project Maestro, please. - Fabricobbling

[vulgalour]

Used it for an errand today, which was nice, got to know it a bit better.  It would benefit from getting the tracking done since it likes to pull left.  The tracking being off is making the tyres on it seem worse than they are, I think, it can be a bit snatchy and alarming when turning sharp rights.  It quietens down a lot once it's off the choke and presumably warmed up (no working temp gauge yet) and now I've put a couple of miles on it, the brakes are really very good.  The headlight/sidelight telltale on the dashboard has stopped working, which isn't an issue because I can address that when I get the dashboard apart to see if I can find a fault on the back of the gauges, the telltale will no doubt be a blown bulb.  Hopefully have some time and light this weekend to start investigating, for now I can use it for what I need and not worry.

 

[Dan302]

Subscribed, just making a coffee to drink while I enjoy the Maestro video. My dad had a normally aspirated diesel on (IIRC) a H plate in silver, brilliant car.

[vulgalour]

I'm going to be venturing into more regular Youtube videos, see how we go, should serve as a bit of work diversity and help me get stuff done.  So those subscriptions and likes and viewing times really help promote the channel and get more folks on board.  I doubt I'm going to be the next Ronald Finger when it comes to sudden viral success from working on a rubbish red 80s car, but who knows.

[vulgalour]

I'll still be doing the picture and word updates alongside the video ones, but I'll be saving video updates for a more regular schedule.  That way, you can enjoy the updates in the best way that suits and I can keep track of what I've been doing in an easy-to-browse format so I don't have to sit through videos of me.

So, I wanted to get to the bottom of why the engine seemed quite loud and 'inductiony' at idle and my first port of call was to check there's an air filter in the air box.  There is, and it's in excellent shape.

Next, check the oil.  Exactly where it needs to be on the stick, if a little black.  An oil change will happen in the near future.

Then I went and watched an old @dollywobbler video from when he had the 1.3 Maestro van and you know what, it's just as loud as this Maestro so I think there's nothing wrong, I've just forgotten how loud this engine is in the Maestro.  Good.  Problem solved.  NEXT!

Why isn't the fuel gauge and temperature gauge working?  I know there's coolant in it, and fuel in it, so my next stop is fuses.  The fuse for the instrument panel was fine, but there's something odd about a couple of fuses in the box, can you see?

Rather than replace the two fuses, someone has soldered suitable gauge fuse wire to bridge them.  I'm actually pretty impressed with this, especially considering how difficult it would be to solder these in situ and how cheap and plentiful blade fuses of this type are.  That's a proper engineer's solution is that.

I used the spare fuses and the fuse puller in the glovebox to put new fuses in.  Gauges still don't work, but nothing else is broken, so it's fine.  I couldn't see anything amiss without delving into the dashboard and if I was doing that, I might as well try and fit the NOS gauge pack I bought on eBay for about £12.  Getting to the cluster was a bit of a nuisance because the speedo cable does not easily detach with things in situ, I'll go into more detail on the how and why in the video, but suffice to say I ended up unscrewing the bolt that holds the drive end of the cable to the gearbox (oil in the gearbox was a bit smelly so that's going to benefit from a change too) to give me enough slack to pull the cluster out easier.

Next problem was the steering wheel was in the way.  No bother, a simple case of popping out the boss, undoing the bolt, and getting it out the way.  The joy of pre-airbag cars.

There's two multiplugs on top of the binnacle to disconnect.  There's no need to disconnect the clock from the surround, the wire is long enough that you can flip it onto the top of the dashboard out of the way.  I had found the NOS item on eBay when casually browsing for useful things - there's about £100 worth of Useful Things currently on the watch list - and thought it worth picking up even before the car arrived, just in case.

I don't have a photo of the one that came in the box, so instead here's the one that came out of the car.  Nothing obviously wrong with it, some testing will be required to get to the bottom of what had gone wrong.  These are solid state modules which isn't something I'm used to, a nice bit of hi-tech 80s electronics.  I couldn't see any burnt traces or swollen components, no obvious sign of problems anywhere really so I can't tell you what was amiss with this.  I've kept hold of it for now, I'd like to understand what had gone wrong with it but I'm crap with this sort of thing so I likely never will.  I made sure to put a 'dead unit' note in the box so I don't accidentally fit it thinking it will work.

