Landy Mann

Well, it's mine now - will I regret my choices? Probably not given the stainless steel fat exhaust on it...

It only took 12 years!

They're not the most popular of cars but the Ph2 Safrane with the volvo powerplants was always a winner with me. That is, until i removed the engine, put it back, couldn't get it to run, then got it going, then the cooling went, the head gasket followed. I really do have the worst luck with car engines / gearboxes and this one was certainly no exception despite being a Volvo. I'm not a mechanic so i've had to do a lot by trial / error. It's literally the most screwed up then fixed car on the planet. There's nothing on this car i've not buggered up somehow and then had to work out how to fix it and in the process it's cost me more than i'd care to admit. It's been the biggest pain in the arse a car could ever be but for some screwed up mental block of a reason, i couldn't part with it. On a positive note, i've learnt a lot from it that i need to learn when to quit.
So the best course of action was to buy another (£600 jobbie - cars were cheap back then) which got scrapped after 8 months, then a 3rd which also got scrapped a couple of years later. I kept both engines (plus loads of other shit which recently got trashed too due to a house move) but I still had the 1st safrane. 7 years ago i put the 3rd's engine into it and that went the same way.. ran instantly but no cooling system despite coolant bleeding out of all the bleed holes. By this point i'd given away the 2nd engine so couldn't try that. Eventually I ended up swapping the head gasket out which was covered in mayo.. It was a pig of a job with it taking 5 weeks for the volvo dealers to even work out which gasket to order. The engine has far less space on the timing side than the volvo 850 so it was really tight in there and two of the bolts took a lot of head scratching. I got it done but despite the new head gasket, the cooling malfunction continued. 
Last year i had some luck when a couple of local lads came out and plugged in their snap-on kit for less than a penny. It locked up until i started the engine. One of them said he'd never seen that happen before and was stunned. Eventually it pointed to the coolant temp sensor which i knew was wrong as i'd replaced it twice! So they concluded that it had an electrical woe and i set about investigating the impossible again. I'm too embarrassed to tell you what it was but i shall say that it was something simple that i'd completely overlooked for over a decade. Sorted that, cooling fans worked again. All good right?.. well in all the passing years a few other gremlins had set in but i managed my way around those and 2 months after we'd moved again, i was able to collect it and take it for it's first MOT in over a decade.
More pics - taken today!




Just in the nick of time too. 2 days after the MOT my van went off the road again and so the car that the missus had disliked for years because "it's a fucking dead lump of metal" is now alive and slowly winning her back over now that it's doing school runs so she can still use her car for work. 
At 2.5L it's thirsty at 17mpg around town - that's 3.7miles per litre. 33mpg on a motorway is pretty much the maximum. Insurance is a pain too but i won't go there. So now i've got it fixed up and back on the road i shall have to SORN it again shortly and keep it as a spare motor. 

Ta da! 
Big thanks to @davehedgehog31
Now I've got a long way to go and a short time to get there

Registered March 2008, nearly three years after MGR went bust so it must have been one of the last to hit the road.

According to Wikipedia, there were three unfinished cars bought by a dealer and finally completed in 2013!

I've just done something brave.  I've imported a 31 year old Lancia.

I had a Thema, it was a 16 valve TURBO, it was gold, it had lovely green alcantara, it would have been FAST had it ever worked, but sadly it was broken in many complex and headscratching ways.   Having bought it on the promise of restoration, after some considerable time of it lurking in the back of his workshop like an ominous presence the gentleman I bought it from went "Bollox to this" and refunded me.  So I no longer had a Thema.  Sad times.  Because although even having a broken Lancia Thema makes you cooler than the average person, it would be nice to have one that worked sometimes.

So I resolved to find another.  Not an easy task.

And so here's Giovanni, a 1992 Thema V6.  He's from the Netherlands, he was bought from a dealer in South Holland, and he has the 2.8 PRV engine (boo, I hear you Volvoists say, but this is a later, much better development with EFi, it sounds marvellous and Thema owners really rate it).   Being Dutch, he also has the steering wheel on the correct side, though not for the UK which is backward.  But we'll get used to that.  He arrived in the dead of night on Sunday, and so far he's been confined to being reversed into the barn and a blast down the few hundred yards of farm track.

