Project Dr.Fraud's Private Scrapyard

[castros_bro]

I  had an silver 206 but sold it to some bod (who got another silver 206)

It returned.

the local backstreet mech fitted a new (supplied) rear beam  (the courtesy car was a silver 206)

It returned.

I had the same silver 206 and sold it to some bod (who got another silver 206)

it returned

I had the same silver 206 and managed to wear out so many bits it didn't work any more, also  some Megane diesel cam belt went "twang".

Good to know there's stuff still happening.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Mr Castro's post above may seem cryptic, but it's based on a true story !

The moral of said story is : if you buy a silver 206, you will most certainly buy another (or, possibly, the same) silver 206 in the future.

There's clearly something irresistible about them !

[Sigmund Fraud]

Time for another irregularly irregular update from FRAUD GARAGES !

As one would expect from its low mileage, Mrs F's new 206 has been no* trouble at all :

At least, it flew through its MoT with a single advisory, which was straightforward to address :

As a reward, she treated it to a full set of Michelin Crossclimates and an alignment. The Michelins cost an eye-watering amount of money, but are admittedly excellent.

Typically, I haven't had much time to spend on my own cars.

The Chevywoo Tacuma formerly owned by @andyberg has taken over family car duties. As documented elsewhere in this fine forum, Andy had done a brilliant job recommissioning the Tacuma and there was very little left for me to do.

So I replaced the ancient rear tyres with a pair of ATS' finest* Chinese ditchfinders...

...replaced the pollen filter(s)...

...topped up the screenwash and took it for a short* drive :

[andyberg]

Those pollen filters are pretty grubby, I am sure I replaced them not long after I got the car🤔 But I'm really glad she is serving you well. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Update time !

Regular readers will remember that Mrs F's Polo failed it's MoT last November, with the tester advising there was a "small hole" in the nearside sill. This is what the "small hole" looked like after I had removed plenty of structural* rubber underseal  :

Now, I've long fantasized about driving the terrible old heap onto the local scrapyard's weighbridge. Unfortunately, Mrs F was not keen on my plans for a final solution to the Polo question, and instructed me to repair it.

With the 206 still performing faultlessly, there was no need to rush, so the Polo was parked in my workshop and basically forgotten about until last week.

Then, in a mad rush of activity, this happened :

I initially tried fabricating my own repair patch, but the result was pathetic. Making small patches using a vice and hammer is easy, but my bodywork skills were clearly not good enough for me to make such a large patch without a sheet metal folder. So I went out and bought a full sill, which I trimmed down to size and lap joined onto the car. A butt joint would have allowed an invisible repair, but I saw no point in this considering the state of the rest of the bodywork.

Then, on the hottest day of the year, I attacked it with some filler, primer and paint to tart things up a bit :

 

Much better ! A couple of coats of lacquer, and it will be ready to drive to the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este MoT station.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Has it really been five years since I last updated this ? Where has the time gone !

Well, today's update is special as it will take us all the way back to the beginning of this thread. Remember that frankly terrible Polo that I had saved from the clutches of the scrap man ? And the equally terrible Lupo that had replaced it ?

I was, of course, young and foolish back then. Now I'm older and wiser*. So if you had asked me a couple of months ago whether I had any intention or rescuing another small VW from the crusher, the answer would have been a resounding "NO" (if not something more profane !).

But then something odd happened.

One of the threads I like to follow on AS is @Cookiesouwest 's blog of automotive trials and tribulations. His blue Polo, nicknamed the "Polo of DOOM", had featured quite a lot on the blog, albeit for the wrong reasons. For months, I remained in awe of Mr Cookie's stoicity, as one fault was repaired for another one to emerge soon after. Well, this seemingly inexhaustible patience was finally exhausted last month, and Mr Cookie announced that the Polo would soon meet its maker (or, rather, the frag machine).

This news made me feel rather sad. Surely, the poor old Polo wasn't that bad ? Surely, it deserved (yet) another chance ? Someone had to take it on. But who would be stupid enough to do that ?

After a moment of reflection, I had my answer. Messages were exchanged, and this morning I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Cookie and became the new custodian of this astonishing* motor car :

Oh, dear... Here we go again.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Mr Cookie had offered a very pessimistic description of the car, but there were two faults that certainly did require immediate rectification.

The first was easy : one of the alloys had had a close encounter with a bollard, which had damaged the tyre. The car arrived fitted with the spare, but this was only a temporary solution as the spare tyre was 165 width while all the others were 185s (the size difference would have been an MoT failure).

I considered replacing the damaged tyre with a part worn, but there were two reasons why this didn't seem a good idea. The first reason is that I wasn't sure that the damaged alloy was still straight. The second reason is that my local part worn ditchfinder emporium have recently increased their prices and now charge £35 per tyre. I wasn't going to pay that, so I looked around and was lucky to find a set of four used wheels, identical to the ones fitted to the car, for £55. Here's the best of them fitted to the Polo :

This brings us to the second fault : a temperamental automatic gearbox.

Now, I don't know much about automatic boxes, so I went away and did a bit of homework. This confirmed that those 9Ns still use the ancient 001 four-speed box which was made by Jatco. Those boxes are fairly indestructible if ATF is replaced regularly, as the manufacturer recommends.

Naturally, the VW service schedule insists they are sealed for life, and their workshop manual suggests that even topping the fluid up must follow a ridiculously complicated process which requires a lift and access to live data to check the ATF temperature. Oh, and you HAVE to use G055025A2 fluid which is £40/litre for the real deal from VW, or £20/litre for the Febi knockoff.

With all that useful* information in mind, I drove the Polo up on the ramps and dropped the ATF :

What came out of the box was around 2.5l of this :

What then went into the box was 4.2 litres of lovely red Dexron III (H), which is exactly what Nissan recommends when the same gearbox is fitted to their cars. This was £27.5 for 5l, which is more in line with my budget.

First impressions are positive : the box is quieter and smoother after only 30 miles, hopefully things will improve further as the new ATF circulates more and starts cleaning up all the sludge.

So two jobs ticked off the list, and the car is now ready to be pressed into daily use... Let's see how that goes !

[Cookiesouwest]

Blimey. You dont hang about !!

Glad the ATF change has improved the box.

I will try and persuade Poppy, that the replacement Polo should also be given a fluid change.

And 55 quid for a replacement set of Alloys is a great deal.

[bangernomics]

£35 for a partworn? You can get new deathrings for pretty much that price.