Dicky’s Disastrous Debris - pickup progress 4/5/26

[N Dentressangle]

Brilliant. What a gorgeous truck.

[Angrydicky]

In the meantime I decided to address two leaking core plugs by replacing the lot (they’re cheap enough) and I was glad I did, look at the state of the waterways in the block! Lovely. I spent ages with a little extendable magnet getting it all out. The main front to back waterway was blocked about half way down and I rodded it through with a big screwdriver.

I was surprised it didn’t overheat worse as I’d had it ticking over for five minutes without any sign of overheating.

Eventually got that to a standard I was happy with, and fitted the new core plugs.

Finally got the water pump back and reassembled it all with new fan belt and hoses. Had a couple of minor leaks on the heater hoses but a bit of tweaking and the leaks soon stopped which was great news. I then refitted the radiator.

Got a few of the other old crocks out as the weather was good. 

[outlaw118]

Top work Rich!

How often do you come "home"? I spotted an A30/35 on a service road off the 127 by the Shell garage IIRC London bound, may well be too far gone, but may have some bits? 

I've forgotten the exact address, but you'll know where I mean!

[N Dentressangle]

Nice work on the core plugs. Many soggy cornflakes.

That nutmeg Princess is brilliant. Want.

[Angrydicky]

1 hour ago, outlaw118 said:

Top work Rich!

How often do you come "home"? I spotted an A30/35 on a service road off the 127 by the Shell garage IIRC London bound, may well be too far gone, but may have some bits? 

I've forgotten the exact address, but you'll know where I mean!

Cheers Bob!

Not often back in the manor to be honest, maybe once or twice a year visiting friends and that’s about it. Is it the shell by the Hovefields traveller site? That’s Southend bound but I can’t think of any other shells in the area. Unless it’s more sort of Romford direction. Be interesting to see if anyone is passing that neck of the woods and fancies grabbing a picture.

[wuvvum]

Didn't realise you had two Mayflowers in the fleet!

[Angrydicky]

7 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Didn't realise you had two Mayflowers in the fleet!

One belongs to a friend and is just here having some work done 👍

[outlaw118]

22 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Is it the shell by the Hovefields traveller site? That’s Southend bound but I can’t think of any other shells in the area. Unless it’s more sort of Romford direction. Be interesting to see if anyone is passing that neck of the woods and fancies grabbing a picture.

It's altogether possible it's not a Shell, but it's definitely Southend-y rather than Basildon-y.

Seeing as The Office seem to be completely incapable of giving me a decent tranche of work in one area, doubtless I'll be back down that way soon, will get MOAR FAKTS M9

[Angrydicky]

Shout out to Spilsby Motor Spares today.

Really good independent motor factor, very helpful and friendly staff. I went over there today in search for a pair of new wiper blades for the Princess. One of the old ones had almost disintegrated so the time had come to do something about it. @vulgalourand others will attest to how impossible the correct wiper blades are to find for Princesses.

I was planning on buying a pair of blades and maybe replacing the pins with little nuts and bolts but as luck would have it they actually had the correct pins in stock and happily fitted them to a pair of new blades for me.

The new blades are slightly shorter than the original 20” jobs but it makes no difference whatsoever. 
Cost £24 or something so I’m pleased with that.

[vulgalour]

That's a bit of a score.

[Angrydicky]

A couple of years ago we decided to take the 1935 Standard 12 off the road as the gearbox was noisy and pissing oil out. I was recommended a local retired engine/gearbox rebuilder who specialised in prewar stuff. 
I took the box over to him. He stripped it down, found a few knackered bits, the worst being a fairly complex gear (with teeth on the inside and the outside) where about half the teeth were stripped off it.

He said he would struggle having something like that made. He said really he needed another box to cannibalise.

I put the feelers out and fortunately managed to find a box that came from a 12 that was unfortunately banger raced about ten years ago.

The gearbox was a complete unknown, the car it came from had last been on the road in 1967 apparently. It did turn by hand and felt smooth though. It had plenty of clean oil on the dipstick.

