scdan4

Wrong crank seal supplied. Correct one here first thing Tuesday. Bah, that means the Car is stuck on the ramp until then. in other, hopefully better news, the mondeo replacement should appear on Tuesday too.

I was well pleased with it despite it being the result of a fuck up. Was worse than that. At least 2phone kits were hidden in there as well. Spliced adapter loom city. I started with the pure digital kit which i knew needed an aux input on the head unit which I knew didn’t have one, but that was fine and dandy as I’d read about the sc80* aux hack. carefully opened the head unit, split it apart and soldered in an aux. Very pleased with myself. Test installed with jury loom and it’s utter gash. Anything on the aux channel is horrendous. Must have ballsed the soldering, so dismantle and reassemble, except mr ham fisted twat here manages to peel the conductor strips off from the base of the ribbon cable at the end. Reinstall with no cd just to see and it’s the same. Turns out you can’t hack an input on the sc805. Should’ve read more first. Gumtree alpine double din does look lush (and it appeals to the teenager in me) and was cheap. But had no cage and also pointed out that Volvo has a slightly different idea of double din to alpine, so despite being wedged in with blue tack it also needed a rib hacksawing off the dashboard. And came with yet another different fucking loom. still, got it in and all’s good. Drive home basking in high fidelity paradise. Turn off the headlights and the radio dies.ffs. Somehow the dash illumination feed had become the switched live, and the switched live was to battery. Rewire, again. Hooray, better? Power sorted but sound gash on the digital radio again. I cannot communicate how much that pissed me off. So I ignored it for a week, then pushed the aux in Jack on the headunit fully home, and wadda you know, sorted. Ffs. what a palaver. cleaned the vacuum pump too, it was getting pretty lazy again. And whilst dumping phone photos, have a shot of Tom the mechanics weekend toy.

More happenings. the ICE has been upgraded baby. But fuck me what a palaver. I’m normally not to bad at lectrics but this somehow ate about 20 hours of my life. Every twatty little hitch. But it’s done, is nice and tidy and works well. Anyone got a cheap sub? Its in to Tom next door for all new belts and tensioners today. A real birthday job. Popped in and was presented with the crankshaft pulley. Not a lot of life left in that! Water pump and Crankshaft oil seal were also leaking Other than that nothing too scary has been reported but it’s feeling like a preventative maintenance win for me right now.

Love it. Quality control made it in to work today. Abusive message received. This apparently is no where near good enough and is an affront to all painters and wheel makers who ever have been and ever will be born. Shame rains on my family. Meh, good enough for me auld Volvo I would have thought, but they’ll be reworked for me. happy days. £1450 offered for the mondeo, if you know better then please see the question section.

The moons of Managing to get the day to myself and the spray booth being empty aligned. Hurrah. (Although I should have been working, but am not due to payment being viewed as optional. Happily this has caused chaos, I was booked elsewhere all week by 9.30, missed from site by 11, the money was in bank by midday and he’s got all week to think about his actions) Get the new wheels gurt lush. It’s bad form to paint the clamping faces (paint melts when it gets hot reducing the clamping force as it gives and then acting as a lubricant), so mask them off. Then wash with thinners, hang and hit with a decent coat of etch primer. Looks promising. Doesn’t take long to dry, then rub back with red scotchbrite (cos the grey scotchbrite cupboard was bare), air wash it down then a grip coat which was far heavier than intended, then a heavy heavy topcoat. the colour is all washed out and wrong in this photo as it’s under proper bright led strips. It’s darker than its showing and will darken a bit more as it cures. I think it’ll be an ok colour on the car in daylight. thats the worst wheel above, which was also found to be slightly beaten up, (so will go on the back) so I’m well pleased with the finish. Can always change the colour later!

Does ruffgeezer still exist? I thought I bought a couple of stickers from him a little while back, but suspect they got lost in the implosion...

(I quite like this, although I know I shouldn’t) https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F153382569628

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123739267306

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F254215676582

Silver manual one in Kettering? I’ve been considering it as a mongdayno replacement, but really can’t get there for a week or so. 500 quid all day long though...

I like strippers. the masses have been heard, ral 7015 slate grey ordered.

5 minutes presented itself. new* wheels curtesy of a AS Volvo licker have been waiting for attention. One of the recent bits of serendipity in my life has been our new unit, which is between a friendly drifting mad mechanic with a decent tyre machine to appease his habit and a wheel stripping place. You can guess what’s coming. These turn into these and are given to the stripper. black or silver is the current problem. Silver winning, marginally.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F323796943844

Time. That would take loads, and I have little. And this one has done 130k so probably not worth the effort.