captain_70s

I reckon a car with such good parts availability will be a nice change from you usual cars with numerous NLA bits putting them off the road for long periods of time. Plus a massive supply of scruffy but usable parts second hand. The fact there are billions left means low values as well. Although a lot them have been patched to buggery as they rot like mad. It'd be easy to accidentally buy one held together with pigeon shit and underseal.

Mine looks worse, especially since I crashed it into the pebble dash wall at the tyre shop and put a load of divots in the front bumper...

Freshly shod with a new ditch finder for the occasion. Was supposed to be in the Dolomite but, in a shocking turn of events, it shat itself at the 11th hour.

Looks like a Rolls Royce Camargue. The fitment of the headlights is hilariously half arsed.

Given I'm leaving on Sunday and won't be home till after the show this could be an issue. Also the fact I'll be turning up in a car that isn't the one I booked in...

Rover V8 fits, with a lot of chopping about. The issue with fitting a Triumph V8 is that it's the same amount of work as the Rover unit but shitter... The V8 is related to the OHC slant 4 engines, but not my cast iron OHV unit dating from 1953...

Pure. Cunts. Nothing is worth travelling that far south...

RIP. Ats yir Dolly deid. The shimmed thrust washers had a lifespan of 300 miles. So I shall be asking work if I can use the work van to go on holiday and skip FotU entirely because I no longer have any desire to attend or drive any old shit. If anybody happens to have a small journal Triumph SC crank I'm in the market for one...

It started on Friday, left the house at 8am, was at work by 9:45, finished at 13:30, got home for 16:45. Vehicle prepped (I threw a suitcase of shit and an untested air bed and some bits of cardboard in the back) and hit the road just after 17:00. Traffic was great* on the M74 as a BMW had converted itself into a fine paste somehow. An X3 also shat itself and had to be pushed out of the way of this monster: An N reg Atkinson with some sort of APC on the back. I later encountered him doing about 65mph on a downhill stretch. Legend. Once the traffic cleared I had the idea of "making time" using all of the redblock's 120bhp. I passed @sdkrc in the Insight. By the time I reached Tebay the fuel gauge had dropped from full to 2/3rds. I decided I couldn't be trusted and phoned @sdkrc and asked if he wanted to convoy down. He was aiming for mega mpgees and was sitting at a steady 58-62mph and I figured using him as a rolling road block would prevent me from using all the petrol in the world. A cheeky remortgage saw us fed with a sandwich and artisan cola. The north of England was everything I expected and more. We arrived at around 00:15 on Saturday morning. I still managed a beer before going to sleep, dedication. My accommodation was the height of luxury. The following morning I beheld the sight of the first Shitefest I'd attended since 2018. My car definately didn't* lower the tone by looking like a tramp's home. Some prime chod was in attendance. This Marina arrived with a idle speed of 3,500rpm but was soon fettled into submission. This Seat inspired much rubbing of thighs. Iconic AS vehicle. The weird Honda section. FRENCH. Some people came more prepared than others. @cms206 also used the kitchen of this to prepare the traditional SCOTTISH BREAKFAST, with extra grease for sealing those internal systems up right good. Attempts were made to rid this of rattles. The light trim was wrestled back on successfully only to find that the "rattle" was actually the horn ring jiggling and causing the horns to "pop". A BX on ramps marked the site enterence having blown it's LHM return line on a half line journey. A dog used it for shelter. Air conditioning re-gassing was on offer for those lucky enough to have FANCEH CAURS. Chats were had, old magazine ads were laughed at, dogs were patted I got pissed and spent all of Sunday morning with a cracking headache. Also on Sunday morning the 205 shat it's diesel return hose. An enshortening of the hose and some rerouting saw that fixed. Then my Volvo didn't start because I'd left the ignition on and the running lights flattened the battery. So that needed a jump. Then @davidfowler2000, @320touring, @jaypee , @Supernaut and I hit the road homewards in convoy. Unexpected drive through the alps was nice. Home. I'm fucking shattered, reckon I had 8hrs sleep over the two days and the heat was intense. Big shout out to @Sunny Jim for sorting the site and the site owner for allowing a bunch of weirdos with shit cars to temporarily ruin a picturesque bit of Wales. Also @davidfowler2000 for supplying traditional Scottish breakfast items and @cms206 for cooking it in his camper, forever making it smell like a catering van. Also @catsinthewelder for lending me a mug so I could have a cup of tea instead of dying of not having a cup of tea. Some more random pictures/videos: I think Volvos outnumbered every other marque by a fair margin. @Jim Bell left a dog poo bag of melted Twixes in my car. @aldo135 consumed more cans of Tennants than should really be allowed under then Geneva Convention. I don't think @binhoker668 was sober for even a single moment over the full weekend. @maxxo gave me a lift in his XM and now I kind of want one. Was a great time. Would attend again. 11/10.

