captain_70s

Pulling air at a bad connection somewhere?

Fuck me, you know how to live.

Ouch. That looks like a fairly significant chunk of metal to have simply vanished... I imagine the expending foam aided a lot in completely rotting it out.

What a pile of shit. Wonder if it's this one:

Looks an awful lot like a 1970s Triumph starter solenoid...

I've just spotted it was taxed/MOT'd until 2007!

Just to make you feel better about yours, here is what a fintail looks like and costs in Scotland... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335004337203?hash=item4dffd08433:g:L~kAAOSwlRRk6e3D "Restoration", weird way of saying "sweep into the bin".

Not a Citroen "Several Pens"? Fuck off.

I went to Redcar for work last week because I'm a very* lucky** man. There were a few old boat haulers along the seafront though

Me circa July 2020:

Nothing much to report lately. Been busy at work and post FotU I've not been majorly arsed. Acclaim is in the garage, new fuel pump is located, just needs a power supply sourcing from the switched ignition side. Need to refill my gas bottle so I can weld up a new mount for the wipers. Re torqued the Dolomite's cylinder head. Only two nuts were appreciably loose although one did managed over one revolution! Ran it up to temp and it's seemingly no longer pressurising it's coolant. Massive exhaust leak though, one of the nuts/clamps for the exhaust manifold had simply vanished and another was spinning loose. Reinstalled but it still sounds like I'm running open headers, so will require some further fuckery. Moved to the front of the driveway for ease of test driving...

Probably hoping to chip you right down on price and flip it for a healthy profit.

I'm in Larbert and see that driving around frequently. Shockingly clean for an old Honda in Scotland.

Numberplate obfuscation award.

The girlfriend Googled "numberplate fonts" and got a thread from here as one of the first results. That's a pretty boring bastard topic though and frankly if that sort of thing wasn't to be found here I'd just fuck off.

Can you not just pay the charge when you want to use it? Assuming this is the English system where you can pay your way in, and not the Scottish version where you're entirely banned and get a stacking fine.

I think they're based on the Pug 104 but with a 2CV engine. I don't think they were awfully popular.

So, the last few weeks were pretty busy with me getting the car ready for FOTU. Polishing the entire car and refitting missing trims. Also got the parcel shelf refitted. Discreetly wired in some upgrades. Flushed the coolant system out (doing the rad, heater matrix, block and expansion tank seperately). Gave the steels a halfarsed satin black. @davidfowler2000 popped over with a wet vac and the interior was cleaned, seat runners greased etc. Before on passenger side, driver's side done. Replaced some exhaust mounts which were tired... Drained and refilled the gearbox. Car was running great and the only issue was the bonnet release cable snapped and was replaced with a bit of wire sticking through the grilles in the bonnet as a temp measure. Of course, those who've seen the FOTU/Grumpy thread know the outcome... About 15 miles in I noticed it was getting hot, over 1/2 on the gauge. This never happens, it rarely ventures much above 1/3rd. I flicked the heater on and reduced cruising speed to 55mph as I had been going pretty hard and didn't fancy stopping on the hard shoulder with the girlfriend in the car unless absolutely necessary. Pulled into Hamilton services with the gauge tapping the red marker. Heard something hit off the undercarriage and spotted something roll off towards the lorry park in the rear mirror. Met up with @blackboilersuit and @Supernaut and then jogged over the road to see if I'd ran something over or something large had fallen off. It's not uncommon for me to leave tools in the engine bay... Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be the crankshaft pulley nut. @blackboilersuit and @Supernaut launched off back to Mr Suit's house to acquire a BIG SOCKET to reinstall it while I had a nose at the coolant system. It hadn't exploded out of the overflow but was clearly very hot and opening the rad cap with a very long screwdriver revealed a lot of foamy coolant. I quickly whipped out the thermostat to make sure it hadn't stuck, but it seemed find. We then refitted the crank nut (with Loctite this time) with me manning the bar while the radiator was held up out of the way. Then we could restart the engine. This showed that the water pump was working but with the rad cap off revving the engine would overflow the rad with foamy coolant. I went to check the oil and found it reading slightly overfull, and the car nearly stalled when I took the dip stick out. HGF M9. Coolant was topped up and I toddled back home at a steady 50-55mph with a check of levels at the halfway mark and no issues. The car also never got massively hot, although admittedly the 'stat was still out of it. My best guess is that when I'd flushed the coolant 2 days prior and ran the car around the block I actually had an air lock somewhere in the system. I've never had an issue with air locks but @MrsJuular had loads of issues getting the air out of her mechanically identical Toledo. The car didn't really get used much the next two days as I was out of the house 12-14 hours at work. Throwing the car at the motorway and sitting at 75mph then cooked the cheapo head gasket. It wouldn't be the first time I've had a generic gasket fail not long after fitting, but I couldn't get hold of a decent Payen one for this engine as they seemed to be out of stock everywhere. At least a head gasket is only a 2hr job and there doesn't seem to be any major mixing of liquids... Jury is still out on the oil level as neither my driveway or the place I'd broken down were on level ground. As a bonus the 740 blew a tyre on the return leg of the trip. Not much fun changing a wheel in the dark on a bit of the A66 with no hard shoulder but some guys in a pair of Mk3 Cavaliers were making their way north post FOTU en-route to Belfast and stopped to help.

