Jenson Velcro

Well bugger me sideways, I've only gone and done it.
It's remarkable just how easy it is when you have the correct information to hand - this came in the form of OEM wiring diagrams for the fuse board itself.

With that, I tracked the lines and worked out which continuity checks needed doing. Was surprised to note that the fuse board connectors went in reverse order (6,5,4,3,2,1) as you view it.
It became evident that the very first continuity check was open circuit which was promising.

This meant it had to come out (again) 

With the board on the bench, it was a lot easier to repeat all the required continuity checks, and we finally had the fault pinpointed.

There was an open circuit from the 'cold' side of the fuse socket, to the first junction of the horn/heated screen circuit, namely the high power input for the heated screen relay (this then carries on to the horn side of the circuit)
Unfortunately, it's a double-layered board and I was unable to access the actual board. Luckily, I had a surplus piggyback fuse with a flylead, so I elected to add a flylead to the relay terminal. Ended up using solid core wire on the board half as it's quite a high amperage circuit.


With that all assembled, the board was re-tested and continuity was restored. The board was reconnected to the car and the horn now works!
Also, billy bonus, the HRW works and the switch illuminates, so I must have been talking bollocks about it working beforehand.

With that all confirmed to work, the interior was rebuilt (glovebox light fixed)


As an aside, I noticed the oil level gauge wasn't working any more - this was traced to the sensor plug coming off for some reason so that's an easy win.
So, I'm back to bodywork repairs for the rest of the week, hopefully without any more nasty surprises!
Cheers.

Emissions are low as anything. 
 
0.5 out of a max 3.5 for CO
138 out of a max 1200 for HC. Cleanest running old Vauxhall I’ve had yet! 

Passed with two advisories. Nearside rear wheel bearing noisy (I had heard it a while back, glad it’s a wheel bearing not the diff) and nearside rear wheel arch slight corrosion. 
 
he was very impressed with it, and the emissions were really low too! It does run good 👌

Hi,
I’ve been aware of the brown forum for many years, but generally hung around on another well known blue hued forum, sort of on and off anyway. Most of my ‘fleet’ (if you can call a collection of long term broken cars that) is probably more at home on here but my most recent car tinkering finally pushed me over the line to sign up on here.
Ya see I’ve been spending a bit of time recently poking and tinkering with the longest standing, many years abandoned, heaps in my collection and I suspect this is the only place I might scrape some interest in what is basically a hopeless cause. Said heaps have been abandoned rotting on my drive for 17 and 19yrs respectively, but the house where they languish is going on the market soon so their existence hangs precariously in the ballence. Friends and family have been telling me to scrap them for about a decade now so their calls are almost deafeningly loud now. It would certainly be the sensible thing to do.
For reasons beyond common sense I want to move them to my current house which means making them mobile again. I mean ‘mobile’ as in I can load them onto a trailer and preferably drive them up my short but annoyingly steep driveway, not as in make them ready for the road. 
Anyway, so what do you make of these two beauties?



Artefact 1 - The gold one - 1989 1.3 XL special equipment
This was my first car, bought by a much younger self circa 1999. I saved up the £600 by working weekends in Burger King while doing my A levels. It was well used and abused until 2005, but it’s been parked up ever since. It was retired as a fully functional car on 109k miles, I just replaced it (with a 34k miles 1.3 mk6 Escort I bought as Cat D salvage and returned to the roads). It donated its windscreen to the blue one around 2009 after vandalism so it’s been open to the elements for a while too, it’s become home to some ferns growing in the carpet.
Artefact 2 - The blue one - 1987 1.3 GR Profile
This was my mates car for a year but he donated it to me when the MOT ran out, in 2007 according to the MOT history. The original idea was to fix this one up using the gold one for spares. After a couple of years ignoring it I did drag it to an MOT test in 2010 which it failed due to much more rampant rust than I had given it credit for, it’s sat ever since.
So what ya thinking of doing with them I hear you say! Well, the gold one has probably (though not certainly) had it’s day as a regular 309, but I’m sentimental about it and have a very harebrained idea for it in the back of my mind. It might never happen but I want to hold on to the possibility, so the goal is to just move it and sling a car cover over it. The blue one however is calling out to live once more, I want to get it back on the road. I’m better skilled to weld it back up now than I was back then, and once the old house is gone I should be blessed with more time and lower outgoings which should help. I just kinda fancy fixing it up a bit, I want to feel the mighty power of the Simca rattle box engine and savour the rolly polly handling on skinny tyres once more. But firstly I just need to move it so I can achieve priority no1 which is to get the old house up for sale.
There you go lots of waffle, I’ll post about where I’m up to and what I’ve got stuck on soon, if anyone cares.
-Steve-

Kinda. It's a plastic collar that wedges under the plastic flats and pushes the sensor into the rubber bung. 

