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For aslong as I can remember I've wanted to be directing my own path in business but never had the actual confidence to overcome huge self doubt and fears of failure, in 2021 when I nearly met with my mortality thanks to covid I remember hating that I'd played things safe as houses like a boring nobody and literally despite continued health maladies I feel that I've got a second run up at life , so I'm starting from nothing at 35 and want to get pushing forward with what is abit of a dream for me . So basically my sister and I have teamed up to create a new garage/engineering works of which provides the usual bread and butter garage services and also more specialised work less commonly found like large manual machining capability and welding. We're looking to stock up on a range of common classic parts too so that we can take on most project work without waiting on parts turning up in ebay etc albeit limited space prevents stocking a vast amount. So far over the last 8 months ! Obligatory huge lathe brought back somewhat inappropriately Company car brought down , inappropriately Lathe electrical rebuild done because it was dangerous as hell, 415 through the soaked push buttons etc ,,horrible ! Once cleaned and generally setup it's been put to work straight away! this s100 k series swap was quite aquite to drive, getting one to fit the earlier car isn't bolt in like with the estelle and rapid ! Cambelt snappage job on an iveco 2.3, lots of new valves and lapping required! loads of work done, and loads more hopefully to come !

Growing up there was one of these down my street. a 1.3 GL 4 door. Aged 10 you could keep your ferraris etc, what i really wanted was one of these. I absolutely loved them. Back then they were cheap first cars (around 1990) couple of hundred quid and scrap it when the mot was up. That is assuming it hadnt dissolved already, or been crashed. Then a strange thing happened. They vanished overnight and then slowly they started getting expensive. By the time i started driving they were not mega expensive, but just hard to find. My route to a mk2 escort was avoid 2 door (££££££) avoid uk RHD (££££££ plus most heavily welded or rotten) So here we have a solid LHD import 1.3GL which is being delivered next week…

The weather was looking ok, it was time to take the Sierra out for a test drive. Even with the battery disconnected, the fuel gauge was showing that the tank was nearly full. Bearing in mind that I only put about 5 litres in when I first bought the Sierra, the gauge reading looked very wrong. With the battery reconnected, the Pinto fired up first time and the exhaust spat out a mouthful of moisture. More on this later. Whilst walking out of the workshop, to move the E46 out of the way, I noticed that the brake lights were permanently on. I quickly got changed, removed the bottom of the dashboard again to gain access to the brake pedal switch. I removed the switch to check and clean it. It looked ok. I refitted the switch and adjusted it to the correct position. Evidently, I must have disturbed the switch whilst fiddling with the pedal box yesterday. All pre-flight checks done, it was time to set off. I got as far as my local Esso fuel station. I managed to squeeze 5 litres of petrol into the tank before the filler neck was full. It looks like the gauge was showing an almost full tank because the tank was almost full. On the basis that the tank holds 60 litres and I've added about 10 litres since buying the Sierra, there must have been about 50 litres of fuel in the tank. At approx £1.50 per litre, that's a £75 gift. Thank you previous owner. Before leaving the fuel station, I was approached by three people, who commented on how immaculate the Sierra is and who asked how old it is and how many miles it has done. How nice that the posh folk of Beaconsfield appreciate old Fords. Approx 5 miles into my trip, I stopped off at a garden centre to check vital fluids and to give everything a once over. No problems to report. The pretty setting provided an opportunity for a couple of photos. Back on the road, I headed for the A404. If you've ever watched Wheeler Dealers (the GB episodes), you will have seen Mike B towing or driving something along this famous* dual carriageway. Without any struggling, the Sierra got up to 60MPH. I came off the A404 at the A4 junction and drove through Maidenhead, Cookham, Wooburn Green and towards home. I stopped off at Glory Park for a couple more photos. I arrived back home almost exactly 20 miles later, as confirmed by the trip meter. This is good news, it means the trip meter and odometer are both reading just fine. Ok, I've only driven the Sierra for 20 miles along local traffic free roads but my first thoughts are very positive. Engine - I adjusted the idle speed at the garden centre, once the engine reached full operating temperature. Throughout the trip, the engine ran fine, quickly reached operating temperature and the needle didn't budge from the mid point. It pulled well from low revs, with no missing or spluttering. Nothing has leaked out, however there is still a whiff of paraffin / old engine oil / mucky residue from where I've been tinkering, which will need time to burn off. Gearbox - All gears go in and out just fine, synchros are strong. The gearbox is silent and I love the mechanical feel of the gear change. Clutch - Biting point spot on. No dragging, no slipping, no juddering. Perfect. Prop & Diff - Silent, no vibrations. Steering - Noticeably heavy at parking speeds, otherwise works well and feels adequately light at speed. Steering wheel is on straight, no pulling, no issues. Suspension - Smooth! No knocks, no bangs. Ride comfort is superb, on par with my W123. Handling is roly-poly, as expected. Brakes - Needed a bit of time to bed in, however once the pedal firmed up, they worked just fine. I tried a couple of emergency stops, no pulling, no issues. Exhaust - Drill holes failed to allow any moisture to escape overnight and I could hear a significant blow from both silencers. Bollocks. Evidently, drilling holes in silencers is not a good idea. I will plug both holes with chemical metal and self-tapping screws this afternoon. Radio - Played Greatest Hits Radio (105.8FM), including Popmaster at 10:30am. All six speakers work ok and the FM reception is better than expected, bearing in mind I live and drove the Sierra through The Chilterns. Summary - I love it! @N19 I am sure that I will find something to write about soon. There are a few more bodywork related issues that I want to attend to and I expect the forthcoming MoT test will reveal something wrong with the old Ford.

