Jazoli

Is it me or is that TRE boot fucked ?

That's absolute bollocks 🤣
I too had both when brand new, the Escort was about as dynamic as a house brick (or mk4 golf) whereas the 306 had great feel and balance.

Competition cars and road cars are like apples and oranges, for the average family car FWD offers better packaging, more space, etc etc, 95% of the population don’t care and probably don’t even know which wheels are driven, there’s very few people who are still stuck in their ways 😏

Competition cars and road cars are like apples and oranges, for the average family car FWD offers better packaging, more space, etc etc, 95% of the population don’t care and probably don’t even know which wheels are driven, there’s very few people who are still stuck in their ways 😏

That's absolute bollocks 🤣
I too had both when brand new, the Escort was about as dynamic as a house brick (or mk4 golf) whereas the 306 had great feel and balance.

It has shoes I’m sure for the handbrake, good to see it getting some TLC.

It’s amazing how much work you put in for the next owner when you get bored next month.

Went to a local cars and coffee this morning. Some extremely nice tin on show - I'll put some photos up later. 
Anyway I glanced at that rear left.

Err yeah I've smoked that. Other side has a reasonable chunk of pads left on it. Absolutely baking hot that side but cool the other.
I can't get a caliper today from GSF, Euros or my local parts place. So I bought some cheap pads and I'll give the caliper piston/sliders a clean up and hope I can get away with it.
Cheapest pads I could buy too. Discs will stay on for now as even though they have obviously got very hot, there is a lot of meat left on them. I'll have a check for warpage but I don't think they're bad going on that it's not an intermittent scrape. Hopefully I haven't quite fully had metal to metal yet. 

 
If a clean up and new pads doesn't work then I'll have to get in a new caliper. I don't think they're expensive for an eBay special. GSF didn't have any even listed unfortunately. 
 
Hopefully I can get it sorted today so I can at least use it in this nice weather. Steering is 100% okay too. So must be when the rack gets hot on a long drive. Not checked the tyre pressures yet - just driven the thing. 

No.
 
I'm calling it.
Jake is actually a joke account trying to wind us up.

That’s a very broad brush, what about a Lexus GS300 or IS250?

I get that it's your choice but that sounds like a generous well intentioned gift and a stroppy ungrateful response to be fair.

It’s amazing how much work you put in for the next owner when you get bored next month.

It’s amazing how much work you put in for the next owner when you get bored next month.

It’s amazing how much work you put in for the next owner when you get bored next month.

Thought I’d update on the Vectra.
since acquiring it, I’ve already wet/dry sanded and DA polished the headlamps, fixed the floppy indicator thanks to @Popsicle help, replaced the blown heater resistor, and given it an oil/filter, fuel and pollen filter. Fuel filter wasn’t original which was good to see, at least it was done once in the cars life 😂. Even cleaned out the rubber bung and surrounding area of the pollen filter so it doesn’t suffer the flooding in the footwell that it can cause. 
getting underneath there is clearly a small oil leak which, I suspect is from the weeping rocker cover given how it has slowly accumulated over time. Absolutely rinsed brake clean everywhere to clean it all off. I’ve ordered up a Febi rocker cover/gasket set which I hope arrives by the weekend. I’ll replace the plugs then too.
I’ve also changed the nasty plastic steering wheel with one from an SRi which is miles better. 
 
I’ve also had the timing belt/water pump and auxiliary belt done. It was on the original belt as well so glad this is sorted for peace of mind.
 
also put 2 new rear tyres on, as they were so old I couldn’t even see the dot code on one of them! It starts immediately with barely a crank and the engine is really torquey. I think it’s definitely had a clutch in its life as its immediate and a good biting point, again good to see.
I am clearly going beserk but as people know me I’m incredibly pedantic and have to get stuff done asap, else it really itches my brain. The interior is what lets the car down, it’s just tired seats which are typical cheap Vauxhall. I’ve found a guy breaking a VXR and I’m travelling there Saturday where it’ll have VXR recaro seats which will just lift the inside.
I’ve ordered the rear drop links and bushes as they are audibly knocking and for the sake of about £33 all in I may as well do it this month.
next month I’ll replace the thermostat as it’s lazy, and I’ll see about doing the front discs and pads as although pads have plenty on them, the discs are pretty poor in my opinion.
overall, enjoying this car. Will serve me well for a bit.

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. 
 

Finished the headlining and now ready to put back in the car after lunch. 
First attempt last night was going well until I spent a bit too long with the heat gun and burnt the fabric. Oof.
.

Nothing for it except ripping it all off and doing it again. Thankfully I bought double the amount of fabric. 
I didn't buy double the amount of glue so I had to carry on as this lot hadn't fully set. Didn't finish till 2am last night.

 
This morning I trimmed up all the edges and folded it over. Had some other spray glue which I used for these bits. Isn't high temperature resistant (at least the can has no mention of heat resistance levels) but actually was much sticker. Tbh that made it more difficult to work with. 

Then reattached the trim.


What did I learn?
 - It's not hard to do. However it's hard to do well. Experts on videos make it look easy. It's the curved sections that are the hardest parts and trying to avoid bubbles or creases. 
 - Buy spare fabric and glue 
 - 2 meters was enough for one go. I bought 4 metres and still had some spare
 - Heat gun is useful for reshaping the fabric and keeping the glue tacky. 
 - Your cat will want to jump all over it and try scratching it when you're not looking. I'm still removing cat hair from it.
 - While not perfect, I think it turned out pretty well and a million times better than the droopy mess before. Much better than thumb tacks or other bodges.
Now I just need to get it back in without damaging it. 😬
 

Wouldn’t weld the DMF to be honest it’s a bodge. 

I'm done with paying loads of tax for cars these days, wife drives a modern 1.3 petrol 4 pot turbo and I've got my euro 5 diesel Passat, both come in under £400 for the pair.
I'd love a modern big engined barge but there's no way I'm paying £700/yr for the privilege, I'll be getting a hybrid next.

£715 for my Saab.

Just bought one myself .... Awaiting cert to stick it on car don't think it'll need much explanation and won't be spaced dodgy

SM17 HEH



Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

This should be a collection thread but as I haven't seen the car in person yet, watch this space! This will involve multiple modes of transport and quite tight timings to meet my outbound connections. Praying no delays or the whole thing will collapse.
Obligatory breakfast pic.

Ham sandwich coz I couldn't be arsed making bacon. Hot cross bun coz why not. Cold brew coffee which I hadn't tried before. Okay but weird after taste. 6/10.
PC 0

That's absolute bollocks 🤣
I too had both when brand new, the Escort was about as dynamic as a house brick (or mk4 golf) whereas the 306 had great feel and balance.

I'll provide you with a full registered copy of VCDS provided you take them fucking stickers off the tailgate of your mondeo!

I'll provide you with a full registered copy of VCDS provided you take them fucking stickers off the tailgate of your mondeo!