Popsicle

Small update. Have now greased all the grease points and checked the oil level in the gearbox and differential both were fine and refilled oil on the diesel pump and steering box.
So then all the maintenance is done.
One small thing I do that I recommend is to take a picture of the manual with maintenance points and print it out and have it with you when working on the car and cross it off while you are working so you don't forget anything.

 
And since I don't have a car lift, things are done the old way by driving the car up onto blocks and crawling under it, which is not exactly good for the body.

 
And now with this done, all that remains is to drive it, something that will hopefully happen soon.

I had some time to look at the cooling system today. And the old coolant that came out it didn't look too bad, but it's old so it's time to change it. The hoses are also very old and soft and not in good condition, so they were also replaced with the exception of the hoses for the heater they will be replaced later.
Old hoses


 
The 4 bolts for the thermostat housing came out without breaking which was nice and the thermostat housing has no gasket but an o ring which is great thank you Mercedes.

 
The cooling system looks very clean inside which is a nice surprise.

 
The old thermostat works but is old so I don't trust it so changed to a new one. I bought a new 79 degree thermostat which was luck as the old one was 80 degrees. And the new thermostat's box is marked with Behr, which is the same brand that made the radiator in this one. And will keep the old thermostat as a spare.

 
With a new thermostat fitted together with a new o-ring, I put on the new hoses.

 
The new hose I marked with a red arrow was a struggle to get on, but after much struggle I got it on. And I had 2 of these hoses, one from Febi bilstein and one from Gates, and the one from Gates was much thicker and seemed better quality, so this one was used.

 
So with the new hoses and thermostat installed, I wanted to pressure test the system but had no adapter that fit so just had to do it the old way and fill up with new coolant and check for leaks and luckily there were no leaks.
Then it was time to start it and let the engine run for a while and the new thermostat opened when it was supposed to and everything worked and there were no leaks so the cooling system is now done.

I changed the engine oil and oil filter today and there was some good news. I have until now used a heavy duty diesel engine oil in this and think it has cleaning stuff in it, this has now got all the oil sludge out of the engine.
This was the oil pre-filter that came out of the engine now after 1000km and had little in it.

 
For comparison, this is how the pre-filter was at the last oil change, which was only 280km. This was then so clogged that it was not possible to clean and had to be replaced.


 
So now with the oil sludge gone I can do regular oil changes. And now switching to a slightly thicker oil.
After cleaning the pre-filter, it was to find a new oil filter and install them. The oil filter on these is, as I have previously mentioned, is a challenge as it is tight and must be careful that the pre-filter does not come off during installation. But got it done this time too.
I like the oil filters on these they are unlike anything else I have seen before.

 
So with new engine oil and filters it was time to start it again.
 

Oh wow, I've done hundreds of deliveries down to the Airbus/GKN site at Filton over the years and seen this many times outside one of the stores.

I'd believe the advert story to be true, it very rarely seemed to move and often looked a bit unloved, but it always looked straight and tidy underneath the dirt. I mentioned to the lads in the stores to give me a shout if they ever found out it was being let go, that went well for me! To be fair I've not worked since November last year so it would be a bit unfair to moan at them.
 

Oh wow, I've done hundreds of deliveries down to the Airbus/GKN site at Filton over the years and seen this many times outside one of the stores.

I'd believe the advert story to be true, it very rarely seemed to move and often looked a bit unloved, but it always looked straight and tidy underneath the dirt. I mentioned to the lads in the stores to give me a shout if they ever found out it was being let go, that went well for me! To be fair I've not worked since November last year so it would be a bit unfair to moan at them.
 

May 1993 1.6 LX seen on X/Twitter that was spotted by Jude Currie.  Last MOT expired December 2008

Although over the years my fleet has included Aspen, LX, GLX, Si and Ghia models there are a few gaps that are triggering off my OCD. The fact that I've never owned a V6 isn't really that surprising due to my use case. After all, no sane driver would ever consider renting a V6 from me to do 50,000 mostly urban miles a year.
I never owned a Ghia X TD either. There's a logical reason for this though. If I wanted a Mondeo with leather seats I'd have just bought a set of hide seats from a salvage yard and fitted them to a lower spec car. Other than the leather trim the only bonus of having a Ghia X is having both sunroof and aircon as the Ghia X in TD spec didn't come with cruise control. 
The only saloons I owned were a couple of Aspens and one solitary GLX TD.
The biggest gap in my Mk1/2 CV is the fact that I've never owned, hired or rented out an estate. There's no logical reason for this as estate cars rent out easily. I've got nothing against estates. After all, I've had about half a dozen Mk4 estates, it's just that no estate appeared when I was Mondeo shopping.

