Saabnut

Interesting! My Disco 1 is also affected by the rust bug more on the drivers side than the passenger. The drivers floor apparently is often the worst as the water off the drivers feet soaks into the underlay, but this does not explain why the OS boot floor is worse.

Saturday morning my brother arrived with the write off. Fergie spares were loaded into the boot and the first run in it was as a passenger as we headed to Birmingham to drop off my brother after dropping in on my nephew in Nottingham. All seemed good so at the lunch stop the compulsory picture was taken Yes, it is a Vauxhall but not totally shite. A hire company bought it new for accident claim hires but it was never used and sold at a year old with 23 miles on the clock. One lady owner since. A 450 miles trip home shows it drives perfectly. The fuel computer has not been reset from new, sure I got more empeegees than that on the run home, it has done mostly short runs around Gatwick with the occasional run to the Midlands It is a 1.6 SXI so reasonably posh (for a Disastra) And it is clean and tidy So why is it a write off? It was in queuing traffic when a lady in a Range Rover failed to see it and tried to occupy the same space That is it! Will do for a run around for a while although it will need an MOT next month.

Apart from the tyre the journey went well. The other rear tyre was also far from round when removed! This is the one that blew, worth noting it blew at about 30mph and I literally pulled on the hard shoulder and stopped, so it was not driven flat. The damage to it was from when it went. Spoke to my friend last night and all tyres replaced and good for the road again. He is going to use it for a few shows this year and then it will probably go on the market.

Saw it first time around, know most of the cars and owners on there!

Oh yes! AA arrived within the hour well actually a contractor and took me to Blythe services. About 20 minutes later an AA patrol arrived who got the spare out of the carrier where it had lived for the last 11 years blew it up and I got the final 14 miles of my 372 mile trip under my own steam My friend had already collected 4 new tyres and one was fitted before calling it a day and beer 🍺 was consumed

Ooops Tyre blown waiting on AA

Time for an update, first the Moggy. A check under the bonnet revealed the engine mounts have indeed collapsed causing the exhaust rattle. New set of engine and gearbox mounts ordered. A look under the dash at the coupler referred to revealed it had indeed slipped, so a quick adjustment and starting has returned! I will keep the new switch when it arrives, that way I will never need it. My usual tyre wholesaler in the Sheffield area has no 13 inch tyres in either 175 or 185, nor any good 235 70 16s so looks like that is another thing in short supply. Good job I am not in a rush for them. Moggy did another 30 miles this evening, a run to the petrol station for 20 litres of diesel for the Kubota lawn mower and 10 litres in cans of petrol as insurance for tomorrow. I am also on the trail of a Riley 1.5 rear axle which will make long distances more relaxed. The next job today was to replace the ballast resistor on the Cobra as the new one had arrived. Easy and quick job and the Cobra is back running. Once I had the old resistor off, a look at the back of it which sits against the bulkhead revealed the problem. Finally, I had to check the Rover P5b ready to drive it to near Sheffield tomorrow. Oil and water needed less than 1/4 litre each, tightened the fan belt as it had started squeaking and checked the tyre pressures. Ready to go! I am slightly nervous as apart from the 120 mile run last weekend, it has not been out of the shed for nearly 8 years, but WCPGW? Will update this thread when I can, and a collection is being made Saturday morning, a car I have not even seen and was written off by an insurance company a couple of months ago and has not been repaired! Could be fun

And you didn't wave I was in the Hyundai with an empty trailer so not very remarkable so you have an excuse I suppose!

Funny you should say that, I came to the conclusion the exhaust is rattling underneath and it may not be the engine when I was out there. Talking to my friend and serial Moggy owner, he reckons the right hand engine mount collapses on these and that results in a knocking exhaust! Will investigate along with the coupler. On my fuel run, it rained, and at speed the wipers actually hit the rubber and need resetting down at the centre a bit! Probably a bit of play in the linkage so on the "to do but not urgent" list. It drives really well....

Rain stopped and a quick investigation shows the starter pull switch has failed. A screwdriver across the terminals starts it, and lifting and pushing the contact from under the bonnet also works. A quick ebay has a new one on the way for less than twenty quid! There are advantages to owning a common classic!

Went out in it today for the first run to get petrol. Drives lovely. Think the bottom end of the engine will need an overhaul sometime soonish so that can be a winter project. Just went out to it again and the starter switch is not doing anything, think my track has shook a wire off the solenoid but it is hissing down here so it can wait until it is dry. Despite the minor - see what I did there - foibles I am very happy with it. Tomorrow is a shed day as I have to sort out the Sonett spares as it is off to a new owner soon.

Your company sign writing is spot on as I remember passing one of your vans in the last two days somewhere between Bristol and Aberdeen. I passed a few* vehicles and for me to remember one van is remarkable.

The plan was to put a few* miles on it over the next few weeks then take it to Lemans for the Classic Unfortunately I will be away working so will miss both LM24 and the Classic but might make it back for Shitefest so we will see.

