Coprolalia

This is one for the bike pervs!
My sort of Father in law (I am not actually married to his Daughter but its close enough!) liked motor bikes and didn't really like selling them. He also had a bad habit of taking them apart and then he would get distracted and start working on the next bike and then the next bike. This habit/hobby interest started in the Sixties but fortunately he was fairly selective and as a ships engineer would spend a good 6 months or so at sea unable to purchase more bikes! 
Fast forward to January 2024 and sadly he left for the great race circuit in the sky, leaving behind a collection of 12 motor bikes, only 2 were properly complete. He didn't label anything as " he knew were everything was", this meant in the shed and garage there were piles of parts, draws of carburetors and gear sets etc but with no clues as to which bikes they belonged to! This isn't a dig at him, like most of us he hadn't spared too many thoughts about dying!  But it has inspired me to actually label up my various car parts for my 3 project cars, so should I get run over by a number 42 bus, my other half will find off loading all the cars and bits that bit easier! 
After talking to the Mother in Law a decision was made  that it all bikes and bits needed to go, she suggested scrap! We suggested auction as it might help towards her care home fees especially as one of the bikes is a none matching numbers Vincent Black Shadow! 
Anyway after a bit of shopping around My better half got Bonhams to agree to deal with all 12 bikes. A couple of weeks ago the first batch of bikes got collected they were the Vincent, a Norton International, a little Honda Elsinore scrambler and a Suzuki 150  - photos to follow as my other half has those...
Today the rest of the bikes and bike frames went... Including a Moto Guzzi, Norton Rotary,  Yamaha Vmax, Honda Gold wing (early 4 cylinder) Honda CB750 and a Sunbeam.
Guzzi and Goldwing (the Goldwing looks like a bobber, its not its just been stripped back to its frame).


V-Max, Norton and CB750, plus a spare Honda Engine....



A Sunbeam in a shed...

A van's load bed of mostly bike parts and bits...

I'm not really a bike person but it was nice to have a proper (and last) look at these, I can certainly appreciate the engineering and they are all quite interesting in their own ways.  It was sad to see them go a real end of an era for me. I believe most of them will be auctioned as reasonably complete projects, I hope they find good homes! 
More pics to follow hopefully, thanks for reading!  
 

Well that was a more than averagely productive lunch break. 

I made sure to staple a business card to my CV.  Do you know what, it was a woman of a certain age on the counter too.  I'm halfway between their two shops, distance-wise so I'm quite literally ideally placed for location and neither are particularly far away from current home.  There's been a couple of funeral director vacancies come up too, as usual the hours are the problem since they do tend to be a bit all over, which would be fine if the pay was a bit higher so I could afford to just have that as a job so I didn't need to worry about juggling current job and the weird hours.  Funeral work doesn't particularly bother me, it's a career path I've tried to get into before, but the hours and the need to have a very reliable car to get you where you need to be at short notice has always been the difficult bit.
Happily, not in a mega rush here so I can be a little bit picky.  Hopefully something part time will pop up that will work well alongside my current job and give me some work variety and wage security which is what I want most.  I'm literally looking for the sort of job that doesn't expect me to work towards climbing the corporate ladder, or Being Part Of A Team, or whatever.  Just a job that pays a wage and expects nothing more than my regular attendance and sunny disposition.
 

