Zelandeth

I'll probably look at adding some relays here.  Given this has quad headlights, and the centre high beam pair are 75W apiece plus 60W each for the outers on high beam - so in the region of 23A on main beam - that's quite a lot of current to be running through that one little switch.

Few little bits and pieces done this afternoon, but nothing particularly ground breaking.
The Trabant has never been particularly fond of idling smoothly (even by two stroke standards), but it was definitely better after changing the blown head gasket.  Today I had the thought of using an IR thermometer to compare the two jugs to see whether both cylinders were properly contributing.  Imagine my surprise when I pointed it at cylinder number 2 and realised that the spark plug was moving.

Yep, it wasn't even finger tight and I was able to turn it about two turns tighter by hand.  With that tightened up the idle seemed to be a good bit better, though I've not actually done a test drive to get it properly back up to temperature since.  Wish all fixes were this easy.
On the Rover I had a few small things I wanted to look in to (as I didn't feel up to wrestling with the oil pump housing today).
The windscreen washers worked once but have resolutely refused to do anything ever since.  Think I'm going to have to give in and just buy a new pump there as everything *seems* fine and it's not full of slime, it just refuses to pump.  I think the little rubber vanes have probably either gone too hard to work or have perished.  Plus the motor only seems to run about 50% of the time unless I whack it with a screwdriver.  The bottle is cracked and can't be filled more than about 1/3 anyway so hopefully I can find a whole replacement for not stupid money.
I knew something was up with either the headlight switch, circuit or way the switch was hooked up.  This was because as soon as you clicked the switch to the first notch, which should be side lights, you got side and headlights - exactly the same as when set to the correct headlight position.  

Yes, that would do it.
With this jumper wire removed everything appears to work normally.  Though I'm guessing the switch has proven to be intermittent in the headlight position once warmed up.  Can't see any other reason you would do this.  
I've removed it for now (not least because the gauge of wire isn't even close to being up to the job) and will investigate further at a future date.
I had also wanted to have a look at seeing if I could sort the handbrake switch as currently the brake warning light on the dash only comes on via the float switch on the reservoir, and it should also work when the handbrake is on.  I know the lamp itself does work as I've tested it.

However I failed at the first hurdle - how to get into the centre console far enough to find the switch.  I'll need to consult a manual to confirm where the fixings are so I can get it apart without breaking any bits of brittle, near 50 year old plastic.

I'd say the 1.9SDI in the Caddy I had (so 64bhp) was probably towards the minimum you'd really want to live with today.  It was absolutely fine on motorways and would happily maintain the legal limit without struggle even when laden while still knocking on the door of 50mpg, but it definitely wasn't the quickest thing off the mark.  Far from "dangerously slow" as I recall someone calling them sometimes in the past though.  It wasn't fast...but you know what?  It was never designed to be.  It was a workhorse and did it's job bloody well.
I did around the figures you mentioned there, and that included two trips to Aberdeenshire and Glasgow from Milton Keynes for long distance motorway work.  It wasn't the lack of power which saw me move it on either, rather the requirement for more flexible seating!  
I'd say that any "normal" sized car with 80bhp or more would be absolutely fine as a daily driver.  Not maybe the most exciting thing ever but absolutely fine.  Once you get this side of 2010 you'd maybe be wanting to look nearer to 100bhp just because cars got so much bulkier and heavier due to the ever increasing amount of "stuff" onboard.

I'll take that!  
Tester was actually very complimentary of the state of the car underneath.  

Ping me a PM, sure we can come to an arrangement.  It's not going to do me any good as all of the hardware on mine is the later style.  I'll need to see if I can un-seize it at least.  Sadly it's suffered the same fate as everything that was in the boot, looking as though it's been stored on the bottom of the ocean.
Had half hoped the puller might have turned up today, but it hasn't.  Have been feeling really rough today as well which has hindered my productivity somewhat.
Some of you who have followed my trials and tribulations with the Rover will remember me finding this floating around in the back of the engine bay not attached to anything when I had the heads off.

My guess was that it was a breather which should be attached to the gearbox proved to be correct.  Somebody had obviously removed it at some point and never hooked it back up.  Why I'll never know.
This isn't something you really want to leave open to the elements for obvious reasons.  However reattaching that original line wasn't going to be easy.
Can you see where it attaches?

Zoom...

Zoom further...

There it is!

