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blackboilersuit

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  1. This is very sound advice indeed. I've got a 2006 accord estate same spec as that one but wouldn't recommend paying 2k for one. Things to know about them.... They are very practical and competent but pretty soulless and boring once the novelty of heated leather, sat-nav and air con have worn off. Check for rot, and then go and check for rot again. Honda's of this age like to rot out underneath while the paint remains immaculate up top. Just ask @Supernautwho bought a similarly aged Civic, almost out of MOT but clean MOT history. Had to be scrapped as the rear subframe mounts were just hopes and dreams. Some are bean tins before this age some are older and mint underneath so don't buy unless you've seen the underside. Thankfully mine seems to be a good one. This age of accord has a weak clutch. If you give it full shoe in 6th gear a lot accelerating quickly to overtake from say 60mph then the clutch will fry. The engine has loads of torque from 1200rpm and it feels great using it like this but the clutch can't cope. I bought mine at super low mileage 50k and by 60k had roasted the clutch by enjoying all that torque. I've now done 4k more by just driving like grandma wearing carpet slippers and using the gears a lot more to keep the revs higher. But press the loud pedal and it just slips like crazy. Prices I got for doing the clutch were £760 without flywheel and £1350 with so I'll soldier on as is for now until it'll not move under its own steam any more. If you didn't have a car then mibbies that accord could be an option because nothing is cheap at the moment but given that you already have the Volvo then I definitely wouldn't.
  2. (Intentionally) quiet year for me.... Out#1 The tired old Saab 9-5 of much boost. Really glad to have enjoyed this for a while, it was a fun old bus to pilot. Equally glad to not be throwing money and time at it trying to be getting it through another MOT. Moved on to @davehedgehog31of this parish and since then it's been passed around like a scud book in a boarding school. Out#2 Sold my bike trailer, seen here moving my mates old Tenere with my old Astra. Not a vehicle I know but a significant departure. Another mate needed a trailer so I pounced on the opportunity to move this on having realised that it was just a f**king enabler! Almost everything I'd dragged home with it was an impulse purchase I would later go on to regret. Having to organise a courier/van hire/trailer borrowing will hopefully be the equivalent of a cooling off period to save me from myself in future! Non Movers The derv Accord estate has now clocked up 11k miles in my year of ownership even though I was on furlough for over 3 months at the start of the year! Very good at being AN car even though it now has a weak clutch (common issue on these). Clutch issue has successfully been driven around for the last 1500-2000 miles so it's likely to stay on the fleet for a good long time yet. Took me a long time to realise that when you're doing 10k miles a year of gridlocked, pot holed commuting you'll never love the car you do it in. If you don't hate the car after all those mundane commuting miles then it's a great car! Working aircon, heated leather, cruise control, DAB and acceptable MPG's all make this a great daily. Sonic the Toledo continues to be the perfect second car. No tax/MOT and only £100 a year to insure. After last winters carb rebuild and radiator re-core it's now 100% reliable and dependable. Can leave it sitting for 4-6 weeks and still stroll down to the lockup confident that it'll start first turn of the key. Plan for 2022 is just to chip away at some of the small cosmetic jobs and try to use it a little more frequently. Motorbikes (All non movers) No photo's sorry! 1967 BSA A50 - Sat unused this last year. This was an impulse buy 4 years ago and I've hardly used it since I got it for a whole variety of reasons. I will have reason to use it in 2022 though so it'll be dragged out from storage fairly soon. In 2022 I'll either bond with it or decide to sell it. 1976 Suzuki TS250 - Got it registered and on the road during various stages of lockdown during 20/21 and used it for a few classic/vintage runs during summer of 2021. I absolutely love this bike and it's a 100% keeper. 1983 GPz1100 - Started the rebuild on this in November 2020 and it's still ongoing! Intend to finish this up over the next couple of months after not touching it for 6-9 months because of other work/life priorities. Was going to sell but have decided to put this in the "hibernation shed" when I drag the BSA out. It may well still be a long term fleet member but I don't really have a use for it in 2022. 