I've been looking forward to this day for the past two months. Once the Sierra was back on its wheels, I undersealed the jacking points that were concealed by axle stands / ramps. The other side is the same. It was time to pull the Sierra out of the workshop. As the underseal was still fresh and the car isn't taxed, I only drove the Sierra to the end of the road and back to outside my house to take photos. At this stage, I recommend that you rewind to page 4 of this thread and remind yourself what the Sierra looked like on the 30th January, the day it arrived from Northern Ireland. I am pleased with the results and I'll let the photos do the talking. Please note that I haven't washed or detailed the bodywork and trim yet, hopefully I will get a chance to do that next weekend. The bonnet, roof and boot lid look much better in sunlight than they do under a LED lamp. Yes, if you look closely and at the right angle, you can see the fine scratches but overall, the paint looks great. Remember how the four corners looked? The tarpaulin that the Sierra was stored under rubbed the blue paint off down to primer / bare / rusty metal. My masking off and dabbing of blue paint has worked well. Up close, you can see the touching up but I am pleased with my low cost solution. The sills and inner sides of the rear wheel arches look much better too. The boot lid and rear valance now gleam. I left the engine to idle for about 15 minutes and it ran well, nice and quiet, with no smoke. The temperature gauge reached half way quickly (and stayed there) but the coolant level was still low. The idle speed is a little too fast, I need to work out which screw needs a tweak. With the Sierra outside, it took me two hours to clean the workshop. EVERY surface was covered with a layer of black overspray dust, which spread when I was painting the bumpers. Got there in the end. I put the Sierra back in for another week, until it can be taxed and driven from the 1st April. The 1st April is a Monday. According to the forecast, the weather should be dry. Let's hope so.

I've copied and pasted these initial updates from another forum. This goes back to 2021/early 2022. First two posts will cover the back story and then I'll add what I've been doing to it this last month. There's been quite a delay on this because my wife became very ill in mid-2022 and all life turned to making sure she came through her illness (which she has, all-clear been given etc etc). Life is sort of back to normal (although i'd argue that something like that changes life and perspectives across the entire family. Not sure what normal is now tbh). So back to 2021..............I've wanted to have a build thread of my own for years but I've never had a car that I felt had sufficient interest (or age) to warrant a thread. But Covid changed my attitude - felt that life can be so precarious that I really had to step up my search for something. I live in West Wales and alot of my local friends are electricians or carpenters or plumbers. They go to a lot of houses and farms. I told them all to look out for anything under a cover or tarpaulin or looked a bit forgotten that to give me a ring. In 2022 I got a call about this car from one of the lads. He didn't know what he was looking at, just that he knew it needed saving and 'it looks quick'! I met the owner (whom used to use it quite often but then his life took a turn for the worse and it had to be set aside to prioritise other things going on - totally understandable) before xmas 2021 and agreed a deal and paid a 10% deposit....then xmas and life got in the way and it was only today that I was able to go and pick it up. The plan is to ignore the exterior for the moment.....and just get the interior dry and all fitted out (I've got all the parts but he did the headlining and then life got in the way and some of the interior needs putting back). I've got a couple of dehumidifiers coming to help with the drying out too. I then am going to get the car mechanically fettled and then MOT'd. Once it's MOT'd then I'm going to use it for business meetings, day trips with the kids, charity runs, going up to North Wales to see my Dad and Devon to see my mum etc etc.. Some initial pictures - bear in mind it was under a tarp(for 3 years, with the passenger window open..........) right up until the point you see these pictures. We got it into my shed and onto the ramp to see what we had. The interior needs a lot of fettling. On to the next instalment.

