Cheezey

My three toys (aka money pits), first time together.






 

1988 Lancia Astura by Drogo

The German Job, 1969.

A-Team by the BBC..

... and the Dukes of Hazzard...

... and Miami Blackpool Vice.

For aslong as I can remember I've wanted to be directing my own path in business but never had the actual confidence to overcome huge self doubt and fears of failure, in 2021 when I nearly met with my mortality thanks to covid I remember hating that I'd played things safe as houses like a boring nobody and literally despite continued health maladies I feel that I've got a second run up at life , so I'm starting from nothing at 35 and want to get pushing forward with what is abit of a dream for me .
So basically my sister and I have teamed up to create a new garage/engineering works of which provides the usual bread and butter garage services and also more specialised work less commonly found like large manual machining capability and welding.
We're looking to stock up on a range of common classic parts too so that we can take on most project work without waiting on parts turning up in ebay etc albeit limited space prevents stocking a vast amount.
So far over the last 8 months !

Obligatory huge lathe brought back somewhat inappropriately 


Company car brought down , inappropriately 

Lathe electrical rebuild done because it was dangerous as hell, 415 through the soaked push buttons etc ,,horrible ! Once cleaned and generally setup it's been put to work straight away!

 
this s100 k series swap was quite aquite to drive, getting one to fit the earlier car isn't bolt in like with the estelle and rapid !

Cambelt snappage job on an iveco 2.3, lots of new valves and lapping required!

loads of work done, and loads more hopefully to come ! 

Selling a Vauxhall Zafira to a delegation of Chinese merchants, 17th century oil painting

I’ve ended up down a rabbit hole with this again. 

A friend had a nice 2.0 litre 318i grey E46 sort of CSL looking coupe a few years ago. He didn’t like driving so I usually drove it if we were going somewhere. I even drove it home from the garage he bought it from. It was great. I thought it was a great chassis. I always wondered how awesome the M3 would be. 

Test drive completed.
No wobble whatsoever, the Sierra was only giving me good vibrations.
Looking good with a squirt of tyre shine.

I saw one of those in B+M in Berwnick upon Tweed, couldn't quite believe it 🤔
Astro passed its mot today, 1 advisory for an idler arm. Had to guide the tester through the test, he'd never done a test before where it had a cat but doesn't get a cat test, never done an mot with a steering box, never seen plastic leaf springs, never seen a hydroboost brake system, or front torsion bars..
Youngsters these days. Strange thing is, he's older than me! Been testing 4 years..

Diesel convertibles are just wrong.

Work continues on the Astro. After finally finding and curing the coolant loss I built it all back together, then a few days later it wouldn't start from cold. Would crank and crank but nothing. Slightest waft of brake cleaner and it would fire right up and be fine for the rest of the day. Take out wooden Starcraft dash, then plastic Chevy dash then the doghouse again and hours of diagnostics.. it's pre OBD2..  turns out its the ignition control module.. doesn't activate the injector when cranking, but as soon as it sees 400rpm, the ECU takes over and it fires right up . Early injection/ECUs are fun! Waiting on a module arriving so fitted the sink and tap, then stuck a new bumper sticker on 😁



 
 

I love that, it's great, never seen one before. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks also to @Cheezeyfor sending me this 1996 brochure. Appreciated.

After the TY175, it'll be the E28 on for a "Shite Giveaway"

