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

[captain_70s]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

Reminds me of the wheels on @captain_70s dolomite

I brush painted mine with Hammerite Smooth Black rather than Hammered Black.  

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, mat_the_cat said:

What voltage does it run on? We bought an el cheapo TV in 2011 or so, and as it came with a 12V PSU, simply ran it from the leisure batteries via a cig socket on the wall behind. This TV died mid-holiday in 2017 and it proved impossible to find one running on 12V at the usual electronic department stores (probably would have been able to find something overpriced at a specialist caravan suppliers!) Seeing as we had a tunnel crossing to catch settled on one with a 15V PSU, which seems to work OK - although sometimes shows a faint horizontal line if the voltage is a bit low. I could just run it from the supplied PSU from the inverter, but that seems inefficient!

 

This one is mains only.  Not too worried about that though as if we're somewhere without mains we're not likely to be spending much time parked in front of the telly.  If we really do want to have it on for a bit though we do have an inverter on board as well.  Having this set in place now gives me a reason to actually install the inverter permanently rather than just having it floating around in one of the lockers.

[Zelandeth]

TPA has been pretty busy today.

 

By the end of the day we'd covered 26 miles.

 

Glad to report that despite a good mix of low speed residential and high speed dual carriageway work that the gremlin count has remained at zero.

Here's a better picture of the freshly painted wheel in actual sunlight.

The drive system still isn't exactly happy, sounds like the belt is flapping around at speed (probably because of the remaining imperfections in the pulley surfaces) but it's vastly better than it was.  If time permits tomorrow I will pull the access cover to see how the belt is looking.  It was obvious before I did the work on the pulleys that it was getting utterly shredded after less than ten miles...so this seems a decent opportunity to check it.

Speaking about checking things, figured I would take a look at the plugs now I've had a couple of decent higher speed runs.

Originally I was having issues with the offside one fouling up, but they look healthy enough to me now.

Offside:

Nearside:

 

The plugs staying clean ties in with the oil consumption having essentially dropped to zero now a few miles on the road having been driven.  Wouldn't have surprised me if there was a sticky piston ring or two prior to that.

Actually really enjoyed the drive out today.  She's surprisingly happy at 50mph, and the ride is far better than it really has any right to be in such a tiny lightweight car.  Even if the way a three wheeler behaves over some types of road surface does take a bit of getting used to!  It's refreshing to find how much of a liability she isn't on the main roads.

One thing I hadn't clocked until today was how familiar the soundtrack from the drive is when you lift off the throttle...it totally sounds like the retarder on most late 90s era ZF (Ecomat?) gearboxes usually found in buses and coaches...figures my brain would have decided to make a bus connection...

Quite nice to have got a test run done - especially given it was a pretty strenuous one - without anything going awry or falling off.  Given I will be wanting to drive her over to Stoney Stratford in a couple of weeks for a show, it's nice to have made a good start.

[LightBulbFun]

very Awesome stuff! very happy to see continued running without any issues  

BTW I tell a lie on this being the first time iv seen 10 inch black wheels on a Model 70, I was look at some photos again, when I realised XEV95S is pictured in service on 10 inch black wheels

 

but regardless of that, they are looking very nice

[dollywobbler]

Oh man. That photo has it all! Invacar, Yugo, C15, Metro City, TWO Leyland DAFs 400s!

[Fumbler]

If only pictures today were that interesting! I guess they will be in ~25 years' time.

[Fumbler]

In fact that person in the Yugo is driving a Yugo Koral 55 (Yugo GV in US of A). I had no idea that were marketed here. I believe they're meant to be the high-end model like the Lada 2107 was. You know, 'high end' as in real plastic and a slightly less gluey smell when you get in.

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

Oh man. That photo has it all! Invacar, Yugo, C15, Metro City, TWO Leyland DAFs 400s!

indeed theres some serious chod in the photo, I should of put up a NSFW warning

(not sure if you saw when I originally posted that picture in my thread, but i was also very happy to find it, as XEV95S was a VERY late Model 70, that let me figure VES108S,s original registration  XEV88S if your wondering, and finally figure out the mystery behind that Model 70 somewhat )

 

3 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

In fact that person in the Yugo is driving a Yugo Koral 55 (Yugo GV in US of A). I had no idea that were marketed here. I believe they're meant to be the high-end model like the Lada 2107 was. You know, 'high end' as in real plastic and a slightly less gluey smell when you get in.

oh cool stuff  

[mat_the_cat]

On 5/21/2019 at 10:44 PM, LightBulbFun said:

if you dont mind hacking around, all flat panel TVs, just take mains voltage and via an internet PSU step it down to a lower voltage

if you can find one thats runs off 12V internally, then you may be able to just bypass the mains PSU and connect your 12V source directly to where the PSU plugs into

That's exactly what I've done, although they had an external PSU which obviously makes things easy. Just wondered how Zel was running it - we do a lot of wild camping so handy running straight from the batteries.

