Dollywobbler's Consolidated Tat Thread

[Remspoor]

The HA road test.

 

I had a HA which was the first car I could legally drive on the public highway. I had a Anglia 1200 Super first, but I was not old enough for a drivers licence.

My HA was also a Deluxe with the optional servo brakes. They wee very sharp way too much servo.

I have red that Opel and VX never admitted any links between the 2cars. maybe they thought it would be bad publicity.

The clutch cable use to wear easily on these cars. The ball at the end of the cable used to be cut off because of the way it was held on at the pedal. Mum got stuck on a very busy cross roads with no clutch because the cable snapped. The local VX dealer knew of a modification which got over this. A pedal and cable from Opel (Kadett)The new pedal was more off set then the old one. It was nearer the brake.

The boot is huge and it was not much smaller than the Cortina Mk1.

Agree the gearbox is a delight.I think changes were made to the gearbox from the HC onwards. The shift was not so slick. It had syncro on first which a lot of rivals did not have.

There was a pocket for the service book located in the passenger well I did not see that in either vehicle.  I  think had a water temp gauge. But I am not 100% certain. I also have never recalled seeing the gear paten on the cluster. maybe it was from a standard trim level car.

The welds were covered by the separate trim pieces. They used to rust quicker that the rest of the car. I knew them as hock sticks because the main one at the rear looked like them. In the foot wells there were panels which also rusted out. I never did find what they were used for. I made repairs using printers aluminium with gasket made out of an old inner tube.

The light switches are clever. Put on the headlamp and the side lamps came on too. Switch off the lights using the side lamp switch turned them all off.

The coke switch on that car does not look to be in the correct position.

My Grandad had two HA SLs. Neither of them was a 90 version.

Trim wise the changes were significant. First was the the obvious two chrome strips with contrasting paint to the rest of the body. Different grill. The rear lights were 3 round lenses (for me that was a minus point I think they looked cheap almost parts bin style). The interior had a centre glovebox and door pockets.

Lastly a small correction this was not Vx's first small car. The one previously to this was the VX H10. The cars were also sold in the USA and Canada.

After I had the car  my mother took it over then it was sold to be "preserved" So EYL370C where have you gone? Taxed expired in 1983

[Remspoor]

Congrats on your purchase of a very rude Spanish word.🤣

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/es/diccionario/espanol-ingles/pajero

[Schaefft]

Probably my favorite addition to the fleet since Betty. 90s Japanese, quirky and low mileage is definitely worth saving and most of the rust can be fixed with 50 quid worth of wire brush attachments and rust proofing coating. Although sand blasting it might be worth considering to save days of work.

[dollywobbler]

Cheers. Last thing I need is another project, so I need to try and keep the momentum up. And somehow still fix the rest of the fleet as they all have issues too...

A mixed week though...

Hit while parked. Miss HubNut in bits as we're getting closer to her driving test. Thankfully, we have very good friends.

Hoping the neighbour will pay as they said but we had to get the Charade straightened out and back into action ASAP. Still work to do after the driving test.

 

[SilverMachine]

on a recent video you did pick up parts from a place that had a couple spare shells for charades, maybe they could help with repair sections ?

i knew you were going to buy the mitsi, soon as the scrapyard video was up, although the herald was still a possibility with you! am suprised the mitsi isnt as rotten as the triumph though probably down to it being used very sparingly on our salty roads!

im assuming your friendly scrapyard are keeping a look out for bits for your projects, its been a while since i saw a charade or matiz on the roads around here.

also did you realise when you were up at barnard castle, the marwood car park you parked in for the videos is just a few hundred yards from a bad junction, with many accidents, and a van did not stop at the give way sending a car into the house opposite, pretty sure it was the same day you would have been filming if not a day or three apart! no serious injurys apart from a volvo in a living room. you can probably find the story online if you search accident kinninvie, bit grim but is a bit close! says it was tues the 8th feb aprox 1.30 pm  glad you didnt get caught up in it.

are you planning a engine rebuilding live stream on the kitchen table with elly's engine? could make it a charity one! or twks new engine? could be a snowy day plan?

[dollywobbler]

The scrap Charade went for baling three two days before the bump...

That smash is terrifying! Two days after I was filming there. Quite fancying a Volvo XC60 as it happens...

[SilverMachine]

1 hour ago, dollywobbler said:

The scrap Charade went for baling three two days before the bump...

That smash is terrifying! Two days after I was filming there. Quite fancying a Volvo XC60 as it happens...

thats sods law. ithought the guy had a few charades on the drive? yes is a road im very familiar with, and its not the first time that house has been hit! if you go over that junction theres a rather good view of  marwood viaduct, if you like that sort of thing! and yes the xc60 seems to be a good modern volvo, although i would like one of the ones similar to your neibours! 740 940 etc.

dose the pajero / shogun jr share much service parts wise with other slightly more common mitsi's ? theres a import car parts place by west auckland that supplied a hard to get handbrake cable for my aunts lwb frontera when they seemed to be unobtainium. pretty sure there still going not been that way in a while either!

 

[Remspoor]

It seems that Invacars in Hungary are a wee bit larger.

[Blake's Den]

On 25/04/2023 at 18:46, LightBulbFun said:

I was wondering/thinking exactly this,  because I had heard the fire damaged Oltcit had been sold from *Welsh spelling I am not going to even attempt* Car dismantlers a couple/few months back, which took me by pleasent surprise since as we have all seen it was pretty far gone

but as you say given how quickly its returned to the road, I have my doubts about it being the same car, I mean the current keeper has only had it since March 2023 according to the DVLA, so yeah that would be a speedy restoration!

and further to that its had quite the significant haircut...

I do wish people would just do things properly, I mean its really not THAT hard to register an import with the DVLA it really only boils down to 3 things, a NOVA declaration  a suitably filled out V55/5 and a suitable proof of vehicle age (and then the usual Fees and MOT or V112 if exempt)

because ringing a car not only is it dodgy AF, but can cause a world of pain down the line for innocent parties when the DVLA catch up with it 

@LightBulbFun and @dollywobbler - an Oltcit update! I've spotted them both today. I managed to get a sneaky photo which I have heavily edited to disguise the location to protect the owner:

What we appear to have is H842H** in a garage tent and another Oltcit wrapped in tarpaulin. Given that the one which had been on fire was H842HTA I'm pretty sure these are both the ex HubNut pair. H842HTA is MoT's until February 2025........

I recall that there was a difference in the front bumpers between both cars. To me it looks like the one under the tarp has its front bumper missing?

I shall keep an eye out for it on the road.

 

 

[RoverFolkUs]

9 minutes ago, Blake's Den said:

@LightBulbFun and @dollywobbler - an Oltcit update! I've spotted them both today. I managed to get a sneaky photo which I have heavily edited to disguise the location to protect the owner:

What we appear to have is H842H** in a garage tent and another Oltcit wrapped in tarpaulin. Given that the one which had been on fire was H842HTA I'm pretty sure these are both the ex HubNut pair. H842HTA is MoT's until February 2025........

I recall that there was a difference in the front bumpers between both cars. To me it looks like the one under the tarp has its front bumper missing?

I shall keep an eye out for it on the road.

 

 

I recall a bit of hype surrounding the "fire damaged" one being spotted back on the road almost immediately after it changed hands, I'm not sure if the speculation of a plate clone is true and whether it involved the foreign registered one? 🤔

[Eyersey1234]

Surprised @dollywobbler hasn't updated this to include the Smart car