How much shite is too much shite? Specials and Space

[hairnet]

if youre taking it out via tunnel or ferry itll be listed on the ticket

both ways

dont see a problem

take a photo of it at home with location enabled on ya phone

then at the port then in france

they can see its going out and coming back

pas de probleme? if it was a vehicle then into carnet but if its not going out for long (less than 6 months isnt it)

you should be ok?

 

[Saabnut]

7 hours ago, Crackers said:

You may have already explored the option but have you considered an ATA Carnet? I'm not sure if they're available to non-business goods movements but I am currently using one to send some goods abroad for work. The goods must return to the country of origin within a specified time frame up to 1 Year. Might be worth a look if you've not tried it. 

Looked into a carnet - £300 for a year  

Yesterday the tyres arrived, fitted them this morning and was delighted when I found the spare was where it should have been! The new brake cables arrived this evening, now also fitted, and hubs/drums installed. Tomorrow I will torque up the hub nuts, refit the wheels, adjust the brakes and call it done for now.

[Saabnut]

I am claiming two have left the fleet as it makes me feel as though I am actually getting somewhere in the fleet reduction  Truth is, one was only a temporary resident! This had been left with me to put a few miles on to check the engine was good before it is fitted to a Mk2 Transit motorhome. 850 miles without a problem had completed the task so yesterday the owner collected it back.

Just after that had gone, another one was collected. This has been my shopping trolley for the last year, but I have never jelled with it. Reliable, economical and boring. A friend borrowed it for a few weeks, did a trip to France in it and declared he really liked it. A deal was done and farewell....

After that had gone, I started to load my trailer that I had been working on this week ready to head to France. Rudely interupted by @hairnetwork stopped whilst tea was drunk. Good to catch up again, hopefully he has made it back home safely.

This morning, loading was completed and many straps appled to secure the load. Tomorrow I will collect a number plate for the trailer and attach the lights ready for heading to Gatwick Tuesday and France on Thursday. I have soom grass to cut.....

[Saabnut]

A distinct lack of decent internet connection means no updates on the grass cutting! Suffice to say that a lawn that reached my chin gave the Kubota 2850 c/w 1.75m flail mower a decent work out. Many cuts later plus cutting up the large tree that was victim of winter 2019/20 winter storms kept me busy, along with drinking red wine whilst sat in the shade of my linden tree! The old Disco performed perfectly apart from one wheel having the nuts slacken off a bit (common problem on LR alloys) and developing a small oil leak. Not bad for 3000 miles at an average of 28mpg, half towing.

Now back home, and first cure the oil leak. This was easy, the newly fitted oil filter had worked itself loose. This is the second time I have had a filter back off this year, after 40 years of never having a problem. IMy thory is the sealing gaskets are now made of a different material meaning they require more than hand tight, so from here I will tweak them up with the strap tool.

Next job was to get the Toyota Emina ready for an MOT as it had expired whilst I was away. I made the fateful comment "should be easy enough" and it has all gone down hill since then. First was to change the headlamp bulb that failed last time I was out. An easy job, but whilst I was under the bonnet I noticed something that looked suspiciously like rust. Oh dear.

The other side in the same area looks to be not far behind

[Saabnut]

Now. I have no intention of restoring this, rather I would like to get another year or two's use out of it. To that end, I have decided now might be a good time to get back into welding. I used to be fairly proficient with oxy/acetelene but that was 40 years ago. In the late 90s I borrowed a MIG welder and taught myself how to stick a couple  of bits of metal together, but good I was not. In 1998 I started my classic car business and employed a guy who was a brilliant welder, so I stopped gobbing bits together and let him do that. I sold the business in 2011 and since then on the occasions I needed welding done I got a friend to do it. A couple of years ago, I bought a decent MIG welder with good intentions,  but have never used it. Now would be a good time......

