crad

We’ve just got back from the 20 week scan, and we’ve found out that we are expecting a girl who looks to be healthy and normal.
I had tried not to get my hopes up, but seeing as we have a son already I really wanted to have a daughter as our second child. I’m over the moon at the news 😁

I've just got another year's ticket on the old Scirocco. I successfully ran this for a decade on an actual shoestring,  but then the decision had to be made: move it on or spend some real money. I can confirm that the shabby little fucker is bleeding me dry, but by God, it's fun to drive when it's on form.

To follow up my post of earlier today,  here are the photos from the first extraction from my garage since February this year and a you-tube clip which my son made this evening after returning from work at 6pm.  
 
 

This morning my son moved his motorcycle and other bits and pieces that were blocking my Reliant in the garage, moved his car leaving a clear driveway and said 'no excuses now.'   I therefore somewhat reluctantly ('cos old and mojo dormant) threaded myself into the Reliant after connecting its battery, turned the key and it started remarkably easily.  The new fuel pump diaphragm (ethanol compatible) that I fitted in June 2022 has made quite a difference to the speed of priming the system after long periods of inactivity.  The last garage start was in February this year but I did not drive it on that occasion.  With all appropriate checks made and tyre pressures topped up I drove to the closest end of our cul-de-sac and back a couple of times (i.e. about 500 metres total), rechecked under the bonnet for leaks - all was well - then drove around the estate - probably about a mile.  By this time I was sweating profusely because it is so warm today and the Reliant, even with its two sliding windows fully open, soon gets even warmer inside as the engine sits mostly in the cabin under a cowling.  That is enough for the moment.  I'll add a photo or two in another post later when I find my camera. No smartphone here! 

Back in my late teens, I thought I was a Volkswagen fan.  I had several Beetles, a T3 Fastback and a 412.  Yes, Volkswagens for me alright.
Somehow, probably because of the rear engine, I then had a Suzuki Whizzkid - it was like a go-kart but without the refinement.  A few years later I had a Suzuki Cappuccino, another Whizzkid (with lots of other cars in between) and a Baleno GSR.  Was I actually a Suzuki fan?
I’d deny this vehemently, while admitting to you that I’ve just bought this.

It’s a Swift GLX

No, a GLX.  It means alloy wheels, which I don’t care about, a 1.5 engine instead of the GL’s 1.3 and aircon, which I really do care about.
This one has been in Cambridge for years which means it’s got various little dents the size and position of bicycle handlebars, and to save me the bother of scratching it, it comes pre-scratched.

It’s also a 3 door, which looks much cooler than the 5 door and I can convince myself makes up for trivial things like the cheapest tyres I’ve ever seen and a clutch that’s not going to survive many more drag races.
I tried to convince the kids that one of these would be a good idea for them, on the basis that they must be tough to be a hire car at the Nurburgring, and they look quite good.  Obviously they ignored me, so I bought one for myself.
Shall we crack on with making it habitable?

I really need to be able to stream music and podcasts from my phone, one of these gadgets plugs into the CD changer port on the back of the radio and as a bonus I can load music onto a USB stick which acts as a 99 disc CD changer.
First job, remove the glovebox and plug… oh, the glovebox catch has snapped.  Time to look on YouTube, and by jiggling an Allen key I could open the latch and remove the glovebox.  A new latch was a fiver, which I’m happy with.
Reaching around while on the floor is a highly transferable skill these days, and allowed me to plug in the cable, fixing the little controller thing inside the glovebox as per the picture.
Bangin’ choons achieved, luxury next.
 I didn’t realise how lazy I’ve become and how nice it is to have an armrest.  Not until driving this as it doesn’t have one.  EBay to the rescue and the Yinshi Manufacturing Company in Shanghai.

A couple of self tappers and I’ve got an armrest that’s adjustable for position, has two storage trays and a fucking cupholder built in.  Marvellous.

First trip was to Wales and back, just short of 400 miles in a day.

A win 👍 It’s also a hoot to drive and when child #3 (I forget their names) learns to drive next year, I can actually afford to put her on the insurance.

nice motor that

Well I thought that but they did recover a freshly purchased Hiace from Bodmin to Kent.
And they didn't skimp i got the full RAC experience as they broke the ignition key in the door lock and lost the van for 24 hours at a contractors yard in Southampton.

