Y10 Post watershed rot + Imps

[billyboy406v6]

Shame to see great cars left to rot, thanks for pics !

[Steviemillar]

Top spottage pics Skut, the Escrote with the Dundee reg and Tayford plate made my day

[barrett]

What a strange thing to end up over here. I bet there isn't another in the UK. Wonder what the story is, and why it's been left to rot

[Dick Longbridge]

Id somehow missed this thread. Approval given for Lulu - what a little stunner; great to read the back story as well. Considering that's a gasless mig you're using, the results are top dollar. Must be almost ready for the holy highways, shirley?!

[worldofceri]

What a strange thing to end up over here. I bet there isn't another in the UK. Wonder what the story is, and why it's been left to rot

 

I'd love to know.  Would it be worth anything, even in that state?  I've never even heard of Aero before.

 

Cartell/DVLA have it down as a 1939 Aero 50, untaxed since 1983.

 

They also reckon it's 2366cc, whereas Wikipedia tells me the Aero 30 had a 998cc twin and the Aero 50 a 1997cc 4-cylinder...

[Skut]

Broke out the pencils and pens to draw a Rodley of all things. Okay its only a drawing of one of the few images we have of them but at least its a different image to the 4 that have been on the net since the days of dial up.

 

Car wise i replaced the Suzukis exhaust from front pipe back. I hadnt particularly wanted to do this myself but exhaust place couldnt source an exhaust and when I sourced one they wouldn't fit it. Not actually as horrendous as a job as i thought it might be. Post cat lambda put up biggest fight, eventually undone with ring spanner and trolley jack handle for extra leverage.

 

When having a new Yokohama fitted the Suzuki displayed its displeasure by springing a fuel leak. Fuel filter rusted through as its interesting located in front of the rear wheels.

 

Not much to report on the Lancia other than its collecting dust. Still its safe and dry.

[Skut]

Right shiters.

 

Lets get this expression out of the way so it will not be a pachyderm in the room....

 

OMGHGF......

 

With that unpleasantness out of the way this all happened back in July.

 

A desire for a new family car led naturally enough to this Longbridge flightshed Nanjing escapee advertised on FB.   A Mk2 trophy yellow ZR with non- functioning temp gauge and the low coolant warning light on, available for the princely sum of £200. Bad Juju you may think and I had many doubts as to how wise a decision this was even when the price dropped without my asking to £175. MOT had been out for pushing 2 months although the owner was still driving it to work.

 

Original FB ad pictures.

 

 

 

To be fair to the young lad selling it he'd photographed the worst visual areas and described it a needing a lot of work including most likely a new exhaust, wings.   With all  sensible buyers running for the Outer Hebrides I paid him a visit.  Instantly all research and sensible thoughts left my brain stage right.  Its not so much that I was nervous but theres so much to consider in a short time that I was abit overwhelmed.  I'm too polite not to engage the owner in conversation which doesn't help and then the litany of potential and real faults proved paralysing.

 

Naturally I bought it.

 

Not before I'd taken a ridiculously short test drive which revealed the exhaust was now 2 exhausts, buttons were missing from the facelifted centre console and that motoring journos were not kidding about the quite lofty driving position. The engine was inaudible over the exhaust racket but it seemed to drive fine that aside.  Rot seemed absent, tyres were mostly tired ditchfinders and the passenger door didnt unlock. 

 

There was no obvious reason to be pleased with my purchase but I had faith in it for some reason.   

 

Collection a couple of days later rapidly descended into farce.  I'd intended to actually check the coolant this time as its owner had just driven it home the first time I saw it.   Bonnet release pulled I attempted to exit the vehicle.   Oh... Its locked me in.  Nothing from the fob.   2 mins of faffing and i'm still locked in sitting outside the ex owners house.    Maybe putting the key in the ignition will help....

 

wAHHHH wAHHH  wAHHHHHHH

 

That would be the alarm then at 6 o clock in the morning on a residental street. It keeps that up for about 2 minutes until it mercifully decides to shut up.    More than abit perturped I'm still locked in, fob still doing nothing, doors still locked it then does it again.   Previous owner now texts me "just unlock it on the fob dude"        I'm now in danger of pounding the fob into a pulp in order to get it to work.  I desperately try to start it to move it somewhere less embarassing.

 

wAHHHH wAHHH  wAHHHHHHH

 

Clearly my carbed Lancia and poverty Maruti Suzuki were hopelessly inadequate training for alarms and immobolisers.  It won't start and emits a few electronic pong style beeps from the dash.  The previous owners worried face appears at the window.  He hauls on the door whilst I pull uselessly at the interior door handles.  I would have escaped through the bootlid but it only works off the fob, no manual release.  Project drive is now having very visible negative consequences. The drivers window is held up with a wedge of wood so I'm not keen to see that descend into the door forever.   I don't know how many times it went off might have been 5 times, maybe more. I was starting to have images of angry Bathgate resident burning me Viking style in the ZR so they could get some sleep.   Finally I got it started and shifted a few hundred yards before trying to escape my new Longbridge tomb again.  This has predictable results on the cars security system.