Had a little more time on this today… although it pissed it down the entire time!
Fitted the fuel pump and a new coil (Lucas… eeek!) to the Nova and…. Nothing. Still no fuel reaching the carb. I tried of an external tank and still no dice.
Walked away for a few minutes to gather my thoughts and wondered if the new pump may need priming. Google said generally no, but I did it anyway and it worked! Ran it off the external first, and then connected it all up and it ran! Not only did it run, but it ran on less choke then ever before which was a big bit of progress. I was soaked through by now, and the radiator started emitting a fair bit of steam, so decided that water clearly wasn’t getting round well enough, so time to switch it off!
My aim by this point had been to have got this far plus renewed all the fuel lines, refurbished the steel wheels, put new tyres on to aid moving and ready for MoT, and to solve some of the non working interior elements.
Alas my deadline has now been reached, and tomorrow it goes off for a holiday, to get a few bits done. In a way a shame a I was building slow, but purposeful momentum! 

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.

Well... that was an experience! I attempted to update my email address some time ago and my account was rendered useless. Unable to sign in meant I couldn't do anything, I couldn't even contact anyone to raise the issue. I attempted several ways to get it going again, even re-signing up, but I was unable to validate my email address, or several others, so I gave up trying... in fact, gave a lot of the internet a rest for a bit.
It's no ones fault, there's a bug in a system somewhere where my outlook email will not display the validation screen properly. Still, yesterday I attempted a new sign up and here we are! 
I've just had a flick back and seen where we got up to... hells bells, there's some work to do! Rest assured, without giving anything away, the car is in one piece again (and recently broken again 👍 ) and I'll start sticking bits up like nothing ever happened!
 

Here’s a 7 plus day job update.

And I have only scratched the surface with this.

Too many photos of this lot but hey…… you can scroll faster ehh??

As mentioned before, a wise man once said that doing one thing every day is progress. Even if you just touched something that made you think about how you should proceed with it.

So the last 19 days, starting on 20 February I have been spending time in the garage sorting, clearing, cleaning, planning on how to take control of my life back.

As there is not much happening in the job market, partly because companies seem to wait for the end of financial year before they start spending money on new team builds etc. I know that when I am back in the daily slog and have limited time for hobbies etc. this job will be a nightmare to try achieve.
So getting my shit in order now while I have loads of time will make life easier.

Who remembers what they did at Christmas 2014 ?
That was 9 years ago.
The world was a different place back then.
Facebook remembers.
It also remembered that in March 2015 the Chevy was being torn down for a 6 month rebuild over summer.

So this was back then.

Of course a lot has changed since then.
 



 
Divorced 
Made redundant 
Travel and discovered America 
Loads of car builds
Covid.
Distractions

Life goes on.
 
So I started by packing away and tidying the tools etc used in the Rezin Rockit build.
Changing layout and ditching stuff.
In order to make space I tried giving away some stuff.
Amazingly nobody wanted to collect anything from my house.

So I decided to put a price on stuff and suddenly up to 8 punters for a diesel space heater and yesterday 5 people wanted a £5.00 propane burner torch.

I still have way more crap than I need. 95% of my tools and junk are used but functional and not expensive but makes me happy.

The money I have made from the junk (some stuff is brand new and unused) is going into a savings kitty to possibly buy something stupid. We have to see how it unfolds.

Some of the stuff that’s gone is not represented in the pics.
But I have done a ton of preparation for when I get started with the 1966 C10 truck that has patiently waited for me.

I am still a long way from done with the tidy up, junk clearance and identification and sorting of the Chevy parts but it will happen.
 
One of the bigger jobs was to sort and arrange the parts that went with various builds and subjects.
Bodywork tools
Paint guns
Fillers
Paints
Rattle cans
Pneumatic tools 
Electrical 
Steering Wheels
And much more.
 
I cleared two cabinets to move a load of bodywork stuff into from inside the garage. This was two days work including regular daily stuff.

Bloody chilly at 4’C plus cutting winds.



Hard to see the changes.



Tools. Paints. Order. OCD?
 





 


One of the most daunting challenges facing me would be all the boxes of car parts etc on the shelving unit to the left of the cabinets.
During the clear out I also found 8 car and truck batteries. Two of which could be rescued. One went to John as a backup to an alarm system and the other was put on a trickle charger in my garage.
The rest went next door, along with all the wiring looms etc for Mickey to go weigh in for beer money at the scrapyard recycling plant.

