Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rovers, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 24/06.

[Zelandeth]

I'm glad to report that the drive to Birmingham this year went considerably smoother than last year.

Found a suitably contrasting car to park next to to confuse the hell out of anyone passing by.

They're parked a good couple of feet further back than me too.

Definitely not a relaxed car for a drive like this, but aside from the air dam having attempted to vibrate itself loose didn't have any issues to report that I'm aware of yet anyway.

Yes, I was very conscious of every noise and piece of sensory input as I passed along the bit of the A45 where the previous engine expired last year!

[Zelandeth]

Been a while.  Middle of last week I made the run over to Birmingham for ConFuzzled.  This time not clattering to a halt halfway along the A45 I'm glad to report.

Reason I took the Trabant was that we have a little car show on the Saturday, as there's a disproportionately large number of petrol heads among us it seems.  TPA was taken over in 2022, the P4 in 2023 and last year I *tried* to take the Trabant, an effort which ended when the original worn out engine eventually decided to expire.  Car show might be making it sound to formal - it's basically just an excuse for all of us with an interest in all things automotive to get together and natter with each other for a few hours.

Turns out the Trabant is quite a conversation starter.  I was waaaaaay under prepared for the number of people who wanted to talk to me about it.  Questions, comments or sharing memories and stories about them.  Was basically non stop for three hours, and I damn near lost my voice.  Was a lot of fun though.

Fast forward to Tuesday it was time to head home - glad to report she didn't miss a beat and made it home completely without incident.

This in spite of absolutely *torrential* rain the whole way home.  During which I was reminded that I still need to resolve this leak.

Which drips completely and utterly unavoidably onto your right knee.  There's absolutely nowhere you can put your leg to avoid it.  This got REALLY old after an hour and a half!

Had a bit of water ingress somewhere over to the left under the dash as well.

Not entirely sure where that actually came from, guessing probably windscreen seal given I know it has shrunk.  Can't say I'm hugely surprised - it was some properly torrential rain I was driving through.  Despite a bit of water ingress into the cabin, the car handled it absolutely fine.  Think getting the screen seal changed is really something I should get done sooner than later given I've got a full set of new ones sitting in a box here.

Given I've also had a bunch of issues with the wipers as well I was glad to report that they worked flawlessly for the whole trip.  Screen coverage still isn't great but honestly I can't say I noticed it as an issue at all when I was actually driving in the real world rather than sitting on the drive trying to adjust things.  The 2-speed intermittent mode is definitely a nice thing to have as well, and during the one part where the rain almost stopped for a few minutes I was glad to have.

The only issue I found was the centre retaining screw for the front air dam below the bumper managed to vibrate itself loose.  I'll need to stick some thread lock on those I reckon or the same is just going to happen again.

This afternoon I got stuck into fixing something which hasn't worked in as long as I've had the car and get the impression has been like that for a long time.

Yep, the boot now actually locks.  It is still a bit finicky as the lock barrel is quite worn but it does lock now.  Which is kinda a nice quality of life improvement you know being able to keep the casually curious from opening it.  I do wonder if it jammed up some point in the past and that's why there's a chunk of the bootlid missing from where someone forced the latch.

It's a little thing in the grand scheme of things but like having mostly stopped the dash from rattling, does add up towards overall quality of life improvement in the car.

[Zelandeth]

Every car has something (or several somethings) stupidly simple made maddeningly awkward because the car is in the way.  On the Trabant the two I've come across are the inboard exhaust manifold to downpipe bolt, and most recently the centre air dam mounting bolt.

It lives behind where that little square thing under the number plate.

If you're smart you attach this before installing the bumper I guess...however I didn't feel like removing the bumper, carb or exhaust expansion chamber to make access easier.  I just opted for swearing at it for half an hour while trying to avoid eating the air dam itself to replace the middle bolt which ejected itself somewhere between here and Birmingham.

In fairness it's still about a 3/10 in the grand scheme of things.

It may have been annoyingly fiddly but the missing bolt has now been replaced, which has resolved the godawful buzzing from up front again.  When that started to get loose it produced an initially unknown metallic rattle from up front, which seemed worse when under power - suffice to say that initially cause some concern until I discovered it was in fact something innocuous.  Ah, the joys of using old cars!

Hopefully will be over at a classic car show in Stoney Stratford on Sunday - not holding.y breath though as it seems to be massively oversubscribed these days so actually getting in involves getting there way earlier than the posted times.

[Zelandeth]

Actually did manage to get into the show at Stoney today.  Think that's the first time in three years I've made it in.

This did involve turning up a full hour before the posted start time, and things were still the best part of 3/4 full by then.  They really need to start ticketing the event beforehand I reckon to manage the rush there is as it's so over subscribed.