Sorry for the lack of updates! Left the hotel at 8am, filled up at Asda Patchway - yes, further from home - and arrived at the chod supplier by the back of 9! We then spent far too long talking shite but eventually got around to loading Yep, that one I eventually left at 11:30 and my satnav told me I had 502 miles to go! Stopped at Carlisle Tesco again to refuel and arrived home at 8:30pm. Averaged 27mpg but the check engine light came up on restart at Carlisle, but apart from making the dash look prettier there was no other effect. The Hyundai tows better than I ever imagined it would. Now safely back home, but not yet unloaded as I am knackered!

Ooooh, excited! Always good to get a new toy. I owned one similar to this many years ago and liked it, but as usual got offered a profit so it went (in my defence it was in my dealer days) and always fancied another. Very strange doing a collect 500 miles from home and yet starting off 45 minutes away, although I need more diesel!

Accident on the M^ at Birmingham saw a 45 minute delay on the boards, but the faithfull old TomTom took me around it. I think I may have upset a few people on Walsall High Street but it saved me 20 minutes! Saab dropped off in Monmouth in deepest darkest Wales, no pics as a fairly recognisable location. Now at my digs for the night at Michaelwood Services, with the excitement building for a collection tomorrow! Distance to Saab drop off point 484 miles with the diversions, and from there to my digs 48 miles. Tomorrows collection point is showing as 36 miles so a reasonably early start should see me on my way to get loaded and head home. Did I mention I was doing a collection tomorrow? The view from my bedroom window:

Next fuel stop Tesco Carlisle 177.9 lost some time as the A9 was closed

First fuel stop at Asda Dundee 177.7 litre

Whilst at the NEC in March, a new home for the Ruby was arranged and I agreed I would deliver it in May. It is now May so it is about to happen. As with all these things, the destination is nice and handy* being a mere 470 miles and 3 countries away in south Wales. As it would be a waste of diesel to travel back with an empty trailer, I am collecting a new toy on the way back. I would make this a live thread but being Billy No Mates I am travelling on my own so will just update everytime I stop so you can enjoy* the journey and tomorrow this will turn into a collection thread! This is the state of play as I prepare to set out at 6:30 am on a Sunday

Day off enjoyed! The Rover needed a test run as it had sat in the shed for over 7 years until woken from its slumber a few weeks ago where a total of 21 miles was covered. The tyres were far from round, it would not tick over and it kept dropping a cylinder or two but I counted that as a win. Today I took it to Morris Leslies and back, a 120 mile round trip completed without fuss. She is now back to its best, running well and ticking over nicely.

Now back home, tomorrow is a day off so loaded the boot of the P5b with some autojumble and tomorrow I will be at Morris Leslies classic auction at Errol. Say hello if you are there.

The start of a manic week, shitewise. Thought I would have 4 weeks at home, but turns out I only have 2 so everything has to be compressed into the remaining week. Today was the first delivery, the Disco 1 project has grown a bit with the discovery of more rust (who would have seen that coming!) so the welding is beyond my capabilities. Fortunately my friend in Perth has just completed his classic Range Rover project and volunteered* to take it on. First problem, how to get it there? I have a trailer but my tow car is the dismantled Disco, the Hiundry only has a towing limit of 1600kg, the Disco weighs 2000kg and the trailer 700kg. Spoke nicely to my next door neighbour and borrowed his 69 plate Toyota Land Cruiser L150 van. I covet the Toyota! Safely delivered, first job was to get it up in the air and prod it, to see if it was worth going any further. Fortunately the rot I had found was almost all of it so the bridge has been avoided! Interior was stripped out and the photos tell the story

320bhp 498lb/ft torque 1075kg. Scary fast! 0-60 3.8 secs, top speed around 185 mph but most I have seen was 155 on TomTom on a private section of dual carriageway. Plenty enough for me!

It is a small block Chevrolet 400 bored and stroked to 427cu in which converts to 7 litre

Monday saw a visit to a friend to drink his tea and raid his split pin collection. Back home and refitted the linkages. Applied duct tape to the top hose and it started first time. Still smokey and the duct tape slowed the water leak to a mere torrent. The moment of truth, would it drive? Answer - yes, absolutely fine with a silent gearbox and steering that lacks play. By the time I put it into the other shed, the smoke had reduced giving me hope for the engine. New parts ordered incuding hoses, cap, leads etc and I splashed out on a new grill and a pick up hitch. With the Fergie out of the way, time to move the Cobra so I could get the Discovery of Doom onto the ramp as I think 2 years in the naughty corner is enough. Cobra fired up first time but whilst building oil pressure, it stopped. Repeated attempts to restart, including adding more fuel, failed to produce results. Eventually proved there was no spark and as it has a Mallory electronic distributor fitted more research was needed. Put the battery on charge and called it a day. Some googling of the distributor followed, and the third hit was fault finding which worried me. Next morning, armed with the fault finding guide and my multimeter I was back at it. First find was no power at the coil which cheered me up. Next a check on the ballast resistor showed 12v at one end and 0.02v at the other. Aaaah! To prove it I fed a 12v supply direct to the coil and life was instantly restored. New ballast resistor on its way. The next week or so is going to be hectic with 3 vehicles to deliver and 3 to collect, so will try and keep an updated stand alone thread for those, first delivery Friday.