heavily surface-rusted. I first went over everything with a jetwash, then several rounds of degreaser followed by wire brushing, then more jetwashing, finally finished off with a wipe down with panel wipe. This is to get rid of any contaminants as most of the suspension parts were covered in grease and oil. Some parts of the suspension I ran a finger sander with a 40 grit belt along to get rid of heavier corrosion and provide a nice keyed surface. On top I applied 2 coats of H80 at perpendicular angles. This was done at around 18C as I've heard anecdotally that cold weather can prevent the converter working properly. Once this was completely dry it was then topcoated with Bilt Hamber Epoxy Mastic, which is also touted as an amazing product and the ideal thing to topcoat H80 in so that it never rusts again. Allegedly. Frankly, this is all complete horse shit. H80 really does fuck all except ruin your day. It doesn't seem to be remotely waterproof despite it claiming to be ok to leave it uncoated. On the bulkhead of the 240 the areas I coated in H80 while I worked elsewhere rinsed off in the space of a few days, leaving huge levels of surface rust to break back out. It also isn't a very tough barrier and the slightest knock or bump seems to cause it to fall off in great big lumps, exposing plain old untreated rust underneath. Below you can see where I have painted perfectly clean brand new steel in H80. The reason for this is that where clean steel meets rusty steel, you're supposed to paint the whole lot in H80 to keep a uniform coating. It seems to have done nothing much except added rust where there wasn't any. The image above is pretty much typical for anywhere I've used H80. You get a week or two of 'hey that looks alright', then it all goes to shit and leaves you worse off. The passenger floor is another good example. Here it was used to prime the floor which was half pitted steel, half brand new metal, then topcoated with Bilt Hamber 2 pack epoxy. It hasn't done much either on the clean or already rusty steel. It has flaked off in places, taking the top layer with it. In other places it has bubbled up and it looks like a light wire brushing would take most of it off. I've been through a whole 1L bottle of this and had to remove and redo pretty much all of it. No amount of experimenting with this gave me a decent result. I even contacted BH who gave me a list of things to try to improve it, none of which really helped. Verdict : 0/10 Vactan This is essentially the same idea as H80 - an acid based rust converter mixed with an agent that sets over the top for a waterproof / airtight barrier. A lot of people here swear by it, so I thought it was worth a shot. Admittedly I've not used huge amounts of this as the H80 experience really put me off these all-in-one rust converter products. However I did touch up a few areas here and there where I noticed rust breaking out due to damage, or me simply missing out a few bits. So far the touch-ups I've done here and there have been so-so. On the LS400 I treated the radiator crossmember before refitting the undertray. 8 months later, it's still holding up, although I can see a few areas where rust has already started to poke back through. I treated a couple of areas in the engine bay and boot floor of the 240 with this. In the engine bay it has held up nicely (perhaps the heat helps?), but on the boot floor it has simply cracked and began to flake away exposing rusty steel. I've found that this is very dependent on what temperature you apply it at. If you apply sub 15C it has a tendency to form a powdery white substance which just brushes off. Above that, it does seem to activate in the way that H80 does - it progressively gets darker as it dries. I find that it won't stick to non-rusty steel at all, no matter how well cleaned and keyed it is. Use it to tidy up some underbody areas before undersealing? Yes - and it'll probably work quite well. Use it on bodywork I wanted to paint and look good in the future? Probably not. Blob it on to prevent a rusty scab becoming a great big hole in 6 months time? Definitely. But expect to have to redo it. Verdict : 6/10 Concentrated Phosphoric Acid I came across this by accident as @Lacquer Peel dropped off a bottle of it. It's branded as Bonnyman's Rust-Off, but it's pretty much just concentrated Phosphoric Acid. The idea behind this versus the other rust converters is that you let it do its job, working it into the steel with a wire brush, and then you're expected to topcoat it. The difference is that the acid isn't diluted by the other ingredients, and you can be a bit more confident that it's actually doing its job before you put paint over it. Being able to work and agitate it into the rust seems to be the key here. This works really well. As you work it into rust you can clearly see the surface going darker and harder. When it dries, which only takes a few minutes, the rust is very well contained in a hard layer (iron phosphate?) which in theory stops oxygen getting in. If you take something sharp and scrape away at this layer, you can see that it has soaked much deeper into the rust than either of the rust converters above. I tested this on a few places on the 240 but didn't really document it with photos, sorry. I wasn't particularly confident it would do anything but I seem to have been wrong. Even on rust which has broken out on an external surface, I've dabbed some of this on and forgotten about it. Months later despite water being able to run down the panel, the rust stayed a dark blue/brown colour and didn't spread. I've used this mostly on the Amazon where the results have been surprising. Here I've used it on a heavily rusted part of the scuttle. This is after being open to the elements for a few weeks without any topcoat, which alone is a decent test given how long the H80 lasted. And after about 7 months of being exposed to the elements. Ignore the extra holes, I made them deliberately. Yes, some orange has returned, but this is a really unfair and unrealistic test. It has done a surprising job given that it has had water pooling on top of it for months on end and hasn't been topcoated. Plus, I've been dragging the bonnet on and off weekly, scratching both the scuttle and the tops of the inner wings essentially taking chunks of the protective layer off. A fairer test is probably on the Toledo, where it was painted on the very rusted chassis leg and left for around 3 months. I've got a lot more faith in that than in the H80 or Vactan. I think it's as close as you'll get to killing off rust without cutting it out. Verdict : 9/10 Next up, I'll list the topcoats and underseals I used, but I need to get some before and after photos arranged, as the contrast is really interesting!

