406V6

Thanks again to Mr & Mrs 6C for hosting us in the FoD. I called round in the afternoon and it was great to meet people who were only forum usernames before.
Plenty of others have put pictures and reports here which give a good view of what happened yesterday. Had a good old chat with Mr 6C and was honoured to be given a ride in the Gamma to collect a battery for the Jinling. It’s a lovely old thing (the Gamma I mean) with a blue velour interior that looks as good in real life as it does in the pictures. It’s the first Gamma I’ve seen for years and nearly 30 years since I last rode in a Lancia (H Reg Dedra). Definitely the first time my 406 has been parked next to a Gamma.  And I learned what a variator pulley is when Catsinthewelder fixed the Jinling.

Mrs 6C did some fine work on Lightbulbfun’s Invacar and it was good to meet Mr LBF too.  Eventually the Invacar was started and the engine sounded very healthy although with fair amounts of the characteristic blue smoke. He was belting it round the field, clearly enjoying his purchase. Top marks for enthusiasm.
Nice talking to Slowsliver about the early Mondeo (one of the forum threads I always keep up to date reading) – hope he can get that ABS fixed.
Lastly another pic of a load of cars in the field.   

Superb weather and a very enjoyable afternoon thanks to our excellent hosts Mr & Mrs 6C. Highly recommended !
 

Definitely hoping to put in an appearance at some point tomorrow afternoon.  This afternoon I managed to get a good few hours in getting most of the to do list on the Trevi sorted.
Initially it was refusing to idle again.  Though I've definitely pinned down where it's getting clogged up, and it's in between the solenoid and the idle screw...so took them both out and blasted that through yet again...and so far it's behaved since so I might have got rid of the crud this time.  Hopefully.  Maybe.
On to the tail lights.
Getting into the nearside one was slightly awkward on account of the antenna being in the way, especially as the ground wire from it was strung right over the tail light lamp holder assembly so I had to disconnect that first.
Once we got the lamp holder assembly out...it was obvious it was a miracle the lights were working to start with.


Not really a huge shock given that we know water has been getting into the boot for goodness knows how long.
I could have spent half an afternoon messing with sandpaper etc...or I could cheat.

Not perfect but good enough.

A full new set of GE lamps went in (what came out was as as rusty as the lamp holders, getting the indicator lamp out required pliers). 

Despite the rusty lamp holders there was nothing wrong with the ground connections, I gave them a quick clean anyway but everything tested fine.
Now the offside was rather more of a headache to get in to...which was annoying as that's the side we had strangeness reported by the lamp failure display.  Problem was that this thumbscrew that holds the trim that holds the carpet over the lamp holder assembly was stuck.

Sufficiently stuck that the plastic top wound up spinning on the metal inner.  So I had to spend a bit of time trying to detach the carpet up under the trim as carefully as I could.  ...Which someone had already done on the *other* side where the trim came off perfectly fine!  Ah the joys of working Lancias I guess.
This side wasn't quite as bad but was given the same treatment.  This has sorted the problem with the interaction between the separate lamps...but hasn't had any effect on the report of a faulty lamp on this corner.
I have a sneaking feeling that this may be down to an issue with the module in the dash, especially as the LED for that lamp glows dimly as soon as the ignition is turned on.  Taking the bulb out of the other tail light puts out the warning on the offside rear corner...but puts one shown on the nearside headlight.  It seems to have some issues.
There is a spare (no idea of the condition) one in the boot.  Annoyingly I didn't spot that until this afternoon or I'd have tried it out *before* I put the dash back together.
That's a job for another day I think...I get the impression that I might see this car again and don't mind that at all.  She's going to want a radiator fitted soon at the very least...
Also found a bit of ducting that I know is meant to live in the engine bay based on some photos I've seen of these cars, I assume to help to direct cool air to where it's more useful.  Figured it wasn't doing any good in the boot so put it back where it lives.

Aside from properly itemising what I've done and what's still to be done I think I'm pretty much at s point where she can return to her owner so the usefulness of my work can be assessed!
One very important job was still pending though!  Cleaning!  I'm not too worried about disturbing well earned patina here as I know from the auction photos from back in 2017 that she was valeted before that sale...so is just grubby!  The outside I'm leaving be (not least because of not wanting to accidentally remove any of the structural duct tape) for now, but I'd like to spruce up the interior a bit.  That's the bit you spend the most time with after all.
Firstly I went through the car with a fine tooth comb, gathering all the parts, nuts, bolts, screws, washers...and a tiny stubby ratcheting spanner...into a box in the boot so I didn't end up accidentally vacuuming up something important.  Then we got to work.
Before:

After a vacuuming (carefully as I had no idea how fragile the seat cloth was) it looked a bit better.

The amount of spiders evicted was biblical.  Plastics still need gone over back here.
Up front was even grubbier.

Another half hour made quite the difference.



It's a real shame about that bit of damage to the driver's seat as other than that the interior is in astonishingly good nick.  Does look like a different car inside now she's mostly clean though!

Plastics in the rear need a wipe down, the glass wants a clean, I'd like to get a bit of Vactan on a few spots, then she's good to go home I think.  Hopefully my work will meet with sufficient approval that she can return for other work in the future.
The fuse box is definitely going to be something that will need further work.  I've had to give the headlight relay a highly technical wiggle on several occasions now.
 