 

Getting it started again I decide that heading home to its pre booked MOT was the best move and I can worry about getting out later.   Exhaust aside it drives fine, hitting the motorway however reveals a problem.    As the speed rises the bonnet starts to shimmy at the leading edge.  Following my enforced incarceration i'd completely forgotten i'd pulled the bonnet release and now it was in danger of flying up and hitting the windscreen.   Great and now I'm on the M8. 

 

Only one option then.      Early morning commuters witnessed me climbing bodie and duke style out of a bright yellow car on the hard shoulder of the M8. 

 

And the for a while peace reined,  the car drove faultlessly, plod took no interest in my terrible car as I crossed the Fourth Road Bridge.  But then it occured to me that on a 1/4 tank the car might just make it to Dundee but it would have too little for the test and in any case how the hell would they test a car they couldn't get into.  The thought of climbing out in a petrol station dukes of hazard style did not appeal so I decided to head to workshop instead.  To avoid plod difficulties I kept to the prescribed route as long as possible before diving off down sideroads to reach the workshop unobserved.  With the petrol gauge descending precipitously I entertain the dreadful prospect of it running out on an unclassified road with no MOT and no easy means of egress. 

 

More to come

 

 

 

[New POD]

All cars look great in yellow.

[Skut]

Last post was kinda text heavy,  so more pictures and less waffle.

 

Getting it in to the workshop was fun.  The owner is an antiques dealer so the amount of stuff that needs moving just to get a car in is usually colossal.

 

 

Exhaust & Wing and unlocking it  were most obvious MOT problems.  Exhaust had been bodged in spectacular fashion

 

 

The welding appeared to have been done from orbit with overlapping layers of sleeved exhaust pipe and exhaust putty. So hideous I cut most of it off to keep as a memento.  Replaced with...

 

 

and  

 

 

Which due to eroded exhaust studs I thought would be easier to chop off part way along like the bodgers and weld on.  That wasn't a good decision. 

 

The BCU or SCU was identified with much interweb surfery to be the likely guilty party in the security debacle. Dispatched to a bloke in Brighton called Technozen to rebuild and send back for 50 quid.  Pretty reasonable.

 

 

The front wings bolts on. It fought hard of course, it lost.

 

 

The search for a new wing led on me on a pointless but interesting trip to the breaker.  Quietly appalled by how young the cars were, there were only 2 R3s.  A 25 low down heavily stripped, and a Streetwise high enough to be picked up on Radar. Both with rotten wings. A streetwise wing is useless anyway as extra holes for plastic tat.

 

 

 

New wing painted (as rubbish as you'd expect with rattle cans)

 

 

 

And then FAIL

 

 

I was expecting electrical fail on foglights and sidelight but the rotted subframes caused a lurch in the pit of the stomach when it was highlighted.   An ignominious return to the workshop beckoned.  The garage politely suggested a more one way trip.  

 

The front subframe is fairly easy.  4 bolts and 2  tie rod nuts.

 

    

 

Rear front subframe is a clusterfuck.  Especially on axle stands surrounded by pigeon feathers.   Some of the things that attach to it are Steering rack, anti-roll bar, engine steady bar front suspension track control arms. The exhaust and gear linkages box it in aswell.  A borrowed rattle gun took care of some of the rounded off bolts but it was still pretty awful.  All made a bit worse by the fact that although there was alot of surface corrosion I couldn't poke any holes in it.  

 

 

I could once it was off (well one) and several of the seams were starting to explode from internal rust so better off with the new one overall. 

 

Kumhos were purchased via Camskill to fix tyre issues.

 

I went far too overkill on the battery clamp.  Too used to Y10 sills.

 

 

And the another fail,

 

 

But with an hours labour at Burnbrae garage wo race a ZR at knockhill it was fixed with just the advisory for a chipped windscreen left. 

 

It was a hell of a lot of work but so far its covered 1000 miles since bought and fingers crossed it proven trouble free.   I also suspect it has no thermostat as it seems to run persistently cool.  

 

Here it is with a friend (not mine)  

 

 

 

 

[The Moog]

Good work. I always assume that those with covered places to work have the best of worlds when it comes to fixing cars. Then you read quotes such as "Especially on axle stands surrounded by pigeon feathers." 

[Tickman]

Good effort on putting that much effort into it.

 

Good work. I always assume that those with covered places to work have the best of worlds when it comes to fixing cars. Then you read quotes such as "Especially on axle stands surrounded by pigeon feathers." 

