The new news 24 thread

[Mally]

22 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I finished 2 weeks ago. My welder behaved impeccably there but as soon as I cracked it out on the drive the MIG wire unravelled itself for no reason! It had been sticking for a while and it finally let go.

I'll get a new spool tomorrow, plus a new regulator as the one I've got is an old hospital one and is quite beat up.

The sill looks bad but thankfully 75s aren't known for galloping rot, what you see is hopefully what you get.

Whizz a flap disc over it lightly and hope. There's always a bigger hole than you expect.

I had it on my old  one, but this one seem fine.

I never use them for jacking or support as I have the fear.

[Asimo]

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Vacuum oil drainers are the future

I have tried a syringe-empty on the Duster but there is some restriction at the bottom of the dipstick tube and the largest pipe I can get into the sump is 4 mm O.D. which is so restrictive to flow it is impractically slow, even with hot, old 5w30.

Undertray would still have to come off though because the filter cup is recessed into the sump.

[Wibble]

Following the tip off from @Datsuncog recently, on our way back from a record fair in Newbury, I had to pop in to the Tesco superstore and get one of these:

Picked a box of beer up at the same time and currently working my way through those, when I noticed this:

My purchases had to be approved, because of the beer and the t-shirt was laid on top of the beer but the staff member didn’t say anything and I hadn’t noticed the security tag. Didn’t set off any alarms either (effective security Tesco!) but how the fuck do I remove this now? I have the receipt, obviously but don’t really want an hour round trip back to Newbury.

[stuboy]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Vacuum oil drainers are the future.

This similarly needs about a thousand undertray screws removing to get to the drain plug - and there's no way I could get a big enough tray to catch the 7.5 litres of oil without having it on ramps as well.

I've done the whole removing the sump plug afterwards on other cars to see if there was any oil left - barely anything was always the answer.

Agree with you on the move away from spin on filters though.  The cap over the one on this was stuck STUPID tight, to the extent I seriously thought I was going to just shatter it trying to remove it.

Still waiting too use mine ... 3 weeks in the front room... sickness and work getting in the way...

[Schaefft]

Just now, stuboy said:

Still waiting too use mine ... 3 weeks in the front room... sickness and work getting in the way...

I just bought one, Draper professional that can also be connected to an airline. Hopefully that'll be the end of oil spills on the ground.

[Shoysty]

47 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Following the tip off from @Datsuncog recently, on our way back from a record fair in Newbury, I had to pop in to the Tesco superstore and get one of these:

Picked a box of beer up at the same time and currently working my way through those, when I noticed this:

My purchases had to be approved, because of the beer and the t-shirt was laid on top of the beer but the staff member didn’t say anything and I hadn’t noticed the security tag. Didn’t set off any alarms either (effective security Tesco!) but how the fuck do I remove this now? I have the receipt, obviously but don’t really want an hour round trip back to Newbury.

Need a magnet , hold it close and pull apart

[Split_Pin]

Oil extractors don't work for about 50% of engines in my experience as there's a baffle or some other obstruction stopping the lange reaching the bottom of the sump. Take care to check the correct oil capacity of the engine and compare how much you get out.

[Split_Pin]

Scary part over.

This is about 60% of what came off.

The sill end was also rotten at the bottom behind the front wheel but not as bad as I'd feared.

Crucially, the jacking point and inner sill are fine.

There's a flange just in front of the jacking point that doesnt appear to do very much. Its a bit frilly in places but as it appears to be rudimentary,  I'm not going to go to the bother of making that back up.

The seam behind the jacking point where inner and outer sill meet is also frilly and I'll need to do something there. My plan is to get the repair welded up on the outer faces, spot weld it onto the jacking point and then see what's what with the inner seam. I'll probably just weld the lot directly to the inner sill as that's solid. Then I'll weld a new sill end to the inner wing and onto the new metal.

I'm really glad the jacking point is good as that would have been a whole heap more work.

