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Posted

Yes the sd1 has gone . I leant it to my mate and didn't miss it so thought it was time for a change . The guy came from Sheffield and paid full price.

 

I've got my eye on a Sierra in the borders but I've no idea how I'm going to get the time to go and see it never mind pick it up .

 

My mates also got a t5 estate he's selling with uprated suspension, t5 r spoiler and a rica remap for 950 but I dunno if it'll go on my classic policy. I could be in the svm.

Posted

Work vehicle fleet status....

I have been having a deeper look at the pickup truck today.

 

While it looks good from afar, its far from good.

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There has been a weird noise for a while....like a wheel bearing humming when cornering, but it randomly changes sides, so I think its maybe not a bearing. In fact today I decided it was more from the rear than the front. No play in the wheels, but a big oily smear over the diff which seems to be weeping from the propshaft seal.

I dropped the oil and out came a litre or so of nasty, thin black stuff that smelt burnt. It took two litres of fresh 80/90. I hear rumours that it should have a LSD and therefor special oil, but I have never felt anything from the back end. My old Frontera had a rear LSD and it would lock up on hairpin corners, but this one doesnt.

 

Anyway, more importantly, while I was lying under it fucking around with a small funnel and a length of rubber pipe, pouring oil into my armpit, I had a prod at the chassis and its not pretty. In fact its really very rotten indeed. It would have been laughed out of a UK MOT bay years ago. The last lot of MOT plates I wanged on are holding fine, but the chassis is rotten in various other places and the front body mounts are shocking too.

 

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Frankly, I dont know if I can be harrised with more welding on it....its rotten all over and you have to draw a line somewhere. It needs to pass a CT in December (commercials need a yearly CT...alternating year about between the main 2 year test cars get and a simple emissions test), but its just for emissions this time, so that gives me another year in it, maximum. It will probably pass CT like this as rust doesnt really matter here, but I worry that one day with two tons on the trailer and an emergency stop or big pothole it will just fold in half.

Oh, speaking of emissions testing, the exhaust silencer has massively split and makes a ridiculous farting noise now. I will need to weld that up for the CT. 

 

Im undecided....the problem is that its running better than ever now that I have solved the air leak into the fuel system, and its great for towing and work use. I can chuck logs and stuff in the back and drive it down overgrown tracks, not caring about branches scraping the paint.

I have the Freelander van,

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which is also in need of welding but its just (hopefully!) the sills, so a weekends work will see it solid. However it also needs a clutch and tyres, so the parts price is mounting up, and changing a 4x4 clutch on the barn floor is never fun. While its not as versatile as the pickup, its much, much nicer to drive. Its also full of evil modern electrickery which can - and has previously - gone drastically, expensively wrong with no provocation, while the pickup's most complicated bit of electronics is the CD player, and I fitted that to it..... dunno. I dont know what to do. Ideally I would sack them both off and buy something else, but I have no monies just now.

 

I wouldnt be comfortable selling the pickup in the state its in, and the Freelander is pretty much worthless with rotten sills and a dead clutch, so I need to get repairs done.

Im thinking weld up the Mazda exhaust and get it through CT emissions and this winter while work is slow plod through fixing up the LandRover, and then make decisions in springtime.

Posted

Drove the 2CV to Cosford, clocking up its 198,000th mile on the way. Bit of a poor turnout, certainly to start with, so was glad when Myglaren chucked me the keys to this C5 Mk1. First time I've driven one of those for some years. Quite liked it. I'm planning a craptastic video.

 

Also drive a Xantia V6 and XM V6 and for some reason, am now desperate to own something with a V6 in it. Might be a while before I can afford anything though, let alone the V6 fuel costs.

 

Then drove home, having a mighty hoon along the A44. 2CV grips quite well with its new tyres.

  • Like 2
Posted

Went to the classic auction at Wymondimundmondymnham today.  Some interesting chod there, including a lovely Renner Fifteen, which made just under four bags.  After a strong start (£1150 for a grotty non-running A35), there were some bargains towards the end, like a scruffy and Pinto-engined but MOT'd and running Daimler 250 for £1850, a lovely MOD S-type Jag for £4,500, and a tatty but running PA Cresta for £3K.  Also a tidy-looking W126 300SE which only made about £300, and a daft Lincoln Town Car stretch limo (which to be fair looked a bit of a heap close up) for £1700.  My hand was proper twitching for the Pinto Daimler, I can tell ye.  It even had a towbar ffs.