Yeah, there's no way I'm getting the original moulded nylon line back on there.  Maybe if I had the car properly up on a lift and I could get two hands in there from underneath, maybe.  On the driveway, not a chance.  After fighting with it for about half an hour I gave in and fitted a rubber hose instead.

You'll have to take my word for the fact that it's attached at the gearbox end.  Should do the same job just fine though.
The fluid level was also a *little* on the low side.

Took this to get it up to what looks to be the correct level (the handbook has the fluid level check procedure marked down wrong), saying to check it cold with engine off...not warm with engine running as is correct.  Prior to adding that fluid we had nothing on the stick at all when the engine was running.

Also worth noting that these gearboxes do NOT take normal Dex II/III fluid.  They need type F fluid.  Surprisingly, Mileham's had a few (admittedly rather dusty) bottles on the shelf.  Don't imagine they'll be bothering to re-stock those!  It looks, feels and smells the same as what's in the box so I'm reasonably confident this hasn't been filled with the wrong fluid at least.
Also apparently the heater box is missing a bunch of screws.

Don't think I have any others that are short enough in stock so will need to buy some.
So far the fuel system still seems to be cooperating.  Though I do need to adjust things a little as the warm idle is way too high, at about 1000 rpm in neutral.  Should be nearer 750 - or lower if you can get the engine to reliably idle slower, to reduce the "thump" when selecting drive/reverse.
In other news, did I drive around in circles for ten minutes this afternoon so I could catch this?


Yes, yes I did.

Noted, I look forward to the fun and games that no doubt entails in due course!
Today I continued my tradition of visiting Costco using the smallest vehicles I have available to me.

Not as small as the Invacar, but it was the smallest vehicle I saw anywhere in the car park by a comfortable margin!

I'll take that!  
Tester was actually very complimentary of the state of the car underneath.  

Ah, the nerve wracking part of the day...

MOT in progress...

Today was mostly spent waiting for a landscaper who never turned up.  Being essentially unable to leave the house and not feeling I could get really stuck into any big tasks, I picked away at a few small ones.  
Firstly was doing a bit of tidying in the garage.  You can't really see much for it, but the mountain of stuff on and behind TPA has really shrunk a lot.  She was pretty well buried before!  Most of this accumulated when I was doing the head work on the Rover.

Still some stuff under the car, but the engine cover is clear now, meaning I was able to hook up the battery charger.  Hopefully actually get her out again sometime in the next few weeks.
Actually putting a lot of that lot away will happen once I've backed TPA out of the garage.  Trying to get to where anything lives is just such a pain with the car there - which is why I wound up creating such a mountain of crap there in the first place.
Still no sign of the landscaper, so I moved on to Trabant tinkering.  
Given she's in for the MOT tomorrow I wanted to make sure everything obvious was checked and do a little cleaning and tidying.
I did find we had one brake light out so got that changed.  Everything else checked out.
The windscreen wipers were still parking in a slightly odd spot, so I tweaked the position of the arm on the spindle which has fixed that.  I also did a little more contortion to tighten up the last two nuts holding the motor onto the bulkhead, so that's securely fastened in place and no longer makes annoying clicking noises each time the wipers change direction.
I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and gave the interior another quick going over.  It wasn't too bad, but I'd tracked in a fair amount of dead leaves, plus there was the usual omnipresent layer of dog hair, despite neither of them ever having been near the car.  Bit better now.

This bit of loose trim in the rear of the cabin was bugging me.

Obviously missing trim clips there which I duly replaced.  I bought like 40 of these and think I'm down to about half a dozen left now.

Not perfect, still a bit floppy towards the back seat because the panel is water damaged, but it's a lot better.

I then set about trying to remove some of the plethora of oily fingerprints which the car is basically covered in.   The paint had a lot of ingrained dirt everywhere too.

Things escalated.  I started polishing things - as that ended up being the most effective solution for removing it.  Safe to say this definitely makes a difference!

These cars never had a high gloss paint finish even from the factory - it's kind of halfway between an eggshell and gloss finish.  It's cleaning up pretty well all things considered, and is looking a lot better where I've gone over it.

Amusing looking at the side photo in that the car is a completely different colour now.  It's definitely shifted from "off white" to properly beige.
Started raining after I'd wrapped up.  Imagine it's been a while since the paint did this.

