rml2345

Fuck, I've got one of those! They are indeed a cracking model, the detail is superb.

Chodspeed. Unless you're repatriating a Volvo from The Holy Land.

I had two of those Transit minibuses back on the day and it's likely both still exist somewhere. To young me the Majorette Transit was the one to have because it had a sliding door and very bouncy suspension. Accuracy is overrated anyway...

Unfortunately it seems unlikely that I'll make it this year since life have gone somewhat awry. Bugger.

One to the gallon sounds pretty reasonable from an 18.4 litre V8 petrol propelling something the size of a small bungalow with a bus hanging off it. Makes you wonder what the army got out of them when lugging 50 tons of tank about.

Relay is likely but there's a handful of bits that can prevent running. Nothing too difficult compared to MODRINZ. Mine turned out to be a distributor full of oil.

It's likely the retarder is too strong for the bus and the driver is having most of their brakes drop out just before coming to a halt, hence the surge. At least that's what happens on Streetlites. They're much easier to drive if you break the ABS as the retarder is deactivated completely.

They're ideal for using in tabletop wargames as they're less fragile than the expensive resin stuff and considerably cheaper. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rml2345/32478424256/

At least the Lledo "Days Gone" stuff was reasonably well made, those Cameos are abysmal quality as well as being unrealistic shiny shite for the hoodwinking of auld dearies who think a mostly plastic van they got out the back of "People's Friend" in 1996 will be worth even a fraction of the £4.99 they paid for it. It applies to other so called "Collectibles" too. Nothing depreciates quite like a collector's item.

Mr. 320Touring was kind enough to give me a shot in this on Wednesday evening and I was surprised by how pleasant it was to drive, although the steering isn't exactly full of feel. The little three pot diesel is willing enough if you stir it however and as a commuter weapon I thought it ideal. If you only had an A2 to blezz about in though I think you'd book a fortnight in Scunthorpe as a treat to get away from it after a while. It still looks funky as fuck even now and knowing they made a thumping loss on every one gives it a bit of character that most VAG products lack in my limited experience.

I've enjoyed your automotive work for the past four years and always promised myself that one day I'd have something commissioned but never quite got there. Sorry about that. Sad to see it come to an end as an aspect of your business but at the end of the day you need it to pay bills and if it's not paying then there's no sense in persisting with the horrible shitstorm it often caused you. As many others have said, we feel privileged that you chose to share it with this corner of the Internet and I look forward to the odd bit done for your own amusement as they often result in your best work. You're a rare talent Mr. Roper and it's not many artists that can do what they love and live off it, so long may your more successful avenues continue.

To be fair his soldering is better than mine...

So did tomorrow's job get done tomorrow? No. Mainly because I had to go to work in it. When it did come around though the thermostat was just as easy as suggested and did take all of five minutes to do. Which is handy as it looked like this: Yagged by Adrian Cains, on Flickr Which isn't the ideal condition for a functioning thermostat. I reckon the housing was probably keeping it together and it appeared to be full of clay which can't have been helping things. Unfortunately a much needed coolant flush had to be put off because I had to go to work in it and didn't have the requisite 7 litres of antifreeze. At least the heater is now hot enough to melt your face a bit. So having successfully put off something easy and useful it was time to do one of my favourite* repairs with added complications. The speedometer had always been intermittent at best and on the way up eh road the odometer died completely thanks to the infamous Volvo odometer cog of cheese, a well known affliction of cars with VDO instrument packs. Cog of Cheese by Adrian Cains, on Flickr From reading a bit about these, the grease they were packed with 25+ years ago seeps into the plastic of the small drive cog, turning it both yellow and a bit mushy until one of the gear teeth breaks off, killing the odometer. Often it's resetting them on the move that produces the fatal blow but in this case it was just too far gone and died of it's own accord. Nothing else to do but strip the unit down and replace it. Dash Pod Repairs by Adrian Cains, on Flickr But how to fix the intermittent speedometer itself? Another favourite of the aged Volvo is cracked soldering, often on the extremely fragile PCB at the back of the instrument cluster but generally anywhere they stuck bits to circuits which makes fault finding when you have the electrical skills of a turnip quite frustrating. After trying bits of equally (but differently) broken speedometer from my spare instrument pod I found a loose doodad and carefully (badly) soldered it back on and put it all together again. Reassembled by Adrian Cains, on Flickr Quite pleased as it only took two evenings of continuous swearing to achieve a mostly working instrument pod. The fuel gauge is still senile but with a working odometer and trip it doesn't matter too much. Certainly an improvement over filling it up every few days because I had absolutely no idea how much was in it or how far I'd gone. Incidentally it's doing about 20mpg on town journeys which is bloody awful but about as expected. Then I had to go to work in it. Next time was an attempt to fit some more of the ignition bits from earlier. It does start every time now but drops momentarily on to three cylinders before deciding that four really is best. Chances are it probably wants the distributor oil seal replacing to stop it filling the cap with oil but since I haven't got one of those it's another job filed under "Later". First up was another look at the coil but the NGK one that ECP sold me doesn't seem a great fit on either the king lead or the car so back in the box it went. Disappointed with that, I decided to change the spark plugs and see if that made any difference to the car. Plugs by Adrian Cains, on Flickr If it has I've not noticed. On the plus side they were all the same colour and looked in generally good order but the plug wells seemed a bit oily so that will need to be closely monitored. I think the rocker cover is leaking and it probably wants the crankcase PCV doing as well so it could be pissing out of there. No blue smoke on start up and it doesn't seem to burn oil but like many redblocks it wazzes a fair bit out about the place. Whilst checking other bits I noticed the Bosch air intake thing at the bottom on the inlet side needs a mount so one of those was ordered up and I'll do the PCV when it's all off as access is a pain in the arse. So that's it for now. Recently it's started weeping from the water pump so one of those is next on the agenda along with the much delayed coolant flush and all four auxiliary belts, so lots of fun still to be had on the mechanical side of things. In the meantime I'm still using it as my only car since the 850 is now in the hands of Woman_RML. Two Car Family by Adrian Cains, on Flickr

Not yet! I've got an update to put together on this actually.

Old Volvos don't like sitting... All in all though that's not a bad fail sheet really, well done for getting it sorted out.