The TVR Griffith I was parked next to was absolutely immaculate.  I do enjoy the no nonsense approach to the exhaust design TVR used on their cars from this sort of time onwards, with the huge collector arrangement forward of the engine.

Sounded glorious as well.

The owner has apparently had it for 20+ years, and it does get used regularly which is good to hear.

While it was damned near impossible to get on camera the paint on this Jensen was beautiful in person.

It looks black here, but it actually has a really deep reddish/purplish sheen to it where the sun catches it.

Hard to mention paint finishes without this car I guess...

Really do miss my Cappuccino.  I do forget how bloody tiny they are though.

Definitely a car which I'd be adding to the fleet again in the case of a lottery win.

Likewise on the subject of being incredibly tiny by modern standards...

This is a little more Autoshite though.

Or a nice non-Cooper spec Mini.

We had a Metro in this colour in the mid 90s.

Or a Mazda which was rare when they were new, never mind now.

Nice pair of P4 110s.

One detail on this little Fiat 850 drew my eye.

Those are the same bloody indicators as on the Trabant.  I'm guessing they've been replaced at some point in the car's life and were just convenient as I'm sure that's not a Fiat parts bin item.

These cars when in good shape like this really do still exude that aura of proper old money class.

Details really do make it, like how the door handles are wrapped into the trim strip.

Though still not quite as nicely executed as what Volvo did on the P1800 - which still to my eye counts as the neatest execution of a door handle that was blended into other brightwork on the car I can think of.

That was basically it for the photos, I was mostly just chatting to people and wandering around rather than spending the whole time behind a camera.  Good way to spend an afternoon.

[LightBulbFun]

55 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

While it was damned near impossible to get on camera the paint on this Jensen was beautiful in person.

Just 5 registrations later would start the first complete-full-block of 200 AC Model 70's from GPG711K to GPG910K, from which survives GPG721K the oldest known surviving Model 70, 111th off the production line  

[High Jetter]

One with 4 wheels - that's unusual. Do you know why / who it was for?

[Zelandeth]

Uh oh...

What on earth could this be I wonder...

[beko1987]

Oooh it's 6.53...  Any updates?

[Zelandeth]

Sorry, also entertaining guests this week so trying to juggle a lot of things!

I'm sure that this particular arrival will surprise very few of you to be honest.

 

[jonathan_dyane]

Looks stunning, I wish mine was as tidy

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Sorry, also entertaining guests this week so trying to juggle a lot of things!

I'm sure that this particular arrival will surprise very few of you to be honest.

 

that was my first guess yes  my second guess would of been the Austin 12  very cool tho! I am looking forward to hearing how you get on with it, since I know you said you quite liked the Rover P4 quite a bit more then first realised! will be interesting to hear how it compares in the fine details with 850AVB as well, you know how im a sucker for the fine details  

[Zelandeth]

18 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

that was my first guess yes  my second guess would of been the Austin 12  very cool tho! I am looking forward to hearing how you get on with it, since I know you said you quite liked the Rover P4 quite a bit more then first realised! will be interesting to hear how it compares in the fine details with 850AVB as well, you know how im a sucker for the fine details  

Much though the Austin would appeal, it's not really all that compatible with daily driving around here.  The ability to at least more or less keep pace with modern traffic is really needed if every journey isn't going to be hugely stressful.  While it's not the quickest of things off a standing start the P4 will handle that fine enough.

There are definitely a lot of differences, mostly in smaller details it looks like, compiling a more full list will need to wait until it's not a thousand degrees outside as it's just too damned hot to spend much time out there at the moment.

Things I've spotted just in passing though - albeit with the disclaimer that it is a 63 year old car so who knows what has been replaced during that time.

Clock is different.

62:

63:

Neither of the above work I might add.  I'll investigate that but it's a job for not today.

Indicator/side lights.

They're the other way around between the two cars and the older car has little red light pipes at the top that the later one doesn't.

62:

63:

Sun visors.

The ones on the earlier car are tinted plastic (acrylic?) rather than the more conventional modern style ones used later.

62:

63:

Windscreen washer bottle.  Seems to have changed from glass to plastic.

62:

63:

Could see things like that being some element of production line simplification and cost cutting given that by the time my 63 version was made I imagine that production would have been starting to ramp down quite a bit, with resources being ever more shunted towards keeping up with orders for the P6.

I'm sure there are a whole bunch more differences but those are what I've spotted so far

So far I've only actually driven the car about 200 yards and parked it after it was dropped off yesterday evening, so my views with it in terms of actually driving are still very limited.  Compared to my previous one though I reckon that there's some adjustment needed in both the steering at the brakes.  Seems to be a lot more free play in both than there were in my last one.

