CaptainBoom

A quick pictorial update . . .
    
^  Fibreglassed underside to the frame, where I'd used masking tape to extend the flange.  As you can see the resultant extra width of that was 3 to 4mm and instead of being 1mm thick it is now around 3mm thick.   With the extra thickness the frame was much stiffer than it had been, so I opted to not fit wood, or other means to prevent it from twisting.  Despite my original intent, and Stuart's endorsement of doing so, the lid's T-bar worked well before to prevent twisting, and so I felt little motivation to change things. 
   
^ Having something more sturdy to work with, I got on with rebuilding the contours, and primed it.  With so many colours ; black of the moulding, grey of raw fibreglass, primrose yellow of the paintwork, and green of the fibre-filler it was difficult to see the shape.  Coating with primer added yet another colour but when first applied helped highlight flaws.  
   
^ I had considered painting the frame red, to match the car, but then because of the extent of rubber seals around all edges decided to go with gloss black.  Unfortunately, the reflections in that show up every wave and wobble in the fibreglass moulding.  I rubbed down and repainted it a couple of times but decided the odds were stacked against me.  If I were to insist on having good reflections - then this fibreglass moulding would need to be replaced with an aluminium backlight frame.   

^ If you don't take those reflections too seriously this the backlight looks acceptable for a driver's car.  I need to replace the glazing rubber's 'chrome' infill bead, as the one I have is broken and twisted.  The rubber itself I reused. Again it's far from perfect but usable.  

^ work in progress.  The backlight is now mostly refitted but it's glass has not yet 'settled'.  I could do with the heat of a closed car on a still n' sunny day to soften its glazing rubber.  There's no sealant or mastic holding the rubber in place yet, and as you can see the rear interior trim is still to be refitted.   Presently I'm not so keen on it being black, but perhaps it'll grow on me or else fade into the background and not be noticeable.   We'll see.

^ Conversely, I liked the backlight being painted primrose yellow.. and it light tone disguised the moulding's numerous defects (not only distortions but clearly its mould was chipped and at the end of its working life). 
That's all for this week, I bid you have a good weekend.
Pete
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rolls it is then!! 

Weather is looking good for tomorrow, see you from 10am.
Safe journeys all, Chodstone here we come!

Another day off (Saturday), another day spent tinkering with the Sierra.
I had a look under the car and noted a patch of engine oil on the workshop floor.

The sump plug was leaking. When I drained the old engine oil a few weeks ago, I noted there wasn't a copper washer on the sump plug so I, foolishly, put the sump plug back in without fitting one.
Rather than draining all the engine oil, my wife kindly volunteered* to hold a rag against the drain plug whilst I quickly put a copper washer on the sump plug and screwed it back in place. I only lost a little engine oil in the process. Hopefully problem solved.

Next, I prepared and undersealed the front suspension components for that factory fresh look. I am pleased with the result.


I had lunch in the workshop. My arms and jumper were soaked with paraffin and I was not allowed to eat with the normal people in the house.

The engine sump was filthy.

And corroded.
I lifted the sump up and away from the crossmember by jacking up the transmission.

Access was adequate, I managed to scrape off the rusty bits and clean up the good coatings.

I painted the rusty and exposed parts of the sump with a high temperature black gloss paint. Whilst there, I also gave the steering rack a scrub. Much better.

Finally for today, I rubbed down the rusty areas under the bonnet and painted them with Rust Oleum paint. I will dab some blue aerosol paint over the patches tomorrow.
I also cleaned the old overspray from the two rubber seals. 

The plan for tomorrow is to finish off the decoration work under the bonnet, get the car back on its wheels and push it out of the workshop, where I can see better and touch up a couple of little chips and marks that are difficult to spot indoors. 
With the Sierra outside, I will be giving my workshop a deep clean.

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. 
 

 

Mrs Yoss now informs me she wants to to the gym tomorrow and blue Favorit is the only car she has registered for the car park. So I'm probably bringing green Favorit now. Which hasn't been washed for several months. Anyway you'll hear me before you see me if I'm in the green one.

I won't make it...... I left my sodding keys at the AirBnB last weekend and they haven't shown up yet - so still in Belgium. 
Hopefully you'll compensate with copious photo's. Thanks in advance 

Since the Nova had been away on its hols I hadn’t heard anything. Today I did… 
And it was a message I was not hoping to receive…

 Bollocks.

The first pic was the bit I knew about, but the rest is quite the surprise as I had thought it was pretty solid. There was a video too which showed that there is a fair few bits in the floor pan and inner sills which would need new metal in. Plus all the work on the other bits which I had planned for.
Sadly, don’t think my pockets are deep enough for this one. 😢

Ooh please bring that!
 