2-3 years to go until it's tax/MOT exempt so in no hurry to get rid. 1998 ZZR1100 - MOT'd in March and it's not moved since! I use this primarily for continental touring but work/Covid/Brexit stopped all that so had no need to use it in 2021. Carbs could do with going through an ultrasonic cleaner now but other than that it's good to go. Will ultimately get replaced by something fuel injected and more comfortable like a Triumph Tiger but no plans to change it in 2022. 2014 CRF250L - Bought in Feb 2020 to go trail riding in Spain that summer but Covid messed all those plans up. It was MOT'd and used a bit in 2021 though. Having a bike with modern fuel injection that'll just start first press of the button after sitting untouched for 4 months is a novelty that'll never wear off I think. It's a great wee thing that's always ready and never needy unlike every other bike I own! Not sure about this ones future though. If it's not going abroad in 2022 then I might just sell it on to get most of my money back out of it now and then buy a new CRF300L if/when another Spain trip is on the cards. It would certainly free up some very useful storage space in the short term so I'll see how I feel in the summer. IN F**k all! New years resolution 2021 of buying nothing for a full year has been achieved. I peaked at 3 cars and 9 bikes in recent years and to be honest, being surrounded by broken stuff all the time just made me stressed and unhappy, getting little enjoyment from all things motoring. I resolved to try and stop ploughing time and money into vehicles I don't have a real use for or that realistically don't have a long time left on the fleet. Thus far it's working and my tinkering mojo is coming back. Happy 2022 everyone......
  3. I'm working Mon-Fri this coming week so Hogmany will be the last chance for drinking heavily while in charge of an ebay account.............
  4. The headlight glass is the same as the Allegro and early Capri's amongst others. The problem is the mounting bowls/clamp etc are unique to the Toledo and 1300 Dolomite and finding a good used set of them is difficult going on impossible. Mine might be salvageable but I'm putting off looking at them again until I've welded some actual metal into the front panel to make it worthwhile having headlight adjusters! Once I get to that stage I'll be sure to give you a shout if I can make do with just new lamp units. The current rascal units are adjusted down enough to not risk dazzling oncoming traffic so I'm going to live with the current setup for now while I try to work through the "still to do" list this coming spring/summer.
  5. Very long time without an update, my bad! Not a lot of tinkering has gone on at boilersuit towers for many months as work has been really busy in the second half of the year and I've been focusing on long overdue work on the house and garden when I wasn't working. A month ago though I noticed some uneven tyre wear on the Accord and investigation showed an upper control arm ball joint had a bit of wear. Arm was pulled out with greater ease that first inspection suggested would be the case. Then the ball joint was removed with the assistance of fire and an air hammer. New giant g-clamp style ball joint tool was procured from eBay. A snip at £50. Despite the kit coming with a "comprehensive" set of sleeves to suit "most applications" a 3/4 whitworth socket still had to be added to the mix to press in the replacement joint. To finish the repair a scrappy special wheel and tyre combo was added. Rim was in mint condition and the rattle can repaint is a perfect* colour match for the rest of the wheels. It's a few days away from 1 year since I bought the Accord and thus far I've racked up 11k miles in it. It's now got a weak clutch that slips if you boot it from low revs in a tall gear (like I used to do all the time - doh!). Apparently a very common problem with this model. Changing driving style to drive with a few more revs and not touch 6th gear below 80 means it still works ok and returns 42mpg. 1500 miles like that with no further deterioration so we'll see how long it lasts. Clutch is a mare of a job and would be £750 without flywheel and £1350 with at a local garage so hopefully manage to keep going as is for a bit. It's a great do everything car though so I'd still be tempted to fix it if it came to the crunch. Sonic the Toledo has been used a fair few times during the year and remained 100% reliable after getting some love through last winter. Off the road for the winter now to keep it away from the salt unless some emergency transport is required. Still gets started every 4-6 weeks just to warm through and charge the battery. Always fires straight up as if it was only used the day before. I do love having a second car that just works when you want it to. That's a bit of a novelty for sure!
