Mally

Sorry to keep everyone hanging for a little over 2 weeks... or over 3 years depending on how long you've been following this... This is gonna be a long one 😁
 
After a 3 year delay from the last time this 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS had been worked on, I finally have a rather grand update for everyone. Back in 2020, I had been working on recommissioning this beautiful piece of 80s muscle that my father dallied for the better part of 20 years from buying it like new in 1989 with only 3k miles on it to driving it over 140k miles into the early 2000s. Around the mid 2000s, the car failed it's state inspection for emissions and needed new tires, both of which were not a priority for my father to take care of at the time and therefore the car sat dormant, and sat it did for just under another 20 years until I finally came of age to get my own license and begin to take an interest in the dilapidated beast in our garage. I had just turned 18 in 2018 and got my full license and wanted to look into getting my father's car running once again, clearing off the decade-plus worth of dust and cobwebs covering the once-glittering maroon paint underneath it. I didn't get very far since I didn't have much time or money to work on the car as a high school student, but the interest was there.
Fast forward a year to 2019 (where this thread begins), and I wanted to take another crack at it. I had done some small things like putting air in the tires, getting a battery, and working to clean out the interior and trunk leading up to attempting to get it started with my grandfather, a former mechanic who knows the car like the back of his hand. Upon coming home for spring break from university, my grandfather came over and we managed to get it started with relative ease on the nearly 20 year old fuel and other fluids. While the project then had to go on pause again until the summer given I was going back to university after the week was up, at least we knew the car started and ran. Upon coming back from university for the summer, I ran into the next problem of still not exactly having enough money where I could go out and buy new tires, where were the most immediate priority for the car in order to get it in any kind of drivable state. Unfortunately, that meant the project was going to sit again other than starting it every once and awhile to drive back and forth in my driveway or a simple up and down the street.
Fast forward again to 2020. where due to the unforeseen circumstances of an ongoing global pandemic, I found myself home from university, working a ton more hours than usual, and quite a bit more free time than before. So I set out to do some serious work on getting the car running and drivable once again, going out and buying jack stands and a hydraulic jack for the car, breaking free the 20 year old rust, and getting the rims off the car. I bought a new set of 4 tires for the car and got them fitted, and once again, got the car running with ease. I also finally washed off the decade old dust and grime and let the paint really shine for the first time since it was repainted to factory spec in the late 90s. I bought all new weatherstripping and door seals to fit around the doors and trunks to stop any leaks from the old, warn out and falling apart rubber. Finally it seemed like everything was on track for the car to be road worthy once more, until I hit the next major roadblock... Insurance and registration. The car couldn't be registered without insurance, and reinsuring the car was going to make our plan go through the roof, nor did I have the funding to pay for the insurance myself. Plus, at the same time, I bought myself a 30 years newer car, a 2017 Ford Escape Titanium (or to those across the pond, a Ford Kuga), so that took a pretty large chunk out of my wallet. I still continued to drive the car around on local streets until October of 2020, where I happened to cautiously drive further than I had previously gone and venture across from my neighborhood to the closest Costco gas station. As the temperatures began to turn and the likelihood of me being able to register and insure the car remained low, I threw the car on jack stands for the winter and let it sit once more.
As it turns out, winter became another 3 years as life resumed once more. I got in a relationship, university resumed, I graduated, and I then I had to of course worry about that pesky work thing... Now we're in April 2023, and we are switching our car insurance to a different provider, and they ask about good ol' Monte, and we explain that its been stored in the garage for several years and that its not registered. Our previous insurer had a tier for just storing the car, which was a sufficient enough choice for all that time since that's all it was doing, but our new insurance didn't allow for that, so they said we needed to have it actually insured and registered. They tried their best to express a *wink wink* over the phone as they could, saying if you promise to go get the car registered in the near future, we'll go ahead and insure it now, so we agreed and said we'd do so. So great, the car is finally insured! I go to try and get the car registered now as the next step, filling out all the paperwork until I realize... I need my father, the owner of the car, to go do it himself. My father is not exactly the fastest person in the world at doing anything (see, leaving the car sitting idle for 20 years), so this was not going to be a simple task to get him to go to the DMV.
Fast forward to October, my father's current license was expiring so that meant he had to go to the DMV. Unfortunately, my state is incredibly dumb and won't let you do everything you need at a DMV at every DMV in the state, so he'd have to go to two different DMVs to get his license renewed and register the car. While he got the license done, it took asking him every day during September and October to get him to go with me to the DMV to register the car. He finally said "let's go take care of it" one random Saturday after asking him, and so finally off we went. We go to the DMV, hand them the paperwork, and... they tell us we need to pay back at least 3 years worth of registrations of the 12 years it had not been registered for (we were still registering it up until they stopped letting us renew it by mail for some reason) because we never surrendered our license plates. We had no idea that was a law in my state as it wasn't posted anywhere, but we begrudgingly paid it. They also told us that any car older than 1996 no longer needed to be inspected, so therefore its prior failure for emissions no longer mattered. So... that finally meant IT WAS REGISTERED AND INSURED!! I honestly didn't think I'd get to that point any time in the near future, so it kinda felt pretty unbelievable. I celebrated the milestone by removing the no longer necessary failed inspection rejection sticker and taking a couple teaser photos (one of which I posted above hehe):


I wasted no time with getting everything I needed to start the car up once more. The next day I ran to Walmart and got a new battery, fuel stabilizer, brake fluid, silicon lubricant to treat all the door seals and weatherstripping, white lithium grease for all the moving parts on the doors and hoods, and transmission stop leak in case the transmission had developed any leaks, along with a new modern radio antenna.