And so far, excluding the stuff I have given away, sold or put on the sidewalk for recycling, I have junked about 12 double bagged 100 liter bin liners of junk for recycling.

By last night after John had done the Astro radio and sound system, this was where my tidying up was





Four more bags of heavy junk, plastic, wood, metal, three car radio/CD/tape players etc ready for next bin day.
The boxes all empty, waiting for me to arrange some of the C10 parts in there.



Not sure how much time all the junk inside the garage will take to process and sort out.
But it will get done.
 
 

Ultimately the C10 is waiting.

Yesterday it actually donated some audio plugs from what is left of its wiring loom to the Astro Van audio rescue that John was working on. @nickwheeler had come around for a coffee and a chat and moral support but was quickly roped into crawling into the C10 cab to rummage around under the dash, looking for these elusive parts that were not in my stash.
Many hands make light work and all that.



Battered and bruised but ready to be raised from the ashes.

I believe the truck will be back better than before. 



Well.
With half the dy gone, I think I need to get my butt in gear and get down there and touch something.

Thanks for checking in.

Thanks Glenn @93fxdl
 
John was the guy who figured it all out. 
 
It was like archeology with loads of dead stuff, wires, dead ends and amps to figure out. 
 
John won. 

Productive few hours in the garage today, although pictures are sporadic.
Prepped the panel for welding in:

Squeeeeeze the pigeon real hard, and eventually stopped blowing holes in the metal.

And ground down.

This has now been primed and Puraflex has been added to the seams.
Decided to puty hand in the way of the hammer, because I'm an idiot.

Whilst this was ongoing, I decided to try and resolve the burning oil issue with some snake oil.
The car had been running fine when in use, but started blowing blue smoke when accelerating the engine. I'm rolling a lot of dice on gummed up piston rings.
Luckily, the internet has given a pretty glowing recommendation to this product:

I spent a few hours searching around the internet, and it seems to be good for solving oil consumption issues. Decided to try a piston soak, using the procedure recommended by Berryman.
Used two bottles, poured them into each spark plug hole, put the plugs back in hand tight and agitated the engine by rotating the crankshaft pulley back and forth every half an hour. Every hour, I took the plugs out and checked the fluid by sucking some out with a syringe.
The fluid was clear when poured in.
This was the best one a couple of hours in - you can see the carbon deposits in the bottom of the syringe.

This was one of the worst ones:

Pure black in there, there was another cylinder like this too.
I used two bottles in total (it eventually drains into the crankcase) and five hours later, all bar one of the piston crowns was dry - a quick blast of compressed air into the spark plug hole freed it up.
The remaining cylinder fluid was pulled out via the syringe, and fired into an old rag, to see how many deposits were in it. This was a 10ml sample.

Whilst this was going on, I moved onto reattaching the VIN plate. Using the original remaining drill hole for one side, I drilled out the other hole and applied zinc primer to the exposed metal.

Once dried, I applied Puraflex to the hole, as well as the rivet itself, and got that properly attached.

With that done, I started looking at the LHM system, which was still untested because of this doozy:

Luckily, these are really simple to change, just prize the clip off, and pop the pipes off.

The pipeline's were heavily perished and cracked everywhere, so this was definitely worth changing.
Onwards then, to the next part - building up the LHM tank. First off, I needed to take the filters out and give them a good clean.

Here's where I made major fuck up of the day.
Notice how similar these two cans are?

...yeah. It took me a couple of seconds to realise the cleaner wasn't just clearing loads of sludge out. Thankfully, using the right can cleaned all the traces of primer out!
The other filter was also removed:

And cleaned.

The tank is now fitted in place but I forgot to get a photo.
Tomorrow, I'll be running the engine for about 15 minutes on idle to cycle the Berryman fluid through the system before carrying out an oil change - hopefully this will be enough to stop the smokescreens when I accelerate.
I'll also look to apply primer to the Puraflex and possibly a coat of paint in the evening, then I'll look to move onto the final section requiring rust repairs.
Cheers!

So with starting on the Astro van radio @sparkplug and mate Martin in different ways immediately sprang into action finding me sources of short radios. 
 
Some are crazy expensive and some are not. 
 
