coachie

Collected it last night, stuck 3 hours insurance on it for £11 and made it the 30 min drive back from Norwich.
First impressions? Decent. Auto box is smooth, it runs/idles lovely, cabin is very basic but I look at this shape and see it as a brand new car still. £550 seems mental. 
 

Inspired by my current escapades on the Oxford Canal, I thought I'd start a thread to share the floating and non floating detritus on or nearby the floating highways..
This was a 2.5d w201 - at the wharf we collected the boat from

The current floating shed

 
The Thames is in flood, so we have only been able to come up as far as Thrupp - as the Lock onto the river is at RED so no chance of getting through safely.
 
For context,  we travelled about 7.5miles in 4hrs (lots of moored boats due to the Thames being shut, so lots of tickover running). The same trip by car..
 
Nevertheless such a slow cruise affords plenty opportunities for shite spotting!

More to follow no doubt. I may see what nautical scrap I can share - there are some right belters!

not what you would expect to see parked up on a street corner in byker ! (a not too great part of newcastle)


 
 

Pez shot. Going to give it a quick pressure wash at the petrol station as dust from a building work on a nearby house is all over the windscreen.
Need to get going as chin wagging too long and won't be 9pm till I'm back. 

Not a great start to the day, went out to the cars this morning to see that some little scrote has taken my silver lady, only a matter of time I suppose being in a public car park, still really pissed me off, any suggestions on where to get another one cheap ?

Today I swung in by Duncans workshop to have a discussion on the way forward with the kingpin on REV, He has it fully disassembled and we measured everything and came to the conclusion that it is worn!  By kingpin standards not badly worn, enough to probably induce a speed* wobble but nothing dagerous. Fortunately the housing for the bushes is showing no wear at all, so the new kingpin and bushes should be an easy fit and solve the problem. The bushes do in fact appear to be oilite type, and the bottom of the kingpin tube is open into the front drum, which explains why no grease nipples are fitted.  In the bottom of the tube was a ball of rock hard grease that had obviously been put in many many years ago.  Dunc has also spoken to a few of the old boys who tend to congregate at interesting workshops, including the fella who maintained the 1920s bus in Aberdeen which used a similar, if somewhat larger, kingpin assembly.
The unanimous decision is to leave things as original and reassemble with a good coating of heavy weight oil. After all, it was good enough for the government for the lifetimes of these vehicles. He will hopefully start putting it back together later this week.
We started discussing speed wobbles, as you do and we decided to see if we could improve the aerodynamics of REV
The first attempt using Seat parts was not great
So we looked around and found a yellow and white body kit on an old Audi in the corner which we think will work better!


 

"Hi, where are your drills?"
"Aisle B, back". 

Christ almighty was that a fight getting it back in. A helper would have been very useful in doing it. I really did not want it taking nearly two days to do. I had the weekend to myself and I really wanted to get on with my Midget. Right now I have a backlog of things left to do in the house and not going to get any more car time this evening.
Also these bastard clips kept falling apart. They go into the metal body work and the trim fixing screw goes through it. The threaded nut thing kept falling out and into awkward places. Usually as I just got one side in then the other side fell out. 

Also discovered the screw cover on the jesus handles acts as a prop when open to stop them closing up. Neat little bit of design there.

 
Anyway it's now in and fully tightened up. Definitely not a job I'd be in a rush to do again.
Colour is obvious different but it's a million times nicer than it was. The headliner is more ivory (even though it was supposed to be beige) and the standard type you usually get in lighter coloured interiors. I'm sure the other trim pieces could be had (or redone) in ivory to make match as it looks like standard VAG light coloured interior. Beige in the Golf I think was a one year option and very rare anyway.
As is, is certainly not horrendous though and a million times nicer than it was. At the very least it's nice not to have it raining foam into your hair every time you close the door. 
 

Unhelpful 🤨

The Hubnut social was a very good excuse to take the Ibiza and the Colt out for a good run. 60 mile round journey complete and neither of them missed a beat. However a couple of small issues have arisen. 
 
