andy18s

Surprised at how bright it was this morning - light filtering round the blinds even at 6.30.
I'm sure it was pitchy-black last week at the same time.

Spring's a-springing, it seems.

Pipes took some getting out. Luckily I made two tools for the assistance of the extraction process. First was made from 3mm side guard lamp bracket, which bent immediately. The second was made from an 8mm thick shift rod out of a truck gearbox. That one didn’t mess about.

 
the seals were extracted by running an m10 bolt into it and using the same extraction tool to remove. 

This morning my mrs told me to sound the alarm and get us to the hospital.
An hour’s brisk driving in the Disco of Doom and amazingly we had no FTP’s and no major traffic and found ourselves at Hastings Conquest in good time.
Even more amazingly, my partner wasted no time in bringing child number two into the world.

I got to name our son (Jensen), and my mrs has settled on Amélie for our daughter.
I’m absolutely over the moon, couldn’t be more proud of my partner and I’m incredibly grateful for the excellent care once again by the maternity team here in Hastings.
All being well then they’ll both be home tomorrow!

Another day spent in the garage but I am making good progress.
I started by coating the exposed areas along the nearside front and rear arches and along the sill.



I gave the spare wheel well and the fuel tank a lick of paint where surface corrosion had taken hold.

The windscreen posts looked nasty but turns out there was nothing to worry about.
Offside first, I scraped off the plebs to find completely solid metal underneath.

I lifted the windscreen seal with the plastic mixer that comes with P38 Isopon, which is ironic as the repair didn't need any filler.

I will sort out the cosmetics once the paint has fully dried.

Exactly the same situation on the other side.



I prepared and sprayed the black bulkhead panel that will soon be almost completely concealed by the battery.

Before removing the cam cover, I marked up the ignition leads. It took 30 seconds and could prevent an embarrassing situation come reassembly.
 
The cam and valve-gear look very clean.

Nothing to see here, certainly no sludge.

I degreased the cam cover with paraffin.

And painted the rusty bits with a high temp black gloss paint. Shame most of the cam cover will be covered up by the air filter housing.

Speaking of which, the air filter housing lid looks awful with this repair.

So I ripped it off. The repair patch was hiding a nasty hole.

Does anyone have one of these?


I put the paint and spray cans down and spent a bit of time tidying up the engine bay, specifically the inner wings and slam panel. The engine bay is remarkably free from rust. The more I look at this car, the more I believe that the mileage is genuine.

Take a look at the front wing to slam panel seams, they are factory fresh. I don't think this car has even been involved in a significant accident. 


I've ordered more aerosol blue paint and a king size bottle of T-Cut. You know what's coming next.
More next week.
 
 

https://autobritannia.net/2023/10/24/the-case-for-the-defence-mg-maestro-2-0efi-the-oft-forgotten-rough-diamond/
 
Keep plugging. Made me really want one this article.

I had another go at removing the fan clutch. I've wrapped an old fan belt around the pulley, secured it with cable ties, squashed it in a vice to stop it from turning and with three of the four bolts that secure the pulley removed (one is enough to keep the pulley in place) I can comfortably get an adjustable spanner on the lock nut.

I'm still not sure which way to turn to get the lock nut off but by applying plenty of force on the spanner, the fan belt snaps before the nut shifts. 

@lisbon_road - can please have your locking tool?
I have made progress with the rust treatment. 
I brushed down remaining dust and  debris from the underside and coated the exposed metal on the floor pan and the rear suspension components with a Rust-Oleum spray on black wax.


It has sealed the sill seams very nicely.

I've coated exposed metal in the offside rear arch.

I used filler to make good the end of the offside sill. Rust plebs on the rear arch were probably caused by scratches (impact damage, which is partially visible towards the rear of the arch) as the inner side of the arch is solid. 

I pained the offside sill.

I painted the exposed metal in the offside front arch.

I painted the underside of the front and rear offside doors.


I painted a section of the offside upper side of the chassis leg, where water has  been pooling and caused surface corrosion.

And finally I gave the battery tray a lick of paint too.

The paint match looks horrendous in the photos. It's not perfect but it looks better in real life than in the photos because I had a massive spot lamp shining on the areas that I photographed and iPhone cameras are not the best. For some reason, my phone's camera has made the original paint look very pale, which it isn't. 
Also, bear in mind that the new paint is shiny and the original paint is flat. I expect the paints will match better once I have cut and polished the original paint.
The arch liners will conceal most of the exposed metal so I am not fussed about the patchy finish.
The plan is to over spray all painted repairs above sill level with the aerosol can that I know is a good paint match.
I am confident that the Sierra will look ok once it's finished. Ideally, it would need a complete respray but that is not going to happen under my watch.