The Allegro or Rusty as I may as well call her got a bit more attention today, the floor and inner sill area is not finished yet so I decided to start on a completely different part, to recap the right hand side is rusted rather nicely from front to back, the front tie bar mount I removed seems to be unobtainable so after measuring the thickness ( 2mm ) I started to remove loose rust and disassemble it, luckily the inner parts where the rubbers and bar fit is still relatively strong so the outer part which is spot welded and Gas welded has to come off, I've ordered 40cm×40cm×2mm of steel sheet that should be enough to make the tie bar mount and some spare for the end of the chassis leg which is also needing attention, 

the grinding and hammering was annoying the neighbours so I went out the front to annoy a different set of neighbours, some cutting, drilling and grinding later to remove more racing ginger I had a hole, 

As you can see this revealed yet more rust although it is more surface than rotten through mostly,  the front section will need a bit letting in,
I knocked up a repair section for the outside of the chassis leg with my first attempt at a swaged hole 
I had to chop a lot of the front right hand corner off for access to the inner skin which was..... you guessed it rusty,  the poor car is looking rather sorry for itself by the end of play, this I'm sure will upset the two bob snobs around me and will for sure be lowering the house prices too
I'm looking forward to receiving the 2mm steel sheet to have a play with,  more soon .

I’ve been driving a brand new modern non-shite petrol-only vehicle (whose name I won’t mention here) that effectively has coasting built in. When driving along at higher speed (50 mph and higher) and taking the foot off the gas the revs drop to tickover and the autobox disconnects drive. There’s no engine braking when it does this.




When you get to electric cars there are all sorts of variants of engine braking, better known as regenerative braking where juice is put back into the battery. On some cars you can vary the strength of it, some not.



Regarding the original question I would just ease off and let the engine management do its thing rather than change gear into neutral.

I’ve been driving a brand new modern non-shite petrol-only vehicle (whose name I won’t mention here) that effectively has coasting built in. When driving along at higher speed (50 mph and higher) and taking the foot off the gas the revs drop to tickover and the autobox disconnects drive. There’s no engine braking when it does this.




When you get to electric cars there are all sorts of variants of engine braking, better known as regenerative braking where juice is put back into the battery. On some cars you can vary the strength of it, some not.



Regarding the original question I would just ease off and let the engine management do its thing rather than change gear into neutral.

Lovely old car and great to see the sympathetic way you're approaching its restoration.  You're fortunate to have a garage and there's plenty of space around it compared to wide modern cars.  A little concerned though about the garage roof which looks like it might be corrugated asbestos.

[Anorak mode] I remember it being launched in 1975 and Wikipedia says  26 March 1975. This was as the 18/22 series, not a Princess.  It was relaunched as the Princess in September 1975.

Right, I felt it was high time to record the nonsense I've been getting up to for the past three years with PSA rubbish. Some of it I've posted about under a different user name in the past, some of it more recent. 
The cars aren't in order because I've honestly lost track. I've probably missed some stuff out. There have been other cars in the middle of all of this: three Mercs, a Volvo, a Rover, a couple of Jags, some of which are still here. But my morbid fascination with PSA junk has always been there, like a celebrity crush you had right before you hit puberty or an untreated verruca. 
I'm sure I've made spelling errors, typos and grammar errors, but I've spewed out far too much to go back and check it all again. Nobody pays me to write anymore. 
Anyway, buckle up, hold onto that weird, slightly mouldy and peeling plastic grab handle because we're going in...
Peugeot 605 V6 SVE: 
I agreed to buy this when I was drunk, at a guess four years ago? I sold it when I lost/quit my job and sold it to a friend, who the car caught fire on (indicator stalk caught fire). 
It ended up in NI, and the owner lost patience with the fire thing and scrapped it. This is how it appeared the night I bought it. 
 
Peugeot 405 STI:
Bought this about three years ago in a strop, when another 605 I was going to view was scrapped by the owner before I could come and view it. 
Belonged to the same family since 1996, used by an old lady as her shopping car, and was being sold when she could no longer get into it.
I've sunk a fair few quid into this, just by getting maintenance tasks like belts out of the way, and replacing consumables like the exhaust, which looked like a Cadbury's flake by the time I got around to replacing it. 
Also had some body work done to it, after a van reversed into it. Said "sod it" and had some old dents and rust spots which were starting to bubble up. There's more rust coming, but that's a problem 2021 XUDFiles can deal with. 


As the car appears now:

"Swampy" 
This is the only picture I could find of the exterior of Swampy. I know the picture is sideways, and I can't be arsed to sort it out.

It was a breaker we bought which had been accident damaged. We stripped it for some rare trim bits and the alloys, which were wearing nearly brand new Uniroyals! And yes, they grip very well, as I was stuffing down country lanes on the way back, in a way I'm too precious to drive the silver one. The spoiler was sold for £150! The radio - that went to Finland for some bloke who was restoring an MI16. It lives on in plastic boxes in the cupboard upstairs. The rear bumper is a keeper because our one has a DIY hole in it so the bodged exhaust the silver one came with could fit. The "big bumper" body kits are few a few bob now, because people are taking an interest in MI16s beyond engine doners for 205s.
Why is it called Swampy? The ariel leaked, filling the footwells up, creating a micro climate. The picture shows the car after it had been drained. A hole was drilled in the floor because the mats became sentient, got up and walked out of the car on their own, probably to follow me home and kick me in the balls for being such a stupid sod and buying another 605...
 
