N19

Door switch off, no continuity at all. Although, randomly, a bit later it seemed to go the other way and be stuck on. 

Replacement £6 off eBay ordered. I think that's probably where the battery/electrical issues I had last month stemmed from, if the footwell lights were randomly staying on. In view of the rain, and my tiredness, I didn't strip the unit down, but once I've swapped it out I'll have a nosey. 

Yesterday presented the first opportunity in a while to do anything down the garage, when I both had the time and it wasn't freezing cold. 

Bluebird exhaust bolts nipped up and general check over before MoT. Capri got down off axle stands, pootled around the yard, let it warm up and run for a bit. 

It certainly left a mark

Mondeo door switch I think is faulty - it's been sensing the door as being open intermittently. This results in interior lights staying on all the time which is sub optimal. Pulled fuse until I get a chance to have a poke. 

On 12/3/2022 at 10:51 AM, sierraman said:

Could be damp, the solenoids in the doors don’t like cold weather. 

A good point - the central locking is spot on in summer, in winter it usually clunks into action after a while once the car is nice and warm. This was rather odder though, anyway it was resolved once there was a new battery on and consistent (rather than jump starting, swapping batteries over etc).

Snowbird. 

Any further active work on the fleet waiting until January now. Hopefully the Capri will go into the bodywork place, the Bluebird can then come into my lockup as there's a variety of little jobs which need doing. 

8 hours ago, Pat Earrings said:

Yeah that’s my guess too, seeing as it runs perfectly and no overheating etc. I’m on the lookout for something so won’t rush it, enjoying the sounds of the car itself tbh. Yeah happy to let them tinker with it, it’s unbearably cold. Almost froze my hands doing the EGR delete on my TDi polo the other week.

Blaupunkt

Ah - I've got two half dismantled Blaupunkt units on my dining table - started making one good out of two duff ones. Bluebird to ISO cables are available as an adaptor on eBay. 

19 minutes ago, Pat Earrings said:

Bluebird has been booked into my new found trusty garage to investigate the lack of heat issues. I could do it myself but it’s painfully cold and I’ve no time at the minute. Hopefully I’ll be toasty warm after Thursday.

I’ll investigate the dead stereo but after 32 years it’s probably given up the ghost. Can’t seem to find anything remotely period correct, so I may just fit a second hand Bluetooth one instead. Sacrilege I know.

Which one is it? Blaupunkt or Clarion?

Fitted a new battery today (so I can return the borrowed one to the Bluebird!), gave everything a clean up and it seems ok now. An eye will be kept...

5 hours ago, sierraman said:

Could be damp, the solenoids in the doors don’t like cold weather. 

It did various odd things this morning including randomly beeping the horn, some relays throwing etc. The central locking has always been a bit vague during winters, I've disconnected the boot from it to avoid issues since I couldn't get it to lock otherwise!

Cold snap this week, the Mondeo's battery gave up. I think it's about ten years old so fair enough. 

Swapped it with the Bluebird's 096 until I can get a new one (the Bluebird starts, albeit sluggishly, on the knackered battery). Although the Mondeo's central locking has started acting up, which I assume is something to do with low voltage. 

With ULEZ unpleasantness ahead, if any shiters require inspection of a car, or pickup and bringing to the outskirts - anywhere in North London I can usually do, work permitting.

I was just thinking "cheeky get, retro, whacha on about that's an early naughties camera" then realised, it really is.  Complete with low ISO speed bubbles. 

There's probably a load of photos of then-insignificant things that past-me took in the early naughties sitting on a HDD somewhere.

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I got an email about extending the London congestion charge yesterday, pretty much reads as "we're extending it out to the M25 everywhere, tough shit unless you're disabled in which case we'll put your hard luck on hold for a year or two"

Looks like I won't be going to Romford for shopping anymore, and my mum will have to have a re-think of how she's getting to her regular hospital visits there too, as her 1994 Astra  and our late 90s VWs will all attract the charge

The ironic/infuriating thing is that I live approx 100m from the boundary, so even popping out of the area is £12.50 purely for that last 100m. Looking at how they did the inner ULEZ, there are cameras at practically every point on the boundary. At the moment, the boundary for the heavy diesel van/lorry LEZ doesn't seem to be fully camera'd.  I also wonder if there will be cameras along the 5-minute trip through suburban backstreets to my lockup (which I do in the Mondeo regularly to cart stuff down/up from there). I think I will set up the auto-pay and see when it triggers.

