captain_70s

This car no longer exists.
That has zero qualities of a car for restoration. Extensive panel damage, rust, no glass, missing trim, ruined interior. It wouldn't even make a parts car, aside for potentially the running gear.
Worth of a mint Consul in 2005 was maybe £5k, even today with them being worth twice that better Consuls than that go in the bailer.
I suspect it's more likely somebody is doing something dodgy to keep the no. plate alive for resale 

Well. 
That escalated quickly.

Well, long story short... the wee Mazda is back on the road!
After barking up the wrong tree for a bit with the fuel pump/relays, we got to the right sensor.  With all codes cleared, I turned the engine over, and in frustration really, let it churn for a good 20 seconds.  This seemed to be enough time for the ECU to flash up a code again (it never had since the initial handful at the breakdown). 
The code was 2, which is 'crankshaft position sensor'.  The car doesn't have one, instead using the cam angle sensor mentioned earlier (just under the rotor arm).  I think this replaces the points in this halfway electronic set-up.  The CAS reads the cam position, and via the ECU, signals the ignitor (a wee black box) to fire the coil.
A read through the mx-5 forums showed that this part is now prone to age-related failure, although usually at start-up.  Trying to find a complete unit was impossible, I think all bar the very earliest mx-5/miatas had 'coil on plug' ignition, doing away with the rotor arm?  None of the castings looked exactly right either.
I set about the thing on the kitchen table, and was faced with a pretty simple looking set of pickups on a plastic plate.  It's a Mitsubishi-made part, and when I put the number into Google, up it came at a place down south!  On the shelf and £55.



Anyway, it arrived today, and within an hour it was on and going!  Running sweet as a nut (just as before), we're all very happy.
This wasn't a quick fix, with work shifts, weather etc... and there has been a bit of parts darts.  It got both fuel relays, a fuel filter, an ignitor, and of course the new CAS module.  However, I've learned a lot, and feel confident it is sorted.  I'm planning a service and a cambelt when work next allows, although it still looks very new.  For now it has been put back together and cleaned inside and out, and is just back from band practice (boot rammed full of guitars/amps/drums, just as it should be!).
Phew!

This car no longer exists.
That has zero qualities of a car for restoration. Extensive panel damage, rust, no glass, missing trim, ruined interior. It wouldn't even make a parts car, aside for potentially the running gear.
Worth of a mint Consul in 2005 was maybe £5k, even today with them being worth twice that better Consuls than that go in the bailer.
I suspect it's more likely somebody is doing something dodgy to keep the no. plate alive for resale 

This car no longer exists.
That has zero qualities of a car for restoration. Extensive panel damage, rust, no glass, missing trim, ruined interior. It wouldn't even make a parts car, aside for potentially the running gear.
Worth of a mint Consul in 2005 was maybe £5k, even today with them being worth twice that better Consuls than that go in the bailer.
I suspect it's more likely somebody is doing something dodgy to keep the no. plate alive for resale 

This car no longer exists.
That has zero qualities of a car for restoration. Extensive panel damage, rust, no glass, missing trim, ruined interior. It wouldn't even make a parts car, aside for potentially the running gear.
Worth of a mint Consul in 2005 was maybe £5k, even today with them being worth twice that better Consuls than that go in the bailer.
I suspect it's more likely somebody is doing something dodgy to keep the no. plate alive for resale 

1969 Toyota Crown 11,217 pounds



https://www.finn.no/car/used/ad.html?finnkode=324469664

Surely this needs to find its way to @captain_70s and be reunited with its namesake.

Vol… 
Is supposed to be followed by “vo” not “kswagen”

The description gave me an aneurysm.
Examples fetching £10k? Where? There are a dozen Minxes on Marketplace currently and none are over £5k. Several have been for sale for a long time.
I'll agree the value is only going one way though. Down, as the owners die or give up driving, hence the glut of this era of "garage find" car currently hitting the market...

And tyres that are VIGOROUS

We all know they used to like raiding the parts bin, but someone has gone one step further with the driver’s footwell mat…

From an Acclaim

The description gave me an aneurysm.
Examples fetching £10k? Where? There are a dozen Minxes on Marketplace currently and none are over £5k. Several have been for sale for a long time.
I'll agree the value is only going one way though. Down, as the owners die or give up driving, hence the glut of this era of "garage find" car currently hitting the market...