He needs either a battery or an alternator, as he does not go without a jump and even running him for half an hour doesn't mean that he'll go again (spoiler; he won't), there's an exhaust leak which I think is coming from the centre pipe, and there's an indicator bulb out.  After a bit of fettling he'll be in for a test and then I'll start the process of registering in the UK.

Btw, he's named after Giovanni Falcone, the Sicilian anti Mafia prosecutor who was assassinated by the Corleonesi Mafia in the Capaci bombing one month to the day after this car was registered, in a convoy that included a couple of Themas.

Anyway, have some pictures.

Say, er... that list of works to do today was a bit optimistic. I couldn't get a start on it until lunchtime and then it took another 45 minutes attempting to get the wiper arm off. Brian struggled. I had to disassemble Brian as a fundimental part of it would not work due to the wiper arm being in the way. We are now naming it Bri, as 50% of the tool is missing.
The issue was that I could not fit the bolts which kept the two sides of the puller taught. This meant that it would just clumsily slip over the arm. I had an idea.
PLAN A

The pressure screw just slipped off the spindle. Darn it.
PLAN B
Add more ties and the nut.

The clamp just slipped over the wiper arm. Darn it!
PLAN C
Add tie lower down.

She's biting but still slipping clumsily off. Darn it!
PLAN D
Install a socket at the top to stop the clamps collapsing...

It's tight, is it working? Nope. The clamps are still loosing bite but only on one side. Progress?
PLAN E
Introduce something for the clamp to bite on...

The cable ties are now stretching and it's losing grip, and clumsily falling apart. This isn't working is it?
PLAN F
Moar tougher restraint!

POP!

YAY! (distant round of applause)
That took way longer than it should have. There are a couple of factors here that didn't help. a) there's no room to put a tool in and 2) the bottom of the arm is beveled.

Still, we won. Then the real nasty stuff could commence!

4:59 on a weekday morning and it's collection time.
It's modern and it's electric so feel free to not be interested.
A saga in 2 parts.
PART THE FIRST - in which our hero attempts to get a train to Milton Keynes under peril of "a late change to the timetable"

Unfortunately, back in April of last year, my Granddad, the man who got me (and my brother Rich) into cars, and engines, and building, and welding, and all the other stuff that causes me so much trouble, passed away at the age of 84 (fairly ripe old age, given some of the stuff he got up to  😂
Over the years, he has been involved in all sorts of stuff that people on here might be interested in, not least of which is that from about the early/mid 60s, through to 1984, he, along with my Nan owned and ran a VW/Audi dealership, in Walsall in the West Midlands called 'Jem of Walsall'
Nan passed away about 6 years ago, so now me and Rich have the interesting, hilarious, surprising, heartbreaking, confusing, annoying and all the other emotions you can think of task of clearing his house, garages and yard of a lifetime of car/boat/general tomfoolery.
I am likely to have loads of stuff to post up here over the next few months as I uncover it (and actually find time to do so), and as long as people are finding it interesting, and want me to carry on, I will do so, as it doesnt seem right for none of this stuff to ever see the light of day again other than just within our family.
Granddad took a load of cine film, so I will start with a few of those, as I think they might be of interest:
First up is a general view around the garage, in 1969, in the snow:

Next up, also in 1969, a little trip around one of the workshops, and the parts department:
 
 
And lastly for this first instalment, slightly earlier I think, probably 66 or so, him tying some souvenirs bought on a cruise onto the roof of his Dads Rover, and then another shot of the front of the garage
Makes me laugh, as his Dad checks the tying on in the exact same way as he has always checked any tying on we have done - I know where he got it from now  😁
 

Assuming anyone is interested at all, I will try and update this reasonably regularly (there are bloody loads of just cine films alone, let alone pictures, stuff we are finding in with his things etc etc) but obviously we are pretty busy actually sorting all this lot at the minute, as well as normal family life etc.
Let me know what you think, whether people want me to keep posting things, and shout if any questions - I could chat about him till the cows come home - he was my hero, and I don't half miss him....
Jem Molyneux  May 1937- April 2022