I took care of everything I needed to, filled the tires, dropped it off the stands, and had my father help me get it started once more. Once again, the car started up with relative ease. Oil was still topped off from 2020 and looked relatively good despite almost all of it being 20 years old, transmission fluid was still nice and red, full, smelled clean, and no evidence of any leaking. Brake fluid was still full and looked clean. Coolant was topped off once again with a couple drops, but that's about it! My father and I went for a drive, where he was truly in his element and thrilled to be behind the drivers seat once more. His favorite song, Don't Stop Believing by Journey, was the first song to come on the radio after turning it on, as if it was destiny. We drove it out of the neighborhood for the first time in just under 20 years and went for a decent drive, blowing out the cob webs and making sure everything ran right. He pulled over and let me into the driver seat and I got to finally give it a proper drive after all that time and anticipation, and boy did it feel good. The car runs and drives perfectly, as if it had never gone into hibernation for almost 20 years. Brakes felt good, shifting felt smooth and fluid, drove in a completely straight line, and still had just as much torque as ever with its small block Chevy LB9 305 5.0L V8. 
 
Here it is in it's first parking lot in many many years:

Despite not evening being washed yet at that point, the glittery maroon paint still looked great in the sun!
The next day, I got it all washed up and cleaned once again to go pick up my girlfriend to show the car to her grandfather, who had requested to see it as soon as I got it running. Here are some before shots:

And here's after:

Here's the car hanging out at my girlfriend's grandfathers house and her house:

Today I needed to return some things to Home Depot, so I wanted to run the Monte this week, so I took it for a spin today as well and of course grabbed a picture too:

So, finally, the Monte is essentially road worthy and almost fully recommissioned! There are still several things that need to be taken care of next:
- Resealing the front and rear passenger side tires to the rims because they have a slow leak (they've had a slow leak since they were installed in 2020, did not get them fixed back then)
- Taking the car to my grandfather's partner's shop and getting it in the air to do an oil change along with swapping any other fluids/parts as needed and to give everything else a thorough once over that wouldn't be easily accessible from the ground
- Fixing the cloth ceiling upholstery that is currently being held up with thumbtacks
- Waxing the entire car, then look into fixing any additional paint chips and scratches from being dinged with bikes over the years in the garage
- Likely replacing the passenger side wiper blade arm because the new wiper blade doesn't make complete contact with the glass (the driver side wiper/blade works fine, and I swapped the blades to make sure it wasn't the blade itself, but it still worked fine on the drivers side but not the passenger side)
- Consider getting brighter, further down-road headlights
- check/repair air conditioning system and convert to R134a instead of R12 if feasible
In the immediate future, the above list is all I can think of that needs to be taken care of. For now, the car runs and runs great and I plan on driving it at least or as close to once a week as possible to keep everything charged, loose, and running smooth. So yes, FINALLY this recommissioning project not only has resumed once more, but is just about done at long last. I apologize for keeping everyone waiting for all this time and for the lack of updates over the years, but thanks for everyone who stuck with it and hope the end result was worth it 🙂
 

As posted in the end of year tat accounts, i had an itch recently for a camper. I didnt wish to pay for a proper camper, but also didnt want to inherit a worked to death builders van that had a bed put in it.
Solution? buy a converted minibus. Rooflining and some (basic) interior trim in place already, whip out some seats and put some amenities in.
Which is basically what i bought - a LWB former minibus for a fraction of what a proper one goes for. No i cant have a shit in it, but then again i also dont need to clean out a chemical loo.

 

 

 

Pleasant day today so some troubleshooting and repair.

This freeze plug had decided it wasn't a plug any more, rather more a nozzle. 

Bashed at it a bit with a cold chisel and it came out, followed by a lot of rust.

Flushed that through a touch. Better.

13/16" spark plug socket and a hammer; new plug in place and sealed up.

Checked it was charging, cleaned up some contacts. That'll do. 

Gives nice bright lights. 
However, number 2 cylinder didn't appear to be doing a great deal of work, so I pulled the plug and tested the compression. 

Not great but certainly enough to make it pop at idle so I tested the plug wire, that was good, but the plug was bad. No spark.

Bought a new plug, checked the gap - correct wide gap for hei ignition.
Improved things considerably, especially at idle.

Also means it'll peel out easily. A good afternoon's work.
 
Phil

Set the ignition and mixture.
Fine tuned it and decided to see how slowly it would idle.
Phil

A bit of cut and weld today.

Started by making up the mirror image of the passenger side mid-pipe.

Rain stopped play, need to clean the welds up. 

