The new news 24 thread

[cort16]

Did you use the patent wings in the end? Hopefully they'll be able to blend it in alright. Does it look like it's been painted before?

Once you've done this it's got to be one of the best ones left eh?

[trigger]

Sadly the wings I bought only fit a 5 door which is slightly longer so I need to sell them on again, I had the old wings filled, to be fair I was expecting them to be welded but the garage said they was worried about them distorting under the heat, The car doesn't get wet and I'm going to waxoyl and underseal the shit out the the insides so they should last a few years, certainly longer then I normally keep cars for anyway!.

 

Other than one of the front wings It's never had paintwork before so it's done well, It looks like they painted the whole of the offside and the wing and door on the nearside. I've just took some photos but I still need to clean it up a bit still.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete-M]

Bought a Ford Cougar a couple of days ago. Spur of the moment thing, as I tend to when I'm pissed off about something.

Anyway, brought it home and spotted a small (50p sized) hole in the o/s sill. Bugger, thinks I.

 

As usual, a bit of work with the rust divining tool known as a flap wheel made the little hole a tad larger..

Yup, that's the back of the speaker, as viewed from underneath the car...

 

Bit of plate making and rot choppery and it looked like this.

 

 

Bit of chopping and all the rusty bit was removed, 

 

 

Job jobbed. Needs a light skim of filler and a lick of paint now. Lovely.

[dollywobbler]

Engine swap completed on a friend's Vitara. I turned up to help with morale and to get the last few bits sorted as my mate Dave was tackling it as a solo job.

 

Went pretty well and the new engine sounds lovely, which is nice. Exhaust shat a load of water out, enough for quite a puddle, which tells you how catastrophic the head gasket problem was on the old engine. The HT leads were literally melted - it had clearly been driven in an overheated state for quite a while. I think it was right to ditch the old engine. The old motor had a brand new alternator belt fitted. My theory is that the old belt failed, the water pump then wasn't turning and it properly cooked itself. I'm astonished it got from Newport to Aberystwyth under its own power!

 

Quite a jolly little thing really - has had sills plated but I quite like it.

[HMC]

Doing a quick service on the 520 before i set off on a road trip next week. Going to the Goodwood revival on thursday. Then an overnight B and B before catching the Dover-Calais ferry and driving across to the in laws in Germany

Replaced the broken cassette player with a CD radio with USB connection so i can listen to some music from my phone on the way, oil and filters change and lobbed the high vis and a breathalyser in the boot.

 

[cort16]

I'm taking this arsehole sd1 over to the local carb specialist to try to finally get it working right and mot'd. The tax runs out at the end off the month. Miles covered - 1.2

[Pete-M]

What's the problem with it? They're normally pretty easy to set up.

[Lukas]

My Leone will be finished in the next weeks, right before the big winter break...  Bad timing!

 

 

[cort16]

What's the problem with it? They're normally pretty easy to set up.

Its a 2600, failed its mot on emissions and running rough til right up to temp. Its got the stepper motor carbs that aren't wired up so no choke.

[oman5]

Its a 2600, failed its mot on emissions and running rough til right up to temp. Its got the stepper motor carbs that aren't wired up so no choke.

Is that what they called the FASD? they did make a manual choke conversion for these but wouldn't like to try and find one now

[cort16]

I took it over and they're not interested in working on it.

I got a big long um and aw which was them saying they don't want to do it. Some guy just walking by stopped, chatted about the car and said to redirect the breather so its not going into the inlet manifold so it reduces the emmisions,

[Sigmund Fraud]

'Hairdresser special' now has brand new rear discs and pads. The process was remarkably expletive-free, so I rewarded the thing by giving it its yearly wash !

 

I also tarted up the rusty wiper arms with a Poundland rattle can (highly recommended, BTW) and changed the blades. Hopefully, after I've replaced a broken coil spring, it will be ready for it's MoT.