The 800 has been in daily use for a month-and-a-bit now and it has not been without issues - none of which took it off the road though, so there's something positive. 
Problem #1 was the discovery that the sunroof tray was letting water in to the cabin. The driver's footwell was wet as was the top corner of the headlining. Dropping the headlining down showed the metal stub that the drain tube attaches to it rotten. I've effected a repair which was to stuff a grommet in to the drain hole, and avoid parking the car facing down hill. Success! This is one to investigate further in the warmer months. For now, crisis averted. 
Problem #2 is the actuator for the boot release which now does half a job. Press the release button and the boot opens, but the arm on the actuator does not return and you can't shut the boot. A bit of head scratching and poking round in the boot lid with a screwdriver found the problem, and I can push the actuator's arm back in with the tip of the screwdriver. Thankfully the boot can be opened and closed without problem if you open it with the key. Of course new parts are unobtainable. I found a NOS Rover part on the internet, but had my money refunded today as they don't actually have the part in stock. 
Problem #3 was the n/s/r wheel bearing which went out to lunch over New Year. New bearings are cheap enough on eBay and come with two nuts to allow fitment to either side. Earlier this week I parcelled the car up and sent it to the garage. Later that same day, the news was that someone had been here before and totally trashed the bearing carrier through their unfamiliarity with left-hand threads. Guess what... parts are unobtainable! Amazingly someone in Dewsbury had recently stripped a car and had the required part on their shelf! It was cleaned up, a new bearing pressed in and we're back on the road!
All being well, we'll be at the Rustival with it at the start of March. 
 
 

Forgotten thread update time!

The green 800 disappeared to my mechanic back in May, along with a list of jobs that culminated in a fresh MoT. The biggest problem standing in the way of being able to use the car was it pissing power steering fluid everywhere. After a week or so, the garage called to advise the high pressure rail for the power steering was NLA, had been for some time, and stopped the job. The next update I was advised a pipe had been sourced from a Turkish seller with a number of MG and Rover parts - and he'd bought from them previously with success. 
To cut a long story short, it took MONTHS for the pipe to make its way to the UK, and... it was the wrong part! By now the car had migrated to one of the dreaded 'long term' parking spots outside the garage and it took a long time to see it extracted from there and back in the workshop. A local company were able to fabricate a new pipe with the correct fittings. Funnily enough, once work restarted, it was all turned round in surprisingly quick time. 
In total its had the timing belt done, cam cover gaskets, a Volvo header tank fitted with a bracket made to hold it, a new power steering pump, the power steering pipe, CV boots and the alloy wheels replaced with a slightly less scruffy set. 
After washing seven months-worth of muck off it over the weekend, its now on the road for a bit of 'running in' with a view to some longer trips over the Christmas period if there's no drama. So sixteen months after we started, I guess this completely pointless resurrection of a worthless car is pretty much done! 




 
 

It was out of the garage a few weekends later than planned as someone decided to remove the boot seal to discover yet more rust. The seal was removed to see if it was responsible for water getting in to the boot. Anyway, it wasn't - its the rear light clusters (new gaskets to be cut for these!).
Crusty bits;

Now not crusty;

And painted;

Top tip; Make sure your project cars are a close match to the Hammerite 'Smoothrite' paint range. The chance discovery of an old tin of green paint has saved a lot of work masking and spraying here! 😄
So the weekend just gone, everything was reassembled and the driveway cleared so it could be extracted from the garage and washed. We even got as far as running a clay bar over the panels before it was turned around and reversed back in to the garage. Now it is clean and back under cover the next weekend will see it attached with the machine polisher followed by lotions and potions to try and get it looking a little more loved. 
Progress then will slow down again as my mechanic can't fit it in for some much needed attention until the middle of April. I had hoped it would be ready for the Pride of Longbridge event, but it looks unlikely now. 
Anyway, a couple of pictures of it out in the open at the weekend; 

The past couple of weekends have involved fabricating and fitting some new mountings for the front and rear wings, to hold the sides of the bumpers in place. Original replacement items are made of unobtanium, and for good reason - because of their design, over the years they rot and become distored, meaning they don't hold the bumper any more, which causes them to flap in the breeze. See below! 

So a tenners-worth of steel, cut, drilled and painted sees some suitable replacements ready to go!

The front end went back together today, with a replacement front bumper in lieu of the knackered original. It was a bonus to find the fog lamps weren't completely rotted, so the backs have been rubbed down, treated and painted so they will live again (the fog lamps are also NLA!)



Back at the other end of the car, the bumper is off for its new brackets. Hopefully by the end of next Sunday it'll be ready to come out of the garage!

