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TrabbieRonnie

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  1. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Barry Cade in Ambitious towbars   
    Nae bother 💪
  2. Agree
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to Nyphur in Retroshite   
    That's fucking class.
  3. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to RetroShite in Retroshite   
    Nice!








  4. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to RetroShite in Retroshite   
    Hilux back from the workshop and in good health having had the head skimmed and new head gasket fitted.
    Gasket was blown between 2 cylinders, apparently everything came apart really easily and they reckoned it might have recently been replaced but the gasket had perhaps been bent in the packaging but fitted anyway.
    Who knows?
    All back together now and incredibly smooth running. It's a 2.2 petrol with carburettor.




     
  5. Haha
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to Supernaut in Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Astra SXi   
    https://www.gumtree.com/p/dacia/dacia-sandero-1.5-dci/1476024339
     
    Just home from viewing this.
    Looks ok in the photos, eh?
     
    It was so rough in person I almost didn't bother knocking on the door.
    I looked at it anyway, but spent about a minute there.
    Seller: "it's got some age related marks as you can see"
    Me, inside my head: "you clearly reversed it into something quite substantial..."
    Me, out loud: "hmm, the sills seem to be bubbling a wee bit"
    Seller: "aye, but it's not failed an MOT "
    Me, inside my head: "...yet"
    Me, out loud: "let's have a look under the bonnet then"
    [Opens bonnet, beholds the vast tracts of grot bubbling across the underside of the bonnet, the inner wings, the entire engine and all of its ancillaries, plus the bonnet strut itself]
    Me, out loud: "you know what, I'll just leave it thanks"
    Seller, as I'm getting into my car: "I have other people looking at it later...!"
    Me, as I shut the door: "Oh? Cool."
  6. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Rust Collector in Ambitious towbars   
    Nae bother 💪
  7. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to barefoot in Column gear shift on manual transmission   
    I've only experienced a column change on the '89 Trabbi that I owned. Although I appreciate that the cogs & dogs that I was shuffling around were very small, it was lighter than a featherlight thing and I made a point of shifting using just my little finger.
  8. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Rust Collector in Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 25/03 - Trabant back in action...   
    Great to hear...  
    I think they got pre-mixed out the pumps in the DDR, so no extra step for them.  Reading about it, they apparently used to put extra oil in the mix, artificially creating demand for the state oil producer.  As a side effect, everyone of course associates Trabbies with comically excessive amounts of smoke.  I find that once warm, there is none visible at all (although still definitely smellable), that's at 40:1.
    I once used the Trabi for work for an entire year (12,000 miles...!), and I reckon I was getting near 60 mpg.  It all became totally normal, and I think the engine gets better with use.
    This year, after 15 years of ownership, I discovered that if I press and hold in my (rotary) wiper switch, I get an automatic two-wipe cycle!?  
    Guht farht mit Trabant, indeed.
  9. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from mercedade in The Current Driveway...   
    Got a new toy!  Rosie was employed for testing duties...

    Bloody marvellous thing, you can see-saw the car end for end by hand.  Feels nice and solid too, my driveway is a tad* uneven so I've had to put plates down for the wheels to roll on.
    I bought it second-hand off a colleague, but it doesn't seem to have been used much.  I've set it up for wider than he had it, the Trabbi just sits on the pads and no more, but it should take the 323, Coupe and maybe the RX8.
    Chuffed to bits!
  10. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to Zelandeth in Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 25/03 - Trabant back in action...   
    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.
  11. Haha
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to Supernaut in Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Astra SXi   
    It is indeed.
    I'm going to squint at the engine mount that got an advisory at some point.
    Not right now.
    I imagine the engine bay is warm right now for some reason. Nothing to do with hitting 5k in 3rd while overtaking a council van.
    I won't say what speed that equates to on a public forum.
  12. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to Supernaut in Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Astra SXi   
    Probably the cleanest MOT pass I've had on anything in years.

     
    I need to wait for these guys to clear off first. They've been busy replacing three power poles today. I'm standing at the top of the farm yard to get a whiff of 4G.

     
  13. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to Supernaut in Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Astra SXi   
    Dropped off at an MOT station about 20 miles away.
    Temperature gauge stayed rock solid, heater was like a furnace, and it drives very well indeed.
    I'm looking forward to having this back. Hopefully it doesn't disgrace itself too badly tomorrow.
  14. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Supernaut in Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Astra SXi   
    Godspeed, those BM's have just got better and better looking to my eyes...
    My pal occasionally tries to talk me into a red convertible 328 (orange indicators(!)), I find it increasingly hard to resist!
     
  15. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from captain_70s in The Current Driveway...   
    Should have updated the sitch on the wee Mazda actually...
    Did get the thing serviced, replaced the cambelt and front discs and pads last weekend... Took about three hours all in, brilliant thing to work on, plus I know my way around it a bit now!  
    It's hitting the ramps purely for assessment/repair of some rear wheelarch blebs.
  16. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from captain_70s in The Current Driveway...   
    Hi all,
    Couldn't resist the opportunity to tinker on the Trabi while she was up, so have had a good day's scrubbing and re-oiling...
    Will need to attend to this rear panel again soon, really is looking scruffy now.  Even that'll be easier with the lift though.

