Shep Shepherd

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?

There's a batch of 10, built in 2003 for a taxi company in Bermuda. The buyer had gone bust by the time they arrived there and after sitting at the docks for a few years they eventually found their way back to the UK and were registered on RK08 plates.
Discussion here: https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=200966

I enjoy reading this thread, so thanks to all.
Back in the 80’ and 90’ I worked for a company that had a policy of Ford company cars, any colour as long as they were black.
I had a right mix of fords, ranging several 1.4S Fiesta’s, (pretend XR2i’s 😄) a 1.6GL Escort Estate and both 1.6 and a 1.8 XR2i, (I loved both these cars) and then the worse escort I ever had, a 1.8 Si as they had stopped making the XR3i’s. 
They were all black
I had two Mondeo’s  
First one was a hand me down was a 2.0Si I swapped my current car for - quite a wizzer but it stank as previous owner had smoked.  It was great on the motorway, We went on our honeymoon to France in it, on the hovercraft.  oh the high life!  I liked the Si Mondeo, the interior had plenty of room and driving position was great, along with visibility.
All these were owned by the company and were sold back to the ford dealer when they got to 3 years.
I left this company and joined a large multinational IT giant and it was leaseplan vehicles there, so I ordered a Ford Puma with everything on it (not much!) after seeing one on static display in the reception area at Ford Dunton, where I had been working previously and while I was waiting for it to be delivered, I got given a Mondeo Automatic Mk2 from Hertz.
We named it ermintrude, because it sounded like a cow when pulling away and the auto box was horrendous.  I really didn’t like that automatic, it made a lot of noise but didn’t go anywhere fast, I think I had it for 6mth until the puma showed up.
Gota love mondeo’s and hope I haven’t bored you too much!

 

Spent a little time going through this today… 
Things I learned: 
- The roof issue is not the fuse. Bugger.  
- There was so much dog hair! But it’s clean now. 
- The spare wheel well was full of water. Not anymore. 
- A broken window leaves a shed load of glass! All cleaned up. 
- It has isofix! But they’re well buried! 
- It threw an airbag fault at me… but I’d knocked the connector off when cleaning. 
- it also threw a lock fault at me… but I jiggled the door electrics and it came back to life. 
- The front bumper is badly cracked. Looks as if she ran over a tall curb. 
- Someone has effected a shit repair to the boot opening mechanism meaning it now fouls the hood tonneau. 
- Autoglym hood cleaner is expensive and did not get the green off the blue hood…
- I think the rear exhaust rubbers are missing. 
- It’s a lovely thing to drive. And once I can get the roof working it will be awesome! 

So… the story is thus. Having had a desire for a Saab ‘vert since my last one, once the Nova was condemned to a mass weldathon I knew I wasn’t the man to do it. So an agreement was made to sell, meaning I had the money saved plus the sale cost burning a hole in my pocket. My intention was to buy a nice 900 or 9-3 convertible… or maybe another MX5 or maybe something else.
What I actually ended up buying was a cheap 9-3 which needs a little attention… 
I actually looked at two on the same day, one which was purportedly in very good condition and well cared for. It was rough, and had DMF rattle… no thanks. Then we went to look at the cheap one on Anglesey because it was within an hour and we like a day out to the island. Turns out this one too was a little cosmetically challenged… but the old lady who had owned it for a number of years was charming and knocked the price down further when we discovered the roof was not working… MrsB is a pretty good judge of these things and was very much in favour. So we did a deal for less than half of the asking price of the first one we looked at.


As mentioned, the main issues are in-op roof. Now this was working before winter, so the fuse seems a good bet. If not for the price I might either get it repaired or just use it manually.
Other bits are mainly cosmetic, the front bumper has taken a clack, and someone appears to have broken in on the past, so the passenger door has some quirks. 

Broken glass under the seats shows recent break in attempt. 

Nod to its flying heritage! 
 
However, despite all these minor things, it drives spot on, pulls well and is very very smooth… if I can get the roof working it will really have been a good deal! 

Lovely looking motor, very well done.

Congratulations, that looks absolutely fantastic. Brilliant, brilliant work.

Looks positively stunning. A true credit to you, Peter.

I did some more fixerating on this today, this time the inside boot trim/cover. 
This is it

The problem is that it is held on with a bunch of little metal spring clips held in plastic mounts on the back of the panel.

These locate in metal holes in the boot door but they grip far better than they need to and need a firm tug to remove, leading to the the inevitable breakage of the plastic. 

On mine all the top 4 clips had broken leaving it held on by just the bottom clips and flapping and rattling about when the boot is opened. 
My solution; rather than try and repair the brittle plastic I bought a bunch of m4 countersunk bolts and washers and I put rivnuts into the mounting slots used to locate the clips

 
\\
then it was just a case of drilling some holes in the panel to line up with the broken clip mounts and FIXED. 

