Lacquer Peel

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.

She's a thirsty beast so a quick drink for her and a visit to the chippy for us before we turn tail and head back to the People's Republic of Lincolnshire. 

You're not wrong, but she has enjoyed a trip on the train.
Collection has been achieved - it's a cheap old bus but there is plenty of work to be done so , it needed to be really.

This bus is so shit even the windows are crying.
 

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.

 
 

Hard graft!

Rental car:
 

Aye, just like a PC.
I'm gonna liquid nitrogen cool it, then overclock it.

Just did a test drive there, it's going really well. Only casualty seems to be the temperature gauge not working. It looks like the actual sender on the engine has failed as it's gone completely open circuit, so a new one is on its way.
Next up, I have more fun upgrades.

Not sure if anyone else has seen but this has been doing the rounds on the socials....

Minor update - both A pillars and (quite a few) rust spots on the upper lip have been cleaned up, phosphate treated and ready for masking and etch primer.

I'm hoping for some decent weather so I can bake the paint before the screen is fitted, but not massively optimistic. Thinking at least a week to harden. 

The inner panel is now cut back to decent metal, revealing rust which had crept between the layers of the lip.

Before cleaning it up I welded the marks from the spot weld drill. I wanted to make sure the metal was full thickness so when it comes to welding the layers together I can crank up the current without risking blowing through.
It took a while to remove the rust, as it had pitted quite deeply in places.

There's a little bit of light rusting on the inside, which I've treated with phosphoric acid to hopefully stop it getting worse. I'll inject with cavity wax after welding, obviously. 

One casualty was the angle grinder I use for knot wheeling - only a cheap one so really a disposable item.

Rewire complete. 

Have made a few changes. The switched fusebox is fed from a master 100A relay which is triggered from the ignition key. This takes the heavy load off the ignition barrel which could get extremely hot with all of the current for all systems passing through it.
The coil is fed straight off the barrel and is unfused, as it should be, so even if the relay fails the engine won't stop.
Apart from that I made sure all cable ends had good quality spade connectors and heat shrink wrap with adhesive. This way they're pretty tough and reliable and eliminates some of the nasty and corroded original connectors.
The engine bay is much cleaner now without the fusebox, relays, and associated wiring nests.

Wiring for the reverse lights and overdrive now run inside, and I've packed the gap around the gearstick with insulation to cut down on road noise.

Important upgrade done to the brake lights. The original brake light switch is a fluid pressure switch which tends to only activate when you're standing on the pedal. 
I've changed it for an electrical pedal switch, which needed a bracket made up.

A real pain to drill the bolt holes for this in the pedal box so the top hole is in at an awkward angle.

Still it does the trick and is a massive upgrade. The lights now come on as soon as you touch the pedal.
While the steering wheel was off I swapped the steering column coupling bush as it was really sloppy.


The steering column shroud also got a coat of paint after I did some repairs to the cracking brittle plastic with some epoxy.


Last few bits done inside. A new hazard switch.

I then remembered I bought a set of instrument panel stickers off Demon Tweeks.

So I then did what I originally meant to and sorted the dash light graphics.
Before.

After.

@MrsJuular found a low profile USB adapter for the cigarette lighter that blends in really nicely, check it out below left. It's so discreet and easy to add/remove that I don't know if I will bother adding any USB ports.

You'll have to wait for the sound video because I just did this.



The wiring on this was getting on my tits.  Had a lot of instances whereby things work but not quite all the time, or fuses randomly blowing.  The original factory wiring is shite. I have now ripped out EVERYTHING.
You can see on the right here that the back of the fuel gauge stands in as an unfused positive terminal for almost everything under the dash including the wiper motor, indicators, heater fan and who knows what else, held on by a piddly 6mm nut. That is going to change.

I present the main light switch. Again, unfused and permanently live, with the permanent live cut and twisted into the feed to the small footwell lights, from factory.

The big feed to the wiper switch. Again, some dodgy chaining of big positive wires going on here.

The circuits which are fused are run off a shitty engine bay fusebox which is riveted together, and the rivets are starting to come loose causing random dropouts. That and the small issue of continental/glass fuses being total shite and hard to come by when you need them most.
Solution : bin off the fusebox in the engine bay, and run everything off a pair of blade fuseboxes inside the footwell.