 

Ongoing attempts to free off the front calipers from the 164 have thus far proved unsuccessful.  They are now soaking in diesel; if that doesn't help then I'll take the blowtorch to them.  I did half contemplate saying "sod it" and buying replacement calipers, but when I went to the website of the company that was selling them, they've now gone up from about £78 a side to £150 - sod that for a lark.  I've found another company which will sell me a caliper for under £60, but they only list the ones for solid discs, and the discs on my car are vented.  I suppose I could buy a pair of solid discs (the discs on the car are probably going to need replacing anyway as they've been unused for so long), but I'd rather keep it original if I can.

Posted

I've done practically nothing to the ex EddyR Vanilla Breezeblock other than drive it and fill it with petrol since the MOT as it and I had fallen out slightly and I wondered about flogging it for an AX or a biscuit tin or something.

However, it's still here and still cheers me up when I drive it so time to tackle some of it's little foibles. One of which is the carpet which is totally past it and holed in the drivers footwell. Following another session stripping Andy CMS' rotten 760 saloon I now have a nice new carpet set in completely the wrong colour which will be (hopefully) fitted tomorrow. It does mean the load compartment carpet staying grey but I don't sit in the boot that often so it doesn't bother me. 
The other foible is a lack of switchgear illumination because all the expensive Volvo bulbs have blown but that's awaiting some bits after a complete failure to find bulb holders at the scrappy. Or at Halfords. Or Maplin. Or the local motor factors. 

  • Like 2
Posted

Those bulbs will do the trick if you are remote adept with a soldering iron ;)

 

On a related matter, with a view to getting it back on the road next week, I took The Volvo out for a cheeky drive around the block this morning, in order to see if it still works properly. It does :)
 

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As a consequence, I managed to get both Volvos facing out of their parking spaces at the same time for the first time ever:

 

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The difference in frontal appearance of the cars is startling. I think I prefer the look of The Wentworth, although it could do with an eggcrate grille. Anyone got one?

 

 

Posted

Ongoing attempts to free off the front calipers from the 164 have thus far proved unsuccessful.  They are now soaking in diesel; if that doesn't help then I'll take the blowtorch to them.  I did half contemplate saying "sod it" and buying replacement calipers, but when I went to the website of the company that was selling them, they've now gone up from about £78 a side to £150 - sod that for a lark.  I've found another company which will sell me a caliper for under £60, but they only list the ones for solid discs, and the discs on my car are vented.  I suppose I could buy a pair of solid discs (the discs on the car are probably going to need replacing anyway as they've been unused for so long), but I'd rather keep it original if I can.

 

Presumably you've tried twatting them with hammers? Are they still on the car?

Posted

I bought a car today.  This could almost be in the grump thread - it's a Volvo S40 T4, but it seems to be suffering from an almost complete lack of boost, so my visions of duelling with VAG drivers on the M11 came to naught.  Still, it didn't overheat, so that's an improvement on my last purchase.  It also, to my surprise, has ice cold aircon, which was handy when I got stuck in a 5-mile queue for the Dartford tunnel on what was a ridiculously hot day for the arse end of September.

 

Here's a picture.  It's a bit battered at the front, bless it (a tree fell on it not too long ago), but apart from the lack of power and a bad judder under braking from high speed, it drives fine.  Obviously I could have done without another car that needs attention, but then it was 250 quid so I don't mind spending a bit of time on it to get it back on Audi-nomming form.

 

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Very nice buy.

Give the coolant hose clip at the base of the rad a check for rust, they are known for failing and the hose pops off and dumps your coolant all over the road in 5 seconds.

These things are also very fussy about having having good front tyres for entertaining acceleration, braking and cornering.

Posted

Reading an old copy of Practical Classic this morning up popped a photo of Mr Ramrod of this parish,then in Cyprus with his blue Granada.

Do you have this copy Eddy?

Posted
 
£350 to buy, £20 to apply for V5, £250-350 to transport up north.  Then there's going to be new tyres, probably new suspension components, an engine rebuild/replace and myriad electrical faults to chase out.  But it looks surprisingly solid and wob free bar that big  bash on the passenger door.
 
It's actually very much the right car at the wrong time and presently top of my WANT list but I doubt very much that a windfall of sufficient magnitude is going to fall my way when I've already got a beige BL product that needs work to get it back on the road.
 
