Coalnotdoles AX... Roadtrippin.

[greengartside]

The chap with the Mondeo filling up will be there a bloody long time ?

[beko1987]

3 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

The ONLY downside to them is size. 

If you're TALL and also FAT, they're tight like a child's shoe.  

If you're neither, they're the perfect car. 

Having driven Mr Bucketeers I agree. It is lovely, and I can totally see why their loved but I fit a ZX better... 

[coalnotdole]

2 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

IoW regsietered ?

Is Dave on here? I am a regular visitor to the IoW.

Dave generally just uses my account and signs off posts as Dave at the end As he’s never bothered to register an account of his own!

Kind of dates back to when all our project cars were on some level joint projects... 

its a bit confused admittedly

cheers cnd - Joe

 

 

[Ben_O]

Damn! I was going to buy this when it came up for sale on wightbay.

Checked on there the next day to get the phone number and it was gone.

I couldn't believe how cheap it was

 

Good luck with it

Ben

[DoctorRetro]

4 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

The ONLY downside to them is size. 

If you're TALL and also FAT, they're tight like a child's shoe.  

If you're neither, they're the perfect car. 

And if you have wide and large feet. That's the reason I've owned one but never driven one. (It was given to me, I passed it straight on) 

[500tops]

Like anything, you adapt and get used to it...

[tooSavvy]

31 minutes ago, 500tops said:

Like anything, you adapt and get used to it...

..... Aye, get a couple of organ pedals made up into cloggs

[garethj]

38 minutes ago, 500tops said:

Like anything, you adapt and get used to it...

I’m over 6ft tall, portly and with size 12 shoes.  I never had a problem with the AX in our family and I drive it thousands of miles.

Good purchase!  They’re a nice little car

[dozeydustman]

5 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

The ONLY downside to them is size. 

If you're TALL and also FAT, they're tight like a child's shoe.  

If you're neither, they're the perfect car. 

I am both. I have successfully driven an AX with relative comfort. Short(ish) legs and long body helps.

[Cavcraft]

That's lovely, well bought. They're also not that bad for tall fat people. 

[Skizzer]

2 hours ago, coalnotdole said:

Dave generally just uses my account and signs off posts as Dave at the end As he’s never bothered to register an account of his own!

Kind of dates back to when all our project cars were on some level joint projects... 

its a bit confused admittedly

cheers cnd - Joe

 

 

I’ve always really liked the fact that coalnotdole is two people.  You’re like the 1990s Italian creative arts collective known as Luther Blissett.

Nice AX, too.

[Dirk Diggler]

My favourite AX was one bought by a family of 7 children around here; 1989 and no money for an estate and very few people carriers existed; so they bought a 1.4 diesel commercial and welded a new born seat and a toddler seat to the half bulkhead and crammed the rest of em in the back. Car derived vans were what large familys thrived on; who needs an Espace when an XRAD 205 van is a quarter the price?

Teenage me travelled plenty of places in the back in company and love with their teenage daughters; always wondering how the younger ones hadn't been brain damaged by the visible enormous vibrations of the welded child seats; having met the bulkhead seat children since as adults it seems to have had minimal effects

[Bren]

Learned to drive in one. Liked it. However we live in a world obsessed with NCAP ratings so something with the structural integrity of fog does'nt appeal to many.

[Six-cylinder]

If you had a drive crammed full of lovely car would you drive an AX, I do!

[Avensis Verso]

Had one that colour myself 1.0 base spec, lovely little cars and very overlooked

[Saabnut]

1 hour ago, Six-cylinder said:

If you had a drive crammed full of lovely car would you drive an AX, I do!

Me too!

[coalnotdole]

 The Ax Story Continued:

 

I'd kind of expected to go over too the Island for a weekend to do some essential work, chuck it in for a test and bring it home. As i turned out Daves enthusiasum for the AX meant he went round the car and compiled a bit of a jobs / price list and he Just ticked off the stuff that he thought it needed without me! which was handy as it saved me a trip.