Shows what I know then.
The mrs thought her water broke this morning, so we scarpered up the hospital as she wanted them to check if the baby was indeed on the way. It was a false alarm, so we ambled back home and picked up child number one from my Dad on the way.
Whilst sitting in the Disco of Doom outside my house, having a breather and thinking what the fuck gathering my thoughts before returning to work, my phone rang.
'Thank you for your time yesterday, I'm phoning to say congratulations'
Not what I expected at all, but I'm happy to be proved wrong once again.
Thank you all for the kind words and advice thus far, it's greatly appreciated despite me being a despondent wanker 😂

This is lovely

Tim buying cakes

RICH IS THE NEMESIS!!
GET HIM!!
😅

Now that my big birthday celebrations are behind me, I can focus on fixing up the Sierra.
The plan was to pressure wash the underside and arches before doing any remedial work to the bodywork. I started by removing the battery and covering up the complicated* electronics and the carburettor. 

I put the wheels back on, dropped and pushed the car out onto the driveway. Once there, I jacked it up again and took the wheels off.

All five wheels and the arch mouldings were also due a good scrub.

An hour later, the underside was clean. Surprisingly little crud came off, the underside was cleaner than I expected and much cleaner compared with all the other cars that I treated to the same process in the past.

Bits of flaky paint came off but what is left now is not just solid but also clean.


The plastics responded well to the pressure cleaning and a fair bit of the blue overspray also came off in the process. The road wheels will need a lick of paint, however the spare looks great. It's also fitted with an unused Good Year tyre.

I let the underside dry for a while before I put the wheels back on again. I pushed the car back into the garage, where I jacked it up AGAIN and took the wheels off AGAIN! 

I didn't have time for a proper inspection but first impressions are good, everything looks a lot cleaner.


Time permitting, I might start on the bodywork repairs tomorrow.
In other news, I wrote to the previous registered owner over a week ago and had nothing back. Never mind.
I received a period Sierra badge from @Six-cylinder and a set of four coasters from @Pat Earrings. Thank you both.

More soon.

Its not completely BASE as the auto box would have been an extra £1045.
Outwith the EU you could get them without a passenger air bag so there was a big open storage compartment on the dash top.

On the ramp… following a reminder that the handbrake is on the front on these… 

Its a PASS!
Usual advisory for King pin lift…

Penultimate compulsory MoT completed! 

Only 737 miles between MoTs! The lowest since the online records began and only just over half the mileage of the previous couple of years. I think this is a pointer that I need to use it more! 

Recently acquired TDM850.
Nice feeling bike. Excited to get out on it. Sounds lovely with the aftermarket exhaust.

Looking at the IPhone in the For Sale section and it's showing over 9k unread emails...I couldn't have that showing all the time.

These are on a uk fbook group at £15 each.

Fun fact:the RS200 in  the film is actually a kitcar from RS Automotive...

These are on a uk fbook group at £15 each.

Fun fact:the RS200 in  the film is actually a kitcar from RS Automotive...

These are on a uk fbook group at £15 each.

Fun fact:the RS200 in  the film is actually a kitcar from RS Automotive...

These are on a uk fbook group at £15 each.

These are on a uk fbook group at £15 each.

Fun fact:the RS200 in  the film is actually a kitcar from RS Automotive...

Got a somewhat monochromatic delivery from Modelmatic while I was away

The RS200 was the one I really wanted but the Cuda is pretty cool too. The others I'm not fussed about so if anyone @Spottedlaurel wants them, hit me up before they go on eBay tomorrow 

Plenty of trucks, but not a lot we haven't seen before.

It's mostly the usual Corgi and Lesney suspects, in varying stages of bashed-up-ness.
I gotta run, sadly - but more pics and full write-up later!
But just to whet the old appetite...

Siku MAN low-loader was in not too bad shape, barring some missing wingmirrors (and the original load, which was a tractor shovel)

A choice of two Corgi Major Ford H-Series, in either tired original condition with Carrimore trailer, or in hand-painted tractor unit only.

Modern MAN tractor units - the one with the Linde logo (and very thick paint on the lower half) is by Schuco; the clearly-related one on the left seemed to have no manufacturer mark on the base.

Hongwell Mercedes breakdown van in not bad shape, but as such it also attracted the attentions of the Nemesis - and was soon snaffled.

Following on from the Lone Star excitement earlier in the week, here's a later non-prototypical model articulated tanker wearing Esso colours.
This one was also Nemesis'd (though he did kindly ask if I wanted it, first)

A closer look at the repainted H-Type - not a very neat job, but quite a pleasing colour scheme. Unusually, the roof-mounted horns were still in situ.

Not a great deal up top, in fairness - some unboxed Brumm, Rio and MoY classics, a fairly chipped EFE decker and some Bburago 1/18s, plus some more tinplate stuff and Mamod accessories.
The black round things in the Quality Street tub are rubber bullets, or baton rounds as they were known - probably police issue.
You get a different class of Norn Iron tourist souvenir on the Tat Stall...