Shep Shepherd

I’ve never seen one either. If you look on Flickr there’s loads of them with uk plates on. Artic’s and rigid’s. Some of the later ones have Renault badges on after Chrysler Europe sold up to Renault, same as what happened to the Dodge 50 vans.
Reason I ask, I’ve just bought a nice 1:43 model of the Spanish Dodge in tractor unit form that I’m intending to repaint into a British style truck.

My old boss bought a couple of brand new Spanish Dodge 8 wheel tippers in 1980, apparently they gave good service and were well liked.

Here are a couple of photos of my friend Niall's ERF EC14, which he takes to truck shows and in turn uses to transport his tractors to tractor shows:


Got to love the EC range. Apart from the Foden Alpha, they are my favourite late-era British trucks. I'm hoping to have a drive in it one day

Here are a couple of photos of my friend Niall's ERF EC14, which he takes to truck shows and in turn uses to transport his tractors to tractor shows:


Got to love the EC range. Apart from the Foden Alpha, they are my favourite late-era British trucks. I'm hoping to have a drive in it one day

I don't recall ever seeing one myself, but they were apparently well-liked by drivers and were pretty rapid. Cab looks a bit narrow, though:
https://www.trucknetuk.com/t/barreiros-c38-dodge-300/230368

Some pictures from the previous owners before me, when it was found, had been sitting since 1985 

And home! It was a fairly smooth drive home. Although there's a few lights missing from the collection. I am really happy with it!

Quick pit stop on the way home. The clutch is quite heavy for M25 traffic!

Slow drive down. The M25 was horrendous. However, a collection has occurred. I'm in love already!
 

I’d say someone is getting ready for a road trip.

With my 307 dead it was time to get stuck into my Saab. First things first I gave it a wash. 
 
Dirty

Clean

Not the best colour match considering the new is supposed to be beige! More like ivory to me. 

That said, the pillar trim is slightly lighter than the roof lining.

Should be a million times better than it was though. Pretty grim having the headlining hitting your head all the time and having bits of foam fall into your hair. 
I think it'll be a close enough match once in and probably won't notice considering its on the ceiling. 

It's taken bloody ages to get to this point. 





Let's not talk about how I had to disassemble this who b-pillar trim to retrieve the one screw at the top that holds all this in after it fell down. Good 45mins doing this alone. FFS 

Still didn't come out with a fight. 




Then spent a good hour with a wire brush getting all the old foam and glue off that wasn't already in my hair from removing this.


The best time to do this of course is when Mrs SiC is away and I can get away with having it in the living room!

 
Now to cut up the new fabric and glue it on! Might have some food first though.
 
Then it'll be a big fight getting it back in and all the trim in place. Not really looking forward to that bit. 

In other news, I've bought another one.  Yes, another Mk3 Astra.  I have no idea why but this is Autoshite.
It is a 52K mile special edition (yeah right) one which has not moved in 12 years.  It looks basically very sound, though the headlining is very mouldy.  The bonnet is rusty and the bulkhead at the bottom, but the wings, doors and arches look immaculate. 
It is the same Titanium Silver as mine.  I will either (1) clean it up, white room it and sell for a fortune.  Or (2) find it is rotten underneath and use the clean panels on mine, save the engine, gearbox, cat, steering rack and other stuff and weigh the rest in. 
Further news later this week.  Including what her indoors thinks. 

Been away for 10 days so the poor things been left on its own. Went to start it,turned the key, nothing... Then I remembered that I'd used the "secret" immobiliser switch the previous owner had fitted! Treated it to 3 new 22"wiper blades from GSF, which cost a whopping £4.40 for the lot, with their current 60% discount.They weren't quite right, but a few minutes with a hacksaw and file plus a squirt of black aerosol had them fitting nicely. It's now coming up to the magic 100k miles. 

Well, had a bit more of a play this evening, between showers. Seems to idle better now the fan is keeping the engine temperature down. Also got the boot light working(sticking switch, WD 40).Also tried the heater, demister and heated rear window, all work well. The transmission warning symbol has gone off again. It doesn't seem to affect anything. The handbook says to contact a Renault dealer immediately. There's a new one just opened in Leicester. Thinking of taking it to them and see what they say! Really it's quite a nice old thing. It's quite pleasant to drive, the autobox is very smooth, seems to reach and cruise at 70mph easily enough. Everything seems to work, which I suppose is pretty good for a 32 year old French car, that's done 100k miles. Plan is to gently improve it over the summer, use it as much as I can and then decide on what to do with it. 

Well, gave it a good vacuuming out, cleaned the drivers seat which had a brownish tinge. The rest seemed fine so left them alone. Then did a bit of de gifferisation. Malcolm in his wisdom had drilled a hole, about 5mm, in the centre of the front wheel trims and bolted them with stainless steel cap head screws to brass fittings screwed into the ends of the driveshafts. I've got rid of them as the trims fit fine anyway and he hadn't bothered with the rears. He'd also put parcel tape over the ventilation holes in the wheels to stop brake dust, presumably. He'd aso painted some greasy stuff round the door frames. Got the hosepipe out and a bucket of shampooey water and gave it a good wash. Followed by some polish, spray on the tyres and trim etc. Got a bit carried away. 
However, I have found a rust! The bottom of the front nearside wing is quite fragile and has pulled away from the sill. There's a bit of filler sticking it on and filling the gap. . Will do a welded repair, hopefully keeping the new metal below the sill line to avoid breaking the paint. The sills are black and there's a stainless steel trim strip with a rubber covering that I need to carefully remove to re use along with the wheel arch liner. Kind of looking forward to doing it in a perverted sort of way. Did something similar a few years ago on a  mk 3 Golf that had rotted behind Gti style arches and sill covers. 

Another quick fix! Central locking worked with key on the drivers door.Remote fob didn't light up or work. Malcolm, the owner told me it hadn't for ages. 2 new batteries from Halfords and job's a good un. Thought I'd got a problem this morning. Went for some petrol and auto gearbox warning symbol stayed on. Handbook said on that particular box, it indicated an electrical or electronic fault, and guess where to take it....However it drove normally so I went where I was going, about 7 miles away and when we started it again, it went out after 3 seconds as it should and has stayed off. The box is lovely and smooth the rev counter is the only indication of changing ratios.. It's one of the main reasons I fell for it. Been doing a bit of research and found out it did 60k miles in its first 3 years, and only about 40k in the next 29.Planning to change all fluids and filters ASAP as a matter of course. Other than that, I'm really enjoying it, it's about as close as you can get to driving a 3 piece suite!Be nice to have aircon, but realistically after 32 years, it'd probably need a bit more than a "regas, m9". 

A few more pre valet pics! 

Just done my first mend! Owner advised me not to touch the electric sunroof, as he'd never used it. Red rag to a bull, it opened easily enough but wouldn't close all the way and was very creaky. A lot of WD40 and gentle coaxing backwards and forwards and it now works. Done the door hinges and straps as well. Silicon spray would no doubt be better but it's in the caravan so needs must. Heres some better pics, pre valet. 

And that is me back home! About 30mpg on LPG is good enough for me. Many thanks to @jonathan_dyane and @Tenmil Socket for making it a pleasant and easy trip.

I’m not  
Destination achieved, nice cup of tea with @jonathan_dyane and then headed south. Stopped at my old university friends place in St Helens to top up with LPG and now waiting for another shiter to finish work so I can make my second collection after which I can start heading north. Only as far as Preston tonight
Picture near the next shifters place

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

Has Jimmy Cauty gone into the shit tyre business?