When Donald Trump kept using the term "drain the swap" during his election bid, I'm not sure that's why he meant?
605 V6 SVE (round two)

"Are you not entertained!?" would be this car's catchphrase if it had one. So far, it's given the kind of "active ownership" experience you'd expect with a big, obscure French luxury car. If you want to be well known on Autoshite or any car forum, if you want a car to keep your mind active, to motivate you to get extra hours at work, if you want a project you can get knee deep in, get a 605. It is though, MILES better than the red one. This silver one is quite a late SVE, which means a lot of the stupid niggles which saw off many older cars are either not there, or much less serious.
I still have it, and I'm probably the least into this car than any of the others, but it's staying. Not only is my partner attached this one (she's even named it Roxanne*), this is pretty much a window into my mind. The so-very-90s interior is, in terms of my personal taste, perfect. Because Peugeot didn't really have an image as an executive car maker (they had the 604, but whatever) you can tell they made an extra effort to make this as executive as possible. 
You know that scene in American Psycho where Patrick Bateman has a psychotic episode because somebody had a better business card than him? That's this car. It's like it's overcompensating for something, in the same way an air hostess of an airline that's screwed up in someway is extra nice to you. You don't have to look at normal doorcard plastic in a 605. The bit where you'd normally have a nasty plastic bin? That's carpeted. The fucking speakers? C A R P E T.  The Clarion radio has a display which reminds me of a very expensive VCR my Dad bought when he got promoted in about 1997.
Driving dynamics are why I really wanted one. They're a curious mixture of taught body control, wafty suspension and steering which is light enough to make the car feel like you could drive it with one finger, while still feeling direct. This of course, all comes at a price. The dampers are computer controlled (two words which will strike fear into the heart of anyone running a top-of-the-line car from the '90s) and linked to the steering by some weird-ass module in the engine bay, which leads confusing and expensive looking fluid lines into places you can't get to.
There's two problems this system is suffering on mine, the first is quite simple. 
The dampers are getting low on gas, which means they often lock themselves sport mode, which is the state they go to in when the gas is in short supply (the car lets you know this by putting up a flashing orange graphic of a damper on the binnacle (WHICH YOU CANNOT TURN OFF). Of course, you can't just wonder into ECP, saying "Awight, got the dampers for my 605, yeah?" Modern Toss style and get new ones, because that is far too easy - the 605 sets you up with a kind of Takeshi's Castle car ownership format, where pitfalls are hiding under what you expect to be straight forward, simple missions. Thankfully, I have a friend who has a friend with a superhuman type power to get part numbers for weird Pugs. They're not expensive, and I can get some. 
What caused more issues was the power steering. Issues included juddering at low speeds, and sometimes getting so heavy when parking the car wasn't drivable. The system was bled, by me, then by a garage, which didn't do anything at all. The power steering pump is driven off the aux belt, which I had changed. The old belt looked as old as the car, and was tensioned to the correct spec. Needed doing. Did it fix the issue? No. Next, the steering was checked for leaks. No leaks. Next up was a used power steering pump, which came from a man who broke 605 24vs for the engines (some more modern Alpines use them) as new ones seem to be NLA.  No difference. At all. 
Remember that weird computer module from earlier? The one which directs fluid to the steering and suspension in tandem? I didn't even know it had it, it was only after my mechanic had spent several days with the car, then randomly said "What the fuck is that?" on seeing this module that we were able to diagnose the problem. Somebody had messed about with it at some stage, and attached an outlet pipe to an inlet and visa versa on the hydraulic ram for the steering rack, which has totally banjaxed the ram.
My Mrs found a new/old stock ram on eBay for £owch. This new ram is currently nested in the boot doing stuff-all until one of us gets the inclination to use the 605 again.
The computerised steering and suspension system** is a stunning thing when it's working, it really is, but I can't help wonder how many SVEs this kind of automotive wild goose chasing it tends to induce saw of. Don't even ask me what I'll do when the "What the fuck is that?" module gives out.
As a bit of poetic justice(?) the last owner of the red 605 gave me the interior for free, which is now in the downstairs loo. These parts are like gold dust, so a spare interior is an amazing thing have.
Here's a picture of it in the garage, having god knows what done. 

But it's easy to forgive a car its faults when it looks so damn good.

People talk about Alfas and some Bimmers being sexy...but this is what does it for me.
Citroen Xantia. 
I bought it to see what the fuss was about. Only rides about 10% better than a 405, looks like a woodlouse, totally uncharismatic. 2.0 XU, the same as my 405, but the hydrophnumatics (don't know if that's how you spell it, can't be arsed to check) clobber it has to lug around blunts the performance somewhat. 
There are people who think these are "fast". The reality is you can heft them over bad roads faster without doing damage than you can a conventionally sprung car, but "fast"? No.  Put it up against anything remotely fast, and it will get its arse handed to it. I find the cars interesting, but I really cannot abide the total nonsensical gibberish people tend to talk about them.
It swallowed a core plug, and quite literally exploded on an otherwise lovely Summer afternoon. The car was offered out on the CCC's facebook group for free. Nobody wanted, everyone on there chided me for binning it, though. 
What happened next is a saga which needs it own thread, and if you love Citroens, for the love of God, don't read it.

