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

[Zelandeth]

11 hours ago, Morris 63 said:

I do enjoy your tales of tinkering, along with the segues into old computers & electrics now & then.

Best of luck with the the bearing - and sorry to hear about the puller!

Yours is one of the threads I've always followed on here; for some reason your photos don't show for me on RR, but are fine here. Likely some weirdness with the work VPN I'm on. 

The images everywhere aside from on here are hosted on ImgBB.  I have heard of some VPNs and the like sometimes having issues with that host.  Glad that my nonsense has provided interest.

So today didn't go quite according to plan.  Failed at the first hurdle, getting the hub off the Trabant.  Looking at the parts diagram it should just pull off once the hub nut and locking washer are off.  However my puller literally exploded before anything moved a millimetre.  I've ordered a rather more substantial one, but it won't be here for a day or two.  

So I spent an hour on the Rover instead.

First thing I noticed was that I'd missed trimming the cable ties underneath the car.  Oops.

Up until now I've had a power supply to the pump jumped off the feed to the starter solenoid, requiring the bonnet to be opened and a plug physically connected or disconnected every time the engine was started or stopped.  Today I set about wiring in a proper, ignition switched source.  Borrowed from the heater blower fuse and routed to the pump via the routing of the factory wiring loom.

Looking a bit tidier.

Thirty minutes of so of driving around, then leaving it to cook idling in gear for ten minutes or so didn't reveal any more unknown issues.  So I need to take a brave pill and actually try taking it out of the neighborhood tomorrow to see what happens!  

Felt kind of odd doing a test without either ending up at the side of the road or having to bodge anything!

[TrabbieRonnie]

I think that is the correct old-style puller you have there... If it doesn't fit your car, I'd be very happy to buy it for mine!

Seems your hubs are different, the drum on the older ones has a lip around the centre that the two halves of the puller would go around, the sleeve clamps it all together and then hey presto...!  However, I feel your pain, knowing how Trabbi hubs can weld themselves together!

Good luck 👍

[Zelandeth]

8 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

I think that is the correct old-style puller you have there... If it doesn't fit your car, I'd be very happy to buy it for mine!

Seems your hubs are different, the drum on the older ones has a lip around the centre that the two halves of the puller would go around, the sleeve clamps it all together and then hey presto...!  However, I feel your pain, knowing how Trabbi hubs can weld themselves together!

Good luck 👍

Ping me a PM, sure we can come to an arrangement.  It's not going to do me any good as all of the hardware on mine is the later style.  I'll need to see if I can un-seize it at least.  Sadly it's suffered the same fate as everything that was in the boot, looking as though it's been stored on the bottom of the ocean.

Had half hoped the puller might have turned up today, but it hasn't.  Have been feeling really rough today as well which has hindered my productivity somewhat.

Some of you who have followed my trials and tribulations with the Rover will remember me finding this floating around in the back of the engine bay not attached to anything when I had the heads off.

My guess was that it was a breather which should be attached to the gearbox proved to be correct.  Somebody had obviously removed it at some point and never hooked it back up.  Why I'll never know.

This isn't something you really want to leave open to the elements for obvious reasons.  However reattaching that original line wasn't going to be easy.

Can you see where it attaches?

Zoom...

Zoom further...

There it is!

Yeah, there's no way I'm getting the original moulded nylon line back on there.  Maybe if I had the car properly up on a lift and I could get two hands in there from underneath, maybe.  On the driveway, not a chance.  After fighting with it for about half an hour I gave in and fitted a rubber hose instead.

You'll have to take my word for the fact that it's attached at the gearbox end.  Should do the same job just fine though.

The fluid level was also a *little* on the low side.

Took this to get it up to what looks to be the correct level (the handbook has the fluid level check procedure marked down wrong), saying to check it cold with engine off...not warm with engine running as is correct.  Prior to adding that fluid we had nothing on the stick at all when the engine was running.

Also worth noting that these gearboxes do NOT take normal Dex II/III fluid.  They need type F fluid.  Surprisingly, Mileham's had a few (admittedly rather dusty) bottles on the shelf.  Don't imagine they'll be bothering to re-stock those!  It looks, feels and smells the same as what's in the box so I'm reasonably confident this hasn't been filled with the wrong fluid at least.

Also apparently the heater box is missing a bunch of screws.