Ibiza - She ran pretty much without fault even managing to sit comfortably at 70 on the duel carriage way. However the breaks definitely need some attention. As I neared the event, break fade came very quickly and reduced my breaking capacity to nearly zero. This made the return journey very interesting indeed. So this will have to be my next job before I take it anywhere far. 
 
Also another thing I’ll definitely have to keep an eye on is rot. I’ve noticed my front wings have slightly deteriorated since the last time I had it out a little. I’ve got a spare set but I’ll be looking to tackle it before it becomes too bad so hopefully a change won’t be necessary. Other than that, she’s golden!
 
Colt - I’ll creat a dedicated threat for the Colt in due course however something my old man noticed as he was driving it, she’s running a little rich and she very sensitive on the throttle. Should be a simple enough thing to fix. I had to adjust the idle as she was idling a bit low so I’ll take the carb off and have a look. Could be the auto choke, could be something else, either way I’m not too concerned. She could also do with a new belt and tensioner as she’s squeaking a little. But those seem to me the only issues so far. 

It potentially could've done. How popular where Mk1 Ibiza's back in the day? I can't imagine very... 
I bet the 1.5 has a bit of poke in it. 

It was a fun weekend.
Pinging @dollywobbler on the customer service line, for what I hope is taken as constructive feedback for next time and not an old man rant.  TLDR; I enjoyed it and I will come back, but there's scope for betterness(tm) without big changes.
Having to apply separately for a parking space within the event is a stupid idea.  The distinction between attendee and exhibitor was made so blurry it didn't exist. I bought a ticket (very early),  it was weeks before I realised the need to apply to park. Many said they didn't know about having to apply until the last minute when it was too late. As a result some interesting stuff wasn't there, or was parked miles away. That's a little sad really. Having a default first come first served space with a block at the museum reserved for mobility seems fairer.
Communication.  Almost everything official was posted on Facebook. Facebook is an echo chamber unrepresentative of the outside world, and more people I know are off it than on it. We had to rely on word of mouth or continually pinging the Rustival email address for clarity. To their credit they were shit hot at replying and were nice about it, so kudos.
I found that facebook information conflicted with what was on the Rustival website and differed again from what was being said on the Gaydon website. To compound; there was a video doing the rounds of what to expect, details differed again.  9 mostly serious adult people were sitting round a table the evening before the event trying to arrange a convoy, but we had all gleaned different details from the scraps we picked up.
I wasn't emailed tickets, so I'm glad I screenshotted the website booking confirmation otherwise I'd have done a 700 mile trip for nowt. It might be worth looking into that, as I definitely wasn't the only one.
It may not have been intended this way, but Mayfair did feel a little out on a limb and that cars were a bit scattered and/or grouped into bunches of car clubs. We really felt that Mayfair was Rustival Unofficial, a separate event for those that didn't get the memo. Meanwhile, notable empty spaces in VP, or they were taken up by modern yawn that I could enjoy* outside Tesco any day of the week. An age limit or some other gatekeeping just to gently press the ethos might be a good thing.
Positives, and there are plenty.
It's got a nice feel. Really friendly. A refreshing absence of rivet counting. Lots of people saying hello and welcoming inspection of their shitheaps. 
On the whole the cars that showed up were ones that we wanted to look at.
Despite my comments about organisation, we all just rolled off the M40 and slotted into a parking space. It was fairly seamless in the end. @Talbot however did not have the same experience.
Being at Gaydon and having access to the museum and its facilities was tremendous and sets it apart from FOTU in that regard. 
I mean the ticket price was a positive too, no doubt. FOTU is going to shoot itself in the foot with that.
ANYWAY.
No point doing photojournalism as others have that covered, but here's my personal favourites.

@Sunny Jim's C15 is all kinds of right. I really want one now.

The Carina. Would suffer mechanical failure anywhere in this and be happy about it.


TR2.  You win.

DAF(T) but cute.

I'm really not sure what to think of this. I don't like the rear spolier but otherwise it has grown on me. Would probably really enjoy cruising around listening to synth music in this. I can imagine it being sold today as a retro-modern and I'd probably want one.

