Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[Fumbler]

The room in which I am sitting in is madness condensed into a tiny space.

[mat_the_cat]

UniRoyal Rainexpert 3s

 

I take it you rate them then? They're currently top of the list for replacements on the Stellar, as I've been happy with a different set of Uniroyals on the BX a while back, and they're in the shrinking group of decently scored tyres which are available in 13" sizes.

[Zelandeth]

I take it you rate them then? They're currently top of the list for replacements on the Stellar, as I've been happy with a different set of Uniroyals on the BX a while back, and they're in the shrinking group of decently scored tyres which are available in 13" sizes.

Never used the third generation ones yet, but RE2s have been my tyre of choice for a good number of years, including on the Saab, which is quite sensitive to tyre quality it seems.

 

I've tried a few others over the last few years and have invariably found that there's at least some way in which they were inferior to the Rainexpert I was used to.

 

Falken: (Xantia 1.9TD) - Very noisy, average grip, didn't wear well at all, were replaced after only three years by the next owner of the car.

 

Continental: Factory tyres on the 107, and were honestly lethal from day one. They were replaced for the first MOT as they were perishing badly...by...

 

Michelin: grip was okay, but the ride felt like the tyres were pumped up to about 100psi, wear rate wasn't great either.

 

Pirelli: No real complaints...but they were 155 SR13s so hardly a high performance tyre and I had no real choice in that size...those had to be shipped over from Germany as it was!

 

UniRoyal tyres have always been reasonable from a ride and noise perspective. Grip and wet performance always being the things they get absolutely top marks for, and steering feel always seems better with them. Never had one seem to wear out what I felt was prematurely, nor had to get rid of one due to perishing.

[Daviemck2006]

And on your old xantia 1.9td which a new owner replaced the falcons, he replaced them with uniroyal rain expert, admittedly on aftermarket 17 inch wheels. They were previouslt on a xantia activa. They vastly improved my activa, it had nexen front and pirelli rear and was lethal in the wet, and vastly improved the 1.9td, even when the fronts were well worn (enthusiastic activa cornering lol). It now has vredeisten winters front and still the uniroyal re3 o n the rear. It doesnt need the winters, being on sorn and out of mot at the present time, but may find its way back on the road sooner than expected if the damaged daily leon gets written off. For those who dont know I am the current owner of Zels old xantia 1.9td, but his activa is not my old activa, but his td passed through the previous owner of his activa on the way to me. A tale of lots of xantias and mad owners

 

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[dozeydustman]

Falken: (Xantia 1.9TD) - Very noisy, average grip, didn't wear well at all, were replaced after only three years by the next owner of the car.

 

 

I've been quite impressed with the Falkens on the wife's Corolla. Little bit noisy but very grippy even in the wet. Certainly better than the crap that was on it. Then again, a number of hairbands stretched over the rims would have been better than the previous boots.

[Zelandeth]

So should have the Xantia back on Monday.  Work was slightly delayed by me leaving the wrong immobiliser code with the garage.  Yay for me not quadruple checking the numbers.

 

Van will be next up as the test is up at the end of this coming week.  So I know it needs...

 

[] Stuffed clutch slave cylinder changed.  That's actually waiting for me over at the Merc dealer.  Not MOT work specifically, but it's currently virtually undriveable (you have about five seconds from pressing the pedal to the clutch being "off" which makes parking a challenge!)

 

[] Brake pad change.  Yes I know this has been on the list since I got it...the pads while worn, but not totally shot and haven't got any lower since I got it... guessing I'm lighter on the brakes than the original owner.

 

[] Properly secure the fresh water tank...or remove it for the test. 

 

[] New rubber boot needed on the pitman arm ball joint.

 

[] Do... something...about the exhaust.  Really want to get a stainless system built for it, but not sure I can afford it just now.

 

[] Marker lights above the cab currently don't work.  This annoyingly isn't just a bulb issue, so I need to figure out where the heck the wiring goes. 

 

Pray there's no welding needed.  Oh, and see if my usual garage can do the test or if it's too big for them.