Don't think I have any others that are short enough in stock so will need to buy some.

So far the fuel system still seems to be cooperating.  Though I do need to adjust things a little as the warm idle is way too high, at about 1000 rpm in neutral.  Should be nearer 750 - or lower if you can get the engine to reliably idle slower, to reduce the "thump" when selecting drive/reverse.

In other news, did I drive around in circles for ten minutes this afternoon so I could catch this?

Yes, yes I did.

[mat_the_cat]

On 07/03/2024 at 01:50, Zelandeth said:

This didn't surprise me really as I know the original return line had a restriction in it to act as a crude pressure regulator. I have picked up a cheap regulator, though I don't have huge hopes for that (because...well...cheap parts). If it doesn't work I've an idea to make my own crude version using an adjustable clamp on the line. 

A MIG welding tip can work quite well as a return line restriction, which you could always drill out if too restrictive and fuel is vapourising.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

A MIG welding tip can work quite well as a return line restriction, which you could always drill out if too restrictive and fuel is vapourising.

That's definitely one of those things I'm filing away as useful stuff for future reference.  Would never have thought of it but yes, that's a really good idea.

Been feeling pretty frazzled today, so probably not the worst thing that it worked out I was lacking a worthwhile car to take to Rustival.  Reckon I'd probably just have been overwhelmed and ended up retreating after about an hour.  

I did need to run a couple of errands in the morning though.  Decided to take a brave pill regarding transport.

Proof it has actually moved.

Made it home again too.  Without breaking down.  In fact without adding anything else to the to do list.

Though the oil leak hasn't miraculously fixed itself.

That's going to be a barrel of laughs to fix.  It's the gasket behind the oil pump/filter housing that needs to be replaced.  It's just *slightly* awkward to get to.

That's a problem for some point over the next few days though.  

I did grab a quick video showing where we've got to this afternoon.  I literally just wedged my phone between the dash and the windscreen, so low production quality!  The loud bang about halfway through was me closing the glove box which decided to fall open and scare me half to death completely randomly.

 

So...

Oil leak is the big priority for the sake of other road users.  I'm not comfortable driving it further until that's sorted.  Other high priority items will be getting the radiator recored, the remaining original coolant lines replaced and the tyres need to be changed as they are definitely flat spotted.  Only really noticeable above 50, so not a huge issue for local use, but definitely want doing before any longer trips - they're absolutely ancient anyway so they want changing anyway.

I do actually feel like I'm making progress now at last rather than just chasing my tail, which is nice.

However, you remember the fuel leak which caused a small environmental disaster and caused our house to stink of fuel for a full week?  Guess what reappeared this afternoon?  From exactly the same spot...Yep, the same bloody leak.

I think the root cause of the issue was actually down to the fuel filter itself.  This had no ridge on the end of the hose barb, and I think the hose was just sliding down from the 8mm to 6mm section.  Said cheap and nasty tiny filter has now been consigned to the bin and a larger, better quality one has been fitted.

It was immediately apparent once the hose was connected that it was far more secure even before the hose clip was done up.  Said hose clip has also been replaced to be safe.  I've had that happen before on one of these but thought at the time it was a fluke.  They're getting binned though now.

Will I be obsessively checking these connections every single time the car is used for about the next year?  Yes.

Also really need to get some black HT leads, like seriously...

Rover wasn't intended to be today's main target though.  My box of several different sized pullers had turned up, so battle commenced with the Trabant wheel bearing replacement.

Honestly not sure if I had loosened it when I tried to remove it last time, as it just slid straight off today with relatively little effort.

Not maybe quite as bad as I was expecting given the noise this was making, but yeah this clearly isn't as clean as you would like to see.

Even more to my surprise, the lower shock absorber bolt unscrewed with any drama.

Couple of people had mentioned that removing the handbrake cable *before* starting to remove the trailing arm was a good way to save your sanity, so I wasted far too long trying to figure out the correct way to dismantle the brakes.  Got there in the end though.  Reassembling that won't be at all awkward I'm sure.

The self adjusters in this are really quite clever.  A really simple sliding ratchet arrangement which is built into the shoe retaining pins.  They can move outward away from the piston, but not inward - so the force of the shoe moving itself works the adjuster.  It's really simple, but looks to me like this should be quite reliable.  