  6. The gas valve was a necessity on my Clarke. The original Clarke torch has a gas valve built into the trigger in the handle. My euro torch (and all euro torches AFAIK) only has a microswitch in the handle as they are meant for machines with a solenoid in the unit itself. If I hadn't fitted the solenoid then the gas would have been flowing out the tip all the time as soon as the bottle was opened. It's worth persevering with the conversion as it really does make a difference. Even just the extra torch length and the ball joint on the handle make it so much nicer to work with. Ultimately though it's just a tool for fixing cars and with the price of useable old motors with a ticket feeling like it's through the roof right now £430 for a nice new R-Tech machine with a good warranty is perhaps easier to justify than it was a couple of years ago.
  7. The euro socket I used for the conversion had a brass feed tube that clamped into the original liner holder and had to be cut to length so that once fitted it was as close to the feed rollers as possible without touching. Here's a pic of mine with the end of the tube circled. I'm guessing the gap between roller and tube on yours is at least part of your problem. Fitting the socket to the sloping front panel was a faff but in the end I just packed out around the bolt holes with penny washers and live with the unsightly gap between socket and panel. Wiring in the gas solenoid was a faff too because these machines are built down to a budget and don't have a conventional welding contactor. IIRC the welding power uses a switched neutral through an unfeasibly small relay on the wire speed PCB to switch power to the primary side of the transformer. I think I piggy backed that and a permanent live from the back of the on/off switch to power the (240v) solenoid. Happy to take mine apart and check connections if needed just let me know.
  8. So the Saab made a return to the fleet a few weeks ago after being out on loan to @captain_70s for the last six months. First order of play was to address the random refusal to start issue as documented in the captains thread. Code reader wasn't giving any clues... But the culprit seemed pretty obvious. Symptoms were sometimes not cranking in the start position, sometimes cranking but not starting and one time cranking, not starting but then bump started as soon as the clutch was lifted. Everything pointed to a faulty ignition switch. Haynes rate getting to the ignition switch as a 3 out of 5 spanner task on the difficulty scale. Can't be that hard can it? Yes it can! Getting the gear change mechanisim disconnected was a real swine as the connection is inside the big anti theft gearchange unit that holds the ignition switch. Eventually swearing and determination paid off and the unit was removed. New* switch was obtained from ebay. And was transplanted into the base of the unit. Back in one piece and Saab goes vroom once more. Might be a heap but it's still a very fast boosted heap. Other minor repairs included a broken key being invisibly* mended with lockwire and araldite. A broken number plate was also replaced as my driving is bad enough in this car so I don't need anything else to draw the attention of the law! A rattle from the back turned out to be a broken exhaust hanger so that got a little attention from the welder. Two issues remained. An airbag fault caused by something in the passenger seat and a fault with the Xenon headlight levelling system. I checked all the obvious things, connections etc in both but to progress these issues really needs the car to be scanned with Tech2 to pinpoint why it's unhappy. At that I did the sensible thing and sold the car! A friend was in need of a cheap estate with a bit of MOT and is a serial Saab fondler so knows the score with all the faults and foibles. I'd always planned to move the Saab on this year as part of a 2021 fleet rationalisation. With the year almost 50% gone I can now say that the fleet reduction plan to sell one car and one bike this year remains on plan. This will probably end badly with a drunken ebay purchase in December but for now I'll celebrate the success......