I delivered this over to the chap doing our gearbox. He found it was slightly different (it was from a slightly earlier car) but the bits that were knackered in ours were good in this one. He made one good out of two and then we promptly installed the gearbox on the bench for the next 6 months. While the car stood in the corner of the workshop getting steadily buried in stuff.

Dad suddenly announced last week that he wanted to get the Standard back on the road as there was a VE Day celebration at the village hall and they were looking for classic cars to attend. As this one actually saw WW2 it seemed ideal. The only problem was although we had the foil trays with nuts and bolts it had been so long since we stripped it down we couldn’t really remember how it all went together.

Anyway, we managed to figure it out and after about three hours the gearbox was in and bolted up. Helps massively having a 4-post ramp and transmission jack.

So the next day ‘Poppy’ fired up and reversed out of the workshop under her own steam.

Put some fresh petrol in it, replaced the rubber fuel hose in the engine bay that had sprung a leak, and gave it a good wash and polish.

Took it down to the petrol station and added some more fresh petrol to dilute the stale stuff in the tank. It’s running very well and the gearbox is superb, what a difference!

As an aside we discovered some more history of this car recently in an old Standard club mag from 1990.

I bought it in 2017 from a mate in Cumbria who acquired it locally as an unfinished restoration project. It had no number plates but fortunately the chassis plate was there and the dvla told him the number was MSJ 262. He got it up and running but never did very much to it, not least because there was quite a lot missing. It was clear a lot of work had been done on it, most of it to a fairly amateur standard (which is normal with fairly cheap classic cars) but we didn’t know much of the history of it. Apparently the last bloke bought it to restore but had a heart attack and never really did anything with it. The previous owner on the logbook was a film company in the northeast.

I managed to find the original registration through a website, which was a Yorkshire number, WF 8392. At that time, it was on some ghastly new Audi SUV but it’s now on retention. Anyway, using that I contacted the Standard club and they said they had record of it being owned by a member in Leeds in the 1980s but due to that bloody GDPR they wouldn’t give me any info.

You can see the Mini boot hinges in this picture, which it still has fitted. The original hinges were hidden inside the boot and are missing.

[Angrydicky]

It’s been a while.

My mate Marcus bought @Spottedlaurel’s Toyota a few weeks ago. He had completely had enough of modern, overcomplicated and fragile cars after his disastrous tenure with a modern Nissan, and after borrowing my Rover 600 for ages he got the bug and wanted a retro car of his own. This was my suggestion.
It drove home beautifully and he’s been daily driving it since. He absolutely loves it and wants to keep it going as long as he possibly can.
 I went over there this weekend, and the first order of business was to give it a service. I ordered the parts as he didn’t have an eBay account (now rectified) and he gave me the money. I got some decent quality Castrol oil and nice new filters, in fact the filters were so cheap I got two of each so he’s got the bits for next year.

I stood back and told him what to do, he then got on and completed the oil and filter change, plus air filter. SL had a full service done two years and 9k ago so it was due but not massively overdue like old cars often are. I donated a pair of ramps I’ve never used to him and these were used to good effect. They’re very narrow, but suited the skinny tyres on this car perfectly. Had some trouble with them skidding out on the wet ground in his usual parking space, so we utilised a kerb further down the car park. Forgot to take a picture of it with the front end up but you get the idea.

Fitted the front number plate properly, cut the cable ties (a temporary repair following a minor accident while SL’s daughter was driving, bolts had sheared off) and used some new spire clips and bolts which has improved the look of it.

Fitted a new pair of wiper blades, the old ones were absolutely ancient and very noisy, they were also seized to the arms and took some persuasion to remove! I noticed the wiper linkage was quite sloppy so have ordered a repair kit (quite a common problem apparently).

Then I had a look at the front brakes as a squeak had developed, it was all quite dry and rusty in there, one slider was sticking and the discs are quite worn. Not a mot failure yet but the pistons were out rather a long way. The pads had been replaced at some point and weren’t too bad. I removed the pads and lubricated the sliders and carriers. It’s definitely improved but we did hear a slight squeak at one point. Due to the worn discs I recommended he replace them so he’s ordered new discs, pads and slider kit.
It’s a really nice design actually, the disc is held in place with the wheel nuts so very easy to change. My mate is very keen to learn how to do car maintenance and repairs and wants to do the job himself with my assistance.