[cms206]

Tomorrow is a big day; the old dear's Motability car is getting returned off lease (60-plate Mondeo 1.8TDCi) with no replacement. From tomorrow afternoon I have no backup, and my modern is a 1992 Rover Montego.

WCPGW?

[vulgalour]

I drive a 33 year old Princess daily, a '92 Montego should be a veritable paragon of reliability.  There are other people who drive even more ridiculous things than I do on a daily basis, I don't know what you're worrying about.

 

If you break down now I will not be held responsible, just so you know.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Tomorrow is a big day; the old dear's Motability car is getting returned off lease (60-plate Mondeo 1.8TDCi) with no replacement. From tomorrow afternoon I have no backup, and my modern is a 1992 Rover Montego.

 

WCPGW?

 

You have a Volvo 740. You need no 'modern' !

[Spiny Norman]

You have a Volvo 740. You need no 'modern' !

 THIS

 

Having seen video evidence of the sort of treatment the Council Estate can withstand I think I'd put my money on that over a Mondeo any day.

[cobblers]

Welp, today I set at doing the rear axle bushes on the daily golf. They are renowned for being an absolute bastard nightmare to press back into the axle, so I bought some cheap poly ones that just just push in by hand. 

 

After much swearing and grunting, I got the axle off. I didn't actually knacker any brake pipes, which was a right surprise as they've been greased for the last 5 MOTs to get it through. I changed them anyway while I had the tools out.

 

 

Once I had the axle off muscled the old absolutely knackered bushes out, and went to fit the new poly ones that turned out to be about 20mm to small in diameter - No idea WTF that was all about, so ended up haing to press a set of standard bushes in, which actually went it easily.

 

 

As you can see, the brake pipes are all absolutely shafted.

 

Ebay coilovers looking GR8 after only being on the car about 10 months, lol.

 

I got the job mostly done - I was working on my own and had a hangover so I was far from peak efficiency (that and the brake compensator valve taking about 90 minutes to split from the axle!)

I was hoping to drive it home (I was doing the job on my mates drive) but ended up borrowing his A4 for the night, which actually is surprisingly nice to drive.

[wuvvum]

Shitloads of classics out and about on the Norfolk roads today.  Cycling down to Bungay this afternoon I was overtaken by a large late '20s tourer (didn't manage to see what it was) towing a similar-vintage caravan, immediately followed by an Austin 7 Ruby.  Then about five minutes later a Model A doctor's coupe came rumbling past.  On the same trip I also saw a '60s Ford Galaxie, Series 3 Minx, OMGRATLUK VW 411, Wolseley 1500, and a Heinkel bubble car.  Not bad for a Saturday in September.

 

Also saw my first 63=plate car - a metallic brown Fiesta.  Then saw two more 63s within the space of about five minutes.

[vulgalour]

I think summer has now finished.  I judge this by the fact that I had to wait for my windscreen to defog before setting off back home tonight.  I also stopped to allow a hedgehog to cross the road, so I'm almost certain it's autumn now.

[Lord Sterling]

I think summer has now finished.  I judge this by the fact that I had to wait for my windscreen to defog before setting off back home tonight.  I also stopped to allow a hedgehog to cross the road, so I'm almost certain it's autumn now.

Good. I've had quite enough of screaming kid kicking bloody footballs at my hedge, playing crap music from thier phones and Jeremy Kyle contestants bawling at each other in the street with thier bastard hooded offsprings/extended family looking on just because one of the kids got pushed over or summat.

[explosive-cabbage]

Some guy just walking by stopped, chatted about the car and said to redirect the breather so its not going into the inlet manifold so it reduces the emmisions,

Did this to get the Niva through its MOT. There must be a condenser/catch tank to collect any evaporates from the crankcase. Re-direct your vent hose through the lid and into a jam jar - that's acceptable.

[rml2345]

Running a 20+ year old car as a daily isn't nearly as hard as I make it appear... 

