Fumbler

I went to look at a Fiat 126 this morning, I've had various dealings with the seller both buying, selling and swapping.
RJC_4199 by srblythe, on Flickr
RJC_4198 by srblythe, on Flickr

The plan was to swap my Lada estate for it but when I went to see the Fiat and actually sat inside it I started to have second thoughts, I spent the afternoon mulling over what to do and someone else swooped in and bought it before I had made up my mind. 
The 126 owner also had a brilliant collection of cars helping to bring down house values in his neighbourhood...
RJC_4197 by srblythe, on Flickr

RJC_4194 by srblythe, on Flickr
RJC_4193 by srblythe, on Flickr
RJC_4192 by srblythe, on Flickr
RJC_4190 by srblythe, on Flickr
RJC_4187 by srblythe, on Flickr
RJC_4185 by srblythe, on Flickr
RJC_4184 by srblythe, on Flickr

His neighbours must love him!

Chodwin's Law:  As an Autoshite thread gets longer, the probability of Inv*c*rs being mentioned approaches 1.

Hi all,
Thought an update on the BIG LIABILITY AUDI was due, after my first week wafting to and from work...
BAD:  Boot leaks...  somehow, water is getting to the boot lid.  What I mean is that it is filling the cavity between the outer and inner skin of the lid itself (weird), and then soaking the liner/dripping into the boot itself when you open it.  I worked this out when I noticed the tail-light filling with water after the snow, and the brake light on that side flickering on and off.  Drilled a wee hole into the side of the light fitting to let the water out, light came back to life and the boot is gradually drying.  The dampness in there led to the next problem...
BAD TWO:  Radio stopped working.  More accurately, the multi-media interface (MMI) died.  This screen pops out the dash, allowing you to control all the radio/cd functions, as well as the suspension ride height, and probably a hundred other parameters... this dying was not a good feeling!  However, after drying out the boot everything came back to life... turns out all the multi-media stuff (speakers, cd changer head unit and subwoofer etc.), are all connected in a big loop by fibre-optic witch-craft!  The sat-nav pack is part of this circuit, and it lives... you guessed it... in the boot.  Anyway, all good since, thank fook.
BAD/GOOD?:  Had a prod under the bonnet this morning, just wanted to see what sort of state she was in service-wise, and get to know the V8 a bit better.  The air filter was the filthiest I've ever seen in a car, really black.  Will order new as part of the service pack, the oil isn't looking too clean either.  Anyway, in poking about this area, I discovered a wee pipe that should have been connected to the bottom of the air filter housing, taking filtered air somewhere else.  The engine air is taken in directly above this, out the other end of the cylindrical filter if you will.  Because this pipe was disconnected, the engine was basically able to draw in unfiltered air, and the same for whatever this pipe was supposed to be feeding. 
Turns out, these have a secondary air pump fitted, blowing air into the exhaust ahead of the cats, to warm them up quicker by burning up the excess fuel generated when running rich on a cold start.  This is now all connected up, and I hoovered out the filter to keep her going till I get a new one.  Putting it all back together, I then noticed that the main intake pipe was not pushed on to the throttle body properly, the jubilee clip that should hold it on, was actually done up around the casting, preventing the pipe pushing all the way on.  It was sitting at an angle, and probably letting in a bit more unfiltered air!  Rectified now obvs, and I gave the maf a squirt of electrical cleaner for good measure.  
The car has been running really well, it shows 32mpgees, which I have been pleased with, and had a lot of power.  However, I didn't know what I was missing!  Took her for a spin after the above fettling and the bloody thing is flying, much quicker accelerating, smoother, just generally more alive.  Really chuffed with the improvement for nothing but a bit of tlc.
BAD THREE...  Suspension started squeaking one really cold morning, front left.  Immediately, had visions of incredibly expensive airbag units required...  Didn't have any problems with the level of the car though, so thought I'd just 'let it develop'.  Squirted some super-lube onto all the front joints/rubbers this morning, and silence is restored, so just a dry joint somewhere... again, phew!
GOOD...  Basically in love with this thing, seriously nice place to be for my 25 mile A-road commute.  The stereo is the best I have ever heard in a car, you can hear bits in songs you never knew where there, and the different sounds come at you from every corner... noice.  As I said, I thought it was good to drive before, it's amazing now... fuel economy may suffer as a result as the temptation is now even harder to resist.  We went for a full-throttle blast down a local private road (honest), this morning and the ton comes up so fast it's scary, and the engine was still pulling like a train.  I ran out of road and courage before the thing was even in top gear.  You could genuinely take your hands off the wheel though, it's rock solid at speed.
 
Basically, so far so good.  £1500!!!

first sight....and my sausage finger!

Is that an old school Nokia car aerial? Never seen one in red and white before.

