Asimo

Sea Kings??
Please post

Jesus, that's horrendous!
 
Made it in time for fly past photos, will post if any interest?

So the postman brought a present today in the form of a nice rusty starter:

Twenty minutes later the old one was off, thank you to Rover group for making all the fittings 13mm.

Side by side - crotch shot...

Hmmm where does this go?

Sod it must be a project drive deletion, let's clean up the contacts

All fitted note the now empty holes in the gear box thanks to the project drive bracket removal.
 

 
And it starts, grand total £12.99 and two days off the road. That's the bridge avoided for another two months.
 
Sent from my XT1068 using Tapatalk

Yow!
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Freight-Rover-350-LDV-V8-Engine-Manual-RWD-Gearbox-R380-Not-LT77-Ratrod-Hotrod/121923641809

1990 Fiat 128 


https://www.arcar.org/fiat-128-85503

Thank you kindly!
I never used to take pictures when fettling the scooters, but I did take a few when my SX200 was done in 2012 - 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of running shite, and i mean long term ownership (not bangernomics of buying cheap running till it breaks and scrapping), is maintaining it and driving it with mechanical sympathy for as long a life as possible.
 
Part of our shiter philosophy is we do not want what car makers now make for a variety of reasons, that goes hand in hand with a good ignoring of what passes as modern servicing, which means as little as possible for as short a life as possible after warranty expires so more new cars can be bought to replace them.

Fuckin 'pedigree'
 
Go to Clee Hill village. They are all 'pedigree'
 
New blood is what you want, it doesn't work in humans so why should it in animals ☺

On my walk today:
 
Anti-aircraft turret remarkably intact...
 

 

 

 
This is a listed building, I'm very reliably informed. Explosives building from when the Manchester ship canal was built...
 

 
Random shed, sadly not especially nice inside as contained remnants of long since since dead sheep
 

 

 
'Urbexing' in old port Police headquarters
 

 

 
Naturally, because I went bird counting/watching not a single sodding picture of any actual birds came out well enough to even look remotely good.
 

I found this German registered (South of Berlin!) UAZ 469 in Scotland. Not a journey I am envious of.
 

UAZ 469 by MattLikesCars, on Flickr
 
This was parked nearby, support vehicle?

Suzuki WagonR+ by MattLikesCars, on Flickr 

I bought a P4  today. As always, when I got it home I noticed a couple of blebs in the paintwork.

 

I have never seen one of these before!
 

http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/937706788.htm?ca=11_s

Ford Falcon Ghia
Plenty more here: https://www.arcar.org/autosantiguos.aspx?qma=ford

Further reading below..  It's s a letter I sent to the 2cvGB club - Ami Registrar,  when I first bought my car.  It shares a few more tidbits about Citroen's Koper facility.
 
Friday, 27 November 2015
Hello again Jonathan,
 
I write, as I fly home from Ljubljana on ESY 3246, to share that as of yesterday (25th Nov) I became the new proud owner of a 1974 Ami Super Berline Luxe.  After some 20+ years I am returning to A-series (or rather AMi series) ownership.
 
This particular car with its 1015cc motor was built by Citroen-Cimos in Koper, Yugoslavia (Slovenia, since that country's independence in 1991).  Likewise, this ancient town on the northern Adriatic is where I bought the car, although I understand that she used to live a little way further inland.  Tomo, the car's  seller, is somewhat an enthusiast as he also has an Ami-8 Break and a Visa.  He bought the Berline some seventeen years ago with the intent of restoring her, but only used her for a year (1,500km) before parking her in the back of a dry double garage. 
 
Buried behind motorcycles and household stores ever since - her speedo reads just 48,449 km (we hope this may be its first-time-around).  The car is far from pristine though. As a cheap car / workhorse - it has minor scrapes & dents consistent with it having been used for 25 years around the community's old towns and farms.  The front seats,  now singles rather than it's original bench, its wheels, and perhaps a few of the body panels are from Tomo's father's 1972 Ami-8 Break Club.  Those aside she appears pretty original and has matching numbers.
 
There's plating welded over the front footwell floors.., which is quite solid but of course hides 'the unknown'.  I'll have this corrected by  Janez of  '2cvKeza' in the north of Slovenia, before I drive the car back to the UK next May or June.  Janez not only restores A-series Citroens but also makes faithful reproductions of obscure A-series structural panels (those otherwise not available or are rather poor fits - from the usual sources). 
 
Working directly from originals - he makes his as near true to the original as possible, except that they're from zinc-plated steel.  He's a really nice chap to deal with and like myself, prefers where possible to spot (or if necessary plug) weld these panels together… again as near original spec as practical.  
 