Next. 
Peugeot 306 Sedan [REDACTED]

This is the car which nearly got me banned, for calling it Sedan [REDACTED], implying that the car, and possibly the drivers of such cars (including myself by the way) were of an inferior intellect, by using a term which some shiter's may find offensive. I don't really want this thread to decent into a Jordan Peterson style anti-snowflake, anti-political correctness rant (if you like that kind of thing, add me on facebook)
Anyone, I went to Wales in a borrowed Rover HHR to collect Sedan [REDACTED], and fell over in the yard the car was living, cutting my ankle open, the panicked because I saw a rat running around, so my first trip in Sedan [REDACTED] was to Tesco Welshpool to buy some news socks, anti-septic wipes and plasters. The socks outlasted the car. 
Not my finest hour, but I still miss it.
The shocks were buggered on it, among other things, so I decided to let it go. I sold it to another shiter who I think scrapped it, because maybe not suprsingly, nobody wanted it.

Ahh, I miss how that car made me attack post-modernism. Next. 
405 estate:
I'm finding this genuinely tiring to write now, so will rattle through this last one.
Drove to Devon to pick this up, in the snow, making it even more of an adventure than Sedan [REDACTED].

It was ace. Did about 9,000 miles in it, through every weather condition, carting allotment junk, camping equipment (that's my Mrs's thing, you won't get me in a tent.) and people everyone, and in comfort. It had chicken wire holding the roof up. We loved it. 
The fuel pump died, along with the glow plugs and a few electrical maladies. Bought by a chap on the 405 Facebook group, now fixed and improved, good to make the next person happy. 
We didn't repair it because we bought a W124 estate which is far cooler, and more "National Trust", and probably a better place to pitchfork one's money towards.
We kept the 305 GTX alloys, no idea what they will go on.
If you read all of that, well done.
God, that was exhausting. 
*The previous 605 had a habit of overheating, and throwing up a red light on the dash. We don't want Roxanne to do that. 
**The steering and suspension are firmed up and softened, working in tandem with each other. The steering hardens when you heft it around like a moron, and the shocks do a similar thing, anticipating what What Car in the '90s would call "spirited" driving. The suspension constantly adjusts itself to the road surface, which is the main role of this module I keep talking about.
 
 
  
 

How about an update then??
It's about fuckin time, you say...
OK.
It's probably not what you were expecting...
Right. Fiorino engine has progressed, no pictures to hand though. Will be eventually.
1947 Ferguson TE20 tractor. This is now mine after I bought it off my Step-mum. All is not lost though, as she bought back (from my mate) her Dad's 1949 Ferguson TED20, and has paid him to re-comission it. Should be ready in the next few weeks...
Now, my update relates to the 'lockdown'....
I've been working from home and haven't left my village in North Lincolnshire for nearing 5 weeks...
This means my daily driver Fiat Marea hasn't gone anywhere.
I was aware it needed 'de-rusting' as it was mentioned that it was getting crusty at the last MOT....
No use of the Marea and more hours to mess about, meant let's get it sorted...
Basically, the upshot was, there were quite a few holes in the boot including the common Marea rot spots. The rear right footwell has suffered too. There was loads of rot around a 2017 MOT weld patch. I've kept the patch as the welding is solid. I've just trimmed out the rotten floor from underneath the patch with my dremel. I've cut out and welded in repairs for the rotten sections.

 
Boot floor...


Repairs welded in.
 

 

 
Rear right footwell and floor, before and after...
 


 
Now, after further investigation with a screwdriver and my dremel grinder, I found out (I had suspected this was the case for a while...) that the inner wheelarch was fucked. This is only accessible from below with your head in the arch, so was going to be a ballache to repair.


 
 
I actually ordered some more P40 glassfibre and mesh (I do now have it), but I couldn't go through with actually using it...
SO....I, bit the bullet and cut the wheeltub out, which needs repairing anyway, but can be done on the bench, and welded back in after...


 

I have actually cut out the rot and welded in new metal, but I will take some more pics as I carry on...
So, there you go. I guess that's an unexpected 'Lockdown restoration'. To be fair, if anyone told me in January, that by April I'd be cutting loads of shite out my daily, because it wasn't a daily anymore, I'd have told them to do one...
 

Bit of an update.
Saturday I didn't get a chance to do anything. Sunday evening I started on trying to remove the thermostat cover again.
First attempt was to try the double nut method of removing the stud. Except while tightening I got that horrible feeling when it suddenly goes loose. Yup the bottom nut had stripped the thread. Even worse, I couldn't get the nut back onto thread to undo.

I don't have a nut splitter and even if I did, I don't think I could get one in here. So ended up cutting up the nut


You can see the stripped thread on the stud here.

At this point I was cheesed off and knew that really the only next step was violence. So I left that job for the night and went on to the next.
As it was half done, I decided to fit the gasket and heater valve. Simple job right? Well I got it on ok


Except I still managed to bend the wire into an L-shape when tightening up the trunnion.

Next was the radiator to expansion tank hose. This went wrong when one of the new clamps fell apart during tightening. FFS.

Finally for the night was removing the electric windscreen washer pump and fitting back in the manual push pump. The electric one worked but I just like the quirky manual pumps on old British cars.
Removing the dash pump was uneventful. Ignoring the scratch I put in the dash. Day really wasn't going great...