Update on the drive being blocked. I sent a carefully worded email to the company and I had a missed ring on our doorbell earlier. It was a well dressed guy, mid 50s in a Navara. I couldn't answer it as I was at work but when my wife got home there was a £100 M&S voucher through the door with an apology together with a name and mobile number, presumably from an area manager. I phoned him just there and he seemed a really decent chap. He said that the guys are sometimes cheeky to him and not to go into too much detail but he said he only needs them just now because a completion date needs to be met. They told him that they had only planned to be 5 minutes but ran into problems, however he clearly had taken none of this as an excuse. I was really pissed at this since Sunday and was generally in one of my 'Falling Down' moods. So this is a good outcome. My Mrs has a big heart but she goes from 0 - malkie in 1.5 seconds when someone is being a dick to her so the guys did get the thick end of that on Sunday as well.

Popped in to our local butchers for some pies. Their pies are great, full to the top and there is something about the pastry that just sets them apart. They probably use lard or something but whatever, it works. But they also have a small eat in section. Usually if you get there after 8am it's full (they open at 7 as any proper butcher does) but there were a couple of spare tables and as I walked in the smell of bacon hit me so I thought sod it and stopped for a bacon sandwich. Sometimes when you order a bacon sandwich out it can be a disappointment. Not these. Decent amount of bacon, well cooked, just the right amount of saltyness and proper bread. I should make more spontaneous decisions like this.

Another years MOT for the Sierra. Needed a track rod end and two bits of welding on the rear arches-£185 -couldn't be bothered pulling the MIG out and freezing for that! Heres a before pic-too dark tonight. They replaced all the rusty bits you can see on the wheelarch near the door on both sides.

Well, things have escalated quickly with the Panda. Despite applying heat/plusgas and being VERY careful trying to remove the exhaust manifold studs 3 of them sheared off. Bastard. I have tried. Left handed drill bits. Welding a nut onto the stud. All efforts failed🙄 Safe to say I don't have the skills/patience for either of those things so I've been strategically ignoring it. At present I could scrap it and get my money back but I don't like being beaten. It's not a bad example and being a 2011 car with 72k miles and £30 a year road tax it should be worth fixing. So, the head is shortly coming off it and it's getting fixed by someone who has a clue. I've ordered up a head gasket kit and will chuck a new timing belt on it at the same time. I'm taking this as a learning opportunity - I've never done valve stem oil seals before so will use this little 8 valve engine as practice for the Mantas Duratec. It's stripped to a bare block and awaiting shiny bits coming from the U.S. and Musselburgh amongst other places. The block will get painted and then I can start assembling the bottom end. Spec of the engine will be High Comp pistons Stage 3 cams New valve springs. This should give the Manta 200bhp at the wheels which with it weighing around a tonne will make it go fast enough for me🙂

£585 Reserve Cant get fairer than that. Fingers crossed EDIT: He seems like a good egg!