Some stuff was just general tidying others essentail for the next test.

Passenger mirror replaced (£10):

 

NS Taillight was replaced with a good used one for (£15)

 

The Tailgate latch has been re-epoxied, The nearside trackrod replaced, The speedo cable got swapped (£15) and dash bulbs replaced.

Theres was a parts buying fail where the wrong brake disks got bought blowing £14! The replacements came in at an eye watering £19 Brake pads were £7 and the driveshaft came to a mere £26. Not sure how they can make it for this price and still make money?!

 

The big torque wrench deployed for hub bolt tightening... 250nm!

It also had the rocker cover gasket replaced £6 pcb breather hose £4.50 and a bonnet stay clip for £2

Ebay Parts spend worked out at about £128  in the end. Not too bad really.

Dave and another mate then spent a bit of time blatting about in it on the island... test driving it. (Chris at the wheel in this photo)  At this point I'd still not seen or driven it!

Last job before the MOT was  the small rust spot on the passenger sill, which Dave cut out and replaced....

Will want spraying blue at some point....!

Dave chucked it in for a test locally and was rewarded with a pass (clean sheet too, no advisorys)

Heres a few shots of the underside, its suprisingly clean:

Back of the engine has some dubious staining... A sign of past omg HGF?

Dave then set off on a long distance trip over too the mainland... Up to Surrey then back down to Sussex to deliver it to me. This meant it would finally be in my life...

 

[coalnotdole]

On 10/16/2019 at 8:45 PM, Skizzer said:

I’ve always really liked the fact that coalnotdole is two people.  You’re like the 1990s Italian creative arts collective known as Luther Blissett.

Nice AX, too.

Cheers, I'd not come across Luther Blissett Before that was an interesting internet tangent!

Whats stranger still is that pre cars Dave and I were both involved in other arts / photographic colaborations! True fact: we also met at a Mental Hospital in 2004....

 

[Skizzer]

Excellent works!

[bunglebus]

Like. Hopefully as much fun to hoon around in as my Renault 5 was, a friend had the GTI version back in my Halfords days and it looked like good fun

[strangeangel]

I truthfully don't think there's any better way of spending £175... well bought.

 

[Broadsword]

Great work and a great buy. I really must try and get a drive of an AX some day. They really do look and sound ace!

[vulgalour]

AXs are neat, and you look to have got a proper bargain with this one.  Astonishing how cheap the parts are!  It's been a few years since I saw one in the wild, the last one being red* and looking decidedly down at heel.

[coalnotdole]

Teh AX another chapter.

With the car now on the mainland Dave came by we discussed the glacial pace of the GTE project. I passed on a few odd machining jobs for the clutch slave setup and then we headed off to Portsmouth in the AX so Dave could get the ferry home. This was my first time behind the wheel and to be quite honest it was better than I had expected. The Ax package looks quite modern but its actually an odd mix of old and new technology.

The gearing on the first three gears is faily low, while 4th feels quite long. This means that around town it feels a good bit faster than you'd expect from 954cc, no doubt this illusion helped by the light weight constuction. It feels a little  under powered when exiting a fast roundabout or joining a fast dual carridgeway where it feels wanting under accerlation but not to the point where you feel unsafe.

Its hard for me to avoid comparisons with the Reliant Rebel as thats the only other small economy car I've driven recently. Like the Rebel the Ax encourages  a driving style wh where the power is applied steadily and progress is maintained at all costs!... Rapid Acceleraton, Braking and Stops are to be avoided if at all possible. Though rapid braking is certainly possible if you stamp on the pedal firmly enough.

Like the Rebel the Ax is suprisingly good at carrying its speed through twisting roads and roundabouts, but doing so reveals a tendancy towards body roll which is largely absent from a Rebel (particularly a Rebel with a front ARB fitted as I'm used to!)  I must admit I quite like the body roll of the Ax, its not detrimental to the driving experience and it does not appear to excessively compromise grip or handling. To an extent body roll defines the charicter of the car; Helping to convey an essence of quirky french-ness while generally going about its buisness with an under-stated confidence.