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/424554783269215/
"Argson 4 sail. Gr9 we runnr. Ideal 4 sum1 crippld in th gr8 war"

This equally comes with diminishing returns.
I've been keeping an eye on certain 50s cars and while dealers are stocking concourse winners at £20k (and not selling them) a good example is £8-10k and won't suffer the same sort of depreciation from being used or drastic devaluing if something drops on it in the garage and chips the paint.
Values of pre 70s stuff has definitely stalled, likely due to the traditional owners dying off and the economic situation leading to belt tightening. I suspect this will continue as the generation that had final salary pensions etc pass away and spare money dries up.
80s/90s stuff is going nuts as there are a lot of folks in their 40s earning significant money in IT and middle management who can splurge on nostalgic stuff. Similar to how old games consoles are now rising in value. Although given how many folk are mortgaged to the hilt and survive on credit that may nit be particularly sustainable.
Really old stuff from the 1920s seems to have held fairly steady, I suppose those who are nostalgic for that era are now largely gone so the pool of buyers isn't prone to fluctuations.

This equally comes with diminishing returns.
I've been keeping an eye on certain 50s cars and while dealers are stocking concourse winners at £20k (and not selling them) a good example is £8-10k and won't suffer the same sort of depreciation from being used or drastic devaluing if something drops on it in the garage and chips the paint.
Values of pre 70s stuff has definitely stalled, likely due to the traditional owners dying off and the economic situation leading to belt tightening. I suspect this will continue as the generation that had final salary pensions etc pass away and spare money dries up.
80s/90s stuff is going nuts as there are a lot of folks in their 40s earning significant money in IT and middle management who can splurge on nostalgic stuff. Similar to how old games consoles are now rising in value. Although given how many folk are mortgaged to the hilt and survive on credit that may nit be particularly sustainable.
Really old stuff from the 1920s seems to have held fairly steady, I suppose those who are nostalgic for that era are now largely gone so the pool of buyers isn't prone to fluctuations.

Still waiting on the styrene tube I ordered for the AEC fuel tank, so while I’m waiting…
Did some more on the F150 utility truck. 
Dummy doors added, door latches, fuel filler cap, rear low tailgate, tail lights all on. Just the wheel arches to finish.



 
Most of these were white, basic trucks bought en mass by companies as cheaply as possible so I’ll probably spray it white after I’m done building it. Just pick out some details here and there in other colours. 
The interior though I’ve done in tan (Humbrol desert yellow) just to give something on it a bit of colour.

 
Also started the next truck project.
The D series. I took the cab off the old Dinky chassis and stripped the paint off ready, but something was annoying me about the Dinky cab. Looking at it, then photos of real ones, it looks like Dinky made the cab front panel too far forward of the base of the windscreen. It left a big shelf between the screen and front panel.

Would it matter? Really!? 
It annoyed me sufficiently so I started fixing it by making a mess of it! 
Razor saw deployed.

   
Then after ages filing and sanding metal away from both pieces…


Thats better! 
I could probably have gone further, but the strip under the screen was getting very thin so I decided that’d be good enough. It’s been glued back together now and I’ll leave it overnight to cure, then reinforce the back of the joint with chemical metal putty. Then a bit of filler on the outside to round the corners off nicely. 
Then it’s getting a new modern chassis and cement mixer body!
 

A picture paints a thousand words:
 

So, me, @GingerNuttz, @davidfowler2000 and @jaypee were involved with Dolly related shenanigans this weekend.
One major goal was to finish assembling the engine and shove it in the car so it could be sealed up away from grinding dust etc.

You know your car is high tech when it features wooden sealing blocks in the engine...





Mission accomplished! Big thanks to the whole crew for the aid in fitting it. The whole engine was lifted into the car and installed by hand because building the crane seemed like a faff...
More digging in the bodywork occurred and bad things have been found.

So, the tail end of the sill was at least three patches deep, with another underneath and one around the back. The inner arch also had several layers of "repairs".

The arch under the riveted repair panel was even worse than the other side. Further prodding revealed...

The entire inner arch was crafted out of filler, over the untreated rust metal, it'd then been undersealed. It mostly pulled apart by hand...

The entire inner arch will need replacing, the top of the sill and the door jam above the wheel can go back in but were removed for access. The rear inner sill and reinforcing panel were both remade and welded in in an attempt to give the car some structural integrity before the door jam was cut away.
Oh, the boot floor is also fillered, and sections of the trailing edge of the arch seemed to be entirely made of weld...