I live in hope though, a 1.3 Marina or Ital would be a very nice thing to own and use one day.
  • Like 2
Posted

I still love the plate on the red volvo

 

It's been on the car for ten years now. That double-sided adhesive tape from Halfords certainly does the job long-term :)

Posted

 a 1.3 Marina or Ital would be a very nice thing

 

Ftumch! That's the first time anyone has said this. I love this website.

 

 

Latest Pug 106 GTI wtf moment- I was driving along and all of a sudden the lights on warning beeper came on along with the charge light and all the wipers/indicators and power steering stopped working.

 

Turns out a wire that goes to the rear wiper was pinched in the rubber boot that goes into the tailgate and it had blown the main fuse for everything ignitiony. Can't believe I managed to find and fix that in uder half an hour (Almost entirely by fluke) but also pissed off that autosupplies advertises OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK but is closed at 2:33pm. What the fuck time do they actually open? I had to drive wor lasses car to Chesterfield Halfords to get my pocket felt for five 30A fuses (£3, the fuckers wouldn't accept my 9 year out of date staff trade card!!!!). It breaks my heart cos I've literally got a bucket full of fuses harvested out of old fuse boards at work.

Other than this it's driving quite nicely and fitting a decat and magnex exhaust has genuinely made it go a lot better, but I think this is more down to the fact that the exhaust on it was for a 1.0 saxo and looked like it had been made by bending it round a gate post, than the fact that the magnex exhaust is all that good. It does sound very nice though.

 

It's still getting flogged soon though.

Posted

Cortina has let me down epically today.

Cut out and wouldn't start for 5 minutes at a time, and would let me drive half a mile before cutting out again.

4 hours to do 10 miles and it's still not home. Though it is parked at my uncles farm which is about 2 miles away.

Pissed off does not cover it.

Posted

That's what someone's suggested on the cortina forum and probably the problem, I thought it was fuel vaporisation as the inlet was really hot, but I cooled it down with water and it did the same thing 2 minutes later.

Posted

Maybe the cortina was making you slow down and enjoy the scenery..

 

You young whipersnapper!

Posted

I got abuse from some kids who shouted "There's a 20 or 30 year old man in a 70 year old car" whilst I was at the side of the road....

Also it's a standard Cortina, fast isn't a word it's ever been termed.

Posted

I got abuse from some kids who shouted "There's a 20 or 30 year old man in a 70 year old car" whilst I was at the side of the road....

Also it's a standard Cortina, fast isn't a word it's ever been termed.

Yoof today, no respect.

  • Like 1
Posted

I cleaned my new whip and treated it to a quick service ready for the winter.

 

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I am really pleased with it, I wasn't looking for a mr2 as my old 306 was giving fine but dull service. But as we do I checked what was for sale every 13 seconds. It was in a lovely little village not far from me, a old girl had it for the past eight years and took it toyota every year, she also spent a amazing 600 quid on having the wheels refurbed, new pirellis all round, it's also had a recent clutch discs and pads all round, they also fleeced her out of 190 for a polish last year.

 

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She had just taxed it and I couldn't pick fault with it, it's mega tight came with a hardtop, and was in General pretty amazing condition.

 

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It's not very autoshite but with the sale of my 306 and a old mountain bike I had in the garage it owes me about 800 quid and I reckon I can get my money back when I come to sell next year and have a winters free motoring.

 

It's no turbo mk1.5 though.

Posted

How's the Cortina's charging? I've only got experience of 123 ignition, but they get VERY upset if they can't chew a full 12 volts.

 

Anyway, Myglaren very kindly let me conduct a craptastic road test of his Citroen C5 Mk1. This is far more fun than thrashing around a race track in some supercar. At least, that's what I try to tell myself...

 

 

I do fear I now want a C5 though...

Posted

It's got an alternator fitted in place of the Dynamo DW - so should be adequate as the tell tale light on the dash is never on.

Posted

I don't have to worry* about getting the maggots out of the Kangoo now. I opened it today for the first time in a while and they have transmogrified into flies instead. Some have been caught by the spiders webs, others escaped to victory when I opened the doors.

Posted

I'm thinking of selling my Saab 900 Turbo in a month or so, any interest? Has tax and test and no real pressing issues. I have done the headgasket and clutch in the last 12 months and various other bits. Rusty in places but solid underneath and strangely it is pristine in the usual problem areas like the driveshaft tunnels and front chassis rails. The inside of the doors are rusty of course and there is no headlining because I ripped it out in a rage. £550?

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  • Like 3

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