  9. You sure can. Just search ebay for "silicone elbow" to see what's available. Large variety of diameters and different degrees of bend. You can also get aluminium joiners as straights and bends which make replicating more complex stock hoses possible. I bought these ones simply because it was a big UK based supplier with massive feedback selling branded parts. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/45-90-Degree-Silicone-Hose-Bend-Pipe-Elbow-Air-Water-Boost-Intercooler-Pipes/401823561758?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item5d8e8cf81e:g:SO0AAOSwfmFeKsKt&amdata=enc%3AAQAFAAACcBaobrjLl8XobRIiIML1V4Imu%2Fn%2BzU5L90Z278x5ickkTboA95HSvGa1O5UmCCGJLqaj4cwQYPnk2YPtj1vnojEGf%2BPF9VK4ylLbt7jnRbupsIIbVIkVD9RfXWZ3RTCQWMOdMzHifmihUGC0hr7I4BNkDiHkeuKlRaI9wZwrakPZDRDU%2BIHg2ZSl8j5X3R8pljDKYJVDD0kBCTOe3GuaZf4cGTL4uKrsqcogpON%2BNkq8R%2F6uZdH5OO%2FNeiEGkIVOnO%2B5c8CYwKGV9X%2FTQvmPbWG2AOttz%2Fj9ED5boGhFmBhl8eo4l3EAblcS3ALAO7f5i5BVCt1%2B1g55pAL6%2FyxdCoRQ4jkVoVAZ0EWEC9%2ByJRuWB%2F5ma%2FaIT%2Fe6IVb7azQaBrJvMPGUFQCOe4gfq966aZgyCywn0gplTTM4PLp07xdEuLsdzCwRNKTwbrXocgk0PVPGK3oX71pIvT5Vanz25tl7nm%2FDYvaJQF7Fdtyh5mTVJuIrkQUOQ4Wvu%2FvkVk0YHZeWMZPMGDmO%2BzPZaQ6JNnnkM8Nr7MxduQSYBAjCtYZgyYRTPLvkUKSoizL%2F7U7gFDzsPJsoVr25FczU8mGPVg%2BlEDG9dLp%2Bul6dZdeLdVRYBmWw%2FjUzMeFHAEqLgI6ne2WQCfz4cC3N8c%2BfxSIGR7blBHDlgI290HGa1CH%2Bf%2FtXJZN9u69oyVMrF%2F97fgZ%2B5XzfCEBYnrsvQjLP3BQp90Kv5ObcXg6IhtpHOkP2g%2B5HWnfGJlMW%2B6jEI01IxgIrlFl7g%2ByQDdEFEQrwCIfSfPE8k05DaAqceLasIlXk1tMyJ6HE6yqrSOHo4FGrE1i%2FAw%3D%3D|cksum%3A401823561758f44796b0fbb74734981bd2faac1ed7ee|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A2334524
  10. Bit more Toledo tinkering over the last few days. First up I cashed in a ton of nectar points to get a DA polisher from Argos for a net cost of £0.00. I then set to with a bottle of metallic t-cut chosen because I'd had it lying around for over a decade so it too cost £0.00. Net result was I ended up looling like a smurf... But the bits of the car with good paint looked jolly good indeed. These pics were taken after giving it a coat of MER polish post t-cut. Again the polish was chosen because it'd been lying around forever. Next up was replacing the perished heater hoses. The two 90 deg elbows were replaced with silicone elbows and the two longer shaped hoses were just replaced with good quality coolant/fuel hose. Hopefully they'll last longer than the repo ones that were on the car and falling to bits. The install of the reversing light last year had been somewhat rushed so next I tidied up the wiring and fitted a nice looking lucas copy switch and nameplate both courtesy of ebay. For the time being they're just stuck onto the plate that holds the USB charger for the dash cam that used to be in the car. I also wired in a 12v buzzer so I don't drive off down the road with it switched on. After that I spent a couple of hours driving around, pulling plugs to check colour and adjusting the carb. It's not perfect yet but it's good enough for now. Ever so slightly on the lean side up top but the engine would like to be leaned out ever so slightly at idle. I replaced the jet when I rebuilt the carb so I think the next port of call will be to take a look at the needle. Just me being a bit picky though, for now it runs and drives just fine without pinking or running hot so no sense of urgency.
  11. Can you remove the drive belt for the power steering pump and continue with manual steering for the time being? @captain_70s 740 ran like that for some time last year. Steering was a bit heavy but not as awful as you'd imagine. It was only one vee belt that had to be removed on that one IIRC but not sure if your car would be the same.
