Matty

Our ‘so called’ recycling bin for plastic, glass & paper etc. was left full on my pavement on 3 occasions by the private company (not our council) who empty them. They stated on each occasion it was because I had apparently put some none recyclable plastic in there. 
The last time it happened I rang the company & spoke to their manager, he said ‘we can’t except none recyclable stuff’. I explained that while I was terrible sorry & though I felt I was above average intelligence, I was in fact not a professor of chemistry or any other kind of plastics expert. I also explained that I thought it was pretty much their ‘actual job’ to sort the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. 
I then went on to tell him, he was a complete & utter wanker, as was the outfit that employed him & to no longer look for my bin outside my house every other Tuesday, as it would no longer be there. I’d say that was about 8 yrs ago & said bin is now employed as a garden compost container next to my greenhouse. There are only myself & my missus in the house, so although the ‘normal’ waste bin is only emptied once a fortnight it is plenty for us, so every bottle, can, plastic etc etc goes in there & they can sort the cunt out themselves. 

Diesel is a big thing for young men over here for some reason, especially the culchies. 

@grogee so you're a binfluencer?

It's a good likeness, apart from the hair, face and six pack. And motorbike. 

Column 

Well I'm sold. Would you like to buy my car then sell it back to me when you've finished? Joking aside, it was obviously a sound albeit scruffy car but you've alevited it. Fair play for all the hard graft, it looks a treat. Just right!

Yeah sometimes the passenger headlight comes and goes, just give the wires behind a little wiggle or the lens a good whack and it’ll come back, also worth adding to turn the dash lights on turn the headlights on then pull the switch that says P, for the main beam there’s a floor mounted switch left of the clutch 
 
I’m glad it made it home drama free though 

Quick pit stop on the way home. The clutch is quite heavy for M25 traffic!

Safe drive home, one of the best cars I’ve ever owned 

Some pictures from the previous owners before me, when it was found, had been sitting since 1985 

Slow drive down. The M25 was horrendous. However, a collection has occurred. I'm in love already!
 

Well done, you have saved that for years to come.
Looks like a very presentable usable classic Ford which you can go out and enjoy.

I've been looking forward to this day for the past two months.
Once the Sierra was back on its wheels, I undersealed the jacking points that were concealed by axle stands / ramps.


The other side is the same.
It was time to pull the Sierra out of the workshop. As the underseal was still fresh and the car isn't taxed, I only drove the Sierra to the end of the road and back to outside my house to take photos.
At this stage, I recommend that you rewind to page 4 of this thread and remind yourself what the Sierra looked like on the 30th January, the day it arrived from Northern Ireland. I am pleased with the results and I'll let the photos do the talking. Please note that I haven't washed or detailed the bodywork and trim yet, hopefully I will get a chance to do that next weekend.






The bonnet, roof and boot lid look much better in sunlight than they do under a LED lamp. Yes, if you look closely and at the right angle, you can see the fine scratches but overall, the paint looks great.



Remember how the four corners looked? The tarpaulin that the Sierra was stored under rubbed the blue paint off down to primer / bare / rusty metal. My masking off and dabbing of blue paint has worked well. Up close, you can see the touching up but I am pleased with my low cost solution.




The sills and inner sides of the rear wheel arches look much better too.




The boot lid and rear valance now gleam.

I left the engine to idle for about 15 minutes and it ran well, nice and quiet, with no smoke. The temperature gauge reached half way quickly (and stayed there) but the coolant level was still low. The idle speed is a little too fast, I need to work out which screw needs a tweak.

With the Sierra outside, it took me two hours to clean the workshop. EVERY surface was covered with a layer of black overspray dust, which spread when I was painting the bumpers. Got there in the end.

I put the Sierra back in for another week, until it can be taxed and driven from the 1st April.

The 1st April is a Monday. According to the forecast, the weather should be dry. Let's hope so.

 

My cunning plan to sort out the damaged front bumper trim was to cover it with silver vinyl tape. Back in the day, when I had 10 year old Sierras with chrome trim, I would cover the trim with red vinyl tape, to make them look like newer versions - see photos on page 1.
I got a roll of this stuff from Amazon. It says "High Quality". 

Ten minutes later, the front bumper looked like this.

Unfortunately, the quality of the tape is not brilliant and where I pulled to extend it, the tape discoloured slightly. Not to worry, it looks better than the sun burned plastic strip.
Once finished, I was left with one sexy looking front bumper.

I then spent a couple of hours sorting out a few miscellaneous bodywork jobs.
I sprayed over the non-matching oil based paint on the inner side of the nearside sill.

I rubbed down a couple of small rust plebs on the back door. Fortunately, these are located beneath the trim strip and the repair won't be too obvious once finished. I'd rather have a small repair patch than leave untreated corrosion under matching paint.