The brake line itself was the next thing to be disconnected.

Of course because I am highly intelligent, I parked the car such that I had to lay in the Rover's oil puddle while doing this.  Well done.

Then it was literally just a case of unscrewing the two trailing arm bolts.  I did support the bottom of the hub with a jack to ensure any remaining tension on the spring was supported.  There wasn't much, but there was definitely a bit of tension left.  Just enough I'm sure to make getting everything back together an absolute pain.

Something definitely missing here!

Oh, here it is!

The shock absorber mounting bracket also then needs to be removed from the arm as it gets in the way.

I was really worried these bolts might snap, but they thankfully didn't.  Did protest a bit, but they came out.  The rubber cover the revealed the cause of our issue.  The inner bearing had clearly suffered water contamination based on the amount of rust that fell out.

Pretty sure this was the cause of our issues as the outer bearing didn't seem to be noisy.

The stub axle could then be knocked through the back of the hub.  This is seriously chunky looking for a 600kg car.  Can of Plusgas for scale.

The inner bearing can just be pushed out the back of the housing with a suitable drift.  The outer one comes out from the wheel side - after you've found and removed the circlip hiding in among the slimy old grease under the seal.

One set of knackered bearings.  The thing on the left is the spacer which sits between the two.

This needs to be cleaned up, then I can set about (carefully) installing the new bearings.

That's probably going to be tomorrow afternoon's job.

[] Clean hub.

[] Pack new bearings with grease.

[] Install bearings.

[] Install new seal.

[] Reinstall stub axle & add some more grease just for good measure.

[] Reinstall cover.

[] Reinstall trailing arm. 

[] Reconnect brake line.

[] Reassemble brake shoe assembly & handbrake cable.

[] Reinstall hub with new nut and locking washer.

[] Reinstall brake drum.

[] Bleed brakes.

[] Put wheel back on.

[] Test drive.  Assuming I've not missed anything critical.

Now I know how it comes apart hopefully should go back together a little quicker.

Having now seen how it comes apart, I reckon you *could* do this with the trailing arm still on the car, but it would be way, way more awkward - and the additional stress and swearing probably isn't worth the half hour or so it might save.  

*Hopefully* we'll have this back together tomorrow.  

[RayMK]

@Zelandeth The P6 sounds wonderful - and thirsty.  I've not driven a P6 but have been many miles in the smaller engined versions.  They ride far better than most modern cars while also being very sure footed (with decent tyres).

Nice work on the Trabant.  Once you've caught and rectified all of its previous maintenance or storage problems it should provide even more enjoyment, not only for you but those that see it buzzing around being useful.  I love its simplicity. 

[Zelandeth]

13 minutes ago, RayMK said:

@Zelandeth The P6 sounds wonderful - and thirsty.  I've not driven a P6 but have been many miles in the smaller engined versions.  They ride far better than most modern cars while also being very sure footed (with decent tyres).

Nice work on the Trabant.  Once you've caught and rectified all of its previous maintenance or storage problems it should provide even more enjoyment, not only for you but those that see it buzzing around being useful.  I love its simplicity. 

Well worth a drive if you ever get the chance.

I think the biggest surprise really is how old fashioned they don't feel to drive.  All the controls are light, it's quiet(ish), handles far better than you'd think for how squishy the ride is, and it's just such an easy thing to waft around in. 

Or at least it will be once I trust it not to break (again) at any moment anyway!

[LightBulbFun]

On 03/06/2023 at 01:04, Zelandeth said:

I had hoped to speak to the owner of this Rover but sadly never caught them.

An increasingly rare bird these days.  We did end up parked next to each other after the event though which pleased me.

you dont happen to still have the originals of these photos do you? I am talking to Stuart about various matters, Stanley Argsons and number plates as you do, and he said to me and I said back:

so thats what im doing  

I figured if the orignal photos could be uploaded to an external hosting site that does not utterly crunch photos like Autoshite itself does, it might allow us (Stuart) to zoom in and oggle the fine details  

or you can zoom in yourself and upload em here, whichever you think is best  

I just wrote those plates off as modern reproductions, but I do note the font is the proper full size which modern cheap repos rarely are

so thats what Stuarts trying to figure out  

 

(PS: speaking of Rover number plates did you manage to get measurements of the P4's front AC Model 70 style number plate before it sold?)