10 hours ago, Rustybullethole said:

Nice work. Guess the bluey can fund the weld repairs for the capri. Picked that ulez email up today. All my vehicles unviable to drive come August but hey there’s a scrapage scheme so one can bin off perfectly good working vehicles and replace them with ones that won’t last as long. If one can afford too. 
Boils my piss. Sorry. 

I think I'll reinvest some of the money from the sale of the Bluey into something small and Ulez compliant (but suitably autoshitey) - as old as possible - maybe a Ka or something of that size - to blat about locally in the suburbs in. In fairness that will save money in tax and fuel as the Bluey and Mondeo are both expensive in those regards.

13 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Plates look superb! Sorry to hear that the Bluebird looks like it'll have to retire elsewhere, but maybe there's still time for the scheme to be modified, depending on residents feedback.

Unfortunately, I somewhat doubt it. It would have been nice to have some sort of 'taper system' or 'sunset period' but I doubt it.

The postman arrived with some shiny new number plates. 

See the reproduction Vs the original. Spot on. The original was actually in two pieces when I took it off!

The front has always had a motorfactors plate, so it gets a treat. 

Ironically, today is the day that the Bluebird's fate was sealed. The ULEZ will come in from August and so it'll be £12.50 to even move it. Within the fleet I can justify holding on to the Mondeo for long journeys and big item moves, but I'll most probably be putting this up for sale in the spring, sadly.

Preparation on the Capri has pretty much stalled, I've stripped out everything I can right now, so it's waiting for the garage to take it onto their ramp. The sills and wings have had significant "corrosion assessment" to expose the weak bits although I'm quite sure they'll be more once the wings come off. 

I took the main beam relay off to clean it out, it was a bit lazy in throwing which meant that the reliable way of getting the lights on involved popping the bonnet and a tap of a spanner in the right place...

Nissan has a slight exhaust blow somewhere, need to have a proper look at that, and the Mondeo has a flat tyre (discovered at 0549 on a Monday morning). 

Chucked some money in, thanks to all for their hard work keepign this place afloat etc.

Looks a great space, I know you've had merry hell with space to work, so hopefully the garage will help - great to be able to just close the door and leave when you're fed up. And I'm sure there's a way of sorting the rear door issue so you can keep a car out the back, by hook or by crook...

Continued joy of 1970s Fords.

Borehamwood 

7 minutes ago, trigger said:

Today I pulled the diff cover off, the old one was a nice pin hole though it. 

And got that back together, afterwards me and my dad tackled the ugly strut plate under the bonnet. 😕

Ekk... So that looks like a winter job for my tamed welder then... 

I think the general rule with fords of this era is to expect about three times as much work as you first think. I've stripped mine down with the interior and dash out, and been poking around, which has resulted in several more jobs than I had anticipated.

Repair sections are available for the strut tops I think, CCI etc should do them, if you need them.

2 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Thats a shame he ghosted you, aah well his loss.

I don't understand why people do things like this.

Surely a quick message to say "Sorry - something's come up, I can't go through with the sale - hey let me send you £20 for the hassle/fuel wasted - apologies" would, for most of us, result in a sigh/rolled eyes, but certainty and an ability to do something else.

I find with mine - it probably isn't a thing and certainly isn't scientific - but it feels like it runs nicely when it's had a good few runs and 'blown the cobwebs off'. 

What oil are you using? this in itself turns into a debate on any capri forum.

Check the timing, you may be able to give it a bit more advance.

Not sure what carb is on it - is it the original VV? a replacement Weber with a manual choke makes things much better, you can also get a replacement exhaust which is slightly larger without being OTT.

Fantastic! The key with these cars is a sympathetic and realistic garage/tester...

Will the new Sirion be a keeper? Is it intended to help with Miss HN learning, or is the Charade planned for that?

Dash brought back home to live indoors for a bit. 

I went for a drive around town in the afternoon, a nice little pootle in an empty and rattly car.  Clocks held on with a cable tie for legality reasons!

There's some underseal/waxoyl type stuff under the drivers foot area, presumably as part of a previous repair. It makes removal of the sound deadening a right pain though!

You can see there's been a patch put in before that's rotted away. 

The big screwdriver also attacked the inner wings. Holes happened. 

And in view of the deterioration of the number plates with age, I'm going to see if I can get reproductions done...

Yeah, think Premium is lowest spec. 

My 1.8GS is a lovely car. It may be uneconomical on fuel, slightly battered, and with various quirks (read - things not working) but it's reliable and nippy