The old one was completely jammed up. Pulled it apart and it looks like the rubber dome has completely disintegrated. This pumps aren't made for repairing and obviously at the time would just be cheap enough to dispose then replace.


I removed the electric pump. While removing the earth connection that was made on the windscreen wiper motor, I took off its main earth spade. Very much needed a clean. Surprised the wiper motor even worked.

Car washer pipe is rather expensive for what it is. Instead I paid half on Amazon for some silicone fishtank pipe. Being silicone, it's an upgrade right? Colour matched the car well too.

I don't know the original factory route of the pipe but I put it through where I thought was sensible. Washer bottle is an original Tudor unit with some nice original script on it.

Thankfully the bottom of the box of crap manual pump worked!

Last night I took action on the thermostat housing. This simply wasn't going to come off without a fight. I really would have liked to have done it without breaking up the original thermostat housing, however they're cheap to replace and I really didn't want to damage the head or get a stud snapped in it.
The way I did it successfully before on the last A-series was breaking it up into smaller chunks. I did the same this time but with a grinder, multi tool and a wood chisel. Pictures show the story. Idea was basically break it up into stud sized chunks and use those chunks to unscrew the bits.







And then we are out. Cleaned the block up around the top surface of the head and scrapped + vacuumed as much crap out under the thermostat as I could.

Thermostat was supposed to be a 82c unit, so it must have been on its way out. Going by the mess it was down there and on the thermostat, the cooling system has been neglected over the years. Bit of a shame to destroy this old thermostat as I'd liked to kept it as some shelf decoration. However it was properly stuck and required prizing out.

New thermostat sits in perfectly.

That setup looked original and the thermostat looked like it had a 1967 date code on too. Bit of a shame to go violent on it but I didn't have too much choice with the tools I had. New housing cap, studs, nuts and gasket is £12.99 delivered from eBay so cheap enough to replace. The other studs are staying as I'm not going to risk trying to get them out of the block. If it ain't broke...

The back of the drivers side sill had always looked a bit crunchy, and I made the mistake of picking at it. 

I suppose technically this would pass an MoT as it doesn’t have rear seatbelts, but I wanted to do it properly. So out it came:


The rot had extended into the inner sill so I needed to cut out a bit of that too.
Time to start reconstructive surgery:


With this sort of repair I like to make the sections a bit oversize and trim to suit once they’re welded in place.




There was the usual small bit where the inner arch meets the sill that needed a fillet, but it was much better there than most cars I’ve repaired.
Now to annoy the neighbours with the angle grinder and flap disc...






Much better!
I then had a look at something else that was annoying me, one of the headlights which had constantly had condensation on the inside all the time I’ve had the the car.
It was easy enough to remove the complete headlight unit. Two 8mm bolts at the top and disconnect the wiring plugs and it simply pulls out.
Looks quite manky under there.



I cleaned up this area and went over that crusty looking bit at the side with the wire wheel in the electric drill. It’s double skinned there and the top skin has rotted through from moisture trapped under the headlight. It’s not that bad considering but I’ll see if i can put a small patch in there and paint it properly before putting the headlight back in.
As for the headlight, when I removed the bulb cover a torrent of water poured out!
These headlights are well designed and can be taken apart easily. Six spring clips hold the glass onto the reflector:

The reflector has suffered from the damp at the bottom and top but it’s not that bad considering. Also it’s not really that noticeable on the Royale due to being way back behind the massive thick glass lenses. 

I went round everything with baby wipes, cleaning off the black and green gunk from round the edges etc. 

Something I like about this car is that every piece of glass is etched with the registration, including front and rear lights. It’s all in really good condition too.

There is a thin foam seal which is supposed to keep the moisture from getting between the lens and headlight. It looked in really good condition for over 40 years old. Even so, it wasn’t doing it’s job so I cleaned it up then ran a thin bead of clear silicone around the edge. Left for 10 minutes then fitted my nice clean shiny lens.

So nice I could quite happily install it in the house!
In Rover news, I took it for a blat up the A130 from Southend to Chelmsford and back, about 30 miles or so at 60mph and the gearbox is still behaving itself!

My Vauxhall Royale is quite solid as they go, but it was a bit crusty in places and I really wanted to make a start on fixing it.
No better place to start than the bottom of the front wing. The other side isn’t much better. It was stuffed full of wob and bubbling up nicely. Lovely.



Mmm, lovely.
I decided to remove the plastic trim and cut the panel off to repair off the car, as then I could hide the weld behind the trim. 


The A post was a lot better than I expected. It needed a small repair at the very bottom and had been patched before a bit higher up, but it was a neat job and was solid, so I left it alone.

Heres the mess that came out. It had been plated at the bottom and was mostly wob.



Yeah, I needed to remake all of that left side. Originally I thought I could reuse that lower mounting but it just wasn’t good enough.
I then cut out the rot and let in fresh metal. I used an old dexion shelf scavenged from work for the repairs, which was far too thick. It made it more difficult to line up but at least it should never rot again!



I then trial fitted it. I started to weld it on then decided I wasn’t happy with the shut line against the door, not to mention the door was catching against it. I cut it off again and spent at least an hour bashing and grinding before I was happy with the fit!


Welded on:


Whoever had that trim off last had broken the securing clips (which were really brittle) and it was stuck on with sikaflex or similar. I tried double sided tape which didn’t work, so I just used silicone in the end. I don’t think it’s going to fall off though which is the main thing.