We had a good look underneath with it on the ramps and it is in great condition underneath for a 29 year old car, looked more like a 10 year old car underneath really. There was a bit of surface rust at the rear jacking points so we got that all cleaned up, zinc primed and finished with body shutz. It’s only a quick job to protect it for the winter, next year he wants to pop it on my ramp and do the whole underside to preserve it as long as possible.

I can’t see any welding needed yet, there’s a bit of old damage to the sill flanges from jacking and a tiny bit on the back of the drivers sill which is just starting to go but we’ve tidied that up and it’s now protected.

It wasn’t long after I took this picture that the rain started up again, so we headed inside!

Also cleaned the mud out of the (almost mint) rear wheel arches, not that there was much there, and checked the tyre pressures, which have all gone down by 2psi in the last three weeks, so nothing to worry about really.

SL had a small bit welded in the nsr wheelarch when he had it, this didn’t look too bad (for garage welding) and had been sealed and primed, this is now undersealed ready for the winter.

If it was mine I’d be getting a set of replica dealer plates for it as it’s such a tidy car it would really set it off, you can tell the original owner (who had it until 2011) garaged it.

[Spottedlaurel]

Great to see it being used, enjoyed and receiving this next level of care and attention! When I got it from @Alan Prost it was at the point where a buyer could just have used it as a capacious hack and run it into the ground. The basics were all there and it worked well but I ended up spending somewhat more than its purchase price on getting new tyres, radiator and various things done. In total I think it went through three MoTs with me, and it became a very useable, reliable thing. Hopefully that's given it the solid foundation to justify the bits and bobs now being done. Must admit I am slightly missing having something like this around.

@Angrydicky it's interesting to hear your thoughts on its design and engineering, and condition too of course. I'm glad you think it deserves to be kept going.

I hasten to point out that Miss SL's front number plate incident was the fault of a suicidal pheasant, she had no time to do anything about it....

[Angrydicky]

 

3 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Great to see it being used, enjoyed and receiving this next level of care and attention! When I got it from @Alan Prost it was at the point where a buyer could just have used it as a capacious hack and run it into the ground. The basics were all there and it worked well but I ended up spending somewhat more than its purchase price on getting new tyres, radiator and various things done. In total I think it went through three MoTs with me, and it became a very useable, reliable thing. Hopefully that's given it the solid foundation to justify the bits and bobs now being done. Must admit I am slightly missing having something like this around.

@Angrydicky it's interesting to hear your thoughts on its design and engineering, and condition too of course. I'm glad you think it deserves to be kept going.

I hasten to point out that Miss SL's front number plate incident was the fault of a suicidal pheasant, she had no time to do anything about it....

Thanks Nigel, I hope knowing it’s in good hands and is being improved has made you feel better about parting with it. Yes, the work you had done was well worth doing and improved it a lot. It is a useful vehicle to have around, but it won’t be run into the ground, he hasn’t even had the seats folded down yet and has already made a neat box of tools and oils plus his ramps in the back, as he hasn’t currently got space to store the ramps in his flat (‘er indoors definitely wouldn’t allow them in the spare bedroom).

I am impressed with both the build quality and the ease of maintenance. It really is a breath of fresh air to work on after a modern car. Not that I imagine it’ll need a lot of work after this initial flurry of servicing and sorting out the few minor issues.

Don’t suppose you have managed to locate the Haynes manual and replacement rear light yet?

[Spottedlaurel]

2 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Don’t suppose you have managed to locate the Haynes manual and replacement rear light yet?

Got the light, waiting to see if the manual ended up in a box with all the other stuff they cleared out from it after the France trip....

[Angrydicky]

8 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Got the light, waiting to see if the manual ended up in a box with all the other stuff they cleared out from it after the France trip....

Good news about the light, will wait to hear from you about the manual, Marcus is keen to get his hands on it and learn how to do different jobs! However, if it doesn’t turn up it’s not the end of the world as eBay is full of them. 