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-

Yes please, I don't have a 96 year brochure - will PM

As some of you may have seen in my thread, I spent the last couple of days nipping down to Worcester and as a result REV is now parked on my trailer outside my house in the North East of Scotland. How the hell did that happen? Pull up a chair to the fire, help yourself to a dram, and I will tell you  
Over the years on AS I got to know Dez on here, then on the winter zoom meets during Covid and I have met him once at the FOD. During this time (Dez, you might want to look away here, I will tell you when it is safe to return) I found Dez to be young and enthusiastic, especially about Invercars which it became obvious is his passion, to the extent he can become a pain in the arse about them, but that is Dez (you can look back now). When Dez got the chance to buy REV, I was one of the ones who advised against it due to his physical limitations. He ignored me  and I was wrong. Whilst owning REV has done nothing much for him physically, mentally it is the best thing he could have done. It has given him something to focus on, and I would go as far as to say Dez is now probably the leading authority on these things, and a by product he has become profficient in dealing with DVLA, and he has helped me out several times over the years.
Once Dez had got REV running and completed his chip run, it became obvious REV was far from in good health and fortunately he listened to advice and the true hero of all this @red5 stepped in and offered to sort it. I met Sam today, a true gentleman, and he told me what he had done to REV and believe me it is far more than I could have done! Sam did all this inbetween teaching and having a life and whilst having to wait 5 months for carb bits etc. All that is left is the kingpin on the technical front and a few other jobs which whilst relatively simple will take a great deal of time, which understandably Sam no longer has as life has moved on.
Around Christmas time, Dez became a bit frustrated, after all he passed his driving test 2 years ago and has not driven since. In his usual enthusiastic all in manner he asked about a car he was thinking of buying. A lot of good advice was given, and frankly, a whole heap of nasty comments were made at Dez. I was surprised by some people, and several of the worst offenders have posted on AS how they sometimes struggle with their own mental health yet fealt it was perfectly acceptable to pile in on Dez. I will not name names, nor say anymore on the subject, but  some of the people involved should be ashamed of themselves. Enough of that, at least some good came out of it.
A few days later during a zoom call, Dez MAY have mentioned Invercars once or twice and in discussion agreed with the good advice given that he did not need another car, he just wanted REV back. The piss taking I think annoyed me more than Dez, I am old and realise we need to encourage youngsters into the classic car game if it is going to continue. I told Dez that when I retired at the beginning of March, if it was OK with him and Sam, I would bring it up here and finish it off, probably not to such a high standard but with the quiet roads up here, a few miles could be covered before he got it back in a hope of improving reliability.
Whilst this was being organised, my ace mechanic Duncan, one of only 2 people I trust to work on my Cobra, approached with a problem he was having with a car he has owned since 1982 not showing on DVLA despite him having a V5. I contacted Dez, he said it was because it has been archived and it should be possible to wake it up. Dunc asked if Dez would do it for him, which he readily agreed to. There then followed a long argument between Dunc and Dez over how much it would cost, with Dez refusing payment and Dunc insisting! To cut a long story short (much too late, I know) Dunc is going to sort the Invercar, Dez is going to sort his registration and I have managed to help 2 friends. I think that is worth doing!
Anyway, some more pictures from today:

After a MUCH better day I am back home. I will post the full story on @LightBulbFun thread to keep it tidy, which is where any updates will also be posted to save some of searching for the latest.
Sufficient to say it was great to meet @red5 and some of his students. The Disco covered 890 miles in 2 days, towing, and never missed a beat!

Yep!

Well a day of mixed emotions as I am heading to port (Schiedam) to demobilise for the last time. Sad to realise it will be the last time I will look closely at rigs from the sea after 35 years - glad it is all over! Tomorrow I fly home and Saturday morning I start my retirement! It should mean more pictures of cars and less of the sea on here.....
The sun setting on my career;

 

I almost missed these in Stenhousemuir earlier. 

I almost missed these in Stenhousemuir earlier. 

By unfortunate chance I found myself back there yesterday afternoon. There was another one! How many of these are registered in the UK? If there are one hundred say, 4% are parked in a street in Stenny. 
 

I almost missed these in Stenhousemuir earlier. 

I almost missed these in Stenhousemuir earlier. 

Picked up this Marty McFly special last night being sold with a misfire.
Runs like a bag of shit and no compression all over the place with 150, 50, 50, 100 psi. Doesn't appear to be overheating or mixing oil/coolant although the oil did seem to be rather sludgy and black...




Apparently the Toyota 4y engine is still mass produced in China and used in forklifts so if the worst happens I can just buy a new engine...