phil_lihp

Yes it is!

Yes it is!

Is this yours @phil_lihp

I had a local company fit a new screen into my work Sprinter today and saw this image on their website.

Yes it is!

This is taking a little bit longer than anticipated...



 
Just one last patch and I'm done!
 

It's better after a quick rinse and clean inside. 
It drives nicely enough.

Halfway through

Done.

A38 south of Bristol, I’ve papped it before but I’m sort of documenting it’s total disintegration over time.

https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1453997
Nice looking tax mot and ulez exempt daily driver?
 

The van “Labby” is now home. According to Steve they swept a lot of it off the trailer. But that’s part n parcel of it. 
 
it has foldable rear seats. Apparently a dealer option back in the day. He’s ordering a custom made load bed for it but he’s unsure if he’s keeping the rear seats or not. I said keep them. He’s not so sure and wants it original. 
 


 
It’s amazing what does still work. The door latches and locks still work. All the switches inside still work. 
 
a view from the back. The rear doors still open and the latch works perfect 

 
it sits next to a J plate mini that Steve has beautifully kept on the road. 
 

 
the original 850 engine felt seized. We pulled the plugs, threw some maintenance spray down there and put it in gear. Rocked it forward and backward and the engine freed off pretty quickly. He’s considering keeping the 850 in it. 
 
More rear rustiness.

Right, so what have I done? Well, the BMW was on ebay (it sold today) and I needed something cheap and reasonably economical to blez about in so I applied a carefully formulated equation of lowest price + longest MoT + nearest to my house and came up with a 1994 Renault 19 1.4 Biarritz with a ticket til January for £450, in Worthing. Actually the lad delivered it to me as he works in Brighton.
It's had a bit spent on it recently, including tyres and brakes all round. It's only done 57,000 miles but it looks like it's done 257,000 from the outside. I haven't been in one of these since a childhood holiday to France when we had one as a rental car. It's pretty comfortable and it drives alright, although it's pretty gutless. Probably the slowest car I've had since my n/a diesel Xantia (which, coincidentally, I bought from somebody on the same street as the lad selling this). It's a bit crashy over harsh surfaces, and the interior squeeks and rattle over bumps just how I remember 90s Renaults doing back in the day.
Interior is actually quite tidy now I've given it a wipe-over. The outside looks a million times better after a wash (it looked like it hadn't been washed in years) but the paint is really crappy and it screams 'banger'. I do have the side skirts so I'll try and attach those at some point, which I hope will improve things.





Faults? The driver's electric window doesn't work. Motor hums away but glass doesn't move, and in fact it's dropped slightly in the frame (hence the wet seat) so I hope it's just fallen off the runner and I can get the door card off/sort it out with the minimum of fuss. It's got some crusty bits, including a hole on the n/s front strut which is a big MoT fail, but I'm not sure I'll be keeping it long enough to worry about that.
It's been a while since I've had a cheapo stopgap emergency car, and I can't say this is any worse than my previous attempts. It's got a stereo/CD player which works, the seats are nice and it drives like a dull small-engined 1990s family car should. Fine.
Oh, if anyone has a set of those centre caps please speak up now...

Reveal time
It's a citroen XM!

BMW replacement has arrived. It's.... shite


More details will follow when I've driven it further than round the block

I've removed the strips from the other side in the end. Looks better


And then scrubbed the absolute fuck out of it.
Looks half presentable now



 
Thanks for looking in but that's it for this little car now.
cheers
Ben

It's remarkably solid under there.
Lots of flaky bits but no holes or thin spots

same the other side.
I'm running out of patience now and want to go home so I scraped it, wire brushed it and applied some zinc

and then stoneware

better than nothing.
just needs a wash and a hoover now
cheers
Ben 

Right, the doors are back together now



thats an interior thora herd would be proud of
I even treated it to a full compliment of new wiper blades

the other day when I put the washer bottle back, I couldn't get any water at the screen. I was dreading fault finding that issue but it was a miracle and now works without any intervention.
Woo how
Under side next

Done. 





 

With the MOT date looming I thought I'd had better crack on and get it finished, having spent a solid 7 hours on it today it's now looking much better. 
I've polished all the paintwork, I thought the welded repair came out well. 


I've since ran some stone chip along the bottom of the sill to protect it, I had a play with some coachlines again

I decided I quite liked them so nipped to Halfords and bought a roll to fit, I'm not sure if there's a right or wrong way up to fit them? I then spent ages cleaning the car up, the results speak for themselves I think. 








Much better i hope you agree! It's not perfect, you can see a where I've blown the paint in but all in all I'm pretty happy with it, I'll be even happier tomorrow if it passes! 

Possibly one of the only forward control Hiaces (H100?)  that hasn’t been exported? A bit of wee nearly came out, I was so excited. 

Aside from the big metal glue gun, I did the timing belt/tensioners. After removing the belt, it turns out the crank seal was leaking so that was replaced as well. There was evidence that the belt has been replaced before, but was a little bit cracked so it's probably best it got changed.

And a few from me from the last few months (most of these are within the newly proposed ULEZ extension😞












 





 


 












 


 
 






 


 

 




 









 



















 





 


 





 




 


 
 



 
 

 


 
 








 






 


 
 
 
 

Still chipping away at this, I've got the MOT now booked for Tuesday afternoon so the pressure is on to get it ready in time! Some friends popped round Wednesday evening to help crack on with the welding in the lower rear arch. 


Which came out surprisingly well considering my mate isn't a welder, we all watched him do the work as usual. 

Meanwhile in exchange I fitted some coach lines on his camper that he's just got back on the road. 

Since then I've filled and primed the area. 


It's not perfect but I'm sure it will be fine once painted, I then spent this afternoon painting the other wing and front valance. 



I'm not pretending it's perfect but I'm happy with it! 
Just that lower quarter part and sill to paint, stray some Dinitrol under the arches and stone chip the bottom of the sill and front valance lip, a good polish and then it's ready!