I left the paint to dry overnight and this morning. I removed the masking tape and broadsheet to reveal sweet looking bumpers. The front grille looks sweet too. Next issue, sort out the sun burned bumper trims. I have a plan and Amazon have delivered the solution but unfortunately I ran out of time this afternoon to make further progress. Definitely more soon.

Some quick pics of the Shad as promised, Mr WC already wants to take it out in Convoy with the Guy Arab when that’s back on the road so expect some Rolls and Bus action soon, I also took it to work this morning and managed to attract a crowd almost instantly mainly from my colleagues who were probably wondering if the CEO of First Bus had just showed up for a random Audit 😆 I’d like to give it a really good wash and detail very soon as it got absolutely filthy from the drive home yesterday

*incoherent excited yelling and pointing* *image stabilisation has no power over my excitement* TWELVE YEARS I've been waiting for this to happen! An Ambassador encountered totally randomly in the wild. Mike, the owner of the Ambassador, was so surprised to see the Princess as he was leaving and I was arriving that he turned around and came back specifically to say hello. I am inordinately excited and I refuse to contain myself.

I gave up on threads a while ago but I have wanted one of these cars since they were brand new, plus I think things might get interesting*. So here goes. So far I count myself as the EIGHTH AS member who has owned this, including the chap who posted it for sale in behalf of the then owner. I think that's pretty great. I hope when I die I return as a car that goes around the country bringing joy to a whole range of different owners. So far we've had Jon.k Northernmonkey Robson3022 Paulplom Kiltox 83C Schaefft Yours truly. The first didn't technically own it, he simply posted it for sale on behalf of the owner who had originally wanted to scrap it because of a pulley on the engine which had come adrift. So kudos to John.k for saving what certainly feels like a car which had plenty of life left. In short (because it is documented elsewhere) it was owned by Westley Richards gunsmiths manufacturer in the West Midlands. It was a personal car to the directly and then used to chauffeur some very wealthy (like Arab Royalty wealthy) to and from the premises. After Jon.k's arm was bitten off by NorthernMonkey, it passed through varioous members' hands and gave generally good service along the way. I promised myself I'd own it one day.

Spot on! 1959 93b

Today is actually spring and warm, so can now open up the garage for the first time since October. The first job was to add a diesel additive and then change the fuel tank cap as the old one was leaking. Old one don't look so good. The only new one I found was this which a Mercedes specialist said would fit and it did. Then it was time to start it for the first time since October and it started quickly this year, faster than last year but as always was a bit grumpy in the first few minutes. My current phone doesn't film as well as the last one so this isn't the best but it's something. Now got the charging tested after I made a completely new charging system this winter and the result is 14.56 at idle without headlights and 13.10 at idle with headlights, so can call this a success. The next thing is to look at the cooling system and change the coolant and maintenance and it is ready for the road again. Hope it happens within 2 weeks waiting for the roads to be clean and safe from salt.

Test drive completed. No wobble whatsoever, the Sierra was only giving me good vibrations. Looking good with a squirt of tyre shine.

I've long admired the original Daewoo range launched here in 1995. I even managed to convince my dad to test drive an Espero from the 'motorshow' in Bristol in 1996. Today I took delivery of three of the few surviving Esperos left in the UK. The silver N reg is a lovely original car with loads of history. Not mint but hopefully easy to bring it up to scratch, the P reg will be a parts donor as it has structural damage that won't repair. The green N reg is well known on the 'socials, bring a ULEZ survivor rescued by Jude Currie. It's tatty in places but too good to break up. Realistically it'll only be staying with me briefly as I have other projects that need my time and money.

Eight years ago today this turd landed at mine. Tomorrow I will apply for historic tax and, judging by the complete lack of progress on the Mini, proceed to use it over the next few months. Both the other cars in this photo since sold and scrapped, the house SSTC and and my lovely friend Emma has moved onto a better place. Then again she lived in Hemel, so a move to Strangeways would have been a positive move. Happy bASe day, fellow motorist.

