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Mercedade's Rover 820 Vitesse Lux


mercedade

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Iron Cross was 2nd Reich wasn't it? It's how the Red Baron's plane was marked.

 

Nope.

 

It's fascinating how wrong people can get history.

 

The iron cross

 

220px-German_Cross.svg.png

 

is a former military decoration originating in the Kingdom of Prussia. It was first awarded during the Napoleonic War in 1813.

Since 1956 it is also the insignia of the Luftwaffe of the FRG.

 

 

What decorated Richthofen's plane - and all other German military equipment - is the Balkenkreuz:

 

150px-Balkenkreuz.svg.png

 

 

It was the insignia of the German military from 1916 until the end of WW2.

 

Neither symbol has anything to do with the Third Reich, other than being used in the same way as they were all along.

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Nope.

 

It's fascinating how wrong people can get history.

 

The iron cross

 

220px-German_Cross.svg.png

 

is a former military decoration originating in the Kingdom of Prussia. It was first awarded during the Napoleonic War in 1813.

Since 1956 it is also the insignia of the Luftwaffe of the FRG.

 

 

What decorated Richthofen's plane - and all other German military equipment - is the Balkenkreuz:

 

150px-Balkenkreuz.svg.png

 

 

It was the identifying symbol of the German military from 1916 until the end of WW2.

 

Neither symbol has anything to do with the Third Reich, other than being used in the same way as they were all along.

Cheers. I knew it wasn't nazi based at least.
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This will be my fourth 800 and, having had a variety of flavours before, this will be my first ever non-green.

 

The inside is positively burlesque

The colour is White Gold I think.

 

And yes, I'm assuming pipe-edged leather is in order.

 

Mine had rear electric seats too, come to think of it.

 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

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  • 7 months later...

September 2018

 

 

I'm absolutely thrilled with it. The engine is just as willing and eager as my last, albeit not quite as whisper quiet as that one (it really was sensationally quiet). The bodywork is many order of magnitude better than my last. I think, as personal taste, I prefer the Recaro seats from the standard trim over the leather of this 'lux' version, but I've no intention of changing them.

 

I drove it back from Suffolk to Manchester on a lovely, sunny Sunday afternoon and had a genuinely wonderful time.

 

DSC_3264_zpslxsyx0xg.jpg

 

 

Brief shakedown of what's needed:

 

  • Tracking
  • Clutch slave (bleed or refurb and bleed - I have a seal kit)
  • Re-attach interior mirror
  • Resolve intermittent hot-start problem (extra cranking needed, but only if started in the 10-15 minute window after getting warm. Straight away it was fine, and after a slight cooldown, fine) - Future mercedade foreshadowing warning
  • Fit manual boost controller and boost gauge
  • Glue some wayward trim (imagine dashlift, but around the glove box, corner trim etc)
  • Replace radio (currently an original, including working 6 disc changer in the boot, but has an intermittent amplification problem and, quite frankly, I want something more modern)
  • New speakers! All four are various degrees of rotten.
  • Replace rear bumper
  • Hoover it
  • Flush and replace coolant
  • Refit air-con condenser, and risk a re-gas
  • ID and fix exhaust blow (knowing my luck, it'll be the flipping flexi section again)
  • Resolve exhaust-ish smell in the cabin (potentially linked to above, but I doubt it)
  • Various bits of trim.
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I don't like the washed out beige grill:

 

DSC_3268_zpsxdst6osc.jpg

 

I have a black grill:

 

DSC_0003_zps5kneztiy.jpg

 

The Rover badge in the black grill had a massive stone chip right in the centre, the cream one didn't, so:

 

DSC_0004_zpspn5o2jdy.jpg

 

DSC_0005_zpskdeae3fk.jpg

 

The nuts on both were a little seized - on each one, the same threaded stud pulled itself out of the plastic moulding on the grill, but ultimately, it doesn't matter:

 

DSC_3269_zpssiadn9sr.jpg

 

I actually noticed it was a little off straight after taking this photo, so it is now properly lined up!