For the record, we were the ones in the concours Amazon, next to Dave's absolutely stonking Dyane, which I struggled to keep up with on the way back.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/mercedes-benz/mercedes-e200-auto-w124-/1477159269

A+ repair skills

He is asking if you are selling the Audi and how much?
I don't blame him, add me to the growing waiting list above.  Ideal for my 60 mile daily commute.
Four randomz plz, 1 for each ring of success.

He is asking if you are selling the Audi and how much?
I don't blame him, add me to the growing waiting list above.  Ideal for my 60 mile daily commute.
Four randomz plz, 1 for each ring of success.

I gave up on threads a while ago but I have wanted one of these cars since they were brand new, plus I think things might get interesting*. So here goes.
So far I count myself as the EIGHTH AS member who has owned this, including the chap who posted it for sale in behalf of the then owner. I think that's pretty great. I hope when I die I return as a car that goes around the country bringing joy to a whole range of different owners.

So far we've had 
Jon.k
Northernmonkey
Robson3022
Paulplom
Kiltox
83C
Schaefft 
Yours truly. 
The first didn't technically own it, he simply posted it for sale on behalf of the owner who had originally wanted to scrap it because of a pulley on the engine which had come adrift. So kudos to John.k for saving what certainly feels like a car which had plenty of life left.
In short (because it is documented elsewhere) it was owned by Westley Richards gunsmiths manufacturer in the West Midlands. It was a personal car to the directly and then used to chauffeur some very wealthy (like Arab Royalty wealthy) to and from the premises. 
After Jon.k's arm was bitten off by NorthernMonkey, it passed through varioous members' hands and gave generally good service along the way.
I promised myself I'd own it one day.

ebay.co.uk/itm/116131639455?itmmeta=01HTP6K62SBST860VKKBP5W61Y&hash=item1b09fc309f:g:8mwAAOSwSqtmDrRu&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0DyGPpkVNGTlGBvLk4uTZRBNUVjOi%2ByPhHjO285XNmQsry9iGhJxu0cOXdPvHK%2FpDmAPLx93iX%2F4Nc9YxCUDtGOOK4XnszIDLwB37pggvK2T%2B9aWEEGEC6OjDzmW75dSUaNR%2Bhow2A5FcKcHyQUbemy1pqyxiSod71HvgZd%2B7IYNo7zUFN4PAoyo%2B5toqDuYac0cYBLdmoliSgzBvrC%2BNgOmqa3qjSrocxHW7pr2IwQTTZpCzLNOr%2BbxMu01c4ECOsZ2pn%2Fs3eROeT%2B2WFWG7p0%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7rhzMbVYw
Absolute belter that. Just wished they'd have mentioned in the listing that it is a Corsa, as it's not really obvious.

Well. It appears that the head gasket might have sealed, at least as much as it's going to. 
No mayo pouring out onto the gearbox. 
When I started it up, there were a couple of dribs of coolant from the front on the head/block joint. But once warmed up that went away. 
Ran it up until the heater got hot and the cooling fan came on, then let it cool and did a re-torque. 
Topped up coolant then did a test with my coolant pressure tester. It was pretty good, but maybe lost 1 psi after 20 minutes. 
Shortly afterwards I found out why. A small puddle had gathered under the radiator. 
Believe it or not, I'm counting this as Good News. I pounced on a NOS rad when one came up last year, so there's one waiting in Stores which I'll fit tomorrow. 
That does mean draining the coolant again but hey, I'm nothing if not practiced at doing that now. I even filtered it through an old pair of pants last time - like a pro. 

Once more unto the breach. A small window of Dry + Daylight presented itself after the postman arrived bearing head gasket #1 of 3.
I've put it all together and fired it up, without coolant as recommended by @plasticvandan. Ran it for a minute maybe, then I've left it to heat soak.
So I don't know if it's water tight, but the good news is that it's not pissing out oil. Tomorrow I'll fill up with coolant and see how she holds. 
Fingers crossed. 🤞
Unfortunately I've managed to lose my magnet on a stick somehow, it's probably under the bonnet somewhere but a few minutes boy-looking didn't get any result. 