Quite pleased with that!
In hindsight I probably should have bought the wing repair sections from a Holden specialist down under who has the front end panels (same as a VB Commodore) but they were quite expensive after shipping and I wasn’t sure of the quality. I might still do that for the other side as that repair section was a pig to make and get lined up properly with the correct panel gap.

[Anorak mode] I remember it being launched in 1975 and Wikipedia says  26 March 1975. This was as the 18/22 series, not a Princess.  It was relaunched as the Princess in September 1975.

[Anorak mode] I remember it being launched in 1975 and Wikipedia says  26 March 1975. This was as the 18/22 series, not a Princess.  It was relaunched as the Princess in September 1975.

Now I know this doesn't really count as it's on a house not a car but anyway......
 
I bought my current house as a restoration project. Previous owners were pretty poor at DIY and the house needed quite a lot of attention. Many of the chipboard floors had previously been cut and pulled up and screwed down again. When I opened up one of the floor pieces this is the sight that greeted me. At some point in the past someone had hammered a nail into a heating pipe. Rather than fix it properly with copper fittings soldered to the pipe they had built a cardboard mould on the top of the pipe and then filled it with epoxy glue.  When I found it, it was intact and must have been in place for several years. If it had blown off it would have made one hell of a mess downstairs as scalding hot water leaked through the ceiling.
 

Now I know this doesn't really count as it's on a house not a car but anyway......
 
I bought my current house as a restoration project. Previous owners were pretty poor at DIY and the house needed quite a lot of attention. Many of the chipboard floors had previously been cut and pulled up and screwed down again. When I opened up one of the floor pieces this is the sight that greeted me. At some point in the past someone had hammered a nail into a heating pipe. Rather than fix it properly with copper fittings soldered to the pipe they had built a cardboard mould on the top of the pipe and then filled it with epoxy glue.  When I found it, it was intact and must have been in place for several years. If it had blown off it would have made one hell of a mess downstairs as scalding hot water leaked through the ceiling.
 

I was uncertain whether to put this in the truck or train thread, so thought I would stick it in its own thread. If it gets moved I will not be upset
I know where the photograph was taken (but for fun will see if anyone else knows where it is) and the fact the photograph was taken between 1955 and 1966. I have been asked to identify the make/model of truck and to see if I could narrow down the year. I am not an expert on these things, but I am fairly sure it is a Ford Thames and would date from the early 60s but over to you.....

For as long as I can remember I have been aware of a dead K-prefix Mondeo saloon languishing on the drive of a house about two streets away from here. It had obviously been sat there for many years without moving. I kept meaning to drop a note through the door enquiring about it, but as always I never got round to it.
Until now.
With Bob the Renault 6 currently on hold pending a possible sale after lockdown and the Maxi mothballed due to lack of places to take it to I was getting bored, so last Friday I did just that. Things moved on very rapidly from there.
Timeline: Saturday morning.
I received a phone call  from the owner's daughter, who informed me that her father had owned the car since it was 18 months old and cherished it for years, doing about 2 or 3 thousand miles a year in it until 2013, when it failed the MoT:
Date tested 17 September 2013
Fail
Mileage 70,926 miles
Reason(s) for failure
Service brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7) Brakes imbalanced across an axle (3.7.B.5b) He was told by the local garage he used that it would cost about £1000 to fix even if they could get the parts, which they said was doubtful. How can inefficient and unbalanced rear brakes cost that much to fix? And can Mondeo parts be unobtainium already? Maybe I will find out in due course.
Anyway, he decided that was more than the car was worth but, being very attached to it, he simply parked it on the drive and left it there.
Apparently he died about 3 years ago but his wife couldn't bear to see it go, so there it stayed until now.
Coincidentally his wife died a few weeks ago, so I hope my approach didn't seem like grave robbing. Their daughter was planning to have the car taken away for scrap, so I was intending to offer her scrap value for it and see if it could be saved. However, she was so pleased at the prospect of her dad's beloved motor being revived that, without me making an offer, she immediately offered it to me for the princely sum of zero pounds. She also agreed that quicksilver and myself could work on it where it sat until such time as we could move it. She said that she would endeavour to find the V5 and the keys.
Timeline: Saturday afternoon.
Checking the registration online showed it to be a 2.0i Ghia, built in Belgium in May 1993 and registered in the UK on 15th June 1993. K prefix registrations ran from August 1992 to July 1993 but the Mondeo was not launched in the UK until 22nd March 1993, so had been in production less than three months, making this a very early Mark 1. Has been on SORN since September 2013.
Let's go and see what we have.
It's walking distance so that counts as exercise doesn't it ?.
Didn't even know if it was a manual or an automatic. Turns out it's a 5-speed manual.
Apart from flat tyres it doesn't look to bad from a distance.

But what about the blind side next to the fence. Fortunately it had been parked far enough away to see it.

Urgh! It's green instead of blue.

