danthecapriman

The infamous MGF test mule... Express delivery indeed !
 

 
This looks like a normal, early-1990s Mini, but is a super-rare Venezuelan-built fibreglass-shelled model !
 

 
What's so special about this MG Metro ? An inline-six engine, of course ! Madness !
 

 
Can you imagine this being sold as the successor to the Maestro ?
 

 
The ground floor was full of Jaguars, with the first-generation XJ6 somewhat over-represented.
 

 
They did, however, have some nice obscurities like this XJ40 estate...
 

 
...and the lovely Daimler Corsica.
 

 
They also had the first X-type off the production line, which was also the only X-type in the world that has never had any welding.
 

 
That's all, folks. I hope you enjoyed !

This electric car prototype was Mini-based and looked super-funky in 70s metalflake paint. I'd have one over a Renault Twitzy any day.
 

 
After checking the main museum, I moved to the "Collection" building next door.
 


 
I started with the first floor, which overlooks the museum workshop. As you can see, they work on a fairly eclectic mix of cars... Lucky buggers !
 

 
The museum has kindly provided this small seating area, where fed-up ladies can spend some time looking at their smartphones, while their old-chod-obsessed men can roam around, fondling aging BL tin whenever the museum curators are not looking.
 
Note the infamous "Longbridge tunnel" Clubman in the background. It was fairly battered, but better structurally than many restored* examples.
 

 
There were plenty of engines on display, some sectioned and some intact. I was puzzled by this turbocharged RV8 - anyone know what car it belongs to ?
 

 
XXX-rated.
 

 
All the BL safety cars were there. They provide a frightening glimpse into what would have happened if Volvo had bought BL.
 

 
No gears ? No problem !
 

 
The last 75 ever made.
 

 
This looks like a normal mini, but is a prototype of a possible Mini replacement. Slightly longer and wider, it used plenty of Metro (or, rather, R100) parts, including a K16 and a modernised interior. I would !
 
 

P4-based roadster was gorgeous. Unfortunately, only a handful were made.
 

 
This BL single seater was powered by a Sprint engine with Bosch mechanical injection ! Shame this engine didn't find itself in a "Special Tuning" version of the Dolomite.
 


 
Check this video out, if you want to know more about this car. Seeing it in the metal confirms how brilliant British engineering was at the time (and how small Stirling Moss must be to fit in it !).
 

 
Issigonis built this hillclimber in his shed, while working for Wolseley. As you would expect, it's rubber-sprung and the driving position looks remarkably uncomfortable.
 

 
Start them young !
 

 
Dinky toys, in fetching* limeflower and tundra. Shame they were never produced.
 

 
There were plenty of other interesting rally cars, but nothing that you haven't seen elsewhere.
 

 
OLLI, from the days when they were not bought exclusively by affluent Londoners.

Are you a confirmed BL apologist ? Do you have 14 quid and an entire Saturday to spare ? Then why not visit the marvellous British Motor Museum in Gaydon ?
 
Well... I did. Here's what I saw :
 



 
The truly amazing Rover/Alvis mid-engined prototype. I had never seen it in the metal, and I was certainly not disappointed !
 

 
Twin-engined Moke featured marvellous bodgeneering : throttle and clutch pedals work on both engines, but there are two gear levers ! GR8 !
 



 
70000rpm !!! Evidence, if any was needed, that the present is far inferior to how people visualised the future in the past.
 

 
Fast cats in the foreground, midlife-crisis show-bore garage-queens in the background... Most visitors seemed to spend a lot of time in this part of the museum, I didn't.
 


 
"Spares or brave restoration".

Had a bit of time to play with this today while the rain had stopped.
 
I decided to start with the ignition system. While the car starts and runs, I've noticed it misfires and hesitates at times. It's worse when the engines cold and if you put it in gear when it's doing it, it often stalls the engine.
So, to start with the basics. I've replaced the spark plugs, HT leads, dizzy cap and rotor arm.
The old plugs looked ok, they were all an even good colour and weren't damaged but since I had a new set, in they went. The HT leads were all past it, they were dirty and had gone hard.
The dizzy cap was a bastard to get off! The location on the back of the head on these engines isn't Volvo's finest idea and there's not much space to work. Got it off in the end though and it was well past it's best!
Finally the rotor arm, this was easily the worst one I've ever had to change, on any car! They just push on but this one was unbelievably tight and took a lot of pulling and wiggling to free it. It honestly took the best part of an hour just to free the rotor arm.
 