If the 200 is anything like the 700 series the air intake will be down low behind the bumper.

Fleet news. Kept filling the Volvo with sealant, it kept leaking. I have now found a solution though. With that problem permanently* solved** I put the interior back in. This means the girlfriend will go in it, which makes it AN FUNCTIONAL CAR. I also fitted a less fucked rear light. Threw the Dolomite's door cards in and affixed the dash correctly. Fitting the fresh air vents makes it quite a bit less horrible on warm days I also managed to wrestle the rear bumper on having acquired some lengthy bolts. Also gave the chrome and stainless a go over with some Autosol. I think it's done about 300 miles since going back together. Mostly around town and local A roads. It pulls well once warmed up properly, it'll actually gain speed on the flat from 20mph in top. At 55mph it's doing 3,500rpm, which is really as fast as you want to go for any sustained period of time. It seems quite happy to sit on the motorway but it feels too mechanically "busy" for my tastes. As of the the 24th it'll be taking me and Girlfriend_70s to Derbyshire (avoiding motorways) on holiday for a week before I drop by FotU and then shoot back up the road. I'm only mildly bricking it.

Met Office currently suggesting 18-21C Fri/Sat.

I reckon I'm up to 75% chance of attendance. Not sure if I'll be turning up late on Friday or on Saturday, will entirely depend on how work goes on Friday.

Dolomite - 138k (reading 38k) Volvo - 125k (Odo died some months ago) Acclaim - 92k Total of 355k, average of 118k.

How does it feel to own a BRAND NEW CAR?

Seen on the Classic Car Scrapyard Finds page...

Wonder if his mum has pulled the plug on his car flipping exercise.

ONE OF US. ONE OF US. ONE OF US.

Well. That sounds like the absolute worst fucking idea ever. And that's coming from a man who daily drove a Triumph Dolomite. Twice.

New van is fucking huge. I don't even entertain the idea of parking it on my street, it lives round the corner... New job seems less inclined toward keeping me out for 12hrs a day, so may actually be able to fix cars during the week again!