The nearside front indicator wasn't working.  This was a very, very quick fix - it wasn't plugged in.  Now sorted.

Already known is that the fuel gauge isn't working - though I've not yet investigated whether this is strictly an issue with the guage itself, wiring to the tank or if changes are needed to account for the car having been converted to negative earth (will depend whether it's a thermal or moving coil/iron gauge).  I should try the oil level check switch as seeing if there's any movement there might at least suggest if the thing is getting power.

Brake warning light doesn't work.  Suspicious looking stray wires in that vicinity - and I know for a fact that one of the terminals on the reservoir should have two on it as that's where the power is spurred off for the handbrake switch as well as the level sender.

That's about as far as I've got so far!  It's just too damned hot to do anything, and I'm having to work in two minutes bursts anyway around hosting people so tinkering time is very very limited.

There's definitely some evidence of electrical hackery, so I'll need to address that as I find it.

[vinyljunky]

What a nice car, congratulations.

 

Are those small red tips like the ‘sighters’ that you sometimes see on US land yachts from the 70s?

[Zelandeth]

I believe their purpose is to reflect back a bit of light from the side lights to make judging where the front of the car is after dark easier.  P6 has them actually moulded into the lenses (and usually broken off).

[Bear]

US '70s ones like Cadillac are often fibre optic linked to lights and are a bulb failure warning - I always liked the ones on the P6

[Zelandeth]

Actually drove around the block today when shuffling cars into new places.  There is deeeeefinitely too much travel in the brakes.  The throttle conversely is way more snappy than on my previous one.

Noted that the last MOT that came with the car (2009) and all of a couple of hundred miles ago there was advisory for the brake pads being thin - so that may well have a part to play.  Steering definitely feels very wayward as well, so will need to look for slop in any of the tie rods etc and maybe tweak the free play adjustment on the box a little.  That I'm less worried about though (once I've had a quick crawl around and make sure nothing is actually about to fall off anyway) as I basically learned to drive in a Lada so a bit of a dead zone in the straight ahead position isn't anything new to me!

[Zelandeth]

Well the clock definitely isn't the original given that it says on the back that it's for negative earth cars which this wasn't originally.  The indicators and sidelights also just seem to be in the wrong place given all photos I've been able to find have the indicators at the top.

Does anyone know what this colour is - if indeed it is even a Rover colour?

Whether more recent or in period with the car I doubt this was the original colour.

I'm assuming that the original was a significantly darker blue given that this is visible in a few areas like on the door hinges.

Kinda rolling my eyes that someone went to the lengths of taking the door off for the respray but didn't change the worn hinge pins while it was off the car.  Admittedly though given this car has been through a bereavement sale it's quite likely that Ill health stopped the restoration in it's tracks so maybe easier to understand.  *Adds hinge pins to shopping list*

Just know that at some point I'm going to need to do touch ups (and possibly get the boot lid repainted as the paint appears to have reacted and shrunk badly) somewhere down the line so having at least some idea what colour it is would definitely be helpful.  Is a shame about the boot lid as the paint otherwise really does look pretty decent.

It's not exactly urgent but getting that tidied up definitely would be nice to have done properly.

[TrabbieRonnie]

My '59 has indicators at the top, but you've got your fancy red sidelight bits which surely need to be at the top to be visible?

I for one like the colour btw, I'll be in the same boat myself when the time comes to match a non-original colour!

Well bought and good luck 👍

[Yoss]

Our local body shop that I've used twice and am very happy with have some sort of spectrometer device that they shine on the paint. The computer works out the colour and they mix it on site. So it doesn't matter if it's a non standard colour, the computer will match the colour it is now. 

They also made up a small sample card with the colour on the front and a breakdown of the quantities of each colour used in the mix written on the back. This now lives in my glove box so if I have to have more work done they know exactly what colour it is. And it will need the rear arches redoing at some point. I had it painted about four years ago and I think most Favorits had rusty rear arches by the time they were four years old anyway so it's no great surprise. 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Does anyone know what this colour is - if indeed it is even a Rover colour?

Whether more recent or in period with the car I doubt this was the original colour.

I don't think that isa period colour, can see if my parts cats have any info - got a code? Also seems high at the front & low at the rear.

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

I don't think that isa period colour, can see if my parts cats have any info - got a code? Also seems high at the front & low at the rear.

Sadly not, unless it's actually marked ON the car somewhere.  The totality of the documentation with the car is a V5 and two old MOTs*.

