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

[Zelandeth]

Despite being slightly demoralised by getting the news this afternoon that we need to completely reroof the house I wanted to get something done.

My target was this.

There's something missing here.  Basically that black panel that stops half way past the box in centre frame should continue right to the back of the car, frame left.

The rear nearside has obviously taken a shunt, and a significant portion of that wheel tub was missing.

That hole shouldn't be there.  If it were on the other side I wouldn't mind so much, but this means that whenever the road is anything resembling wet that the coil gets drenched...which is less than ideal.  Quite how it hasn't protested on a couple of occasions yet I've no idea.

The area *should* look like this.

There were also several cracks spreading out into the wheel tub which had seriously impaired the rigidity of the area as a whole.

At the close of play today it looked like this.

Several more layers will be added on both sides of the foam board I used as a former then splash some paint on it.  Already the whole rear quarter of the car feels way more solid.  Keeping the weather out of the engine bay was my main intention, but it it cuts down on rattles I'll not complain.

I now need to try to get the sodding fibreglass out of my hair.

[Zelandeth]

Oil pressure gauge arrived.

Time to confirm if the light in the Caddy is telling lies.

On start up it initially shot up to about 80psi, soon settling to 59psi at idle.

When driving it seems to sit pretty steadily on 70psi which seems to be the set pressure of the relief valve.

Idle when warm doesn't look stellar to be honest but at least is there.

No idle pressure is given, the test is meant to be done at 2000 rpm (which is the point at which the warning light is enabled - it will never come on below that), requiring 30psi - we're showing about 60 at that point so not worrying about that.

Basically there's bugger all wrong with the oil pressure.  The warning light is telling lies.

Time to order a new pressure switch I think (which on this is unusually a normally open rather than normally closed switch).

[Zelandeth]

It's astonishing what ills you can hide with some matt black paint!

Fluids all checked.  Just need to give her a quick clean then we'll be off on our little trip tomorrow afternoon.

Might see if I can get the interior done after dinner as that will be one less thing to deal with tomorrow.

My brain is making this trip seem a bigger deal than it really is - it's like an hour's drive to the hotel I'm spending the weekend at.  Just never have done a run quite this far in one direction before with this particular car.

Really hoping it's a bit less windy tomorrow or it'll be a bit of a wobbly trip!

[PhilA]

Did these ever come with a starting handle?

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, PhilA said:

Did these ever come with a starting handle?

Not with the Model 70 (keep in mind the person using the car might not have any functioning arms!)

the starter-dog is a byproduct of the Steyr Puch engine (however I dont think the Steyr puch 500 itself ever came with a Starter handle either! certainly I have never seen one such equipped!)

 

but I would love to see someone try and hand start a Model 70, just for the novelty factor  (it always tickled me that in theory you could hand start a Model 70, since the earlier Villiers machines with their Siba dynastart units had no previsions for hand starting at all, although the pre Siba machines normally had some sort of hand lever hand starter but we are talking 1920's-1950's class machines there!)

 

not all Model 70's have a starter dog either some just have a plain nut, but Im still researching to see if this was a later production change or not

(My Model 70 does not have one for example sadly, but @Mrs6C's Model 70 does and we both Have October/November 1976 Model 70's, but the starter dog/pulley nut is one of those things that I would imagine would be swapped about regularly given you would have to remove it any time you needed to service the dynastart belts, so its hard to say if sometime in production they dropped the starter dog, or if the plain nut was a post production replacement part, or if it was just fitted at random depending on what the puch factory had on hand)

[mercedade]

22 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Basically there's bugger all wrong with the oil pressure.  The warning light is telling lies.

Obviously, the way you're going about it is the right way (ie change the switch first).

Without knowing how the oil pump is driven in this car, I suppose there's a secondary option which is that the oil pressure is good most of the time. I had a water pump that failed to pump all the time because the drive key on the back of the power steering pump (which is what actually powered the water pump) started slipping on the shaft. Not all the time, just some of the time, until it was all the time.