 

Sills and wing mirrors are BRG again now, but no pix of that, as I forgot when the car was briefly out of the garage today. 
In other works, the brand new fuel filler release motor was fitted (megabucks from Rimmer Bros); 


Someone previous to me had made a catch out of a flat piece of metal and screwed it to the car with a wood screw through the middle hole where there should be a rubber stopper. They then opened/closed the flap by applying force to bend the plastic catch over the piece of metal. Thankfully the flap and hinge have survived this muppetry and everything now works as it should. 
Also today was a flush out of the old 'coolant'. This is on the cards again in future as the expansion tank will need to be replaced with a new Volvo sourced item. 

Finally, down the driveway for a much needed wash, turned around and back in to the garage for the next round of jobs...

 

Progress is slow on the grotbags 800. The scabby bit on the offisde sill turned in to holes, bigger holes, inner sill repairs and a home made repair section for the back 1/3 of the sill. Take a look; 



We've managed to spend a bit of time on it this week, and we're now close to the point that the sill will be British Racing Green again soon. The stonechip coating was replaced on the new section of sill today; 


Also, what's really important at the moment is to make sure the wing mirror cappings are the best part of the car! 😄

 
 

To speed things up, I packed the 820 off to my local MGRover specialist with a list of jobs and an instruction to give me a ring when it was done. The result being I've got the car back with a fresh MoT, and (amongst other stuff) the old, fragile expantion tank replaced by the lovely new Volvo one mounted on a custom made bracket. Rather a neat job it is too. 

The non-functioning speedo has been diagnosed as the speedo head rather than the circuit board on the back of the cluster. The second hand one I bought will be disassembled just out of interest so I can see how it's put together and if replacement is feasable. 
In other news, the 800 is back in the garage to tidy some bits of bodywork. Thankfully there's no rot, just some flaky paint on the rear arches and the nearside sill. It all cleaned up with no holes apparent.



The same can not be said for the scuttle panel under the wipers. The scuttle will have to be a patch-up job as they're practically extinct. 


 
 

A day off today, so time to make a start. First off was to find out why the spare wheel well had water in it. Now, I'd replaced the light cluster gaskets a couple of years ago, and removing the copious amounts of boot carpet showed that the area around the inside of the clusters was dry. Hmmm... attention moves to the boot lid and I spot a tiny bit of water just behind the carpeted boot lid trim. My money is on the gaskets for the fog/reverse light clusters on the boot lid. Time to investigate; 

So much carpeting, and so many crappy plastic clips! 

A couple of 8mm nuts hold these little light clusters in. Once removed there's two very squashed rubber gaskets and evidence that the nearside one had been letting water passed. Time to cut some new gaskets with some neoprene;

Old (left) and new (fitted);

Both light clusters with new gaskets ready to fit;

Sadly I'm not going to know if they've worked until the car next comes out of the garage. However, the ones for the main clusters seem to be okay, and fresh foamy stuff should form a better seal than the squashed thirty year old originals! 
Some new parts came in the post today, too. Any 800 owner will now be familiar with degraded coolant expansion tanks, where they develop hairline cracks before giving up completely. 

This one is on its way...

One of the accepted repairs is a Volvo tank. This will need a bracket fashioning to hold it in place, but otherwise is a straight swap!

More next weekend hopefully!
 

The Corona only made a brief appearance as its now switching storage spaces with the Z3, which is reawakened from its slumber over the winter. The Clubman isn't mine, neither is the Rover 200 convertible rotting away just outside the frame.

Today was actually the first time I could have a really close look at what I bought at Mathewsons back in October as the car went into storage not all that much later.

A wash was badly needed, even under a tarp the dust quickly built up.

So yeah, impressions are still very positive considering the silly low price I paid. There is a little bit of bubbling on the passenger front wing panel and outer sill. Since pretty much every exterior panel is bolt-on on the Z3 this should be a rather easy fix however, if I do anything about it at all for now. There's a scratch on the rear quarter and a few stonechips on the very large bonnet, other than that its really just very minor stuff for what is now a 25 year old car.