It is way more secure than it was before and doesn't look too bad. I might go back with a black marker and colour in the bolt heads but otherwise i'm calling it fixed. 
I'm off to Wales with the dog tomorrow, a 500+ mile round trip, ending with some light off-roading across a couple of fields at my parents which should be a fun test. 
 
 
 

This month is shaping up to be a great month for shite giveaways.


 
A couple more for this month's lineup!
 

Nice!

You've done a grand job on this, which doesn't really surprise me considering how well your erstwhile W124 came up. Looking forward to further progress 

Not really a welcome as I have been a member since the early AS days but haven’t been on here for a long time.  
 
Now living in Gibraltar and driving an early Mercedes ML
My Rover 75 unfortunately couldn’t come with me so it sat in a garage unused in the UK for a couple of years and now has gone to its new owner in Belgium.  

Evening all, thanks for accepting my registration 🙂
I've been a big fan of classic and semi-modern oddities for as long as I can remember. I'm really enjoying browsing around here, and find the "ebay tat" section especially pleasing.
Below are a couple pics of my shite;
The Toyota Alphard makes for an extremely useful family wagon, and the Cortina just puts a huge smile on my face every time I sit in it 😎
 

Thank you for the warm welcome and thanks to everyone who liked my post. Good to see there’s still other folk as well that like the 800. If I lived in the UK I’d be glad to pop over and help sort the electrics, but I’m across the channel (Netherlands), so a bit difficult. Hence I try and help online where I can, time permitting.
And yes, I’m the same one with same username. Keeps things simple  
I’ll try to follow the thread and if there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask. My responses won’t be very quick usually as I’ve got a busy job. Takes a lot of care to keep driving an 827 daily (as I do), hence my understanding regarding your earlier point in throwing this project aside   Still hoping you can find the time to patch it up at least and sell it on to another owner that cherishes this car as well (or maybe complete the project, who knows).
I know you can get it working again 👍
PS: responses might be delayed due to I’m new and mods need to approve posts.

Well, the ferry was an emotional experience - key lowpoint was out overtired 2 year old just wouldn't go to sleep, and kept getting up, and wanting to wander about. I totally understand that, she'd been sat in the car seat for nearly 11 hours at that point.
They all eventually fell asleep, leaving me to stay too wired to follow them.

We got out of Dieppe ferry port around 0515, and immediately happened along the Alpine factory 😁

Didn't realise just how poor the lights got after the beam deflectors were fitted, they were like bloody candles!

Thankfully, a reinvigorated MrsH had planned ahead and filled a thermos of tea, which was still piping hot the following morning!

Can tell the British influence in the Rover, it was practically made for this purpose!

This only worked on the French roads, which were impeccable, with only two potholes observed. Belgian roads are a different kettle of shitey fish altogether.
Entered NL, and took a quick photo whilst adding to the PC.

And triumphantly arrived 45 minutes later at my destination, staying with my brother @chatsharris and his wife who has recently had a baby.
The Rover was absolutely faultless, it worked an absolute treat the entire time and I definitely made the right call to take it. Even the seats that were a bit firm at the beginning, became supportive in the end.
PC: 7, with one false start.

Hi all,
Couldn't resist the opportunity to tinker on the Trabi while she was up, so have had a good day's scrubbing and re-oiling...
Will need to attend to this rear panel again soon, really is looking scruffy now.  Even that'll be easier with the lift though.

Here's a pic for Zelandeth, shows the difference between my old-style hubs and his fancy new-fangled ones...

They're pretty much the same both ends, the front drums have cooling slots in to handle the massive heat build up on re-entry to the village obvs...

Spent the day wire-brushing, then painting and or oiling everything that moved.  I even scrubbed and re-painted the wheels (inside and out!), a perfect day.  My youngest was doing the same on the old jeep, will update that when we get it back together.
More pics...



Can't believe the original underseal has lasted so well, god only knows what it's made of!  The car is actually older than registered, built in 1983 (they were often returned to the factory, rejuvenated and re-vinned, then sold again apparently, hence the '89 reg).  So yeah, not bad for forty-one...

And down.  Still needs a wash and hoover, but I'll do that in the morn, weather permitting.  I plan to commute in her as much as possible now, it'll let me get a bit of a tidy up on the white Audi (needs a bit of paint now) this summer.  

So, she's running well, and I feel better having undone some of the salt damage she endured standing in during the A8's abs saga.
Just before we came in, we slid the lifter under my eldest lad's 323 (actually had to lift it by the arches to get it through, because racecar apparently!).  We'll see how that lifts up tomorrow too.
 

