Andyrew

Smurf it.
With the 3 tyres being old and one very old heavily cracked. New boots were on the cards anyways. Some 155 80 12s were ordered, hifly super2000s at £116 for 4. 

The wheels were an almost purple, deep blue and rather scruffy. A quick knotwheel back. Zinc primer and a thick coat of the same coach enamel went on. 

Ring and cap polished up a an old tyre lobbed on for a test to see how it looked. 

Its not a shade of blue id choose but like the roof , its a big improvement for no dosh.  
All five wheels have now been painted and new boots will go on this week.
With the wheels off i stuff the tyre inflator on and pumped up the dropped side. As much as it could (100psi ish) and i looked for leaks , i expected/hoped it would be a rusted hardline pipe but sadly its the flexi to the rear displacer.  Bugger! 

 

Out today dodging the occasional flooded road.  Think im approaching maybe 350 ish miles since it was fixed.  Its just been a good egg really. 
 

Bit of a shuffle around the workshop see these to fine automotive marvels parked up next two each other. Vp now pumped up and at correct height according to my new (to me) very handy factory looking manual.

Manual came with some extra paperwork from the 80s



 
 

Needs more pumping action but we are back up in the air. 

After that cleaned up i dug into the roof. The cracking originates on the factory paint so the damage is very deep. Back to Bare metal then? Err no. That requires the expenditure of more money and thats just not happening. Its getting what ive got and thats it, 
I had however overlooked one thing. And that was to check the paint was still okay. Sure enough it was an unopened tin. Score!
 
 
 
Wasnt the colour of the car tho! Ahh well on it goes,  Two coats of coach enamel slapped on with a far too small brush. Flatted back to get some of the dust its awful wobbly and you can still see the cracks i couldnt be arse to dig down too.  but it sort lf matches the look of the car, i pressed in on the edges to give a bit of a worn look, a bit improvement for little cost, just time mostly.

Out today dodging the occasional flooded road.  Think im approaching maybe 350 ish miles since it was fixed.  Its just been a good egg really. 
 

Out today dodging the occasional flooded road.  Think im approaching maybe 350 ish miles since it was fixed.  Its just been a good egg really. 
 

Looks lovely, a blue bmc 1100/1300 in the countryside always reminds me of….

Out today dodging the occasional flooded road.  Think im approaching maybe 350 ish miles since it was fixed.  Its just been a good egg really. 
 

Out today dodging the occasional flooded road.  Think im approaching maybe 350 ish miles since it was fixed.  Its just been a good egg really. 
 

Been a while hasnt it? 
The daily updates thing failed, because i failed. Some of the days i last posted about i was actually off work at the time. I had been given time off after id just broken down mentally one morning driving to work. Everything just seemed to come to the surface and i couldnt hold it down anymore. Id not been right and knew it was coming it was only a matter of time. 
Moving forward, the workshop visits got less and less. I did a "fuck it why not" buy and that just got parked inside. I worked on a few others cars to help them as while i wasnt enjoying working on  cars i do enjoy helping people and that in turn made me feel a bit better. I had some good days and some bad.
As we all know things take time and as the past few months have gone by ive got to a much happier place im glad to say, probably feeling the most like myself than i have in many years. I still have things to change but for now, im happy.
Exploring local woodlands solo or with a great friend has been a thing im trying to do more of

And how does one get to these places? 
By noble steed, now approaching 178k might i add. Not much to report, a few unwanted potholes has knocked the alignment out and its feels a bit off on the bends. An occasional stumble in the revs shows its head randomly too. A service and tracking to be done in the next few weeks. 

The christmas break see some mojo appear and i got in the workshop for a few days. Just doing whatever i fancied. I have to remember this is a fun hobby. Not a job so i can pick and choose, and leave when the fun stops.

Gave the Zafira a one-bucket wrong un yesterday.  Or rather I would have done if my bucket hadn't gained a hole in the bottom from being bounced around the garden by Storm Whateverthefuckitsnamewas the other week.  So I had to use a washing up bowl instead, so it took a bit longer but the car looks slightly more respectable now.

The list of jobs for an MOT has increased though - the little reflector which sits in front of the dipped headlight bulb has fallen off on the driver's side so it might need a replacement headlight, and the centre seat belt in the second row seems to be stuck.
No further progress on the Z4 suspension - I was going to try and get the top spring plate off the old strut, but my spring compressors won't work on the spring - because of the design of the strut the compressors can only grab two coils and then the claws run out of travel before any meaningful compression has taken place.  I can grab three coils in one spot but that then just bends the spring over.
I pulled the cover off the Lexmoto 125 thing I bought last year - it's been sat untouched with a cover over it in the back garden since October.  To my surprise, with the fuel switched on and a bit of choke it fired up after half a dozen kicks and ran fine.  The tyres even still had air in them.  So it might actually be worth me sorting it out and getting it back on the road in the spring.  Another project is just* what I need...  Mind you the Spacy turns 40 on Tuesday so at least that won't need MOTing this year.

Simple but satisfying jobs today.
The carpet underlay in the front was switched round so the cutout for the pedals was in the right place.  Still don't know why that didn't occur to me when I was fitting it - though having to work around school kids running around my driveway at the time probably didn't help.