Back of the roof has bloomed badly, but laquer doesn't appear to have peeled.
We took a cordless tyre inflator so the first job was to attempt to pump the tyres up. We weren't very hopeful as it had been sitting here for 7 years. The two nearside tyres had 0psi in them, the offside front had about 7psi in it and the offside rear had about 12psi in it.
They were all pumped up to a nominal 30psi and appeared to stay up.
Timeline: Sunday afternoon.
Let's take a bucket of soapy water round and give it a quick swill.
Three tyres still up. Nearside rear flat again. 75% success rate. Not bad. Pumped the flat one back up again.
Throw bucket of water over car and apply sponge and nylon brush.
While washing it we noticed bubbles issuing from from a tiny pinhole in the bottom of the sidewall of the nearside rear tyre.
That will be why it went flat again then. It looks like there may have been a thorn or a sharp piece of stone on the drive next to the bottom of the tyre and when it went completely flat the weight of the car pushed it through the sidewall. 

That's looking better.
Not much more we can do without the keys as it's all locked up.
Timeline: Monday morning.
Another phone call from the daughter. She is at the house and has found the V5 and one key. Also handbook and service record. Thinks there may be another key somewhere. We wander round there and do the necessary paper work. It is now offically ours!
Timeline: Monday afternoon.
Send off new keeper slip and SORN declaration.
This time we have to take the Zafira full of tools in an attempt to get it moving.
It has been left with the handbrake on and the front discs look well rusty, so I  bet the brakes have seized on.
Takes 2 hands to lift the handbrake lever, then 2 hands to press the button and release the ratchet.
Rock the car gently and, wonder of wonders, all four wheels appear to rotate. First hurdle overcome.
Don't want to bore you guys but some of you might like to know our technique for attempting to revive a long-dead engine, honed at various Field of Dreams chod-tinkerings.
Check oil and water levels. Oil  looks pretty clean so probably serviced not long before it was laid up.
Remove spark plugs. These all look in good condition.
Pour a spoonful of engine oil into each cylinder just to give some extra bore lubrication on initial turn over.
Engine compartment is so cramped that can't see an easy way to try and turn the engine with a spanner, so drop a long screwdriver into one of the spark plug holes so that it rests on top the piston, engage fourth gear and attempt to push the car down the drive, which fortunately has a reasonable downward slope. Watch the screwdriver and, sure enough, we see it rising. The engine isn't seized, thank goodness we don't have another Bob on our hands.
Because the owner's other car was parked alongside we could not get the Zafira in to jump the battery so we connected up one of the two knackered old batteries we had brought round. Didn't want to risk connecting across a totally dead battery and shorting out the other one, so left the positive terminal connected to the original battery but disconnected the earth wires from the original battery and connected the negative jump lead to the isolated leads, thus removing the original battery from the system. Doing it this way ensures that the positive connections are still kept clear of any metalwork that could cause a short and the negative connection is earthed anyway, so doesn't matter if that touches any other metal. Turned on the ignition and, lo and behold, we have assorted dashboard warning lights.
Hit the starter. Click. We were right, this battery is knackered.
Try the other one. Whirr, whirr, the engine spins over. Let it spin until the oil pressure light goes out.
Clean the plugs with a wire brush (not that they appeared to need it) and replace them. Reconnect the HT leads, making sure they are in the right order. Chug, chug, chug. Engine reluctantly turns over but not fast enough to fire.
Remember we have a the tiny but powerful Chinese jump pack in the glove box of the Zafira, so this is deployed. Chug, chug, cough, splutter, BLOODY HELL IT'S ONLY RUNNING!
Remove jump pack and it is still running on the alternator output.
Leave it running while we check the condition of the spare wheel. Full size alloy, not one of these horrible space-saver things. Appears to have some air in it. Pump it up and fit it to the nearside rear. Try driving it up and down the drive to test the brakes. As we expected they were not great, but worked well enough to stop it eventually. Unfortunately the handbrake would also stop the car but the ratchet would not re-engage so having freed off the brakes it now insisted on rolling down the drive. So we took a deep breath and, leaving everything behind, we set off for home.
No collection thread as the distance involved was about 500 yards, but target achieved with no problems, except for the power-assisted steering, which apparently now isn't. Have a cup of tea then walk back round to pile all the detritus back into the Zafira and drive it home.

Gone. Mossy piece of tarmac blinking in the sunlight for the first time in 7 years.

In its new home. Bob is not impressed by this non-French interloper and turns his back on it.
Let's see what we have.

Nicely mouldy steering wheel. Oh look, footwell lights. I say, how posh, did I mention it's a Ghia.

Illuminated vanity mirrors. Can this get any posher?

Optional giffer pack included.

Lots of damp and mouldy boot trim now basking in the sunshine.
So, what is the overall assessment.
On cursory inspection it appears to have zero rot on the bodywork or the underside.
Haven't tried everything yet. A few of the lights don't work (hopefully just bulbs or mouldy connections). Nor do the screenwashers.
The two main problems seem to be the non-working power steering and the ABS warning light being on. But haven't had time for in-depth investigations yet, so here's hoping an MoT can be passed eventually. No rush, it is a lockdown project after all.
By now I am sure you are all bored to death so I will stop rambling.
Bloody hell these threads take a long time to compile.
Stay tuned for more developments. Or not.
 

Haven’t found any rust. 75k on the clock. Runs super sweetly.

 
Seats are like new, and incredibly comfortable.  Interior plastics are the cheesiest ever, and brilliant.

Haven’t driven it yet, because lockdown.
I love it.