Had a week off work, due to quitting. Spent it doing car shit. Firstly wrestling with these horrible door seals. The rubbers slot into a channel on the door frame. You can slide the rubbers on along the top and inside edge and then the rest has to be poked into place with a blunt screwdriver a few mm at a time. Both systems of installation are tedious to the extreme and by the end of door one the act of sliding the seal into place had torn the edge of my nail off my thumb. The blood wasn't even good lubricant. Repo seals aren't shaped to the door like the originals and are just cut from a roll, reputedly they're even shitter to fit, hence my reusing the originals. With rubbers installed I got the doors more or less lined up and adjusted the door latches appropriately. I then spent an age fitting the door handles. The rear examples aren't too bad, the fronts require child hands which bend backwards in order to get at the required linkages. It'd be much easier if I was to removed the window mech, which wasn't going to happen. O/S/F needs to come up at the front a bit, O/S/R needs a bit of tweaking but it's passable and crucially all the doors now open and close without having to lift them into position. I briefly considered replacing all the door membranes and then couldn't be arsed and taped the old ones back on. I then swapped out the rocker cover gasket and set the tappets. Also removed the temporary fuel pipe installation draped over the rocker cover and replaced it with a slightly less temporary length of hose running along the bulkhead. I then went for a run out to @320touring's unit one eve, about 40 miles away. Firstly the engine was pinging like crazy under throttle so I pulled over and retarded the ignition timing. Then it bogged like fuck under throttle. So I pulled over and advanced the ignition timing. It then ran pretty well for a few miles until I gave it some boot and it went "pop" and died. That was due to the coil earth cable coming adrift somehow. Don't have a timing mark on the pulley, being from a fwd engine, so it'll be a case of tweaking it until its as advanced as it can go without pinging. The book figures are largely redundant when running modern fuels anyway. The the unit @320touring and @blackboilersuit couldn't be held back and some fixing occured. The rocker cover was loose as one nut was completely jammed onto a bent stud, this stud was flipped upside down and some rubber grommets were fashioned up to go around the nuts as oil was pissing out. A breather system was also rigged up, namely a length of fuel hose leading to a Coke bottle, to check that wasn't spewing oil. Originally that pipe would go to the carb, but this carb doesn't have a point for the hose to go to. Anyway. The journey home was completed with no real issues. Our fixes were highly successful*. Still pissing out the rocker cover, and I think the fuel pump gasket. I swapped the oil cap for one with a better seal as that was leaking as well. The dash also fell off when I hit a pothole. Apparently a bolt fell out, almost like 2 hand tight bolts out of 4 aren't enough for rigidity or some shit. Then @davidfowler2000 and @Inspector Morose popped over for dinner one evening and aided in fitting the front bumper. We couldn't get the rear one on due to lack of long enough bolts. Then I saw the car in proper sunny weather for the first time. I also took it for another local run to take me and Girlfriend_70s over to Mugdock Park. It drives pretty well and can now be fine tuned with road use. Can get a bit grumpy and develop a miss when sitting hot in traffic. Usually I'd say that's fuel starvation but it starts first turn of the key if it cuts out rather than needing to be cranked so it could be toasty ignition components. With the choke disconnected the easiest way to cold start it is to jam the choke open with a screwdriver for min or so until there is a bit of temp in the engine, then wind the idle speed up a bit until it's properly warmed up. I also pulled more bits of Volvo off. Having pulled all that shit off, prodded out drains, scooped out moss and dirt and pulled off/re-seated grommets... It still leaked. By the method of pouring water on the car from a bucket and then watching it from the inside I found it was running into the footwell down the A pillar under the rubber seal for the door. It is actually coming in somewhere near the middle of the windscreen and running along the plastic trim which leads the headliner like a gutter to whichever end is lowest. At least I now know which location to fuck more sealant into, all other more minor leaks seem to have been sorted... However I started my new job today, so progress may slow a bit.

Been driving the Doloshite around a bit lately. Unperforated vinyl seats on a hot day sat in traffic. Memories...

A quick look at the Acclaim on Fri eve. Firstly an attempt to to make it less horrible to work on and to make it easier to ID the myriad of oil leaks. it seems the death rattle was just the timing cover rubbing against the water pump pulley due to a missing bolt. The rhythmic pattern was due to it not running very smoothly. I had suspicions as to why that might be given the car's prior problems. At TDC those two lines on the cam pulley should be parallel to the head. So it's a tooth out and the belt is slack. Either the belt has stretched massively or the tensioner is gubbed. Getting at the tensioner requires removing a wheel and taking the crank pulley off with an ugga dugga through a hole in the inner wheel arch. So I did the right thing and flung it back together and declared it to be fine for light use. Non-interferance engines, what a god send. Dolly continues blighting the local area with it's total loss oil system due to a wrecked rocker cover gasket. I also rejigged the fuel line so the filter now sits before the pump and the line isn't routed straight over the engine.