Reg Nutsack's TOP TEN 2-LITRE BEATERS - NEW BEATER CHIN SCRATCHING

[Dave_Q]

Top action there bollox, can I ask what sort of MIG welding set up you use?

 

Am impressed by the kwalitee of your work with the hot stick, but maybe that's down to practise.

 

I use a 150amp clarke job with argon mix gas and it's pigeon shit central.

[Lankytim]

Mr B is so awesome he doesn't use a welder, he uses lasers from his eyes.

[overrun]

it looks like you have a legendary GTLE model as such it will have 16" multi spoke Enkei alloys, full leather seats with silver piping and a Momo gear knobavailable as Kuro black, Flame red, Starburst silver or Nordic(poofy) blue there was also the GTSE for 1998 which was only painted "ChromaFlair" Mystic green and the leather had green piping and Azev wheels std GT's had half leather see http://www.npoc.co.uk/forum/forums.html for more info etc

Still better than 'Bender Pink'...

 

Also, NPOC are wankers. What's the latest on the Skymera, has Kev Fairburn still got it?

[cms206]

I reckon these are a bloody good looking thing and you're my shite hero. RESTECP.

[matto]

Still better than 'Bender Pink'...

 

Also, NPOC are wankers. What's the latest on the Skymera, has Kev Fairburn still got it?

 

+1 to the NPOC thing, it has got to be the wierdest car owners forum in existance.

 

I sold this awesome beast to Mr_Bo11, I must stress that I wasn't in any way responsible for any (attempted) repairs, I simply bought, used it occasionally for a couple of months and then simply left it neglected on my driveway for the next 5 months of ownership.  TBH I don't think it could've gone to a better owner, it looks like it's going to get well used.  It would've been off to the scrappy with it had it not been rescued, CarTakeBack offered £155 for it!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Got another wheel bearing for this now and a very bodgy idea for nudging the lambda value over the line. Sunday is gonna be a full on garage blitz!!!

[dollywobbler]

Sunday is Bodge Shit Day! Good luck. We're counting on you.

[Pillock]

Is the Chromaflair paint that keeps getting mentioned the purple/green flip job?

 

Whoever thought that up needs a medal, since mixing green and purple makes lovely lovely brown in the right light.

[DeeJay]

Ratdats Tour De France, now a promise of further garage goodness from Mr B.

All is well.

(Don't be going on the piss Saturday night and making excuses on Sunday).

Dave.

[twosmoke300]

With your emissions make sure there is no slight exhaust leaks. That will make it read lean. You can confirm this by seeing if the reading drops if you restrict the exhaust flow with a damp cloth over the end while testing.

[matto]

I had an MOT emissions problem on a Celica I used to own.  This webpage helped me understand it enormously http://www.petercoopercarrepairs.co.uk/new_page_3.htm it took this, some exhaust putty, a bottle of redex and a sneaky resistor/capacitor combo soldered into the wiring of the post-cat sensor to turn off the cel light and all was good for 12k miles and two more MOTs before I px'ed it for a Delica

[320touring]

Whatever happened to the Toledo?my first car was a 1.8 version, and it was ace!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Been on with this today, getting its ass SORTED

 

I had planned to tackle all the jobs on it but ended up staying in bed all morning like a twat. That meant I only got up the garage about 1 pm. huh!!!

 

 

Check out those two beaters.

 

 

Todays key job was doing the wheel bearings. Normally I hate doing wheel bearings as I have to press them in with a vice which is always a bit dodgy. I once bought a brand new vice from Machine Mart, brought it home, bolted it to my workbench, and attempted to use it to press a wheel bearing in. Unfortunately I was applying such a force with the jaws wide open that the beding moment was just too much and I snapped the muthafuka clean in half. Obv I took it back to machine mart at once who replaced it as it looked exactly like a brand new vice that had inexplicably snapped in half but I didnt use it for any more wheelbearing attempts. Anyway it all came to bits surprisingly easily, I looked at the 'multi link suspension' and thought it had no chance of coming apart without a massive war but it was fine.

 

 

Heres the hub in a vice!!! Had to smash the middle out of the old bearing, chop the inner races off the drive flange, and press out the outer race from the hub casting.

 

 

Take a look at THAT!!! My garage mate has been spending £200 on this sweet-ass hydraulic press which can push a wheelbearing out in its sleep without any swearing or stress. Lovely. I had the bearings swapped in next to no time man and with negligible risk of knackering them.