First, get the Enima on the ramp and remove the front wheel

Quick look around to see what is what. Behind the wheel I spotted another bit that will need a repair, but should be a simple* patch

A closer look

Back to the task in hand, at least access is good

A tap with the hammer, and it gets bigger

Remove the uderseal to see what we have got

then out with the grinder to get back to solid metal

At this point I remembered I had not bought any sheet steel, despite planning on doing do. Now, where to get some steel......

Always new that Iveco would come in useful!

Next it was to the crunchy nut cornflake box to make a template

which was then transferred to the removed section of Iveco. I dug out my guillotine last used in 2011, oiled it up 

and cut out the first patch

As it was getting late and I have not yet upgraded my shed lighting, I decided to call it a day. I don't like welding/grinding late on as I like to remain near for an hour or so after completing work in case of smouldering leading to fire. Also, I have not swiched the welder on for 2 years so I am sure I will need to fiddle with it for a while before I can see how much of a mess I make.

 

 

[Saabnut]

Today has been frustrating and zero progress made! First, this morning I ordered 8 new tyres from two suppliers. A set of Uniroyal Rainexperts for the 900 convertible as the ones on it date to 2006 and two keep going down, as a result the sidewalls have suffered. No problem with those. I also ordered a set of Toyo Proxes for the Sonett for the same reasons (though these date to 2004) and as the car is going on the market soon, it was time to change them. I then received an email saying their carrier will not deliver to me despite their advert saying they would (understandable, I am in a backwater* 10 miles from Aberdeen, the oil capital of europe) so did I have another address, not in the area, they could deliver to. They were sorry about the inconvenience though! Order cancelled, refund received and another order placed.

After wasting half the day on tyres, it was time to get the welder out. Last time I went to use it, a few months ago, the feed would not trigger. A friend came over, stripped and cleaned the rheostats so it worked but the feed itself needed setting. Another friend called in today and being a good welder offered to set it up for me. Out to the shed we went, plugged it in and......... nothing  Same non feed problem. After much fiddling we both came to the conclusion that the rheostats need replacing. Unfortunately this is an old and obsolete model so spares are not readily available, and it would require the old ones stripping out to see if we could find part numbers and then see if we could source replacements.

Over a cup of tea, I decided that perhaps now would be a good time to buy a new welder which would give me time to source bits for the old one. A look on evilbay found a good deal for a 150amp Sealy unit from a supplier I have used before so it should be here on Friday! Looks like another week with no welding though my friend offered to loan me his but I don't like borrowing tools so we shall see.

[Saabnut]

I was expecting a few days off but the welder I ordered late Monday afternoon was delivered at 15:00 today! Top service from ebay seller tools4trade! Put together and briefly tested this evening, so maybe back on the enima tomorrow.

[Saabnut]

I knew that getting back into welding would be difficult, but I thought I would have remembered something! Turns out to not be the case, and it is like I am starting from scratch. I had also forgotten how much time it takes to make the repair patches. Oh well, it is started. My welds are not pretty but seem to be strong and the last ones were a big improvement on the first ones, and I managed to get two of the three patches on the first arch completed before my LED worklight went flat so darkness stopped play. Will continue tomorrow.

[Saabnut]

Well, the two small patches  became 8 reasonable sized ones, although only 3 locations. It was just easier to make several repair panels rather than one big one. The welding is not pretty, but it is strong. Who would have thought that all your welding skills* would be forgotten after a mere 23 years without holding a torch!

Panels in, weldage ground back in a vain hope of tidying it a bit, seam sealer applied, some stonechip and a first coat of underseal. Another coat to go on in the morning, then battery back on, sort the rear fog light and an MOT can be booked.

My Disco is also due an MOT next month, and I have found a couple of small areas that need a touch of sparkly action, although these are a bit more complicated than the Enima so think I will get my welding friend to do that.

Once the work on the Enima is complete, I can start the first of the tyre swap marathons I have to do.....

[Saabnut]

Well, I didn't (but perhaps should have) expect that. Not been a good day. First thing this morning I went out to my shed to finish off the Enima as my (ex MOT tester and welder) friend wanted to borrow my ramp today. He has just been told his eye operation he has been waiting for is happening next week so he will be off work for a few afterwards so he needed to get his backlog cleared. 

