Thread of remorse AKA Project Last Chance Saloon.

[purplebargeken]

That is really taking shape!

 

Choccie biscuits 'cos this is a full on, hyper fix up and that extra energy is required. 

 

Much slower paced stuff will get by on ordinary non-chocolate biscuits.

[oldcars]

Which bits are you on about, the chrome ones or the plastic ones?

 

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The plastic bits, i have the chrome on.

[fatharris]

Yep, you should definitely have them, ask Panhard65, he's breaking a 75, if you need new fitment clips, I've got some you can have for free.

 

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[oldcars]

Yep, you should definitely have them, ask Panhard65, he's breaking a 75, if you need new fitment clips, I've got some you can have for free.

 

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Thanks, good of you i will do.

[fatharris]

The only update for the week, I've had to pull the old girl out into the sunshine to make room for a Range Rover needing a new crank.

 

I finish a busy period at work on Thursday, so the work will continue after that.

 

 

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[Parky]

Going well, looks cracking now. Can't be much left to do over and above a few minor cosmetics?

[fatharris]

Still got the wishbone to change which has never been an easy, straightforward job on these, paint all the calipers, replace the front ARB link and pads on the passenger side, I'm still debating the option of tackling the scrapes, but in all honesty, that'll probably not happen, otherwise I'd have to prioritise which dink or scrape gets filled. On a car of this age, mileage and value, its simply not financially viable, given the amount I've spent on parts! MrsH has been very forgiving so far!

 

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[Parky]

Someone like Chips Away might be able to sort most out. I could probably live with the door but that patch of primer on the bonnet would bug me!

[fatharris]

The bonnet will be done, that much is established, it looks shite with that patch, and not the good kind!

 

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[mercedade]

I bloody love this thread. Nothing else to add, like.

[Jim Bell]

The patch on the bonnet can be overcome simply by fitting a green or red bonnet from a local breakers yard.

[fatharris]

TODAY I HAVE TWIRLED A GUN IN FRONT OF ROYALTY, SURVIVED AND FINISHED WORK COMMITMENTS.

 

Normal service resumes Saturday, treating myself to some rest.

 

Did start the old girl up today after nearly a week of being sat outside, started first time which was nice.

 

Couple more parts arrived this week as well!

 

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[Jim Bell]

TODAY I HAVE TWIRLED A GUN IN FRONT OF ROYALTY,

 

 

 

Did start the old girl up today after nearly a week of being sat outside,

 

 

Sir. I hope you are not reffering to her majesty the Queem.

[fatharris]

After a 9-day hiatus, work could finally recommence.

 

 

First things first, when I replaced the electric mirror and tested it afterwards, I noticed that both mirrors only moved in one direction. A new switch was ordered, and is a nice, easy job to break myself back into it.

 

Comes out real easy, just prises off with a flat point.

 

 

Two plugs and it pops into place...

 

 

...and now the mirrors don't move in any direction, Arsebiscuits. Further investigation later.

 

 

Next up, this sorry excuse for a cupholder. Now, these were shit straight from the factory, where any sudden movement would find the piping hot contents of your beverage spilled liberally everywhere if you had the sheer audacity to move anywhere at any speed in any manner.

This one was missing an arm and the mechanism was clunky, so it had to go, which meant partially stripping the centre console again. Getting pretty good at this.

 

 

First off, heater fascia trim

 

 

Then, the trim panel that would have held buttons for options that the tight twat of a first owner didn't specify. Look at it, sat there, mocking me, smug piece of plastic.

 

 

Anyway, heater control panel out next, four screws and two plugs.

 

 

Then the cupholder. Not entirely sure how this comes out, and it's a faff to get in and out. Either way, this one is going in the bin.

 

 

Then, new one in. I took the time to grease up all moving parts and runners.

 

Refitting is reversal of....you get the idea.

 

 

Except for some reason, it doesn't come out now without a good clout, and when it does, left to its own devices, it takes nearly two minutes to fully extend. Fuck it, coffee on the go is for poofters anyway.

 

Time to finish the interior refit from last week.

 

 

Done, bar one panel, which'll stay out until the clutch is bled.

 

 

With the interior almost resplendent and already smelling less like a London phonebox every day, I decided to start on the rear end, namely the passenger rear light, that had a crack on the front, and the bulb holder clip had sheared, causing the bulb to melt the back of the lamp unit.

 

 

As you can see, it's lived with this issue for a while.

 

 

The seller of the rear lamp very kindly included the filament holder too, so all the filaments were transferred over. BZ to the seller too, the unit was thoroughly cleaned before he sent it to me, saving me the job and several ensuing photos!