You can't get panels for the inner arches, we considered buying something similar for another, more popular car, but they're mega money. I also really need another wheelarch repair panel for this side, naturally there are currently none for sale, regardless of price.
Every "repair" that has been carried out on this car has worsened it's condition to the extent it is now well beyond the point where anybody would bother saving it. Especially as it's a sub-Sprint car, the man hours involved will lead to resto costing several times the car's end value. Naturally work shall be continuing onwards despite the fact we never expected the car to be this bad...

The shad shed has had some later replacement plates…

 

 
Theyre in a blocky modern font and follow the love for black background plates. IIRC you can put these on anything up to a ‘79 now. To a number plate obsessive (raises hand awkwardly) this feels, and looks, all wrong.
Anyway- would a 71/72 k been on the more modern reflectives or the old plates? Maybe, maybe not. I wanted a bit of 70s modernist realism going on so ideally wanted a reflective set. 
Trouble is, the 7s and 8s are all wrong on these. I want an 8 to have an hourglass shape. Yes im aware this sounds pervy 😂 and a brand new number plate has no patina.
So i got hold of an old number plate that had the key older characters i was after, and added new old stock one of those that were missing.

 
I then aged the too-new looking NOS ones with some wet and dry, took it all to bits, and drilled and reassembled.
So the shad shed has a bit of a 70s sweeney / long good friday era look to it….

 

I think late September was about the last time I was arsed doing fuck all.
The Dolly had a run out around Northumberland during Twixfest.



It was then driven into the garage and forgotten.
The has Volvo continued to rack up daily driver points (for the very few car miles I do these days).

A major issue for the WBOD was lack of a heater blower motor. The resistor having failed and then the motor seizing solid not long after. Naturally both a unobtanium. I acquired a 940 motor which seemed to be the same with a different plug and then couldn't be arsed fitting it, because summer.
Then winter came so I went to fit it.

Ok. So the blades are marginally bigger so it's a very tight squeeze to get it in but then... Wait. It won't screw into the housing?

Naturally, the threads on the 940 motor are deeper and incompatible with the 740 housing.
I pondered options for a while and eventually concluded with destruction.


It's now an interference fit aided with tape. I may go back and make up some sort of bracket so it's less likely to fall on to Girlfriend_70's feet if we hit a pothole...
I've got a Volvo 850 resistor which is similar-ish to the 740 one. I'll have to make up a loom adaptor though, which I can't be arsed with, so it's all or nothing as far as fan speeds go.
More critically it's pulling badly to the left, is eating the outside edges of the front tyres and the exhaust is blowing at the mid section. So for now it's laid up.
The Acclaim is in the garage.

I've fitted a electric fuel pump to replace the original (unavailable) mechanical one. It's the sort usually found on upgraded MGBs/Morris 1000s and the like.

Powered by a relay that takes a signal off the ignition control module wiring. So it only runs when the ignition is on. It works well and means it fires first turn of the key as the pump brings fuel up to the carbs without spinning the engine.
I also made up a new mount for the windscreen wiper which had collapsed into the bodywork.

Here is a crude representation of the metalwork where the wipers mount.
T
The red is what I would call the bulkhead and is a few big panels with minimal holes.
The yellow is presumably a reinforcer of some description, it has quite a few big holes pressed in it despite not obscuring anything, presumably to save weight.
The white is a "cup" which holds the wiper spindle. As seen here...

So, the white cup is welded to the yellow panel along one edge, the yellow panel is spot welded to the red bulkhead directly under the windscreen.
You might think that the force of the wiper spring and the linkage moving around would cause quite a lot of stress on such a small area, and you'd be right, as while 99% of the yellow panel was minty fresh the area where the "cup" was attached was rotten. As it'd fatigued the wiper had started wiggling around adding to the fatigue and multiplying the rusting.
Grand. So, how to repair? The best method would be to remove the windscreen and dashboard to remove the scuttle panel to get access. Well, the screen is already cracked in one corner and they're notorious for shattering on removal (making spares rare) and the seal is perished and also unobtanium (The last known supplier of Mk2 Civic screen seals ran out a couple of years ago and announced no more would be made due to worn out tooling and lack of demand).
Right. Fuck that then. Screen is staying in. 
Second option would be to cut the scuttle panel out without removing the screen. Suspect the heat/flexing caused by removing big chunks of metal in the proximity of the screen could well break it. Let's not do that either.
So. Keyhole surgery through the fresh air intake grille it is.