Little bit more done on the Bodge 50 yesterday. (Also got a new Avatar as I think we've all seen enough of the frog-faced fascist twat and poster boy for fuckwitted 'Im not a racist but'-types Nigel Farage)
My caliper seals and pistons turned up so tackled my seized-up caliper:

Cylinder bores a bit sorry-looking

Cleaned them up with WD and wed & dry paper, rinsed out with brake cleaner and compressed air then fitted a new seal in with plenty of red rubber grease

These don't have a bellows-type dust cover like most calipers, theres a second lip seal held in with a thin metal retaining ring that has to be evenly 'encouraged' into place, I squeezed them in with a G-clamp

In go the lovely new pistons! Sweeeeet. Very satisfying how these just glide in under hand pressure.

Quick clean-off then refit with new mintex pads and new fitting kit. Lovely. Also greased the kingpin on this side meaning I could refit this wheel at last.
Also finished off the welding on th passenger side:

Had to make a tricky patch with a 3-d curvature, I did the old 'Esther Rantzen teeth' trick on it but it wasn't my best ever effort

Still I got it all done after a fashion, with a bit of linishing and some seam sealer it was looking a lot better!!!! Hope its rainproof!!!

I'm about 85% confident that it will be, I thnk it should drain into the inner wing OK as its meant to now. Got to give everything a bit of a rub-down and coat of my favourite red oxide next!!! Oh and start stripping out the drivers side properly. 
 

Based on – D-pillar curve, position of fuel filler, front indicators and repeater my vote goes to a 406 estate.

[anorak mode] At first I thought the wheels look like the standard offering on a late model (2002-4) but they’re slightly different[/anorak mode]


 
See pic below nicked off a web site

Done a bit more on this today.
The handbrake adjusters arrived so I lobbed them in:

Did the drivers side first. The adjuster went in easily and I adjusted it up and lobbed the disc back on. The handbrake was immediately hugely improved.

Went to put the caliper carrier back on, it bolted up tight now after sorting out the threads but somehow it was scratching on the outer surface of the disc. Not sure why this is, I guess the disc might get squeezed on a bit more when the wheel bolts are done up but somethings not right here. I reckon this caliper carrier is bent or damaged in some way after beling left loose for so long.

A bit bodgy, but I spaced it out with a couple of M10 washers, just visible in this pic. That stopped the scratching if nowt else. Reassembled this side and went round the passenger side.

Adjuster went in easy enough, but I had a bit of a war getting the drum on and off. It had a slight 'lip' round the inner edge.

Linished that off with the flapwheel in the grinder. Again, adjjsted the shoe as tight as I dared and chucked it all back together.
The handbrake is now much better, it only comes up about 4 clicks and it holds the car on the drive no problem. BUT I think its still not 100%, specially on the passenger side. When I was doing the wheel bolts up the wheel can still move even with the HB on. Theres loads of meat on the shoes, not much slack in the cable so i can only assume either the cable itself or the actuator lever is a bit seized up on one side. I think changing the cable is a right war, centre console out and all sorts so I want to avoid that if I can. Anyway its much better than it was so that will do for now! Maybe it will bed itslef in and get better with a bit of use (yeah right).
Now I moved onto the other ABS ring. Took the front wheel off:

Eh? Theres no friggin driveshaft bolt in at all!!! How on earth this has not stripped the spline I dont know. Anyway I have a spare bolt as the new wheel bearing came with one so no probs. Annoyingly the spline was not seized at all so my new hub puller wasnt gonna be getting any action here either!!!

Got it all to bits again anyway. No massive problems thankfully

I was chuffed to find a busted reluctor ring. Cracked right through and well rusty.

Cleaned up the end of the driveshaft with a bit of wet and dry and WD:

Heated up my ring on the hob. Soz about the mucky state of the hob, I will have some stern words with Ms_Nuts about that later as its just not acceptable for a serious car blog thing like this.

Went on a treat, absolutely no problems and clamped on tight as it cooled. Lovely job!
Chucked it all back together, no photos as it was boring and time was getting on! Put the new shaft bolt in and nipped it up as tight as I dared with a 3/8 ratchet (so not all that tight really)

All back in one piece. I havent cleared all the fault codes, there were quite a few and I will be surprised if there are not more problems to solve but that one defo needed dealing with so its a step in the right direction. Next job timing belt!!!
 
 
 
 

Phew. With fortunate timing and a good decision to get it MOT’d well in advance of expiry the 406 V6 passed first time on 10 March. Emissions were a bit tight and might have been game over if it had failed.
20th anniversary of me collecting it when new coming up in two weeks. Now I must disconnect the battery as it’s not going to get used again for weeks, if not months. Any local journeys will be electron-powered in the i3.
 

Phew. With fortunate timing and a good decision to get it MOT’d well in advance of expiry the 406 V6 passed first time on 10 March. Emissions were a bit tight and might have been game over if it had failed.
20th anniversary of me collecting it when new coming up in two weeks. Now I must disconnect the battery as it’s not going to get used again for weeks, if not months. Any local journeys will be electron-powered in the i3.
 

Phew. With fortunate timing and a good decision to get it MOT’d well in advance of expiry the 406 V6 passed first time on 10 March. Emissions were a bit tight and might have been game over if it had failed.
20th anniversary of me collecting it when new coming up in two weeks. Now I must disconnect the battery as it’s not going to get used again for weeks, if not months. Any local journeys will be electron-powered in the i3.