I’m not Destination achieved, nice cup of tea with @jonathan_dyane and then headed south. Stopped at my old university friends place in St Helens to top up with LPG and now waiting for another shiter to finish work so I can make my second collection after which I can start heading north. Only as far as Preston tonight Picture near the next shifters place

Last weekend was the VSCC Light Car Section Welsh weekend. this year marked 100 years since the RAC Small Car Trials, which inspired the event, and in which a Palladium did exceedingly well over 1000 miles of hard test driving at the hands of its designer H F Smallwood. Since the aim has always been to take my Palladium on this event it was absolutely essential that it was back up and running in time. Sadly it hasn't been driven for about 4 years, since it suffered some mechanical problems (on the way home from Wales, funnily enough) which resulted in a load of water in Number 4 cylinder and a couple of bent valves. Anyway, we rallied some troops and had a mad week of putting it all back together (absolutely minimal input from myself, obviously) and a few days before the trip it was running for the first time and sounding nice and healthy. I did a quick trip round the block and all seemed well, so all that was left was to keep a positive attitude and pack lots of tools. Here's how things looked after about 100 miles. And approaching the border Noo hood or weather equipment wasn't great considering we were in the grip of Storm Kathleen, but the weather was pretty kind on the way up and I did 200 miles behind the wheel with no problems whatsoever. Made it to Wales and spent two days fannying about, actually much more challenging than the drive up, driving on small roads with lots of hills etc. Here it is in the middle of a section through normally-closed Forestry Commission roads It shed a sidelamp lens going over a nasty bump annoyingly. Here it is resting at the summit of Bwlch-Y-Groes, 'the Welsh Terror', a absolutely nasty very long climb which saw off a few competitors back in 1924, but which the Pall sailed up without any problems (in first gear) And here it is going down the other side After all that, we set off quite early on Sunday. The first leg was quite tough going with awful rain and wind, but the last 100 miles were pretty great going. Got back by 6pm which was alright. The best part of 700 miles covered in four days, which might not sound like much but it takes a huge amount of concentration and energy to drive this thing at speed. Apart from a blocked slow runnning jet there were zero mechanical issues for the whole weekend. The number plate bolts came loose, one of the wing valances sheered the rivets holding it in and was rattling around, I think the gearbox is possibly even nosier than it was before but otherwise it was smooth sailing! So glad to actually get this heap to Wales and re-enact the 1924 event, which was the marque's most notable achievement, particularly on this anniversary year. Next stop: get a hood made.

I started today by fitting the new clutch cable. It fitted perfectly, however it made no difference to the clutch pedal height or the biting point. I opted to change the upper position of the clutch pedal by fitting a metal plate to the existing, non-adjustable, stop. I carefully bent the stop a little so that the extended plate that will be fixed to its side will line up with the white part of the adjustment mechanism. I then drilled two small holes, the bottom one not too close to the edge of the metal. I secured the metal plate with two nuts and bolts. The nuts and bolts do not interfere with any part of the clutch mechanism. Here comes the science bit. If I made the extended plate too short, the pedal height would not be lowered by the desired amount. If I made the extended plate too long, the pedal would be located too low, the adjustment mechanism may not have enough range to take up the clutch cable slack and, as lowering the height of the clutch pedal reduces the pedal travel, there could be the possibility that the clutch would not disengage fully with the pedal depressed, causing clutch drag. The new plate extends from the stop by approx 12mm. I did no measuring, it was just a guesstimate. If the extended plate was to be too long, I could remove and shorten it. If it was too short, I had more spare metal brackets to make up a new one. With the pedal box in a vice, I could already see that the clutch pedal stopped below the stop height of the brake pedal. Looking good. I refitted the pedal box and hooked up the clutch cable. Still looking good, the clutch pedal was situated a good three inches lower than before. I slowly depressed the clutch pedal a few times, the quadrant clicked itself into place and it ended up here. There is no slack in the cable and the quadrant still has a fair bit more range (I pressed on the upper part of the quadrant to find out). The latter is important as it means that the quadrant mechanism has not been forced to its maximum working position and there is room for further adjustment, if required. I fired up the Pinto and checked the position of the clutch biting point. Perfect. The clutch bites nicely at just below half pedal travel and all gears engage smoothly with no crunching, which means the clutch is fully disengaged with the clutch pedal down. Win! @sierraman was right, that the clutch biting point was normal, after all there was no method of adjusting the height of the clutch pedal and the quadrant was found to be working ok. I guess I improved on Ford's design. To celebrate, I refitted the bottom of the dashboard etc and cleaned the mud stained pedals. Next issue. Even with the Sierra parked in a dry garage, whenever I switched the engine on, condensation would blow out of the exhaust pipe. When I posted on here a few months back regarding how to prevent mild steel exhaust systems from rotting out, I recall being advised that I should drill small holes in the lowest point of each silencer, which would allow moisture to escape (drip out) from the silencer. I did just that, drilled a small hole in the bottom of each silencer. The original wheel brace is missing and I wanted to pack a few essentials for my maiden voyage, just in case something went wrong. I prepared this selection, which includes 5 litres of water, engine oil, brake fluid, tyre pump, 19mm socket on extension bar, basic tool kit, gaffer tape and gloves. Apart from the large water bottle, all the bits fitted snuggly in my handy and very fashionable Borg & Beck plastic bag. So, I've done all I had on my to-do list (and more!) and the Sierra is ready for its maiden voyage. Whether I go anywhere tomorrow, the 1st April, depends entirely on the weather. At the moment it is looking a bit 50/50 according to my iPhone app and guaranteed rain all day if the BBC weather app is to be believed, followed by more rain each day next week. Great. I am very apprehensive about the first drive in the Sierra. The very first short drive from the main road to my house was too stressful, with the Sierra looking like a shed and barely making it home with the exhaust blowing out of both silencers, my mind was focused on a refund rather than on having fun. Ditto last weekend's drive to the end of my road and back, wasn't enough to get to know how the Sierra behaves. Fact is, whenever I will get to drive it, I will end up feeling disappointed. Chances are, it is suffering from a fault that I am yet to discover, such as pulling brakes, vibrations via the drivetrain, clonks, rattles, etc. Even if it doesn't suffer any major issues, I doubt the carb fed Pinto will provide the levels of performance that I am accustomed to, bearing in mind I drive a brand new Nissan Qashqai daily and one of my toys is a perky E46. The unassisted steering will be too heavy, even compared with my W123, which has power steering but which is nowhere near as light as what I am used to. I suspect the Sierra will feel heavy to drive and difficult to stop, with no ABS.... Ok, ok, I'm not being fair, I can't expect a 37 year old base model Ford to perform like a modern car. Let's hope the nostalgia kicks in and I forget about the rest.