Hello. 
I have a lot of Renault espaces. Consider this thread as an admission of guilt, but I also need your help. 
I have a lot of these cars, but never enough. I'm on the hunt for a quadra especially but I'm actually just looking to save more in general more than anything. If you know of any owners, please put me in touch.
I actually posted a hand written letter to a house I saw on street view with one on the drive last week, and even contacted a water company through Facebook to find the owner of one that someone else on Facebook spotted on their travels.
It's a drug problème but I'm going with it and sticking with it. I've met some wonderful people whilst collecting these cars, parts, and breakers. Here are a few photos of mine. 
Edit: bought another one. Red and silver weird looking one. 
Edit: bought a broken silver one with 3/4 million miles in LHD flavour 
Numbers 1 through 6

 
Number 7

Number 8...

My plea to you is to please put me in touch if you know owners who may be persuaded to sell, a quadra is next on the list be it from the UK or whether I just end up finding one in Europe later in the year.  I am absolutely serious about saving as many as I can both as a financial investment to myself but also as just excellent cars I know inside and out that are slowly becoming nonexistent. 
Likewise I have a very very large stock of parts, almost three full MK1 facelift injection cars in bits, so if you know someone in need please point them in the direction of "musee de l'espace" (me barn) 
My reward to you is a sunset photo of one that I sold. Then I bought it back because I'm *definitely okay. 
 

*definitely not okay 

And yesterday as it wasn't raining I finished fitting the closing panel on the rebuilt door pillar and also ground back and coated any bare metal nearby.


I now had no excuses left for not trying the door for size.

Well for a 63 yr old car thats had a lot of it's structure replaced (at least twice) the door fits way better than I dare hope.

Done.
 
 
Errrrrmmm…. well, is it ever done ? 
 
 

I had the same with my fiesta last year, fortuanlty the local motor factors keep ford coolant caps in stock.

Absolutely this.  £55 is a tank and a half of fuel in the sodding Invacar...that is going to make absolutely zero difference to anyone in the real world - and if it is, sorry you shouldn't be on the road as you're not in a financial situation to keep your car in a safe condition.  If you can't afford the £55 you're not exactly going to be able to afford the repairs are you?
Given I can walk around basically any public car park around here and pretty much guarantee I'll find at least one car within a couple of minutes with the tyre cords visible says all I need to about "people will be responsible." Like hell they will.
The MOT is a bloody good idea and great value for having a second pair of eyes run over the car and my work.  I'm only human, I miss things sometimes.  Plus I don't have a two post lift, brake rollers or decent emissions tester...

And up to yesterday.
 
Dash needs covering, fitting of switches.
 
A few other small jobs, then MOT time.
 
Hopefully a pass. 
 
 

So, polishing Turds can be rewarding.
 
But they take time and patience, plus a few friends. 
 

Jeepers, this is turning into a bit of a mystery. The eagle eyed ones out there would have spotted that bank 1 upstream is missing.
Being the determined fool that I am, I kept messing with icarsoft and came out of the diag for Jaguar. I went back in on OBD11 diag and selected Jag from the long list of manufacturers. I'm sure I tried this once before, anyhoo, I looked down and it had run through the ecu presence list, again, I selected the PCM > read faults, and didn't hold out any hope. I looked back down at the icarsoft and there it was...
 
P0171 System too lean bank 1
So, what tells the PCM what's coming out so that it knows what to put in? The O2 sensor. I had a crawl under the car and would you believe it... there is a spark plug in Bank 2 upstream hole in the CAT. So my question is, how is this sparkplug bluetoothing data to the PCM?

Seriously, why is this plugged and what's it hiding? Is it just a case of 'no money m8, just lash it up, or is it hiding something much more sinister? That plug has been in there a while as it's fairly rusty. How is Bank 2 missing the upstream but Bank 1 does not show up on data? Has the cable or entire sensor been swapped over so now bank 2 is actually bank 1? Where's the connector for bank 2? Is it sellotaped into bank 1's wiring? 
The only way I can tell is to look at the wire colours and compare them to the colours on the wiring diagram, I also need to find the connector to bank 2 sensor. It's a bit of a mess. Whatever happens, I'm going to need a new sensor which is just a touch over £100.