The other side isn't great but not holed yet so that's for another day.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Wibble said:

Following the tip off from @Datsuncog recently, on our way back from a record fair in Newbury, I had to pop in to the Tesco superstore and get one of these:

Picked a box of beer up at the same time and currently working my way through those, when I noticed this:

My purchases had to be approved, because of the beer and the t-shirt was laid on top of the beer but the staff member didn’t say anything and I hadn’t noticed the security tag. Didn’t set off any alarms either (effective security Tesco!) but how the fuck do I remove this now? I have the receipt, obviously but don’t really want an hour round trip back to Newbury.

Got to be magnetic, having seen them released at the tills

[Split_Pin]

Well fuck, that was an arse of a welding session.

A tiny plate to repair the inner sill was all I had to do but would it fuck stick to the car. It's like the sill was made of brick or something. I just don't think the metal was clean enough. Anyway, the plate is on now, that's all I'll say about that. Hopefully the outer sill will work better as it's back to clean thick bright metal.

I've got a migraine now!

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Well fuck, that was an arse of a welding session.

A tiny plate to repair the inner sill was all I had to do but would it fuck stick to the car. It's like the sill was made of brick or something. I just don't think the metal was clean enough. Anyway, the plate is on now, that's all I'll say about that. Hopefully the outer sill will work better as it's back to clean thick bright metal.

I've got a migraine now!

That can happen usually if the earth isn't great or the tip is the wrong size for the wire/worn out. (Plus other things but that's the first things to check)

[Rustybullethole]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Well fuck, that was an arse of a welding session.

A tiny plate to repair the inner sill was all I had to do but would it fuck stick to the car. It's like the sill was made of brick or something. I just don't think the metal was clean enough. Anyway, the plate is on now, that's all I'll say about that. Hopefully the outer sill will work better as it's back to clean thick bright metal.

I've got a migraine now!

Am no expert though find anything other than clean and bright an arse to weld. Sure the outer will be just peachy 👍🏽

Sourced new exhaust gasket for the motor this morning. 

Gun gummed the shit out of it and am calling it good enough. 

[Split_Pin]

16 minutes ago, SiC said:

That can happen usually if the earth isn't great or the tip is the wrong size for the wire/worn out. (Plus other things but that's the first things to check)

Cheers. I know the welder works great as I gave it a damn good 6 hour workout over the last 2 weeks. I junked the 5 year old MIG reel as well and the feed is now great as well. But the earth wasn't on a great bit of metal tbh and what I was welding to could probably have been cleaner too.

Starting to see this as just a bit of practice as it's not looking great for the car. The sill in the other side is going to need doing in a year or 2 and it ideally needs a new subframe as well. With an impending house move I'm not sure there's headspace for a project at the moment.

[vulgalour]

Do we have a preferred person for car transportation in the UK on the forum these days?

I know @worldofceri got out of the game when I moved to Scunthorpe, I don't know if we had someone step in to offer a similarly excellent service.

If not I'll do the old-fashioned phone calls thing or maybe even brave Shiply.

[JMotor]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Cheers. I know the welder works great as I gave it a damn good 6 hour workout over the last 2 weeks. I junked the 5 year old MIG reel as well and the feed is now great as well. But the earth wasn't on a great bit of metal tbh and what I was welding to could probably have been cleaner too.

Starting to see this as just a bit of practice as it's not looking great for the car. The sill in the other side is going to need doing in a year or 2 and it ideally needs a new subframe as well. With an impending house move I'm not sure there's headspace for a project at the moment.

I'm happy you gave it bloody good go!

Yes it's an arse ache. 

It's getting the practice time in and you'll start figuring out how to go about repairs and wonder why you didn't learn sooner. 

However. I do also understand it's an stress you don't need either. Ultimately it's up to you, but can you throw the car in a corner/park it out of the road until you are sorted? 

