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Father Ted

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Jensen Healey Mk2 spring set... yeah.  It looks exactly the same but every spring is just a bit too short so I had to re-use the old ones, which are what you see in the photo above.  Nobody seems to list a brake shoe spring kit for a Princess/Ambassador so it's just as well my springs are still okay.  Shoes are some old Moprod asbestos-rich ones that @Mr_Bo11ox provided years ago.  Backing plate is silver because I'd run out of black, but you know what, it makes it way easier to see what you're doing so I'm okay with it.  They nearly ended up pink, I just happened to have more silver available.  Job still isn't done though, I need some large E clips, and I had to take the angle grinder to one end of the flexihose because it's welded the thread into the nut on the hard line and now I have that problem to deal with too.  Couldn't refit the outer drum because I hadn't clamped the brake cylinder down to compensate for the extra material on the new shoes.  I also learned that I do not own a C clamp, such an ubiquitous tool I just assumed I had one.  What was very weird and slightly alarming was that the bleed nipple on the brake cylinder you have to remove to get said cylinder off wasn't seized, didn't put up any fight at all, and even still had its little dust cap on.

 

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A few of my absolute favourite cars at the Retroshite meet today:

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I actually thought this was the same Solara as the one which  attended the June meet but it turns out there are 2 in the same area, not far from  'tooSavvy Bridge' in Linwood.

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I love these old 80s executive French barges. An oddball choice even back then.

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I now definitely want an e39, this 523i automatic was lovely. Grey leather interior with wood cappings.

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Lovely GLS

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CD. New shape. 

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Of course, mine too.

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16 minutes ago, stuboy said:

Been up to the beach villa and missus wanted to make a start on the storage cupboard it's full of tat.. but found 3 old chairs.. any idea on age and this speedo without a lense.. any idea where from?

 

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I've got one or two of those chairs, 70's ? maybe.

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21 hours ago, brownnova said:

Then on to then AVRO museum to look at a Vulcan. 
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Good little museum, well worth a visit. 

Was that the 26th you were there? My dad was there with Grandad, I wouldn't be at all surprised if you crossed paths in the day!

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Along with the lacquering I've also begun reassembling stuff on the wing. I polished the indicator lens and glued it back onto the module before struggling to get the spring thing that secures it hooked on the little fixing nub in the engine bay.

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Things are looking good.

I the side repeater was a bitch to unplug and I quickly broke the lens on it as well. Instead of paying £9.99 for a new one, I superglued it back together and then sanded and polished the repair (and a corner attacked by the angle grinder) smooth. The cat was most impressed.

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Hopefully I can move onto polishing everything up tomorrow.

 

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3 hours ago, stuboy said:

Been up to the beach villa and missus wanted to make a start on the storage cupboard it's full of tat.. but found 3 old chairs.. any idea on age and this speedo without a lense.. any idea where from?

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What material on the chairs? If nasty plasticky, could be late 60's

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Emptied 1.5 wheelie bins full of stuff from the back corner of the garage, mostly Christmas decorations. Need to make a push on to get this sorted.

Plan is this week to relocate the engine to in the car; one nice thing, found the driver's side door trim. It's a bit bent but otherwise good. Just missing one more for the back passenger side.

Propshaft looks pretty rusty.

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I have taken the red 93 off the road for the time being as its got quite a significant oil leak and is making a mess of the drive. It looks like the vacuum pump which I have read is a common point and have ordered a seal kit. Doesn't look too bad a job to change.

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Took apart the old SAM module of CLK - totally fucking fucked with corrosion everywhere so I'm impressed car kept running perfectly for as long as it did. Suspension bits and brake lines also rubbed down, rust treated and painted on all four corners. Rust was creeping through on the underside so that's all now nipped in the bud. Found an aerosol of caliper paint lying around, so gave the calipers a quick spray too. And added the annual ritual of grinding down surface rust on all 4 wings, door bottoms, boot lock and bonnet area underneath grille. Now all filled, primed & painted. Also spotted a registration lamp bulb out, replaced with a bulb from my old XJ-S stash. CLK sailed through the MOT without advisories.  Well worth the effort overall for another year of extremely cheap and comfortable shiteing. 

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And done. Looks like I've used a roller to apply the lacquer but it's shiny enough and I can always wet sand the entire thing if I wish, when everything's hardened up some more. For doing it outside, with spray cans and acrylic lacquer, I'm happy.