...... 13MM chuck + key 👌
 

Polo has gone to Grandad/Dad. I delivered it to Southampton yesterday, which is probably the longest journey it's done in a good few years, and it drove very nicely without issue. Blaupunkt worked really well too - I have supplied the car with a box of suitable tapes. Dad took it over on the ferry. He loves it already, he says they're "going to be friends". I think it's ended up in the right place.

van looks clean as to me without my glasses on
 
well bought i say

Write up time for part 2 of repairing the rear wheel arch on the passenger side of the Maestro, do a little scroll up to find the video.
If there was a mistake you could make on a job, and a thing that could go wrong, it did.  In the previous episode you saw that the welder shat the bed so to resolve this after asking about on the forums it was determined the quickest and easiest solution would be to install a Euro torch.  Because I'd got a universal kit, it required a little bit of modification and that's totally to be expected, universal kits are always going to be a compromise and this one came with decent instructions.  Had to trim a bit of the screw thread off so it would fit, and trim down the brass wire guide insert first.

Also installed the bicycle brake cable sheath to serve as a replacement wire guide for the one that had melted.

Made sure to install the washers for the torch as instructed and hadn't realised at this point that I'd trimmed the brass guide tube too short.  I'd misunderstood the instructions for where the tip of the brass tube would fit and had trimmed it far too short, the main reason for this is that it was thicker than the original guide tube so wouldn't sit nicely in the groove on the clamp next to the wire feed wheel and I second guessed myself.

Unaware of that problem, I carried on and encountered my first proper issue which is that the plastic brace piece doesn't actually fit the front of this welder since it requires a vertical face for the mount and this one doesn't have that.  The original brace didn't fit over the Euro torch so I couldn't use that either.  I would have to figure something out to pack it with and I did try various options though none really satisfied.

Reassembly was a bit of a pain.  I'd had the front panel off the welder to clean it and knock out a puncture wound since it felt the right thing to do given I was installing new parts.  Unfortunately that's when I learned there was only just enough wire to reach these switch clamps and every time anything moved a little bit, they pulled out.  I got there in the end but it was a... job.

All back together and ready to test.  Initially it seemed to work pretty good and then I found out why the length of that brass guide tube was so important.  I realigned it so it didn't birds nest inside the welder and gave myself a new problem...

The brass tube was just a tiny bit too short leaving a little gap between the Euro torch and the socket.  This meant any time the wire feed wasn't perfect, like when you get a blob of weld on the end of the tip because you're welding in awkward places, the wire just backed up inside the torch.  This was very frustrating.  To the credit of the welding torch supplier they sent out a new brass tube free of charge which I then trimmed and fitted correctly, resolving this issue.

Now I had a fully working welder again, it was time to remove my composite wheel arch that I definitely hadn't been driving around with or had cleverly hidden in the editing and recording of the Double Trouble video where I compared this Maestro to my friend Pete's far nicer red Maestro.

Experience has taught me to do the least fun looking bit of welding first, so that meant the disappeared bit where the arch joins the sill.  The welder was terrible.  The trigger kept sticking and the more I welded the worse it got.  This meant that it just wouldn't stop feeding wire or gas and trying to control that in a tight space where you want to weld a very specific area meant this was a frustrating lesson in anger management.  The welds also ended up looking like absolute poop.

I did dismantle the torch handle to see if it was just a plastic flashing or mould issue, sometimes you can just scrap a mould line off and things are fine.  The odd thing was that everything moved perfectly fine, the switch was good and even though I did trim a little off some edges that looked to be chafing the problem persisted.  The more you welded the worse it got and I never figured out why.

Oh well, seam sealer to rescue.

Then I found out my next mistake.  I'd followed the shape of the filler and rot that was the former inner arch.  Rookie error.  I had offered the outer arch up at some point in the process and totally missed that it didn't actually line up properly at all, probably because there wasn't really much of anything for reference points.  I edited out my reaction to this discovery.

Of course, I'd also cut out the original outer wing to the shape of the repair panel that I'd aligned to the incorrect inner arch.  There's another problem because now the hole is bigger than my repair panel.  I tacked the repair panel in place to show just how far out I was.  More editing required to keep things family friendly.

On the bright side, I hadn't cut through the wiring that goes behind here or set any interior trim on fire or got welder splatter on the glass.  You've got to look at the mistakes you didn't make on a day like this.  I could have gone out and bought another replacement torch in the original style for the welder or I could use my savings and invest in a really good welder instead.  In a rare moment of spending money, I went with the latter.