[Zelandeth]

On 5/22/2019 at 10:28 PM, dollywobbler said:

Oh man. That photo has it all! Invacar, Yugo, C15, Metro City, TWO Leyland DAFs 400s!

Glad to report that I know of one Leyland DAF 400 which is still earning its keep!

The red one is long gone now, but the blue one is as far as I know still with us...and from what I've heard it would pretty much take an Act of God to take it out of the hands of the current owners as there are quite some stories and memories attached to it.

"Upgrades" include but are not limited to an actual US locomotive horn hidden above the back axle.  Apparently anyone within visual range will jump an average of two and a half feet straight up when the button that activates that is pressed.

I've no idea what they've done to the engine either - I was following it to the convention a couple of years back and I was doing an indicated 80 (as far as my nerve will stretch on the motorway in these days of speed cameras every ten feet) and she was vanishing into the distance as if I was standing still.

 

[egg]

On 5/22/2019 at 10:34 PM, Fumbler said:

In fact that person in the Yugo is driving a Yugo Koral 55 (Yugo GV in US of A). I had no idea that were marketed here. I believe they're meant to be the high-end model like the Lada 2107 was. You know, 'high end' as in real plastic and a slightly less gluey smell when you get in.

I had to double check wikipedia - but as I thought both 45 and 55 were sold here (55 with larger engine). Also a 65 with 1.3 engine (they were rare when they were new I think).

[Zelandeth]

Had another cross city trip today in the Invacar, nothing to report aside from befuddled looking pedestrians and other drivers.

With 50 or so miles of actual driving done I decided that it was time for another change of the oil & oil filter.  In addition I wanted to drop the oil pickup strainer as I was expecting it to be full of slime again.

I wasn't disappointed.

That's just nasty.  It's not actually immediately obvious there, but there is a lot of gunk inside the strainer itself too.  Looks far healthier now.

Hopefully on the eighth attempt that image has actually been inserted where I told it to.

Definitely goes to show that when an engine has been forgotten about for a couple of decades that a carb rebuild and a couple of oil changes just aren't enough, there can still be a load of crud floating around in the engine.  I will probably pull this again in another fifty miles to check again - basically repeating until it stops accumulating slime between checks

 

[LightBulbFun]

im curious what do those lumps consist of exactly

I wonder if its a case of just the oil strainer having never been serviced in the engines life time until now so things have built up over the past 40 years

because if an engine has been sitting for 15 years, its obviously not been doing anything for those 15 years, so I do wonder how those lumps and bits of crud would form over those 15 years or so?

(my current best guess is, would it be things that where in suspension in the oil when it was in use then slowly settling out of the oil over the 15 years of diss use and lumping together at some point?)

[dollywobbler]

Ok, now I'm feeling bad. I know I dropped the strainer on one of my engines. Did I do it on both? Er, no idea...

[Fumbler]

From my knowledge of hydrocarbons and other organic chemisty, the oil will just gel up into slugs of solid bitumen etc. because it's been left to settle for so long. This stuff is really sticky and likes to lift up right when you think it's all gone!

[captain_70s]

On 5/22/2019 at 10:21 PM, LightBulbFun said:

very Awesome stuff! very happy to see continued running without any issues  

BTW I tell a lie on this being the first time iv seen 10 inch black wheels on a Model 70, I was look at some photos again, when I realised XEV95S is pictured in service on 10 inch black wheels

Looks like Glasgow/Paisley...

[LightBulbFun]

30 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Looks like Glasgow/Paisley...

indeed it is IIRC, sadly flicker is down atm so i cant check exactly where (IIRC the guy who uploaded/took the photo did say where it was snapped)

curiously enough VES108S/XEV88S was also deployed to scotland, or at least it ended up there in its finally days in service, hence when it sadly lost its original plate in 1998 or so, it gained a scottish local reg

(I wonder if all the XEV-S cars where built for scotland or something?)