Started off by completing the undersealing of my weld repairs and reinstated the battery. This allowed me to investigate the non working rear fog light (new bulb) and the non working number plate lights (poor connections). I had just cleared the ramp when my friend arrived, and whilst we were drinking coffee we were discussing rot points on these Toyotas.  He said the rear of the inner sills tend to rot up behind the trim where it is not easily seen, and reached under to point out the area. He gave it a squeeze and came away with a handful of rust. A quick check on the other side produced the same result  . As the ramp was needed, I have not had the Enima back up in the air to see how bad it is and how much more welding is required, but have decided to take a break from it for a few days.

I was trying to get this tested as I only have the one car in use at the moment (the Disco) and that is going to need some welding for the next MOT in a couple of weeks time. The welding has been delayed due to my friends hospital appointment and the Enima is not going to be a quick fix at the speed of my welding, so I decided that it might* be advisable to get on with fitting the new tyres to my Saab c900 'vert that is my only other currently MOTed car.  I gave my friend a hand to fit new wheel bearings to the Dacia he came in so I could have my ramp back and then put the Saab up to remove the wheels.

At this point it started to rain heavily, and as I still have not run a permanent power supply to my tyre shed for the compressor and machine, this stopped play. I have to run two extension leads to the tyre shed and don't like having plugs out in the wet. As it was raining so heavily, I decided to make the most of it and stuck the Saab Sonett outside and washed it, then brought it back in and dryed it off, ready to polish it prior to putting it up for sale. There is more rain forecast for tomorrow, so it is likely to be the weekend before the tyres go on.

It is looking increasingly likely that as the clocks go back and we go into winter proper, that I will be down to a 32 year old convertible with a leaky roof as my sole daily, with the classics as back up. Perhaps I should sieze the opportunity to buy more chod, after all I have been very good this year........

[Saabnut]

It eventually stopped raining for a few hours so I ran out the extension leads and fitted 4 new tyres to the c900.

Today I also got around to putting the centre console/window switches/etc back in, as I had removed them to adjust the handbrake for its MOT a few months ago. Went a little bit mad and gave the interior a hoover out whilst I was at it.

I am now going to take a couple of days off as I have a small* trip to do tomorrow to do a collect of the WBOD I have agreed to buy in a moment of sanity*. Live collection thread will be done tomorrow.

[Minimad5]

Love seeing you using a Disco 1 as they were intended 😎

 

[Saabnut]

After a few days off being distracted collecting and fixing* this

 it was back into the shed today. First surprise was a flat tyre on the back of the c900. It would appear that the new bead sealer I had used had failed to seal one of the wheels. Took it off, removed the tyre and cleaned up the rim again. Applied my old faithful black goop bead sealer, refitted the tyre and refitted the wheel to the car. By the time I came in, pressure had not dropped so think it has worked this time. Hope so as I have a road trip in it starting early Monday morning!

Whilst I had the extension leads out, I thought I would continue on the tyre theme and fit the new ones onto the Sonett. The previous owner had used the car for competitions, mainly sprints, so had fitted wider low profile tyres. The 195-55s fitted helped grip (in the dry) but occasionally rubbed on the inside arches. As it is now a road car, I decided to go back to 165-60s as originally fitted. The combination of low profile stiff sidewalls and tyres fractionally too wide for the rims meant they were a bugger to get off. The first two took about half an hour each, but the third took well over an hour! Light was fading so thought about leaving the 4th one until tomorrow, but knew I would lack enthusiasm and it could end up sitting around for weeks!

Decided to just go for it and to my surprise it came off easily and was done within 10 minutes! Wheels back on

With that done I started the cleaning and polishing ready to put it on the market, and started on the offside rear wing. Soon decided I was lacking enthusiasm so switched off the lights and locked up for the evening.