I bought a new car. It's nice but also broken, because Jaguar. New engine required. Phil

My dream has come true, I’ve driven the Sierra up the A413, heading north west. The only issue that I’ve noticed is an erratic fuel gauge. I know the tank is almost full but the needle keeps dropping to zero, then rises and drops again. First destination reached. A Gulf petrol station in Whitchurch, located between Aylesbury and Buckingham. Before I bought my first Sierra from my then girlfriend’s dad, he let me borrow it for a very extended test drive and I remember putting fuel in the tank at this very station, which, remarkably, still exist today. I’m heading further up the A413 towards Buckingham. 31k miles will tick over shortly. More very soon.

We did a buy today . wcpgw

Today I swung in by Duncans workshop to have a discussion on the way forward with the kingpin on REV, He has it fully disassembled and we measured everything and came to the conclusion that it is worn! By kingpin standards not badly worn, enough to probably induce a speed* wobble but nothing dagerous. Fortunately the housing for the bushes is showing no wear at all, so the new kingpin and bushes should be an easy fit and solve the problem. The bushes do in fact appear to be oilite type, and the bottom of the kingpin tube is open into the front drum, which explains why no grease nipples are fitted. In the bottom of the tube was a ball of rock hard grease that had obviously been put in many many years ago. Dunc has also spoken to a few of the old boys who tend to congregate at interesting workshops, including the fella who maintained the 1920s bus in Aberdeen which used a similar, if somewhat larger, kingpin assembly. The unanimous decision is to leave things as original and reassemble with a good coating of heavy weight oil. After all, it was good enough for the government for the lifetimes of these vehicles. He will hopefully start putting it back together later this week. We started discussing speed wobbles, as you do and we decided to see if we could improve the aerodynamics of REV The first attempt using Seat parts was not great So we looked around and found a yellow and white body kit on an old Audi in the corner which we think will work better!

"Hi, where are your drills?" "Aisle B, back".

I had a visitor today. Regular readers will remember @DirtyDaily offering to come and rebuild the suspension pump for me. Today it happened. Here we are, all set up at my back gate. Listening for leaks... And the techy stuff begins... New housing that was part of the rebuild kit is at the top, in his left hand. What you can't see here is how the lovely new housing broke as DD was tightening the bolts. We had to re-use the old one. Fortunately it cleaned up well enough. And then he reattached this front undertray that had somehow come adrift. So we went for a test drive. Oh-oh... and that was only the beginning of the error messages. So we came home... ...and DD found that the battery voltage was reading low. Apparently this is something these cars are sensitive to, so ok, we whipped it off and brought it in to put on charge. Once he'd finished laughing at the tiny battery that was fitted! It's little more than half the size of what should be there. And it's on charge now, as you see above. We'll refit it over the weekend and see what difference it makes, if any. DD now totally understands what I mean about this car fighting me at every turn! He is, in many respects, mystified. And this is a man who has the correct tools, the correct JLR diagnostics, and the experience. I am immensely grateful that he took the trouble to come up here for the weekend from Stockport in order to help out a frustrated old bloke. DirtyDaily, thank you so much.