So now, not only have my bushes still not turned up and my rear wheel is still hanging out, but I can't rag the car either. But, we will get it fixed although it feels like I've been knocked back to square 1! Poo.

Ohhhh, we're not done yet...
Whilst all the wheels were off the ground and I was changing gears, every time I pressed the brake with my hand from outside the car the OSR wheel caught my eye as it was doing a strange thing. Turns out that the bottom arm bush is slaughtered and the wheel is moving around and actually hitting the inner well, mainly running at a toe out angle, dragging the tyre which will explain why the 10 year old Michelins with the same date code have about 5mm difference in tread between them. I really wonder where this car has been getting it's MOT's... I just can't figure it out?
So, decision was made to poly bush the lot, which is on order and not being delivered on time.
With the cars box now put back together, a short test drive was had, you know, because the rear wheel is about to rip off and no faults appeared. I then put the console back together to complete the car and take it on a decent run- slowly. I covered 10 miles and pulled up behind a parked lorry to overtake it, as I pulled away, GEARBOX FAULT!
This was different though, The car hadn't gone into safe and was still running ok. Upon return, code P0705 hadn't returned, but instead it had traded for several others, one flagging a rear speed sensor. Given the work that was done on the car and as its been sat, the faults were noted and cleared. Now I've been using it every day just to ease it back into service and there has been no faults stored and we're all good.
Desperately waiting on the bushes though. Chasing these tomorrow.
The wheel nuts were expired. They swell up causing all sorts of issues trying to get them off.

And the locking key was bent and almost destroyed, so I got black wheel nuts and had replacement locking ones. The wheels will be getting a refurb and going a bit darker in colour.
The interior wood trim... I can't stand it on these cars. The S Type was meant to appeal to younger customers so they stuck old timer wood in it? No. My wood in this car is supposed to be Grey. The sun made sure it didn't stay like that.

So I covered it to pretend it's not there.

A nice tidy up of the interior, and it's a nice place for me to be. I also run a remote and RCA to the back which had to tap into the existing rear speakers so I could get a sub in the boot. I need a sub- always. I also changed all the interior lamps to LED as well as the number plate and front side light lamps. It brings it up to date and uses less power, generating less heat too which destroys the plastics surrounding the old lamps.

Everything, even the AC works... I can't believe it. I've never had working AC in any of my cars (except the Disco, that was for the missis though). It sounds great, looks good and nearly smells good.
I also discovered that this car has electric adjustable pedal box and wait for it... head restraints. Electric head restraints... Lets think about how good that is, and how necessary, for a moment.
Next was to service the engine. No major issues there except for the oil filter not being included in a package and therefore arriving late and the plugs were all just over hand tight.
There is a squeak from the ancillary drive belt area on cold start. The belt and tension look and feel good. I read that putting a smaller pully on the supercharger for moar HPs can cause belt squeak so I'd like this to be what's causing it rather than a worn belt. I haven't checked yet.
There sounds like a manifold blow on heavy acceleration that I need to look into which is a shame as it muffles the supercharger noise so this must be sorted immediately!
Speaking of which, where the car has been sat, opening the bonnet was like opening the crypt door... it was dusty in there and the supercharger casing had lost is luster.  So I covered that too to pretend it's not happened and make it look brand new.

Then I washed it for the first time for years yesterday and took it out for a show in the sun.




After all that, I'm pleased with it and I'm happy to keep it. Moral of that story is : Keep buying massive liabilities, sight unseen.