Then it's simply a case of fighting everything back in the hole and plugging things back in.  Before fitting all the trims, I did just test the unit to see if it worked.

I was delighted to be greeted with the low fuel warning light coming on and then the needle slowly climbing up...

.... eventually to about 3/4, which sounds about right since there's been about 55-60 miles done since Six-Cylinder filled it up.  Temperature gauge probably works too, I didn't get the car warmed up today to find out.

I'm very happy.  Unfortunately the only spare bulb I had for the head/sidelight telltale that looked like it wasn't blown actually was so I'll need to order some new bulbs.  Fortunately, getting to these bulbs isn't that difficult.  The biggest worry for me with this car at purchase was the non-functioning fuel gauge, I'm glad it was an easy fix.

[Mrs6C]

16 hours ago, vulgalour said:

The biggest worry for me with this car at purchase was the non-functioning fuel gauge, I'm glad it was an easy fix.

Excellent news! Glad these are working again.

[vulgalour]

Let's start with some more good news which is that I managed to drive the Maestro for long enough to get it warmed up.  Seems to take a while to get the gauge to actually move but this is probably normal, the radiator hoses are both getting warm, the heater is heating, the coolant isn't leaking out anywhere.

Also gave the car its first bath.  Unfortunately weather cut play short so I couldn't go into as much detail as I would have liked.  The red hides a LOT of cosmetic sins and much of the paint is very flat.  That said, a lot of the paint looks like it will come around with some polish and time so I'll probably do a bit of that.  A clay bar, some tar spot removal, and a good dose of good old T-Cut will probably remedy quite a lot.  What it won't remedy is the bits where there's filler.  It's all the usual Maestro places to the usual degree so it's all very repairable.  Because it's not crunchy or falling off I'm choosing to ignore it for now, some T-cut will reduce a lot of the rusty marks so that's all I plan to do.  Later on when my welder is operational again I might fix these areas properly if I still have the car (I'll probably still have the car).

There's even a couple of those weirdly located blobs on one rear door, which have been painted to keep the rust at bay.  There's a lot of that all over this car, in fact, and it's probably what's kept it happy.  Lots of practical preventative treatment just to keep things from getting worse, and I'm very much okay with that.

The roof looks like someone might have tried machine polishing it and gone a bit heavy, what I thought was lacquer peel is actually very smooth, and there's a lot of swirl marks burned into the paint on this panel.  It will probably come back around with some effort and care, we'll see.

In the arches I thought it was black underseal, it's actually dirt.  I need to take the wheels off to clean this out properly and I will.  I didn't really find any signs of loose underseal or problems so this should all clean up quite well when I've time to get the wheels off and give it a good scrub out.

Inside, I found the source of an annoying rattle is the passenger seat head rest, it's missing the little plastic guide finisher/tubes.  When I'm driving I just pop the head rest out so I don't have to listen to it.  If anyone has a pair of these plastic trims please do let me know, I'd quite like some. Colour isn't important, though grey would obviously be preferred.

Here it is after a very quick one-bucket wash.  The rain didn't hold off long enough for me to do the polishing and deeper clean I would have liked.  It scrubs up okay really.

 

[egg]

Very pleasing, and this is you not being finicky eh Vulg? 😃

When the father of friend from primary school upgraded from a Mini Metro to a Maestro in the mid-80's he really felt he had arrived.

[ETCHY]

You're not bad at the video stuff i rather enjoyed it, well done.

Be grateful it's got steel bumpers otherwise that push on the back corner would be a real pita with the shitty plastic ones.

Nice motor i like Maestros they were always far better than their reputation.

I look forward to how this develops.

[vulgalour]

43 minutes ago, egg said:

Very pleasing, and this is you not being finicky eh Vulg? 😃

 

It's true, I have a problem.

[BorniteIdentity]

On 12/9/2020 at 11:37 PM, Mrs6C said:

The chap who had it before us passed away and his family was disposing of the car. He had owned it from new and kept it garaged all its life. Other than its brief sojourn at ours, it is essentially the 'one owner car'.

Holy shit. That’s the sort of car to buy. And four hundred pounds. Incredible. 

 

[Slowsilver]

On 12/9/2020 at 10:40 PM, vulgalour said:

I was delighted to see the original head unit is still in place.  I don't know if it works or not yet, I'm just happy it's still there.

