Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Fleet Update

[paulplom]

Is that colditz? 🤣

[vulgalour]

Fantastic to get caught up on this thread and see the progress on the Exiv particularly, what a great machine that is.  I do enjoy reading your exploits with cosmetic improvement and de-wankering of these old barges.

[Schaefft]

Sometimes I feel like Im the only one insane enough (in the UK) to invest this much time and money into some of these cars. Maybe the different perspective helps though, most of these cars a far more valuable than I usually buy them for. Anywhere but the UK at least.

2 hours ago, paulplom said:

Is that colditz? 🤣

Nope, just the local castle in our small town. Very similar architectural style though and only about 45mins from Colditz.

[Schaefft]

German TÜV time!

[Jenson Velcro]

34 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

German TÜV time

Good luck

is it not a public holiday in Germany today then?

[Schaefft]

There are no substitute bank holidays in Germany unfortunately. You live to work, not to be lazy!😂

The car passed! Had to pay 15 euros to have a reg plate bulb replaced but I'm very happy with the result. 2 years test add more value to the car so I'll probably get any money back I will have invested into it when the time comes to pass it on (unless I like it too much and keep it, which is a possibility...). I had a look underneath, everything looks very solid with plenty of suspension bits replaced recently. Can't complain about that!

And finally, a photo without snow:

 

[Jim Bell]

Congratulations on the pass man, and hope you had a great Christmas. It looks like your calculated gamble paid off and you picked a gem. 

[paulplom]

Well done on the pass. This is my favourite thread on here. Well written and entertaining.

[D.E]

Excellent! If it passes the TÜV inspection without too much hassle it is likely to be a good car, the Germans take inspections rather seriously.

[Schaefft]

Thanks guys! Yeah, I can't say that I was 100% confident that I wouldn't need to spend some money on repairs but I'm lucky it worked out so far. If I can sell those summer wheels for 200 euros I basically got a great, practical car with all services done and a 2 year ticket for a little over a thousand quid converted. That's a pretty unlikely find in this market.

[MJK 24]

Just read this thread from start to finish.  Damn, you’re a good man putting up with endless hassle and heartbreak for our entertainment!

Looking forward to more!

[Schaefft]

On 12/28/2021 at 2:05 AM, MJK 24 said:

Just read this thread from start to finish.  Damn, you’re a good man putting up with endless hassle and heartbreak for our entertainment!

Looking forward to more!

Haha, if it wasn't for the gratification I'm getting from resurrecting some of these more or less special cars I probably wouldn't bother for much longer. But being able to safe one more rare car that hardly anyone else would consider definitely is a purchasing factor and I'm glad that I'm in the position where I can do this.

Speaking of saving rare cars: For the first time in a long time I was able to have a look at the Oldsmobile Aurora I have bought here in Germany now a whole two years ago (right before the 'rona hit). It hasn't really gone anywhere since then, especially with the previous owner having been distracted with a million other things as a business owner.

I managed to confirm that the no start issue is coming from a dead fuel pump. Everything is indicating that it still got it's original pump so I'm surprised it even lasted that long. I've already sent a replacement a while ago so I'll try to replace it over the next few days before I leave again. Getting it to run will make things much easier once it's actually being transported to a garage.

In other news, I was just given a set of Audi Sport alloys in exchange of a few bottles of lemonade lol. It's the original set of 5-spokes that originally came on my car (hence the spare) and I cannot wait to put them back on. Even the tires are fairly recent Michelins with lots of life left! I've cleaned them up and even waxed them, while not perfect these should look great on the A6 with the right center caps.

[Schaefft]

Another small update. As probably mentioned somewhere before I used to have a silverish Lincoln Mark VIII right before I moved to the UK. It didn't survive the trip here though (aquaplaning...) which meant that I had a lot of leftover parts, including the drivetrain.

It's been almost a decade now that this engine has been pulled from the car. With my 1995 Ivory Mark VIII having transmission issues at the moment and the Audi Avant offering plenty of space for activities it's finally time to get at least some of it over to Newcastle.