[Zelandeth]

Very brief update as my cellular data connection is seriously struggling.  Being on site with ~2500 tech heavy people may have something to do with that.

Birmingham has been achieved!

 

Madness and mayhem shall now ensue.

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Very brief update as my cellular data connection is seriously struggling.  Being on site with ~2500 tech heavy people may have something to do with that.

Birmingham has been achieved!

 

Madness and mayhem shall now ensue.

Lovely to see TPA oot and aboot, must also say that my eye was drawn to that little red pre-FL K11 Micra at the back there, as well.

[LightBulbFun]

26 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Lovely to see TPA oot and aboot, must also say that my eye was drawn to that little red pre-FL K11 Micra at the back there, as well.

Yeah! TPA could of well been replaced by one of those back in the day on the motability scheme! so in someways its somewhat fitting! "the old and the new"

(I will admit I do find it amusing how her wheel chair vanishes in the 2nd picture! im guessing because theres no dedicated wheel chair space in a Micra like there is in a Model 70!)

[Zelandeth]

Parked up among some good company...

Though yes, the Micra is probably more classic Autoshite.

That must be a bloody early one for that shape now I think about it.  My father's last Micra was the previous generation and that was on a H plate.

To be fair, there are a lot of interesting motors in this car park.  Not surprising really that a car show segment made its way into the program!

[Zelandeth]

Now, before I set off to ConFuzzled, I had the presence of mind to write up a sign giving a brief description of what the heck TPA is and a*very* brief intro to the history of the Model 70.  

Did I have the presence of mind to BRING said sign with me?   Uuuh...not so much.  It's still sitting on my desk next to the keyboard.  D'oh!  Well it will do for next time I take her to a show.

Oh well, on with the show.  Well show is maybe an overstatement.  Basically the hotel staff have made what's usually the staff car part available for anyone with an interest in cars to gather in.  Some very normal cars, some rather special cars, some normal cars with fancy audio installs etc...just a bunch of petrol heads hanging out and nattering to each other.

The sheer number of exclamations of complete befuddlement when people found TPA was highly amusing.  Definitely got a lot of interest though.

Quite a contrast to the car to my right!

Quite a variety there.  Though probably the most pure Autoshite would be this Escort Cabriolet.  Can't be many of these left!

Vitara also qualifies I think.

Quite a bit of love for French motors here too.

How late 90s is that seat fabric?

A very, very festive Cube.

The Buick I had parked just across from on Friday made an appearance.  Sounded lovely too.

Seeing this very much reminded me how much I still want one.

Preferably very slightly earlier than this just to avoid the hideous early airbag wheel.

On the subject of Americana...

Several Volvos...only one of which I apparently photographed.

I wasn't in the only air cooled rear engined car there either.

Not even the only pale blue one either!

Japanese were fairly well represented.

One very rapid Skoda.  Not writing cheques it can't cash, this has well north of 300bhp if I remember rightly.

A very pretty little sports car.

Another one...which I really wasn't a fan of when it was new, but the looks of which have grown on me.

TPA confusing yet more people.

Parked back up next to a quality motor for the night.

I thought I'd been trying to stay in the shade a decent amount, however the sunburn on the back of my neck says otherwise!  Oops.

Apparently TPA made an impression though as I was handed a golden spanner.

Will be heading home around lunchtime tomorrow to hopefully dodge the worst of the traffic.

[LightBulbFun]

27 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

The sheer number of exclamations of complete befuddlement when people found TPA was highly amusing.  Definitely got a lot of interest though.

yeah I will freely admit one of the very fun things about the Model 70 is how it just seems to utterly break people and ill always get a kick out of that  

 

while reading your thread on Retro-rides, I see that TPA has clocked up 3000 miles! 

so very awesome to see TPA tackle another milestone  and of course its really awesome to see her out and about once!