[Split_Pin]

56 minutes ago, JMotor said:

I'm happy you gave it bloody good go!

Yes it's an arse ache. 

It's getting the practice time in and you'll start figuring out how to go about repairs and wonder why you didn't learn sooner. 

However. I do also understand it's an stress you don't need either. Ultimately it's up to you, but can you throw the car in a corner/park it out of the road until you are sorted? 

I'll definitely see the sill repair through, good practice as you say!

[junkyarddog]

4 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Well fuck, that was an arse of a welding session.

A tiny plate to repair the inner sill was all I had to do but would it fuck stick to the car. It's like the sill was made of brick or something. I just don't think the metal was clean enough. Anyway, the plate is on now, that's all I'll say about that. Hopefully the outer sill will work better as it's back to clean thick bright metal.

I've got a migraine now!

Welding is a miserable experience at the best of times.

[Split_Pin]

24 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Welding is a miserable experience at the best of times.

Glad it's not just me 😅

[danthecapriman]

29 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Welding is a miserable experience at the best of times.

 

4 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Glad it's not just me 😅

I like the actual welding bit. I find it quite therapeutic in a weird, hot burning kind of way!😄

It’s all the prep and cutting masses of rotten metal and mess at the beginning I hate. It’s much more fun if it’s on a project car you don’t have to get back on the road though. Just take your time and it gets done when it gets done.

Good on you for getting stuck in though @Split_Pin 👍

[comfortablynumb]

I always find that if it's something I'm just sticking together for a use in the barn/house/gate, or nothing to do with cars, or no pressure, it goes really well.

If it's something I've got to do because I needed the bloody thing yesterday it all goes tits up 

[wuvvum]

Got the Renault 6 extricated from the garage yesterday.  There's no room to get to the front of the car with the boat hung on the wall next to it, so I did my usual trick of climbing in through the tailgate to knock it out of gear, then grabbing hold of the back bumper and pulling it out backwards.  It actually started pretty easily this year - it needed a jump from the Rover, as I'd expected it to, but it didn't take a lot of cranking before it fired up.  I drove it round to the car park just as PBK and support crew were arriving to pick up the Visa, which was a fortunate bit of timing.

Once the Visa had departed Nor'-West'ard I decided to try and start the Mobylette, which had also been stood in the garage since October.  That fired up third kick, and I took it for a quick buzz round the block.  It did cut out once but restarted straight away - I think I'm going to have to whip the carb off and give it another clean, and perhaps replace the fuel filter, as it did the same thing a couple of times last year.

I also got the nearside drop link fitted to the Leaf.  That was an arse of a job - the bottom nut actually came undone with a bit of persuasion, but the top nut undid part way and then seized solid.  I had to take the angle grinder to it in the end.  The new link is on now, but it hasn't completely cured the rattling over bumps so there's obviously something else going on there.

As it was such a nice day today I took the Renault 6 for a drive to shake off the cobwebs.  I did about 11 miles in it - it drove OK but a couple of times it bogged down and would only run with full choke, although it recovered after a minute or two.  So that's going to need looking at - I need to have a play with the carb anyway as it was running way too rich last year, so I might take it off altogether and give it a clean out.  The fuel filter might be due for replacement too actually.

I then went for a spin in the Volvo and the Innocenti - both behaved fine, and for some reason the Volvo's odometer has started working again for the first time in a couple of years.  There were a few classics out and about, including an Austin 10 coming the other way as I was waiting to turn into my road in the Volvo.

I got the Merc up on the ramps to have a look at the rear diff and see if I could get the plugs undone in advance of doing an oil change.  They took a bit of heaving but both cracked off - I didn't go any further with the oil change as the fill plug is quite awkward to access and I wasn't in the mood for getting covered in gear oil. 