Ready for the show. 15 miles in it started getting hot. Pulling in to Hamilton services to meet up with @blackboilersuitand @Supernaut for a convoy south I head something ping off the undercarriage and saw something rolling off into the lorry park in the mirror. Hopped out and went for a look at it turned out to be the crank pulley nut... @blackboilersuit dashed home to grab an appropriate massive socket and we got it reinstalled. Less fixable was this: Constant foam from the coolant, overflowing when revved. When I pulled the dipstick the car nearly stalled. Aye, that's fucked. Limped it home and swapped to the Volvo. Made the show, didn't take any photos, Girlfriend_70s did take this one though: Good time was had by all and @davidfowler2000, @blackboilersuit and us set off northwards. Just at the last stretch of dual carriage way on the A66 a horrendous wailing noise started. I crawled up the side of the road looking for somewhere to pull over unit the sound intensified to the point where I gave up and just parked half on the verge to try and avoid destroying the car. Turned out a rear tyre had suffered sudden loss of integrity... Luckily a pair of mk3 Cavaliers were convoying back to Belfast from the show and stopped to lend a hand and we got the car onto the spare and out of harms way within a few mins. Changing a wheel in the dark and rain at the side of fast moving traffic was not fun... We did make it home alive though, arriving around 12:45am.

Dolomite did a died. Bringing the Volvo.

It didn't when I took it off, but that's not to say there shouldn't be one. It's not reverse threaded or owt, handy... The fact it came off as I was pulling into the services and we heard it ping off the undercarriage and I saw "something" in the mirror rolling into the lorry park is nothing short of a miracle. It could easily have fucked off on the M74. 😂

It had been retorqued. I flushed the coolant the other day suspect I airlocked it and overheating blew the gasket. I drove it home and it never got hot but still pressurising. Composite style generic no-brand gasket. They never came with copper ones to my knowledge and the decent Payen ones were out of stock everywhere. I've had a cheap gasket blow before after not many miles so not unprecedented.

30 miles into the drive to FOTU, Dolly started pressurising it's coolant. Bastard. Also when I pulled over the crank pulley nut fell off... Swapped to the Volvo for attempt no.2...

@rml2345actually raided this a couple of weeks ago and got some bits for me! At least the bits that weren't rusted to oblivion...

Having dailied 70/80s cars I reckon I now can't be arsed. The 740 is the only car I have that can really keep up with modern motorway traffic but is now getting to the age where parts supply is becoming an issue. The Acclaim ditto, just can't get parts for the very rare occasion it goes wrong. Dolomite has all parts avaliable, despite being the oldest, but quality is dire with rubber components lasting 12 months and lots of dead on arrival or not quite fitting stuff. Other drivers will cut you up and try and bully you out of the way even if you're doing over the speed limit. Driving becomes a lot more defensive in an old car. I try to avoid motorways if possible. Employers don't tend to like old cars. If you miss work because your modern shits itself that's bad luck. If your Morris Minor breaks down you get the "you really need a more reliable car" chat... Then there is rust. Annual welding repairs and a car that will be steadily devaluing despite best efforts is a depressing thing. I still run old shit for personal use and fun, if my work was only 10 miles of A roads away I'd probably daily an old car. Memories of lying in a puddle at 1am midweek trying to fix brakes for a 7am start at work reminds me of the realities...