Fabergé Greggs

Oooh I do love a scooter but I’m considerably short of Lambretta money

Oh man, so nice. One of the ways that I can tell that I’m maturing from reckless hooligan youth into weird old car guy is that I’ve really come to love a correct set of fresh tires on a car. Like really really LOVE

New manifold arrived for the Morris thanks to the tip-off from @BeEP so I set about the manly task of turning my borked manifold into an inlet. Much, much grinding ensued. Getting closer It was at this point that I thought, "hang on, this inlet is located on the studs by the exhaust part of the manifold, this ain't gonna work". I think I'm gonna need something like this that properly locates in the studs. I'm guessing I can do away with the water heating.

That's absolutely class. I wish it was a hatchback though. Did they ever do those? I'd like to put in a duractec in it or something and daily its little heart out.

It's always good seeing this come together. There's no two ways about it man, this car is gonna be FUN

Wow I didn't know the Montego came in A-series flavour! Now I NEED to see under the bonnet, there must be so much space!

Now where are we with the fleet? Having done everything to it, I sold the Vespa sprint and I'm backing using my much loved LML- it's just generally more stress-free leaving it about the place. I acquired this 1 litre beater as a suitable chariot for the learner driver of the household, but I've been loving it too! It's ridiculously upright and tiny and the most basic of base. Specs include: Electric mirrors And nothing else. Locking is manual on each door with a key FFS. Was that even still a thing in 2006? The reason it's so great is all that SPACE in something SO TINY Parking turns out to be something to look forward to it's so bloody tiny. It's got 3 cylinders totalling 950 or so cc, and yes of course it's objectively slow but it's also surprisingly willing- torquey and yet quite willing to rev. It's almost exotic sounding isn't it? Okay, almost. If you listen to start of that video you can hear the fuel pump. At various times it sounds like it's going to self destruct- I really need to change it before it self destructs somewhere on the motorway in the rain. The problem is I hate spending money in garages on modern cars and I hate working on modern cars and it's a tank out job. The 3 cylinder roar is pretty characterful, verging on rough when cold. I've lobbed some injector cleaner in and cleaned the MAF and it seems to be smoother after a bit of an Italian tune-up. I should probably clean the throttle body too but that looks ever so slightly more involved. Other niggles include the need to get a set of tires. The ones on these are all mismatched and I've become a right tire fusspot in my old age- I don't think they're doing anything to help the laughable handling. Hence the request for some wheels that would fit it in my wanted thread. It had a nasty wobble at 60-70mph before so I got the front set balanced which definitely improved things- the bloke said that it had a big dent in the front left rim that he hammered out. It's better but still there so maybe I need to get the rears balanced too or just get a new set. I'm off up to Scotland soon so I either need to do the drive in this (I'd happily do it if the wobble was fixed and fuel pump done), Morris (madness) or Saab, as a last hurrah before the ULEZ takes it forever.

This is tasty https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1359096#&gid=1&pid=3

Yeah there’s a U-clamp there which does seems to do a good job of keeping it steady- I had a look around for the proper clamp but couldn’t seen to find one. I’m loving your suggestion of sorting this with the above manifold- seems like it should be a much more robust connection.. what size of clamp would this new join need? Is it 1 3/8?

That’s some top advice as ever thanks- I’ve put in an offer on that manifold and can pass it on if it doesn’t work out. I did wonder if there’s an engine steady or something that I’m missing which is putting extra strain on the manifold joint- I need to research into the mounts etc.

Fixing the manifold lasted all of 20 mins, the blow was worse than ever. investigating further revealed that my clamp has taken a section of the bottom of the manifold with it.. I don’t think I was being too crazy with the clamp, as I was being cautious if anything. Anyway, new manifold time. Should I go crazy and get something tubular from a mini and escape this downpipe seal problem altogether?

Pondering a move out of London at the mo (isn’t everyone).. what kind of MPG’s did you see from the Xevo? My potential commute would be similar to your old one.

I agree that most headunits are awful and if you've got space, the temptation to put in something clever and double din is overwhelming. I recently came across a good option though- the pioneer SPH-10bt that uses your phone as an interface. Makes sense since you've already got all the computing power, connectivity and nav that you could possibly need. It also means you've got a great interface for EQing and stuff. You can swap between music and nav with a big simple button on the headunit. Depends how it would work out ergonomically on your dash obvs, and there's also the danger of Pioneer deciding to no longer support the app, which would ruin your fun come phone upgrade time.

Has he got through a set of rear tires in 5000 miles? I need to try harder.

If only we knew if he was a member of the Thema and Dedra Consortium or not