I did the same on the offside front door.

There were also a couple of rust plebs on the sills, which extended from beneath the door seals. I treated them in the same way.


I will touch up all these areas with the matching blue aerosol once the oil based paint, which will subdue the corrosion, fully dries.
Whoever re-sprayed the nearside front door, re-used and badly applied the trim strip. The front section of the strip was peeling away.

I got this stuff out. It's not the best, despite what the adverts say but hopefully it will do.

At this stage, I need to explain that I had a different plan that involved putting pressure on the trim to make it stick but it didn't work out and I had to think fast and came up with this arrangement before the adhesive started to set. 


Hopefully, the trim will be secure and I won't have 25 litres of 10W40 spilled all over my workshop floor.
I won't have much time tomorrow or Friday to make more progress, so the plan is:
This Saturday - finish off the bodywork repairs that I started today, tidy up and spray the front suspension components, clean the underside of the gearbox and engine sump and paint the sump.
This Sunday - finish off what I started on Saturday, get the car back on its wheels and apply protective coatings to the underside areas that are currently concealed by axle stands / ramps. Then let everything dry.
Next Friday (Easter) - fire up the engine again, bleed the cooling system. Weather permitting, pull the Sierra out of the workshop and give it a deep clean and hoover. Take pleasure in taking plenty of lovely photos. Clean my workshop, which is a total mess, just about everything is covered with a layer of black spray residue. 
Next Sunday (Easter) - if the weather is shit on Friday, undertake the tasks scheduled for Friday, otherwise I shall rest.
Next Monday (Easter) - the 1st April, get the Sierra taxed and take it out for a drive and take some more photos. 
 

 

I left the paint to dry overnight and this morning.
I removed the masking tape and broadsheet to reveal sweet looking bumpers.


The front grille looks sweet too.
Next issue, sort out the sun burned bumper trims.

I have a plan and Amazon have delivered the solution but unfortunately I ran out of time this afternoon to make further progress.
Definitely more soon.
 
 
 

Currently buying a diff using wife's account. Yes brother 🤣

Currently buying a diff using wife's account. Yes brother 🤣

Currently buying a diff using wife's account. Yes brother 🤣

We’re going on holiday Easter Monday down to Dorset for the week and I’ve always been slightly conscious with this car having no spare wheel and running non runflats.
Thought I’d have a look if there was any BMW’s being broken on FB I could rob a spare from and stumbled across this BMW fitment ‘Road Hero’ spacesaver kit which comes with a handy bag and also a kit bag with everything from a jack, wheel brace, 5 wheel bolts, head torch, hi viz, kneel pad, even a rain poncho! 
 
Nowhere to store it in the car due to the dog guard being in the boot but handy enough to throw in the back if we go on a long journey for the sake of £70! 

Well as the Rover is dead it's only sensible I buy another inappropriate car as a daily. So collection caper time!
It's not breakfast time so lunch:

The chariot of choice to get us there is the venerable i10:

Journey time is approximately 2.5 hours.
I shall post updates as we go. Those observant folk will already know what it is but guesses welcome from the rest of you!

At this point I was waiting for the injector to turn up, so turned my attention to other things.
Airbag light was illuminated, thankfully the previous owner @406V6 was spot on with his diagnosis - Drivers seat being the culprit. Didn't grab any pictures of this, as I was kneeling on gravel, and just wanted to get done, but found the offending item:

With that snipped out, a new plug and socket was fitted

 
Did it work?
Did the injector turn up ?
Will it ever see the road again ?
*Dramatic music* Stay tuned for updates 

I actually forgot !
You have to take the inlet manifold off, in order to get to the rear bank -

As you can probably see, it covers the back 3 cylinders.

Hhmm lovely, lots of instant gasket.
Thankfully before pulling anything apart, I thought to order a set of gaskets (Did so too, as I was adamant I could hear a vaccum leak)

Also making an appearance is the new coil (No idea why Beru / Behru came in BorgWarner boxes)

Innocently scrolling through various pages, and a certain V6 406 catches my eye.
It has good 'bones', and appears to have been well looked after, but is suffering with a few issues.
Before getting giddy the resident shite shifter @worldofceri is contacted for a quote, (as one of its issues means a collection mission is off the cards). A plan with the now previous owner is hatched, all I could do is sit and wait.

Before long, I'm greeted with the above WhatsApp picture. Exciting times.

Indeed. I'd sooner try to break the world record for pushing Cadburys mini eggs up my arse than drive a Picasso, and I cant imagine being alone in this (apart from the mini eggs bit obvs)

Indeed. I'd sooner try to break the world record for pushing Cadburys mini eggs up my arse than drive a Picasso, and I cant imagine being alone in this (apart from the mini eggs bit obvs)