 

It is still better than outside usually in the worst possible weather because it needs done now.

[Skut]

Good work. I always assume that those with covered places to work have the best of worlds when it comes to fixing cars. Then you read quotes such as "Especially on axle stands surrounded by pigeon feathers." 

 

 

 

Good effort on putting that much effort into it.

 

 

It is still better than outside usually in the worst possible weather because it needs done now.

 

The pigeon feathers are a bit of 1st world problem compared to working outside.  Even the pigeon crap pales by comparison to working outside, where rain stops work, extension cables don't stretch far enough, neighbours object.   

 

Now have to decide what to do with the Suzuki, Storage for the winter methinks unless some wants 98-01 gen Alto with no MOT and rapidly deflating NSF tyre. 

[dollywobbler]

Excellent report. I laughed several times.

[The Moog]

Now have to decide what to do with the Suzuki, Storage for the winter methinks unless some wants 98-01 gen Alto with no MOT and rapidly deflating NSF tyre. 

 

 

Have you waved it in Bucketeers direction??

[mr_fish]

excellent write up !

[Tickman]

Now have to decide what to do with the Suzuki, Storage for the winter methinks unless some wants 98-01 gen Alto with no MOT and rapidly deflating NSF tyre. 

 

I guess it isn't a quick fix to get an MOT if you chose to put the effort into the Rover.

[Skut]

I guess it isn't a quick fix to get an MOT if you chose to put the effort into the Rover.

 

Less work I would say but I didnt have the time to do both and the Rover enthused me more.  Its not completely terrible.  Latest pictures are from its fuel filter change when I used a champagne ice bucket as a fuel catch can.  

 

 

 

 

 

Have you waved it in Bucketeers direction??

 

Hmmmm I will entice @Bucketeer

 

2002 Suzuki Alto Zen HA12  G10B 1.0   NJ51 AEO

 

Broken Bits

 

Handbrake broken following abortive handbrake turn in work car park.  Cable appears to have snapped.  

 

Idle quality seems very variable. 

 

Hole punched in crosssmember when changing fuel filter.  Not sure if within 30 cm of load bearing component but probably as everything bar the roof is within 30 cm of something vital.

 

Welding already done by yours truly on sill ends and front crosssmember.  Average to indifferent repair.

 

Drivers door handle broken requiring elegant entry procedure from passenger side.

 

Likely to score Unclassified on Euro NCAP.

 

EML light on.

 

CV joints quite tired an do a lot of clicking.

 

Slightly Better Bits

 

Brown

 

3 new tyres, 2 Dunlops 1 Yokohama,  1 old tyre Chinese Federal (currently subsiding) Spare is marginal Polish Debica

 

New exhaust and cat, except front pipe to cat which is hanging in there. 

 

Previous Owner was Mr Wilson Wilson Esq

 

All new wheel bearings as of last MOT it passed.

 

Was  once a Kei car called a Cervo Mode

 

New fuel filter. 

 

New discs and pads at last MOT. 

 

High spec clerance model! Remote fuel filler release, leccy windows (working) central locking, Leather wrapped steering wheel in grey to match plastic. 

 

Most powerful heater on the planet.  Capable of melting anything up to and including lead.

 

Pretty reliable

 

A can of oil went over in the boot and the results dribbled out of box sections for weeks making it all the way to the rear end of the sills.

 

Conviniently located in Dundee Scotland  (Bird in passenger seat optional)

[Skut]

So an hour till my little boy wakes up. Time enough to post an update. The ZR failed its MOT in October on brakelines and rust. The brakelines were as much hassle as you'd expect for old corroded brake unions and brake fluid spillage but their done.

The rust turned out to be pretty extensive. Turns out sideskirts both giveth and taketh away when it comes to rust protection. They protected the lightly protected sills from harm but where the jacking points need gaps the sills have largely failed as I suspect where sideskirts were fitted from the factory far less underseal was applied.

Warning...Contains potato cam. Either due to poor lighting conditions or a mobile phone that has seem much better days.



Both inner and outers failed from the rear drivers side arch all the way along the rear quarter panel.

After a lot of cutting out and rust eating fluid the inners went in. Still on Gasless. Best I can do with it.



Outers going on



And largely boxed in bar the wheel arch end. Making and welding the little drop plate to join the new plates to the more complicated original pressing was a pain. Gasless does not feel your hurt or your prayers. Get it wrong and holes result. I mostly do it by feel and ear as when you pull the trigger visibility is lacking.



The workshop can be a creepy place at night time. Some of the owners artifacts can add to that impression.



Good looking car helps the notion that's its worthwhile fixing.



An Aberdeenshire visit happened recently. Mostly to get help a friend get parts for his deeply rotten Montego. Cars that seem to survive better in that place are not always what you expect. The Ambassador is hanging in better than the later Montegos which are becoming almost skeletal in the conditions.