  12. Bit more Toledo love. Had to wait a while on them being made but these beauties arrived in the post. New front engine mounts. One of the ones in the car was in tatters making the engine sag too low and bounce around too much at idle. There are only 2 choices for replacements. Cheap repo parts that are the wrong hardness of rubber and will be toast inside a year or these beauties that are the correct shore hardness of poly mated to stainless backing plates. £80 a pair but worth every penny. A pair of jacks were deployed and they were replaced one at a time. The totally foobar one came out in two pieces. The other was still in one piece but starting to go bad. Original metalastik so a fair old age. Made a massive difference and worth every penny. With the engine now sitting firm again I could then replace the fan belt. The one on the car was 35mm shorter than standard and I think may have been fitted to stop the alternator hitting the battery with the engine bouncing around on worn mounts. Downside of this shorter belt was you couldn't get #1 spark plug out with the belt on. Correct belt fitted and the alternator still clears the battery and all the plugs can come out. Which is handy because I wanted to pull them to make setting the valve clearances easier. Check out how clean this valve gear is..... Clearances were all still pretty much spot on so to celebrate I painted the rocker cover. Before sticking it back on with a new gasket and giving it a quick run up to temp to charge the battery. Next up is to replace the engine ground strap as the original is too short for the non-standard battery, do an oil and filter change and then some test runs and plug checking to get the freshly rebuilt carb set up. After that it's coolant flushing and heater hose replacement but that can wait until we get some better weather again.
  13. The Toledo still had sealed beam headlights and one of them blew on dip not long after I got the car. So what to do? Dolomite 1300 headlights are a straight swap and have a regular H4 bulb fitment. Downside is they are only available from Rimmers as a complete assembly with the back shell and cost £118 each! While not adverse to spending that much on car parts I didn't want to just yet as the headlamp mounting panels are 50% metal and 50% bran flakes and hope. I will address this in time but wanted a cost effective interim solution. Internet wisdom suggests Bedford Rascal headlights can be made to fit so I rolled the dice and spent £34 on a pair delivered to my door. They are 10mm higher and wider than stock so the retaining rings and adjusters don't fit. They do fit perfectly straight into the bowls though and can be held in with a mixture of old and new hardware that still allows for a degree of adjustment for alignment. The downside is that the front of the lens sits 30mm further back in the car than before so the bowl needs to be packed out from it's mounting panel on spacers. It does look half devent (from a distance) though. While it was apart I rubbed down the grills and sprayed them with some generic silver wheel paint and polished the bumper. Next up was to fabricate a wee bracket to hold some relays ....and wire the hi/low through them to take the strain off the headlight switch. And there you go, nothing award winning and it's still a 30ft car but it's well enough done to last a long while and has functioning lights with replaceable bulbs. I even used lucas bullet connectors to tie into the existing wiring so no original parts have been hacked!
  14. Not as much as yours does though! If you want to have a bitch about other people, please do it elsewhere.
  15. Bit of Toledo tinkering again... Started with a quick job. Chuck on a new starter solenoid and run the engine for a bit to charge the battery. So far so good, solenoid changed and started just fine and once warmed up I thought I'd adjust the tickover slightly........ Tickover screw shrared straight off, stuck fast in the housing. Oh well, carb off to clean and drain before daring to heat up with a blowtorch! It was certainly in need of a clean. All hail the gods of mapp gas. Getting this out took a LOT more heat than I was expecting, it's obviously been stuck for quite some time. Next up was this lot. Jet adjuster nut seized onto the jet bush and the jet bush retainer seized into the body. Again mapp gas came to the rescue. Every linkage was then stripped and every part cleaned carefully on a wire wheel. The wire wheel was then swapped out for a polishing mop to add a little bling. The carb was then reassembled with everything suitably lubed to prevent future problems. Waiting on a few small parts to arrive from Burlens before it goes back on the car. I had intended to do this later in the year as it's always ran a little lumpy and was in need of a tune. Although the broken screw was a pain it's always good to get another job ticked off the list.
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