Underside finished bar a coat of sprayable seam sealer. Started stripping engine bay. Primer applied. Still plenty to be done. Now begins the primer, rubbing, and dust phase.

Slow drive down. The M25 was horrendous. However, a collection has occurred. I'm in love already!

Begone, pea shooter. Had to retap one of the threads on the head as idiot here used a wrong thread pitch manifold stud off another car. CHONK PIPE It won't start now as I've fucked up the idle screws and choke position, and it got dark. So I'll have to wait till later to annoy everyone.

Inspired by my current escapades on the Oxford Canal, I thought I'd start a thread to share the floating and non floating detritus on or nearby the floating highways.. This was a 2.5d w201 - at the wharf we collected the boat from The current floating shed The Thames is in flood, so we have only been able to come up as far as Thrupp - as the Lock onto the river is at RED so no chance of getting through safely. For context, we travelled about 7.5miles in 4hrs (lots of moored boats due to the Thames being shut, so lots of tickover running). The same trip by car.. Nevertheless such a slow cruise affords plenty opportunities for shite spotting! More to follow no doubt. I may see what nautical scrap I can share - there are some right belters!

Rewire complete. Have made a few changes. The switched fusebox is fed from a master 100A relay which is triggered from the ignition key. This takes the heavy load off the ignition barrel which could get extremely hot with all of the current for all systems passing through it. The coil is fed straight off the barrel and is unfused, as it should be, so even if the relay fails the engine won't stop. Apart from that I made sure all cable ends had good quality spade connectors and heat shrink wrap with adhesive. This way they're pretty tough and reliable and eliminates some of the nasty and corroded original connectors. The engine bay is much cleaner now without the fusebox, relays, and associated wiring nests. Wiring for the reverse lights and overdrive now run inside, and I've packed the gap around the gearstick with insulation to cut down on road noise. Important upgrade done to the brake lights. The original brake light switch is a fluid pressure switch which tends to only activate when you're standing on the pedal. I've changed it for an electrical pedal switch, which needed a bracket made up. A real pain to drill the bolt holes for this in the pedal box so the top hole is in at an awkward angle. Still it does the trick and is a massive upgrade. The lights now come on as soon as you touch the pedal. While the steering wheel was off I swapped the steering column coupling bush as it was really sloppy. The steering column shroud also got a coat of paint after I did some repairs to the cracking brittle plastic with some epoxy. Last few bits done inside. A new hazard switch. I then remembered I bought a set of instrument panel stickers off Demon Tweeks. So I then did what I originally meant to and sorted the dash light graphics. Before. After.

Unhelpful 🤨

My cunning plan to sort out the damaged front bumper trim was to cover it with silver vinyl tape. Back in the day, when I had 10 year old Sierras with chrome trim, I would cover the trim with red vinyl tape, to make them look like newer versions - see photos on page 1. I got a roll of this stuff from Amazon. It says "High Quality". Ten minutes later, the front bumper looked like this. Unfortunately, the quality of the tape is not brilliant and where I pulled to extend it, the tape discoloured slightly. Not to worry, it looks better than the sun burned plastic strip. Once finished, I was left with one sexy looking front bumper. I then spent a couple of hours sorting out a few miscellaneous bodywork jobs. I sprayed over the non-matching oil based paint on the inner side of the nearside sill. I rubbed down a couple of small rust plebs on the back door. Fortunately, these are located beneath the trim strip and the repair won't be too obvious once finished. I'd rather have a small repair patch than leave untreated corrosion under matching paint. I did the same on the offside front door. There were also a couple of rust plebs on the sills, which extended from beneath the door seals. I treated them in the same way. I will touch up all these areas with the matching blue aerosol once the oil based paint, which will subdue the corrosion, fully dries. Whoever re-sprayed the nearside front door, re-used and badly applied the trim strip. The front section of the strip was peeling away. I got this stuff out. It's not the best, despite what the adverts say but hopefully it will do. At this stage, I need to explain that I had a different plan that involved putting pressure on the trim to make it stick but it didn't work out and I had to think fast and came up with this arrangement before the adhesive started to set. Hopefully, the trim will be secure and I won't have 25 litres of 10W40 spilled all over my workshop floor. I won't have much time tomorrow or Friday to make more progress, so the plan is: This Saturday - finish off the bodywork repairs that I started today, tidy up and spray the front suspension components, clean the underside of the gearbox and engine sump and paint the sump. This Sunday - finish off what I started on Saturday, get the car back on its wheels and apply protective coatings to the underside areas that are currently concealed by axle stands / ramps. Then let everything dry. Next Friday (Easter) - fire up the engine again, bleed the cooling system. Weather permitting, pull the Sierra out of the workshop and give it a deep clean and hoover. Take pleasure in taking plenty of lovely photos. Clean my workshop, which is a total mess, just about everything is covered with a layer of black spray residue. Next Sunday (Easter) - if the weather is shit on Friday, undertake the tasks scheduled for Friday, otherwise I shall rest. Next Monday (Easter) - the 1st April, get the Sierra taxed and take it out for a drive and take some more photos.