I've managed to clear the airbag light (driver seatbelt tensioner) and will keep an eye on any fault codes coming up over the next few days. The plan is to take the car out for a weekend in the Lake district tomorrow, plenty of time to get a little more familiar with it then! The cheap floormats will go in the bin once I got a proper OEM-like set. I want to replace the center console dials/shifter trim with the burl wood variant as well to brighten up the interior a little, if I can find a sensibly priced set for a facelift dash that is. The chromeline package helps a little but the less matte black plastic the better.

Its incredible to think that these were sold side by side in a BMW showroom back in late 2001/2002. With its E36 origins the Z3 feels easily more than a decade older inside, the E65 still feels somewhat fresh today.
Speaking of the E65 - the 18 quid pedal assembly actually fixed the limp home mode. It sucks that things appear to break all the time. At the same time parts are so plentiful and cheap that it almost doesn't matter. With the running issues sorted I was able to confirm that the windshield was sealing properly after all, no whistling sounds noticeable at any speed. That meant the A-pillar trims could go back on for one last time:

I've also had a moment to replace the bonnet badge. They are all prone to fading and its surprisingly hard to find a badge that's not clearly Chinese junk sold as OEM part, fake packaging and everything.

That's much better:

Still plenty of other things to sort but this was a satisfyingly easy improvement for once.

Another Year. FFS. 

Managed a days 'Tinkering' on Saturday. 
Job #1 SUCCESS!
Replaced the seizing blower fan, of course the replacement was LHD, so a mirror image of the original (Autodoc didn't state that they were handed). Managed to swap the new motor into the old housing and also reattach and sort out the small air sampling fan which had fallen off. This sits next to the blower under the dash, but sucks air through a tube which runs up the 'A' pillar, across the headlining to a small vent near the sunroof controls. The tube had detached which meant that the air sampler was taking its measurements from air under the dash and not engaging the rudimentary climate control.  Seems to work now, even varying the temp controls has an effect, and the fan is no longer blowing fuses. 
Job #2 FAIL
Had a look at the rear electric windows. The NSR has a blown motor by the looks of it, as I couldn't coax it into any semblance of life. On the OSR the small plastic slider has disintegrated, so the arm is no longer connected to the window. I have some new sliders, that are correct. However the motor needs to come out to fit them, as the stupid design means you have to hammer the slider to flatten out the connecting 'rivet'. Someone prior to me, has hard wired the wiring to the motor. Great. So to repair these I'll need two new motors. 
Job #3 FAIL
Investigated the central locking. Which works from the passenger door, but not the drivers. Need to find a replacement microswitch for the drivers door lock. Also the NSR door will unlock, but not lock when the central locking is used, the vacuum actuator has a couple of diaphragms inside, one of which is blown. I ordered a new actuator, which was slightly different to the original. So now need to order some larger diameter vacuum hose as well. 
Job #4 F*CK KNOWS
I put new Bosch plugs in and a Bosch air filter on, as it was on ancient NGK plugs and a no brand air filter. The old plugs were badly fouled, given how rough it was running, I'm not surprised. Driving around all day on Saturday and Sunday. it ran like a dream. This morning however (it has pissed it down all night) it ran like a complete bag of shite, cutting out at every opportunity until it was fully warmed up. I think moisture is getting into somewhere it shouldn't.

These were all in between assisting M.Imp with the crank seal/cambelt replacement on his recently acquired Volvo 740. Which seems to have been a success.  
 

This arrived today. 
Although the original has decided to work now. Obvs. 
Will get it fitted on the weekend. As Mr Imp and I are planning on a tinkering day on Saturday. 

The Big has decided to shit its heater blower, this week of all weeks. It was a little noisy, but is now blowing fuses as it tries to seize up. 
I've contacted a few electrical motor repair places, but most only deal with big commercial stuff. So looks like a replacement is the only option. 
Second hand stuff is around the £100.00 mark, and most comes from Germany/USA/Lithuania. However Autodoc 'new' ones were £185.00 - until yesterday, where they had them for £100.00
 
I've ordered one, it's not too bad to fit, as it's an under-dash unit. But it'll probably arrive in the spring... 