In Volvo news I had that inconvenient "Not charging the battery" episode this week. Found the small wire had a nick in it and repaired it but that obviously wasn't the cause. Neither surprisingly was the dash pod PCB which is currently held together with electrical tape and hope. In desperation I removed the voltage regulator that was fitted about this time last year and gave it a bit of a clean. Popped* it back in and it's working again. 

The euphoria was cut short however by the discovery of this;

 

 

It's like that all the way round. Knew it was a bit crunchy but didn't think it was quite as bad as that... So it'll go in to be mended sometime next week,

Took it to the jetwash today;

 

 

Still scrubs up pretty well I'd say. 

 

 

*It's often said how easily you can pop the voltage regulator in and out of the Bosch alternator on a 740. This is utter bollocks as they neglect to mention how it lives in an inaccessible hole at the back of the alternator case where you can't see the fittings, slightly too close to the engine mount for decent tool access and underneath the exhaust manifold to ensure minor scolding. Despite this it still beats removing the alternator. 

[vulgalour]

I love 740s, but the seats spoil the driving experience, which is why I like 240s.  A 740 with buttoned 240 seats would be ideal.

[rml2345]

It's a shame they never had the button backed leather that the 240 got but the pinstripe cloth is quite fetching and mega comfy. Shirley someone with your interior talents could work up some button backed class for a 740? 

[vulgalour]

It's basically that I feel like I'm sat *on* 740 seats but *in* 240 seats, if that makes any sense.  The first car I had any real driving experience in was Dad's 740 saloon and I loved everything bar the seats about the experience.

[dollywobbler]

Just tested a pair of ear plugs in the 2CV. Impressive! So much so I wrote a Blog about it (see sig link). 

 

In other news, I'm glad we have a conservatory as painting the wheels would be a nightmare otherwise. It was meant to be dry today. It isn't.

[cort16]

Here's the 5 series I bought at random yesterday. It needs a drivers seat so but it seems finding a decent cloth one is quite hard to find.

520i by cort16, on Flickr

[wuvvum]

I've been running around in the Carina E for the last few weeks since Plod spotted that the Rover was out of test.  Driving like a nun (or like a typical Carina E driver), I've been managing to squeeze 75 miles out of a tenner - according to my calculations that's an average of 46.3 mpg.  Not bad for a 17-year-old petrol-engined barge.

[Lukas]

The Carina E was one of the best cars Toyota built in the last 30 years or so. Just saying...

[cobblers]

Spent all morning pissing about with daily Golf, everything went well with rear axle and brakes, but when I changed the front flexy the bleed nipple snapped straight off the caliper. FFS. I tried cheating by cracking the connection to the flexy to bleed but couldn't get anywhere near a decent pedal. Did the usual bollocks to try and free the nipple (heat, stilsons, weld a nut on it, drilling it out) and its totally 100% staying in there. New caliper time. Pedal also sinks slowly so I suspect bleeding the brakes has shafted the master cylinder as well. 

 

Packed that up and drove home in my mates missus' Bini that she's very kindly lent me for a few days. No sooner had I sat down when my sister turned up with her mk3 polo that had made a "funny noise". Had a look round that and it turned out that the wishbone bush has 100% dropped out, accelerating or braking is like putting 1/4 a turn on the steering wheel, but she's insisting on driving it back to leeds tonight. It's also been running on 3 pots for the last 2 months but she's apparently "not bothered about that"

 

THEN, my mum turns up saying her car has been making a grinding noise when she brakes for the last week and she needs to do a big run tomorrow. Front brake pads are down to the metal - I've got some pads to fit.but before I could get the tools out she had to rush to the supermarket before it closed (before I could tell her not to)

 

Finally the other sister turns up with a bike I bought her for christmas six years ago, and has spent all that time lent against the side of her house and now none of the brakes or gears work, but she needs it fixing for 8pm tonight because she needs it to get to uni tomorrow morning.

 

I do wonder WTF my entire family would do if I couldn't continually fix their completely unmaintained shitheaps.