 

 

Saying that it still took me about 6 hours to do both sides but that did invlove a lot of huffing and puffing and messing about looking for lost tools etc. Also whi[ed the headlights out and welded a couple of studs on the front panel to fix the wobbly headlights. That worked 90%, but I need acouple of clips from Nissan to secure em properly, will sort that this week. Just the floor hole to weld up and this baby is gonna be on the road!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Got this thing back in for a ticket tomorrow. Just had to weld up the rot in the floor! What rot?

 

 

Ah, that rot. Got the trim out:

 

 

Not too terrible to be fair. Chopped it out:

 

 

Luckily the inner sill was fine, just the edge of the floor panel had gone where its spotted to the inner sill. Made a patch:

 

 

zapped it in (seam welded on the outside!!!) & seam sealed it:

 

 

 

 

Completely forgot to linish the welds for some reason but its no great shakes.

 

As for the emissions, the problem is the air fuel ratio is just a tiny bit on the weak side at high idle, but not enough to get a warning light on the dash (presumably the lambda sensor thinks its OK). CO and HC are fine which I think tells me the cat is doing its stuff OK and the combustion is as 'complete' as you could expect i.e. no fouled plugs or gummed up injectors etc. So I think this problem might be caused by the snazzy aftermarket exhaust manifold, which if its more free-flowing than the standard effort, will increase the airflow a little away from what the engine's base map was established with. To counter the free flowing effect of the manifold I lashed a bit of gaffer tape on the air filter!!!!

 

 

No idea if this will work but it can't do any harm, obv if it passes I will rip it straight off again after the MOT test. I have a feeling that if the car was given a proper blast up the A500 it would be fine but I'm not insured to do that anf the MOT shop have no trade plates so they don't want to do it either. Anyway I dumped it at the MOT shop on Sunday night and they'll have a look at it tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!!!

[twosmoke300]

Are you sure the exhaust isn't blowing at all ?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It worked!!! Just been notified of my MOT pass. Woo-hoo!!!!

[Ratdat]

Top tat fettlin' by M. Ballsack esq. 

[greengartside]

Great work Balls! The Nissham lives to fight another motorway!

[retrogeezer]

thought I was 2 cars behind you in Crewe today but turns out there is another Primera GT on the road.

[beko1987]

Excellent!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I ought to get this on the road now but i think I'll do a couple of cosmetic bits on it first. Unless someone wants to take the Toledo off me? About 5 months ticket and tax end july. Various annoying electrical gripes but nowt that stops me driving it daily, had been totally reliable to its credit. £209.50 NO OFFAZ WHATSOEVA NO DELIVERY NO SWAPZ NO ADDED SUGAR NO ADMITTANCE TO UNDER 18S

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I had a bad day yesterday. After a shite day at work I started pissing blood again so had to go back up the hospital for some more life-sapping anti biotics (see you later beautiful sunny weekend). On the way home the Seat broke down on the A50. I was bombing along and the engine just died instantaneously without warning. I coasted into a layby but it would not go again. by a MIRACLE it turned out that my RAC cover was still valid (due to the former Ms_nutz forgetting to send off some forms to do with our bank account!!!) so I got towed back to base. The RAC man put a light on the plug leads and one of the injectors. Its got a nice regular spark but the injectors were not pulsing. I have a feeling its a crank sensor fault or something like that. Anyway I can't be arsed to spend ages investigating it, this car has too many electrical gripes which I just don't have the will power to get involved with.

 

 

So, before I launch this over the bridge, does anyone:

 

• Want to buy it for £100
• Want to come and pillage it for parts? It has a nice set of wheels with decent tyres and a very smart half-leather interior which I think would bolt straight in a Mk2 or 3 golf. The 2.0 8v engine is an absolute cracker and the gerabox is perfect. You could come over and spend a day stripping whatever you like off it and I will get rid of the remains.

Its a shame as this car is amazingly straight and does drive very well indeed, or at least it did. Its rust free and dead smart looking. Its quick, quiet and economical. But I just cant be arsed with sorting out its silly electrical issues, and this is the last straw as i am already overloaded with shite. PM me!

[cort16]

What a pisser but I suppose it's done okay given it's low purchase price. You seem to be in that familiar predicament of having loads of cars none of which are road worthy.

[320touring]

What a pisser but I suppose it's done okay given it's low purchase price. You seem to be in that familiar predicament of having loads of cars none of which are road worthy.

