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Maestro, please.


vulgalour

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Compare exhibit A - a Mini or ado16 radiator stuck at the side of the engine bay (which cools the a-series satisfactorily when in good condition) wih exhibit B - the much larger Maestro radiator at the front of the engine bay cooling the same engine.  From my Maestro experience, in cold conditions such as we're currently experiencing the behaviour is normal.  Although it's obviously worth replacing the thermostat to rule it out, possibly with one which opens at a higher temperature.

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Not after the fifth time you don't.  Gave in and squirted some lubricant about the place to sort that out, same on the really loud rear door hinge.  Been digging through my fabric and hardware supplies and I reckon I've enough stuff to put a muff together from leftovers.  Had a look at the design of some other muffs and they look to be a very simple thing.  The Maestro grille is a really simple shape so I just need to make a padded square, vinly on the outside to keep the water out, a good thick cotton or canvas or something of that sort on the back to protect the paint on the grille, some padding between the layers to make it look nice and possibly give a bit more insulation against wind shear.  Some eyelets on the corners so you can tie the muff to the grille and then an optional flap in the middle held in place with press studs (which I don't have) or really sturdy velcro (which I do).

It'll make for neat video since it's a good crossover of car and sewing stuff.

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I seem to remember (waaayyy back ITD) cable pulled roller blind rad covers. Back of E&M oof!

https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/accessories/at107.htm

Also a neat venetian blind, made of some robust weatherproof stiff material, might be a neat little project...

Either one will be on all year, ready for Summer [joke...] ;)

 

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I know about the extra vent.  That should mean that even with the muff on, the engine won't overheat since it's always getting air supplied.  It might be that the stat is just duff.  Either way, making a muff is a fun project and it'll be useful to learn how to do should it turn out that the Lanchester needs one.

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New thermostat arrived today and cured the cold running issue.  That's one job down.  I've got a video coming on that to go into more detail, I got very lucky and did not have to employ a single hammer!  Car now gets up to temperature quickly and sits at 1/4-1/3 on the gauge and there's enough heat coming into the cabin now that I don't have to drive with gloves on.

Exhaust blow has been found!  It's what I assume is a join right underneath the engine, the bit where the springs go on.  I only saw it because it was cold enough to make plenty of visible vapour.  That also goes a way to explaining why the smell of exhaust gets into the cabin at idle sometimes but not when moving.

The water leak now seems limited to the passenger door seal and the tailgate glass seal so I'll be ordering some new generic door seals and another tube of Arbomast to hopefully solve those.  For once, there was no water in the driver's footwell.

I'll go over some of this in better detail once the new video goes up on Tuesday, this is more just to remind me of what's going on and to give you a quick update.

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I'm suspecting that the bond on front and rear screens has failed in a couple of spots and that the Arbomast is simply filling the gaps.  It's also helping to hold down the trim which will help keep more water out.  For the tailgate you can see it coming out inside on the back panel, and the only place it looks to be able to get in (the wiring thingies at the top of the tailgate are bone dry) is the window itself.  I'll just keep pumping it full of Arbomast until it stops leaking.  Nice thing with Arbomast is that unlike silicone sealant, you can just clean it all off if you have to so it's a nice fully reversible solution.  Front and rear screens aren't loose either, they're nice and secure, but the windscreen is starting to delaminate a tiny bit in one corner so the water has clearly got in.

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No sound deadening on this one, bonnet shuts with a delightfully embarrassing clang.  Fresh coolant may help with the temperature side of things, it's brownish now, rather than blueish (I assume blue in this one), I just don't like doing water changes in the winter, much prefer doing it in spring/autumn.

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Small world, Grumpius.

Water leak wise, I'm actually further on identifying the issue than the videos, so at risk of spoiling* the surprise, it looks to be coming in not through the wiper spindle, or wiring, but through the bonding of the rear screen itself.  It also seems to be coming in through the lens of the rear light cluster on the driver's side (I did eliminate the seal as a culprit here, rather too successfully, which made getting the light cluster back off a chore), and possibly through the bumper mounting bolt holes.  I ran out of Arbomast to seal the whole window and I haven't yet been able to stop the water getting into the light cluster, or encourage it to drain out of the cluster onto the floor, rather than into the boot.  Up front it's definitely the windscreen seal/bond (more Arobmast required) and the passenger door seal.

I've got plenty of improvements lined up for the Maestro, parts waiting to go on, I just have a backlog of videos and it keeps raining too much so I can't do the outside jobs I want to lately.

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On 1/10/2021 at 9:46 PM, adw1977 said:

Sounds like the reverse of a Peugeot 309 I owned years ago.  If you went slower than 30mph for more than about five minutes it would start to overheat.  Every urban journey had to be done with the heater on max and the windows open.

About 25 years ago I had exactly the same issue with a 405 SRi. TADTS?

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On 1/11/2021 at 7:22 PM, vulgalour said:

A boring base spec hatchback, and a Maestro.

IMAG5528.thumb.jpg.289723e0e9570587ebe49af2331db639.jpg

IMAG5527.thumb.jpg.859d27e982bb32351a59eec4964a68b6.jpg

Just look at the size of the windows on the Maestro compared to the VW ! Cars have really gone backwards in the respect of visibility.

Doesn't the Maestro now look so deliciously cool & 1980's. It was a good shape, IMO aged much better than say a Mk3 Escort.

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