Aye. House is easily identified by driveway covered in scrap. The girlfriend got spooked the other week as somebody knocked on the door asking if the Acclaim was for sale. I don't think he was a "dag enthusiast" as he left a name and number and was seemingly asking questions about previous owners and stuff. One imagines the cars were spotted and the potential of buying a tidy car off a clueless old duffer for a quick flip was spied and immediately thwarted by the owner being 30. Jokes on them, everything on fleet is fuuuuuuuuuuuuucked*. Dolomite: Situation unchanged, garage ornament, drips oil on the garage floor. #BLlyfe Acclaim: Was driving around with the heater maxed out due to tired rad. Many plans were formulated for swapping in a rad from another car through various means. Realised I'd never actually get around to doing it because I'm a knob so found a place called ScotRad in Edinburgh who would recore it. Slightly past it's best. Money's worth was had at least... A week or so later... Back in the car and the Acclaim is now the go-to car for going anywhere again. I still need to do some work to the rear brakes, timing belt and various other bits and bobs but it is now functional considering the low miles I do. It did briefly block a carb jet after being sat for a few weeks and lost it's idle, but a some foot-to-the-floor accelerations along the M9 saw it cleared. Volvo: The novelty of having to jump start it whenever I needed to move it got tiresome. Goodbye old battery. Hello new battery. The rear wiper motor was also refitted (removed back when a lose earth connection was causing electrical senility), new wiper blades all round and replacement of some dead bulbs. I also washed it, as it was quite green. While the new battery freed it up for use while the Acclaim's (the jump starter of choice) rad was away it didn't cure the hot start issue which required me to faff about under the bonnet while Girlfriend_70's turned the key, making use of the car a 2 person operation... Discussion was had with @juular, the K Jet wizard, about potential causes. First was the potential of the metering plate sticking. As can be seen it was immaculate, but I made marginal improvements. The plate was also off centre and catching on the surround causing it to stick. So, that's the problem. Engine gets hot, plate expands a little, when it drops back down when the car is shut off it gets stuck. Sorted. Nope. Made fuck all difference. @juularthen attached his pressure measuring stuff to make sure the system was actually coming up to pressure. This showed when running the pressure was fine but on shutoff it immediately dropped instead of holding, suggesting the either the non-return valve or accumulator has failed. However this would suggest if you ran the pump manually it'd eventually bring fuel up to start the car, even if it had to pump it all the way from the tank, but even with fuel up the lines it wouldn't fire. As a bonus the banjo bolt for the fuel return snapped when resembled. Thankfully the remains of the thread were spun out using a hex key, and a quick run to @juular's place in the 205 meant a spare* could be used to regain functionality. *Deffo not stolen from his 240... So the next potential culprit was the plunger in the metering head. This meant it had to come apart. Obviously all the fixings were utterly fucked. So I ended up pulling the whole system out. Which at least let me clean 30 years worth of crap off the engine. So now it's been doused in carb cleaner, everything is moving freely and the O-rings for the primary pressure regulator are to be replaced once they arrive. The warm up regulator will also get a dousing in cleaning fluid. The benefit of this system playing up is that I am at least learning how this new-fangled mechanical continuous fuel injection works, hopefully cars never get more complex...

https://www.lesanciennes.com/annonce/citroen-sm-carbu-1971-a553900

feeling quite pleased with myself atm! as I have just taken delivery of a type of lightbulb which I have coveted since I was about 4! and here it is! what so so special about that I hear you ask (or probably not! LOL) it just looks like a regular old pearl lightbulb? that is until you fire it up! this aint no normal lightbulb! and thats what makes it so special, its an early british high pressure mercury vapour discharge lamp, the first of which, where made with regular for the time lightbulb components, the only majorly outward clue as to anything being different is the 3 pin bayonet base to prevent from being inserted into a regular un-ballasted socket which would blow it up! these early mercury lamps are very rare and very sought after hence why its taken me nearly 20 years to finally get my mits on one! and I really do love it, not only for its early construction techniques and differences, but as above how it really does look like a regular lightbulb until you fire it up where it then subverts all expectations instead of the regular warm 2700K glow of a tungsten filament your expecting, you get the cool blue-green etherial glow of a mercury arc! but still with the classic pearl halo of a pearl/frosted lamp! this particular example is an 80W Philips example, made in Hamilton Scotland, which I believe dates to about the 1940's sadly theres no visible date code, (although there is a strange glyph on the base which may be one) but its arc tube is if of a very early construction style, which was nice bonus, I was expecting this to be a 1950's lamp with a more modern typical arc tube construction, but I was pleasantly surprised to find its older and even more interesting then I thought all in all as you can tell I am pleased as punch to finally have one of these in the collection! as a side note the very earliest of these had clear bulbs rather then frosted bulbs which let you see the awesome early hand made Quartz arc tube contained within http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Spec Sheets/D MB Osira MB125.htm Id love one of these as well, one can dream!