This car is never going to be a show winner, and I'm not putting tens of hours into polishing every millimetre, but I'd like it to at least look cared for.
To that end I'd really like to do something permanent regarding the crack in the front of the bonnet.  Which because of where it is is a bit tricky.  Might be easier to just get another bonnet and have it properly prepped and painted.
Oh, look what I found thanks to a member of the owner's club.

The paint on it is absolutely knackered, but I didn't see any cracks or large chunks missing at a quick glance.  It was free though so I wasn't going to quibble over it either way.  I'll take a closer look at that sometime in the near future.
What will the MOT bring?  We'll have to wait and see.  Rust is my biggest concern - I really haven't had a really good dig around the whole underside, so quite likely there could be rot under there I've not spotted.
The Partner is booked in to a garage to have whichever wheel bearing is making a noise sorted on Tuesday, so hopefully that will be sorted soon.  Though we will then the following week have the fun of getting that through an MOT - which *hopefully* shouldn't be too painful.

Should do the trick.  It's the shock that's the important part here.  Even with a perfectly fitting bit it will just gouge the head out they're (usually) so tight otherwise.  
If you're already removing the doors, it's worth pulling the door card off and checking the condition of where the hinge plates attach to the door frame.  They're just spot welded on and it's not unusual for them to break free.  Dead easy to fix with the door off the car, but a right bugger to get into while propping the door up with it on the car - so worth checking as a preventative measure while you already have them off.

If you're removing the doors, ensure you use a properly fitting bit and an impact driver to shift them.  Otherwise there's a 99.999 (recurring)% chance that the screw heads will just strip out.

I'd say the 1.9SDI in the Caddy I had (so 64bhp) was probably towards the minimum you'd really want to live with today.  It was absolutely fine on motorways and would happily maintain the legal limit without struggle even when laden while still knocking on the door of 50mpg, but it definitely wasn't the quickest thing off the mark.  Far from "dangerously slow" as I recall someone calling them sometimes in the past though.  It wasn't fast...but you know what?  It was never designed to be.  It was a workhorse and did it's job bloody well.
I did around the figures you mentioned there, and that included two trips to Aberdeenshire and Glasgow from Milton Keynes for long distance motorway work.  It wasn't the lack of power which saw me move it on either, rather the requirement for more flexible seating!  
I'd say that any "normal" sized car with 80bhp or more would be absolutely fine as a daily driver.  Not maybe the most exciting thing ever but absolutely fine.  Once you get this side of 2010 you'd maybe be wanting to look nearer to 100bhp just because cars got so much bulkier and heavier due to the ever increasing amount of "stuff" onboard.

That's a really early Monaco.  First one I can recall seeing with the GTX badging still on the pillars and just the Monaco badge on the bootlid.
Hanging or not, hopefully that doesn't get cubed.  Or at least if it does it's stripped of a hell of a lot of parts first, R25 bits definitely don't grow on trees these days.
Looks to have far less clear coat peel than mine!

Don't think I've ever had another car which looks quite so at home in a slightly shabby urban setting.

TPA comes close,  but does tend to stand out a bit more just by not being quite normal car shaped.

Been nice weather today, so of course I've been feeling like crap all day.  Thanks body.
Did manage an hour of productivity though, even though it's pushed the headache from a 5 to a solid 8.5.  In the quest to get some of the grime and rust streaking off the Trabant, I really wanted to get these covers off the rear pillar vents.  I wanted these off to look behind them anyway as I wasn't in any way convinced that these weren't in some way responsible for our water ingress issues.

Surprisingly the first screw actually came out without progress, the second however snapped pretty much as soon as I looked at it.

I wasn't planning on reusing these anyway, so it was just drilled out and re-tapped to take an M5 A2 stainless machine screw instead.  With a bit of grease applied to the thread for good measure.
I'm not at all convinced this isn't a point of water ingress.

The seam sealer which attaches the inner section there feels like it's gone brittle just like the stuff on the front bulkhead had, so I'll be giving that a good slathering with some PU sealant when I've got a bit more time and working brain available.
There's a good couple of millimetre gap behind these grills and the surrounding metalwork (there's actually a spacer in there to ensure they do NOT sit flush), so basically all the water running down off the roof is going to run behind the grill and into the chamber rather than being deflected over it as you'd think to look at it.  I reckon that putting a seal around the top and sides of the panel might be a decent idea.  That way water will largely be kept out of this area.
At least I know I can easily get in here again in future.