The issue is that I don't really have any tools here at my parent's, neither do I have an engine hoist. I ended up using a bunch of garbage spanners and firewood to split the transmission from the engine (something I've been doing for the first time as well). Things went pretty well until I rounded off one of the torque converter nuts. It probably took me 3 hours getting it off using a chisel and drill...

Utter carnage but I managed to get it all apart eventually. Lesson learned...

[cort1977]

Well done for perseverance. 

I hate that feeling, struggling to do something with inadequate tools when you own the right tools and just don't have them to hand.  Gah!

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, cort1977 said:

Well done for perseverance. 

I hate that feeling, struggling to do something with inadequate tools when you own the right tools and just don't have them to hand.  Gah!

Its just one of those "I managed to do this so everything is possible" kind of moments ha.

[OM646]

6 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Another small update. As probably mentioned somewhere before I used to have a silverish Lincoln Mark VIII right before I moved to the UK. It didn't survive the trip here though (aquaplaning...) which meant that I had a lot of leftover parts, including the drivetrain.

It's been almost a decade now that this engine has been pulled from the car. With my 1995 Ivory Mark VIII having transmission issues at the moment and the Audi Avant offering plenty of space for activities it's finally time to get at least some of it over to Newcastle.

The issue is that I don't really have any tools here at my parent's, neither do I have an engine hoist. I ended up using a bunch of garbage spanners and firewood to split the transmission from the engine (something I've been doing for the first time as well). Things went pretty well until I rounded off one of the torque converter nuts. It probably took me 3 hours getting it off using a chisel and drill...

Utter carnage but I managed to get it all apart eventually. Lesson learned...

Bit of a remark. But when i saw this post, I knew I'd read a similar story somewhere!

I used to read Curbside Classic a lot, since 2015, and was binge reading the heck out of it back then, I knew i remembered a comment from someone who had an accident with a Mark VIII and bought a Xedos 6. 

A quick look through an article about the Mazda Millenia, and there was the comment from 2012.

Username checks out!

Crazy how you just run into the same people over and over again in the shite car scene.

[Schaefft]

The A6 has once and for all proven to be an excellent bargain barge. The 700km+ trip to the DFDS ferry in Amsterdam has been achieved without a hitch while being filled to the roof with two sets of wheels (incl. my W140 S-Class wheels I bought like 3 years ago), car parts and luggage. Unfortunately the gearbox didn't fit. Next time.

There was a moment of panic when I wasn't sure what the half faded display was trying to warn me of, only to find out that the left knob in the cluster didn't set the clock but a speed limit warning instead...

Speaking of speed, the Audi felt perfectly happy at 90mph and despite hovering around 4k rpm most of the time (too high for a car like this in my opinion) the engine was barely audible and the average consumption went down to 10.4l/100km (a bit over 27mpg) in the end. I'm wondering if it could improve slightly further considering the car runs cool thanks to the faulty visco fan clutch. It was pretty well loaded as well.

All in all I'm very happy with it so far which reflects my previous experiences with the A6 Saloon I had 4 years ago.

[Schaefft]

And back home. 10/10, would buy again.

It deserves a little rest over the next few days.

[Schaefft]

The A6 continues to be an excellent work horse. Got my E39 replacement sill home which I originally bought for the manual 540i which was sold a while back, and is now needed for the 528i because BMW E39. Plenty of space for scrap and shopping, too.

I've also popped over to Powerflow to get a quote for a new catback exhaust for the Corona. They've certainy raised their prices compared to the last time I've been there (It'll be double what I paid for the car) which was probably over 6 years ago when they did the exhaust on my ivory Mark VIII). However considering I have to wait 5 weeks before they can book me in I'm not really surprised, they are definitely in demand.

