danthecapriman

The in laws have upgraded their shit Sky internet with a BT one but are struggling to work out how to set it all up so this afternoon we went over to take a look, once this was up and running i had time to check in on the Dolomite which i haven't even seen since the start of December.
 
The battery was unsurprisingly flat so i jumped it off my Focus, that was a bit daft as it's got the lights which turn on when you open the door, after i started the Dolly (which took a few turns to get the fuel up) i parked the Focus back up and locked it only to see the lights still on... Shit i think, I've bollocked up one of the modules and it will cost me a fortune.
 
After 20 minutes Googling, messing about with the key and swearing i finally notice that the boot wasn't closed probably... What a wally! Still i took the Dolly for a drive for a hour where it still drives lovely! Roll on the summer!
 

 

Finished up the two plates in the floor from the top side yesterday.  Takes a while as you have to be careful as the floor isn't very thick.  Something I do where possible to find pinholes in the new weld is to position a torch under the repair and move it along the welds.  I then re-weld and grind any affected areas..

Found a few  pinholes and an area that was a little too thin for my liking so continued fabricating, welding and grinding until I was happy.  I also took this footwell back to bare metal to check for any other rust.
It takes years to get the experience to make a seamless repair on somthing like this.  What I've done is apply a thin smear of chemical metal along some of the welds.  This smooths things out and stops you from grinding down too far and leaving the repair too thin.

I'll give the area some sanding and a lick of paint next time and hopefully it shouldn't be obvious that the floor has been repaired.

I recently bought a load more old photos off eBay. Taken by a man from Cinderford, Gloucestershire called John Powell who has now died and his son is offloading what seems to be thousands of shots taken over the years (at the time of writing he still has 800 listed, and is adding more every day). Big stuff seemed to be his preference, but to be honest there's all sorts. His son said he was a lorry driver and used to take photos when he was out and about, at shows etc. He apparently owned a few Datsuns himself over the years, so was clearly a man of great taste and wisdom. Seller's username on eBay is mjphotography2016.
 
Here's a selection of what I've scanned-in so far, and if you don't like Datsun/Nissan then there are some others to come.
 

1969 Datsun 2000 Estate, BPX841G (1982) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
If there was only photo I could have bought it would have been this. Beyond the interest of it being a spectacularly rare car (maybe just one surviving estate here in the UK?), it was a former press car that was seen in Autocar:
 

Datsun 1300 (510) and 2000 (130), Autocar 1969 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
What are the chances? DVLA says it lasted until 1986, pretty good going given its early history.
 

1984 Nissan 300ZX 2+2 Turbo B377NNX (1993) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1984 Nissan Cherry Turbo A966LDD (1984) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
Sporty(ish). Do like the CA in the background of the Cherry photo.
 

1972 Datsun 1200 Coupe DDD828L (1983) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1974 Datsun 120A Coupe PXS16M (1977) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1980 Datsun Cherry 1.2 Coupe LFH123V (1990) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1982 Datsun Cherry 1.2 Coupe KNY277W (1982) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
Classy coupes.
 

1984 Nissan Sunny 1.3 GS Jubilee A936KFH (1995) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1987 Nissan Sunny 1.6 SGX E598HAD (1998) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1987 Nissan Sunny 1.6 ZX 16V, E469PTX (1989) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1988 Nissan Pulsar NX SE, E373NRE (1997) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
'80s Sunnys (Or Sunnies? Somehow that doesn't look right.) The last one is an oddity, looks to be US-spec and that model was notable for having interchangeable rear bodywork.
 

1975 Datsun 160J SSS, JFH202N on rally 4/11/78 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1979 Datsun 160J SSS, WOU85T (2000) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1979 Datsun 140J Violet JDF141V (1982) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1983 Datsun Stanza 1.6 GL Saloon, A584FDD (1984) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
I can only assume the last two photos were of cars he owned/hired, the captions say they were taken up in Scotland.
 