[Saabnut]

Yesterday I was back in the shed and continued with the polishing. Basically everything below the waistline has now had a clean and a coat of polish. Once that was done, I lifted it higher to see just how good or otherwise the floorpan is. The previous owner to me said he had wire brushed and hammerited the lot when it was imported from the states, as it had never been welded and he wanted to keep it that way. I had no reason to dis-believe him, but as these are such a low car, it was hard to get a good look. The lift has solved that problem, and my faith in humanity* was rewarded when it was very obvious he had done as he said, although that was nearly 12 years ago!

There were many areas of small rust blebs where the paint has suffered stone chips and surface rust has started.

A going over with a wire brush in the angry grinder soon had the rust removed, although I only got 80% done before the battery died in the grinder

Once the rust was gone, the entire floorpan was treated with Jenolite and left to dry

An early night was required as I had an early start today. Up at 5am and away for 6am as I had to be near Lymm for just after lunch, and this was the transport of choice and necessity.

326 miles later, it ran beautifully and the run down was very pleasant indeed. It fully justified the small* amount of money I am spending on it this week. Currently in a travelodge (again), but at least the wifi is a bit quicker than at home!

[hairnet]

lymm

oh dear

 

[Saabnut]

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

lymm

oh dear

 

I am living life to the max!  

[mintwth]

Or living life to the Lymm-it! 

[Saabnut]

After just under 800 miles I am back home. I have decided Altrincham is a strange place and will be happy not to visit again for a while! I was stunned with house prices (£485k for a 2 (small) bedroomed terrace) and the place is a strange mix of run down and posh*. Lots of empty shops (poundland had closed) and lots of swanky coffee shops proclaiming themselves "the coffee engineers" etc.  The bicycle rack summed it up, lots of expensive bikes and a lone front wheel, still chained to the rack with the rest of the bike missing!

Top marks to Car Hood Northern for an excellent product and outstanding service. They dropped me off at the hotel and collected me again when the car was done. It looked like this when I left it

And when I collected it looked like this

The original hood lasted 31 years, hopefully this one will too. It was not cheap (£1295) but the quality is excellent, and is why I returned to Car Hoods Northern, as they last fitted a hood for me 15 years ago and that one is still going strong, allbeit with a different owner. They only use German made hoods due to the quality, and they were saying they are seeing a lot of cars in that have had cheap Chinese made hoods fitted, often professionally) that have failed in less than 2 years. Guess as always you get what you pay for.

On the way home I called in to see a couple of friends in St Helens one of which I had not seen in 15 years (we were at University together) and came away depressed a bit. His sister in law (who I spent many happy nights out with when we were all younger) died of cancer 3 years ago and my friend himself is now in very poor health having nearly died 4 times in the last 5 years, had spent 6 months in a wheelchair but is out again now, and has to sleep on a beathing machine. He can only work or drive for a max of 5 hours a day. We have promised to stay in touch more often

The only casualty of the trip was my recently expertly* fitted and expensive* DAB radio/CD player decided to shut itself down after being on for a couple of hours and it has remained steadfastly off since. I will have to have a look at it but it is low priority (it took me several years to get around to fitting it a couple of years ago) but having no tunes for a 7 hour drive was something I would rather not repeat.

[cort1977]

Hood looks great, details of the company noted for future reference.

[beko1987]

Tunes? What do you need tunes for when you've got the roof down, wind in your hair, the engine noise should be all the tunes you need! 

[Saabnut]

Well, a dirty weekend, but sadly not that kind. Back to the Sonett, and the entire floorpan has been wire brushed, treated and painted. In addition, the underside of the bonnet has had so many coats of underseal (presumably as sound deadening) that it is over 1/16" thick (that is 1.6mm to the uneducated  ). Unfortunately the last coat has reacted with those below so the last day and a bit have been spent scraping and wire brushing it off. I have left the sound areas as there is a risk of damaging the fibreglass, but it has created so much dust that even after a shower I still feel dirty.

Some pictures of the floorpan to cheer myself up!