From the ad

At 10am I picked this up
 
picked up paperwork, quick chat with the owner and I was handed the keys. Came out to this beauty. Started straight away with a bit choke, into first and eased it out the space. He may be a @DodgyBastard, but his description of the clutch was spot on! There’s very little feel, and any more than a millimetre of throttle can bring induce slipping, even a slight incline at 30mph gave it a bit trouble... it does get better as it warms up though, and I was only driving it 4 miles though town. It’s now on my driveway while it’s decided what’s next. I know a couple of places but any local shiters know an old car friendly garage that would take this clutch job on? Or cheap trailer borrow/hire to get it down south? 
 
Under the grime there is a good car there, it’s got a willing engine and bags of character   Glad it’s being saved (again) 

Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!

Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!

So this morning i decided to try and get it booked in for a mot, the trouble is since I've moved my old trusted mot station is about 20 mins away across town and as the car hasn't been driven for 10 years and still on it's old fuel so i wasn't keen on going too far down the A14 so booked it in at a local station, one i haven't used before.
 
I spent all morning brewing about it, will it pass, what will the emissions be like, will it be some young lad who's over strict and pulls the car to pieces, i was needlessly stressing, I took it down there, in the pissing rain, straight in and told to park it on the ramp, then the old boy tester had me doing all the lights, horn wipers etc before leaving me in the car up in the air to press the brakes whilst he was under it which amused me as i didn't think they were mean't to do that!

He actually turned out to be a proper old school mechanic who uses a Mk3 Transit camper van and lives in a mobile home in the car park! after much chatting i got a clean, fresh certificate! Happy days!


I have to say, it drives really well, really torquey and smooth with a lovely V6 purr. I doubt it's a keeper but I'm glad i done it as it really was a little diamond in the rough, I just can't believe how under appreciated these things are, it drives miles nicer than that Merc 190E i had.

Hey! You might be lucky with this one. Computer Science Teacher had one exactly the same as yours. The difference only being he had to take it to the bean can remodelling clinic after it apparently catastrophically failed its MoT in July. Reason why I say you might be lucky is because the area around the sunroof goes first before the sills do.
It's good that you're washing the wheelarches. Surprised how clean they came up! Seatbelt mounts are a little pesky on these cars because they're directly exposed to the air. I suppose its better than having an arch liner that lets water in but not out.

Yesterday was the first time in a while that I had free time while it wasn't pissing it down, so I got to work on cleaning the Micra.

It wasn't hugely dirty before, but it had seriously caked on shite in all the wheel arches and had moss in places from where it had been sat in a damp area for a few months. I also wanted to wash it so I could get certain panels, like the front wing you see there, ready for paint if need be. Bought some waxless Turtlewax shampoo at Halfords the other day for this job (probably the third time I've ever bought something at Halfords? I feel like I lose IQ every time I go into that shop and ask a member of staff a question). Did an alright job of cleaning it.

Here's what I mean about the caked on dirt. Seriously people, if you have a jet washer get your wheel arches cleaned out every time you wash the car. Probably stops it rotting years early (bit late for this one though).


I didn't even know that bung existed beforehand ffs
It's not all good news though, as I also discovered this mid wash. I had to do a double take when I saw it and just kinda went "ah shit".

Hopefully I can figure something out to fix that before it writes the poor old thing off. 
After it was washed, I did the next thing that I'd been wanting to do for a while which was remove the tatty old pinstripe. At one point in time when it wasn't quite so worn, it might have actually looked alright... but it was time for it to go. It put up a bloody good fight though, and I hope to god I never have to remove pinstriping from a car again as long as I live, spent about two hours doing this.

From this...

To this!
Like I said earlier, I was fully prepared to have to spray this panel (wouldn't have been the end of the world mind), but I remembered I had this Autoglym stuff that my sister gave me for free a couple years back.

She worked at a packing facility and it was rejected off the line for whatever reason. Don't know why though, because I was well chuffed with this!

Unfortunately I had to leave in a hurry to take the missus to a hospital appointment right after I took this photo, but I plan on doing this to the rest of the car whenever time and weather permits. Passenger door and both bumpers are equally as desperate for it.
Detailer init me m8

Once the BX was also towed down to the new place these two old heaps began living together for the first time. I believe this is the first photo I took of the two together.
 

Whilst browsing French Renault 4 parts sites over breakfast one morning I discovered the answer to all my problems (well, all my Renault fuel delivery problems at least).
Enter Solex No.3.
 