1977 Datsun 180B, WSF323R (1977) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1978 Datsun 180B SSS, TVP205S (20/2/83) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1979 Datsun 180B, EFH270T (1998) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1980/81 Datsun Bluebird 1.8 SSS Coupe, 221DOC (1981) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1982/83 Datsun Bluebird 1.8 GL, ADD247Y (2006) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
RWD Bluebirds. I do like the later SSS model, that's always been a personal favourite of mine. It would seem from DVLA that the older SSS did get repaired after its boulder interface.
 

1985 Nissan Bluebird Maxima 1.8,  C357RWP (1987) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1989 Nissan Bluebird ZX Turbo, F661GYC (2007) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1991 Nissan Primera 1.6 L, H5DCM (1998) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1992 Nissan Primera 2.0e GT, K492CWC (1993) by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
FWD Bluebirds, and Primeras. The GT is still taxed and tested, so far it's the only I've found where that's the case.
 

1987 Nissan 300C (Y30), 21/12/99 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
Mr Powell's preference seems to have been for bigger cars, so there are a lot more Laurels, Skylines and Cedrics to come.
 

1973/74 Honda Civic, 13/7/74 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1986 Mazda 626 2.0 GLX by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1973 Mazda RX-3 Coupe, 13/7/74 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1973/74 Mazda RX-3, 13/7/74 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 

1973 Mazda RX-4 Coupe, 13/7/74 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
 
I think the rally photos were all from the Avon/Motor Tour of Britain.
 
More to come, as and when.

It's been a couple of sweltering days here Shiters, I'll have you know. This weekend also marked the arrival of the annual invasion of flies into our house, so it's not all milk and honey here at the moment; that said it does mean I can deride pleasure from sucking a load of them up with my trusty old Hitachi vacuum cleaner. 
 
Let's continue wistfully looking back to late last year, when we had all the good bits of early summer (hot sun, mainly) and none of the bad bits (humidity; constant droning of cicadas (daytime) and crickets (night); cat wandering through open window of bedroom with live mice gifts at 3am; flies). What's more, I even used my proper camera to nab some shots, so behold the actual OK quality!
 
 

 
I actually like this shot very much and think that its composition would be perfect as a new desktop screen saver, since there's loads of room left of frame for all those files I should really delete but never will.
 
 

 
So, where are we then? At that twice yearly local drag meet I quite often go and watch, of course. It's a lot of street stuff but nevertheless, it's still a good way to wile away a few hours. Seeing stuff like this Stingray above get a little messy is all part of the fun, especially when there isn't any harm done, like this time. The announcer on the world's tinniest PA system is still awful, though, although I only ever remember this just after we've arrived and paid up....
 
 

 
Here's the aforementioned PA system, which does not respond well to spontaneous cackling laughter by someone unaware of the concept of holding a mic more than 8mm away from their gob. Still, nice Valiant, eh?
 
 

 
From memory, the reg plate on this Viva looks pretty similar to the one seen on the yellow and green Viva spotted at this event some time back. I'm guessing they're one and the same, as what are the chances of two HB Viva drag cars? Either way, it certainly attracts the hordes, doesn't it?!
 
 

 
I've wittered on about the massive rear lights on these Sunbirds before but in all honesty, I think that gigantic or not, they really work. All in all, this really is quite a smart ride. Well done.
 
 

 
This has definitely been spotted before but it's just so right, I doubt that anyone will mind a double post. Can you see a bit of similarity occurring in these shots? I'd love to say that it's some style I really gelled with that day but in actual fact, it's the best I could mange without leaving my camping chair and so pretty much all of the shots will look very similar because of my laziness.
 
 

 
See? There's something about this Capri being jacked up that really accentuates to me how tiny the headlamps were on Mk1s.
 
 

 
Seems it was tastefully modified Ford day that day, which is quite often a misnomer, I find. I've only just noticed that they all have very similar wheels, as well. Aaahhhh, not a billet chrome in sight.
 
 

 
This was a clear car of the show for me - I do love to see a good gasser. Did quite well on the track too, from memory.
 
 

 
Back to the crushing banality of a few phone spots now but this Maserati was really quite a surprise to see turn up one day at work. Not 100% on it being lowered, as those rear wheels look a little bit inboard to pull it off. Still, someone owns a tidy Maserati and I'm pissing about with a driveway full of old cars that no-one cares much about, so what do I know?
 