Martin found a like new Pioneer radio with a load of auxiliary functions for £30.00 about 30 miles or 50km from home. Regular advertised price is £90.00
 
Mate Darren had “bought” my Cortina steering wheel from the Rezin Rockit that was advertised for £25.00 and was going to come collect it next week. His workshop is a mile from the radio seller so John and I decided to buy the radio for £30.00 and save £60.00 plus deliver the steering to Darren for free, though he absolutely insisted on giving me £10.00 for the “Free Cash” savings kitty. I then got into his skip and rescued a wheel clamp with two keys that I have given to mate Martin for his trailer as well as some solid wheels and an axle, plus some scrap steel for my stash, all free. 
 
So a good day in the end, despite not making a load of progress on decluttering. 
 
It was also miserable with the temperatures around 6’C and a nasty cold breeze cutting through our bones. 
 
Called it a day by 4.45 
 
Today John is back and trying to figure out the total clusterf#€k of duplicate and dead end wiring in the van. 
 
I am at the garage, continuing the clean up. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
More later. 
 
Its 12.45 already. 

Just a note to say that my dad passed away this morning. He is at peace now. I will miss him terribly.

Fuck it, can't sit around waiting for it to be done.
Welded in another portion of the arch repair.

Ground the welds and applied weld through primer.

Went inside for a bit to celebrate the dog's birthday for a bit - 9 years old today, and still mad as a pair of bollocks.

He enjoyed a large dried sausage and some new toys.
Then went back in the garage to weld another repair panel in:

This was ground back and a coat of zinc primer applied.

And made another panel to be welded in tomorrow at some point, gave it a coat of weld through primer and called it a night.

9 years ago. 
 
WTF Happened? 
 
Time to dig it out. 
 
So buy my shit cars and help me make some space. 

Important things first, the glass was replaced.

Then I spent the night at work on duty.
MrsH messaged me in the morning about the Laguna:

...aaaaand not ninety minutes later, I get a phonecall from MrsH. She's in her work car park, and the Laguna has suddenly transformed into a rally car.

I popped over to swap it for the Rover and took the LOUDEST, most careful 12 mile drive home, getting it straight on the ramps when I got back, and let everything cool down.

A closer look at the cause.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many photos of this, as I was in a hurry to get this done - the Laguna was needed to do the school run in a couple of hours.
Luckily, I already had the replacement pipe in the garage, I just never found the time to replace it as I was focused on the BX. As the Citroen was in the garage on stands, it meant I had to work on the Laguna outside in the pissing rain.
After much swearing and skinned knuckles, the old pipe was out and I could see the cause of the failure was not the item snapping due to corrosion, but the flange welds cracking and eventually failing, allowing the downpipe to slide out of its own flange (oo-er).


As I was in a massive rush, I didn't change the studs over on the exhaust manifold, just wire brushed the threads and copper greased it. The new pipe had been a pain to source but was reasonably priced, although the fitting kit was extra, and also a waste of bloody time.

With more haste than before, I got the new pipe bolted in, the car came off the ramps and I made it just in time for the school run.

I'm going to have to re-visit this one at some point, the manifold to downpipe joint isn't 100% gastight, and the crushable wire style gasket isn't sitting flush. That being said, it's a lot better than it was, and it highlighted issues with the exhaust system closer to the tail pipe.
On the way home, I noticed that the heater temperature control knob wasn't free to rotate like usual, it was sticking in and sprinting back to one position.
Good job I know how to gain access.

Eventually, we found an issue with the heater control cable itself - for some reason, it had developed a kink and was jamming inside the run. Annoyingly I've been unable to resolve this, at this time, so I've disconnected the cable, and left the heater flap in the fully hot position.

Trying to source a new set of heater control cables was a nightmare in itself, but I managed to find a NOS set of cables for a RHD Behr-equipped car in Holland, of all places. Luckily, my brother lives in Holland too, so it's getting delivered to his house for when we get there at the end of the month.
Cheers.

Dagenham all the way my friend.

Works car park:
Differing mobile lifestyle statements?

 

My suspicion/speculation, which may be completely wrong (remote internet diagnosis after all), is that a rouge sensor is making the fuel trims go massively out of whack. Hence my questions above about live data. Given it runs well if not in limp mode suggests that mechanically it is reasonably healthy. 
When plugging/unplugging those sensors to get out of limp mode, I suspect when it sees or looses a sensor the ECU goes "oh something has changed and we can't trust the fuel trims. So let's reset them". Live data should show that happening if that is the case. 
So something is causing the trims to drift more and more until bam, the fuel trim code is hit. That code may well be what triggers the limp mode. 

The weather is awful and I wouldn’t want to drive the Sierra this time of year so spending time in my workshop fiddling is a fine way to pass the time, especially as most things have worked out ok and I am making good progress.
I plan on taking the Sierra out for its maiden voyage on the 1st of April, which gives me enough time to complete the outstanding repairs.