 

It's a shame you don't have a Favorit coupé. That would go even better with the XM. 

Obviously never made it to production but this one does exist.

Both motos still broken and no insurance on the Berlingo as of last night due to it sneaking up on me and online quotes being double what it was last year. 
Why the grin? Well it gives me the chance to use this;

Engines a bit smoky but its made the ferry quicker than the Berlingo due to respectful swift progress and lack of number plate.
Quick rest now then on to Waltham Forest. How my body holds up to 30 miles and a days graft remains to be seen. Wish me luck.

 

Thankfully they stopped on the TW postcodes with the Bond Bug at TW11. TW18/19 could have been an Ali G special with a yellow bifocal windscreen. 

One of my biggest stresses about moving back up north was the cost of just stuff in general.  I don't have the best relationship with money, I'd rather it didn't exist and I dislike having to strive to acquire a certain amount of it every week but until a better alternative arrives I suppose I'll just have to tolerate it.  Anyway, one of my big fears was just being able to afford enough food to be healthy because I've been used to Kent prices.  Kent prices, it turns out, are actually insane.  Being able to eat healthily and within my budget is kind of a big deal for me.  Also, next month I'm checking out the local gym since my old one doesn't have a location up here and if it's as good as it looks on paper, that's going to be half the price for the same equipment and better opening hours (it's a 24/7 one, which I wasn't expecting outside of a big city).
This week has felt much more stable.  Routines are re-establishing themselves and a lot of my fears of going back into rented accomodation haven't been realised which in turn is helping me stay more focused and productive with work.  Makes it a lot easier to stay positive about things.

Came across a very unusual sight on UK shores in the 21st century.  Heck, pretty unusual in the US these days, never mind the UK.

Visited Arcade Club in Bury as a birthday trip for one of the family today.  Did I spend the entire damned day on the pinball tables?  Yes.  Do I regret that decision?  Not in the slightest.
All got a shot.  Still don't like Twilight Zone for all it's touted as a classic table by a lot of folks, I just don't get along with it.  Addams Family is still good fun, as is Dr. Who.  Surprise of the day though was The Getaway.

Despite now I'm looking apparently being a popular table it's one which had escaped my radar until today.  Really impressed with how it plays though.
Would I pick it over Medieval Madness if I could pick any table to have in my house?  If I'd won the lottery, probably not.  However given that they seem to change hands for about a third of the price, it would absolutely be a contender.
I mean they are all absolutely absurdly expensive for what is indeed absolutely a toy which is why it's very unlikely I'll ever end up with an actual table (also...they're not exactly small!).
Still reckon the late 80s/early 90s was the peak for pinball table design.  They just got needlessly complicated after that and added lots of flashy tat on top which really doesn't do anything to actually enhance the gameplay.  Especially the raft of movie tie ins from Stern.  Sure they'll keep me occupied for ten minutes, but after that they're just so utterly forgettable and all play so like each other it's hard to tell them apart.  Yes I know that under the skin that Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars are very similar tables, but they play differently enough it's really not obvious unless you're thinking about it - plus they both play really WELL rather than just being painfully average, which is probably my biggest gripe with the Stern tables.
Really impressed with this place to be honest.  There's a mind boggling amount of kit here right through the years from an original Asteroids cabinet, through the 80s to more or less the present day, and a decent number of import games we never got in the UK.  One of our number has a huge soft spot for both rhythm and dancing games, and found themselves very well catered for.  Not only do they have probably a dozen dancing games, they ALL are in good working order.  In fact I think I only saw one or two out of order signs the whole day.  Which given they've got four floors pretty well packed full is quite a credit to the folks here looking after things.
I'm not a huge gamer really, the pinball is what really attracted my attention, but nevertheless I still lost a couple of hours to Arkanoid, Warlords (in both upright and table forms), Outrun, Robotron, Marble Madness and good old Pac-Man.
If you've got a day, like games and are in the Bury area it's well worth a visit.  Cafe gets a mention too.  The food is very basic fare, but for what it is it's pretty decent.  More to the point given they've got a captive audience they have pointedly NOT chosen to price gouge.  Freshly made 10" pizza and a Coke, £6.20.  Inside an attraction in 2024 I don't think you can complain about that at all.

Based on @cobblers recommendation, I bought three cans of this stuff, kindly delivered by Amazon this afternoon. 

He speaks highly of it and it only costs £3 per can more than the Halfords gloss black stuff.
My workshop is not ventilated and a Covid mask was the only PPE I had. Leaving the workshop doors open was not an option as the rear bumper would have been exposed to cold temperature and moisture.