 

 
Spotted on the way to a camping trip just before Christmas, I thanked my bladder for not needing to be emptied at this particular toilet stop, lest I'd have missed this fantastic XA Falcon. Don't they just look perfect on steels and dog dish caps?
 

 
Have a second shot, to indulge in hot, unadulterated hubcap action. UUUUUURGH.
 
 

 
After arriving and pitching up at the site, I was given permission to ditch the in-laws and take off on my trusty pushbike for the afternoon, covering 25 miles or so aimlessly looking for chod. This generic overview featured a couple of oldies still earning a crust.
 
 

 
This excellent D Series later caught me up on a long uphill section, where I was able to confirm at very close range that it was V8 Cummins powered. Again, profuse apols for potato footage.
 
 

 
This Nuffield (I think) tractor was one of many old knackers parked around the place as boat launchers and it's great to see them thriving, even amongst the inevitable rise in expensive holiday housing being built everywhere.
 
 

 
Here's a small fleet of them, headed up by a Zetor closest by, IIRC. I later watched 3 men moor a boat back on to its trailer and I must say, the sea wasn't calm and the oldest fella had obviously landed a few craft in his time, as he elected to pilot the tractor, which was by far the safest place to be. 
 
 

 
Last one for now was this tasty pickup on too small tyres seen whilst out for dinner one night. Not actually too bad for an obsolete phone camera in low light.
 
Bit boring and shite-deficient I'm afraid folks but I've got a more eclectic selection up my sleeve for next time. Cheerio!

Plates:
 

 

 

 
Great job from DMB as ever. I think the rear one might be slightly wonky, and the off centre Lex Service sticker will have to stay as it can't be removed easily. I like how it looks now I've tried to remove and re-apply it though, weirdly, so it's alright. It's mad how much difference they make...

Finally for tonight, Neo mk2 Granny estate.

Matrix Oldsmobile hearse and PremiumX Cadillac Deville

More 1/43's arrived today!
 
 

 

 

 
Neo, Chevy Caprice, Dodge Monaco, and Cadillac Seville bustle back.

Ordered up some service items from GSF. Bloody thrilled that I can now just jump in this car and go for a drive, without pissing diesel everywhere!

I find myself on Malta again with camera in hand and nothing better to do than spot, so here's some odds and sods that seem favoured by a small island climate...
 
Jeez - I remember a mate at college having one of these in that bronze colour as his daily drive in 1985. It was an old car then...
 

 
Most of Malta is rural and there's some right old opportunities for Serengheti-safari style spotting...
 


 
and of course rural means 4WD, but not necessarily big, or tough, or indeed, desirable...
 

 
Some prefer to forgo the designs of the 80s, 70s, and even 60s and go for something even more basic. I might have snapped this before on my previous visit, but now I know it moves too - I saw it bear its owner away from work at the end of the day...
 

 
And now for something much more recent... was someone saying they saw one of these badged neither as Toyota or AM? I saw two of these here with the different bonnet badge, and one with the same Toyota badge up front as was to be found on the boot on all three - I don't know what Toyota are trying to achieve...
 


 
But most of the chod is to be found in town, including some models that I don't think made it to the UK on the basis that they're badly saloon-ized versions of hatchbacks, so I give you...
 
The Toyota Platz
 


 
the Kia Avella
 

 
One of those models knocked out so cheaply, Kia chose not to bother having some badges made up, instead choosing a vinyl lettering scheme to denote it. Nice...
 
...and the Toyota Belta
 

 
...which isn't
 
Let's draw a veil over these grimnesses and move on to some old favourites (sic) and some even older examples that I note are being shown lots of love on the beige atm...
 




 
There is of course a burgeoning trade in silly exhausts here, but also I suspect some make-do-and-mend involving olive drab paint found in Nissen huts on derelict RAF bases... there's no other excuse for this sort of thing...
 


 
On the subject of offensive exhorsts, can anyone tell me if expanding builders foam would change the noise that these.... no, never mind, I'll do some testing....
 
And finally, just to emphasise the influence that the Italians exert on Malta, I leave you with two examples of pure class...
 