Been busy. 
 
No job, market and placement agencies are also very quiet. Spoke to IQVIA my last employer of over 8 years this week as they had an oncology role with primary focus on lung cancer they wanted to put me forward for at Pfizer whom I had worked for nearly three years and won their top corporate award at, but the hiring manager is looking for lung experience and more specifically established contacts. So I bowed out. 
 
I have declined quite a few potential opportunities for various reasons and unless you are actually walking in my safety flip flops I urge you not to judge my choices. There are jobs, companies and therapeutic areas that I prefer to avoid. 
And I honestly can’t be bothered wasting my or a potential employer’s time and will also not allow a potential employer to waste my time when I don’t have the right experience or in some cases know they are looking for a rainbow coloured unicorn that pisses Bud Lite from its earhole. 
 
I am always touched by those who have a genuine interest in my wellbeing and surprised of course by those who just have a morbid fascination with car crash TV. 
 
I have been busy. 
 
Every day. 
 
Touching stuff. 
 
Moving things. 
 
Progressing. 
 
No photos being posted as my internet connection has been dead again, thanks to Openreach who could not reach their own butt to scratch it, even if you gave them a spoon. 
How these corporations survive despite atrocious service I don’t understand. 
 
So……. What is progress?? 
 
My very good friend @CraigRK  suggests that just touching stuff every day is progress. Sometimes physical activity and other times psychological. 
 
So all the tools used for the Rezin Rockit build been cleaned, cleared, sorted and packed away. 
 

 

 
And just look what I found. 
 
Terrible sound quality. 
 
https://youtu.be/x62zfyfLFGI?si=Ak5UQ64LOC41zoeH
 
I also pulled my 2006 R1200GS with 24500 miles and dry stored the last 5 years out, washed it and realised it needs to be sold on. 
 
My welding table was cleared, cleaned and tools packed away. 
Followed by more shelves, workbenches. 
Then the floor where a pile of MX5 parts from the Rez Rockit build were still lying. 
Next up a load of corporate junk from my last job. 
I am not yet done inside the garage but the carport got a significant clear up as well. 
 
During all this cleaning process I tried to give away stuff and realised nobody was taking, so I started listing on FB Marketplace at low prices and stuff started to disappear. 
I made about £500 in the first 24 hours 
Crazy yes. From “junk” that just needed to be gone. 
 
FREE CASH in my mind. Stuff I neither wanted, needed or if bought previously, still making small profits. 
 
Last night I counted the money and was shocked to find £875 in the safe. If tonights visit works, and a guy buys one item, add £135 and if he buys two, add another £50 to that. 
 
Money already allocated to a next shall we say “thing” 
 

 
Neither of the cars I have for sale have sold, possibly the fact that both are summertime cars does not help or maybe the prices are wrong but hopefully I will regain that space some time in order for me to fill it with something else. 
 
So today I will carry on creating some more space and maybe list more junk that takes up valuable space in the garage and carport. 
 
Weather seems to have improved. 
 
 
 

And we are off…….

both close guesses! I have decided to treat myself to a 'nice' car. I've never owned a car with more than 4 cylinders, and wanted something thats a bit special to look at and to drive. I wanted something that was reliable too. So behold

A 2010 Lexus IS250 SE-L. I test drove about half a dozen, and a GS300 for good measure but this one was the 'right' one. Bought from an old guy in Chichester, its got FSH, decent alloys, loads of toys (all working) and is lovely to drive. Its a 2.5L NASP v6 with a 6-speed automatic gearbox. I know its cliched but it feels incredibly well built and understressed. The ergonomics are spot on, everything is exactly where I'd expect it to be. I'm over the moon with it.
The only things on the 'to do' list are to get a set of 4 normal wheel nuts to replace the locking ones because they're just a liability at this point, and to get 4 new tyres. The current ones are all OK age and tread wise, but are a mismatched set of 'premium economy' brands - I'd like to make it perfect by fitting a new set of 4 matching midranges.
Shall I leave my AS memebership card on the side as I leave, or put it in the shredder when I get home?

It was like going to a tailors; what would sir like? I was offered a choice of complete interiors (about 6 different types, all leather of some sort, and the whole interior would be about £200-£350 depending on which) Amazing VFM. That buys a posh set of ignition leads/ dizzy cap in shad circles.
Im not in the zone for a full rip it all out replacement and just needed a some missing bits- and the weather is not currently conducive to outdoors interior swaps for this kerbside shiteist.
 

Although miraculously a few evenings ago it didn’t rain.