[Angrydicky]

It’s a really bad one this time.
I’ve joined the 21st century at long last.
To cut a long story short, bloke at work trades/scraps cars as a sideline and buys all the older PXs from a large dealership.
A while ago he rocked up to work in this. It’s funny because they’ve never appealed to me before, but this one looked unusually tidy (from a quick glance) nice beige colour. Asked him about it and he said his daughter’s car had gone bang (BINI iirc) so he had given his Audi to her which left him without any working wheels. He has loads of shite but nothing roadworthy.
Apart from this recently purchased Picasso. It only had about 3 weeks mot so he put it in for another one to see what it would need and it went straight through.
He then pressed it into immediate service and somehow did about 2800 miles in 6 weeks before abandoning it at work when he bought a T4.
I hadn’t seen it move for a while, so texted him to ask if it had broken down, and he said he had replaced it, did I want it for £300?
I went to have a closer look at it, he had left it unlocked with the key in the door pocket. It started up straight away and ran well. Slight squeak from the aux belt and service light on. The interior was quite messy but mostly fag ash from this bloke’s rollies. You can tell it hadn’t been smoked in or abused before. There wasn’t any ingrained nicotine and he said the interior was mint when he got it, I believe him. 
He said I can take it away over the weekend, pay me on Monday. Happy days.

It was horrible inside, but cleaned up nicely.

 

I opened the glovebox and found the original book pack, stuffed with receipts. It has pretty much a full service history (only the most recent one was missed) and the last elderly couple had it since 2004. The back has never had kids in it.
Bumpers have giffer scrapes and the nsr door is a bit of a mess, the owld giffer has clobbered his gate post or something then brushed paint over it which has made it look worse than it is. The drivers door mirror is also held on with tape. Apart from that the bodywork is pretty good for the age. The sills are starting to go but they haven’t been welded before, there can’t be many Picassos of this age that haven’t had their sills patched yet.
Nice bit of old house carpet in the boot covering the original boot carpet, there were the remains of lots of tip runs with garden waste in there which I vacuumed out.
To drive it feels really nice, lovely smooth clutch and gearbox and quite nippy for a 1.6 8v petrol. The suspension is fantastic and it soaks up the bumps on the dreadful roads around here.
There was a nasty wheel wobble above 40. Someone had clobbered the nsf wheel into a pothole or kerb or something, wrecking the nearly new ditch finder and bending the rim. I stuck the rather old but still legal spare on the back and one of the rears on the front which has sorted that out, but the tracking needs doing.
I couldn’t check how much oil was in the engine as the dipstick was broken. I stuck my endoscope camera down the tube and there was no sign of the broken piece of plastic, it must have dropped into the sump. I’ve ordered a new dipstick which should be here on Wednesday.
For now I’ve serviced it, oil and filter change, plus air filter, it’s done about 17k since it was last done so overdue but not dangerously, and it had plenty of oil in there. I carefully measured out exactly 3.5 litres of oil and put it in the engine so when the dipstick comes it should be exactly on the full mark.
I then reset the service light, following a YouTube video.
The Citroen has a great heater and HRW, and everything seems to work apart from the air con.
To be honest my Rover 600 is starting to get a bit ropey now, there’s lots of issues that I’ve been ignoring that are starting to mount up and the mot is fast approaching.
It will also be handy to have a spare ‘modern’ as my mate had the Rover for months on loan and I had to rely on the classics, mostly the Princess, which is alright in the summer but not so good at this time of the year.
And the best bit, I met up with my car dealer mate after work and handed over the cash, he handed me the logbook and £20 back.
“For luck” he said.

So this car cost me £280.

£280. For a car with 10.5 months mot in 2025.

I don’t care if you call me Ronnie Pickering. I love a bargain.

 

[Lacquer Peel]

Dunno what you're on about Angrydicky, that Picasso isn't dreadful at all. 

I hated them when they were new/nearly new, they were like the crossover on PCP equivalent of their day but they have good qualities - the supple 306/ZX platform being one of them.

[Angrydicky]

6 minutes ago, Lacquer Peel said:

Dunno what you're on about Angrydicky, that Picasso isn't dreadful at all. 

I hated them when they were new/nearly new, they were like the crossover equivalent of their day but they have good qualities - the supple 306/ZX platform being one of them.