 

one of the fun things I always think about when I see a Model 70 or such on the road, and something I thought about when I was driving REV to the chippy and back is that, there are about 40 million vehicles on the road

however only ever about 1 Invacar on the road at any given moment in time if that (I can count the amount of Invacars in regular/semi regular use on one hand sadly)

so the statical chances of someone seeing an Invacar as they go about their day is literally 40 million to one

hows that for some fun food for thought  

[Dyslexic Viking]

6 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Several Volvos...only one of which I apparently photographed.

 

The Volvo is decorated as Norwegian police cars looked and the Norwegian police had 940 in service. But why has anyone in the UK done this with their Volvo? I find it strange.

Norway's last 940 police car went out of service in 2021 after 26 years of service and about half a million kilometers.

[High Jetter]

11 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Quite a bit of love for French motors here too.

What's going on with that number plate, or is the image flipped?

[New POD]

50 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

What's going on with that number plate, or is the image flipped?

TOO 500 N 

[High Jetter]

9 minutes ago, New POD said:

TOO 500 N 

I don't think that 5 would be classed as legal, and that plate seems not to exist on DVLA.

[Fumbler]

On 27/05/2022 at 19:16, Zelandeth said:

Parked up among some good company...

Though yes, the Micra is probably more classic Autoshite.

That must be a bloody early one for that shape now I think about it.  My father's last Micra was the previous generation and that was on a H plate.

 

First year of production I'm pretty sure. It's done incredibly well to still be alive this long.

[Crackers]

It's just a show plate. 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

What's going on with that number plate, or is the image flipped?

The plate was on a 2000 mkiv Golf until earlier this year. 

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, New POD said:

TOO 500 N 

Just a show plate referencing the Fast & Furious movies, nothing to read too far into.  Think a few cars there had show plates on.

Back home a couple of hours ago.  TPA didn't miss a beat on the way back.  Was a bit easier run as it was less windy, traffic was lighter too.

Something was playing funny buggers just as I was arriving at the hotel causing her to misbehave occasionally on light throttle as happens now and then.   Not entirely sure if it's fuel related or possibly heat soak causing issues with something else - I am looking somewhat suspiciously at the coil given I've never even touched it and it does look like it was dredged off the Titanic.  Kinda tempted to swap that and just see if the problem goes away.  Of course tracing an intermittent fault is always fun!  Coil is a pretty low effort item to test by substitution at least.

Wasn't bad anyway, just a little unnerving when you're on very busy roads you don't know.

So about 150 miles covered over two days. 

Fuelling up just after starting towards home showed 40.8MPG on the outward journey - which confirms my suspicion that she'd manage 40 out on a proper drive.

Window latches.  Dear god I should have replaced those sooner.  It's so nice having windows which actually stay where you put them - I also had totally failed to realise how many rattles in the cabin came from the windows.  Between the new latches and the zip tie stopping the fire extinguisher handle from rattling (it doesn't interfere with operation) it's made the cabin a lot nicer.  Not having a continual draught from the offside window blowing right in my ear is nice too.

Didn't see any signs of my car having been interfered with, but I know as an event we've had issues in the past, so I did a few things to help immobilise TPA just in case.  One of which was having this live in my hotel room.

It's like the 60s all over again...

That wasn't the *only* thing I did, but was probably the most traditional.  I just made a point of leaving absolutely nothing in the cabin overnight, so hopefully didn't look a tempting target.  To be fair, it's not a likely target - not easy to move on, and no particularly high value parts about.  I figured better safe than sorry though.

I did spot one of the other Volvos I missed today just before I left.

I'm sure I overheard someone saying that the police livery on the one was something to do with a charity event from a few years ago.  I've not spoken to the owner though so can't confirm that.

It's been nice to see how TPA handles a slightly longer run.  Was good to see that the temperature did stay in the 150-170C range even when staying at speed for quite a while.  I know this car wasn't really designed with high speed cruising in mind so whether the cooling system was up to it was always a question in my mind.  I do want to have a closer look at the CVT belt just to see how it's holding up after this - no noticeable change in behaviour, but it must have north of 2000 miles on now, so worth checking properly.