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

you dont happen to still have the originals of these photos do you? I am talking to Stuart about various matters, Stanley Argsons and number plates as you do, and he said to me and I said back:

so thats what im doing  

I figured if the orignal photos could be uploaded to an external hosting site that does not utterly crunch photos like Autoshite itself does, it might allow us (Stuart) to zoom in and oggle the fine details  

or you can zoom in yourself and upload em here, whichever you think is best  

I just wrote those plates off as modern reproductions, but I do note the font is the proper full size which modern cheap repos rarely are

so thats what Stuarts trying to figure out  

 

(PS: speaking of Rover number plates did you manage to get measurements of the P4's front AC Model 70 style number plate before it sold?)

Think this is the original res.

I do have a photo of that car on film I believe, which I *may* be able to pull better resolution out of.  Can't remember off the top of my head how much closer/further away I was when I took it.

I did take a note of the dimensions, but can't for the life of me remember where!  The front plate is very clean looking though, I'm not at all convinced it's not a (relatively) modern replacement.  Was completely devoid of any makers marks that I could remember seeing.  Would have made sense for them to both be of the same type when the car was new I'd think.

[LightBulbFun]

44 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Think this is the original res.

I do have a photo of that car on film I believe, which I *may* be able to pull better resolution out of.  Can't remember off the top of my head how much closer/further away I was when I took it.

Awesome thanks I have forwarded it onto Stuart  

44 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

I did take a note of the dimensions, but can't for the life of me remember where!  The front plate is very clean looking though, I'm not at all convinced it's not a (relatively) modern replacement.  Was completely devoid of any makers marks that I could remember seeing.  Would have made sense for them to both be of the same type when the car was new I'd think.

the front number plate on the Rover P4 is almost certainly a replacement plate as you say, but I am almost positive its a late 1960's early 1970's replacement, rather then a modern replacement

one of the things that interest me in it so much is its identical in style in the number plates AC used on all their Invalid vehicles from at least the Mid 1960's to 1st of January 1973

note the same unique style of 5 for example, and the boarder style is the same, which you can better see  on GPG721K which thankfully retains its original number plates

but neither me nor stuart has been able to figure out who the actual manufactuer of these plates where

we know all the number plate details for Invacar,

Hills from 1947 to mid-1967 then from mid 1967-1st Jan 1973, Tippers pressed plates no boarder,  then 1st of Jan 1973 onwards, Tippers Retro-reflective with sharp corner boarders

and we know the details for AC's from the 1st of January 1973 onwards, Ace pressed plates with rounded corner boarders, but we dont know what they used pre 1st Jan 1973

I mean we know what it *looks like* but who actually made them etc remains a mystery!

 

 

for reference

Tippers, Invacar plate

and, ace, AC plate

(also for @ETCHY to show just how much nuance and fine detail differences there where in old number plates back in the day, note the difference in the font of the digits as well las application and style of serif for example between the digits and plates)

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Love the Trabant (an the work you do to it).......but the P6.......that noise, the way it goes, just something about it that has me giving serious thought to selling the Lotus Excel I've got (more on that soon) and moving into my own one.  I'd use it for site meetings etc etc.  Mind you; let's not get ahead of ourselves - I've had the lotus 3 years and literally done 20% of what's needed (and I've been talking about it - another forum) for far too long without actually making any material progress.  

 

[Zelandeth]

Would have been a bit silly not to get the surface rust on the suspension arm treated and a bit of protection applied while it's off the car.

Another coat will go on tomorrow before stuff goes back together.  Nothing special, realistically probably not going to make a bit of difference, but I feel better for having it done.

Well... probably not going to be tomorrow given it's looking like it will still be raining all day tomorrow.  *Sigh.*

[Zelandeth]

Rain finally stopped today so I could move forward with this.  

No.  I definitely didn't give it the second coat of paint using the boot as a spray booth.

Also made a point of ensuring that the brake bleeder cracked loose while I had the arm still off the car as dealing with that as it stood would be far easier than in the car if needed.

The hub cavity, spacer, stub axle and rear cover were all cleaned up.

Not really many photos of putting the new bearings etc in as I was absolutely covered in grease for most of it.  In fact I feel like I still am despite having washed my hands a dozen times and showered since I worked on the car.

