N19

I gave the Mondeo a proper wash, and did the wheels. I picked up a set of simoniz products (£3 for about 7 or 8 bottles of stuff) and tried the wheel cleaner. Surprisingly, a lot of the brake dust melted off after a bit of agitation! these wheels have never been anything other than murky brown... I accidentally ended up parked next to a Fiesta of a similar vintage and colour. It sounded dreadful, engine tappety as heck. Capri, still waiting for a date that the welder can start work on it. Annoying that it's taking so long, but it's not the biggest priority for them I know and I want it done by someone I know will do it properly. Got in the Mondeo today to discover the carpet soaking wet in the drivers footwell. I don't know if this was to do with my excessive pressure washing the other day! the floor bung seemed loose, so I blobbed some silicone sealer on it, and gave the carpets a thorough wet vac. I've left it with newspapers in the footwell.

L-reg Mk1 saloon seen at the traffic lights at half 10 last night - was a bit surprised as I imagined most of them would be giffer/enthusiast owned! And then when pondering it today, same spot, a T-reg silver saloon mk2. Clearly the traffic lights at Barnet Church are some sort of spawn portal for early Mondeos.

I've done a bit of digging since this hasn't appeared at our petrol kiosk. It is only in certain stores, by the looks of it, some medium-sized superstores are having the oils range changed over towards the end of the month, and as a result they are reduced to clear.

I headed down to the lockup this afternoon and tried to start the Capri, starter motor clicked but no turning. Out came the mending hammer and the jump leads... I gave the Capri a quick 'bed bath' to remove the dust and so on that's accumulated through sitting in the garage. then off came the passenger door.... To try and give myself a bit more 'working room', I put up a shelf on the side, having measured where it'll fit in relation to the body shape of the Capri. I also realised how difficult reversing into a garage is when the doors (and hence wingmirrors) are off! When I popped into the local hardware shop for some shelf brackets I saw this in the car care section - the batteries expired in Jan 2004, so it must be a good 25 years it's been on the shelf? Anyway, for £2.99 I picked it up. Just need to get some non-expired AA batteries now...

The thing is, non-compliant vehicles will gradually ramp down (at least with 'normal' owners) as they suffer uneconomic bodywork/mechanical issues, get sold on, owners pass away etc. What benefit will be brought by bringing this curve forward a few years? If you would like to look at excessive emissions, how about the glut of delivery vans chasing each other around the same estates delivering two parcels each. Or the minicabs sitting idling outside the roads round the back of the hospital for hours. Or the double deckers running empty for miles across town because it has been decided, for example, that the 91 (from Crouch End to Aldwych) should not be run by either of the two garages which it practically passes the door of, but from a garage in Stockwell (?!).

I'll definitely bear that in mind... especially when I come to re-fit things. The wing will need to come off anyhow to work on the top inner rail. It's a pain, but it's got to happen and better get it sorted properly now. I think those cameras are ULEZ ones yes. There's another which seems to have gone up at the Arkley Hotel bus terminus. My strategy is Capri (exempt), Mondeo (not exempt, use sparingly a few times a month when need arises, use for long-distance journeys back home and cross country), then something-new-and-boring-and-cheap-and-compliant-and-autoshitey-and-easy-to-work-on-and-reliable for day-to-day trundling around.

Fairly little going on in my world car-wise. The Capri's still waiting to be welded. It'll have been off the road for nearly 6 months soon, I should really chase up the garage again. I decided to get the doors off, a two man job. How to do this on my own... easy, ratchet straps. Crusty A-pillar posts. Looks like there's been some sort of repair here previously. and the.... armpit? of the door itself had some corrosion, which rapidly expanded when tested.

I know very little about Rovers, but....

If it's spares from there that you kindly gave me a year or so ago, the O/S headlight still provides sterling service - and a few other bits too!

if it brings new people in and engages with the next generation, great, they'll like what they see and progress to the full videos. Will the Leaf video happen another time, or is it a no-go?

Good call and easy enough to cut and re-do if you need to take the scuttle panel off, which I shouldn't need to do for a year!

Yeah, the foam has pretty much gone on mine. I'll have to see if I can get some sticky back foam online or something to replace it. Seems to hold water something silly which won't help.