Rover 45. Fantastic.

You'll have to wait for the sound video because I just did this. The wiring on this was getting on my tits. Had a lot of instances whereby things work but not quite all the time, or fuses randomly blowing. The original factory wiring is shite. I have now ripped out EVERYTHING. You can see on the right here that the back of the fuel gauge stands in as an unfused positive terminal for almost everything under the dash including the wiper motor, indicators, heater fan and who knows what else, held on by a piddly 6mm nut. That is going to change. I present the main light switch. Again, unfused and permanently live, with the permanent live cut and twisted into the feed to the small footwell lights, from factory. The big feed to the wiper switch. Again, some dodgy chaining of big positive wires going on here. The circuits which are fused are run off a shitty engine bay fusebox which is riveted together, and the rivets are starting to come loose causing random dropouts. That and the small issue of continental/glass fuses being total shite and hard to come by when you need them most. Solution : bin off the fusebox in the engine bay, and run everything off a pair of blade fuseboxes inside the footwell. The fusebox on the left is the permanent live one, which will run the interior dome light, indicators / hazards, and headlamps. The box on the right will be ignition switched, but I am also going to add a main ignition relay so that the ignition switch isn't constantly handling all of the current running through the entire car. I know it's designed to take it, but the switch (and key!) can get very hot and I'm just waiting on the contacts burning out, especially if I decide to add any more load in the future. The important thing is that everything is going to be fused, and that the fuses are going to be easier to replace when needed. I seem to be doing this all off the top of my head, WCPGW.

The lovely Stowe.

What does it drive like? Well, the closest frame of reference I have are a couple of LS400s I had a shot of in the distant past. It's reassuringly large and the air suspension just floats over bumps. You really are cosseted. Steering is actually quite weighty. The double glazing doesn't completely subdue the noise of passing traffic but there is no wind noise at all. The noise from the budget tyres is quite intrusive though but given the cost of even a mid range tyre in this 20 inch size, I can live with it. The 3.0 TDi has a modest output of around 215 bhp but theres lots of torque. It's not that quiet but it is smooth and makes a nice sound. Finally, I own a car with more than 4 cylinders. Furthermore, the car structure, subframes and suspension components are made entirely from aluminium so it weight just over 1.6 tons, about the same as my Rover 75. Progress is stately rather than fast but it does feel very special, rather than just another large car. The seats are spectacular and this Sport (pre S-Line) model gives not only the usual fore and aft of the base and tilting backrest but there is lumbar adjustment, upper and lower back , headrest, seat belt and steering column. All electric and the entire range of adjustments can be stored in a 4 position memory. 6 stage heated of course as well.

Nice!

I’ve run out of indoor storage, so I’ve dumped it in a large empty building in Birmingham for the weekend.

Here's mine. So shoot me. The Jaguar E-type isn't even in the top 10 'most beautiful' cars ever made. It's basically a clown shoe. The series 3 is actually a bit offensive (especially in 2 + 2 form)

not what you would expect to see parked up on a street corner in byker ! (a not too great part of newcastle)