Probably the single most awkward part was actually getting the snap ring back into the groove in front of the outer bearing as it really was a bit beefier than my circlip pliers were designed for.  However I managed to not ping it into low earth orbit or embed it in one of my eyeballs so I considered that a win.

Getting the suspension arm back in place was moderately awkward, but honestly nowhere near as bad as I expected.  I was able to lift the arm into position and get the inboard bolt started, then have a jack support the trailing arm while I started the forward one.  Then was just a matter of evenly tightening them both up.  Which takes takes a while as both of the bolts are really quite long.  Definitely a job which made me wish I had an electric ratchet.

Then the brake line was hooked back up.  

Not thrilled by the amount of tension on the flexible brake lines.  Looks like when the camber correction hardware is fitted that an inch or two longer brake line should also be added.  I'll look into dealing with that in the future.

I appreciate that the brake shoes can be fitted back onto the backing plate as a single assembly without the need to wrestle with a bunch of faffing about with the springs.  You DO need to mind your fingers though as there will be a heap of tension on there.

Then the hub was reattached, the nut torqued up to VFT and the locking tab bent over to ensure it's not going anywhere.  All that remained there was to bleed the brakes and put the wheel back on.

A helper would have been handy rather than relying on the Eazibleed (which as usual leaked all over the place).  I know I do have one of those far simpler one man bleeders somewhere, but we all know what my garage looks like.

All back together.  Glad to report that a test drive revealed no unpleasant noises or anything.

The next task on the pre-MOT was the steering rack gaiter.  Seems simple enough.  Remove the end nut from the rack, separate it, remove old boot, clean, re-grease, fit new boot and reassemble.

Yeah...the two parts aren't too interested in separating after 39 years.  Ideas?  I've left it soaking in Plusgas overnight.  Guessing heat is probably the answer, albeit very carefully both due to not wanting to damage the rack itself and given the proximity of the fuel tank.

Once that's done and I've given the headlight beam alignment a tweak we should be ready to head to the MOT again.  Hopefully!

[plasticvandan]

I did remember reading that those gaiters are actually a pig to remove,the trabi club FB group may have some info on it

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

I did remember reading that those gaiters are actually a pig to remove,the trabi club FB group may have some info on it

Yeah, looks like I'll need to get a puller on to it.  I mean it's not something you want to come apart easily and from the locking washer it doesn't look like it's ever been apart before, so I can't complain too much.

[Zelandeth]

Okay, let's have another shot at getting this steering rack to track rod bracket apart.

Attempt number 1.  This failed.  The puller would always slip off well before getting any real torque involved.

This wasn't actually in use, I just stuck it on there for the photo, so yes I know it's not lined up right.

The correct tool for this job is essentially just a big ball joint splitter.  However buying one of those would require spending more money than I really wanted to, and waiting for something to arrive.

Instead, take one £15 splitter from Halfords and spend ten minutes mutilating it with a grinder until it fits.

Remember, it's not stupid if it works!

That let go with one HELL of a bang. 

The old boot was removed and things cleaned up ready for the new one to go on, which I'd already had long enough to have completely forgotten which box it was in and requiring 10 minutes of rummaging until it turned up.

Done.

Well, almost.  I didn't initially spot that there's a flat cast into the bracket where the locking washer is meant to locate.  So the nut was loosened off again and the washer rotated through 180 degrees since this photo was taken.

Only casualty was me being careless with the grinder and nearly setting myself on fire.

I was already kind of paranoid about fire was I was relatively close to the Rover while doing this job and it's proven so far to be by far the most stubbornly not fuel-tight vehicle I've ever owned!

MOT has been re-booked for next Thursday.  Shame they can't fit me in sooner, but it is what it is, I know they're always busy.  Aside from the usual sanity check beforehand and making sure all the lights etc are working, I need to try to tweak the headlight aim a bit as I think it's still way too low.  I'll make sure all the adjusters are properly lubricated before taking it in so it can be easily tweaked at the time if need be.

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

.

Done.

That gaiter looks very much like the drain hoses on my launderette washing machines. What's the diameter of the smooth end?

[Zelandeth]

On 14/03/2024 at 21:56, High Jetter said:

That gaiter looks very much like the drain hoses on my launderette washing machines. What's the diameter of the smooth end?