I call that a win.

Seeing as mother in law is visiting I have been looking for activities outside of the house. I've been doing a bit of parts shopping as well, so it seemed like the perfect time to get on with something I'd been planning to do on the Lada. The noise from the front end has been causing a lack of confidence whilst driving, so that was the main priority to diagnose and sort. Best get the front end up in the air and give everything a spin then. The drivers side immediately made the noise of a grinding bearing. I did my due diligence and removed the brake calliper just in case, and the noise remained. I will try and upload a youtube video at some point for your viewing pleasure, but at the moment I'm failing miserably to work out how to do it. 'New' bearing ordered then: Time to pull the old one apart. There was a bead of silicone or similar round the bearing dust cap which is a new one on me - water proofing? There was some grease inside so it hadn't run dry. Spindle all cleaned up using a pair of my old pants - looks ok The front bearing out on the bench: Some Cyrillic markings on the reverse: I think this is the rear race just before it got beaten into submission with a hammer: My phone went flat at this point so I couldn't take more pictures. It was about 8pm and the races were stubborn bastards to come out, but I wanted to draw things to a close that evening with the new races installed so I continued the hammering session to remove the old ones. I had put the new races into the freezer for a bit so that they contracted slightly, and I 'pressed' them into place with one of these jobbies. They went in no bother. That was a good place to leave it for a Sunday night. Last night I came back to it, not many pictures as I was rushing so I couldn't be accused of not wanting to spend time with my family. I packed the bearings with grease, being a sucker for a unnecessary tool I got to use this thing for about the second time ever: I'd say it keeps the grease off your hands, but I was already covered in grease so it was kind of pointless in that regard. It does force grease through the bearing nice and evenly though. Reassembly the reverse of removal: It's worth noting that the nut securing the bearing is a left hand thread on this side. Don't be a twat like I am and assume your torque wrench works in reverse just because it has a reverse setting. I have snapped my 1/4 inch drive baby torque wrench as a result of this oversight. Without an appropriate torque wrench I did it the highly scientific way of 20nm by calibrated* feel to seat the bearing, then backed it off an nipped it back up again gently before staking it down. The only thing left to do was drive it and see if the noise was gone/the wheel was going to fall off. Enjoy some grainy photos of the drive to Sainsbury's that were definitely taken by a passenger. I'm pleased to say that the Lada got there safely and The Noise™️ is gone. All that's left is the multiple other noises of a 43 year old car built in Russia and maintained* for decades in Hungary. Celebratory Sainsbury's carpark photo: Now the hosepipe ban has been lifted I may even wash the Lada soon. I need to get some exhaust hanger straps for it too as that will cure one more noise. Whilst I had the front end up I got a chance to have a brief look at what welding I need to do in the near future. There's a hole in the rear floor pan and one of the front chassis rails, a lot of it looks like it's bits that can be fabricated but once I get a dry weekend I will aim to get under there for a better look so that I can form a proper plan and order any repair panels that may make life easier. My £20 clutch arrived too so I should probably fit that soon as I can't currently get over about 80km/h on the flat without the clutch slipping! I absolutely love this car though, I've said it before but I think it's one of the most enjoyable motors I've bought in a long time. It's exactly the sort of thing I needed to get some enthusiasm again now that the shitty weather and dark evenings are here!

Sometimes you just have to give something a home, and that's how I came to rescue this Britains JCB Telehandler. Spotted on a high shelf in a Brighton charity shop, it must have belonged to some giffer's collection. It's not perfect; it's lost part of the windscreen guard and the gems for its headlights, but everything works, and the paint and - amazingly - paper stickers are intact. Three quid.

Passed my Mod 2 this morning! Much easier than the Mod 1 although I was shitting myself just before. I now have a full motorbike licence! Now I need to get myself a bike. Which means I'll probably need to sell a car (or two).

Sweet. Stereo works. Well, sort of. Tape does anyway - which was probably the most important bit. Radio appears to be dead. Neither the upper control panel or steering column controls do anything. So the radio *may* actually work, but this system as I recall has muting if off station, and the seek controls are on the upper control panel, not duplicated on the head unit itself so I can't currently try to tune into anything or switch bands. Could it really be as simple as a dodgy connection or someone not having plugged things back in (I have an invoice for the 12V outlet having been rewired, so this will have been out to access that)? Not holding my breath, but would be a nice surprise if so. Also, yes it still sounds bloody decent, even on the original speakers, must have been absolutely epic back in the late 80s.