Another day off (Saturday), another day spent tinkering with the Sierra. I had a look under the car and noted a patch of engine oil on the workshop floor. The sump plug was leaking. When I drained the old engine oil a few weeks ago, I noted there wasn't a copper washer on the sump plug so I, foolishly, put the sump plug back in without fitting one. Rather than draining all the engine oil, my wife kindly volunteered* to hold a rag against the drain plug whilst I quickly put a copper washer on the sump plug and screwed it back in place. I only lost a little engine oil in the process. Hopefully problem solved. Next, I prepared and undersealed the front suspension components for that factory fresh look. I am pleased with the result. I had lunch in the workshop. My arms and jumper were soaked with paraffin and I was not allowed to eat with the normal people in the house. The engine sump was filthy. And corroded. I lifted the sump up and away from the crossmember by jacking up the transmission. Access was adequate, I managed to scrape off the rusty bits and clean up the good coatings. I painted the rusty and exposed parts of the sump with a high temperature black gloss paint. Whilst there, I also gave the steering rack a scrub. Much better. Finally for today, I rubbed down the rusty areas under the bonnet and painted them with Rust Oleum paint. I will dab some blue aerosol paint over the patches tomorrow. I also cleaned the old overspray from the two rubber seals. The plan for tomorrow is to finish off the decoration work under the bonnet, get the car back on its wheels and push it out of the workshop, where I can see better and touch up a couple of little chips and marks that are difficult to spot indoors. With the Sierra outside, I will be giving my workshop a deep clean.

Automatic gearboxes are the best gearbox for 99% of a normal person's driving.

I had some time to look at the cooling system today. And the old coolant that came out it didn't look too bad, but it's old so it's time to change it. The hoses are also very old and soft and not in good condition, so they were also replaced with the exception of the hoses for the heater they will be replaced later. Old hoses The 4 bolts for the thermostat housing came out without breaking which was nice and the thermostat housing has no gasket but an o ring which is great thank you Mercedes. The cooling system looks very clean inside which is a nice surprise. The old thermostat works but is old so I don't trust it so changed to a new one. I bought a new 79 degree thermostat which was luck as the old one was 80 degrees. And the new thermostat's box is marked with Behr, which is the same brand that made the radiator in this one. And will keep the old thermostat as a spare. With a new thermostat fitted together with a new o-ring, I put on the new hoses. The new hose I marked with a red arrow was a struggle to get on, but after much struggle I got it on. And I had 2 of these hoses, one from Febi bilstein and one from Gates, and the one from Gates was much thicker and seemed better quality, so this one was used. So with the new hoses and thermostat installed, I wanted to pressure test the system but had no adapter that fit so just had to do it the old way and fill up with new coolant and check for leaks and luckily there were no leaks. Then it was time to start it and let the engine run for a while and the new thermostat opened when it was supposed to and everything worked and there were no leaks so the cooling system is now done.

Christ almighty was that a fight getting it back in. A helper would have been very useful in doing it. I really did not want it taking nearly two days to do. I had the weekend to myself and I really wanted to get on with my Midget. Right now I have a backlog of things left to do in the house and not going to get any more car time this evening. Also these bastard clips kept falling apart. They go into the metal body work and the trim fixing screw goes through it. The threaded nut thing kept falling out and into awkward places. Usually as I just got one side in then the other side fell out. Also discovered the screw cover on the jesus handles acts as a prop when open to stop them closing up. Neat little bit of design there. Anyway it's now in and fully tightened up. Definitely not a job I'd be in a rush to do again. Colour is obvious different but it's a million times nicer than it was. The headliner is more ivory (even though it was supposed to be beige) and the standard type you usually get in lighter coloured interiors. I'm sure the other trim pieces could be had (or redone) in ivory to make match as it looks like standard VAG light coloured interior. Beige in the Golf I think was a one year option and very rare anyway. As is, is certainly not horrendous though and a million times nicer than it was. At the very least it's nice not to have it raining foam into your hair every time you close the door.

I’d say someone is getting ready for a road trip.

Got little Zetor fixed today. Had the old exhaust manifold fitted with new gaskets and the new exhaust part in red fitted but reused the old exhaust pipe as it has a few years left in it and replaced the leaking frost plug. I also had the new coolant tool kit tested to pressure test the cooling system and it worked well and the system held pressure. So now it is ready for use again.

HMC's P38!

Bought this last week as something to do. It came with half a tank of pez so have a viaduct shot instead. 1.2 HLX with working City mode. Paint is thoroughly knackered but it drives fine, and will do as a stop gap whilst I sort the Xedos out come MoT time next month. I initially thought the tow bar was for trailer tip runs, but the seller used it to occasionally shift his MG Midget about.

Recent advances* in safety tech and driver aids such as traction control, stability control, lane assist, adaptive cruise, etc., are creating a generation of dangerous, unskilled drivers.

To move this on. A 'coupe-fied' five door SUV is the most offensively pointless and unnecessary body shape of any vehicle type in existence.