I started by giving the nearside part of the rear bumper a thin coat of paint. This was the only part of the two bumpers that didn't receive any black paint yesterday. The finish looked promising, there was no evidence of any silicone contamination.

I proceeded to rub down the front and rear bumpers with a 220 grade pad. Dirty work.

The new paint supposedly has a textured finish. Whilst the front bumper was 90% done and looked ok with a gloss black finish, I didn't want the two bumpers looking different, one with a smooth and the other a textured finish. Shame really, as the front bumper looked pretty good.
After rubbing down, I cleaned the surface with a textured dry wipe. I didn't use white spirit. See @cort16 I do pay attention.
Front bumper ready for paint.

Ditto the rear one, which needed a lot more rubbing down where the silicone contamination occurred.

I sprayed the front bumper first. The paint went on beautifully and covered the entire surface without any problems. The finish is a little more textured than the gloss black before but nothing excessive.

Then I did the same to the rear bumper.

And the front grille.

By the time I finished, I was high as a kite on the fumes. 
First impressions, whilst the paint was still wet, the finish looks great. I applied numerous thin coats to both bumpers, which covered up the majority of the scratches and marks. Most importantly, there was no silicone contamination issues. Thank you again @cobblers for recommending this paint to me.
Despite wearing a face mask, I acquired a deposit of black residue under my nose. I noticed a passing resemblance to a certain unpleasant Austrian chap.

I can't wait to inspect the bumpers tomorrow. Expectations are high!!!

I've been looking forward to this day since I bought the Sierra.
I used T-Cut and water to cut the paint where it was faded but not scratched.

And this stuff where the paint was badly damaged.

And then this stuff to polish the paint after cutting.

The cutting made a huge difference.


Looking better already.

Another before / after photo, spoiled by a crappy iPhone camera.

Job done. The paint responded well to the cut and polish. The deepest scratches remain and I did not try to get them out as I didn't want to risk cutting through to the primer. I almost did along part of the bonnet. Under my workshop LED light, the scratches are still obvious but under a halogen light and, most likely, daylight, the paint should look ok.
Since my first inspection of the Sierra, I knew that the paint was bad and getting it to this standard wasn't quick or easy and I am happy with the results. The nearside front door is not a good colour match and there are various flaws around the car where it was previously painted. Doesn't matter, it looks ok. 




It will look better outside, in natural light.
Then my wife brought me lunch.

After lunch, I had to do something with the two tone sills.

I masked off the bottom of the doors and sprayed both sills with the blue aerosol (no primer). Again, no chemical reactions, no cracking or wrinkling. 


Much better.
I'm getting there.

Hmm... Well I don't think I have anything planned next weekend and it would give me an excuse to give one of the cars a proper run. And I  could do a good proportion of it on the A272 on the way out at least. I love the A272 but it's nightmare with other people on it but if I leave home at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning it should be relatively free of idiots. Apart from me, but I mean the normal idiots.
TL,DR, put me down as a possible.

Welcome back!
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For the most part, everything should be pretty much identical. It'll be a success if it is.
Thank you for your patience!

After uncovering a gas pipe buried less than 3” deep in the front garden in November, and the subsequent faff getting SGN to drop it to the correct depth, I finally have off road parking.

The other side of the concrete path will be done once the weather remains fine and the grass isn’t like a marsh. Will be comfortable parking for 2 cars then, and not the crush we currently have. Citroen is in the garage.

Not sure how I drove this to Monaco and back, could hardly sleep with the nerves of driving it to the  MOT station today. That said as soon as I hit the road I felt ok, knew the car would be fine and really enjoyed driving it again for first time in about 8 months 
Thanks to @Rust Collectorfor the tip on running a wire from the tailgate earth to a body earth, it's solved all the dashboard light gremlins
Car passed the MOT,  I think a couple of the crusty bits around the turrets might need attention before the next MOT but for now they are deemed acceptable
 

Yeah apologies, my phone decided to go from 18% to 1% battery in a few seconds when I was on the train.  I decided to leave it alone rather than try and use it to post here.  The joys of running an old smart phone.
I'm home, exactly 100 miles later.  My back feels better now than when I got into the car at 5:15, the seats much have some medicinal properties in them or something!
I averaged 43.7mpg which is very respectable I think.  I certainly didn't go on an economy run, although the A3 was slow when the rain really came down.  The car was really sublime, felt very wafty but made good noises when pushed.  I was very fortunate not have have to use the hand/footbrake at all on the way home.  I wanted some time away from traffic to work out how to use it.  It's more the scrambling for the foot pedal to apply it than the hand lever to release it that I'll need to get used to.  It all seems very pleasant and works incredibly well.  I needed a good work hack in my life again (I really miss my Volvo from two years ago) and this really fits the gap. 
In all, a great day.  Despite the weather.
Thanks again to @Stanky, top buyer 42/10 - would by from again, for making the process smooth and for the lift from the station in the new steed. 
 