So I drove it down off the ramps and jacked it up to have another look at the parking brake situation - the main issue now is that the brake back plates are too rusty to hold the shoe retaining springs in place, so I need to get them off to fit the replacement back plates I've bought.  They're held on by four bolts, two Torx which came undone with a bit of buggering about and poking extension bars through the holes in the hub, and two 13mm hex bolts which I couldn't get undone with the tools I have - I need to get a low profile 13mm socket.  So that's a job for another weekend.

It's also going to need a gearbox oil and filter change soon - a couple of times it's not gone into gear when I've selected reverse and I've had to move the lever to neutral and back again, and it's always been a bit jerky on upshifts from cold - it's fine when it's warm though.

I did muster up enough mojo to jack up the nearside front of the Eos and have a look to see if there's any chance of getting the strut off.  So far it's behaved exactly the same as the offside - the pinch bolt came undone fine, but the drop link won't loosen off, and the spline bit I need to hold it in place snapped in half so I need to buy another one of those as well.  My eBay basket is starting to look expensive again.

[hairnet]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

 

As it was such a nice day today I took the Renault 6 for a drive to shake off the cobwebs.  I did about 11 miles in it - it drove OK but a couple of times it bogged down and would only run with full choke, although it recovered after a minute or two.  So that's going to need looking at 

francois cevert/jean ragnotti tune up needed nest pas?

[Tickman]

18 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Well fuck, that was an arse of a welding session.

A tiny plate to repair the inner sill was all I had to do but would it fuck stick to the car. It's like the sill was made of brick or something. I just don't think the metal was clean enough. Anyway, the plate is on now, that's all I'll say about that. Hopefully the outer sill will work better as it's back to clean thick bright metal.

I've got a migraine now!

Always go for clean metal, than look again and then again.
If it isn't really clean then it will fight you all the way.
Try and get the earth clamp as near as possible to the welding you are doing and make sure the bit it clamps to is really clean too.

As you get more practice you will put in your own shortcuts on the prep you do. This will usually come back and bite you though.

Keep practicing and it gets a lot easier, just get yourself as comfortable as possible.

[Split_Pin]

Cheers John, yep, the metal definitely wasn't clean enough, plus the earthed bit as well!

[richardmorris]

[davehedgehog31]

Took the 207 up to Knockhill for the SMRC event yesterday, glorious weather even if the racing schedule was a bit thin. Got up at 1pm and it was all wrapped up before 4pm.. usually goes on a bit longer than that.

207 continues to do as 207 does, 68mpg last fill and that was in pretty mixed driving, 700 mile tanks definitely possible. 

[mercedade]

I'm in the process of selling my house, which involves sorting out a Rover 820 Vitesse that I parked up 'for a few months' . In April 2022.

Having spent some time checking things over, fluids etc, I reconnected the coil pack and I gave it a quick flick to see how long it would take to fire. 

Answer? 

It started so quickly I didn't even catch it happening 

After about 15 mins of idling, fan came on perfectly. It runs beautifully. 

So.... anyone want to buy it? 

 

 

[Popsicle]

2 of the fleet in for MOT's today, the forum bike yellow SLK and the longest car on fleet, the little Swift - can't believe we've had it for 9 years.

Remarkably we got 2 passes.

Nothing much to worry about on the advisories, just needs a little tidy up on the end of the Merc's sill.

[Snake Charmer]

On 06/04/2025 at 17:00, Split_Pin said:

I've got a migraine now!

Arc eye?

[montytom]

3 hours ago, mercedade said:

I'm in the process of selling my house, which involves sorting out a Rover 820 Vitesse that I parked up 'for a few months' . In April 2022.

Having spent some time checking things over, fluids etc, I reconnected the coil pack and I gave it a quick flick to see how long it would take to fire. 

Answer? 

It started so quickly I didn't even catch it happening 

After about 15 mins of idling, fan came on perfectly. It runs beautifully. 

So.... anyone want to buy it? 

 

 

What a car really should get mine done and motd and on the road, They really are a special car.