Need to get a bit more elbow grease involved in removing that rust staining.
Do have some slight nervousness regarding what the top of that screen surround will be in once the screen is removed.  We know that needs to happen as I know the offside lower corner of the surround is holed and the screen needs to come out to fix that.  Sure that will be an interesting day.  That will likely not be done by me, by the way.  That will be entrusted to someone who knows how to fix this sort of tinworm damage.

I'd say the 1.9SDI in the Caddy I had (so 64bhp) was probably towards the minimum you'd really want to live with today.  It was absolutely fine on motorways and would happily maintain the legal limit without struggle even when laden while still knocking on the door of 50mpg, but it definitely wasn't the quickest thing off the mark.  Far from "dangerously slow" as I recall someone calling them sometimes in the past though.  It wasn't fast...but you know what?  It was never designed to be.  It was a workhorse and did it's job bloody well.
I did around the figures you mentioned there, and that included two trips to Aberdeenshire and Glasgow from Milton Keynes for long distance motorway work.  It wasn't the lack of power which saw me move it on either, rather the requirement for more flexible seating!  
I'd say that any "normal" sized car with 80bhp or more would be absolutely fine as a daily driver.  Not maybe the most exciting thing ever but absolutely fine.  Once you get this side of 2010 you'd maybe be wanting to look nearer to 100bhp just because cars got so much bulkier and heavier due to the ever increasing amount of "stuff" onboard.

Latest addition to the fleet here.  1975 Rover P6 3500.

I'd say the 1.9SDI in the Caddy I had (so 64bhp) was probably towards the minimum you'd really want to live with today.  It was absolutely fine on motorways and would happily maintain the legal limit without struggle even when laden while still knocking on the door of 50mpg, but it definitely wasn't the quickest thing off the mark.  Far from "dangerously slow" as I recall someone calling them sometimes in the past though.  It wasn't fast...but you know what?  It was never designed to be.  It was a workhorse and did it's job bloody well.
I did around the figures you mentioned there, and that included two trips to Aberdeenshire and Glasgow from Milton Keynes for long distance motorway work.  It wasn't the lack of power which saw me move it on either, rather the requirement for more flexible seating!  
I'd say that any "normal" sized car with 80bhp or more would be absolutely fine as a daily driver.  Not maybe the most exciting thing ever but absolutely fine.  Once you get this side of 2010 you'd maybe be wanting to look nearer to 100bhp just because cars got so much bulkier and heavier due to the ever increasing amount of "stuff" onboard.

Aygo et al definitely gets my vote.  Yes they can and do rust, but equally the sheer weight of numbers I think works in their favour.  Plus you still seem to see plenty without any rot so I think there's a bit of a corrosion protection lottery between cars.
The big thing I think which works against Hyundai and the other Korean brands is just how astronomically expensive (or completely unobtainable) a lot of relatively routine parts are.  
PSA Parlingo is another good shout.  It's essentially a van, but if looked after like a car, especially if a bit sympathetically they should live to a ripe old age.  Though I do have some anxiety going forward as PSA don't exactly have a good track record where legacy parts supply is concerned - that was one of the reasons that saw me move the Xantia on as getting parts was starting to become a headache.

I'd say the 1.9SDI in the Caddy I had (so 64bhp) was probably towards the minimum you'd really want to live with today.  It was absolutely fine on motorways and would happily maintain the legal limit without struggle even when laden while still knocking on the door of 50mpg, but it definitely wasn't the quickest thing off the mark.  Far from "dangerously slow" as I recall someone calling them sometimes in the past though.  It wasn't fast...but you know what?  It was never designed to be.  It was a workhorse and did it's job bloody well.
I did around the figures you mentioned there, and that included two trips to Aberdeenshire and Glasgow from Milton Keynes for long distance motorway work.  It wasn't the lack of power which saw me move it on either, rather the requirement for more flexible seating!  
I'd say that any "normal" sized car with 80bhp or more would be absolutely fine as a daily driver.  Not maybe the most exciting thing ever but absolutely fine.  Once you get this side of 2010 you'd maybe be wanting to look nearer to 100bhp just because cars got so much bulkier and heavier due to the ever increasing amount of "stuff" onboard.