[LightBulbFun]

So should have the Xantia back on Monday.  Work was slightly delayed by me leaving the wrong immobiliser code with the garage.  Yay for me not quadruple checking the numbers.

 

Van will be next up as the test is up at the end of this coming week.  So I know it needs...

 

[] Stuffed clutch slave cylinder changed.  That's actually waiting for me over at the Merc dealer.  Not MOT work specifically, but it's currently virtually undriveable (you have about five seconds from pressing the pedal to the clutch being "off" which makes parking a challenge!)

 

[] Brake pad change.  Yes I know this has been on the list since I got it...the pads while worn, but not totally shot and haven't got any lower since I got it... guessing I'm lighter on the brakes than the original owner.

 

[] Properly secure the fresh water tank...or remove it for the test. 

 

[] New rubber boot needed on the pitman arm ball joint.

 

[] Do... something...about the exhaust.  Really want to get a stainless system built for it, but not sure I can afford it just now.

 

[] Marker lights above the cab currently don't work.  This annoyingly isn't just a bulb issue, so I need to figure out where the heck the wiring goes. 

 

Pray there's no welding needed.  Oh, and see if my usual garage can do the test or if it's too big for them.

 

interesting you mentioning the water tank makes me wonder how is the "house" part of a motor caravan treated during an MOT?

 

ie do they just treat it as a big load space that so happens to have cargo arranged as a small living space or can you fail an MOT Just because you left a spoon on a counter top somewhere and it counts an insecure component? LOL

[Zelandeth]

I don't think the MOT is interested in stuff in the back beyond checking the condition of any seatbelts that are fitted.  Other than that it's just common sense making sure stuff isn't falling off I believe.

 

Shouldn't ever really be an issue with things like that being loose to move around as the drawers etc latch closed pretty firmly.

[Zelandeth]

Hehehe...

 

We were out in Oxford today. Suffice to say the sight of a Lada trundling around their expensive fancy city centre got some very baffled looks. Especially when we stopped briefly in Summertown. You could almost feel the derision radiating from the people wandering past in their £750 jackets...

 

Ah, messing with people's heads is fun.

 

Can vouch for the Laufenn tyres on the Lada being extremely competent at dealing with major standing water. Hit a few nasty bite in the deluge today on the way to Oxford and it didn't even twitch. Just wish they were a bit more compliant in the sidewalls.

 

Will be picking up the new clutch cylinder for the van tomorrow, which should make driving it rather less unnerving. Or at the very least park it properly! It's more abandoned than parked just now, it's surprisingly unnerving trying to manhandle something that size with hardly any clutch.

 

Have pretty much decided though that I'm going with "sod common sense" and will be getting it prepped for the MOT as soon as it's logistically possible. I'm not going to be able to wait until spring to drive it!

 

Funny really, I've only had it on fleet for a few months...but really can't see me not having it there. Definitely one of those cases where things just clicked within the first few minutes in the driver's seat. Just feels so right being at the helm of the noisy old brick.

 

Hopefully will be giving one of our next generation of drivers their introduction to driving in it as well. With their being a bus fan it seems somehow appropriate.

[Zelandeth]

New clutch slave cylinder for the van is here.

 

 

Really heavy for what it is!

 

Hopefully that will return driving it to the correct nice relaxed experience.

 

I need to investigate the squeak better tomorrow.  Poked it a little today and it actually seems like it is actually just the belt rather than the alternator actually itself as I originally thought.  Will try the old spraying the belt with water and seeing if it stops trick.

 

I know the belt is a little slack, and quite possibly has become a bit glazed because of that, so that might be all it is and will be sorted by a new belt.

[Broadsword]

I was just reading back on your troubles with the crank pulley on the Activa. My Xantia HDi has developed a squeaking drive belt. I had a quick look today and noted a slight groove on the back of the belt along the whole length. Interestingly I then noted the belt is slightly over the egde of the tensioner pulley (corresponding to the mysterious groove on the belt) and I can see one exposed groove on the crank pulley. Even more interestingly the belt still sits perfectly square on the hydraulic pump and alternator. Pending further investigations I suspect I might have the early onset of the same problem you had.