Heres a couple of pictures taken at Portsmouth ferry terminal... I'd driven it for about 40 minuites at this point!

There were clearly some more issues to tackle with it... There seemed to be a choke related start issue, the radio was all over the place with pretty awful sound quality. There was also a horrible smell as it was still quite dirty and fetid inside.

The following day I drove it a bit more ran around to do some errands, Dropped a bellhousing off for some welding; the warm start problem was much less apparent, It generallty seemed a case of getting the choke just right rather than an acutal fault.

I bought a period air freshener in an anttempt to cover up the smell...

but really what the ax really needed was a damn good clean...

[spartacus]

Ace, I need to try one of these before they rocket out of my price range.

[Jerzy Woking]

Really miss mine-great for hooning around the lanes local to me. But not outrageously so, as I was always concerned that if I hit some of the wildlife I saw running across the lanes, it would crumple like a crisp packet. Even with the welded on towing brackets.

It went through a few here, but not sure it's still in the fold.

[bramz7]

Nicely done. I love these things, but I do keep forgetting I own one half of one....really need to get it sorted out. 

I wouldn't worry too much about the HGF esque staining, by design the coolant seems to gunk up and I've not had any issues with one just yet. 

I still quite fancy a diesel one but I guess these days a Saxo would be easier to come across. 

[DSdriver]

We had an AX Splash from new on an F plate, kept it a while until the local oiks realised how easy it was to push the panels in.

'Lightly built'

Mrs DS complained she couldn't keep up with me on a run down to Petworth where we needed two cars so we swapped and she drove the Volvo but still couldn't keep up. So there you go, its official: Quicker than a LPT Volvo Estate. Not quite as roomy.

[beko1987]

Sounds like my zx (1.4). Fucking hopeless if you rag it quickly through all the gears but bat straight out of first and sensibly let it gather pace up the rev range through the gears (particularly 3rd and 4th) and it takes off. I do think it's slow but I've had 5 diesel 2l turbo's in a row and I do look back in the mirror sometimes at the car disappearing and realise I'm doing 65 on the B road out of town... 

[coalnotdole]

 Defilthing...! Part 1

Its Saturday night and as I've clearly got no normal social life whatsoever I thought I'd do another AX post... I do at least have some good beer:

After having the AX for two days It was apparent that it REALLY needed a good clean ( what it really wanted heroicly good at car cleaning (like Vulgalour) to sort it out Instead it got me , Who if I'm utterly honest probably only cleans  the outside of cars when they get too dirty to actually see out of... Afterall I'm used to fiberglass cars with shit paintwork! I do make an effort to keep the insides tidy but actual thorough cleanouts probably only happen a few times a year. I do have some standards though and I draw the line at sticky steering wheels, layers of dust and stale smells.

Cleaning it was also a decent oppertunity to look round it and Identify any bits that were needed and possible jobs that may need doing. I could do with a replacement gear knob... though I guess rose gold is fashionable at the moment?

Thanks to some dirty climing / caving kit bags the rear seat was now dirtier than when We'd bought the car!

It got worse as I started stipping stuff down, Found 20p under the handbrake though.

The front seat bases lift out easily so actually its easier to take them out to clean than to try and work round them.

 

After repeated goes with the wet vac I started making progress on the front mats, as these appear to be a funky 90's pattern I was quite keen to save them...! some of the staining was impessively ingrained.

At this point I got a bit distracted and went off on a tangent attempting to find out why the speakers sounded so bad...

Turns out the rubbers were perished...

I'd got some new old stock Goodmans on the shelf but irritatingly they were a different size...

So I've chopped the inners out of the old speakers to create some retaining rings, as a temporary fix and will keep a look out for some other cheap but good speakers in the correct size!

I then finished the hovering off and chucked a sponge over the car with some pound shop wash and wax... After which I thought it looked pretty good (well it was dark by then...)

Continued in part two when I clean it a bit more and give it an oil change...