The fusebox on the left is the permanent live one, which will run the interior dome light, indicators / hazards, and headlamps.
The box on the right will be ignition switched, but I am also going to add a main ignition relay so that the ignition switch isn't constantly handling all of the current running through the entire car.  I know it's designed to take it, but the switch (and key!) can get very hot and I'm just waiting on the contacts burning out, especially if I decide to add any more load in the future.
The important thing is that everything is going to be fused, and that the fuses are going to be easier to replace when needed.
I seem to be doing this all off the top of my head, WCPGW.

Found a pair of rear bumper overriders for not much.

I'll need to bin those bicycle reflectors and build a couple of housings for the original ones, which I have in a box here.


I definitely won't be buying them at £80 each.

Full disclosure, I used furniture connector bolts to keep the filters on which maybe wasn't the most technically sound idea, but it was the only ones I could get my hands on that were the right length.
Today I replaced them with proper M8 long bolts and nyloc nuts which should hopefully last at least a week.

Minor adjustment to the exhaust. The back box was smacking the old exhaust hanger bracket because the little strap that came with it was a miserable length.
Fixed that by adding an extra bit of galv plate to drop it.

Seems to do the job ok.

I will also add; I just advertised the Astra on gumtree for £250 spears or rapiers.
Just for a laugh, like. I'll scrap it in a week.

Aye, I'll get Torque running when I take it out tomorrow and see what it says for coolant temp.
 
I just spent about half an hour going over it with dashboard cleaner, glass cleaner and polish. I strategically targeted the sun cream hand prints on the exterior. They're all gone now and the inside is an order of magnitude nicer to spend time in now.
I reckon a proper polish plus a set of decent trimz will transform it.
 
Oh. I also went to the local tyre place and paid a whopping £14 to get the fourth matching tyre resealed. That's now back on the left rear and the shitey Landsail is in the spare wheel well.
 
I checked the oil. It's at the top but is black as the night.
I may be placing a large order with Opie oils soon, as the BMW is due about this time of year too.

Oh yes.
What have I bought?
A former family fun bus, that's had absolutely zero sales prep done.

It looks better for having those awful trims removed.
It has various sun cream hand prints and scuffs all over it. No dents or scratches though.
Three of the tyres look like this:

Then the left rear is an almost dead Landsail.

Ah, but. The full size spare has a tyre that matches the other three but has a slow leak. A trip to the local tyre place may be in order.
Moving on to the interior...

I'll be throwing mats and seat covers in there anyway.

I know it's not exactly warm this morning, but I suspect the external temperature sensor is dead. Level of caring about that = zero.
I also bumped the clock forwards an hour.
I then discovered that the radio has an aux in function, but...

What the fuck, Renault?
 
How does it drive? Seems fine, clutch is light and maybe a wee bit higher than you expect but that seems to be a Renault thing. Doesn't slip or judder or anything. Very narrow gate on the gear change. I had to check I was actually in 2nd, not 4th, a couple of times.
There's a wee rattle from the front right over bad bumps. File under ignore for now.
I know modrin eco diesels run quite cool but it didn't move above one notch in the crappy digital temperature gauge on the circa 10 mile drive home. Thermostat time?
Service history? None.
Are these DCI lumps belt or chain? I can't recall. I also don't really care...

It was actually £20 for a year of road tax, not £0.
 
FUKIN SKRAP IT M9
 
Honestly, if it lasts until October I'll be impressed. I'm debating whether to even bother cleaning it. It's quite evidently been a family fun bus.

I went back outside.
After remembering I own that generic silver car dumped at the top of the farm yard, I then removed those abominations from the wheels.

£900
140k miles
MOT to October
110dci 6 speed
£0 road tax
Drives like a big Clio
Those awful wheel trims will go in the bin tomorrow .

First proper drive since I took it off the road in October.
Going to the MOT and back barely counts.

It drives... better than it has before in my ownership. The front suspension doesn't wallow, the gear change feels positive, it doesn't creak and squeak over bumps, the brakes don't bind. It's sorted.
I bought an amazing tin sign while I was out.

Malaise as fuck.
 
My to do list is now to set up a saved search on eBay and find a smol hatchback, then scrap the Astra.

I think they should be traced , lined up against a wall and a large tower pc inserted sideways ...