Oh wow, I've done hundreds of deliveries down to the Airbus/GKN site at Filton over the years and seen this many times outside one of the stores.

I'd believe the advert story to be true, it very rarely seemed to move and often looked a bit unloved, but it always looked straight and tidy underneath the dirt. I mentioned to the lads in the stores to give me a shout if they ever found out it was being let go, that went well for me! To be fair I've not worked since November last year so it would be a bit unfair to moan at them.
 

Oh wow, I've done hundreds of deliveries down to the Airbus/GKN site at Filton over the years and seen this many times outside one of the stores.

I'd believe the advert story to be true, it very rarely seemed to move and often looked a bit unloved, but it always looked straight and tidy underneath the dirt. I mentioned to the lads in the stores to give me a shout if they ever found out it was being let go, that went well for me! To be fair I've not worked since November last year so it would be a bit unfair to moan at them.
 

Now that it's properly spring I thought it was time to dig the Renault 6 out of the garage.  It always needs a jump start after it's been sat for a while, and I cleverly* hadn't left any room to get to the bonnet when I put it away - I remember thinking at the time "that's going to be a problem - oh well, fuck it, I'll worry about it in the spring".  Well the good news is that my brake repair last year seems to have held as the brakes were still free, and thanks to the new tyre on the nearside front all the tyres were fully inflated.  So all I needed to do was climb in through the tailgate, knock it out of gear, climb back out again, grab hold of the back bumper and pull, and out it came.  
The Rover 75 and a pair of jump leads soon got it running, and I took it for a quick run round the block and was reminded of the issues that had cropped up shortly before it went into hibernation and that I hadn't had a chance to look at properly.  So that was the first task for today once I finally got my arse in gear.
The first issue is that the bonnet latch isn't locking the bonnet.  I couldn't immediately find what was causing this, but removing the latch soon revealed the problem - the mechanism is made of plastic (yes, really) and after 51 years one of the bits had decided it had had enough and snapped off.  So that's irreparable then.  Of course bonnet latches for Renault 6s are completely unobtainium, but a Google session suggested that the Renault 12 latch is similar - or at least the plastic bits are - and those are available (albeit at some expense), so I'm going to order one - worst case I can butcher it for its plastic bits and make one good one out of the two.  For now I've put a Bungee strap on to stop the bonnet flipping up - it's a forward opening bonnet so in theory shouldn't be an issue but aerodynamics can do strange things.
The other two were easier fixes.  The nearside rear indicator was behaving funny when the lights were turned on - this turned out to be a cock up on my part, when I refitted the light unit after the car was hit last year I put the earth wire behind the clamp instead of between the clamp and the nut, so it was flapping around and barely making contact.  The other problem was that the choke wasn't returning properly when the knob was pushed in - this was a slightly stranger one as it transpired that the clamp that holds the end of the cable had come off the carb - I certainly don't remember doing this (and I would have remembered as it was a fiddly bastard) so can only assume that the bolt had vibrated loose and fallen out.  One of the three screws holding the end plate on the carb had also vanished, but I found suitable replacements for both in my stash so that's all sorted.
I then chucked a bucket of water over it to get the garage grime off - next job is to make a template up for the repair section I'm going to need to make for the nearside front floor, but I didn't get time for that this weekend.

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent playing with pushbikes.  I did get the Mobylette fired up - it took a few more kicks than last year but still not bad for an elderly two-stroke engine that's been sat for six months - but I didn't get a chance to take it for a spin as I'd been hoping to do, and the forecast looks shite for this coming week so that might have to wait a little while.

There may be a logical reason for this low mileage. The original owner may have had a company policy for vehicles that extended to on site vehicles that insisted on diesel, estate, ABS, Ford etc. I heard of a similar policy insisted on by a NHS trust that rented a Megane Scenic for six months and returned it with less than 50 miles on the clock.

Oh wow, I've done hundreds of deliveries down to the Airbus/GKN site at Filton over the years and seen this many times outside one of the stores.

I'd believe the advert story to be true, it very rarely seemed to move and often looked a bit unloved, but it always looked straight and tidy underneath the dirt. I mentioned to the lads in the stores to give me a shout if they ever found out it was being let go, that went well for me! To be fair I've not worked since November last year so it would be a bit unfair to moan at them.
 

Oh wow, I've done hundreds of deliveries down to the Airbus/GKN site at Filton over the years and seen this many times outside one of the stores.