The next episode goes live tomorrow at 3pm, so watch this space and the Youtube channel for that.  I do all this nonsense so you don't have to.

After a last minute panic when the EML came on last night as I went to drop it off for an MOT - I'd forgotten to reconnect the air intake temp sensor after fiddling with it the other day, fixed for free thanks to my Delphi code reader! - The Daihatsu is legal for another year

I'm pleased with that!

I've recently started my first foray into blue oval ownership. The stats are as per the title, but what is it? A Sierra, a Granada, a Scorpio? Nope it is something completely different.......It is a Ford 3000 tractor from 1965.
So yes, its a 2.9 litre, three cylinder, direct injection diesel engine. Rear wheel drive with (I think) a three speed gearbox and a two speed transfer case. For those who know their tractors, this a 'pre force' model and dates from the summer of 1965. Production started in spring 1965 so it is a very early model. I haven't been able to locate the serial number yet, the whole machine is covered in 40 years of grease, oil, diesel, straw, hay, cow muck, pig muck and rat muck. A date with the power washer is in order.
I've also got a Quicke front loader to go on this which came with the deal.
The tractor hasn't really been used for the last 10 years and for about 10 years before that it was used solely to power a PTO driven power washer. It was parked up in a shed (a real barn find!) with a damaged front wheel, apparantly it was driven in there with a flat tyre and the wheel ended up getting destroyed. So the first job was to swap this over with a 'new' wheel and tyre. Here is the video:
The next job is to get it running. I have heard it run before but that must have been about 15 years ago. Being an old school diesel it should fire up straight away.
If you like watching videos that are out of sequence then check out this video from earlier in the year when I recovered the tractor back to my home. I have already posted this in my Land Rover Defender thread but for completeness I'm posting it here now.
And sorry for the click bait forum post title!

Set of pads today on Mondeo, they weren’t near being fucked but I figured I’d sooner be doing them in summer than January. So chucked a pair on from Comline (watch out folks with my budget brake pads!!!).
Next job is a pair of tyres on the back.

FML

I’ve just seen a perfect forum car for the summer on the 2cv friends FB page.
 

Ingrid fought and won the VAG lock struggle

And the 23 year old passat is (un)locked and loaded

 

Sooo, my 12 month plan with the benz lasted 8 weeks 😂
The big benz has sold to a shiter, and in its place i wanted to go back to core AS.
To me at least thats cars that are largely unwanted by the masses and bargain bucket money. Quite hard to find anything for bargain bucket money these days that has any interest level for me- however…

Exhibit A- 2003 omega 3.2 elite estate, 11m mot , £790

Exhibit b - 2002 passat tdi estate , 240k £600
So ive got those 2 to replace the big benz.

Had to be done.

Looks like this old Cav has still got it 😎

@Split_Pin is this the guy with the YouTube channel?

Nah he's been identified on the FB pages, his name is Ian.  It's a rep spec 1.6 so it was just cruising at that speed. Dougie normally does that kind of thing on the back roads in something that's been out of MOT for 4 years 😂

Today hasn't been the best of days.  Not sure how, but it seems I've angered the automotive gods this month.
First up - on the third attempt I managed to source this for the van.

First one looked to have been stored at the bottom of the sea for the last 20 years and was clearly fit for nothing aside from the scrap bin.  Second one was an offside caliper when I'd ordered a nearside one.  Third time lucky hopefully.
Then I couldn't get a single one of the wheel bolts out.  Not by hand nor with either the mains or air impact guns.  Fine, the garage who last had that wheel off can get that job.  My enthusiasm was already in negative figures before I started.  This didn't help.

Yes that temperature is clearly in the sun...but guess what?  I'm sitting in the same sun while trying to work on this nonsense.
Then I found more unwelcome news.

That was lovely blue clean(ish) coolant 48 hours ago.  Now it's an oily, slimy mess.  It appears that the Renault has decided that the Rover has set a trend with its head gasket woes and wanted to join the party.  
I had hoped to just chuck this one at a garage to be sorted as I don't particularly like messing with heads on OHC engines, nor do I really have time for it.  However neither of the usual garages I use are vaguely interested in taking it on as they're too busy.  Great.  So I guess I will be doing it myself. 
So back down to two working cars out of five again. 
Speaking of which, now three, four?  I've lost count now, months on Autoglass still haven't been able to source a windscreen for the Caddy.  Still on indefinite back order apparently.
Wonderful.  Glad to be a part of it.