 

 

 
Ciao ciao!
 

Spotted by a friend. Pretty close to perfection I should have thought. 

It finished at £880 so you only need to find another £120 if they want a grand to make the sale. If I wanted it as bad as you do then I'd just do it.

Tidy Cambridge

Last two days

Why? Because seagull shit and flat tyres!

Always good to find shite to park by.

FSO is worth a second look.

And a third. Never seen one of these before.

Had a bit of time again today and took advantage of it being a nice dry day by having a look at why the sunroof was leaking.
For some reason the sunroof will only open on the tilt. Trying to wind the handle the other way to fully slide the panel back just results in the thing jamming solid. I think if I try any harder something's going to get broken. No idea what happened to that.
I didn't want to risk taking it to bits to fix it either as I don't want a hole in the roof this time of year if it won't go back again.
 
This of course made fixing the leak a right bastard! Normally you can slide the sunroof back which reveals the four drain tubes, one in each corner.
Since I couldn't do this I instead had to strip out the interior trim from around the A pillar and drop the headlining.
The leak was only in the passenger side front corner area as the headliner was dry around the rest of it.
 
Once the trim and headlining was out the way I could see the back of the sunroof tray and the little drain tube, attached to this is a rubber hose held on with a jubilee clip which runs down the A post and out under the car. It was very damp up in the roof area around this so I've wiped it all out and dried it off as best I can.
Then I got a tiny socket and ratchet up there and just tweeked up all the sunroof tray bolts just in case any were loose and letting water past them.
Then I undid the jubilee clip from the hose and pulled the hose off. No sign of any crap in there but I fed some old electrical wire into the drain tube towards the sunroof tray which seemed to hit a bit of resistance at first. Waving it around and in then out seemed to clear whatever it was.
I poured a little water through it from outside the car which ran through perfectly well.
 
Next was the hose. Access was poor for this so I bent it down as far as I could and blew down it as hard as I could. First try and it was definitely blocked as I couldn't blow through it.
Second try and it was the same before suddenly blowing through! Again, no idea what it was but it's definitely cleared and I could easily blow through it. The drain hole in the sill was also lanced with the wire before everything was connected back up and a load of water poured into the sunroof tray.
The water runs through freely now, there's some bits of dirt and moss in it when it comes out of the sill hole so that must have been what it was?
There's no signs of leaks around the inside of the sunroof either now so I think the drain was blocked which caused the water to back up and overflow into the car, wetting the headlining in the process.
 
Sadly the wet has damaged the headliner a bit. The fabric has come away from the back board in a small area above the passenger seat giving it a droopy appearance. It's not too obvious with the sun visor folded up though.
I just need to try to dry it all out now, so I've left the car sat in the sun with the windows down to air it out. Not easy this time of year though! I might try an electric dehumidifier tomorrow if it's dry.

Weather today was nice so I managed to get the front brakes done.
 
The front pads were almost worn down completely and the discs both had a big lip around the edge so I got some new ones after eventually managing to find out which type of brakes I've got. There's quite a few different types and front/rear combinations on these.
A bit of shopping around revealed prices for genuine parts weren't much more than decent quality non OE stuff so it seemed stupid not to get genuine Volvo stuff. Only the best for my brick!
 
IMG_0405 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
IMG_0401 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
New Volvo discs and pads, I also got a pair of calliper slider repair kits since they can be a pain for sticking on these. They're complete kits with new slider pins, bolts, dust boots and proper grease sachets.
The genuine discs also come with new calliper bolts too.
While it was in bits I cleaned up as much of the back plate and hubs as possible without going ott.
Both callipers were exercised and cleaned up then re greased and re assembled. Neither seem to be seized so I've also changed the brake fluid at the same time. It needed doing as the old stuff was vile.
 
IMG_0402 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
Old bits, all well past their best and fit for the bin.
 
While I was at it I found the anti roll bar links were in a bit of a state, I spotted these last time I had the wheels off and ordered a pair of new ones. Forward planning!
Unfortunately on getting the new ones out of the box I found they are in fact the wrong sodding ones!
It turns out most of these have cast iron lower arms so the bottom of the common type of ARB link has a simple bolt through a bush into the side of the arm...
My car however is fitted with cast alloy lower arms for some odd reason which means the ARB link can not be bolted on in the same way. Instead it has a pair of bushes at the top and another pair at the bottom with a crush tube in the middle. And I can't find any new ones of this type!
 