In the last week I've driven literally from one end of England to the other, and back a again. 708miles, withough any murmer of stalling KE-Jetronic calamity. 

I actually think that The Big just does not like spending its days idlely commuting. A good hot, non stop fast cross country run, which I assume has dried out all the 70's electronics, seems to have worked wonders.

I guess that's what these were built for. 

I've checked block and there is no apparent banana-ing that I can detect. However there is pitting on areas of the block around the coolant channels, but not near the rings which seal the combustion chambers. There is no way of getting rid of this without a mill and a fly cutter so I'm going to live with it. 
I have been On A Journey as far as O-Series family tree is concerned. I was blithely assuming that all blocks and heads were basically the same, and I've successfully ordered parts for other cars (eg Rover 2000 and Freight Rover manifold gaskets) that fit just fine. 
Delving a little deeper I have found that head gaskets differ, at least between FWD and RWD cars and possibly even between FWD car derivatives. 
Part of my previous HG woes may well have been because I've been trying to fit the wrong gasket. 
The gasket in the plastic film is for a Sherpa/LDV and you can see the oil way and coolant channels don't match up. 
Fortunately I have a gasket listed for MG Maestro and Rover 800 (bASe models of which used O-series) coming. 
Whisper it, but I've also smeared a bit of sealant around the block where the pitting is apparent. This is a big Haynes no-no and must not ever be done under any circumstances. 
I wonder if it'll work? 

He is - he's no more than 10 mins away.  I'm not sure if he'd want to see it again - not sure whether there's a certain amount of guilt attached to it - it's all wrapped up with what he went through looking after his wife too (that must have been awful).  
It's a bit sentimental I know and I have no allegiance to the PO - he wasn't someone I knew or know now (have his number and i know where he lives of course) but in some ways he's at the back of my mind when working on the car - I do want to get it back on the road, to do the car proud and to give the PO the chance to see it too (and of course I'm being selfish - I want it on the road so I've got it to drive it - I literally can't wait in all honesty).  
It's taken me ages............literally ages, to realise that it's not going to fix it itself/herself and my friend isn't going to do the majority of the work either.  It's all down to me. So.  It's also a fact that there are other needs that take priority (family/house/garden/trying to get a job.............!) so I've got to make the time really count if I get a chance to work on the car.  I can't tell you how obvious that sounds to everyone else but took me a looooooong time to really get my head around (and accept the consequences of that acceptance - that it's down to me, no one else.  I can get help from the kids etc, but it's for me to direct operations etc etc).  
I fixed the mower on saturday and took the starter motor off our Toro (ride on beast, has a daihatsu 3 cylinder diesel engine making 27hp, it's a 523dxi if anyone's interested, v popular in the US, bearing in mind it was made in in chicago in 1999)  that we use a little bit on the small holding.  Also have a renault 106 54 which deserves it's own thread if I'm honest.  French tractor, american engine, brilliant piece of kit, thoroughly recommended.  Bought it in Oxford and had it HGV'd down.  a friend of mine serviced it before it came down - turns out he did his apprenticeship on renaults back in the day - in fact at the same dealership 'my' renault was sold from in 1995.  Small world.
I'd never have touched the mower (or the toro) if it hadn't been for the lotus.  usually I'd just chuck it at my (tractor) man whom works 10 mins away.  But I'm all in on the Lotus so that equally applies to anything else in my possession.  Fixed the mower. Toro not quite - just need the part. 
I've got the space, I've got the car lift, I've got (er, some) tools, I've got the time too (enforced, but still, might as well use it).  Now to act upon it basically.  
 