IMG_0389 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
Nice new parts.
 
IMG_0387 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
Manky old bits.
 
IMG_0388 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
This is the old dizzy cap exactly how it came off. How the hell the car was running at all is a mystery. All four of the brass terminals were corroded and worn badly and it's broken. It's also the cars original one! Date stamped 1987!
 
Doing this has made a massive difference. It's starting perfectly every time now and idles and revs cleanly with no hesitation or mis fires. So that's one job sorted.
I've also been using some paraffin soaked wipes to clean up the under bonnet areas. There's oily dirty residue all over the place but the wipes are making short work of cutting through it. There's a lot more to do but it's a start.
 
Finally for now, a couple of pics of it now it's clean. It's come up very well but ideally needs another going over and some polish.
 
IMG_0390 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
IMG_0391 by Dan Clark, on Flickr

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

Finally spring has arrived and I had a whole day off work yesterday for the first time in ages, so I've been out and about in the Rover.  
 

First sunny weekend (Rover 3500 SD1) by Skizzer, on Flickr
 
The timing is still a bit off following the distributor replacement.  It idles ok but is a bit hesitant when pulling or cruising at low revs; then it's fine (joyous, in fact) from about 3500rpm upwards.  Stale fuel won't be helping but first suspect is the timing.  My Timestrobe (which belonged to my father and so must be at least 30 years old, probably more like 40) isn't lighting up the barely-visible timing marks clearly enough so I need to attack the crank with some Tippex to show up TDC better.  
 
Also the vacuum thingy on the new dizzy fouls the radiator top hose mounting so it appears it won't rotate far enough round.  Are all Intermotor parts somehow wrong/broken/shit, or have I just been unlucky?

I disagree, I think there is an easy bloke in pub solution to theft. You simply send the bailiffs around to empty their house and sell the items to cover the cost of what was stolen and the Police etcs time. If they don't have enough to sell then they work off the debt in 'work prisons' (not US style ones which are well dodgy). Once the debt is repaid they are released. There is no point locking people up for them to sit in a cell 23hrs a day but perhaps if they saw how much effort was required to earn enough money to buy a car/ tv/ whatever they may be less inclined to steal other people's. At the moment the criminal 'justice' system is not centred around making things as easy as possible for the victim, reparation is better than retribution to most people. Nothing will cure crime completely but I would bet a lot of money my system would work better than the present joke.

Round 2!
 
A bit more room now.
 

Where's the thread for 'Things that Make you smile like a demented loon?' then eh?
Had a brilliant night, out with Mark for Photoshoot and then shot off to see TPD... forgetting that she knows nothing about the Bentley! Got to hers and apart from the simple fact that she looked uffing gorgeous, she would have been dumped on the spot... she called my car a (whisper it) Rolls-Royce!!!!!!
 
Anyway, had to have a drive out didn't we so went to Shaldon, found a restaurant, had a slap up meal (which was better than the bargain bucket left at her doorway - I'm such a romantic!) and then went to Smugglers cove at silly late at night. Dogs had a wonderful time, TPD had a wonderful time, I panicked about getting back up from the cove as hills and me do not mix!
 
I did make it back (obviously) but it was 'touch and go' whether I'd have a heart attack or stroke... and not the good sort!
 
As she laughed at my apparent imminent demise I made the passengers seat do it's 'dance' if you press all the memory buttons in sequence the seat goes through it's full range of movements: up, down, front up, back up, backrest down... so she did what seemed like a good idea at the time and jumped into my seat!
 
I was still in it!
 
A polite veil must now be drawn upon any further shenanigans that 'may' have occurred from that point, but I will say, I have not done anything like that since I was a teenager! 
 