The Manta is coming along nicely in the hands of @GingerNuttz. I'll let him add more detail bit here's a couple of pics of the work to give an idea.

What do you do if you have one blue Honda SS50 4 speed that doesn't work? Buy another blue Honda SS50 that doesn't work, of course.

Some more Pilen action. Some more Mini colour/box variations And a couple of Volvo 480s

https://www.willhaben.at/iad/gebrauchtwagen/d/auto/X-623374127

Be nice if that increases the number left by one! Was thinking of doing pretty much the same for the spoiler to tidy it up for now, it wouldn't look at all out of place being black. Just a couple of things done this morning before the heavens opened and stopped play (plus there are far more useful things I really should be doing). Full set of tyres has been ordered, should be here in the next day or two. The wipers fitted were utterly shot, and *slightly* too small. There was an 18" blade on the driver's side and 16" on the passenger side. They should be 22". The one on the rear was completely devoid of actual blade so that was swapped too. Also started chucking some leather conditioner at the seats as they've obviously not been cared for in forever. Yeah, haven't seen them slurp it down that quickly on the first application in a long while. Foreground done, background not. Then after the first full pass. Sadly the heavens opened just as I finished the first pass on the back seat. There will likely be three or four applications needed before it's back to how it should be I reckon. Going to just order a set of the usual suspects for front end suspension clocks. My money's on drop links, but the ball joints etc are all less than a tenner apiece for TRW/Delphi parts so I'm just getting them all in and will be chucking it at a garage with the simple instruction to return it free of knocks/clonks from the front end. When the parts are that cheap it just doesn't seem worth getting it into be diagnosed then have to order parts, get it booked back in to be sorted. Plus the roads around here are hard on things like that so they'll want changing at some point anyway! Edit: Got another dry five minutes so all leather surfaces have now had their first application of conditioner. Already looks miles better. Also means that the interior now smells exactly like my old one inside now. The speaker grill from the passenger door is present, just sitting on the back seat. There's no point in fixing that until I've got the stereo up and running and verified if the speaker needs replacing. The plastic locating tabs for the grill have broken so it will have to be glued in place - hence why I don't want to mess with it until I know I won't need to be opening this again for a while. The central locking is now working reliably on three doors and the boot. It's just the offside rear that needs manual assistance now - so simple lack of use seems to be the key issue there much as anything else. Also grabbed a couple of photos when I was out, slightly less horrible backdrop than our building site of a garden.

Shiny Manta things have arrived! I get to learn the art of piston ring filing. Bet that's fun😳

It's rust busting time.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155294756902?hash=item242849f026:g:V6cAAOSwxXZjjz02

DAF Domburg with slide out engines.

Well the moment of truth is approaching, have I bought a lemon? MOT booked for 12pm.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175517551070?hash=item28dda949de:g:VrsAAOSwHVpjXqQR&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoPZreYRnIFuyvFZKDtrJ0t0fM%2BOg6hOtILZHGDZOrSLoWD7jpy2v5yNBQdNG%2F7gOtxM%2BSYGWjqPp7P%2BGT3r9QS2fPYuOfaHWodCewCs8LjgNbosELcULc21uqLiBKCP0VtyOjVPqGI0rJNROQm18feK7X7elsnwkNaZ63QMzJ8ptzb6feA4dZ3X6sj%2B%2FWmpZ7Gl0zjIScUfC%2FjBVGlY2G8g%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR-ifidicYQ

'One's a rusty old knacker, the other etc etc etc' 1983 FORD TRANSIT PICK UP MK2 90K 2.0 1 OWNER CLASSIC VAN NEARLY TAX MOT EXEMPT | eBay 'Nearly MOT exempt' Just for some LOLZ if you're bored, have a look at the test history online. The day this reaches exemption is the day VOSA will be outside that yard with some KY jelly and a big fuck off smile.