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Look at the state of that scuttle panel

 

DSC_3349_zpsfaajlfdf.jpg

 

DSC_3350_zpslvt5uqgh.jpg

 

I have a couple going spare, thankfully. So after a brisk rub down with the plastic/wire brush attachment on my drill, I was able to give it a coating of some old school (and definitely toxic) rust preventer

 

DSC_3326_zps2j0sijwk.jpg

 

DSC_3325_zpsp5xzu7ge.jpg

 

Fast forward a few days and I could give it a paint:

 

Compare with the old one:

 

DSC_3351_zpspbs3qe5e.jpg

 

Fastfoward another 48 hours:

 

DSC_3355_zps7drqqhiy.jpg

 

DSC_3356_zpszo6ubmh5.jpg

 

Whilst I was there, I also gave the wiper arms an (extremely superficial) blast with the black aerosol paint and it all looks much tidier

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Still September 2018 (back when I had the mojo, clearly)

 

It wasn't until I was doing a walk around lightbulb check that I even realised this was happening. With the engine running, you can't hear it. With the engine off, it turns out the headlight level adjuster was constantly powering - either jammed, or broken. This racket is purely from the headlight.

 

 

Video

 

I briefly considered investigating, but I had a spare set of headlights, and that seemed a much easier way to do it.

 

DSC_3352_zpsxqauxsyy.jpg

 

And now I have silent headlights again (plus the Osram Nightbreaker bulbs from my old Vitesse, so better output too).

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Other stuff from today is:

 

I've fitted the missing n/s/r mudflap from my spares stash

Fitted the rear-view mirror (although I strongly suspect I'll have to give in and get proper rear view mirror glue)

Carried on cleaning.

 

No pictures of that though - we all know what they look like

.

And my reward?

 

DSC_3353_zpsrxkaeyyt.jpg

 

A bloody water leak! Voiceover - I wonder, dear reader, if he'll remember to do anything about this....?

 

I say leak, it looks to be coming from the vicinity of the water pump, but after about 4 mins it just stopped. Coolant level is decent, and what's coming out wasn't greasy and didn't smell like coolant. Could possibily be connected to the massive rain we had over the last week (this is the first time it's been started since then), but I'm not confident.

 

I'm also not too worried as I'm flushing, dropping and changing the coolant anyway so I'll have plenty of time to inspect for leaks - but it is annoying.

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November 2018

 

Time to change the clutch slave cylinder. Thankfully, I had a spare one in my stash so I could crack straight on.

 

Unbolting the old one was stressless - two bolts, a clevis pin and a hydraulic pipe.

 

DSC_3503_zpsq8yuazv2.jpg

 

Old vs new

 

DSC_3501_zpsm85pg5bb.jpg

 

So yeah, definitely in need of a refresh.

 

Got the new one fitted, and pulled through some pretty miserable looking hydraulic fluid in the process of getting it plumbed in and bled.

 

Ah yes. And 'bled'.

 

I'll be honest, it was probably my most successful clutch bleed ever, but still something I'd feel the need to apologise for to any other driver. My technique was as much frantic pumping of the pedal as possible for a couple of minutes (obviously the pedal just goes to the floor, so this had to be done by hand), before moving under the car. I use a vacuum bleeder combined with compressing the piston as far as I possibly can.

 

Pump the vacuum
Compress the piston
Unlock the bleed nipple (thus drawing fluid through on the vacuum from the bleeder)
Close the nipple
Slowly release the cylinder.

 

This mainly requires three arms or some careful planning, but it has mostly worked.

 

Clutch is significantly improved over its previous, where it was millimetres of travel off the floor before engaging.

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End of November 2018

 

I'm missing a few updates here (just not had time, if I'm entirely honest), but I'll skip to the end - MOT pass!

 

A couple of jobs I need to get sorted ASAP

.

a) rear discs 
b ) A bigger one - with the car up in the air (where it's clear just how sensationally clear of rust it really is), it's obvious that there is a mismatch between front a rear springs. This isn't the usual 'the nose looks high because of the tall arches at the front' - this is a demonstrable slope at the towards the rear, incredibly obvious when seen on a 4 poster ramp.

 

It appears it has lowering springs at the rear? It certainly has red springs - which causes me two issues.

 

The car feels very light at the front, not well planted at all - this is obviously a potential source for this vagueness. First up, anyone know of a decent set of springs? And what differences are there? I really need to identify what I've got, before I can decide where I want to go - I'm not wild about lowering the front, mainly concerned about ride quality, but I wonder if I've got Sterling springs up front making it a bit wobblier than the rear?

 

Note - I've still not sorted the springs, nor the tracking.

 

That'll conclude today's update. There's another 4 months of ballache to provide here, but I'll come back to that....

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