* Tomorrow is the first time I'm going to actually get any real time to go digging, so I may find stuff I missed first time round.  

I thought it seemed a little on the vibrant side for this class of car in period, but in my opinion really does suit the car.

The ride height seems to be a common issue.  The rear springs sag when they get old and lose their temper.  Conversely the front springs work harden so get stiffer - so the front ends up sitting high and the rear sags.  Assuming I don't find any major horrors when getting stuck into this I may well treat it to a full set of new springs as I imagine that would really transform the ride.  This one isn't as bad as my previous car where there basically was zero rear suspension.  This one does at least move when you try to bounce the car.  

[Yoss]

Actually, now I think about it, it doesn't look a million miles from BMC Teal Blue. I know it is impossible to tell from photos, especially digital ones, but this is my old Wolseley Six. 

[High Jetter]

Not sure how helpful this will be, but the parts cats list the following blues (ICI No.s quoted where given):

Pastel 2155, Smoke 2464, & Dark (1958 cat), Dark, Royal 3428, Norse 3425, & Steel (1963 cat)

[Zelandeth]

Actually had twenty or thirty minutes to look at the car today.

Hmm.  I think I'll need to resecure this window guide.

I had noticed when backing it into this corner that there was a definite rattle from the exhaust.

Ah, yes this would explain that.

Looks at a glance to be stainless, at least the mid and rear sections.  At least that was easily resolved.  

Bolt is too long, but it was what I had to hand.

I wanted to check to see if the float switch in the brake fluid reservoir was working.  Given that this car only has single circuit brakes I am considering this to be a very safety critical component.  Lifting the lid brought the warning light on so that at least is good news.

I can't at a glance see the line that goes to the handbrake switch, I'll need to crawl underneath and see if I can find that.  That's more for my OCD though, it's the fluid level indicator that's actually safety critical.

Speaking of safety critical I've stuck some tape on the end of that wire floating around by the brake fluid reservoir and a couple of bits on the other side where they had chafed and metal was showing.  This isn't a permanent fix (yes that's just duct tape) but at least vastly reduces the odds of things shorting out in the short term.  The bare wire by the brake fluid reservoir was indeed an ignition switched live.

There should be clips on the sides of the bonnet aperture for the main looms to clip onto, these seem to be missing here, presumably not refitted after the paint was done.  Will need to get something done about that.

The fuel gauge gremlin needs more research.  There is power to the gauge as when you switch it to oil level check the gauge wakes up and reads off scale high.

As the power for both of these modes comes from the same source that tells me that the issue is likely with either the sender of wiring to it (or maybe the tank itself not being grounded?).  Though there is also something amiss with the level sender it seems for the oil level as it's showing off scale full when it's actually a bit low.  

Discovered that someone has at some point fitted the wrong thermostat housing.  This is why the top radiator hose is squashed like this.

The correct housing for the 110 has the hose stub pointing straight up.  This won't be doing coolant flow any favours.  Correct one has now been ordered.

I think this engine will have a date with the degreaser and pressure washer in its future as it's quite a slimy mess.

Given I've had issues with it before I've made a point of getting an inlet manifold gasket in stock, and there's a set of gaskets for both valve covers on the way as it sounds like the valve clearances could do with setting anyway along with that likely being where a good chunk of that oil is coming from.

I do need to do a more than 200 yard test drive at some point this year!

[High Jetter]

4 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

.

 

Y Tho

[SiC]

Iirc 850AVB fuel sender was seized at the bottom. Removal, pulling apart to clean and a lot of WD40 got it moving again. Presumably these just seize up/stick when a tank level doesn't change for years. Wasn't terribly hard to remove it. 

[SiC]

Colour looks a bit like Tahiti blue to my eyes. 

[Zelandeth]

First box of goodies has arrived.

Let the improvements commence.

Before and after for then first new bit fitted.

Reason for the new badge is pretty obvious.

Quality of the moulding isn't anywhere near as good as the original, but you're never going to notice that unless you had them side to side.  Not being cloudy and all crazed will make the front of the car look a lot tidier at a glance.

Apparently I need to clean the carb needle/seat given that it decided to start dumping fuel when I turned the ignition on.

Given I need to change that fuel line between the sediment bowl and the carb anyway I'll give it a clean at the same time.

I did a little further investigation into the fuel gauge issue, and it looks like we do have a wiring issue.  There's power at the gauge but it's not getting to the sender on the tank. 

Guess I'll need to track down where the loom runs and looking for damage then.

I think a good clean of the interior is probably worth doing.  The instrument panel definitely looks better for a bit of glass cleaner.

Given it's getting stupid hot again tomorrow not likely to be anything groundbreaking going on.