Is she an ideal long distance cruiser?  Absolutely bloody not!  Wobbly, incredibly noisy and the ventilation is sodding awful.  However she's perfectly capable of it - which is good to know given FotU is about twice as far away from home for me as this was I think!

Quiet evening for me now though, I'm pretty well knackered.  Been a busy few days.

[Zelandeth]

Big box arrived earlier for the Caddy.

Fantastic example of how to pack stuff well.

Replacement (hopefully) for the dead air con compressor on there currently.  Though I still need to find someone to degas it for me without charging me £60 for the privilege...On the fence about just getting a garage to install the thing too. Main thing putting me off is that the aux belt on this thing is *stupidly* tight and it's a royal swine to get the tension off because of where the tensioner sits.  Think it might be easier from underneath with the car on a lift, but it's bloody awkward on a driveway.  That's why I didn't change the tensioner and idler pulleys myself.

Speaking of belts, I really need to have a closer look at the dynastart belts on TPA.  They have always squeaked a bit at idle and the reason seems to that the whole dynastart unit looks to be sitting ever to slightly too far towards the rear of the car.

The upper pulley is quite worn/pitted too which won't help, but the fact the belt is running out of true is responsible for most of the noise I think.

I've always been meaning to look into this but it keeps dropping off my radar.  I need to have a close look and see if there's an easy way to move the whole lot forward a millimetre or three.

[Zelandeth]

Today I had to do something that I despise and always makes me massively nervous, leave a vehicle unattended at a garage for an MOT.

Not least because it meant I had to get the bloody bus home, which takes well over an hour to do the five miles.  I'd have been quicker walking, however I didn't feel like getting drowned.

The last bit of the trip was done by e-scooter.  First time I've had a shot of the newest Lime ones - they have definitely upped the game, these are way nicer to ride than their old ones.  Bigger front wheel and better suspension.

I hate leaving cars to be tested without being present, never mind a 32 year old camper.

Nevertheless, the end result:

Given I didn't even check the lights or anything before chucking it in, I'll take that. 

Advisories have all been there forever aside from the one about a power steering pipe...it doesn't *have* power steering.  I'm assuming they're just meaning the steering box is weeping oil a bit, which it does and has done as long as I've had the van.  Not worried about it.

Quite surprised the tyres didn't get a mention as the perishing is quite visible on a couple of them.  I'll probably get them changed in the next couple of months just for peace of mind.  Shame as the tread is still basically unworn (probably because they're commercial rated so the rubber compound is harder than concrete).

Had a rather special visitor today.  Wonder when the last photo of these two models side by side was taken.

Fascinating car to have a look at.  Really had never had a chance to look at one up close before.  Really quite comfy, though oddly short geared.  I do wonder if that is something that is quite common to PSA vehicles as I remember my 306 Sedan feeling way under geared too - on a dual carriageway I repeatedly found myself second guessing if I had actually changed up out of fourth.

They very kindly gave me a lift to go collect the van from the MOT too saving me another hour on the bus which was most appreciated.  

I was really happy to find this on the shelf in my local motor factor again.

It's easily the best fluid of its type I've used and I've been lamenting not being able to find it for ages, until today.  Suffice to say I bought several cans!

[Skcat]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:16 PM, Zelandeth said:

Parked up among some good company...

Though yes, the Micra is probably more classic Autoshite.

That must be a bloody early one for that shape now I think about it.  My father's last Micra was the previous generation and that was on a H plate.

I know the owners of both of these cars, The Micra is actually local to you! If anyone is interested in the buick the owner might want to sell it, however it's not being given away! 

[Scrubworks]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:16 PM, Zelandeth said:

Though yes, the Micra is probably more classic Autoshite.

That must be a bloody early one for that shape now I think about it.  My father's last Micra was the previous generation and that was on a H plate.

This car belongs to my housemate . I originally bought it to take on the Mongol rally back in 2018, which thankfully never happened. I then sold it to my housemate who's been using it as a daily ever since. It was registered in February 93, and I reckon it's the oldest "working" Sunderland K11 still in existence (excluding prototypes and first-off-the-line models maybe kept in museums). And you may see it about yet, as we're in MK.