That's the primary outflow for the heater - and based on the amount of air discharged from there with the heater on and the engine revved (flow for the heater is bleed air from the cooling fan) they're definitely functional rather than notional.  The top of the inner "box" is open into the pillar, what you can see is a shield to keep the weather out.
Kind of surprising given how basic a car it is that they went to the lengths of putting a primarily decorative cover over it rather than just leave it open like Lada did on the Niva.

That said, I'm actually not so surprised.  There's very little about the design of this car that seems to have happened by chance, and fit and finish honestly is well ahead of anything to have come out of Tolyatti.  Looking at it from a construction perspective, it means the two panels don't have to be so critically aligned, and you can go to town more with the sealant without it being visible.  Those pillar vents on the Niva are a known water ingress point - one of about fifty, on a good day.  Don't get me wrong, I bloody adored my Niva, but there's no questioning that it was thrown together as cheaply as humanly possible.
What I think I'll do here is just attach a bit of foam weather stripping to the cover on the top and sides.  That will channel anything around it, but anything that gets in courtesy of the wind or when I'm washing the car will still be able to drain out the bottom naturally.

I'd say the 1.9SDI in the Caddy I had (so 64bhp) was probably towards the minimum you'd really want to live with today.  It was absolutely fine on motorways and would happily maintain the legal limit without struggle even when laden while still knocking on the door of 50mpg, but it definitely wasn't the quickest thing off the mark.  Far from "dangerously slow" as I recall someone calling them sometimes in the past though.  It wasn't fast...but you know what?  It was never designed to be.  It was a workhorse and did it's job bloody well.
I did around the figures you mentioned there, and that included two trips to Aberdeenshire and Glasgow from Milton Keynes for long distance motorway work.  It wasn't the lack of power which saw me move it on either, rather the requirement for more flexible seating!  
I'd say that any "normal" sized car with 80bhp or more would be absolutely fine as a daily driver.  Not maybe the most exciting thing ever but absolutely fine.  Once you get this side of 2010 you'd maybe be wanting to look nearer to 100bhp just because cars got so much bulkier and heavier due to the ever increasing amount of "stuff" onboard.

That’s the plan, it was bought having been stored for a very long time, but was much worse than expected. Hoping to sell to an enthusiast with the parts contacts to fix, or to someone for spares. 

I'd say the 1.9SDI in the Caddy I had (so 64bhp) was probably towards the minimum you'd really want to live with today.  It was absolutely fine on motorways and would happily maintain the legal limit without struggle even when laden while still knocking on the door of 50mpg, but it definitely wasn't the quickest thing off the mark.  Far from "dangerously slow" as I recall someone calling them sometimes in the past though.  It wasn't fast...but you know what?  It was never designed to be.  It was a workhorse and did it's job bloody well.
I did around the figures you mentioned there, and that included two trips to Aberdeenshire and Glasgow from Milton Keynes for long distance motorway work.  It wasn't the lack of power which saw me move it on either, rather the requirement for more flexible seating!  
I'd say that any "normal" sized car with 80bhp or more would be absolutely fine as a daily driver.  Not maybe the most exciting thing ever but absolutely fine.  Once you get this side of 2010 you'd maybe be wanting to look nearer to 100bhp just because cars got so much bulkier and heavier due to the ever increasing amount of "stuff" onboard.

That's the primary outflow for the heater - and based on the amount of air discharged from there with the heater on and the engine revved (flow for the heater is bleed air from the cooling fan) they're definitely functional rather than notional.  The top of the inner "box" is open into the pillar, what you can see is a shield to keep the weather out.
Kind of surprising given how basic a car it is that they went to the lengths of putting a primarily decorative cover over it rather than just leave it open like Lada did on the Niva.

That said, I'm actually not so surprised.  There's very little about the design of this car that seems to have happened by chance, and fit and finish honestly is well ahead of anything to have come out of Tolyatti.  Looking at it from a construction perspective, it means the two panels don't have to be so critically aligned, and you can go to town more with the sealant without it being visible.  Those pillar vents on the Niva are a known water ingress point - one of about fifty, on a good day.  Don't get me wrong, I bloody adored my Niva, but there's no questioning that it was thrown together as cheaply as humanly possible.
What I think I'll do here is just attach a bit of foam weather stripping to the cover on the top and sides.  That will channel anything around it, but anything that gets in courtesy of the wind or when I'm washing the car will still be able to drain out the bottom naturally.