Six Cylinders Motoring Notes

[hairnet]

must go back

 

[High Jetter]

DS wins there though, lovely rear!

[Crackers]

1 hour ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Good luck with the 404, a car I've come to admire the more I've learnt about them. A nice summary of it here:

This lovely estate I photographed in Dusseldorf back in 2010 is probably my favourite of those I've seen:

Made for an interesting comparison with the DS....

 

Having never seen a 404 in the flesh before, I was expecting it to be a lot smaller in size than a DS but it clearly isn't. 

A pretty car - its proportions hide its size. 

[bobdisk]

Always thought it looked a bit like a Farina Austin A60/Morris Oxford, from a distance. 🤓

[Six-cylinder]

Yesterday I collected our Mercedes 200TE following the replacement of the SLS (self levelling suspension) pipe that had bust and all is well now.

The result is 4 working estate cars on the drive.

[Six-cylinder]

9 hours ago, Crackers said:

Having never seen a 404 in the flesh before, I was expecting it to be a lot smaller in size than a DS but it clearly isn't. 

A pretty car - its proportions hide its size. 

In saloon car form the 404 is 384mm (15.1 inch's) shorter than the DS.

Come the spring I hope they will be out together for full comparison.

[bobdisk]

Can't wait 😻

[hairnet]

no bl chod in that photo ftw

 

[Six-cylinder]

Just now, hairnet said:

no bl chod in that photo ftw

It's winter, they are hiding!

[chaseracer]

12 hours ago, bobdisk said:

Always thought it looked a bit like a Farina Austin A60/Morris Oxford, from a distance. 🤓

Looks like maybe Battista had a Xerox machine and (arguably) a passing acquaintance with business ethics.

Ooh, what's this...?

[Six-cylinder]

21 minutes ago, chaseracer said:

Looks like maybe Battista had a Xerox machine and (arguably) a passing acquaintance with business ethics.

Ooh, what's this...?

It has some similar features but a face only its mother could love it.

[Six-cylinder]

Today with Andrew from the TSSC we set about putting the Saab V4 engine back together. We cleaned lots of things and refitted the pistons, camshaft, cam followers, oil pump, timing gears and front plate. We then fitted the external pully to the balance shaft, which had to be torqued to 36 ft/lbs. This is when I mucked up, I was aware that some of  V4 timing wheels are made of fibre but while cleaning the one for the balance shaft thought it was metal as it was heavy. I used the gear to wedge the balance shaft when Andrew torqued up the bolt for the external pully and chipped a small bit of fibre away.

I called Adrian who I bought the Saab from and part of the deal was a load of spares I have not collected yet. Yes he thinks there are spare timing wheels but he is away this weekend. He says he will look it out next week and bring it over. 

Andrew is going to help me reassemble the Saab engine and then I would like to get it and replacement fuel tank back in the car so it can drive it to under cover storage. I know it is cold with short days but I am thinking if we can raise a possy between Christmas and New Year, pop the engine back in and drive the car at last it would be great. So what what do you think about working off some of that Christmas excess?

[Crackers]

37 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

if we can raise a possy between Christmas and New Year, pop the engine back in and drive the car at last it would be great. So what what do you think about working off some of that Christmas excess?

100% up for this if you don't mind me getting in the way. 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, chaseracer said:

Looks like maybe Battista had a Xerox machine and (arguably) a passing acquaintance with business ethics.

Ooh, what's this...?

Fiat? Rings a bell but am too pissed to answer.

[Saabnut]

Looks like I will be travelling through from France to Sheffield during that week so if I can make it work I will come along.

[chaseracer]

12 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Fiat? Rings a bell but am too pissed to answer.

Yep - 1800.

[chaseracer]

14 hours ago, Crackers said:

100% up for this if you don't mind me getting in the way. 

Same!

[beko1987]

Could be about! More so Wednesday onwards in that week though. 

[Six-cylinder]

It turns out Shire horses really like Peugeot 404s!

With @Zelandethhelp we got the 404 fired up today without too much trouble. 

We noticed it is sucking air in the fuel filter and there is visible cracking on a rubber fuel pipe that needs attending to.

There is also a hot restart problem.

Temperature held steady and the right side indicator warning light works.

All in all I would call the first start up in my ownership a great success and we did drive 0.9km.

 

[Six-cylinder]

Our Alfa 156 V6 Sportswagon has turned over 111111 miles this week.

[BL Bloke]

Good to see that the 404 started and was able to drive up and down the field.  🙂

I can come down in the week after Christmas, not sure how much use I'd be though. If you still need wood for the shelving in the container I can bring some down with me. 

[wuvvum]

I'll be driving more or less past the FOD on my way back from my parents' after Christmas, so depending on timings etc I might be able to stop off for a couple of hours and get in the way.

[Zelandeth]

Rather impressed by that little Peugeot.  Reckon with a bit of elbow grease there's a really pleasant little car there.

I'm usually far, far, far from the sort of person who goes for the whole "rat look" thing, but there is a part of me which does say that the ridiculous colour contrast going on here is such a thing in itself that it should stay.  Unfortunately it also screams out "Hey, Mr. Policeman who's having a really crap day, pull me over!" I reckon.  So getting it back to being at least mostly one colour probably does make sense.

Didn't take much to get it going really.

It was initially a little reluctant to pull fuel through, but when we saw that there were bubbles being pulled through the filter once the engine was running that pretty much immediately explained why, as it's obviously pulling air in somewhere.  All of the fuel hose in the engine bay looks quite crusty so will be swapped out before we do anything else.  If there's still air getting in then we'll worry about the other end - odds on the tank pickup being easily accessible?