That's as far as the pictures go. The plate had way too much flex in it to hold the spindle steady and my attempts to add strengthening ribs made a mess. Especially as the welder decided wire feed was optional and would only move wire about 15% of the time I pulled the trigger. 
In the end I added another plate here:

The curve was needed to clear the wiper mechanism but also acted like a big spring to hold the "cup" in place. 
Ultimately, while it was sturdy and not structural, the repair looked like shit so you don't get to see it.
So with a new fuel pump and functional wipers we had a functional car, yes?

No. Not really. After being laid up so long the electrics have gone a bit... sporadic. The light switch on the stalk now has dodgy contacts so various lighting circuits will just randomly stop working. I'm hoping I can strip it and clean it, but if not I think I have a spare stalk somewhere...
Oh. And it immediately blew a hole in the centre section of the exhaust.
Also it wouldn't idle. Ran fine on choke but when choke was off it'd die instantly. Suspect the idle circuit is blocked...


So the next step is cleaning up these carbs full of unobtanium rubber seals. Just waiting on some JIS screwdrivers landing...
Once the current wave of repairs is complete it'll be 4 SAIL as, with having a works van for commuting, it just never gets used. The Volvo eats motorway miles and the Dolly is the go-to smoll saloon, the "very reliable car on classic insurance" is no longer a requirement. Lack of use is the cause of most of its recent issues - Dried out fuel pump diaphragm, corroded electric contacts, water sitting in the lowest section exhaust.
This leaves the Dolomite as the most dependable vehicle on fleet, as it always starts on the button and just goes. How times change...

FLEET UPDATE TIME.
THE ACCLAIM:
I washed it, put a cover on it and forgot about it.


Then one day I went to move it and it wouldn't start. A bit of faffing found that no fuel was reaching the carbs. Diagnosed fairly rapidly as a dead fuel pump. The original mech pump is NLA (I found one for sale in Aus, but it was gonna be £120 for a 30+ year old part...) so I replaced it with a decent quality electric lift pump. Currently it's wired direct to the battery so I can move the car around the driveway and works great. Just need to find a switched live to run it from and somewhere to mount it.
Less good was this:

The cover was fine for the 5 odd weeks of no rain we had but some rain leaked through and the mineral content seemingly baked into the paint within the space of 2 days. Polish/T Cut wouldn't touch it so I resorted to wet sanding which  at least got it to a point where it's not as noticeable. This paint just has no resilience to fuck all. The only reason I put a cover on it was that any bird shit causes the paint to crack in under 24hrs.
Even less good was that while I was hunting for a fuel pump mounting spot I spied that the passenger side windscreen wiper had collapsed into the scuttle panel.


Essentially it's just rotted off. Access is abysmal, ideally the windscreen would come out for a proper repair, but they're NLA and mine is cracked already and the seals are also NLA so that's not happening. I have formulated a vague plan of making an entirely new mounting plinth and welding it in font of the original. This is somewhat down the priority list currently as I've been working on...
THE VOLVO:


Nothing major to report with this one. I replaced the ARB drop links.

Naturally there are two styles and the one I needed was seemingly out of production and only available easily on mainland Europe. Luckily I found Brookhouse Volvo had some in stock, albeit at double the price of the Euro stockists.
@rml2345 also raided a 740 saloon that had landed in U-Pull-It in Inverkeithing and got me a few bits. Namely a correct side rubbing strip to replace the 940 one I had, a tow cover and the trim for the windscreen corners.



Just back from a Haven caravan park holiday in it (Me and the Mrs really know how to live).

The main eater of my free time has been...
THE DOLOSHITE:
I continued building up the newest iteration of it's powerplant.



@juular and Mrs Juular came over, dropped off and assembled @320touring's engine crane which had been used to fit a Volvo Amazon engine. Then Mr Touring himself and @jaypee came over to assist with the engine swappage.



Manifolds were tarted up and swapped over.




It took a while to get the engine wiggled onto the gearbox but with some blocks of wood and a jack we got the two angled correctly and bolted up.
The only real issue was when the front engine lift point/alternator bracket died midway through lifting the new engine.

Luckily it snapped and then slowly bent rather than letting go and instantly dropping the engine onto the nose of the car and @320touring spotted it dying. Presumably it was just fatigue from having been used to lift the engine on multiple occasions. Luckily I had a spare...