I'd believe the advert story to be true, it very rarely seemed to move and often looked a bit unloved, but it always looked straight and tidy underneath the dirt. I mentioned to the lads in the stores to give me a shout if they ever found out it was being let go, that went well for me! To be fair I've not worked since November last year so it would be a bit unfair to moan at them.
 

There's got to be an interesting story behind this.
https://www.gumtree.com/p/ford/2000-ford-mondeo-1.8-lx-td-5dr-11500-miles-estate-diesel-mondeo-classic-with/1473877788

The search for a small auto for Little Cookie is over.
After weeks of frustrating car viewing and not finding anything suitable, that I can also use, I've bought a car.
A big fat German bird to be precise.
I've bought the E320 wagon, that @SiC was selling.

 
While its probably unsuitable for Little Cookie, now its on fleet, she can learn to drive in the Mondeo. 
No collection thread as I forgot
but @andyberg and @BerginJR accompanied me to pick it up.
Good chinwag ensued and then the drive home.
First impressions. Its a big heavy motor. Been a long time since I've driven a big petrol engined slush box motor. Needs a different driving style to the Mondeo. Very comfortable, lovely seats, makes you drive in a more relaxed manner. Lots of buttons, no idea what most do. Car exactly as described, as I expected, given I'm a repeat customer.
Mrs Cookie likes it a lot. She has always wanted a mercedes, seats are comfy and cosseting for her bad back and heated. She had a big smile on her face. Not taken her out in it yet, as have to save up for petrol
@SiC kindly threw in some parts, engine mounts, transmission service kit, which was very kind of him.
Fat bloke with the worst wollard selfie ever.

I've ordered some bits. Rubber boot mat to keep the boot clean, new wing mirror indicator, as the drivers side is a bit grotty.

A replacement rear view mirror, as the auto dim liquid has leaked, leaving the mirror with a dark bottom half.

And I've ordered a book pack, so I can find out what all the buttons do.
She will be used for the upcoming family visit to Hexham and Kirkcaldy and nephews wedding in Corbridge.
That should put a thousand miles on her.
When we get back at end of May, I will tackle the replacement of the rear air bags, engine mounts and service the box. 
 

For aslong as I can remember I've wanted to be directing my own path in business but never had the actual confidence to overcome huge self doubt and fears of failure, in 2021 when I nearly met with my mortality thanks to covid I remember hating that I'd played things safe as houses like a boring nobody and literally despite continued health maladies I feel that I've got a second run up at life , so I'm starting from nothing at 35 and want to get pushing forward with what is abit of a dream for me .
So basically my sister and I have teamed up to create a new garage/engineering works of which provides the usual bread and butter garage services and also more specialised work less commonly found like large manual machining capability and welding.
We're looking to stock up on a range of common classic parts too so that we can take on most project work without waiting on parts turning up in ebay etc albeit limited space prevents stocking a vast amount.
So far over the last 8 months !

Obligatory huge lathe brought back somewhat inappropriately 


Company car brought down , inappropriately 

Lathe electrical rebuild done because it was dangerous as hell, 415 through the soaked push buttons etc ,,horrible ! Once cleaned and generally setup it's been put to work straight away!

 
this s100 k series swap was quite aquite to drive, getting one to fit the earlier car isn't bolt in like with the estelle and rapid !

Cambelt snappage job on an iveco 2.3, lots of new valves and lapping required!

loads of work done, and loads more hopefully to come ! 

Loving your work. That car is a testament to your talent and perseverance.

Just did a test drive there, it's going really well. Only casualty seems to be the temperature gauge not working. It looks like the actual sender on the engine has failed as it's gone completely open circuit, so a new one is on its way.
Next up, I have more fun upgrades.

Rewire complete. 

Have made a few changes. The switched fusebox is fed from a master 100A relay which is triggered from the ignition key. This takes the heavy load off the ignition barrel which could get extremely hot with all of the current for all systems passing through it.
The coil is fed straight off the barrel and is unfused, as it should be, so even if the relay fails the engine won't stop.
Apart from that I made sure all cable ends had good quality spade connectors and heat shrink wrap with adhesive. This way they're pretty tough and reliable and eliminates some of the nasty and corroded original connectors.
The engine bay is much cleaner now without the fusebox, relays, and associated wiring nests.

Wiring for the reverse lights and overdrive now run inside, and I've packed the gap around the gearstick with insulation to cut down on road noise.

Important upgrade done to the brake lights. The original brake light switch is a fluid pressure switch which tends to only activate when you're standing on the pedal. 
I've changed it for an electrical pedal switch, which needed a bracket made up.

A real pain to drill the bolt holes for this in the pedal box so the top hole is in at an awkward angle.