 

I'm in that club too- its great*

 

especially as i'd fancied that toledo..

 

bugger

[crapcarcollector]

Junkmans, family pregnancy emergency Vectra replacement?

 

Or too far?

 

 

Sent from my Nokia 3310 using the force.

[Pillock]

What engine code is it? Some of the 2.0 8vs from vagland are quite attractive to pineapplists since they're pretty uncomplicated and sit in the back of vans happily. I got shot of my Mk3 Golf essentially as a rusty wrapper around a good engine.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The Seat has already found a new home with a VW-loving shiter!!! Result

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Well the Seat died on Friday and sadly I don't have the will to sort it, (i.e. to go through a period of trying to fix an intermittent fault andf never knowing if I'm gonna get to work ot not). So once I had got my shiz together on Saturday after a sweaty intermittent 4-hr sleep overnight, I swapped the insurance onto the Primera (£116 extra!!! ouch) and got the train up to Nantwich where my workshop is. I had planned to sort a few of the blebs and get something done about the scruffy wheels before putting this on the road but now 'needs must'. So I spent a few hot sunny hours putting another coat of red oxide and underseal on the welded bits:

 

 

and drove it back down to Uttoxeter where I now live.

 

 

It certainly drove nice enough, but I must say on first impressions it didnt feel like 150bhp's worth. It was not slow but I didnt find it to be realistically any quicker than say the Rover 220. I am not one for caning engines to the max and this certainly seems to need more thrashing than what I am used to, so maybe I just need to get used to it. I found that in the 5-7000rpm thrash zone it defo felt like it was being held back a little - something was not right as i could feel a sort of hesitiation as it accelerated (at around 100mph admittedly) although whatever it was was not putting any lights on on the dash. I wondered if it was leaning out a bit cos of that fancy manifold. Anyway whatever it was did not seem to impede using the car normally. Also there is a HORRIBLE tinny rattle off the exhaust, i think thats from the heat shield on the cat so I might try to bodge that with some extra jubilee clips or whatever.

 

 

 

I went up to Ashbourne in it today and it seemed to be behaving a little better so i was a bit more at ease with it. What I found is that it really drives beautifully. The engine is amazingly smooth and co-operative, its quiet and not intrusive but willing at any speed and really sounds lovely, not throaty or whatever, just sounds like a very healthy, nicely built engine with no particular harshness at any speed. I like a nice 2-litre 4-cylinder, it seems a good size engine for a car designed to carry 4 people and a bit of luggage, and this engine is a honey. The driving position is good, the gearshift is very slick (you can pretty much avoid the clutch completely if you are in the mood) and the ride is not at all bone-shaking - I always expect any 'sporty' version of a normal car to have ridiculous rock hard suspension in the name of SPORTINESS. I was appreciating it more and more as i drove it. Amazingly it doesnt feel in the slightest bit baggy despite its 105,000 miles. The suspension is taut and you can take roundabouts pretty damn fast if you want to look like a twit, which I might do, occasionally.

 

 

After dropping off the current Ms_Nadz I drove this back home up the A50 and away from one of the roundabouts I gave it the beans. This time it flipping flew. I blasted it up to somwehere near the redline in each gear and it felt pretty freaking quick (by my standards), at least enough to have me laughing involuntarily like a twat. The speedo over-reads by about 10% which is annoying but it whanged straight past 100mph (indicated) and was pulling like a train when i backed off.

 

So the omens so far are good, and I'm hoping I'll gel with this car a bit more than i did with the Seat. Although its passed the MOT there are a few rust issues which I really ought to sort out, the main one is the O/S inner rear arch beside the chassis leg, its started to go quite badly there and needs attention although the MOT dude couldnt get his toffee hammer through it. Defo ought to sort that if I'm gonna stick a towbar on this, which i would like to do. For the time being I have lashed a load of copper grease on it to stop it getting any worse.

 

 

Also theres no radio and the wiring has been butchered. I have seen a CD player/DAB radio combo for sale in Halfords for half price which is quite appealing so if thats still available when i get paid I might get one of those. PLus theres a few external blebs which could do with tidying up.

 

In summary - great car, I think I'm gonna love it

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

these things have a learning ecu which adapts to your driving style over time

 

my p12 took a couple of months to fully come out of giffer mode

[cort16]

Aldi were selling a CD player with Bluetooth streaming and USB for 35 quid last week. Looked alright for the money.