We actually used a different mount for the lift though, one off the Herald engine which was a different design with less harsh angles.
The following day @davidfowler2000 came over and helped for a bit before utilising my driveway to swap his 205's sump... Then @juular, Mrs Juular and @Supernaut turned up to really start devaluing the local property values.

Several days were then spent trying to get the fucking thing to run.

Essentially it'd cough but not actually run. We swapped the carb, the dizzy, the coil, wiring, cleaned points, adjusted mixture. You name it we fucked about with it endlessly. Eventually I had to admit that, despite quadruple checking everything I must have fucked up the cam timing.

I think it was 3/4 a tooth out. Or something fucking silly like that. Anyway it got put back together and an attempt to start had it briefly run for a few seconds. So the cooling system was rigged back up ready for breaking in.

Then I broke it in. Nothing particularly interesting to report except it'd only run on full choke. After the break in I found massive air leaks around the carb so manufactured some new gaskets.

Breaking in oil already swapped for 20w50 and the filter changed. On the "to-do" list is re-torqueing the cylinder head and doing the valve clearances again, refilling the coolant system, as at the moment it's just water for leak testing and flushing, and carb tuning/double checking ignition timing. Then I can start road testing.
Fixed the (loose) headlights in with new hardware today and Girlfriend_70s assisted in fitting the bonnet this eve.

Maybe by the tail end of this summer I'll have three fully functional cars...

 

Current functional car status 0/3.

So the Acclaim ran out of MOT at the start of Feb and rather than fixing the handbrake I decided to sort the Volvo first. This ran out of MOT at the end of March.
It had a binding front left brake. Strip, clean, reassemble, sorted.

Looks quite crusty...




Oof.
Caliper bores were corroded, pistons were corroded and seized, slider pins were completely seized, massive lip on the discs, brake hoses perished. Same on both sides.
Naturally these calipers are now rare and expensive so I borrowed a drill hone from @juular and cleaned up the bores. I think a lot of the crud was actually bits of piston chrome that'd stuck to the sides as the pitting was pretty minimal.
Then I borrowed a vice from @320touring and some strength from @jaypee and with a combination these, a blow torch, a big hammer and a massive locking wrench the slider pins were freed from the carriers. The bores for these were then cleared out with a Dremel.
New seals and pistons were fitted and a blast with high temp silver paint I had lying about, because it'd be rude not to...

This brake union on the driver's side wasn't playing ball:

So I went out and bought the proper spanner for the job and then rounded the fitting anyway. Clamped it with mole grips and set at it with the blow torch having forgotten that I'd only drained the passenger side of the system... The resulting explosion took out the hose and left me slightly deaf in one ear.

Anyway, got it freed off and put a new flare on the end of the old pipe.
This disc retaining pins were also good fun.

Back together.


I probably should have replaced the backing plates, but couldn't be arsed...
Bled the system and ran it up and down the street, stops in a straight line and nothing seems to be sticking. MOT is booked for Tues...
 
In Dolly engine news:
Fitted new thrust washers, measured the end float, buttoned the bottom end back together. Nothing really much to show there.
Most of what I've been doing is cleaning ungodly amounts of sludge off/out of everything...

I also acquired this:

The massive socket only, the impact was borrowed from @dome
With this I could remove the crank pulley...



This meant I could get the cam out...




Ouch.

Gross.
I did the sensible thing for a budget engine build and bought a new cam...


So, back to scraping gaskets and scooping sludge...

Refitted oil pump and front plate and installed new cam. I also waved some black rattle cans around.

Restored*


 

Next stage is to get it flipped over, head back on, get the cam/crank/dizzy timing all locked in, then fit the new water pump, back plate, drop in the car and run in...
Mildly bricking it as this is the first engine I've built solo.
 
 
 
 

Got hold of a shorter fan belt and it fit, so the new alternator is fitted. The next thing is wiring, I've got most of it done but I'm struggling to find an ignition source so will have to look more at that when I have more time.

 
So will have to study this and see if there is anything I can connect to.

I think late September was about the last time I was arsed doing fuck all.
The Dolly had a run out around Northumberland during Twixfest.



It was then driven into the garage and forgotten.
The has Volvo continued to rack up daily driver points (for the very few car miles I do these days).