 
It's a Solex 28IBS. These were originally fitted to Renault Dauphines but were later fitted to some Spanish R4s and R6s (which were always a bit weird compared with their counterparts built elsewhere). Unlike the big Solexes, it's a direct swap for the original Zenith and will just bolt on to the existing R4 hardware. The best bit about it, though, is how simple (and fixable) it is, it can be completely stripped down to its component parts and reassembled in a matter of minutes and all parts are readily available online.
Once I'd discovered it's probably easier to send money to al Qaeda than some bloke with some Renault 4 parts in rural France who doesn't use PayPal, and in the process bailed out my bank with transfer fees, I could sit back, wait for the French postal service to do their thing and look forward to many happy miles of motoring.
Well, I could have if I'd not decided while waiting for the new carb to test fit the big 32mm carb and manifold to see just how many things I'd need to change over for it to work. It turns out there's a weak point on these R4 cylinder heads around one of the manifold studs and if you tighten that particular manifold nut to anything near the manufacturer's torque setting it's entirely likely you'll crack the head. Naturally I was unaware of this sage advice until the new carb had arrived, I'd gone to refit the old manifold, torqued the nut up to the recommended torque setting and cracked the head.
The crack wasn't so bad that the head couldn't be reused, but there was limited time available and my welder friend didn't really have long enough to do a thorough job. Junkman and I had a leisurely afternoon refitting the head but after a few minutes of running the crack reappeared. With even less time to get it sorted I bought a good used head for a relative pittance and went about fitting that instead.
The first job was to swap over all the bits from the old head.
 

 
Then it could be taken to its new home.
 

 
The Renault got its second new head gasket in a week.
 

 
The head was then manoeuvred into place (easier said than done when there's a lump of cast iron hanging off one side) and bolted down. None of your stretch bolt nonsense here.
 

 
The rocker shaft was then attached.
 

 
And that was the bulk of the work done. All in reattaching the head, checking valve clearances and whatnot took about an hour and half.
Did I mention I was moving house while this was happening? Unfortunately whilst re-attaching the alternator I managed to strip the thread for its mounting bolt, and naturally finding an M7 bolt in Glossop on a Sunday afternoon was a non-starter, so I failed in my aim of moving the R4 to its new home under its own power and had to get the mechanic from work to tow it here instead.
 

The cat's verdict on the Renault 4 parcel shelf: 'no BX, is it m8'.
 
And once I'd attached the alternator, and replaced the relatively new Der Franzose fuel pump with a QH one that actually worked the R4 ran properly for the first time in a long while. Although admittedly there was quite a while when I didn't realise the hose connections were the opposite way round on the new pump and spent ages pumping fuel to the tank.
Daily driver duties were then assumed.
 

My son has taken part in a social experiment, where he has to wear a Boris Johnson T-shirt for two weeks.  So far, he's been spat at, punched and had beer thrown all over him.
 
 
It'll be interesting to see the reaction when he goes outside.

Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!

Instructor came and waited while I went elsewhere to wait for him (as per my instrucions), only to text me that he moved on to another client. Despite having my number beforehand he didn't text me to say that he was at the location. Oh well.
I suppose the lucky thing is that I have been driving on private roads and practising hill starts, bay parking and all that jazz since June when I bought the car. That'll help in the long run.

Thanks, by the way, for the motivation you guys gave- it is much appreciated!

Been 17 for roughly 4 hours and I have my first driving lesson tomorrow... already anxious AF. I'm sure I'll be fine.

Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!

Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!

Sorry, I'm been pretty crap with this one, after the initial progress life got in the way as always as did Christmas so it got put on the back burner for a while. 
The brake situation was sorted in the end by a second hand brake unit off ebay for £40, this was after someone on Facebook tried to sell me one for £150 and then got all arsey when I said they are available for cheaper on Ebay. Thankfully after fitting it the brakes bleed straight up and worked perfectly again.

So with this hurdle out the way I then went to change the fuel filter put managed to bollocks that up by not fitting the washers right and it pissing fuel everywhere and then having a right mare with carparts4you and eurocarparts with buying a replacement filter which came with new washers (I damaged the old washers) anyway, I eventually got one of the local motor factors that actually had the washers with it like it should and managed to get that to seal correctly, then I had a problem with the car boiling up when it got warm, even after flushing it all through. 
Another £60 was spent on a new water pump and some new belts and I stripped it all down today with my dad expecting it to be the head gasket, I was relieved when I found the inside of the water pump was completely blocked with crystallised anti freeze! Once I poked it all out of the water well gallons of water poured out the block! 

So a few hours later and it all back together and its now running perfect, I took it for a cheeky blast up the road and it drives bloody lovely! It goes like a train and changes gear so smoothly, considering its still running on 10 year old fuel its great! 
The plan is to try and get it booked in for a MOT tomorrow, exciting times! 

Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!

Well today certainly made up for yesterday.
Had apprenticeship interview- went very well and much better than last year.
Then I drove parts of the way home. I WENT 45MPH!!1111!11!!!1 Yeah anyway I drove 3 miles from the place and then 3 miles to the house. Stalled the car only once because I didn't slip the clutch enough when doing a rolling start. Yesssssss I feel very happy with today!