[Zelandeth]

11 minutes ago, Scrubworks said:

This car belongs to my housemate . I originally bought it to take on the Mongol rally back in 2018, which thankfully never happened. I then sold it to my housemate who's been using it as a daily ever since. It was registered in February 93, and I reckon it's the oldest "working" Sunderland K11 still in existence (excluding prototypes and first-off-the-line models maybe kept in museums). And you may see it about yet, as we're in MK.

Small world!

I thought the reg seemed familiar, I probably have seen it about then.  Must really have looked a modern car by supermini standards back in 93.

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

 

Wots that with the Marina door handles?

[Zelandeth]

15 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Wots that with the Marina door handles?

Not quite, they're a little more intricate than that.

They belong to @Six-cylinders Trevi.

[High Jetter]

25 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Not quite, they're a little more intricate than that.

Oof! Thanks.

[Scrubworks]

On 6/1/2022 at 6:38 PM, Zelandeth said:

Small world!

We've actually met before, at an MKFurs meet years ago when you had your Lada. You showed SKCat and I the fuel injection spaghetti wiring you did on it .

[Zelandeth]

It's been a while since this thread saw any activity.  Basically because nothing car related has happened since the start of the month.  That would be because I was thoroughly knocked on my ass by COVID.  While I got rid of any specific symptoms like two weeks ago, it's only in the last few days I've started to recover anything even vaguely resembling stamina.  By which I mean "I can actually climb the stairs without thinking I'm going to pass out now."

I cannot ever remember feeling as ill as this.  Only thing that came close was when I got a really bad chest infection back when I was about 12 - which is what triggered recurrence of the asthma which had previously been in remission since I was 3.  I seriously was bed bound for the best part of a week.

Anyway, I'm back into a state where I'm resembling a functioning person again so it's time to get stuck back into things.  Even if to distract me from buying yet more old computers...eBay is sodding dangerous when you're stuck in bed sick!

So...what's on the to do list?  It's been long enough since I even walked into the garage that I had to think about that a bit!

[] Caddy is booked back into a garage (had to cancel the original appointment due to the whole getting COVID thing) to have the steering and suspension thoroughly inspected and a wheel alignment done properly.  Hopefully this will resolve the issue with it wearing the outer shoulder of the front tyres.  Four new tyres will then follow.  Really haven't been impressed with the ones on it anyway so a set of Uniroyals have always been on the shopping list.  No sense in doing that until I know the alignment is sorted though.

The oil consumption issue seems to have stopped as suddenly as it started... I've not done huge miles lately (for obvious reasons), but the level hasn't moved on the dipstick since I did the oil and filter change.  I'm keeping an eye on it though in case it starts playing up again.

I'll be making a run up north next month to collect a bunch of computer hardware, so that will be a good opportunity to track usage over a decent number of miles quite quickly.  Would also like to have the wheel alignment properly sorted prior to that run too.

[] Van.  Finally rediscovered the new thermostat I bought for it about two and a half years ago to address the excessively cool running.  Though I can't even see the thermostat housing from under the bonnet, I'll need to pull the dog house off and hopefully it won't be too hard to get to then.  The coolant will be due a change before this winter anyway so it'll be a good opportunity to do that at the same time.  Need to look up how much it takes...probably somewhere around 10 litres I expect.

[] Invacar hasn't been out since ConFuzzled.  Brakes still need adjusting, but just as there's a bit of excess travel rather than because they aren't working.

[] Trevi.  Haven't looked at it in about three weeks...I need to get back to looking for the distributor bits to hopefully get it running right again so it can go back home.

[] BX.  Has been confirmed that the gent who came to look at it does indeed want it, so that will soon be off to a new home.  Once that is done, we can arrange delivery of the Cavalier.  Which I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in to.  The buyer of the BX is on here so the story of the car will continue on these pages.

Quite how far I'll get with anything this week will remain to be seen as energy is still in quite short supply, but hopefully *something* can get ticked off the to do list!