 

It does work. I took @Six-cylinder to fetch this motor and while he was dealing with the paperwork I amused myself by checking everything over.  Found a cassette in the car so was able to check both the radio and the cassette player. The only things I found that didn't work were the fuel and temperature gauges and the nearside rear foglamp. I followed him back to his place and it seems to get down the road pretty well with no problems on the maybe 5 mile trip. When we arrived at his place I managed to fix the foglamp (just cleaned up a bad connection on the bulb) then spent about two hours sitting in it in the pouring rain checking the gauges. You can actually just about get the dashboard out without removing the steering wheel and after struggling with the speedo cable for quite a while I discovered that it comes off quite easily if you simply push the white plastic ring at the top of it sideways at the appropriate point opposite the latch then pull the cable backwards. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong on the back of the dash so gave up and reinstalled it, intending to have a more in-depth look later, but it was sold before I got the chance. Glad you managed to sort them out fairly easily with your ebay bargain buy. I am sure that in your custody it will probably become one of the best Maestros left on the road.
 

[Isaac Hunt]

On 12/8/2020 at 2:11 PM, Six-cylinder said:

The ZX TD Avantage estate is a fully working car in use. We have had it for 9 years. 

The room above the garage is a guest bedroom, unfortunately it restricts height in the garage so we can't have a lift.

I have my study on the ground floor, but in the crook between the original house and the garage so I have a restricted view of the cars on the drive. However this week the Maestro has been in prime spot outside my window for me to ogle at.

Your Mrs' Bush needs trimming

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This picture takes me back,

if you wanted to adjust the mileage , all you need to do is remove the circlip on the little spindle and move the wheels by hand. Probably.

[Six-cylinder]

9 minutes ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Your Mrs' Bush needs trimming

It hides me from the debt collectors!

[captain_70s]

FAEM

[tooSavvy]

@vulgalour

".. I doubt I'm going to be the next Ronald Finger when it comes to sudden viral success from working on a rubbish red 80s car, but who knows.. "

Hmm.... I will leave the field open, m8. No making vids on a 'rubbish turquoise 90s 3pot Auto'.

That, we all know....

[vulgalour]

It me!  I did wonder what the driver was doing, normally big lorries are right up my chuff and he wasn't.  Now I know.

[hairnet]

when the working gauge went in and you commented on the pez i thought you were gonna say hed left 2 quid in it cos the light was on

2.0i next obvs

does the japanese on the gauge say 'THIS IS NOT LUCAS'

edit the car just started - is it a talbot? (KIDDING)

edit 2 itll be reet once it gets used regular

edit 3 where you comment about the interior light and mess with the switch it def sounds like the exhaust is blowing

and it sounds meaty when you pull away after that

APPROVE

[vulgalour]

It's really weird the noise it makes.  It sounds exactly like the exhaust is blowing, but it isn't.  Once you've got it up to temperature it quietens right down, to the point that sometimes at lights I think I've stalled it.  It must be the valves being out of adjustment or something, it chugs along just fine and gets up to speed no bother providing you can find the gear you're after.

Today I've been locating water leaks, trying to fix them, and unbending the rear bumper.  Moderate success was had.  When I've more time I'll do a proper update.

[Zelandeth]

So those *are* lights on the fuel/temp gauges!  I was sure they must be but I've never once seen either lit on any car and our Metro which had that cluster made no mention of it in the handbook...Now I know I was right!

[vulgalour]

While I wait for food to arrive it gives me some time to do a little update here.  As you've seen, it's a capable enough thing to get me out and about, but it also has a condensation problem.  This isn't surprising, every single car I've ever owned seems to let water in where it shouldn't so I always spend ages tracking down and then trying to resolve the issue.  The Maestro is, unsurprisingly, no different.  Since I pulled all the extra floor mats out I found the footwell on the driver's side was getting really wet where your feet go, at first I dismissed this as being because of getting in and out with wet feet, but it wasn't drying out so I was fairly certain that meant there was water getting in and being held in.  Out with the carpet then.  Fortunately the Maestro carpet is in separate pieces so the front section can be removed without taking the seats out, you just have to remove four screws from the centre console.  Two screws are hidden under the cubby - which just pulls out - at the front of the console, and two are exposed screws at the back near the seatbelt stalks.