2023...Gearbox turns up with the missing arch liner. I was going to have a fair few parts off this doner car but given the service so far, I cancelled the other bits until the car was up and running correctly.
I looked at the cars history again and nothing suggested it had been serviced since 2015, so I had that to organise and also be prepared to find the unexpected. Then there was the box fitting v's breaking and fitting parts.
A ) If I got it fitted, I'm in 600 deep plus the service items, any other bits and of course the fitting won't include servicing that, with it's 'use this or it'll blow up special oil', maybe coding... Plus there was no Guarantee that the new box didn't have it's own issues, after all, it's came from a junk car.
B ) On the other hand, I could break it and fit the Mech, service it and put it's oil in, get all the engine service stuff and have cash left over for breakages and coding. The only issue there is that if the operation doesn't work and I'd have to reclaim the mech, then I'd be dumping this new sacred oil and doing plan A anyway. I bit the bullet, decided to break the boxes and hope for the best. Here's the box with the Mech removed. You can also see the rectangular bridge seal on the right which should get replaced as they fracture, and the four rubber tubes c/left which harden up and shrink as I've just discovered!

Lovely black oil in this box eh?  And below, Here's the freshly serviced gearbox by the specialist. You can clearly see that this sump filter was changed really recently... nope, not at all and probably never. He had been at it though, I could tell by the fresh chisel marks around the fill plug. What you need to undo this fill plug is 1) a brain and 2) if you don't have the correct tool, make one by cutting down an Allen key. Clearly, they had neither. I swapped the mutilated fill plug with the good one off the replacement box.

So I'll assume that the wrong oil has been put in there then, good job I am changing it eh?
The swap of the Mech was messy but straight forward enough. Those rubber tubes I mentioned had shrunk so much that I could not see how they were sealing. I had replacements for a BMW box, exactly the same but the bridge seal needed a small plastic tab filed off. Filling the box whilst the engine was running was hilarious fun*.
I changed it through the gears, and got those juices flowing before rechecking and adjusting the level. 6 litres of unknown weird red shit came out, 6.5 litres of special secret formula Jag gearbox oil went back in. It's worth noting that Aston Martin use this box as well, and they use Shell ATF in theirs.
DINNER TIME!
 

Hi all,
Not been on for a while, my account had disappeared into the ether and it looks like my content isn’t coming back so I thought I’d start a new thread, I had tried some time to find a good rhd mark one polonez. I managed to rescue a couple from banger racers but they were both rather rough so the hunt went on. After trawling google it became clear that the uk wasn’t the only rhd market the polonez was exported. I knew of a rough one in Cyprus and heard of cars on Malta but I’d never seen any photos. I decided to cast the net further and look toward Asia, I knew approx 170 cars had made their way to Thailand, some in ckd kit form which were then put together locally and some that were built in Poland and then exported.
from hunting around on Facebook i became aware of a chap calling himself the Thai car hunter.  I messaged him and asked on the off chance he could find me a polonez. He said that he would try but that it would not be easy. I didn’t think there would be much hope but around a year later Chris got back to me and said he had found one for sale. He showed me some pictures, it looked pretty good, I’ve always liked yellow, the only down side was the car now had a Mitsubishi engine fitted. This wasn’t the end of the world a replacement  fiat 1500 engine could easily be sourced. This one wasn’t meant to be however and it slipped through Chris fingers. Alas they say good things come tho those who wait and he found another much better original one that arrived at the barn a couple of days ago. I’ve paid the dues and demands, it now has an mot thanks to uk fso guru Steve caz and I’ve sent the nova paperwork off to the hmrc. It’s had a new weber carb, some new headlights, steve had to do a fair bit of work on the electrics and it had a small patch of welding at the front where the radiator had leaked in the past.
 
heres a few photos of some polonez 

Coolant pipe swapped for a nice new stainless thing.

And off it goes.

Problems to be overcome : 
It wants the choke out a bit even when warm, otherwise it stalls.
It likes to stall at junctions and won't restart without lots of cranking. 
I'm thinking the carb needs a good service.  Apart from that it drives well apparently. No more scary steering and brakes!

Bought this to replace a perfectly good Mercedes ( force ail in t’other section…)
An car dynamically inferior in every possible respect…..

Spot the Casio Blu tac'd to the dash

Someone knows their Korean chintz. 🇰🇷👌

 

A95…. Honest old barge…. And only marginally younger than me…..