Still it does the trick and is a massive upgrade. The lights now come on as soon as you touch the pedal.
While the steering wheel was off I swapped the steering column coupling bush as it was really sloppy.


The steering column shroud also got a coat of paint after I did some repairs to the cracking brittle plastic with some epoxy.


Last few bits done inside. A new hazard switch.

I then remembered I bought a set of instrument panel stickers off Demon Tweeks.

So I then did what I originally meant to and sorted the dash light graphics.
Before.

After.

Thought I’d update on the Vectra.
since acquiring it, I’ve already wet/dry sanded and DA polished the headlamps, fixed the floppy indicator thanks to @Popsicle help, replaced the blown heater resistor, and given it an oil/filter, fuel and pollen filter. Fuel filter wasn’t original which was good to see, at least it was done once in the cars life 😂. Even cleaned out the rubber bung and surrounding area of the pollen filter so it doesn’t suffer the flooding in the footwell that it can cause. 
getting underneath there is clearly a small oil leak which, I suspect is from the weeping rocker cover given how it has slowly accumulated over time. Absolutely rinsed brake clean everywhere to clean it all off. I’ve ordered up a Febi rocker cover/gasket set which I hope arrives by the weekend. I’ll replace the plugs then too.
I’ve also changed the nasty plastic steering wheel with one from an SRi which is miles better. 
 
I’ve also had the timing belt/water pump and auxiliary belt done. It was on the original belt as well so glad this is sorted for peace of mind.
 
also put 2 new rear tyres on, as they were so old I couldn’t even see the dot code on one of them! It starts immediately with barely a crank and the engine is really torquey. I think it’s definitely had a clutch in its life as its immediate and a good biting point, again good to see.
I am clearly going beserk but as people know me I’m incredibly pedantic and have to get stuff done asap, else it really itches my brain. The interior is what lets the car down, it’s just tired seats which are typical cheap Vauxhall. I’ve found a guy breaking a VXR and I’m travelling there Saturday where it’ll have VXR recaro seats which will just lift the inside.
I’ve ordered the rear drop links and bushes as they are audibly knocking and for the sake of about £33 all in I may as well do it this month.
next month I’ll replace the thermostat as it’s lazy, and I’ll see about doing the front discs and pads as although pads have plenty on them, the discs are pretty poor in my opinion.
overall, enjoying this car. Will serve me well for a bit.

Alignment done at lunchtime today. Need to get my brain used to having the steering wheel straight in this car when going straight along. My brain gets used to a cars steering quirks with time and my brain requires it's steering angle data reset. 
The tracking guy was nearly having orgasms about how nice and easy a job it was being not all rusted solid. Apparently it was very much a welcome change from the others he had in today. 


 
Camber and caster are out on the front. Not sure much can be done about that unless the subframes are shifted about. Maybe new console bushes may help too in time. Drives fine though. 
Rear camber is within the limits but at the limits. Possibly worn bushes. It should be adjustable but I don't think anyone want to dare touch those adjustment bolts. Certainly I didn't! 

Great work as usual DV, I've said it before, that engine sounds really good and healthy for a 60+ year old diesel.
Like the fuel filler location, I didn't realise it was behind the rear number plate, I appreciate nice little details like that.

Thats some good progress there - I'd still be overthinking it all!
I think the foam lumps are put in behind the liners to reduce noise/vibration levels. They'd caused similar rust on my Caddys arches, I cleaned it all up, rust proofed it and undersealed the tubs last summer.

 

Christ almighty was that a fight getting it back in. A helper would have been very useful in doing it. I really did not want it taking nearly two days to do. I had the weekend to myself and I really wanted to get on with my Midget. Right now I have a backlog of things left to do in the house and not going to get any more car time this evening.
Also these bastard clips kept falling apart. They go into the metal body work and the trim fixing screw goes through it. The threaded nut thing kept falling out and into awkward places. Usually as I just got one side in then the other side fell out. 

Also discovered the screw cover on the jesus handles acts as a prop when open to stop them closing up. Neat little bit of design there.

 
Anyway it's now in and fully tightened up. Definitely not a job I'd be in a rush to do again.
Colour is obvious different but it's a million times nicer than it was. The headliner is more ivory (even though it was supposed to be beige) and the standard type you usually get in lighter coloured interiors. I'm sure the other trim pieces could be had (or redone) in ivory to make match as it looks like standard VAG light coloured interior. Beige in the Golf I think was a one year option and very rare anyway.
As is, is certainly not horrendous though and a million times nicer than it was. At the very least it's nice not to have it raining foam into your hair every time you close the door.