Immediate observation: What a sweet sounding little engine.  Aside from a little bit of an exhaust blow from up front somewhere it's very quiet and extremely smooth.  Probably one of the smoothest idling engines I've come across before the days of electronic ignition and injection. 

With it up and running a quick trundle around was had.

I then had a shot.  Things I noticed:

[] I know we're not on tarmac, but man the steering is light.

[] I know how smooth that field isn't.  The suspension is wonderfully soft.  Seats are bloody comfy too.

[] I've not driven a huge number of cars with column changes, but this definitely feels like one of the most pleasant to use I've come across so far.  So long as you remember there's no syncro on 1st, though hardly unusual on an early 60s car.

[] Bit of a clatter from underneath somewhere on larger bumps, not convinced it's actually suspension and not just something rattling about though.

[] Clutch release bearing is a little noisy, but not enough to alarm me.

She ran absolutely lovely for probably 30 minutes or so, until left idling for 10 minutes or so, and then conked out when we tried to drive out to the field a second time.  Sounded like we weren't getting fuel, but there wasn't a sniff of life when offered some easy start.  I checked and we had a strong spark both at the distributor and plugs (well, number 1 anyway), but not a sausage in terms of signs of life.  Until after about five minutes she started back up again, running awfully (behaving as if short on fuel) for a couple of minutes before sorting herself out again once we were driving around.  Once switched off a little later she again absolutely refused to restart until after sitting for a few minutes.  So we need to try to get to the bottom of that one as the last thing you want to have to do is wait five minutes to restart if you stall in traffic. 

Feels like fuel vapourisation (worth noting that the carb is basically sitting on the head on this engine - there really isn't an inlet manifold as you'd normally expect, it's just an elbow), though the fact she wouldn't even cough on easy start puzzles me.

We'll figure it out.

Seemed like the generator had lost interest in charging after we'd been running for a while, though it definitely was working when we first started up as it's something I checked early on while we still had the choke on.  Guessing that's just going to be a duff connection somewhere, or possibly the points needing cleaned in the regulator (I'm assuming it's a points style setup at this age).

For all it looks quite a state at a glance, I don't think there's really much between this car and the road.  Aside from the rear arches, a bit on the bootlid slam panel and the lip of the bonnet the body actually looks really quite solid - though admittedly I'm saying that not having crawled around underneath it yet!  Get the bits of electrical system that are currently disconnected hooked back up, sort the rear arches and the bonnet, then just tick anything else off as it becomes apparent I think.

This isn't a car I'd ever really even thought about before, but it does seem a nicely thought out and based on admittedly at this point a very limited sample, nicely refined for the period little car.  Though not all that little really...It looks somewhat petite by modern car standards, but it's a decent size.  Guessing a Morris Oxford from the same sort of period would be the closest British competitor?  Though I think the Peugeot may be a little larger, cabin definitely feels bigger anyway.

I'm quite impressed and definitely will be interested to see how this progresses.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Looking at how the top layers of paint are already flaking off to reveal the original red, it would be interesting to hit the bodywork with a decent pressure wash to see how much could be removed. 

Great to see this one returning to life. 

[Rust Collector]

I got to see this in person when picking up the Lada, it really does have an impressive presence. Can’t wait to see it recommissioned and out on the road, I’m quite jealous!

[LightBulbFun]

really awesome to see the 404 has come to life without too much issue!, it does sound very nice in Zel's video!  

its a very nice "An car" of the 1960's  I never thought much of the Pug 404, but I am finding it quite endearing how it is just a very good box with 4 doors and 4 wheels for the time!

very much looking forward to more on it in time! (and hopefully I can blag a cheeky go of it at the FoD in time! I have never driven a column shifter before! not unless you count @Mrs6C's Model 70 with its column mounted accelerator and brake pedal! LOL, so I am very curious to find out what that aspect of it is like)

 

I agree it would be fun to keep the current exterior look at least for a while, just because I like how much it contrasts with how nice the interior is and how solid I hear the underside is, I imagine you could have a lot of a fun with that, they see this proper patchwork paint outside and think oh gosh I bet its horrible everywhere else, only to be greeted this sweet running engine with a lovely interior  I love that contrast! plus it being shabby on the outside means you dont have to worry about it at the Tesco car park  

 

I am wondering however, what are the new front wings painted in? If its just primer, I understand that primer can be hydroscopic or at least porous to water, and can lead to rusting of the panel underneath if its left as it is, so I wonder if  that is the case if it would be worth just quickly slapping some paint on the wings to just help seal everything up so to speak  (im Sure Zel has some Invacar blue leftover from TPA's paint experiments and repaint ) 

 

 

[Uncle Jimmy]

Tidy cars them 404s, suspension will be long travel like all the French stuff, worm diff too so bulletproof.  Compare to the British equivalent, the Austin Cambridge....

[dollywobbler]

Missed this arrival. I absolutely love it! Incredible cars.

[HMC]

I love that 404. I’m probably going against the grain but the cheapest option of leaving the paint as is ( “in its juice” I believe is a rough translation of the intention in French used in antiques) would be my favoured approach. It looks like a badly repainted, play worn die cast.

Plus you could pitch it to the bbc that a dechevelled detective drives it and loan it to them during filming for dollar.

[Ghosty]

The A55 Oxford/Cambridge is definitely the car to compare it to - they're both Pininfarina designs.