The drive there was also the first longer one since the waterpump and timing belt job (+ brake hoses in the back) and fortunatley there were no issues at all. The car drives perfectly fine and gets up to temperature when the cooling fan kicks in as intended. A knocking sound I suspected to come from the driver side rear suspension turned out to come from exactly there. Only that its actually the exhaust falling apart and hitting the rear lower control arm... 2 birds with one stone or something...

Yesterday I started taking the rear wiper apart. There's barely any water arriving at the rear nozzle and if you look at the gunk that came out of the hose I'm not surprised. The wiper motor assembly is borked as well, from what I can tell the wiper arm shaft is seized and the plastic gear is starting to wear. I'll probably have to get a replacement from Russia, there's no other places actually selling these. Same with the taillights etc.

Another job was the front speed sensor. My Corona EXiV doesn't have ABS. What it does have though is 4 wheel steering, which needs at least one speed sensor to know how fast the car is going to decide how the rear wheels are intended to react when turning the wheel. Naturally its impossible to find a replacement sensor with this specific part number. What you can however apparently do (at least in the case of the 4ws Celica of the same age) is ordering an ABS sensor from a US Camry which Rockauto sells plenty of. Unfortunately its not quite the same part so I will most likely have to make a few modifications to it.

I did however remove the old one already (and bleed that side brake while at it to make sure I got the same brake fluid at all 4 corners). In typical ABS sensor fashion it just crumbled and getting the remains out of the spindle wasnt exactly fun and required a drill. This time there was a metal casing around the sensor that was seized in place. And you couldn't really get it out from the side you had access to it. I ended up pulling the axle out of the spindle to hammer it out from that side. Surprisingly everything just came apart and Im still surprised how good things actually look underneath there. Im also glad to find an ABS ring which I wasn't quite sure to find there after the wheel bearing was replaced previously...

Remains of the old sensor casing. Gives you an idea how much fun this was:

I'll see if I can get the replacement sensor modified enough to make it work, theoretically I just need to transfer over the old connector and shorten it slightly, but yeah...

Also, since the strut bar is right above the brake fluid reservoir this special Toyota tool had to be deployed to fill it:

Thats supposed to be a funnel btw.

[Schaefft]

Got bored and actually got the sensor done. I dont think there's much point in transferring that braket over as everything will just get ziptied any way.

Relaced the connector with the original one. These solder filled heat shrink thingies still aren't working great but it seems like the connection is perfectly fine and my multimeter is showing good resistance numbers.

Fingers crossed and this sensor can go straight back in the car and works.

[Schaefft]

I finally got to install the sensor today. The rain was on and off so I did a few other little jobs while I could. I've cleaned the inside properly which made quite the difference and sorted out the speaker grille cover which looks nice and neat again. I've also cleaned up the cigarette lighter as much as I could, Im not sure how this much corrosion ended up in there but at least its not stuck now. All the floor mats got properly cleaned and I've actually ordered a wet vac (finally) to get most of the rest of the filth out of the carpet and seats, hopefully this will get rid of the smell once and for all...

I still can't have enough of this interior, a real highlight of the car and almost flawless. I just wish I could find a replacement amp for the radio to make it complete.

The wheel speed sensor needed a little persuation to go back into the hub,  I actually had to sand down some of the plastic to make it fit. Unfortunately the 4WS light is still on the dash, I'm not sure if the sensor is the problem (can only find out with decent equipment) or if there is another issue, I'll probably have to diagnose the system at some point to narrow down the problem. There was no indication of the sensor actually being bad when I tested it before throwing it on the car.

Also bled the remaining brake, definitely was worth doing... The whole system is flushed with Motul RBF600 now.

The washer jet in the back wasn't really doing its thing so I removed it and my god how much gunk actually came out of there... This was just a small fraction of it.

As you can see its working perfectly again, very happy about that. Car shampoo and hot water probably helped as well.

