Andy's awful autos: Vanden-blah

[Andyrew]

Sample this

I began to browse ebay for carpet ideas when a listing for 3 rather old samples came up, a quick measure and i felt these would be perfect as they have binded edges so would look a little neater than normal home carpet. One chopped in half was the exact perfect fit for the rears. The fronts fit nice too.

I washed and scrubbed the bits of original carpet i was going to re use and cutup the old rear floor sections which i used to re do the gear tunnel and the two front seat mounts. The nearside footwell carpet was chopped up and used to do the a pillar trim. 

What did we get then?

Axminster baby!

The sample i used in the back was the exact width of the seat box to front seat mounts. Pure fluke. I may try a bit of blue fabric dye on the lighter bits of the old carpet, i seem to recall @vulgalour dyeing carpet in his thread. 

 

Im well happy with the results. My back however is not! 

 

 

 

[beko1987]

Looks like proper gentleman's club now

[vulgalour]

Actually jealous over here, that looks awesome.

[Andyrew]

Shoe'd have guessed

With the interior done, front end brakes sorted, engine bay stuff sorted. With the arrival of new correct length rear hoses i decided now to have a look into the rear brakes, the handbrake only pulls one side, and i got the vibe that an overhaul is on the cards.  A bit of ebay searching brings up loads listed by borg and beck/trw etc etc. With the listings gave some cross references which appeared to show they are the same as a mini (you can see where this is going) 

@Mrs6C drum removal too was used and mucho brake cleaner hosed in as im guessing these are asbestos shoes. Sure enough the shoes are toast. 

And sure enough they arent the same as a mini . . Dingleberries. I do some more sleuthing at work but all the ones i can find online that arent old stock suggest they are the same as a mini but i appear to have 8 inch/203mm drums. 

Will speak to a shoe relining company that appears to be fairly local tomorrow and see what they charge. 

 

[Andyrew]

Tanks for asking. 

When i fitted the new rad the plastic overflow was looking fairly grubby and was mostly painted blue. I popped it off to swill out the shite in there and clean off the overspray, the inlet pipe was a steel tube that goes down inside the inlet into the bottle, this had swollen and made the plastic inlet brittle. 

Upon trying to gently remove the hose the inlet broke, of course it did, why wouldnt it? 

Epoxys and other stuff always give me cause for concern. So more money later and an earlier car brass tank was obtained covered in spider shite, i decided to just wizz the paint off and embrace the lovely brass. Unlike the plastic tank These have a spearate bracket so a NOS one of these was also purchased. I had previously purchased some green overflow pipe so added a smide of this to point direct to the ground, Sexy. 

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

I'm absolutely loving the updates on the old VdP !

After fifty years of owners who bodged things together to keep it going, the poor old car certainly deserves your doing things properly !

[Andyrew]

5 years on

It was only today that i realise its been 5 years owning this old steed this month.  It started out scruffy and went to being kept very clean back to being slightly scruffy, its used pretty much every day and does about 250 miles a week. 

Hands down the best car ive every owned, its just a dependable old thing. Grot is setting in but i plan to treat that and get at least another two years out of it and hit the 200k mark. 

Some new boots and a rear axle love is next on the list.  Must be said things a bit crusty in the rear. They were when i got the car and things havent improved.

Crusty.

 

[Andyrew]

Plan B

Earlier in this thread i mentioned TZY the sprinter being turned into a camper. While id still love to do this, the expenditure in tax, insurance , the flywheel and then the welding plus conversion is a big chuck to swallow. The vans still here its just on the shelf for the moment. 

I dont get out and about as much as i should and really like to go check some places out. Ebay browsing found me looking at roof tents which hover in the 750 plus area used. I contemplated it but kept putting of such an expense. 

A visit to costco and they had them in. I decided this was fate and returned with a mate to buy one. 

[Andyrew]

Saturday another friend who likes camping came over to help/take the piss.  Id googled some reviews and the tentbox stuff seems well regarded. Quality does seem very good, time will tell.

And packed away

 

[Andyrew]

Sunday had been kept clear to work on two friends cars. However both bailed on me, great. 

With a now open day a campsite was booked and off the cotswold i shall fuck. 

Check oil and coolant. Kick front tyre **thunk** ohhh dear, seem the track rod was shot, like a cock in a sock. Oddly ive only heard a light knock every so often. 

Luckily i had one in the workshop so a quick workshop visit and 15mins later its done. Lets go!

 

 

[Andyrew]

There was multiple parts to the site and the owner said i could go wherever i liked. So i had a whole field to myself. 

[Andyrew]

I wanted somewhere i could make a brew and still put stuff in the boot, id been thinking i would make something that can house stuff but be removable. But given id had litterally a couple of hours (id been baking a coffee cake in the morning) i needed a quick solution so i errrr . . . well . . .

Yes, i went on holiday with my tv stand. 

[Andyrew]

Despite the high winds, i had a lovely time exploring and walking for miles alongside the thames. 

 

[Dan302]

45 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

I wanted somewhere i could make a brew and still put stuff in the boot, id been thinking i would make something that can house stuff but be removable. But given id had litterally a couple of hours (id been baking a coffee cake in the morning) i needed a quick solution so i errrr . . . well . . .

Yes, i went on holiday with my tv stand. 

That's actually genius and if you don't fancy lifting your telly onto the floor each time you know roughly what you need to fabricate!

[Mally]

12 minutes ago, Dan302 said:

That's actually genius and if you don't fancy lifting your telly onto the floor each time you know roughly what you need to fabricate!

Get an Orange box for the telly.

Are Orange boxes still a thing? Used to be threpence each. Everyone used them as bedside cabinets 70 years ago.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Mally said:

 

Are Orange boxes still a thing? Used to be threpence each. Everyone used them as bedside cabinets 70 years ago.