    Here's a pic for Zelandeth, shows the difference between my old-style hubs and his fancy new-fangled ones...

    They're pretty much the same both ends, the front drums have cooling slots in to handle the massive heat build up on re-entry to the village obvs...

    Spent the day wire-brushing, then painting and or oiling everything that moved.  I even scrubbed and re-painted the wheels (inside and out!), a perfect day.  My youngest was doing the same on the old jeep, will update that when we get it back together.
    More pics...



    Can't believe the original underseal has lasted so well, god only knows what it's made of!  The car is actually older than registered, built in 1983 (they were often returned to the factory, rejuvenated and re-vinned, then sold again apparently, hence the '89 reg).  So yeah, not bad for forty-one...

    And down.  Still needs a wash and hoover, but I'll do that in the morn, weather permitting.  I plan to commute in her as much as possible now, it'll let me get a bit of a tidy up on the white Audi (needs a bit of paint now) this summer.  

    So, she's running well, and I feel better having undone some of the salt damage she endured standing in during the A8's abs saga.
    Just before we came in, we slid the lifter under my eldest lad's 323 (actually had to lift it by the arches to get it through, because racecar apparently!).  We'll see how that lifts up tomorrow too.
     
  17. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to Supernaut in Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Astra SXi   
    Quietly confident about the MOT on Wednesday.



    Gingernutzz' work from October 2022 still looks fresh. I gave the front offside jacking point a wire brush then a coat of stonechip. Then the entire sills and floorpans got brushed over with lanolin underseal, plus the rear arches too.
     
    All the lights seem to work, no fluids pissing out, all the tyres are round and full of air.
    I guess all I can do is submit it for its test!
  18. Like
    TrabbieRonnie reacted to rovik88 in F**ked Black Rover 827 SLi - The Mistake Machine   
    Hi,
    I'm new here, but a regular over at mg-rover.org forum. If you need any technical help, let me know what you require as I've got all technical documents one may ever need Would hate to see yet another 800 bite the dust, though I do understand your reasons absolutely (being a parent, financial bits, etc.).
  19. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from mk2_craig in The Current Driveway...   
    Should have updated the sitch on the wee Mazda actually...
    Did get the thing serviced, replaced the cambelt and front discs and pads last weekend... Took about three hours all in, brilliant thing to work on, plus I know my way around it a bit now!  
    It's hitting the ramps purely for assessment/repair of some rear wheelarch blebs.
  20. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Tickman in The Current Driveway...   
    Should have updated the sitch on the wee Mazda actually...
    Did get the thing serviced, replaced the cambelt and front discs and pads last weekend... Took about three hours all in, brilliant thing to work on, plus I know my way around it a bit now!  
    It's hitting the ramps purely for assessment/repair of some rear wheelarch blebs.
  21. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Tickman in The Current Driveway...   
    Hi all,
    Couldn't resist the opportunity to tinker on the Trabi while she was up, so have had a good day's scrubbing and re-oiling...
    Will need to attend to this rear panel again soon, really is looking scruffy now.  Even that'll be easier with the lift though.

    Here's a pic for Zelandeth, shows the difference between my old-style hubs and his fancy new-fangled ones...

    They're pretty much the same both ends, the front drums have cooling slots in to handle the massive heat build up on re-entry to the village obvs...

    Spent the day wire-brushing, then painting and or oiling everything that moved.  I even scrubbed and re-painted the wheels (inside and out!), a perfect day.  My youngest was doing the same on the old jeep, will update that when we get it back together.
    More pics...



    Can't believe the original underseal has lasted so well, god only knows what it's made of!  The car is actually older than registered, built in 1983 (they were often returned to the factory, rejuvenated and re-vinned, then sold again apparently, hence the '89 reg).  So yeah, not bad for forty-one...

    And down.  Still needs a wash and hoover, but I'll do that in the morn, weather permitting.  I plan to commute in her as much as possible now, it'll let me get a bit of a tidy up on the white Audi (needs a bit of paint now) this summer.  

    So, she's running well, and I feel better having undone some of the salt damage she endured standing in during the A8's abs saga.
    Just before we came in, we slid the lifter under my eldest lad's 323 (actually had to lift it by the arches to get it through, because racecar apparently!).  We'll see how that lifts up tomorrow too.
     
  22. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Tickman in The Current Driveway...   
    Got a new toy!  Rosie was employed for testing duties...

    Bloody marvellous thing, you can see-saw the car end for end by hand.  Feels nice and solid too, my driveway is a tad* uneven so I've had to put plates down for the wheels to roll on.
    I bought it second-hand off a colleague, but it doesn't seem to have been used much.  I've set it up for wider than he had it, the Trabbi just sits on the pads and no more, but it should take the 323, Coupe and maybe the RX8.
    Chuffed to bits!
  23. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from Tickman in The Current Driveway...   
    Car just sitting at work, cheering me up...

  24. Haha
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from GeordieInExile in Ambitious towbars   
    Nae bother 💪
  25. Like
    TrabbieRonnie got a reaction from RayMK in Ambitious towbars   
    Nae bother 💪
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