16 Valve EFI baby!

All done. I accidently stepped on the wheel trim so I'll have to glue that before it goes back on the car again. I'm currently in the process of ordering a replacement for the cracked taillight and filler panel from freaking Novosibirsk of all places, lets see if these will ever arrive. A friend of mine has a Russian wife so that makes things easier. Together with 2 nicer mudflaps its about 35 quid plus national shipping, it'll be more before the order arrives here. If it ever does...

There isn't that much more I can fix without new parts at the moment. I still need to polish the headlights and scratched side windows, thats almost it really aside from some rust treatment here and there. The car will go over to Powerflow on the 19th, hopefully they do a decent job as its really one of the last things left to make this a really nice daily driver.

Oh and @GingerNuttz: Still very much interested in getting the car up to yours, I'm really just waiting for the exhaust before I can do longer trips.

[GingerNuttz]

13 hours ago, Schaefft said:

I finally got to install the sensor today. The rain was on and off so I did a few other little jobs while I could. I've cleaned the inside properly which made quite the difference and sorted out the speaker grille cover which looks nice and neat again. I've also cleaned up the cigarette lighter as much as I could, Im not sure how this much corrosion ended up in there but at least its not stuck now. All the floor mats got properly cleaned and I've actually ordered a wet vac (finally) to get most of the rest of the filth out of the carpet and seats, hopefully this will get rid of the smell once and for all...

I still can't have enough of this interior, a real highlight of the car and almost flawless. I just wish I could find a replacement amp for the radio to make it complete.

The wheel speed sensor needed a little persuation to go back into the hub,  I actually had to sand down some of the plastic to make it fit. Unfortunately the 4WS light is still on the dash, I'm not sure if the sensor is the problem (can only find out with decent equipment) or if there is another issue, I'll probably have to diagnose the system at some point to narrow down the problem. There was no indication of the sensor actually being bad when I tested it before throwing it on the car.

Also bled the remaining brake, definitely was worth doing... The whole system is flushed with Motul RBF600 now.

The washer jet in the back wasn't really doing its thing so I removed it and my god how much gunk actually came out of there... This was just a small fraction of it.

As you can see its working perfectly again, very happy about that. Car shampoo and hot water probably helped as well.

16 Valve EFI baby!

All done. I accidently stepped on the wheel trim so I'll have to glue that before it goes back on the car again. I'm currently in the process of ordering a replacement for the cracked taillight and filler panel from freaking Novosibirsk of all places, lets see if these will ever arrive. A friend of mine has a Russian wife so that makes things easier. Together with 2 nicer mudflaps its about 35 quid plus national shipping, it'll be more before the order arrives here. If it ever does...

There isn't that much more I can fix without new parts at the moment. I still need to polish the headlights and scratched side windows, thats almost it really aside from some rust treatment here and there. The car will go over to Powerflow on the 19th, hopefully they do a decent job as its really one of the last things left to make this a really nice daily driver.

Oh and @GingerNuttz: Still very much interested in getting the car up to yours, I'm really just waiting for the exhaust before I can do longer trips.

I'll let you know once Captain_70s gets the Dolly back and we can make plans 👍

[Schaefft]

An entire month has passed without buying a car. So I fixed that problem.

No collection thread as its actually getting delivered tonight.

One hint:

Also, this car has actually been posted in the spotted thread before. About 4 years ago I'd say.

[Jim Bell]

14 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

An entire month has passed without buying a car. So I fixed that problem.

No collection thread as its actually getting delivered tonight.

One hint:

Also, this car has actually been posted in the spotted thread before. About 4 years ago I'd say.

What the hell is that?!

[Surface Rust]

I'm going to suggest another yank as they like hiding fuel fillers behind number plates. Liking the yellow.

[Schaefft]

55 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

I'm going to suggest another yank as they like hiding fuel fillers behind number plates. Liking the yellow.

It is indeed! Should be able to narrow it down quite easily now.

[hairnet]

dutch post van

 

[D.E]

Ah, a yellow whale!

[hairnet]

motoren auf general?

 

[Schaefft]

2 minutes ago, hairnet said:

motoren auf general?

 

Korrekt!