So where were we?  I had a mystery fluid leak on the Rover.
Which after a bit of examination was found to be coolant.

The bit of oil in there was already in the pan.
This prompted me to do a bit of digging.  The suggestion I'd seen from someone of possibly a core plug being to blame didn't seem that unreasonable as we clearly had coolant running down the side of the block.

Which I had originally thought was just historic oil leakage - which it obviously isn't given that it dried up after leaving the engine warm for half an hour or so.

The core plug suggestion looked doubtful by this point though as the dampness looked to start higher up than that.  A suspicion which was confirmed by further running tests with the intake ducting out of the way so I could get a better look.
That is water dripping off the rear of the cylinder head.  Hmm.  Two possible causes I can see for this.  The obvious being a leak from the head gasket, secondly would be if there's a core plug or similar on the rear of the head itself, that having failed.  The coolant could then track along the seam from there and run down the side of the engine.  Though the way forward for either of these is identical, as the rear of the head is pretty much hard up against the bulkhead so there's no access to the rear of it to do any remedial work - I've not even been able to get a look to see whether there is anything back there despite having spent a good few minutes faffing about with mirrors and such.  
I *will* be making absolutely completely sure it's not tracking along from the thermostat housing or something daft like that, but I don't think it is, it's the rear where things look wet.  Front of the engine is dry.
Conveniently, I do already have this in stock.

As it was the more sensible way to buy the inlet valve cover gasket given I knew I was probably going to wind up needing to replace a decent number of those seals at some point anyway.
Doesn't look like a bad job to get the head off.  
[] Remove distributor cap and HT leads as one assembly.
[] Drain oil (which annoyingly has only been in there for a few hours of run time!).
[] Drain coolant.
[] Detach top radiator hose at thermostat housing.
[] Detach coolant lines from underside of intake manifold.
[] Unbolt heater hose bracket from rear of intake manifold.
[] Disconnect vacuum line.
[] Detach carb from manifold - I think it can just stay where it is.
[] Disconnect and remove ignition coil.
[] Disconnect temperature senders (there are two - one for the temperature gauge, one for the cold start reminder light).
[] Remove intake valve cover.
[] Unbolt head and remove.
I think that's basically it.  No need to distrurb the distributor as it runs into the block rather than the head and there looks to be enough clearance.  Obviously no need to mess with the exhaust thankfully as that whole side of things is attached to the block because this is an inlet over exhaust engine.
To be honest, the head was likely going to have to come off at some point anyway to deal with the perished O-ring which sits between the head and water pump.  Which I'm sure will be an absolute pain to get back into place.
So the Rover has now assumed it's position for the next week or two in the "patient under treatment" bay.

I get the impression from the amount of rust staining on the side of the block that it's been weeping for quite a while, just slowly enough as to not really be obvious - until I fixed the rest of the cooling system and it ran up to the correct pressure for the first time in forever.  That's what I get for fixing things!
In other news, these arrived a few days ago.

Which after no small amount of searching, hopefully contained replacements for the failed gear shift bushing on the Renault.
I ended up with two candidates arriving from totally different sources arriving at the same time, one being a NOS single bush, the other a more recent complete kit for replacing all the other bushes on the linkage.

The two clear bushes on the left were what I was interested in.
A quick comparison with the mangled remains of the old one showed I did have the right part at least.

Not much left of the old one.
Sorted!

Yeah...that was "fun" to get in place.  The bush is made of a very stiff material.  I wound up having to use a G-clamp to press it into place in the linkage and the same again then to pop the bush onto the ball on the gear selector shaft.  No way I was ever going to manage it by hand.
There is now also a loosely fitted zip tie around the upper linkage shaft just to catch the lower one if it were ever to come apart in future, preventing things from being able to drop far enough to hit the road.
Guess I should probably remove the boot full of bits of Rover before I start actually using it as a car again... though I need to really get my behind in gear regarding getting the welding it needs done as the MOT isn't far off due now.
However the car has actually moved again for the first time in well over a month.

Which is a nice morale boost at least.

Not posted on here for a long time. Basically because nothing has happened. But tonight was 1-6 of the Argyll Rally Stage 1 and 2 were throughout the town. Some proper old school sideway action