Been thinking about this post all day. 
Yes it's useful to have a skilled mate who can rescue jobs and provide advice on tap. 
But... Learning is failing. Failing is learning. He will have learned from his mistakes and you can, too. God knows I have. 
I worked in a garage aged 14-21 in an apprentice type role, weekends and holidays in between studying. My mentor was incredibly patient and a good teacher. 
Then I moved away and for a long time I was paying Other People to fix my cars. Usually it was expensive and afterwards I'd always find stuff wrong or something that I didn't like. 
In the last ten years or so I've increasingly taken on jobs myself. Usually justified by the cost of the required parts and tools being less than the cost of a garage job. 
Sometimes, I get it wrong and break stuff. Sometimes I have to do it twice. Each time this happens, I learn stuff. 
My point being: don't be afraid to fail. You've got work to do on this Excel, maybe it would be easier to learn on an old Escort but this is the path you've chosen. The Excel will bite you I'm sure, it's old and British and that's just what happens. But almost everything can be sourced and replaced if needed.
Strip a thread - drill it and tap a bigger one. Learn how to tap at the same time. Fixed, and now you aren't scared the next time you strip something. 
Also I'm certain the Excel isn't your daily driver. This is important, because failure doesn't jeopardise your ability to get to work or whatever. Failure would mean a setback but not an unrecoverable disaster. 
All of this to say - more power to your elbow. You can do it! Get stuck in and you have the hive mind here to ask if you get stuck. 
(Cautionary note: don't listen to my advice. I'm changing my Maestro head gasket for the fifth time, so I must be completely incompetent).

What's Buzău like? This is not a mine, it's going from the platform to the station:

 
But outside the station you see this:

Elsewhere in the city there's this:
 

 
Yes, the yellow one is a Dacia 1300, older than 40 years and in daily use by the look of it. Here's a newer one:
 

 

We're on! First station achieved after a brisk 5 minutes walk.
It's windy, so the train is  coming. Here it is.

I can see why Saabnut trusts Duncan with his cars! Lovely stuff.
I looked up when BSF was 'discontinued'.....Goooogle says....1948!

Yaris.
 
MR2 wheels fitted have finalised the look for now, staggered 6/6.5j with 195/50/15 Rainsports all round. I might space out the rear 10mm when I'm not broke.

It still needs a passenger driveshaft, but it's now had:

rear beam polybushes (before I got it)
rear ARB
front strut brace
new dampers/Eibach lowering springs
all brakes replaced
MR2 wheels and tyres
stainless exhaust
K&N washable panel filter
a fancy delrin gearknob
OEM under seat subwoofer.

At some point, the only thing left to really do is add upgraded front wishbones, and maybe 10mm spacers on the rear wheels, but otherwise it's ready to just drive and drive. I want to see it to 200k - I started at 106420 in December and I'm up to 113k.
 
 

After I fired up the engine via the battery charger on Monday evening, I left the battery to charge overnight. In the morning, the charger battery level light was still only on amber, which I assumed meant that the battery was refusing to receive / hold charge. Time for a new battery. 
Getting hold of the correct replacement battery should have been easy but Euro Car Parts, specifically their website, made the process very complicated and it took me two days to source the correct battery.
I have been advised that the battery that was in the Sierra was not right for the car. Apparently, the battery was more suited to a diesel engine or a much larger capacity pez motor.

I measured the battery.

I also measured the battery tray, which has three holes for the clamp bolt, which means that the battery tray can accommodate different sized batteries. Clever.

Replacement battery purchased and fitted.

The weather forecast for today was dry and sunny so I decided to take the Sierra to work.
I got my surveying kit in the boot.

I drove from home along the M40 and M25 to Old Windsor, then into Windsor, then along the M4 and A404 to Marlow, then to High Wycombe, then back home, approx 65 miles, I think.




The exhaust fumes smell has been fixed. Evidently, exhaust fumes have been getting past the old gaskets / loose manifold and downpipe fixings and replacing the lot has fixed the problem.
On route home I popped into Wickes to buy a fence post.

Which fitted easily inside the cabin.

I have a few more jobs in mind for the Sierra but you will hear about them next week as I have non car related plans for this weekend.