Saab 900 was loaded with small humans and the A55 traversed: 
The journey has included: 
Tunnels

Distant castles 
 

Bridges

And prettier bridges

In an interesting factoid I have bought a car of this brand and body type before. Also from Anglesey. On that trip I stopped to check over the car ten minutes into the journey… in a car park about 20 seconds away from where I have picked this one up from. 

Hi,
I'm new here, but a regular over at mg-rover.org forum. If you need any technical help, let me know what you require as I've got all technical documents one may ever need Would hate to see yet another 800 bite the dust, though I do understand your reasons absolutely (being a parent, financial bits, etc.).

Not had half the opportunity to do anything like I thought I would today as my mom had a list of pressing issues. I didn’t have the jump leads with me though, forgot those.
I threw the battery back on it as I thought maybe a wiggle of the gear stick would result in life. It didn’t.
But…

The light for saying what gear it’s in is temperamental. I had put it in park but there was no light. Wiggled it and the light came on, then off etc. I think I am going to take this out and clean it properly.
I did also hear a click from the engine bay. 

The weather was looking ok, it was time to take the Sierra out for a test drive.
Even with the battery disconnected, the fuel gauge was showing that the tank was nearly full. Bearing in mind that I only put about 5 litres in when I first bought the Sierra, the gauge reading looked very wrong.

With the battery reconnected, the Pinto fired up first time and the exhaust spat out a mouthful of moisture. More on this later. 
Whilst walking out of the workshop, to move the E46 out of the way, I noticed that the brake lights were permanently on.

I quickly got changed, removed the bottom of the dashboard again to gain access to the brake pedal switch.

I removed the switch to check and clean it. It looked ok.

I refitted the switch and adjusted it to the correct position. Evidently, I must have disturbed the switch whilst fiddling with the pedal box yesterday.
All pre-flight checks done, it was time to set off. I got as far as my local Esso fuel station.

I managed to squeeze 5 litres of petrol into the tank before the filler neck was full. It looks like the gauge was showing an almost full tank because the tank was almost full. On the basis that the tank holds 60 litres and I've added about 10 litres since buying the Sierra, there must have been about 50 litres of fuel in the tank. At approx £1.50 per litre, that's a £75 gift. Thank you previous owner.
Before leaving the fuel station, I was approached by three people, who commented on how immaculate the Sierra is and who asked how old it is and how many miles it has done. How nice that the posh folk of Beaconsfield appreciate old Fords.
Approx 5 miles into my trip, I stopped off at a garden centre to check vital fluids and to give everything a once over. No problems to report. The pretty setting provided an opportunity for a couple of photos.



Back on the road, I headed for the A404. If you've ever watched Wheeler Dealers (the GB episodes), you will have seen Mike B towing or driving something along this famous* dual carriageway. 
Without any struggling, the Sierra got up to 60MPH.

I came off the A404 at the A4 junction and drove through Maidenhead, Cookham, Wooburn Green and towards home. I stopped off at Glory Park for a couple more photos.


I arrived back home almost exactly 20 miles later, as confirmed by the trip meter. This is good news, it means the trip meter and odometer are both reading just fine.

Ok, I've only driven the Sierra for 20 miles along local traffic free roads but my first thoughts are very positive.
Engine - I adjusted the idle speed at the garden centre, once the engine reached full operating temperature. Throughout the trip, the engine ran fine, quickly reached operating temperature and the needle didn't budge from the mid point. It pulled well from low revs, with no missing or spluttering. Nothing has leaked out, however there is still a whiff of paraffin / old engine oil / mucky residue from where I've been tinkering, which will need time to burn off. 
Gearbox - All gears go in and out just fine, synchros are strong. The gearbox is silent and I love the mechanical feel of the gear change.
Clutch - Biting point spot on. No dragging, no slipping, no juddering. Perfect.
Prop & Diff - Silent, no vibrations.
Steering - Noticeably heavy at parking speeds, otherwise works well and feels adequately light at speed. Steering wheel is on straight, no pulling, no issues.
Suspension - Smooth! No knocks, no bangs. Ride comfort is superb, on par with my W123. Handling is roly-poly, as expected. 
Brakes - Needed a bit of time to bed in, however once the pedal firmed up, they worked just fine. I tried a couple of emergency stops, no pulling, no issues.
Exhaust - Drill holes failed to allow any moisture to escape overnight and I could hear a significant blow from both silencers. Bollocks. Evidently, drilling holes in silencers is not a good idea. I will plug both holes with chemical metal and self-tapping screws this afternoon.
Radio - Played Greatest Hits Radio (105.8FM), including Popmaster at 10:30am. All six speakers work ok and the FM reception is better than expected, bearing in mind I live and drove the Sierra through The Chilterns.
Summary - I love it!
@N19 I am sure that I will find something to write about soon. There are a few more bodywork related issues that I want to attend to and I expect the forthcoming MoT test will reveal something wrong with the old Ford.