[Saabnut]

Not a lot of progress on the Sonett as I may* have got a bit distracted. Also, of the 8 tyres I fitted to the Sonett and c900, three have decided that they no longer want to seal around the valves. Normally I replace the valves as a matter of course, but as the valves looked fine, this time I did not bother. That has worked well* so I need to address those soon.

But, the news is one of the forums best loved* bikes is due to go for its MOT retest tomorrow having failed on a wheel cylinder, wiper blade and a headlight. This after sitting outside basically untouched for 2 years with a leaking sunroof. I am sure its return to the road (at the end of the month, too close to the end of the month to tax it now) will bring dismay real joy to many shiters. Watch this space.

[Minimad5]

You tease, we need pictures 😅

[Saabnut]

Busy couple of days, but some progress! Three new valves fitted to the wheels, and so far they seem OK but the morning will tell. Got a bit more done on the Sonett with stonechip applied to the bottom of the sills, although I had to use duct tape as masking tape as my masking tape has set in a lump which even the microwave could not revive.  Of course, the duct tape has left glue all over, so lots of cleaning is now required. Went out and bought some gold plated masking tape ready to do the rest. It should be solid gold at the price, but it was still cheaper than the cost from my normal supplier plus the couple of gallons of fuel to fetch it!

The bike however continued to be an ungrateful bastard, replacing the rear wheel cylinder and shoes went well, but the drum when replaced would not sit vertically. Suspecting the stub axle was bent this was removed but proved to be straight. Closer inspection showed the back plate had been gently* levered in the past and was badly bent. Removal and a small toffee hammer had it straight again and back to the MOT station for retest where the man from the ministry, he say yes! Of course the UB decided collection time from the test place was the ideal time to decide the battery had reached its time to die! I have ordered a new battery but will steal one off the Saab 'vert tomorrow when I collect it.

Arranged to pick it up after lunch tomorrow, when a few teaser photos will be taken to see who can remember this AS POS. Watch this space for a little longer.......

[Six-cylinder]

On 11/23/2021 at 7:52 PM, Saabnut said:

But, the news is one of the forums best loved* bikes is due to go for its MOT retest tomorrow having failed on a wheel cylinder, wiper blade and a headlight. This after sitting outside basically untouched for 2 years with a leaking sunroof. I am sure its return to the road (at the end of the month, too close to the end of the month to tax it now) will bring dismay real joy to many shiters. Watch this space.

Ref to Wiper blade singular makes me think AX?

[Saabnut]

59 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Ref to Wiper blade singular makes me think AX?

Nope. In true AS style it failed the test on the nearside wiper, as a new* one had been fitted years ago to the drivers side and the knackered drivers one moved to the nearside as no one needs to see out of that one!

[Saabnut]

FFS! Been snowing here all day, but fortunately not really settling but gales have made it unpleasant to be outside. Phoned to confirm collection time of the ungrateful POS and the heater had decided to keep the battery company, not ideal in the North East of Scotland at anytime during a blizzard. My friend has just phoned saying I can collect as he has had the blower out and oiled that as it was squeaky (TADTS), and after much frustration has hit on a compromise so have adjustable heat and direction but fixed medium blower! That will do, will try again tomorrow.

Oh, the snow has now started to settle.

[Coprolalia]

Keep safe on your MOT pick-up @Saabnut, weather looks pretty miserable up your way!

[Saabnut]

Despite the best efforts of the dead battery, heater shennanigans, snow and storm arsehole or whatever it was called, the AS POS (or ASPOS for short) has returned to chez Saabnut. Had to be trailered as I can only drive one at a time, but safely home, unloaded and stored in the shed. Will tax it on Tuesday so the final return to the road will be delayed until then.

So which famed celebrity is it? Some clues:

Cleaned to Pebble Beach Concorse standard? Check.

Paintwork polished to a glass finish? Check

Expertly weather-proofed sunroof? Check.

Unblemished bodywork? Check.

In the words of Pedorolf, do you know what it is yet?

[big_al_granvia]

has to be a saab