Recycled cardboard now, sadly

[Mally]

7 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Recycled cardboard now, sadly

Ah well.

We recycled the wooden ones, nothing new under the sun.

[Andyrew]

New material

2 week turn around and i have some shoes with a lovely chuck of fresh lining.

Sunday i finally decided to chuck the little blue nugget on the lift.  stripped the brakes down, painted the back plates and handbrake brackets.  Once dried fitted them back on and went to get the wheel cylinders fitted.  They looked like mini ones with the stupid e clip. However The roll pin was in a different place, that would be because they arent mini. The roll pins in a different location for larger bore cylinders it seems.  And the rears on this are the same as an MGB. Ordered in same day at work handily. 

One cylinder was seized solid and the handbrake mech was stuck hard. Which would explain the handbrakes lack of hold. 

I clamped the wheel cylinders with g clamps to get then bled up nicely prior to fitting the shoes. 

This morning i also stripped and greased the adjuster. Freed up the handbrake mech, and stuck it back together. 

New rear flexi lines, I reused some of the hardlines that looked okay. Ill make some new ones sometime but for now id rather just get the wee blue shite on the road as its been far too long. 

Whatever this is, it also got the thick shultz scraped off it, wire wheeled and some silver splashed on..

Handbrake cable adjusters backed off, cable connected up then adjusted back up. A quick chooch of wax seal over it all for a bit of protection. 

Tomorrow ill tweak all the wheel bearings back up and put new split pins in and i think we call that done for now. Just want to get some miles under its belt and tinker on something else..

 

[SiC]

7 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Whatever this is, it also got the thick shultz scraped off it, wire wheeled and some silver splashed on

Rear brake proportioning valve. Limits the amount of brake fluid going to the rear so under heavy braking you don't get the rears locking up before the front. 

[Andyrew]

*ring ring* *ring ring*

"Eyeball it exhausts, Andy speaking"

Hi my badly fitted and hitting on every speedbump chuggy buggy ex WAV exhaust is leaking grey pubes. Do you have a replacement in stock thats possibly smaller and doesnt hit everything. Perharps it could also be a bit fruiter sounding to really bring out the screaming  1.4 of pure power?

"Let me just check the random pile of old stock exhausts saved from the scrap man . . . Yep looks like ive got one in stock.

 

[Andyrew]

" All done, ma'am

45 degrees with a fruity note just like you asked for, we also welded up the badly cracked centre box, added braces and made the system all one piece because the pipes were a loose fit and probably wouldnt seal. 

Because here at Eyeball it exhausts, theres the new part you need or the welder we've got."

 

 

[Andyrew]

New shoes!

Today the tyre machine once again proved its worth and the silver Astra recieved the third full set of boots under my ownership. 

First were uniroyal rain experts which were great but only seem to get maybe 12k out of them. With a liking to try other things the following set i went for were falken sinceras. Which i found made more road noise than the unis but have done 20k ish so overall they were good. Theres not many but a few miles left in them so the will be headed off to go on the @Six-cylinder royale before heading in the bin. 

This time around i went for kumhos

The mid range choice in this tyre size is getting thin now. Its mostly top range or proper budget. While cheapo tyres have a place. I do sometimes press on and chuck the car about so like to know that something semi decent is on the ground. 

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

15 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

There's not many but a few miles left in them so the will be headed off to go on the @Six-cylinder royale before heading in the bin. 

Great. Thank you to get it safe and legal while it is being recommissioned.

[Andyrew]

Another pair of shoes.

Tonight a quick visit to the workshop to stick some tyres on a work van. Fitted a few of these budgets now on our vans. Seem okay, balance up nicely, these were about £80 for the pair delivered i think. While it would be nice to put better stuff on its a waste of money. These things are smashed into kerbs and pot holes and then driven with the tracking miles out and chewed up on the edges or get screws stuck in them way before they are even half way worn.

 

[beko1987]

I had the same with rain experts. Wonderful tyre but even on my old lightweight* zx I wore the fronts down ever so quickly (as it didn't rain much after I bought them 😂) 

[Supernaut]

Plus one for Kumho Ecowings here.

I've had them on a couple of shitboxes that I've driven like a complete lunatic in rural NE Scotland weather. They never put a foot wrong.

[Andyrew]

Back to basics

After chucking two new tyres on one of our work vans got some upfront fondle action. The headlights were awful. Like dangerously awful.

Bad bodywork and bad driving sees this added to the mix

Off you fuck!

[Andyrew]

A previously destroyed van in our other branches yard was due to meet the bridge so i went robbing.

Job done and looking much better. 

 

[Andyrew]

French fancy. 

The red wagon of @Mrs6C went on the lift and recieved a full exhaust. While the box was out the way a lashing of underseal was splashed around the crusty bits.  I dont like this stuff but as said before, it has its place. 

 exhausted. 

[Andyrew]

Oil have to wait n see

After some searching i found a filter via work however theres no seals with this so i may purchase some older stock ones on ebay. I also wanted to go a smige up on the oil. So went for a 10w50 motorcycle oil this time over 10w40 to see if it makes any change to the gearshift when upto to temp. 

The scabby housing got a quick lick of stone chip and everything insight was degreased.

However putting the filter in just didnt feel right. Sure enough a quick looky at the book reveals why. There was no spacer in the housing. Part number 8 was nowhere to be seen.

A polished edge to the old filter and a matching witness marks inside the housing shows the oil filter was just floating about in the housing. So i removed it and found a suitable ish size washer.  Now the new filter should be doing filtery things. 

Will see how it goes,  heading upto the ado16 meet this weekend so hopefully i may find a housing and some old stock filters for sale.