 

 

Eurgh, that's a grotty aperture.

 

 

Sod it, in for a penny etc.,

 

 

As usual, I take it way, way too far.

 

 

But, as always, the results are always worth it.

 

 

With all the crap removed from the boot, I could give it a thorough scrub, so with a little elbow grease, this....

 

 

...became this.

 

 

The inside of the rear bumper was thoroughly cleaned out, but I forgot to take pictures.

 

I refitted the bumper, and the corner was poking out as usual, but in a much less pronounced way. The simplest method was to drill a hole in the top lip of the bumper, and screw a screw through it to slot nicely in a cut-out on the rear quarter.

 

 

So that's what I did.

 

 

Much better.

 

 

Whilst underneath, I noticed a plaque on the underside of the backbox. Turns out it's a wolfrace backbox. Woo, and indeed, yay.

 

 

Right, no point avoiding it, might as well get the caliper off.

 

 

I spent ten minutes soaking and gently teasing the brake bleed nipple free, as the one on the old passengers' caliper sheared. Eventually, it came free, and I could remove it, the carrier following after.

 

 

First things first, the piston retracted, and the pipe opening blanked off. Then, straight into cleaning. Sadly, the pictures don't show how mucky they were, but it took a while to scrub them clean.

 

 

They came up lovely though.

 

 

Once masked up, they were ready.

 

 

First coat of red. Already feel the extra horsies. Ferrari have red brakes too, you know?

 

 

Whilst that little lot dried off, I set about cleaning up the sliders and spring clip.

 

 

Easy.

 

 

Then, over an hour of twatting about, shouting and swearing ensued as I changed the drivers' ARB link. This was interrupted with helping a fellow club member who had been working on his car, drove out the building and was back 20 seconds later for a trolley jack, his OSR wheel deciding to make a break for it. Apparently the previous owner of his car thought that three threads was enough to secure a wheel and two spacers, and let this chap drive to Cornwall from Brighton with it! He's a lucky chappy really.

 

 

A second coat of paint was applied, and the rear lights fitted and tested. All good!

 

 

Final job of the night was the "ZT" badging. I'd been sent some used ones, and they were spot on, and ready to go on.

 

Firstly, I removed the old adhesive using a scalpel blade.

 

 

Then I mounted the badge onto double sided adhesive foam, cutting out the shape with the scalpel.

 

 

 

Then I slapped them on, before patting myself on the back.

 

 

Finally, I cleaned up and left the car on a ramp for the night, so I'll be there again tomorrow morning for the push!

 

Up to 57.5 hours now. I very nearly bought another Trophy Blue ZT (A V6) that had good bodywork but a knackered clutch for £210 delivered. MrsHarris went nuclear at me, so that's that then.

 

 

Cheers!

[MarvinsMom]

the wing mirror problem is almost certainly down to dirty contacts in the switch pack, cos i had the same thing when i bought mine!

 

i could move both mirrors over to the left and that was it.

 

by taking the switch pack to bits, it splits in half just about, and then cleaning the contacts in the bottom part, i used meths i think with baby buds, and puitting it all back together i found that all functions on the mirrors and windows was restored!

[fatharris]

Interesting, I'll have to give that a go tomorrow, cheers!

 

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[rantingYoof]

You know, for someone who is clearly a Vulcan, buying a tatty MG and spending over two full days working on it isn't very logical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But it's giving us all something to read and shake our heads in admiration to.

[purplebargeken]

The second 75 that I had would have limited functionality of the mirrors. I sprayed the connections with a contact cleaner and full mirror happiness was restored.

 

I think we have a serious contender for out-vulgalouring our very own Vulgalour for cleaning fetishism. 

[purplebargeken]

I do have to say that the underside of this car looks a little dirty. Just saying like. 

[fatharris]

I do have to say that the underside of this car looks a little dirty. Just saying like.

*twitches internally*

 

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[Parky]

Very impressed with the attention to detail here Mr Harris. I know I would probably have left the cup holders and the wing mirrors as they were so kudos to you for that.

 

Are you planning on running it for a while once finished or are you going to become some sort of Rover Angel and move onto the next poor example? Kind of like an Autoshite Littlest Hobo?

 

"There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be"

 

And that's an ear worm for everyone who was a kid in the Eighties! No need to thank me......

[Pillock]

Nooo, if you press a switch and nothing happens, the world will stop until you resolve it.

 

When I first got the Saab, the same was true - I could move either mirror more to the left, but not the right. Up, but not down. Great for looking at planes on your nearside, not for driving. Pop the switch apart, clean all the contacts, back together, sorted.