Surprise surprise! The postman came with the el cheapo thread file. (eBay £8.90 inc 24hr delivery)

Yesterday I exclaimed ‘how hard can it be’! The answer is VERY, but not in a tricky or technical way, just gruelling, knuckle bashing and tedious. It needs enormous pressure applying to cut any material, light filing just skates over the top achieving nothing. I spent the best part of 2hrs attacking the thread but finally I can thread the hub nut all the way on by hand. Hopefully there’s enough good threads to achieve the required torque, I’m hopeful.



I should be able to refit the handbrake cables and reassemble the drums tomorrow if the car cooperates.
-Steve-
 

Today, the gold one:
Pulled the radiator off it’s mounts to make access to the fan shroud. The rad fan was seized solid. Wd40 and gentle persuasion got it to turn a little bit but it was really really tight, this motor requires surgery.
 
Getting fan and shroud unit out requires the slam panel to be detached, which means taking the grill off. Got two of the three fragile plastic grill screws out intact, one broke. Grill removed along with a headlight lense that fell off when disturbed. Gave up removing the slam panel when the first two captive nuts mangled the captive clip thingys. With the access so far I could get onto the three bolts holding the motor to the shroud. First one sheared the end of it’s stud off, the other two came out ok. Couldn’t for all my might undo the inline electrical connector. Gave up and pulled as much slack wire through as I could so I could work on the motor.

Dismantled the motor and found the metal casing was heavily rusted and pushing the magnets inwards and jamming it up. Removed each magnet in turn and cleaned the rust off before reassembling and fixing it back into its shroud.




Warmed the car up again and still no fan, disappointing. Bodged a direct battery feed to the motor with some mains cable and bingo the fan runs great.

Put it back to normal and bridged the temperature switch, still nothing. Reinstated the bodge but only the positive wire this time, fan still runs, so it’s a live feed issue. Traced the live wire and found an inline fuse that I don’t think was standard and it was blown. New fuse and we might be in action! Ran engine up to temp and the fan kicked in and cooled it back down nicely. Probably spent too much time on this arguably optional fix, it takes about 5-10min to get too hot so I could have shunted it about without the fan really.
So can I get brakes too? Brake fluid header was nearly totally dry. Picked up some dot 4 (1 litre £7.25 at Halfords) and glugged it in, still no pedal, that would be too easy! Didn’t fancy trying the calliper bleed nipples today. Called it a day at that.
-Steve-

Yesterday’s update…
 
The blue one - Tried really hard to remove the right hand drum, as this is the hand brake cable I have, the other hasn’t arrived yet. It spins freely so the shoes are off, and I have got it about 10mm pulled which has unseated the outer bearing but the inner bearing must have stuck on the stub hard. Remember this bearing stub was open to the elements for years so was rusted up, I did clean and sand it back before fitting but perhaps not quite enough. I tried using the wheel as a slide hammer, tried chocking the drum agains the back plate and hammering the opposite side, tried packing out the centre and crowbarring  against a wheel bolt. No joy at all, it didn’t even feel that close so I have ordered a hub puller. This setback kinda knocked the wind out of my sails yesterday morning as it is the car I wanted focus on but it just wasn’t to be.
 
The gold one - Started by trying to drop the coolant/water but the most obvious bottom hose was held using single use bands rather than jubilee clips. Ended up choosing a water pump hose which was harder to get to but did the job. It was the most brown and silty coolant I’ve ever seen. Warmed it up and did 3 water changes.
STOP!

Got it properly hot today but the radiator fan definitely doesn’t work. Stuck a screwdriver thought the grill and and tried turning it but it feels seized. Oh well not too big a deal. 
 
Next I decided to see if it could move under its own steam. Pumped up the tyres but one wouldn’t hold air so I swapped it for the spare before dropping it back on its wheels. Started it up, put it in gear and it went forward! It didn’t even drag the back wheels, they actually turned! Shunted it back and forth 3 or 4 times and now I can push it by hand, could do with some brakes though. No pedal at all, handbrake applies and releases but only with low effort.
 
-Steve-

Towed a stuck van in the car park of our local country show.
Turns out fwd and transit/ducato type thing full of cheese gets stuck easily.
On the plus side unexpected payment.