phil_lihp

Excitement is mounting for tomorrow and my first proper look at the Saab 95. The plan is to make sure it rolls for the transporter next week.
In fact the team is assembling right now!

263k mile Ital!

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/583102756546853/

Impressively clean Felicia that's turned up near me.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/365631179055202/

Bonus possible Ital in the background.

Annoyingly, I've had very little time available for this over the last couple of months.

So far, after nearly 400 miles, it's been good. I need to address an annoying rattle in the drivers door at some point, but other than that, all is well in GLi world.

MOT and tax sorted. 

Finally back home after 4 years away.   

Impressively clean Felicia that's turned up near me.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/365631179055202/

Bonus possible Ital in the background.

Impressively clean Felicia that's turned up near me.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/365631179055202/

Bonus possible Ital in the background.

Impressively clean Felicia that's turned up near me.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/365631179055202/

Bonus possible Ital in the background.

Impressively clean Felicia that's turned up near me.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/365631179055202/

Bonus possible Ital in the background.

Impressively clean Felicia that's turned up near me.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/365631179055202/

Bonus possible Ital in the background.

Impressively clean Felicia that's turned up near me.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/365631179055202/

Bonus possible Ital in the background.

An economy German supermarket had 1:43 miniatures of American muscle and sports cars in the ‘crazy shit’ aisle including a rather blush coloured Stingray.
This became the inspiration for the well known song by The Artist formerly known as Prince, and the demo version was originally ‘Lidl Red Corvette’

I gave the Toledo a run out tonight to a local car show via Slowsilvers house to drop of my jump pack that is not taking a charge.
 37 trouble free miles including queueing traffic in warm weather. I opened the bonnet when I got to the field and everything looked good, but I wish I had a working temp gauge. 

My Toledo 4 door has had four new Toyo Nanoergy3 tyres fitted today and is now on the road.
I know they are only average ratings, but better than the cracked undated ones that were on there before.
 
I met Marvin the paranoid android  Roger the paranoid tyre fitter!
My greeting for turning up on time to a booked appointment:
I am on my own I have not had any lunch Running an hour late I have no energy I had pre paid via Black Circles or I would have given up and gone home.

Another wash! Yet more crap just falls out from behind the trim. 

I got around to fitting the rear plate. Fitted a new drivers mirror from rimmers as the current one was all cracked... But this unit has holes in it as its meant to have a body coloured insert on it! 


Fitted the new vacuum elbows from rimmers with the original vacuum line. Pretty happy with it so far! 

This is not what you think it is. 

Another great weekend at the FoD. Thanks everyone who came over this weekend.
Some laid around, others stood around all being useful!
Even the weather played its part and sprinkled on the freshly polished Toledo to make sure it was beading correctly!
 

Excellent news on the Rover, well done!  Thanks again to @Six-cylinder for hosting an excellent weekend, great to catch up with old and new faces.
Can't say for sure if it was better than before, but it was fairly honking inside.  Slightly better after being aired out for an hour or so.

Excellent news on the Rover, well done!  Thanks again to @Six-cylinder for hosting an excellent weekend, great to catch up with old and new faces.
Can't say for sure if it was better than before, but it was fairly honking inside.  Slightly better after being aired out for an hour or so.

Yes! Gave it a good thrashing down the A421, no (new) noises appeared and the header tank still contains water. Result.
Of course, I'm assuming that I've done something wrong/forgotten something and in another 50 miles or so it'll hurl all its toys out of the pram in epic fashion. Oh well, it was good practise - and I've acquired another 20+ scars on my hands to impress teh_laydeez with. Please never, ever ask me to help change a head gasket on anything less than 30 years old.
Thanks to everyone who lent me tools/offered suggestions/watched with interest/made K-series jokes/etc.

My wifes CRX was previously owned by an old giffer who had hand painted the cam cover a nice shade of orange.
So I had a go at improving it with some wrinkle paint.

After spending an eternity getting every trace of the orange off it was scuffed up with a scotch pad and degreased.

The instructions on the rattle can advise three thick coats applied five mins apart then leaving it for a day to wrinkle up or even baking it in an oven to speed up the curing process.

But looking at some vids on YouTube things can also be hurried along by using a heat gun so after an hour with no sign of any wrinkles I gave it a once over.

Five mins with the heat gun got the crinkles starting to form so I left it alone for a good 36 hours to harden before attempting to fit it back onto the engine.


I am quite chuffed with how it turned out the paint was £14.50 a can and I haven't used half of it.

Yes it is!

September 2018.
Another Monday morning and this time, a run down to St Albans for this behemoth of a Volvo.  Recently purchased, it had developed some malady that required it to be returned under warranty, to the dealer.  In Preston.  A full day’s work there, but no dramas as it did, at least, run and drive.

The following day was a ride around the Birmingham, area to relocate this Beetle.  Something of a family heirloom as I recall, the chap was moving it from a late relative’s house closer to home, with the intention of putting it back on the road.  Sadly, at the time of writing the DVLA still records it as untaxed since 1990.

On the Friday I had a run down to Harefield to see the Lee, the machinery dealer whose acquaintance I’d made over the course of a couple of previous jobs.  He had a towable winching machine that he’d sold to a company in South Wales.  Although the route was a bit ‘out of my way’, it was actually quite handy that I’d be finishing up in that neck of the woods at the end of the week.  My friend ‘Lightning’ and I had entered the HERO Challenge rally in her Austin Healey Sprite.  As she lives near Neath it meant I was perfectly located for me to pick the car up to take to the rally base near Bicester.
I remissively failed to take a photo of the winching machine in transit.  A surprisingly substantial bit of kit, I do recall needing to engage low range to reverse up the buyer’s drive. 

Delivery achieved, I nipped into Neath to pick up ‘Suzy’ Sprite and by early evening was parked up somewhere in a field near Bicester.

The following morning dawned full of promise but sadly, our dreams or classic rallying glory were dashed by lunchtime.  A shattered clutch was our downfall.  Regular readers may recall that I had transported the Sprite to have the clutch replaced only a few weeks prior.  Make of that what you will.

Fortunate really that I’d taken the Sprite up on the trailer. Ordinarily Lightning would have driven her to the event.  The experts from Maulden Garage obligingly rolled around on the floor for a bit while I photographed their backsides, but declined to change the clutch at the side of the road.  So I dropped the car to them first thing on Monday for further transmission fettling.

BBC says weekend 2/3 July will be warm and dry.
On that basis I am considering opening the FoD that weekend.
Any interest?