I am struggling to see what the catch is with this lass: she is funny, intelligent, articulate, has a massively amusing accent (and gets the occasional word wrong which gives me loads of scope for urine extraction which she doesn't seem to mind at all) and she is drop dead gorgeous, I mean, seriously bloody gorgeous! There is supposed to be a 'hot/mental' scale but she doesn't seem to fit on it,  not seen a moment of mental at all as yet. I would still be there but, you know, important things to do... like watch F1 and then Moto GP. I mean, priorities!
 
TL;DR I had a good time and am buzzing and wanted to brag/share/show off.... delete as appropriate!

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

I've had a really shit month so far, various things have hit me including a major blow to my Capri resto and then finally (so far...) the loss of my grandma last week. It's been an awful month even before losing a family member but that was devastating news.
 
Today was a nice warm sunny day, very spring like. So as a pick me up I decided to get the Mercury out of hibernation, gave it a much needed wash and polish then just went out for a drive. As much for the enjoyment of driving the car and just getting out of the house for a head clearing!
It drove beautifully and I really enjoyed it. Must have done 100 odd miles just blasting around Hampshires back roads. It's nice to just chill out and put the current woes to the back of your mind at times like this by doing something enjoyable just for the hell of it.

Been riding about Derbyshire in the sun this afternoon.
 

 
My uncles just picked it up this weekend. It was dropping diff oil on the brakes, but otherwise. MEGA ACE.
 

 
Proper wheels already purchased and ready to go on.
 

 
Drives lovely, the 3 speed box is mega smooth and the engine is a belter.
 

 
My cousins lad came for a ride as well.
 

 
 
 
 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What a day for spotting shite!! The photos below represent 10% of what i have actually spotted. Today is officially the first day of shite...
 
27 shite points to anyone who can see the bonus Austin 3 Litre lurking in the background of one of the pics. Good luck!

During the winter I noticed that my max & paddy wagon was letting in water in the overcab bed area. There was nothing for it but to peel off the wall covering and get an idea of the extent of the problem.
 

 
Hmm. Not too bad, maybe I can just bodge it with some builders foam, wood hardener and no more nails, and just slap a load of sikaflex on the outer seams...
 

 

 

 
Arse.
 
RIP wooden frame. You clearly rotted away some time ago & someone else already did the builders foam and sika bodge. Looks like I'll have to do a proper job...
 
Last weekend I rebuilt the wooden frame with treated timber (seemingly an upgrade on the coachbuilder spec):
 

 
And this weekend I whipped off the aluminium trims, cleaned off the rotten mastic, did some minor panel beating, degreased, refitted with mastic strip, stainless screws & finished with a bead of sika.
 

 

 
What a palaver.
 
Next week: The other side. Thankfully signs are that it's not as bad and external reseal may be all* that is needed:
 

 
Then: wait for it to rain & see what happens.
 
Eventually: new insulation and ply line the inner panels.
 
Leftovers:
 

 
Barry:
 

Picture oh progress so far-head on tappets and rockers in. "Only"  need to connect up pipes and wires and set the rockers with engine running and it's finished.
 

Some digging around in the spare wheel well revealed further rot in the seam where it attaches to the rear wing.  I cut it out with an air saw and set about replacing it.

The two rusted pieces are spot welded together and have curves, creases and folds in them.  The replacement took over 2 hours to make but did at least look like the original.

Again access isn't great but I did manage to weld it back in place and also made up a replacement section for the lower wheel tub.  Once the welds are cleaned up I can put on a replacement inner arch.

This is the sort of stuff that really chews up time in a restoration.  Replacement wings and sills are reasonably quick to fit and make a big visual impact when done.  This stuff has to be cut and shaped by hand and attached to the remains of various panels.  Hopefully I'll have the arch repair complete within two more days.

Battered gold Scorpio in Barnstaple today - never seen it around before.  It looked tidy from the front but there's hardly a straight panel on it and the rear bumper doesn't match -  despite the dents down the passenger side it was fairly clean and there's no obvious rot on it.  These do look quite appealing, getting to be a rare sight now.
 
Just looked up the MOT history, it's been on the road consistently since 2006 but has only done 3,000 miles in that time!  Probably explains why I've not seen it about before.  Rear suspension area rot has been an advisory for years and last year was the longest list yet so there's probably some welding coming up for it.