They fit pretty well though. Weatherman says the rain should stop now for the rest of the day (believe it when I see it). Now being held up by FedEx who have my mufflers on their truck with expedite labels on, and they still aren't here yet.
 
Phil

I'll stick up a pic now because the way the weather is it'll be dark when I get there. I know these are pretty popular on here, has this one ever been part of the shite collective?

Shouldn't be necessary, but worth doing just in case. Easy if you use online banking or an app, but suspect you might not.

You are EddyRamrod and I claim my five pounds.

We lived on a main road.
When my wife explained where to someone they always said.
Oh! he's the one with the funny cars outside,
No one talks to me much. I often can't hear them.
I did get one guy, who when it was mentioned I was deaf, broke into fluent sign language. Unfortunately I can't understand that either.

My renewal with the AA insurance is due from 1/1/24. I have 14 years NCB.  I am 77 though.  OL15  9ED
Rover 75 Tourer. Last year paid £377.51.
Renewal quote is, sit down please.
£1,010.25.
@JJ0063 Can you help at all?
I have a month yet so have not tried the Meercat at the moment.

Woop 

Is that an Iceland trolley?

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

My renewal with the AA insurance is due from 1/1/24. I have 14 years NCB.  I am 77 though.  OL15  9ED
Rover 75 Tourer. Last year paid £377.51.
Renewal quote is, sit down please.
£1,010.25.
@JJ0063 Can you help at all?
I have a month yet so have not tried the Meercat at the moment.

My girlfriend's funeral today, which understandably has left me in a bad way mentally, especially having not slept for the past two nights, and I also came down with a cold yesterday.
The service was a perfect send-off for her, but something always has to spoil it - namely the seven cars I counted that overtook the funeral procession when we were en route to the crematorium because they were too important to wait behind it.  Fucking disrespectful arseholes!

And then I get home to find that Amazon had dropped a parcel of ours at the chav house next door (not our doing or instruction in the slightest, we weren't here) and in response Miss Chavette had left a note through our door reading along the lines of "Don't have parcels delivered here, and stop slamming car doors cos a baby lives here, have some respect". 

I'll be replying along the lines of "I'll have some respect when you behave like ordinary human beings rather than stereotypical bone-idle chav cunts, and also stop shouting at each other in your garden at 2am and waking me up - some of us have to go to work, not that you understand what that word means."

I passed my mod 4 of my CPC this morning. Mucho happy.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

Mint Imperial in the glove box.

The SGS 3 ton low profile is an excellent tool.  Very safe and can drag cars sideways with it.
But it needs to be used on a flat solid floor and is almost impossible to carry for long distances.

https://www.sgs-engineering.com/catalog/product/view/id/2112/s/tjl2-2-tonne-low-profile-trolley-jack/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAsIGrBhAAEiwAEzMlC2yJESJ7E6I2ynZHBnaWzl81nAl_zb9xBWjAa-UwtyZhMwYxoJE4BxoCzb4QAvD_BwE
Black Friday innit. plus £7 delivery
Only problem is you can't drag the car with a loose handle.

Mrs Concern with my 1st car

It was hers at the time this was taken

Looks like the body man reckons he can straighten out that rear panel and she has a lead on another door that is apparently rusty but complete so we'll see how that goes! 
 
 

It was, as suspected, the thermostat.  In off-the-car testing it wouldn't open, so they put a new one on. 
I've been out in it this evening, just into town and back.  It's so easy to see why I've missed it.  Driving is effortless in exactly the way the Suzuki isn't.  The suspension is a bit slow to pump up; we think the pump might be on its way out.  For the moment it doesn't matter, I can live with it.
@Mally: don't worry, two Motability cars was never the intention.  If I do go for one, it'll be instead of MrsR's, not as well as.
Unless I get a sudden good offer, I'll run Handsome for the winter and weigh up my options in the spring.

Eddy, I've been in your position. My late wife had a Motability car, I was main driver.
We chose one that suited both our needs. She needed to carry a mobility scooter in the back, I needed to tow.
Grand Scenic's, Grand Piccasso's, Alhambra.
I also dabbled with my own cars as you do.  Rickman Ranger, MGB x 2, Rover 75 x 2.
Sometimes I didn't have one of my own.
When the time comes to let Handsome go, I'd advise just running your wife's for a while.
I'd never consider having 2 Motability cars. They are a godsend, but that is absolutely throwing money you haven't got down the drain.
Save the cash for a while, then dabble at the smaller, hopefully cheaper end if you must.
 

Eddy, I've been in your position. My late wife had a Motability car, I was main driver.
We chose one that suited both our needs. She needed to carry a mobility scooter in the back, I needed to tow.
Grand Scenic's, Grand Piccasso's, Alhambra.
I also dabbled with my own cars as you do.  Rickman Ranger, MGB x 2, Rover 75 x 2.
Sometimes I didn't have one of my own.
When the time comes to let Handsome go, I'd advise just running your wife's for a while.
I'd never consider having 2 Motability cars. They are a godsend, but that is absolutely throwing money you haven't got down the drain.
Save the cash for a while, then dabble at the smaller, hopefully cheaper end if you must.