He & his wife drive an Ami-8 Break from 1970 (with sliding front door glass) and a rare Citroen-Cimos DAK  (van) from 1985.  This model of van is shorter than the usual Acadiane and has numerous detailing differences.   When I visited on Tuesday he was busy reconstructing a client's 2cv6 and a Cimos Geri (Acadiane pick-up)
 
Apparently,  'Citroen Tomos Koper' used to assemble Citroen A-series from CKD  (complete-knock-down)  kits of car parts supplied by Citroen Paris.  'Tomos Koper' changed company name in 1973 to 'Cimos Koper'.   Serving the even-more economical / socialist Yugoslavian market, a generally very dry climate - the cars made were not chemically dip cleaned before paint,  as in Citroen's own French or Belgian factories,  but were just wiped over before being lightly spray painted. 
 
Tomo's own father went to the factory to pick 'his' Ami Break from the stream of cars on the production line, and with a quiet word and possibly discrete back-hander, it's paintwork was thicker and more carefully applied than most.!
 
It's not known how much of my Ami-Super was 'made' in Yugoslavia or else supplied by Citroen to be assembled, but it's likely that the low-production-volume models (such as the Super) were CKD kits made in Paris.  Certainly their engines & gearboxe assemblies were French made.  As time went on Tomos, and later Cimos, progressively made more parts in-house. The light-commercial's bodies were pressed locally, and their design differences are more easily spotted. 
 
Certainly,  my car's under-wheel-arch paint is inadequate for northern Europe's wet, especially in the wintertime.  I'll need to address this before I drive the car to the UK.  Fortunately aside from the foot wells, this car's rust appears to be superficial ..and there's no under-seal to hide anything.  Even a dented rear wing which had (many years ago) been pushed out again - has only the lightest of surface rust around it's flange edges and where dent's creases have cracked the paint.  Bottom of the doors are good, as are the wing's return flanges, the inner wings and bonnet.  Time will tell though what is yet to be discovered - as I had very limited access when I viewed and bought the car.!
 
Surprisingly the rubber of the window rubbers & driveshaft gaiters still feel to be supple. I dared not hope for that from a 40+ year old car living in a dry climate.  From a quick inspection - the interior headlining is clean and untorn and the door cards are in fair condition. The seats had covers over them so I couldn't assess their state, but I expect that they are past their prime, even though the car hasn't seen much daylight for years..
 
I'll stop there to keep this report reasonably short, but attach a few photos for your interest.
 
Best regards
Peter  : 2cvGB 030093
...extracts of the above were used in 2cvGB club magazine January 2016
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
p.s. if you're still looking for interesting Shitroen stuff to read.., how about  < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn
 
p.p.s. (Friday 25th March)
          When I went to see Janez (2cvKeza) we continued our conversation regarding Citroen-Tomos and Cimos who built Citroens.   Janez is one, if not the  foremost expert on the Yugoslavian A-series cars & light commercials.  He is getting known to be a collector of anything concerning this company,  and so is occasionally given original factory data, either for his own collection or to copy.  This includes assembly blue prints which show panel fit 'tolerance' to be between 1 mm and 1 cm ! (this refers to the same gap between panels - not one gap at 1mm and an other at 10mm)
 
He was also telling me of the import restrictions between Yugoslavia (in the Soviet block) and the West.  And that by agreement with the country's Ministers the value of imports from Citroen (and presumably other sources) was dependant on what was exported. I presume this was to maintain the (import / export)  balance of payments.
 
As a consequence Citroen vehicle production in Koper would occasionally come to a halt, simply because the factory needed to import a part ..but their quota for imports was all used up.  Janez tells me that often this was just for a month or two but sometimes for as much as for two years.  In this time part-complete vehicles would be stockpiled until the parts were obtained, fitted, and shipping might happen.  I'd seen in movies like The Russia House ; Sean Connery / Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox,  c.1990  where stocks / supplies to the shops had been non-existent, and then almost without notice a shipment would come in..,  resulting in long queues in the shops.  I'd not even thought that this applied to commodities like cars.
 
Tomos and (post-73) Cimos would balance out the import of engine and body panel parts by making and exporting things like aluminium castings.. Citroen themselves were having high % reject of their own casting, which suffered from porosity.  Tomos / Cimos already making small motorcycle had overcome this. They also made and supplied wiring looms and items like starter motors (note the markings / origin on your old Citroen).
 