IMG_0404 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
It also means I've got a pair of new incorrect ones that I can't send back as I've lost the receipt!
Anyone want them cheap?
They are a pair of this type: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Anti-Roll-Sway-Bar-Moog-fits-Volvo-740-2-3-2-4-Diesel-2-3-Turbo-2-4-Turbo-D-2-0-/311637570725?fits=Car+Make%3AVolvo%7CModel%3A740&hash=item488f0bf4a5:g:BzsAAOSwGIRXZM5j
Complete ready to use.

Thanks for the great comments, guys. It's a great feeling knowing we've saved it and I hope we get a few miles out of it before we pass it on. We're going to tax it from March 1st.
 
Here's a pic I took today, ebay 'shadow of photographer' style. There's still a lot of tarting up to do.
 

Oh, and have a pic of the fleet.

Decided to gently step backwards. Took off the inlet manifold, gave it a run, bag of crap! Loosened the pump bolts again, 'adjusted' it with a hammer handle (as per the recommendations) and as soon as I reached the sweet spot, it went from lumpy, surging, horrible to super-sweet and consistent. I bolted it down tight, which had it mithering again, so I adjusted it a little more, and it's now lovely! A bloody mucky job, and I lost one of the manifold nuts and had to replace it with a 13mm (they're 12mm head) and a washer. Dead chuffed though! No more stink of diesel, and I'm sure it goes better too.
 
Quick query for those who might know. The EGR valve has fittings for two hoses. Nowt was connected at all when I took it apart, but I've connected one black-with-blue pipe up to the likely connector. Any idea where the other pipe should be?
 
Tomorrow, I'm hoping to give the thing a darned good clean. I seriously need to give it a service too, but that won't be happening this weekend - no bits.

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

Alright already!! 
 
Here we go then.
'Twas a delightfully sunny winters morning of Saturday 28th Jan. Tools, spares and other assorted crap was piled into the boot of my dad's Mondeo estate and we set off for Bath.
The trip up was completely uneventful and a little boring honestly! Although Bath did look nice as we approached on the A36 with sun shining onto the lovely sandstone buildings.
Anyway, we arrived at bang on 11:00 to find the owner had got the car started for us and even pumped up the flat front tyre.
We switched it off as it was using the enormous battery off the Omega. This was disconnected and my new Bosch Volvo battery put on instead. I had a quick nosey around the engine bay and everything seemed ok.
 
Next job was to move the beast. By now it was idling lovely, so reverse selected, and the car effortlessly backed down the sloping driveway onto the access road!
I'd expected the brakes to be seized solid and at least a bit of effort being needed to get the handbrake to let go, but it didn't. So far so good.
Handily, there's a garage block and compound next door so I gave the car a bit of a drive around there. The brakes all seem to be ok, if a little noisy. It runs and drives far far better than I'd expected it to and it also starts on the button now.
 
I parked it up and took a few snaps now there was a bit of room and sunlight on the car.
 
IMG_0386 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
IMG_0385 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
IMG_0384 by Dan Clark, on Flickr
 
So there it is! It's absolutely minging!
There's moss growing all over it, green algae and grime and the inside is very dusty and in dire need of a good cleaning.
 
The guy with the recovery truck soon arrived and was a real pro! I'd definitely use him again. He had the car loaded up in no time and then set off for my place.
 
IMG_0383 by Dan Clark, on Flickr

Been eyeing these up for a while. Finally bagged myself an original Vega Major Val twin steer. Took it out on a journey earlier, and had a bit of a mishap with the back end. 24cm of pure luxury.

Finished my 1/25 Revell Golf GTI that my son gave me in September past. I had nowhere to spray paint it this time so I had to resort to brush paint, otherwise it would never be finished. The finish is OK.
 
Still it's a nice model and certainly better than some other Revells that au have done. The red grille surrounds are all separate decals and were a twat to apply.