 

It helps you have a spare now to practise on....

[panhard65]

Not sure if your brother picked up the undertray on friday but I did leave a spare switch out for you that would be suitable to repair as it only worked one way

[Supernaut]

I've not weighed in on this thread yet, so I'll go for it now.

 

Bloody hell Harris, good work!

 

I've just swapped the Audi over to its winter wheels today and that's my effort used up... I am a bit hungover though.

[fatharris]

Well, today is "lazy Sunday", and the battery decided to take that literally, so I plugged it back in.

 

 

I started refitting the freshly-painted caliper on the drivers' side.

 

 

Once fitted, I connected my eazibleed and started to pump triumphantly...except despite the bleed nipple being loosened off, the pedal went hard. Pulled off the nipple and found it blocked.

 

 

Once cleared and cleaned through, the bleeding resumed. A full, final bleed will take place once the car is nearing completion.

 

 

I thought I'd clean this dirty bugger.

 

 

Came up nicely quite quickly.

 

 

And all rebuilt, with copper grease added everywhere prone to seizing.

 

 

With that done, it was time to shimmy to the rear. Tyre pressures were all done at this point, the fronts were really low.

 

 

Passenger side rear caliper first.

 

 

This came out relatively easily, although access was a bit tight.

 

 

Once cleaned, it was evident that this was a scrapyard caliper. For starters, it wasn't yellow, and it had paint dots to identify it, Still, they cleaned up nice.

 

 

Leaving me with a dirty cavernous wheel arch. After photo to follow.

 

 

Once dried from cleaning, the items were masked up...

 

 

...and the first coat of red applied.

 

 

Whilst the paint dried, I decided to crack on with the boot carpet. It comes mounted to a sheet of MDF, and the carpet was filthy. 

 

 

Didn't fancy getting the wood wet though, so I separated it at the handle.

 

 

Then with use of a welding screen, two alloys to weigh the screen down and a couple of quick-grips, the carpet was mounted vertically and the initial pressure wash carried out.

 

 

Then it was given a good hard scrubbing with detergent and pressure washed again.

 

 

Once wet-vac'd, the results were brilliant. Once it's fully dry, I'll refit it to the MDF and fit it in the car.

 

 

Whilst I was watching things dry from all around, I added a second coat of paint to the caliper and decided to crack on with the drivers' rear caliper.

 

 

The was certainly the original, as it was a total bastard to get off. Thankfully, I prevailed with use of graphite penetrating fluid.

 

 

ANOTHER blocked nipple. That's three now. Thankfully all three cleared with some time.

 

 

Whilst the caliper got a soaking in the parts washer, I removed all the masking tape off the finished one. Lovely.

 

 

The drivers' side one cleaned up well too, and any flaking paint was scraped off.

 

 

Once dried and masked, the first coat went on without  incident.

 

 

Whilst the first coat dried, I refitted the caliper. LOOK I CLEANED THE WHEEL ARCH,

 

 

Second coat of paint was applied, and I decided more cleaning was in order. Nothing too drastic, mind, it's a bloody wheel arch after all.

 

 

There was a ridiculous amount of mud trapped in there, but it's mostly gone now.

 

 

With that, I left the car with its rear in the air in a "come hither" pose, and I went home to a sausage and chorizo casserole I'd prepared in the slow cooker before I set off. Lovely

 

 

Hours worked - 62 & 3/4

[Parky]

Yes, still thoroughly enjoying this thread! Looking better with every update

[LC Torana]

 

Whilst the paint dried, I decided to crack on with the boot carpet. It comes mounted to a sheet of MDF, and the carpet was filthy. 

 

 

Didn't fancy getting the wood wet though, so I separated it at the handle.

 

 

 

Two or three years ago, a bottle of milk leaked in the boot of mine.  Stank the car out, as you can imagine.

 

The felt carpet mat cleaned easily with a bit of eucalyptus wool wash, but the milk that soaked into the raw unsealed MDF was more problematic.

 

It's a boot floor, it WILL get spills and get wet.  Wet umbrellas, opening the boot in the rain, leaks from aging seals, all will cause an MDF sheet to swell.

 

No.  For the next spill, I wanted to just be able to wipe the MDF sheet off without anything soaking into it.

 

So I took the MDF board out, and painted the top side with two thick coats of Pink Primer, and then two or three coats of black enamel paint.

 

Invisible under the felt mat, but much more gooder.

[fatharris]

Like that idea.

 

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[purplebargeken]

The underneath still looks dirty 

[Tickman]

Amazing levels of work going into this.

Really like the hours count as well