[Fumbler]

Hehehe...

 

We were out in Oxford today. Suffice to say the sight of a Lada trundling around their expensive fancy city centre got some very baffled looks. Especially when we stopped briefly in Summertown. You could almost feel the derision radiating from the people wandering past in their £750 jackets...

 

Ah, messing with people's heads is fun.

 

Can vouch for the Laufenn tyres on the Lada being extremely competent at dealing with major standing water. Hit a few nasty bite in the deluge today on the way to Oxford and it didn't even twitch. Just wish they were a bit more compliant in the sidewalls.

 

Will be picking up the new clutch cylinder for the van tomorrow, which should make driving it rather less unnerving. Or at the very least park it properly! It's more abandoned than parked just now, it's surprisingly unnerving trying to manhandle something that size with hardly any clutch.

 

Have pretty much decided though that I'm going with "sod common sense" and will be getting it prepped for the MOT as soon as it's logistically possible. I'm not going to be able to wait until spring to drive it!

 

Funny really, I've only had it on fleet for a few months...but really can't see me not having it there. Definitely one of those cases where things just clicked within the first few minutes in the driver's seat. Just feels so right being at the helm of the noisy old brick.

 

Hopefully will be giving one of our next generation of drivers their introduction to driving in it as well. With their being a bus fan it seems somehow appropriate.

Oxford's dismay at a Lada in their space- I can feel their unhappiness from here.

[Zelandeth]

I was just reading back on your troubles with the crank pulley on the Activa. My Xantia HDi has developed a squeaking drive belt. I had a quick look today and noted a slight groove on the back of the belt along the whole length. Interestingly I then noted the belt is slightly over the egde of the tensioner pulley (corresponding to the mysterious groove on the belt) and I can see one exposed groove on the crank pulley. Even more interestingly the belt still sits perfectly square on the hydraulic pump and alternator. Pending further investigations I suspect I might have the early onset of the same problem you had.

Sounds very likely. The HDi engines are known for being prone to this as well.

 

Given how dire the consequences of a thrown belt on a green blooded Citroen are, I'd not be driving it again until that's sorted. That's just speaking of the loss of hydraulics, not counting the fact that it's not unknown for a snapped belt to wrap around the crankshaft pulley and take out the timing belt.

 

How quickly mine degraded from the being able to see something was amiss to shredding the belt was astonishing. Obviously exactly where the belt will do what will depend on the routing, imagine it's quite different on the DW engines to the TCT.

 

Getting the belt back lined up took me longer than actually changing the pulley - though the tensioner is really easy to get at on the Activa which saved time. I remember that being able absolute pig on the XUD in my first Xantia, which made a simple belt change a swine of a job. Tensioner was buried in between the engine and chassis rail and there really wasn't space to get a tool in to it, even after I'd removed the ECU and everything else on that side of the engine bay it felt like!

 

Would be worth getting the tension off the belt and looking at the tensioner though first. As if the needle bearings in that fail (especially in cheap ones) it causes the pulley to run off true. So make sure there's no play in that too.

[Zelandeth]

New clutch slave cylinder fitted.

 

 

Pedal is still a bit variable so I reckon there's still a bit of air in the system, but it's vastly better than it was.

 

There's a bit more strain on the hose than I'd like so I might go back one day when it's not tipping it down to sort that.  Granted the original one was like that too and goodness only knows how many years it's been there.

 

Sadly MOT is up on it tomorrow, so will have to sit quietly for a bit until I can tick off a few things on the to do list.  At least I've had a recommendation from my garage as to where to take it (too big for their MOT lift).

[Zelandeth]

In a frankly bizarre turn of events I actually found myself with an hour and a bit of spare time this afternoon. 

 

Looks like I'll be waving good by to my spares Invacar shortly so it's time to get the last few bits transferred over that I need.  First and foremost the doors.

 

The doors I got with KP were in pretty good order from a structural and mechanical standpoint.  The skin and frame were still attached to each other, no huge holes or cracks and the locks weren't seized.  The window frames however were knackered, having rusted through just above the tabs which fasten them to the doors.