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My son persuaded me to give my Reliant some attention today.  It was touch and go because I was comfortable in my armchair.  The Reliant started without bother and the brakes, lights, indicators, stop lights, wipers and horn all worked (amateur MOT done 😃).  I took it for a slow trundle in our cul-de-sac and found the steering to be  heavier than usual, so clearly the tyres needed some air.  Front was at 8psi and rears at 10psi but, being cross plies propping up only 406kg, they looked ok.  I let my son do the tyre inflating because I struggle to get to the front wheel.  With the tyres at the correct pressures and rather than shove the thing back in the garage before it breaks down - which was my cautious preference - I decided to live dangerously and drive around the estate.  The car is fully road legal and insured, the danger was simply that it was being driven by someone with very limited mobility who did not fancy a walk home.  For some reassurance, my son followed in his Tipo (we are a two Tipo family - mine is a '94 model, his is a 2016 diesel).  One circuit of the estate, about a mile, did not show any imminent problems so I went round again. No snags at all.  I was driving with the internal engine cowling removed so that I could see, hear and smell the engine on these noisy test runs.  All seemed well.  I had something to eat, then with my son following again and the cowling in place for a much quieter and cooler experience I went around the estate once more, then thought 'if I'm selling this soon, it could be the last time I ever drive it.'  Instead of turning into our road, I had an almost involuntary urge to continue driving and therefore found myself waiting for the traffic lights to change before unleashing 17.5bhp on to the A43 dual carriageway.  The lights took forever but the engine saved me from embarrassment by ticking over nicely.  A green light signalled more excitement, and risk.  I accelerated* and gradually let the speed* build up until the speedo was waving around near 50mph. My son later said that I was cruising at 53mph.  I did not stay on the dual carriageway for long but the Reliant seemed game for more driving and we totted up about 8 miles by the time I headed for the safety of my garage and my armchair.  The car did not seem to object to stop start traffic through Towcester centre. I hope it gave a few people a reason to smile.  I enjoyed the drive in a masochistic way.  Reliants of this age (61 years old) are noisy, have tricky handling, a fierce clutch, quite hard suspension which detests modern potholed roads, very little power and yet are quite endearing once you settle into how they do things.  I've attached a short video of today's initial trundle before we put some air in the tyres. I don't know whether my son took more photos. I certainly didn't.

Edit: A bonus photo from yesterday.  I'm surprised the photo isn't blue. The Reliant's suspension had just crashed across a few rough bits of road and I was cursing.

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Edited by RayMK
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The Seaburn show looks to be getting a better turn out every time. Years since I was there..... and it's always been lucky with the weather too. 

I grew up along the seafront from there and it can be hellish. 

That Mk2 estate I'm fairly sure used to belong to my uncles mate Charlie who worked at Clarks Coachbuilders who occupied the entire huge roundabout at the top of Roker Baths Rd.... He went front to back on it as he was a painter. It was always gorgeous. 

Great shots of that lot - much appreciated. 

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The red 93 has always had a very slight oil leak from the back of the engine but it's recently got a lot worse and is making a mess of my driveway.

There's a vacuum assist driven off the exhaust cam and the seal between it and the cylinder head is a common area to leak oil.

Lives under this area somewhere.

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Some stuff to remove, glad I have small hands.

The square thing is the IONISATION MODULE. Me neither, no doubt its set to malkie due to Noobtune though.

Pump removed

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The seal on the pump was intact but rock solid.

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You can see the oil on the top of the gearbox and the surrounding area, too hard to get a picture from up top though.

New seal was a tenner, hopefully it will be here in a few days.

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2 hours ago, Fumbler said:

And done. Looks like I've used a roller to apply the lacquer but it's shiny enough and I can always wet sand the entire thing if I wish, when everything's hardened up some more. For doing it outside, with spray cans and acrylic lacquer, I'm happy.

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That looks class! Glad to see it getting some love. 

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3 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

The red 93 has always had a very slight oil leak from the back of the engine but it's recently got a lot worse and is making a mess of my driveway.

There's a vacuum assist driven off the exhaust cam and the seal between it and the cylinder head is a common area to leak oil.

Lives under this area somewhere.

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Some stuff to remove, glad I have small hands.

The square thing is the IONISATION MODULE. Me neither, no doubt its set to malkie due to Noobtune though.

Pump removed

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The seal on the pump was intact but rock solid.

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You can see the oil on the top of the gearbox and the surrounding area, too hard to get a picture from up top though.

New seal was a tenner, hopefully it will be here in a few days.

I did the same on my old 93ss as well. It was weeping so got a new seal and secondhand IONISATION MODULE and it was right as rain after that. I still have no idea what the IM was actually for. Did it prevent IONISATION, or encourage it? Do I have enough ions or might I be deficient? 

Apart from needing to remove a hundred things it was an easy job tbh

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5 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

The square thing is the IONISATION MODULE. Me neither, no doubt its set to malkie due to Noobtune though.

It detects ionisation in the cylinder through the spark plug. Allows the Engine ECU to detect Cam position, misfire and knock without any additional sensors. Something clever that Saab did.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_Direct_Ignition

The 9-5 has the module built into the DIC coil pack. 9-3 uses a more traditional cassette coil pack (far cheaper) and had that module separate. It's why the 9-5 and previous old 9-3 would die completely if the coil pack failed. 

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7 hours ago, RayMK said:

I had an almost involuntary urge to continue driving and therefore found myself waiting for the traffic lights to change before unleashing 17.5bhp on to the A43 dual carriageway

That is a very fast, tough road without any area to escape if there are problems! Fair play to you for giving it a darn good run on it. 

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