stuboy

Home safely via the chippy in Scarborough,  full road test report later as we have it.


The V70 we hastily dumped when chasing this morning was collected, on the way home, unscathed.

Last change, air is getting a little thin up here!

Any guesses as to our destination, or our stred for the return leg?

Ready for departure,  itll be a Class 170 heading west. (From Australia apparently )

Little Miss RG is rather excited to be on a train...

Breakfast rectified, quite tasty but I think we paid more for the nice decor than the quality of the food.

Five quid for one over done sausage and a fried egg in a bap - hmmmmm.
Oh yes, today's collection is a team effort which is just as well as we have dumped a car in Horncastle after a brief bus chase...

The go case is packed, the PC is one, and true to @barefoot form, as we had only a coffee for breakfast, we've had to chase the bus for 10 miles as it came by early.

 
 

Now that it's properly spring I thought it was time to dig the Renault 6 out of the garage.  It always needs a jump start after it's been sat for a while, and I cleverly* hadn't left any room to get to the bonnet when I put it away - I remember thinking at the time "that's going to be a problem - oh well, fuck it, I'll worry about it in the spring".  Well the good news is that my brake repair last year seems to have held as the brakes were still free, and thanks to the new tyre on the nearside front all the tyres were fully inflated.  So all I needed to do was climb in through the tailgate, knock it out of gear, climb back out again, grab hold of the back bumper and pull, and out it came.  
The Rover 75 and a pair of jump leads soon got it running, and I took it for a quick run round the block and was reminded of the issues that had cropped up shortly before it went into hibernation and that I hadn't had a chance to look at properly.  So that was the first task for today once I finally got my arse in gear.
The first issue is that the bonnet latch isn't locking the bonnet.  I couldn't immediately find what was causing this, but removing the latch soon revealed the problem - the mechanism is made of plastic (yes, really) and after 51 years one of the bits had decided it had had enough and snapped off.  So that's irreparable then.  Of course bonnet latches for Renault 6s are completely unobtainium, but a Google session suggested that the Renault 12 latch is similar - or at least the plastic bits are - and those are available (albeit at some expense), so I'm going to order one - worst case I can butcher it for its plastic bits and make one good one out of the two.  For now I've put a Bungee strap on to stop the bonnet flipping up - it's a forward opening bonnet so in theory shouldn't be an issue but aerodynamics can do strange things.
The other two were easier fixes.  The nearside rear indicator was behaving funny when the lights were turned on - this turned out to be a cock up on my part, when I refitted the light unit after the car was hit last year I put the earth wire behind the clamp instead of between the clamp and the nut, so it was flapping around and barely making contact.  The other problem was that the choke wasn't returning properly when the knob was pushed in - this was a slightly stranger one as it transpired that the clamp that holds the end of the cable had come off the carb - I certainly don't remember doing this (and I would have remembered as it was a fiddly bastard) so can only assume that the bolt had vibrated loose and fallen out.  One of the three screws holding the end plate on the carb had also vanished, but I found suitable replacements for both in my stash so that's all sorted.
I then chucked a bucket of water over it to get the garage grime off - next job is to make a template up for the repair section I'm going to need to make for the nearside front floor, but I didn't get time for that this weekend.

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent playing with pushbikes.  I did get the Mobylette fired up - it took a few more kicks than last year but still not bad for an elderly two-stroke engine that's been sat for six months - but I didn't get a chance to take it for a spin as I'd been hoping to do, and the forecast looks shite for this coming week so that might have to wait a little while.

What an absolute honey this is! 

Orange taxi of shame...

Took erindoors, mini stuboy and niece up to a car themed pub on there open day, seemed was manly lotus, I do love an esprit... place called 'the stag' missus says food prices are good and decor inside Is car themed..

Don’t know whether I’ve made it look better or worse but here we go. Took the door card out, pushed the top part out by hand and then got a block of wood and a rubber mallet to get as much out from the lower part. 
 
It’s certainly still very uneven but it’s not so caved in now, bit less noticeable. 
 
Also took the blower motor out, it seems to be the actual fan making the noise so will likely just replace it. Have put some oil on the bearing tonight, will let it soak for a day or so then plug it in and see if it’s any quieter first.
 
Before:



After:

The night was spent in Kinross with several cans of Tennents and various deep fried items from the local chippy.
Today, we move into phase 2 and 3 of the mission. Phase 2 involves reverting to my day job and going to carry out an inspection on one of these…
…but that’s not until later today so we are currently doing touristy things in Arbroath.

The plan then is to head back to @The Moog‘s and pick up my trailer before dropping down to Glasgow and phase 3, a shite collection 🙂
 

Did the front discs and pads on my father’s i20 today finally. The bottom slider pin on both caliper brackets had seized so I sent it off to Bigg Red who returned it looking perfect. However my suspicions about binding at the rear have been confirmed. It’s going to be the same story, I can sense the bracket will be a nightmare again so to save time waiting around I’ve ordered up second hand calipers with the brackets that aren’t seized. New discs and pads on the way too and I have a feeling this has shoes inside? Perhaps someone knows. No idea.

battered and bruised but still going...
 
welcome aboard

Took erindoors, mini stuboy and niece up to a car themed pub on there open day, seemed was manly lotus, I do love an esprit... place called 'the stag' missus says food prices are good and decor inside Is car themed..

Took erindoors, mini stuboy and niece up to a car themed pub on there open day, seemed was manly lotus, I do love an esprit... place called 'the stag' missus says food prices are good and decor inside Is car themed..

Took erindoors, mini stuboy and niece up to a car themed pub on there open day, seemed was manly lotus, I do love an esprit... place called 'the stag' missus says food prices are good and decor inside Is car themed..

Took erindoors, mini stuboy and niece up to a car themed pub on there open day, seemed was manly lotus, I do love an esprit... place called 'the stag' missus says food prices are good and decor inside Is car themed..

Took erindoors, mini stuboy and niece up to a car themed pub on there open day, seemed was manly lotus, I do love an esprit... place called 'the stag' missus says food prices are good and decor inside Is car themed..

God knows where the txt gone too..
 
Well another run roo the tip , trying to get the missus drive with a trailer as she has a show to go too soon and needs to get dragging the thing.. but she declined .. I told her ok ill hook it up and load and unload it and she can do the rest... lol

billy bargain.. and automatic too
 
 

Just found my friends old lady for sale... 2 grand.... I used too love driving..  looks bit rougher now...

that does look nice

1200...

Funnily enough I treated myself too..
Manta CC is one I've been looking for ever since I had my full size version.
400 was a cheap auction buy over here in Bg,and in Rothmans Racing colours probably the best looking rally car..

that does look nice