I agree, I also used to hate them but they are getting quite thin on the ground now (especially early ones like this) so it does hold some shite appeal. Having never driven one before, I was pleasantly surprised. Yes it’s not the quickest thing in the world but it’s comfortable, practical and very nice to drive. I thought it deserved a second chance as it came within a gnat’s whisker of getting weighed in. I can see why they sold so well. I reset the MPG computer and have averaged 42.2 in it so far, up from the 37 it was showing. The new air filter has probably helped a bit with that but I haven’t been hanging around.

Its still got all four of its original wheeltrims, albeit they are a bit kerbed, I could do with a decent set of those and also some factory mats.

Unfortunately my local old fashioned scrapyard has recently closed and I don’t know of any others local.

 

[Dick Cheeseburger]

A friend used to have one of these when they were nearly new. I think she was quite proud of it - she referred to it as 'The Picasso'.

Not really a fan, but that's an absolute bargain, especially considering it has such a decent ticket left on it. I can't say much as my daily for the last three years has been my mk1 j10 Qashqai, which has a similar rep with most folk! I've been really impressed with mine. 

Great to see it saved, regardless. 

[BorniteIdentity]

You’ve changed. 

[Angrydicky]

13 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

You’ve changed. 

So have you.

At least my rubbish French car doesn’t have any warning lights on.

#probablyjinxeditnow

😂

[BorniteIdentity]

1 minute ago, Angrydicky said:

So have you.

At least my rubbish French car doesn’t have any warning lights on.

#probablyjinxeditnow

😂

Touché.

That MPV is a stellar buy at that price. And it works! Lucky you 😉

[ruffgeezer]

I looked after dozens of these when they were still current. I think I owned 2 or 3 of them as well.

It's entirely possible if this was a local car that I've serviced it at some point too - any history for Bullwinkles garage? 

[Lacquer Peel]

53 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Touché.

That MPV is a stellar buy at that price. And it works! Lucky you 😉

When you think about it, all cars are multi purpose vehicles. 

[Supernaut]

I have a soft spot for these because I learned to drive in one!

It was a Y reg 2.0HDi in dark blue.

A couple of years after passing my test I borrowed it to go to Fort William. 4 up with the boot full of luggage and not hanging about it still did 50mpg+ in comfort. They really do drive like a big Peugeot 306.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Dick Cheeseburger said:

A friend used to have one of these when they were nearly new. I think she was quite proud of it - she referred to it as 'The Picasso'.

Not really a fan, but that's an absolute bargain, especially considering it has such a decent ticket left on it. I can't say much as my daily for the last three years has been my mk1 j10 Qashqai, which has a similar rep with most folk! I've been really impressed with mine. 

Great to see it saved, regardless. 

Yea, now I own and like a J10 QQ I've piped down the 'ugh I don't like those' on cars I find gopping 😂 Not in a position to throw stone at glass houses now 

Plus everything I've ever heard of them on these pages has been good. Yes their fugly but reliable and easy to maintain (for a 2000s cit)

[Somerset Suffolk]

Nothing wrong with a Picasso ! ex wife had a pre registered 2002 1.6 SX petrol - paid £9200 for delivery mileage car - great 2nd family car - would run out out of puff on motorways (compared to my TDI Golf) but other than that, loved it !  well bought sir !  with a cracking bit of Axminster pub carpet in the boot !! 

[Somerset Suffolk]

3 minutes ago, Somerset Suffolk said:

Nothing wrong with a Picasso ! ex wife had a pre registered 2002 1.6 SX petrol - paid £9200 for delivery mileage car - great 2nd family car - would run out out of puff on motorways (compared to my TDI Golf) but other than that, loved it !  well bought sir !  with a cracking bit of Axminster pub carpet in the boot !! 

check the cubby holes in the rear passenger floors ... the PO might have left you some priceless treasure or of a full tin Werther's Originals .... or possible the jack  and wheel brace ....

[Angrydicky]

Bugger all I’m afraid, apart from the wheelbrace! I’ve been through all the compartments. The jack is missing, so is the old lady shopping trolley that should be clipped inside the boot!