A major issue for the WBOD was lack of a heater blower motor. The resistor having failed and then the motor seizing solid not long after. Naturally both a unobtanium. I acquired a 940 motor which seemed to be the same with a different plug and then couldn't be arsed fitting it, because summer.
Then winter came so I went to fit it.

Ok. So the blades are marginally bigger so it's a very tight squeeze to get it in but then... Wait. It won't screw into the housing?

Naturally, the threads on the 940 motor are deeper and incompatible with the 740 housing.
I pondered options for a while and eventually concluded with destruction.


It's now an interference fit aided with tape. I may go back and make up some sort of bracket so it's less likely to fall on to Girlfriend_70's feet if we hit a pothole...
I've got a Volvo 850 resistor which is similar-ish to the 740 one. I'll have to make up a loom adaptor though, which I can't be arsed with, so it's all or nothing as far as fan speeds go.
More critically it's pulling badly to the left, is eating the outside edges of the front tyres and the exhaust is blowing at the mid section. So for now it's laid up.
The Acclaim is in the garage.

I've fitted a electric fuel pump to replace the original (unavailable) mechanical one. It's the sort usually found on upgraded MGBs/Morris 1000s and the like.

Powered by a relay that takes a signal off the ignition control module wiring. So it only runs when the ignition is on. It works well and means it fires first turn of the key as the pump brings fuel up to the carbs without spinning the engine.
I also made up a new mount for the windscreen wiper which had collapsed into the bodywork.

Here is a crude representation of the metalwork where the wipers mount.
T
The red is what I would call the bulkhead and is a few big panels with minimal holes.
The yellow is presumably a reinforcer of some description, it has quite a few big holes pressed in it despite not obscuring anything, presumably to save weight.
The white is a "cup" which holds the wiper spindle. As seen here...

So, the white cup is welded to the yellow panel along one edge, the yellow panel is spot welded to the red bulkhead directly under the windscreen.
You might think that the force of the wiper spring and the linkage moving around would cause quite a lot of stress on such a small area, and you'd be right, as while 99% of the yellow panel was minty fresh the area where the "cup" was attached was rotten. As it'd fatigued the wiper had started wiggling around adding to the fatigue and multiplying the rusting.
Grand. So, how to repair? The best method would be to remove the windscreen and dashboard to remove the scuttle panel to get access. Well, the screen is already cracked in one corner and they're notorious for shattering on removal (making spares rare) and the seal is perished and also unobtanium (The last known supplier of Mk2 Civic screen seals ran out a couple of years ago and announced no more would be made due to worn out tooling and lack of demand).
Right. Fuck that then. Screen is staying in. 
Second option would be to cut the scuttle panel out without removing the screen. Suspect the heat/flexing caused by removing big chunks of metal in the proximity of the screen could well break it. Let's not do that either.
So. Keyhole surgery through the fresh air intake grille it is.





That's as far as the pictures go. The plate had way too much flex in it to hold the spindle steady and my attempts to add strengthening ribs made a mess. Especially as the welder decided wire feed was optional and would only move wire about 15% of the time I pulled the trigger. 
In the end I added another plate here:

The curve was needed to clear the wiper mechanism but also acted like a big spring to hold the "cup" in place. 
Ultimately, while it was sturdy and not structural, the repair looked like shit so you don't get to see it.
So with a new fuel pump and functional wipers we had a functional car, yes?

No. Not really. After being laid up so long the electrics have gone a bit... sporadic. The light switch on the stalk now has dodgy contacts so various lighting circuits will just randomly stop working. I'm hoping I can strip it and clean it, but if not I think I have a spare stalk somewhere...
Oh. And it immediately blew a hole in the centre section of the exhaust.
Also it wouldn't idle. Ran fine on choke but when choke was off it'd die instantly. Suspect the idle circuit is blocked...


So the next step is cleaning up these carbs full of unobtanium rubber seals. Just waiting on some JIS screwdrivers landing...
Once the current wave of repairs is complete it'll be 4 SAIL as, with having a works van for commuting, it just never gets used. The Volvo eats motorway miles and the Dolly is the go-to smoll saloon, the "very reliable car on classic insurance" is no longer a requirement. Lack of use is the cause of most of its recent issues - Dried out fuel pump diaphragm, corroded electric contacts, water sitting in the lowest section exhaust.
This leaves the Dolomite as the most dependable vehicle on fleet, as it always starts on the button and just goes. How times change...