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Father Ted

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Congratulations. I think you beat me to this by about 10 minutes. I hope you really enjoy it.

If you inexplicably get bored of it, I'll have warm floppy cash waiting for you.

Even the girlfriend was quite excited by the 205, and she very rarely gets enthused by any of the cavalcade of rammel I pass under her nose.

 

Noted Mr. Bucketeer

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Even if it had been possible to convert it to manual, the miserable POS engine wouldn't have been worth the effort anyway. Brakes were indeed drums, but it has to be said that other manufacturers had, by 1983, managed to produce examples of the breed that actually worked.

 

When it eventually lost the ability to change up into top, I bought another complete lump from a man called Psycho Dave (no alarm bells rang, obviously). A weekend was spent swapping the two over, a short test drive revealing that the new 'box was even more fucked than the one I'd slung out. I limped it home, got out and stoved the driver's door in with a satisfying blow from my Size 9. The next day it was bridged - the second worst car I've ever owned.

Doesn’t surprise me, the number of times I have heard of people trying to sort them and then just giving up must be exactly 100% of the people I know who have tried (and it’s a lot, I have messed about with minis for 30 years). How you can fuck up a gearbox quite as badly is beyond me. It’s not as if the auto box was a new idea, well the mini one was,, but why? They even modified the engine to ‘better suit’ The auto but in reality it turned a nice revvy engine into a boat anchor. Luckily it’s dead easy to just drop a complete manual lump in and be done with it.
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More strange goings-on in Volvoland today.

 

Fitted a new regulator to The Volvo's alternator, as I discovered during my post-breakdown tinkering at the weekend that the existing one's brushes were alarmingly worn, even though it still worked. It's now in the boot as part of my 'get me home' spares stash.

 

Also, I found a good used instrument cluster suitable for the car on American eBay for a very reasonable all-in price. Check out the Americanisms, such as the 'UNLEADED FUEL ONLY' legend, the service indicator reset button and the red mark at the 55 mph point on the speedometer:

 

attachicon.gifs-l500 (1).jpg

 

attachicon.gifs-l500.jpg

 

Here's hoping it works a lot better than the electrical monstrosity that the car has been labouring with for the last decade, which currently has no illumination and various warning lights not working after removing and refitting it at the weekend, although thankfully the battery warning light still works properly.

 

Shep asks: does anyone know of a company which refurbishes 1980s and 1990s car instrument panels?

... and the Turbo gauge, and the Volt Meter...

 

I reckon I've been lucky with my pair of working 700s, other than a slightly doolally rev counter on the Turbo all gauges and the odometer actually works.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

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Doesn’t surprise me, the number of times I have heard of people trying to sort them and then just giving up must be exactly 100% of the people I know who have tried (and it’s a lot, I have messed about with minis for 30 years). How you can fuck up a gearbox quite as badly is beyond me. It’s not as if the auto box was a new idea, well the mini one was,, but why? They even modified the engine to ‘better suit’ The auto but in reality it turned a nice revvy engine into a boat anchor. Luckily it’s dead easy to just drop a complete manual lump in and be done with it.

 

To be fair, the existing auto tech had to be made to work with engine oil. It's amazing they pulled it off really. 

 

I know what Dave numbers is on about with the feeling quicker than it is. Yes, a Mini can properly be made to hussle, but they feel quick nearly all the time, and far, far more involving than anything built in recent years. It's exactly the same as the 2CV. I quite liked our Mini apart from the rot.

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rot.

 

That was genuinely remarkable. The previous owners had had both subframes replaced, inner and outer sills welded up, as well as the boot floor and rear valance replaced, so you'd think it might have been worth bothering with. It wasn't - the front was all hanging off, headlamps held in with gaffa tape, etc. The rust was at least as bad as anything the French or Italians of that era could offer.

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the galaxy needed fuel and thought ohh wats this 'supreme' diesel.. so lift pump start filling up and notice it £138.9 a litre.. wtf £20 only...

Wow. £20 must have only got you 144 millilitres of fuel. Aren't you required to pump a minimum of 2l too? So £277.80 worth. Must have been amazing stuff. ;)

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... and the Turbo gauge, and the Volt Meter...

 

I reckon I've been lucky with my pair of working 700s, other than a slightly doolally rev counter on the Turbo all gauges and the odometer actually works.

 

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

I intend to keep the voltmeter and remove the turbo gauge, as The Volvo will never have a turbocharger.

 

The car's current cluster is a Yakazi one comprising the best bits from at least three others and has never worked 100% correctly in the ten years it has been in the car. It replaced a typically unreliable VDO cluster which was fitted to the car from new and had myriad problems; the PCB totally failed on that one, which was the final straw.

 

Hopefully, the American cluster (from Seattle) will be fine straight out of the box. If not, it will be sent away for a professional refurb, providing I can find a company which does such things.

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More Volvoish activities, this time the removal of an unnecessary heat shield from The Volvo's front exhaust pipe which had been rattling like crazy and making the car sound terrible for ages. It was also advised on at the car's last MOT:

 

post-4796-0-02061800-1519305950_thumb.jpg

 

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I was going to use a grinding disc in my Dremel to remove the heat shield, but my long-held mistrust of grinders and the fear of using them in confined spaces hasn't diminished since the last time I used one in a futile effort to remove a rusted on brake disc. The backup hammer and chisel method worked well and was quite fun; I used the same method to remove the brake disc, if I recall correctly  :mrgreen:

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You and me both Andy - only the dash dimmer doesn’t work on mine.

The ambient temperature gauge is a bit optimistic though - it thought it was 14° yesterday!

 

I’ve got a full house on mine too, everything works as it should. The fuel gauge can be lazy occasionally but will always work after a moment or so.

 

Looks like it’s just you Shep!

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New today, i made an 8mm square drive to change the GB oil on my car from an old extension and my bench grinder.

Fits a treat.

I ground a 'square end' onto a cap bolt, for the Renault (my Savvy) drain plug.

 

I put the hex bit out of my impact driver into the cap socket & a ring spanner on the hex bit = sounds a faff, but nice easy leverage Gudd Gudd ;)

 

TS

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I’ve a feeling it was mentioned by dollywobbler, but mark Williams has just sent me a copy of the classic motoring review.

 

http://www.classicmotoringreview.uk

 

It’s an a5 sized smartly printed booklet. Not a magazine really. There are a couple of articles on the 2cv which is why I’ve been sent a copy. But also......

 

 

ISSUE NO 2 – WINTER 2018

Published early January, the contents include an account of driving a Daimler 30-40 from London to Spain – in 1906!, the fascinating if chequered history of glassfibre cars, Nuvolari’s most extraordinary grand prix races, one woman’s 35 year love affair with her Morris Traveler, Douglas Blain’s affectionate obituary for the Lamborghini Miura, John Simister in praise of the much-underrated Hillman Imp, the legendary engineer-racer Bill Milliken and his assault on Pikes Peak in a Bugatti, Steve Cropley on the last gasp of Citroen’s 2CV and three owners love affair with la petite escargot, Richard Bremner on the Argyll – a lesser known Scottish supercar, Colin Goodwin’s attempt to cross the Channel in an aquatic Ford Fiesta and so much more…

 

I’m impressed so far, and will take it to work tomorrow to read.

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post-8687-0-61839500-1519328882_thumb.jpeg

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So, Dome, what did you do on your final night of your thirties?

 

I went and bought a broken, shit car of course.

Sounds perfectly reasonable! On the last night of my twenties I sat in six_cylinders field with Heidel_Kakao and his dog using a citroen visa as a beer table!

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