The observant among you may also spot the other thing I forgot yesterday afternoon.  The fuel switch was left on overnight.  I can however now confirm that the needle and seat in this carb are decent enough to prevent the whole tank decanting itself overnight.  Though it did leak by enough that I created my own little recreation of that video of them crossing the border the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall when I started the car up.  Thankfully after five minutes or so of driving the biblical levels of smoke reduced to invisible again.
As I had hoped the carpets had fully dried overnight.  They're not spotless by any means but I think are a hundred times better than they started out.

My suspicion was that once they were in the car that the marks would be far less apparent.
Think I was right.


Perfect?  No.  However it's a 39 year old car, and based on that context I think is entirely acceptable.  The area by the pedals is looking in really surprisingly good shape given there's no separate heel pad or anything there.

Not sure what these carpets are made from, but it seems to be pretty hard wearing whatever it is.
Next issue I wanted to address was the door cards.  Nothing says quality like trim that fits this well.

The main reason for that is that a whole bunch of these clips were missing.

Of the eighteen that should be in that door card there were three present (and four in the driver's door).  With them all present and correct it looks...a bit better.

Being totally honest this card is never going to sit absolutely right as it's been quite badly water damaged and is warped as a result.  It's a lot better though.  Doesn't flap around a bunch when the door closes now either.
Same was done on the driver's side.  That one at least has escaped any major water damage so is sitting properly.
It's actually looking like a car again!



If you're really paying attention you may have noticed that the driver's side window winder has changed from chrome to plastic.  That's because I have two plastic ones but only one chrome one and then being mismatched was bugging me.  Yes the metal one looks nicer, but I'll take them matching over individual visual appeal.
Really need to get the parcel shelf under the dash out to give it the same treatment as the rest of the carpets as it's absolutely filthy.  That might wait till the weather is a bit warmer though so I can just leave it in the sun to dry.  
The carpets will come out again at the same time as I want to get the bulkhead behind the shelf rust proofed same as the floors, and to get proper paint on the area beneath the B pillars so the current tide mark isn't so obvious.  Shorter term all the carpets need to come out the boot so it can be properly dried out and rust proofed as well.  That requires me to empty all the crap out first though!
While in the boot, I did spot a convenient spot to mount some concealed speakers if I did decide I wanted to fit a stereo at some point in the future, which honestly I doubt I will.

Between the carpets being back in the car (and no longer saturated) and the cooling shroud now actually being bolted together the car is waaaaay quieter to drive.  Don't get me wrong, it's still ridiculously loud, but it's a thousand times better than it was.  You can actually have a conversation at 50mph just by raising your voice a bit rather than actually having to shout.
Here's the before and after from the day I got the car and today inside.


Quite the difference.
Externally not much has really changed though!

I had a few errands to run today, which car?
Range Rover - hard to park
Astra - uses too little diesel
Morris 1300 - heater not working
480 - The desire is there to drive it. Also the heater works well and it is good to check that it starts every time as it has just had a second new starter fitted.
 

So it started, as it often does, with a perusal of all the cheapish, localish, broken shit that was on ebay.
This one wasn't listed cheaply and I'd left my gambling pants at home, so I settled for a different approach.  A conversation with the seller via messages and a promise to view promptly if it didn't sell via the auction.
You forget these little asides, dont you?  You have these conversations fairly secure in the knowledge that most of the people on eBay are fine, upstanding, folk who wouldn't dream of pulling a seller's pisser when it comes to something like selling a car?
Well now, imagine my surprise* when less than an hour after the auction finished, the only bidder pulled out of the purchase.   The car's owner, Scott, was good enough to get back in touch and offer me a viewing of the car.

There are one or two marks on the paintwork,  but it looks very well on it's miles.  The interior is very clean and a testament to the owner's late brother who has kept the car neat and tidy, but there is of course to be done or it probably wouldn't interest me at all!

To do:
Replace the battery and collect the car. MOT - last years advisories for rear discs & pads and both front arm bushes. Service - unused for at least a year. Roof inoperative - the biggun - but I like a challenge. There will doubtless be more as I work through the car, but it's a rare hen in that it's a 2.0 diesel with 6 speed box, full heated leather and auto lights/ wipers.  Definately the right time of year to be getting into something like this I reckon.

yeah, my contact just confirmed they have 45 kits in their stash, so ill see about purchasing 2 or 3 having a couple spare in this case cant hurt  

Needs more pumping action but we are back up in the air. 

This is what is currently in the sump. But I don't think that topping it up with a pint of normal semi-synthetic 10W40 is going to kill it !

Had  @Sigmund Fraud not given a wee list of things done and things needed. I too would have guessed 20w50. 

Plas update, covered maybe 100 - 120 miles over the past few days.  All seems good enough. Gets a smidge exhausty in the cabin with the windows down.  Will have a look for leaks. Went to drive it today so gave it a quick oil check, seems we are now below min ( in fairness i never checked it beforehand ) having been told the car is running 10w40 motorcyle oil i have nowt to top up with, so today the car got a little break. 
 

Needs more pumping action but we are back up in the air.