 

The doors which came with TP looked superficially better and the window frames are sound.  However the lock mechanism on the nearside one is utterly seized, and the door has been damaged historically by someone trying to free it off.  The offside one has a working lock setup, but has several holes in and the skin has separated from the frame.  This makes the whole thing flex and be an utter swine to open.  It's also missing the exterior door handle.

 

This was the result of a little under two hours of swearing.

 

 

Swapping the frames over was made somewhat harder on account of having to drill out every single screw on both doors.

 

Will get the glass refitted tomorrow, I need to get hold of some appropriate fasteners first.  Then will start the same battle with the other side. 

 

On the plus side, the nearside door now actually opens.  This means I can get the thing in and out of the garage without having to clamber over a mountain of stuff to get to the offside door.

 

Felt good to actually get something at least partially ticked off on the list.

[LightBulbFun]

very cool to see some invacar work being done

 

the paint (or well lack thereof) on the door from KPL made me wonder what is the official "paint code" if there is one, for the ice blue paint on invalid carriages?

[Zelandeth]

very cool to see some invacar work being done

 

the paint (or well lack thereof) on the door from KPL made me wonder what is the official "paint code" if there is one, for the ice blue paint on invalid carriages?

I'm honestly not sure. KP is a mixture of painted and not painted bits...I do wonder if there was a point in the production run where they switched either to or stopped painting things. Paint obviously must have been stocked the whole time for accident repair purposes, and is probably one of those industry standard colours. From memory and on a phone screen RAL6027 looks pretty close.

[LightBulbFun]

IIRC Model 70s made by 1 company where painted and the other company used coloured fibreglass but frustratingly i cant recall which company did which...

[Zelandeth]

IIRC Model 70s made by 1 company where painted and the other company used coloured fibreglass but frustratingly i cant recall which company did which...

That makes sense. I do wonder if some bits just got painted irrespective of whether the fibreglass has a coloured gel coat, as there are quite a few bits which are painted exactly the same colour as the surface underneath it...TP's original engine cover and front service hatch immediately springing to mind.

[LightBulbFun]

indeed, I think TPA has had some paint at some point regardless as someones even painted over the black trim/seal? that goes round the bottom of the roof on AC made Model 70s (IIRC that black strip is one of the very few actual differences between an invacar made model 70 and an AC made model 70, I have DW to thank for pointing that out in a video a good while back I wonder what the strip does and why the invacar made model 70s dont have one)

[Zelandeth]

That's one door built back up.

 

Getting the glass back in single handedly was fiddly, but mercifully managed it without dropping anything.

 

 

It's sort of novel being able to actually open and close the door normally...meant I could stick it back in the garage further to the right and actually have more room to get past it.

[LightBulbFun]

one for the miss matched panels thread maybe? 

 

if getting the glass on was fiddly single handedly im more then happy to help with the second door next time im down? Id love to get my hands dirty with some invacar work

 

interesting to note theres a reinforcement plate in the door handle well guessing at some point in the past the handle broke free like the ones on TWC did?.

[Zelandeth]

It's one of those jobs that now I've done it once I know how to better approach it next time. Main tip I think is to do all the assembly with the door on the ground before reuniting it with the car. Hoping I might be able to get the other one done tomorrow as it would be really nice to have two properly working doors.

 

Next up is probably to run a new fuel line to the front. Still waiting on a tank - but at least having the pipe run would mean I can get rid of the fuel can bungeed to the engine cover. Having the fuel at the opposite end to the hot engine would ease my paranoia! Will be a copper line for most of the run with rubber tails at each end. The line between the pump and carb will be rerouted as running it within the cowling where I can't readily see it bothers me. Especially with the utter crap quality fuel hose I've had issues with lately.

[Zelandeth]

Being utterly fed up with having to put air in the front tyre every time I wanted to move it due to the tyre going down, I finally got around to swapping it for one of the spares.