🥲

Yeah we've had loads of adventures with it. In a small way, it features in this year's calendar again:

If you zoom in far enough, you might spy my Mrs reclining on the airbed in the back as we faffed about in the drizzle!

Yeah plate robbery is one of the things that makes me irrationally angry, especially when it comes to an older vehicle like that where the plate is engrained as part of its history and its identify
it pisses me off on several levels, from the fact for example a car will lose its phyiscal original number plates, a nice original set of bluemels or such gone, in favour of the cheapest and nastiest modern pressed plates, or even worse i have seen just modern retro-reflective plates slapped on! 
and then on a deeper level I know so many times how so many people have found old cars from them googling their reg number the classic example of a family finding out Great-grandads Old Austin 7 is still out there because they found an old photo from 90 years ago and googled the reg for a giggle
however plate robbery, robs them of that chance, but this is a soapbox I could rant on for hours about
 
but its funny you should mention the bent MOT, as you know I do fair bit of DVLA bashing, and one of those things is occasionally checking in on what the current re-reg series are up to, and the amount of times i have come across a freshly plate robbed vehicle with a completely clean MOT 
I do often think myself "did that 1947 Morris, that last otherwise had a keeper change in 1986, really just manage to waltz through a clean MOT...." 
 
I wonder if there is any way of getting the original reg back, do you know if it was sold through one of the many plate retailers out there, or if Mr Plate Robber sold it directly to Mr Range Rover?
perhaps if you could chase it back up the line so to speak, get the person who sold the plate off the car, to pass on your details to the person who they sold the plate too, maybe you could get Mr Range Rover to sell it back to you at least? if nothing else might be worth keeping an eye on said number plate retailers
a good friend of mine owns a Land Rover with original plate of 333EUL and he was able to eventually reunite it with its original number plate by stalking the number plate retailers
 
 

I’ve been improving this car since picking it up on Saturday. Greased all the points, changed the oil (no filter on these) therefore it’s important to change it regularly. 
Second gear was an awkward bastard. It was very reluctant to engage going 1st-2nd, but going down and the other gears were fine. The previous owner who traded it in for a Minor got in touch and said that second gear problem was one of the reasons he got rid of it, the other was the lack of speed. We can’t do much about the latter but what about the former. 
He said he used to slip the clutch and move off in second which is less than ideal. Although the accepted thing to do with the Hampshire is pull away in second, it’s got a very torquey 2.2 OHV engine which the Mayflower, well, hasn’t so it’s important to have all the gears working correctly.
Adjusting the gear linkage made it so it always went in but it wasn’t very smooth unless I double-declutched. I had a look at the clutch adjustment. The free play should be 1/2” but it was at least 2- 2 1/2”. Adjusted that up correctly and now it works perfectly and smoothly in all gears. 
Other jobs included tuning up the engine, and feeding the very dry original leather with the leather cream Vulgalour used on his Lanchester, I went and bought a bottle on his recommendation. It’s had two applications already and it’s getting there but it hadn’t been done for years so it really needs another application. I also tightened up the fuel pump and the stator tube on the end of the steering box, both were leaking and topped up the steering box. I think the fuel pump may need a new gasket as it’s still weeping slightly but the steering box is now dry which is good. Unfortunately the (recently recored) rad is leaking from two places, the drain tap and a soldered joint on the side so I’ll have to whip that out and repair it. I’ve got a spare tap which should fit.
The only other thing I’ve had to deal with is the non-functioning headlights. The car has a brand new loom so my first thought was they’ve forgotten to connect something or wired something in wrongly. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the loom so tested the switch with my test meter which showed it was faulty. To prove the point I ran a link wire across the back of the switch from sidelights to headlights with the switch turned on and the headlights came on. I ordered a secondhand replacement from the Austin Counties car club (same switch used on Somerset etc) which turned up and I tested it and it’s a goodun. Unfortunately you need to turn the ignition switch to the on position to remove and swap the barrel over and none of my keys would operate the switch. So that’ll have to wait until a key turns up for it.
So far though, I’m loving it. It drives beautifully and it’s brimming with character. Also it’s nice to have something that doesn’t need welding!