These and other parts were shipped to Citroen for assembly into their vehicles, including those cars 'Made in' Paris, Belgium and Slough.  Janez went on to explain that the Ami Super I have was made by Cimos in Koper ..as recorded on the chassis number.  And that Citroen France may not even have factory records of this.   
 
I enquired as to how much of my car would have been made in Yugoslavia, and it's his opinion (based on the records) that most of the metal pressings of cars like mine were probably made in France, but then shipped to Koper as a kit of parts, to be welded together.  I had written (above) of CKD kits of parts before, as I had some dealing with this (from when I worked in the motor industry), but I'd not imagined the chassis and body shell might have come just as pressings rather than as welded 'assemblies'.  I guess in logistical terms it made sense as the tooling for pressings are very expensive but an assembly jig is cheap. And the transport cost saved - in not shipping air (empty body shells),  would soon pay for an assembly welding-jig.  Of course the import value of panels would also be less than that of assemblies.
 
So it seems that even low volume production models such as the Ami Super are likely to have been 'built' in Koper rather than just painted and fitted out.  That then makes more sense of the comments previously made by Tomo regarding the painting of cars, because if assemblies had been shipped then they would most likley have been painted too.
 
It also makes sense of stories I heard many years ago about 2cv's which were particularly prone to rust.  It was said that the 'steel' for these cars 'Made in Portugal (I think) was sitting on the docks for months awaiting shipping, and the salty wet weather was the cause of the problem.  At the time I'd imagined palet loads of 8'x4' sheet steel, but now I thinks of pressings (as yet unpainted because they still needed to be welded).!
 
 

Tuesday :
 
First checked the coil was working by putting a spark plug in the king lead / against the block, and then touching out the low tension lead. That worked and so I knew the lack of spark was going to be at the points.  Removal of the dissy-cap revealed an oil puddle, so it was time to remove dissy and replace the LHS rear camshaft seal.  Never been into one of these engines before so I was also flying in fog, after cleaning the outside - its removal was straight forward.
 
Taking this out into the daylight I could see oil bridging the opening contacts. Strip & clean (carb cleaner), and the points were not in bad shape, but the vacuum mechanism's diaphragm was clearly punctured.  That wouldn't prevent the engine from running, but it also wouldn't pull very well once the engine was spinning.  
 
While dismantling and cleaning, Jani recorded for me what was included in the engine gasket, o-ring, & seal set.  Personally £145 seemed overly expensive for what little there was (there's no head gaskets on these engines) so I wanted a record of sizes and any part numbers ...just in case I need to change any again in the future. 
 
He then went off in search of a replacement vacuum advance unit.  As expected (but otherwise hoped) it was  No joy on that front …so I'll need to order one over the internet and have it sent here.  
 

 
I replaced the camshafts rear oil seal and refitted the now-clean dissy, sans vacuum_auto_advance bits, reconnected the battery and hung the petrol can from the bonnet with pipe directly siphoning to the carb and started her up.   I was told by the seller that he'd started the engine and it sounded good but somehow I doubt that every happened. So I reckon this was the first start in 16+ years.   
 
Smoke bellowed from the penetrating oil applied to exhaust parts, along with a a fair whiff of white smoke from the exhaust tail pipe. The carburettor heater pipe was also blowing.  Nevertheless she'd started this time quite easily on choke, without clanking, obscure ticking or other sounds which spelt impending Shitroen Armageddon.  I only ran the engine for a couple of minutes and slipped back into the car to turn her off.  There was a bell type noise.. The bloody fire alarm had gone off in this underground car-park.   That being under a paraplegic hostel the fire brigade would be prompt so I ran around like a headless chicken trying to find someone to call them off. (Jani was still out and about at this time).   Fortunately that was duly done and no harm done.., but I did feel a twerp !
 
Next job was to pull the front body panels ; bumper first and then front panels and outer f.wings as an assembly.  This is in preparation for replacing the cam belts tomorrow.   
 

 
Jani then returned and so I pushed the car out of the entrance and started her up again...  first twist of the key (second start this decade) but she stalled through lack of choke.   Restarted and left to fast idle until warm - so that I could let the choke right in and adjust the idle screw to set the tick-over.  Even at the very slowest tick-over I'm very pleased that there are no undue noises from the engine, save a little fart from the exhaust blowing..   Jani recorded the second start on his telephone's video - so as and when we'll try and up load that for y'all

Ford Falcon Ghia
Plenty more here: https://www.arcar.org/autosantiguos.aspx?qma=ford

The Panda makes the Metro look tiny! Trick of the camera?