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

Ok, now I'm feeling bad. I know I dropped the strainer on one of my engines. Did I do it on both? Er, no idea...

Pretty sure it was your current engine given you first be oil pressure issues after your first hill climbing tests, and as I recall TWC was never driven on the road before the engine was swapped was she?

 

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

im curious what do those lumps consist of exactly

I wonder if its a case of just the oil strainer having never been serviced in the engines life time until now so things have built up over the past 40 years

 

They're basically just congealed oil.  All oils will break down chemically over time (far more of an issue with older oils than the modern synthetic oils).  Any moisture in there will also cause issues as it will cause emulsification of the oil.  In addition to that there will be some carbon that winds up in the sump, which helps this stuff stick together too.

All reasons you could change your oil regularly.

I don't think the strainer would have been an issue in normal service.  The problems we've seen here are due to a couple of decades of neglect...if the oil was changed every few months as per the service schedule I wouldn't expect any problems like this.

[LightBulbFun]

1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

Pretty sure it was your current engine given you first be oil pressure issues after your first hill climbing tests, and as I recall TWC was never driven on the road before the engine was swapped was she?

 

They're basically just congealed oil.  All oils will break down chemically over time (far more of an issue with older oils than the modern synthetic oils).  Any moisture in there will also cause issues as it will cause emulsification of the oil.  In addition to that there will be some carbon that winds up in the sump, which helps this stuff stick together too.

All reasons you could change your oil regularly.

I don't think the strainer would have been an issue in normal service.  The problems we've seen here are due to a couple of decades of neglect...if the oil was changed every few months as per the service schedule I wouldn't expect any problems like this.

 

1 hour ago, Fumbler said:

From my knowledge of hydrocarbons and other organic chemisty, the oil will just gel up into slugs of solid bitumen etc. because it's been left to settle for so long. This stuff is really sticky and likes to lift up right when you think it's all gone!

 

ah cool, yeah makes sense

(on DWs engine front, yeah thats what I recall too, also memorable as he set fire to his oil catch can trying to burn some of the oil and sludge out of the strainer IIRC!)

 

 

[Zelandeth]

Running around all over hell today so nothing much to report...only thing I did was finally get around to mutilating a set of floor mats for the cab of the van.  Suffice to say none of the generic ones ever fit because the footwells of the van are way different in shape to those in a car.

Nearside one is relatively simple, just needs a little chunk removed for the space taken up by the engine cover.

Offside one requires rather more hackery.  Two reasons.  Firstly is that the engine cover is not actually central in the cab - it's a good couple of inches nearer to the offside of the van.  Secondly is that this van has a floor mounted throttle pedal with a huge heel rest, so you need to cut a slot out for it to sit in.

The cab will be getting new carpet at some point (yes, in something more sensible than beige shag pile), so I really wanted some mats in there before that happened so as to keep things clean.  Oh, and I had been repeatedly knocking this set of mats over in the garage for months and I wanted them out the way.

Hopefully will get some actual garage time tomorrow so will have something more worthwhile to report on.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Zelandeth
Correcting autocorrect (as usual)

[Zelandeth]

Aside from the scruffy corners, one thing which has been really obviously detracting from the bodywork on the Invacar is the fact that the doors are a totally different colour to the rest of the body.

Today I threw a bit of paint at the nearside one to see if I could do anything to improve it.

Mostly has taken really well, just one area directly above the door handle where something has reacted with the paint.  So I'll need to get that area rubbed back and repainted before getting things ready for another coat.

Definitely looks better than it did I think.

 

[LightBulbFun]

very cool stuff! it looks to be a pretty good match to the paint on the rest of TPA, is it the same blue you used to touch up past repairs? (I seem to recall the touch up paint being a deeper/more vibrant blue then the rest of the bodywork)

 

speaking of paint, if you want to go the full 9 yards at some point heres official Invacar paint info

 

 

im not 100% sure how to interpret it all, but it would be interesting to plug its values into a computer or something and see if it happens to match any known colour?

[Zelandeth]

Not too worried about the exact colour at this point.  When (if) in the future I decide to get the whole car resprayed professionally, that document may prove useful.  For now however I'm going to stick with the Ford colour I've been going with so far.  It perfectly matches one of the colours of paint that is on there...so it's not entirely inappropriate.

Got everything wiped down today and have given it another few coats.  Looking reasonable I think.