It's on the car now so I can't easily measure it, but "an inch and a bit" I'd say.  Maybe inch and a half for the outer diameter.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

It's on the car now so I can't easily measure it, but "an inch and a bit" I'd say.  Maybe inch and a half for the outer diameter.

The ID of mine is 2", but I think other diameters are / were  available. It comes in 1m lengths, you cut to fit.

[Zelandeth]

Couple of little jobs today in preparation for the MOT on Thursday.

One thing which I knew for certain needed sorting was the headlight aim.  I borrowed the Partner which I know the headlights are adjusted more or less correctly on and made a couple of reference marks on the garage door from a known distance.

Starting point basically had the headlights pointing at the ground about 6' in front of the car.

After a bit of tweaking things looked far more sensible.

There used to be a huge gap between the lenses and the surrounds, they look more sensible now.

Might need a bit of a tweak at the test, but all the adjusters are free now so that's only a couple of minutes work, and isn't the sort of thing my tester would mind happening while we're there if we need to.

As mentioned last time, I had to tweak the locking washer for the nut that holds the steering rack to the track rod bracket as I'd put it on backwards.  Just wanted to provide visible evidence (to myself as much as anything!) that I had gone back and fixed that.

The Easybleed as seems to be standard both leaked fluid everywhere and overfilled the brake fluid reservoir.  So I both drained off enough to bring the fluid down to the max mark and tried to clean up the general area so it didn't look like we had a huge fluid leak from the master cylinder.

I'd had a new air filter floating around pretty much since I got the car as the one on it was looking pretty manky.  If you wondered what filter these used, here's your answer.  Yes, that's also me lazily leaving breadcrumbs for myself when I forget.

Surprised to see this still being a current item from Mann given the *extensive* list of vehicles using it.

Has a late 2023 date code on though so looks to still be being made.  

Spotted one problem starting to develop in the form of one of the driver's door hinge pins attempting to make a bid for freedom.

Having grabbed a suitable drift this was hammered back into place properly.  Have to wonder how long that's taken to work itself that far out.  Noticeable that the door opens/closes more smoothly now.

Will try to find time between now and the test to give the car a general clean, and I'd really like to come up with a more substantial mounting solution for the front bumper as I can see it's sagging again.

[Zelandeth]

Today was mostly spent waiting for a landscaper who never turned up.  Being essentially unable to leave the house and not feeling I could get really stuck into any big tasks, I picked away at a few small ones.  

Firstly was doing a bit of tidying in the garage.  You can't really see much for it, but the mountain of stuff on and behind TPA has really shrunk a lot.  She was pretty well buried before!  Most of this accumulated when I was doing the head work on the Rover.

Still some stuff under the car, but the engine cover is clear now, meaning I was able to hook up the battery charger.  Hopefully actually get her out again sometime in the next few weeks.

Actually putting a lot of that lot away will happen once I've backed TPA out of the garage.  Trying to get to where anything lives is just such a pain with the car there - which is why I wound up creating such a mountain of crap there in the first place.

Still no sign of the landscaper, so I moved on to Trabant tinkering.  

Given she's in for the MOT tomorrow I wanted to make sure everything obvious was checked and do a little cleaning and tidying.

I did find we had one brake light out so got that changed.  Everything else checked out.

The windscreen wipers were still parking in a slightly odd spot, so I tweaked the position of the arm on the spindle which has fixed that.  I also did a little more contortion to tighten up the last two nuts holding the motor onto the bulkhead, so that's securely fastened in place and no longer makes annoying clicking noises each time the wipers change direction.

I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and gave the interior another quick going over.  It wasn't too bad, but I'd tracked in a fair amount of dead leaves, plus there was the usual omnipresent layer of dog hair, despite neither of them ever having been near the car.  Bit better now.

This bit of loose trim in the rear of the cabin was bugging me.

Obviously missing trim clips there which I duly replaced.  I bought like 40 of these and think I'm down to about half a dozen left now.

Not perfect, still a bit floppy towards the back seat because the panel is water damaged, but it's a lot better.

I then set about trying to remove some of the plethora of oily fingerprints which the car is basically covered in.   The paint had a lot of ingrained dirt everywhere too.

Things escalated.  I started polishing things - as that ended up being the most effective solution for removing it.  Safe to say this definitely makes a difference!