HEM-I v8 Daimler. I didn't realise they did these Daimler v8's up to this size. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202212012179759

Renault Twingo 1.2 GT Gordini 58k miles | eBay Stated: 'I got a replacement box but was sold a dud gearbox. It's now stuck in gear. So neutral is now 1st and it won't select any other gear. Its MOT has expired so selling as spares or repair. I have just give up with it now • Mileage 58k • 1.2 petrol • 4 good tyres • Mot expired' Unstated: Renault Twingo is an anagram of 'nu genital wort'

Blower motor is now fitted in its house. I have had to die grind some plastic out of the mount, and some off the rear bearing mount to get it to fit. I tapped the holes out to m4 0.7 but none of them lined up, so drilled new ones. Issue there is the threads are very thin due to the thickness of the mount, so one needed locktite. We will see how it goes I guess. Just need a day off to rebuild it now.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1410685136405802

More pics. Arch is finished and panels are made for inner arch.

^I was going to say Beetle. On a quick work trip to Paris and back. No die casts purchased but a few on the shelves that might be interesting. Expensive though

Voxall 'Mervira' £1000 Sutton Coldfield "I’m selling this car as I need to" This is the best image https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/vauxhall-mervira/1447657862

Uptons of Bassett in Winchester Road, by the roundabout with Hill Lane. They also do a good full English for about a tenner and being a butchers they don't have wishy washy stuff like beans or tomatoes. Two eggs, decent bit of toast and the rest is all meat. Can recommend.

The path up Treak Cliff leads to the Blue John mine. Just up the road from here - The A625, Little Mam Tor, Castleton. Now a dead end due to landslides... Through traffic now has to go through Winnats Pass

Wings are ON Left wing he forgot to weld the rivets on for the trim clip, must still be on the old section in the scrap bin. I think I got away with it. Unfortunately when refitting the front bumper both iron bolts snapped off, so the welder came out and put some flange nuts on the back. need to source pin striping now.

For a change, most of this week has been spent running around The relevant highlights for here are this is back New springs from Germany courtesy of Autodoc has seen the front lifted by over 2 inches and means it has suspension again. A bew CV boot and headlamp adjusters repaired means it is now the shopping trolley of choice. My Rover P5B was on loan with a friend in Sheffield prior to going on the market but some corrosion (OK holes) were found in one sill, one inner wing and both door A posts, so today it went to visit Mr @GingerNuttz for a dose of looking at with the sparkly stick, after which it will be put in my shed until spring when it will get an MOT and be returned to Sheffield and the market. Since collecting the Range Rover at the beginning of October, I have covered over 4100 miles, 90%+ towing and at 17mpg at a fuel cost below some countries GDP. No problems though Tomorrow I hope to finish installing a power supply into my tyre shed as for the last 7+ years everytime I have needed to change tyres I have had to run out several extension leads and have had a daylight only operating window. Hopefully that will change tomorrow!

Scrappy, early 1930s.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/mazda/mazda-mx-3-hatchback-1998-manual-1845-cc-3-doors/1447669638

Picked this up today. A really good casting for a generic model. Dimachinni Veloce 😂 Did a wheel swap,added some spotlights and some red tape across the rear panel. Pleased with that.

I was just reading @Motown comments on @sutty2006 fantastic Carlton thread. Below is an automatic, it does say reserve not met though. I hope you are not afraid of a bit of welding @Motown? You know it makes sense. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115626494651?hash=item1aebe04abb:g:W08AAOSwVKxji6qc&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkIpDUcP8To4jhWrUzYl1qEoO9x%2Fq6XhweUvP%2B3QDQN6RxWqk5jChdMfn73Ar6mzv4%2FkoCAyOHUtJBmsbWhT8VS0I31H2G%2FKcrBouhvHskjNDG5uMoLcM%2B%2FU3Guf86pRLRCRK1FjN6k4rq4cygjKz7D8w1g%2BW73LmwN4KVJLb01afea7G6mVf32I5I0TGoueDGA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR-D8zoKdYQ

Here we go again. Trainsplits a blessing.

From Facebook this K plater is doing film duties now. https://www.malexautomotive.co.uk/tellycars?fbclid=IwAR2cAxgMB8BkZA2hth3tmTX2QHlISRmKS-sY375KQ2-WOz2eN5_Kc1nF0fc

Today's find in the loft 😀😀😀😀😀

Were tubed tyres still the norm on Lada's in back in 1977 ??

Nice. I love the styling of the mk2. I reckon the shiny paintwork hides a multitude of sins on that particular example though - tell me the rear arches don't have structural wob...

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/fiat-nsu-fiat-1500-ts-coupe-limousine-oldtimer/2294655929-216-4501

I have to say I would have been sorely tempted to attach the end of that cable spool to the towbar of my car and go for a wee drive round the estate.