Some of the bigger and perhaps slightly overengineered 50s and early 60s saloons seem the hardiest. Hardier even than some of the big swedes there.

The Super Minx is gorgeous and hanging in there as a recognisable car as are some of the big Austins.







I rather like the slammed look of this Austin.



I don't know if this has been pictured in the many photos of the place previously but a Moskvitch no less.



The rocker cover is a superb thing.



Back to the workshop tonight.

[Split_Pin]

Superb, glad the little yellow rocket is going to live. I saw an 04 plate example 2 days ago and realised how scarce they are becoming, especially compared to 75s.

[stuboy]

bet its cold laying on that workshop floor!!

[theshadow]

have used the clarke gasless mig for few years now,still going strong,keep it up,what wire are you using,some are shite for welding..

[Squire_Dawson]

Wow, Moskvich. Very smart looking cars considering where they came from. They sold quite well in the UK until the mid-1970's when demand slumped overnight after some bad publicity about inherently dangerous brakes.

[Jim Bell]

All yellow cars deserve this level of attention and commitment. Well done Skut.

[Skut]

Superb, glad the little yellow rocket is going to live. I saw an 04 plate example 2 days ago and realised how scarce they are becoming, especially compared to 75s.75s survive in much larger numbers. 75s are like the new Morris Minor.

 

You see them scrapped and broken so often on the ZR FB page, running out of washer fluid can condemn them. I wanted to buck that depressing trend. 75s by comparison are like the new Morris Minor.

 

bet its cold laying on that workshop floor!!

 

It's a bit brutal. 

 

have used the clarke gasless mig for few years now,still going strong,keep it up,what wire are you using,some are shite for welding..

 

0.9mm flux core from machine mart.

 

Wow, Moskvich. Very smart looking cars considering where they came from. They sold quite well in the UK until the mid-1970's when demand slumped overnight after some bad publicity about inherently dangerous brakes.

 

I quite fancy that handsome cast alloy cam cover for my wall.  

 

Went back to workshop last night and stayed till 3.  Still freaks me out a bit at that time of night, there's all sorts of noises from the damn pigeons to the wind rattling the big double doors. 

 

However waded in to where the sill meets the wheel arch.  Rust and fresh air mostly.

 

 

Was therapeutic to remove this wanky bit of metal. 

 

 

Liner out.  Normally I hate taking wheel arch liners out as they should be so simple but are always an arse. Mole grips sorted the screws.

 

 

As expected really. Frilly as French knickers. Had to decide how much to chop back and how to tie it all into the new metal coming in from the sill.  

 

 

Bit thin some of it, but at some point you have to stop chopping stuff out and start adding it in.  Come CAD desiign

 

 

Boxed in the end of the inner sill and a reinforcing plate for the really thin frilly plate ahead of the wheel.  Quality control was starting to slip as the tiredness started to creep in so called it a night.

 

[Split_Pin]

Good work chap! I would have just sat there crying.

[The Moog]

Good to see progress - looking forward to the updates

[lanciamatt]

Is the y10 still going

[Skut]

Is the y10 still going

 

Hibernating. Its got its own lockup within the workshop complete with laminate floor courtesy of previous occupant.  It got some welding in January for the first time in ages.  

 

[Fumbler]

Excellend read this is. Loving that car boneyard too. Really interesting to see the different eras of engineering and how they've fared.

[Skut]

&

 

 

 

due this week. 

 

 

So the ZR needs done yesterday..  

 

Much weldage has therefore been happening.  Why squander precious time to post about it? It gives me a bit of oversight and a bit of healthy peer pressure to get it done by Wednesdays pre-booked MOT. 

 

Some CAD design 

 

 

Potato cam of steel facsimile.  

 

 

In chronological order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Was quite pleased with some of these welds. Probably the best I've managed with gasless, although I still don't think anybody is going to ask me to weld any nuclear pressure vessels.

 

 

 

About 4-5 mm of steel at the bottom of the arch.   This happened as there was too big a step to weld the outer too without adding some 1 mm thick squares to bring the level up.  

 

 

Listening to some Blue Collar whilst working. Superb flick filmed in the Checker car plant in 1978.  Yaphet Kotto, Harvey Keitel & Richard Pryor.  

 

 

 

 

Owners storage of second hand furniture adds a little comfort. Spent minutes on it at best. 

 

 

 

Cad template for lip.  Cosmetic really.

 

 

 

 

 

Couldn't resist the temptation to pick a scab..Was just going to bodge with filler and prime as it just the arch. At least until I have the time to do it properly. Its just on the cusp of 30 cm from the top suspension mount. The MOT toffee hammer has never been deployed on the arch previously and would have made short work of it.  Is it safe to presume as long as there are no sharp edges I'm okay.