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Skizzer’s thread: Honda Aerodeck repairs


Skizzer

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1 minute ago, Skizzer said:

Good question. I was wondering that too; I shall investigate and report back.

Perhaps with video evidence, though that might have to wait until the weekend.

AFAIK they work on position one of the wiper stalk along with the intermittent wipers. I guess the washers just wash with the main screen washers?

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Superb choice of automobile, Sir. ?

These are one of my very favourite cars ever, I've had two saloons and both of them had that delicious Caramac coloured interior, which I'm convinced can survive a nuclear holocaust. I've seen some really trashy Royales over the years but I've never seen one even to show any kind of wear on the driver's seat. Good quality 70s velour is without doubt the very best material with which to upholster a motor vehicle.

Get out there and enjoy it while petrol's £1 a litre, 16mpg gets a bit tiresome when you're sloshing in £50 a time and barely getting 120 miles from it.

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It is amazing how great the interiors of cars were 40 years ago and now most are  grim black holes, that’s progress!!!
A great addition to your collection , I remember going to the first NEC Motor Show when these were launched and my parents said they would buy one if they won the pools ?. Cars were exciting in the seventies and very early eighties.

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On 4/22/2020 at 12:13 AM, Amishtat said:

Hate to say it but man I'm jealous. That just looks amazing. 

You're jealous?  I'm jealous, and I've got a leather-lined Cadillac!  I foresee a meetup somewhere, when we're allowed, so that I can have a little cruise.  Perhaps I should be buying a Royale/Senator when I'm next in the market.

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19 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

If I’m not much mistaken, we’ve got all interior combinations on this forum now!

@Skizzer has the gold

@Stevebrookman has the blue, and green

and I’ve got the red!

 

D2F1414C-F6EA-4228-B4D4-F23C1EAA530B.jpeg

 

And I've got the Antipodean version!

 

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As you can see, points scoring for colour coding also but sadly no hard wearing fraggle skin here, just plain old cloth and majority-vinyl door cards. BOOORING!

 

35479270902_c63f4de44f_o.jpg

There is a smattering of dash wood though - and a rather excellent car phone way back in the day, as seen in this archive photo from 2010! Where has the time gone?!

 

Anyway, I was thinkin about Royale coupes the other day and how much I'd love one (in fact, I know there's at least one in NZ - I spotted it on a transporter years ago), so how fortuitous. On reflection, I think gold on gold is the best colour combo, although were there some more outrageous options on the continent for the Monza, perhaps?

 

One final thing to note is the excellent, excellent number plate game you've got there:

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The quite literal buttressing of the raised letter plate by the overriders is really something to admire, as is the grey-white-grey landscape of that aluminium tableau; if this number plate had lips and a mouth, I'm sure it could spin many a yarn of its ventures past.

And what raised letters! Left to right and in poetically alphabetic order, we've got those trusty old  lettery lads, 'H' (staunch architecture, imbues a protective aura; fatherly), 'K' (child-like, playful offshoot of lower leg from upper - nice touch)  and the lesser spotted 'X', (stern, yet wasp-waisted; the matriarch).

As if alphabetical serendipity weren't enough, after a whimsically unequal gap, there's then the literal top and tailing of 6, 9 and 6 - and just look at those thrusting, clean-cut tips they all have! I feel I talk for us all here when I say that the 'V' quite obviously states: Victory.

Or Vauxhall. It's one of the two.

 

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22 hours ago, Talbot said:

Not only with cheese, but with headlamp wipers.  Rare option IIRC.

I absolutely love these.  The size, shape and style of them is just perfect IMO.  I'd happily use that as a daily, regardless of the tax-and-MOT-exemptness and cheap classic insurance of it.

 

Side-question about storage.  I would love a shed somewhere, but really not sure where to start.  I'm guessing most people get theirs through word-of-mouth or by knowing someone.  The likelyhood of one being available on the open market is fairly slim I'm guessing.

I couldn’t remember seeing one without headlamp wipers, so went to  Vauxpedia to check. They were standard, in fact the only option was air conditioning on 2.8s. Although it was possible to order a manual with no extra charge.

Ive owned a couple of late Mark1 Senators and have a lot of miles in Mk2s in 2.5 and 3.0 24v flavours , they all felt a bit better quality and more German than contemporary Granada’s and Rovers,to me. My only experience of the Coupe was a couple of drives in a C reg manual Monza 3.0 Turbo, which I mentioned on here before.

When they were new I was never sure where they fitted in the market, a lot more expensive than a 3.0 Ghia Capri but an equal if not more amount cheaper than an XJS or 633. I seem to remember any comparisons in magazines were always againstSD1s, which makes sense as a big luxury hatch, I suppose.

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So I’ve finally had a very brief outing in the new Vauxhall. Mrs S wanted to walk to the Co-op and back but allowed me, after much begging, to drive over and meet her and give her a lift home.

I’ll do a bit more of a trip (essential, obvs) at the weekend but here are my first thoughts:

It’s quite pokey, as hoped. Not sporty, with the autobox, but there’s ample shove and a very pleasing six cylinder robustness to the power delivery. It’s very smooth...

...except the accelerator pedal is sticky at the start of its travel, making it very difficult to pull away smoothly or manoeuvre. No doubt fixable. The pedal itself is floor hinged like a Porsche, but I’ve had one of those so I don’t think it’s me doing it wrong.

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These are simply the best car seats ever made. They are like new.  They are astonishingly comfortable - the perfect balance of firmly supportive yet gently cushioning, like a hug from your mum on your first day at school. But with velour.

The automatic choke is off, so it takes a couple of goes to start from cold.  I wondered if it needed a press of the pedal to engage it like the Accord and the Gamma do, but the owner’s manual is airily disdainful of such nonsense.

Ashtray count: 3.  Bonus actual megs in the front one — how perfectly 1979. They’re long past smelling so they can stay.

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The tailgate opens and closes nicely and stays up on its gas struts, but is a rather approximate fit against the rear wings.

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This may be a feature, but @Stevebrookman’s looks better so there might be some adjustment available.

Once inside the boot — shallow but otherwise generous, and richly carpeted — there is a random length of HVAC ducting. This may be significant, I haven’t checked yet.

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More at the weekend.

I love it. 

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43 minutes ago, Skizzer said:

The tailgate opens and closes nicely and stays up on its gas struts, but is a rather approximate fit against the rear wings.

0B80BFE5-DEBA-47FA-A0BD-7CA577480596.thumb.jpeg.22574fda5597e2ad1f4e705782083b5c.jpeg

This may be a feature,

.....but it may explain the Monza's need for a spoiler -163359_725fe8dad1dcd22e.jpg.c01dc8543813cc96df561d3ce5e81fdf.jpg

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Datsun 280ZX 2+2 might have been considered as an alternative at the time? Not so sporty by then so would be an equally good tourer, but not as roomy as Royale. Price fairly close.

I also wondered about the 240K GT like I used to have, they were quite a bit cheaper at about £7500 against circa ten grand for the Royale 2.8.

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I remember reading an article in auto car or something in the late 90s comparing a monza, sd1 v8 and e28 528 as used buys. Although I was more in to cosworths at the time (and driving an astra) it started a continuing love of these big coupes, they're fabulous.

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LJK Setright wrote in CAR (more than once) that there was no point  in spending more than would buy a Monza - unless you could run to a 928.

And that neither were worth a look unless automatic.

 

http://vauxpedianet.uk2sitebuilder.com/vauxhall-v-6s78---royale

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