 

 

Obviously it needs three new tyres before it goes anywhere near the road, but at least it won't need pumping up every damn day now.

 

Offside door has had the bits I need stripped off it and the door swapped for my good spare base.

 

 

The window runner got slightly mangled getting it off, so I'll see if it can be recovered - I've a few spares sitting around so not the end of the road. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have two complete doors for the first time ever. At least I'm done with drilling out the 1827748929 screws involved in getting it apart.

 

Had to call it a day pretty early on today as we're going out for dinner in a minute.

[LightBulbFun]

getting spoiled with this deluge* of invacar updates/work 

 

TPA is on 10 inch wheels right? it will be interesting to see how handling compares to TWC which is on 12 inch wheels IIRC (do they make Michelin X tires in 10 inch size?)

 

the whole door melarky got me thinking (scary I know!), since the Roof is removable and the floor is just a sheet of metal over the steel chassis, the front and rear body work aren't actually connected together are they?

[Zelandeth]

Nope, front and rear mouldings are totally separate.

 

There are quite a few tyres in the 145/80 R10 size available as they're standard on Minis for quite a chunk of the production run. There are some period reproduction Dunlops available which look perfect...but are £130 odd each. I'll probably be going with Camacs to be honest. They don't look too modern, and let's face it a 400kg car with 20bhp isn't going to be working the rubber that hard.

 

If memory serves, TP is from the sort of time where the change from 12" to 10" wheel happened, but I'm sticking with 10s. The rolling radius of the wheels are pretty much identical, so I'm hoping the extra rubber between the rim and the road with the 10s will help the ride a bit.

[Zelandeth]

So today I decided to reattach the window frame to the offside door.

 

Decided I'd "save myself five minutes" by leaving the car in the garage.

 

Bloody stupid idea. Ended up spending far more time fishing tools back out from under the car when I dropped them and clambering around the car to get to stuff. Next time I just back the car out the damn garage. Ended up wasting so much time that I ended up just getting the frame done and not getting the glass back in.

 

I really do need to do a quick run around the car and just collect all the bits and pieces that have accumulated there. There are screws, nuts, bolts, tools, brackets, bits of brake pipe and such all over the bloody place and it's driving me mad.

 

I think the plan for tomorrow if time permits will be to finish reassembling that door then do a bit of a garage tidy as well as the whole right hand side is turning into something of a game of Jenga and I'd rather sort it out before it buries the Invacar. Also being able to open the nearside door will mean I can optimise things a bit.

 

Had the opportunity to show it to a couple of friends who have been visiting from the US this evening, suffice to say they were both amused and fascinated by it.

 

Really funny how getting a few jobs done can improve your mojo with a project.

 

I did have a good moment of inspiration earlier today with regards to sorting the bodywork. One of the biggest problems I've got is that some areas have quite large expanses of glass fibre just missing. The slightly mangled wheel arch and some general scratches and cracks are easy enough to sort. What I need for the larger areas though is - in the absence of an actual mould - is something to give some structure while I rebuild the areas in question. I'd experimented with some ally mesh, cardboard and chicken wire, but found they just didn't have enough strength and it was hard to get the precision I needed.

 

What I do have still sitting around from some earlier attempts at costume making are some nice chunks of high density closed cell foam. My plan is to sculpt a base to put behind the panel in question which I can then build the glass fibre over. Once there's a pretty thin shell there it's easy enough to actually build up layers over that for strength. Obviously the foam can just be removed once things are done.

 

Reckon it's got a better shot at working for the rebuilding of the "bumpers" than my previous approach.

[mk2_craig]

What happened to that NOS body shell that turned up on eBay a while back?

[Zelandeth]

What happened to that NOS body shell that turned up on eBay a while back?

Snapped up by another collector apparently. Still not quite sure how given it sold for a fair chunk below the max bid I'd entered. Not the first time I've had that happen either.

[quicksilver]

Some good progress there. Seeing that colour difference on the door reminds me of a question I was going to ask the Invacar experts. Did these things come in different shades of blue? TP and TWC are the colour I remember but the one in that BBC film looks much greener.