Ford Falcon Ghia
Plenty more here: https://www.arcar.org/autosantiguos.aspx?qma=ford

Ford Falcon Ghia
Plenty more here: https://www.arcar.org/autosantiguos.aspx?qma=ford

Ford Falcon Ghia
Plenty more here: https://www.arcar.org/autosantiguos.aspx?qma=ford

Big day today as the camper body was lifted onto the truck.
 

https://www.arcar.org/ford-falcon-ghia-1983-85932
 

No collecshun fred I'm afraid, no piccies either, but a mega shiter weekend has just ended. The Volvo was sold on Monday, and the search begun for a caravan, a towcar and a Panda.
 
Caravan was found first, on Ebay, In Durham. A nice 2 berth Swift- looked good in the pics and a nice layout. Collection arranged for Saturday afternoon. The towcar hunt was on seriously,as it had to be ready to head South to collect said caravan. I browsed, bought local papers, local low end traders, but found noting I fancied. As time went on I made the decision I wanted back into a Saab, which had to be an estate for the dogs,and had to have a towbar for the caravan. I'm not a huge fan of the 9-3, so a 9-5 it was to be, not Diesel and preferably auto. One was located on Gumtree up past Dundee, and an Email was fired off- simply saying- "Hi, is the Saab still for sale?" A reply came quickly, "Well, I still have it but have no V5" No thanks.
 
One caught my eye on Ebay as a Buy it Now. A bit more than I wanted to pay, no towbar, but perfect spec- 185bhp Turbo auto SE, leather etc. I looked and kept looking but kept being drawn back. The more I looked and read, the more this one spoke to me. I bit the bullet and pulled the trigger..... Mail fired off, "Can I collect Friday?"  Reply came- "Sorry, busy- how about Saturday?".  Dagnab it, says I, and fired off another mail asking if it would be possible in any way to get it Friday sometime, reply says "yes, OK, but you have to be here 5.30 Sharp"
No probs, says I- I'll be there, cash OK?  Sorted.
 
The plan then was to get Mrs Cade to drive me over in the Zafira, and bring the Saab home. I now needed a towbar sharpish, to be fitted late Friday night/Saturday morning. Ebay suppliers were quoting delivery Tuesday, so spookily, I found a genuine Saab removeable towbar on Gumtree, Livingston. An Email was fired off.... Yes, still have it, yes, collection on Friday evening would be fine, 6.30 ish? No problem.
 
Caravan sorted, towcar sorted,and now towbar sorted, ma heed was buzzin.  Fired up Gumtree again and checked "favorite searches" and my chin hit the floor. Panda Eleganza, Cocktail Blue, 1 owner,low mileage. Phone was grabbed and dialled, and the deal was done there and then, car sounded as new, guy owned a MINT Stag, and even had a ramp in his garage at the side of the house. Collection? Friday evening, location? Lockerbie....
 
So, Friday went something like this for Mrs Cade and I. Zafira to Kirkcaldy train station. Train to Waverly. change for train to Falkirk,cahnge for train to Cumbernauld. Quick sausage supper, then a taxi to the Saab. Stops outside house and find 3 silver Saabs in the drive, guy is a die hard Trollhattan man. Test drive, paperwork, then jump in to head to Livingston to collect towbar. Towbar collected but find 2 important brackets are missing..... no choice, plenty money off and jump back in Saab to head towards Lockerbie. Arrive in Lockerbie around 9 to find the mintiest,funkyest Panda I've ever seen, and the brilliant couple,after coffee and biscuits and a look/listen to the best Stag I've ever seen, made sure we left with a load of paperwork,a genuine dog guard, a genuine boot liner a Haynes manual and a genuine Panda, a soft toy one. As well as a huge apology that sometimes, very occaisionally, the central locking doesn't open the drivers rear door first try.
 
Back up the M74,over to Fife and bed, after checking Upullit website to check for 9-5's with towbars, of which there were 2, 1 with rear end damage. Up at 7.30 on Sat, along to Upull it and removed the required brackets from the rear ended 9-5 estate, a little bent but straightenable and avaliable.... - the other one wasn't there..Home, bumper off mine,brackets fitted with much fiddling,electrics hooked up and all put back together, a bit behind schedule.
 
Finally, myself,Mrs Cade, Starsky and Rosco piled into the Swedish load lugger and headed all the way down the A68, arriving in Durham after 4 to collect caravan, drove around a but and found NO campsites that were open, we all bedded down for the night in a truck stop near Bamburgh. Cracking sleep then back North this morning to finally have a wee rest.
 
Phew.

Anything with a diesel engine.
There. I said it.