I did an oil change on the Mondeo last weekend, and realised the air filter & cabin filter were pretty grubby. I was too busy to get down to the factors so ordered some from GSF, throwing a fuel filter, new oil filter and set of brake pads (the latter I didn't really need but they were cheap and make it up to the £25 minimum). WCPGW? Fitted filters today, and also tackled a cracked plastic trim on the scuttle. The plastic insert here had cracked ages ago, so I took a washer, modified* it with a hammer to be slightly concave, painted it black to fit in and fitted it. To avoid having to wait for the paint to dry, I used the in-built paint baking facility on the Mondeo... I then did a bit of undersealing at the back of the car. I decided to take off the tow ball to better access. With a long bar it came off reasonably easy, underseal/cleaning up all done, refitting should be easy enough right. Wrong. I managed to get it up close enough to get an M8 nut and bolt through, just to hold it in position and give me the wiggle room to get the original bolt back in. M8 then removed and correct M12 bolt refitted. Oh and the brake pads that I didn't really need anyway - clearly had been fitted, box re-packaged with sellotape, all the pads scuffed and covered in muck and one of the pad wear sensor cables yanked out of its socket. Clearly returns aren't checked! I suppose that's my penance for not going to the proper motor factors. I'm considering investing in one of these power washers for washing of cars down at the lockup and even outside my flat. https://uk.ryobitools.eu/garden-tools/garden-cleaning-tools/pressure-washers/ry18pw22a/ry18pw22a-140/?wgdp=ppc&gclid=Cj0KCQiArsefBhCbARIsAP98hXStVoxqqpAfSiPZaqvsinP5N1Q1oP72kZvXZO9f3mT0GHvo-FQTNfEaAsJ2EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds we've an outdoor tap with a small length of hose, pressure isn't great though. This has a syphon kit included. Clearly won't be as powerful as a proper mains-powered pressure washer, but the price is ok and undoubtably a good habit to wash the underside of the car down in winter more often. Man maths tells me I'll save £4 a pop at the coin-op jet wash down at the Shell garage for 8 minutes.

Love the Capri video - OK, I'm biased (albeit at the opposite of the range) but felt it gave a good overview of the car and how driving one feels. Made me miss taking mine down winding B roads!

Get some acetone (or nail varnish remover which includes it) that should dissolve it if left on for five minutes or so?

There is a story about a bus company who would do exactly this with a number of 'identical' vehicles, the number plates and fleet numbers would be swopped around so the 'good' bus was being MoTd several times per year. Supposedly this was found out when a tester who was a bus spotter noticed that each vehicle had subtle differences, or something like that. Whether true or not I know not.

As above, the Mondeo was in the garage for what turned out to be a wheel bearing... ... whereupon I realised just how disgustingly filthy the outside is. The interior carpets though got a clean. Bad timing as I'd hoped to take the car out for a good run with the heater and blower on max - they're still damp today Mucky Vs clean... The Bluebird did cope well though, complete with period sat-nav setup for directions... I took the brush to some of the rust blisters on the back of the Capri today, seems like someone doing a previous repair liked their filler... This little dremel-style battery powered thing was £20 off eBay I think. Clearly it'll not be the most robust or long lasting tool, but it's been incredibly handy for taking little blisters back to metal, and there's mini cutting and polishing discs too.

Cameo appearance on the cover - awful photo but thought I'd take one on the way to hang it up in the garage! Many thanks for all the work sorting this out!

Dolomite shopping...

Definitely nice to get it out on a long trip - though it is that little bit less refined than the Mondeo on long 70mph stretches.

I suppose it depends on how pedantic you are, but I'm fairly sure that those duplicates on tube strike days never took fares, being a selection of essentially anything that would run and be crewed, without the usual equipment. Did some not have plates inside saying they were refurbished by MainlinE?

Mondeo - buggered wheel bearing, none coming in until tomorrow. But a replacement tyre for the Nissan wheel could be found and fitted this afternoon which means it will be performing long distance duties tomorrow. It has done Aberdeen, Yorkshire etc from London before, just a little less refined on the motorway than the Mondeo.

Fudge. I'm due to do a 260 mile round trip on Tuesday. My options are... 1. Mondeo. Currently making a scraping noise when turning left or keeping straight, disappears when turning right. I was hopeful that it might be a buggered arch liner or something but no such luck. Driveshaft? joints? Going to take a look first thing in the morning on a ramp. 2. Capri. Mostly in bits. Not roadworthy. 3. Bluebird. Fine enough, no functional spare wheel at the moment though, so I'd be stuffed if anything went wrong in that regard.

Said often as a complaint to petrol station cashier - "I put £5 in, but the fuel gauge hasn't moved, your pumps aren't delivering fuel!" (yes, the highly sensitive, trading-standards checked meters are clearly usurped by the float gauge in a tank that gives a rough estimation)

Thank you for sorting this out!