These cars never had a high gloss paint finish even from the factory - it's kind of halfway between an eggshell and gloss finish.  It's cleaning up pretty well all things considered, and is looking a lot better where I've gone over it.

Amusing looking at the side photo in that the car is a completely different colour now.  It's definitely shifted from "off white" to properly beige.

Started raining after I'd wrapped up.  Imagine it's been a while since the paint did this.

This car is never going to be a show winner, and I'm not putting tens of hours into polishing every millimetre, but I'd like it to at least look cared for.

To that end I'd really like to do something permanent regarding the crack in the front of the bonnet.  Which because of where it is is a bit tricky.  Might be easier to just get another bonnet and have it properly prepped and painted.

Oh, look what I found thanks to a member of the owner's club.

The paint on it is absolutely knackered, but I didn't see any cracks or large chunks missing at a quick glance.  It was free though so I wasn't going to quibble over it either way.  I'll take a closer look at that sometime in the near future.

What will the MOT bring?  We'll have to wait and see.  Rust is my biggest concern - I really haven't had a really good dig around the whole underside, so quite likely there could be rot under there I've not spotted.

The Partner is booked in to a garage to have whichever wheel bearing is making a noise sorted on Tuesday, so hopefully that will be sorted soon.  Though we will then the following week have the fun of getting that through an MOT - which *hopefully* shouldn't be too painful.

[High Jetter]

12 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Not perfect, still a bit floppy towards the back seat because the panel is water damaged, but it's a lot better.

Is it flexible enough that some sticky-backed velcro would hold it flat?

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Is it flexible enough that some sticky-backed velcro would hold it flat?

I don't think so.  It's a ways down the priority list though so will likely just be left as is for a good while now.  It is a lot better than it was at least.

If it ever gets back to the top of the list I'll likely use the approach of scoring and painting the back of the board with resin and clamping it flat while that cures.  It's worked well for straightening out a couple of wavey, water damaged trim panels before.

[Zelandeth]

Ah, the nerve wracking part of the day...

MOT in progress...

[LightBulbFun]

I see the resualts are in, not gonna say anything as its not my MOT result to spoil so to speak LOL

 

but I do want to say, I love the major jump in milage between the previous results and this years result  

2007: 27,434 

2023: 29,206

2024: 32,656

 

in one year alone on the forum, its done like twice the milage it had done in 16 years prior!  

[Zelandeth]

I'll take that!  

Tester was actually very complimentary of the state of the car underneath.  

[PhilA]

Good progress. Your kick-down cable needs adjusting though. It's changing right under moderate throttle but the 1-2 shift is way more harsh than it should be at light throttle. Found that's about 1/8" adjustment on the cable on mine...

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

32 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Good progress. Your kick-down cable needs adjusting though. It's changing right under moderate throttle but the 1-2 shift is way more harsh than it should be at light throttle. Found that's about 1/8" adjustment on the cable on mine...

 

Phil

Yep, it definitely still needs a bit of fine tuning.  It wasn't attached at all when I got the car!

[PhilA]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Yep, it definitely still needs a bit of fine tuning.  It wasn't attached at all when I got the car!

Ignore the little lead piece (if it's still there on the cable) because by now it'll just slide up and down. 

It's meant to be the dead travel marker, and you're meant to use a feeler gauge between it and the top of the cable end. 

Consensus is adjust it back slowly until the cableis slack, then bring it up just to taut then about a quarter turn and snug it down. 

Check kick-down operates correctly and under anything more than about 5% throttle the change should be positive. Below that it should slip the bands in for a more gentle shift.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

Kind of annoying day today as the weather kept looking decent for being outside, but pretty much the minute I'd start doing anything the heavens would then open again, for about 2 minutes.

Just enough to make it wet again.  I got the roof of the Trabant given a quick skim over with the polish at least.

It's a bit patchy so will want doing again, but is definitely a lot better than streaky ingrained dirt.

You can definitely tell which bits have and haven't been done.

As stated, my intention has never really been to make this into a shiny show car, I just want to do what I can to help it looks cared for.  I don't mind it looking a bit careful worn, but don't want it looking neglected.  Chalky and covered in moss isn't exactly the look I want.

Just the right hand side to do now.  If the weather would bloody cooperate.

Otherwise I've just been using the car about as much as I can get away with over the last couple of days.