Still needs another couple of coats I think, as the finish is a bit patchy yet, but we're getting there.  It's forever since I've painted a larger panel so I've been playing the how-do-get-an-even-finish game.  Especially in my cramped garage where I'm working in my own shadow the whole time.

I may well just take the door off and outside to do the final coat or two.  If this hadn't landed on top of us when I was doing the work today I'd maybe have done so today.

Yes, the resulting rain was precisely as heavy as it looked like it would be.

Have done another bit of tidying.  Handlebars are no longer rusty and as rough as sandpaper.

I've also made a personal choice with regards to interior decor.  The inside of the door upper runner and the previously flaky windscreen pillar trims have also been painted black.

No, it's not factory spec...but it's entirely reversible with naught but a paint brush, and it's my car.  I think it looks better like this as it ties several parts of the interior together visually.  Yes I'll touch in the little patch between the windscreen an dash top once I have a smaller brush to hand.  Didn't want to get paint on the dashboard as it would be a pig to remove it from that finish.

Personally I think having a bit of detailing breaking up what was otherwise an unending sea of solid blue is an improvement.

 

[LightBulbFun]

33 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Not too worried about the exact colour at this point.  When (if) in the future I decide to get the whole car resprayed professionally, that document may prove useful.  For now however I'm going to stick with the Ford colour I've been going with so far.  It perfectly matches one of the colours of paint that is on there...so it's not entirely inappropriate.

Got everything wiped down today and have given it another few coats.  Looking reasonable I think.

Still needs another couple of coats I think, as the finish is a bit patchy yet, but we're getting there.  It's forever since I've painted a larger panel so I've been playing the how-do-get-an-even-finish game.  Especially in my cramped garage where I'm working in my own shadow the whole time.

I may well just take the door off and outside to do the final coat or two.  If this hadn't landed on top of us when I was doing the work today I'd maybe have done so today.

Yes, the resulting rain was precisely as heavy as it looked like it would be.

Have done another bit of tidying.  Handlebars are no longer rusty and as rough as sandpaper.

I've also made a personal choice with regards to interior decor.  The inside of the door upper runner and the previously flaky windscreen pillar trims have also been painted black.

No, it's not factory spec...but it's entirely reversible with naught but a paint brush, and it's my car.  I think it looks better like this as it ties several parts of the interior together visually.  Yes I'll touch in the little patch between the windscreen an dash top once I have a smaller brush to hand.  Didn't want to get paint on the dashboard as it would be a pig to remove it from that finish.

Personally I think having a bit of detailing breaking up what was otherwise an unending sea of solid blue is an improvement.

 

looks good to me!

(then again my standards for "looks good"  on invacars is, "are there less then 3 gaping holes in the body work, yes? then good it looks good to me"  in stark contrast fraser said GPG721K was is in a sorry state just because of a broken tail light and spun door handles...)

 

just dont get TOO  carried away

[SiC]

Your windscreen switch insignia is upside down...

[dollywobbler]

To Invacar/AC Model 70 owners, that is fast becoming the Princess Anne comment...

[LightBulbFun]

16 minutes ago, SiC said:

Your windscreen switch insignia is upside down...

as a Routemaster bus enthusiast, I see no issue with the windscreen switch insignia

[SiC]

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

To Invacar/AC Model 70 owners, that is fast becoming the Princess Anne comment...

I think I've said it on your thread + videos at least three times alone. It really bugs me...!

[LightBulbFun]

21 minutes ago, SiC said:

I think I've said it on your thread + videos at least three times alone. It really bugs me...!

if the switch being the "wrong way round" bugs you so much

Its probably best you dont see the Speedo on a AC Acedes Model 57/64!

[Zelandeth]

Getting there.  Annoyingly I got slightly too heavy handed on the last pass and wound up with a couple of runs.  Meh, it'll do for now.  It looks a thousand times better than it did.

Have also started to sort out the offside front corner which was my horrible first GRP fabrication effort.  Out with the original effort...

Difference is that this gives me a relatively regularly shaped hole to fill rather than a horrible ragged mess I originally had.

The approach to build this up is going to be quite different.  Instead I've thrown expanding foam in there, once that's set I'll sculpt the correct profile, then slap a skin of GRP over the top of that and then a bit of filler, and then paint.  The bit I've been struggling with has been the profile of the underside of the edge, but this should be a doddle.

I'm much more used to sculpting stuff from foam than GRP, so I reckon I've a better shot at getting the shape right.