I'd already glimpsed some bright blue carpet under the factory carpet so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.  Once I got the factory carpet out, the blue household carpet under it was found to be saturated and fallen apart, never a good sign.  On the passenger side, the original felt insulation pad was still present over the blue carpet...

.... and something else...

... that's a first.  I'm guessing this was supposed to be some sort of moisture membrane?  No idea.  I do know it was put directly over some old welding which still looks perfectly fine as these things go.  Passenger side footwell is bone dry and while there's a few bits of painted over surface rust that would probably benefit from being cut out and replaced with fresh steel, we're not going to do that just now.

Driver's side, once the sodden blue carpet was removed, also dried out really well.  No obvious sign of water ingress here at all which was strange.  I opted to leave the carpet out to drain overnight and to see if the water leak presented itself anew the next day, which it did.  I'm still not entirely sure how the water is getting in on this side so more investigation is required.  I do know it's coming from the sill side and no higher than the door seal and that might be why there's black paint on the door jamb, an investigation of the door seal revealed no rust or damage to the seal in the area so I don't know on this one yet.

At the back is where the other water leak is.  This is evidenced by the condensation on the rear window...

... and the water in the boot.

Some investigation revealed some water was getting past the old seal on the light cluster.  I made and fitted a new seal today and water was still getting into the boot but not through the light cluster.  It was also getting in through one of the bumper bolt holes, that turned out to be a slightly deformed rubber washer and was easy to resolve.  A bit more investigation revealed that water is coming through a seam in the rear panel where the rear quarter and valance overlap, this seam is sound from the outside but water can get to it through the light cluster hole so that's how I think that's getting in.

I dried it all out and loaded the seam up with seam sealer on both sides as much as I could.  Hopefully this keeps the water out, or at least encourages it to drain out in the proper place.

The other job today was the bumper, since I had it off to sort out the water leak at the bumper bolt hole.  After literally hitting it with hammers and jumping up and down on it with it attached to the car, I got the brackets and mounting points much straighter than they were.  Also threw some satin black at the metal bit to tidy it up and replace the bits of paint I'd bashed off.  It's still not perfectly straight but it is a lot better.  On the driver's side, the bumper bracket is deformed and I couldn't get it to straighten out enough, so I spaced it out with a couple of washers.  These washers also help squash the rubber washer and the mounting hole on the valance a bit flatter so you get a better seal.  I reckon the bumper bar itself is bent, now it's painted you can see where it's been walloped, probably reversing into a low wall that was hiding in the blind spot.

Amazingly, the allen key headed bolts on the bumper corners weren't all rusty and seized up and came undone really easily.  The plastic mounting blocks that I believe should be there are long gone, probably broken when the rear end damage was done, but the solution works well enough that it's not really an issue aside from the slightly ugly bolt heads.

 

[vulgalour]

Gauges!  Tea Shelf! Spiders Georg!

[Spottedlaurel]

Pleasing to see your progress on it.

Need to get it together with my Sunny and do a Giant Test of low-spec late '80s hatchbacks.

[stuboy]

i had 1.6, and brown interior plastics around the seat belt turned to dust..

 

wondered if i got a picture of it

[stuboy]

1.6cc of pure bhp ... no record on dvla

[RayMK]

Age is doing strange things to me. I'm reading about a Maestro with some interest. I remember the front seat squab on Maestros being too short. Perhaps later models were more adequate. 1.6cc is a truly tiny engine. Amazing that it could even move 😃.

 

[Daviemck2006]

My one must have had a huge engine a 1.6l!

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Noel Tidybeard]

the exhaust is blowing prolly the flex joint but it may just be expanding when hot so it sounds beterer& the valve clearances need doing!

interior light will be one of two things 1. switch on light itself, 2. pin switch TADTS

temp gauge should sit just below 1/2 and go upto about the same above half when the fan cuts in (the led on gauge is red)

chech fuse box for interior light relay location- there should be a metal bridge plate across 2 of the pin holes to make lights work- take it out and replace with relay and voila timed delay

fuse box looks like a few missing to me on row 8/9

i had 2- a 1.3 bASe & 2 litta* mg efi

*pronounced in a Geordie accent

[greengartside]

I reckon this is gonna be a keeper....great work so far.
 

Very nice to see some Maestro love on here.

[beko1987]

1 hour ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

the exhaust is blowing prolly the flex joint but it may just be expanding when hot so it sounds beterer& the valve clearances need doing!

interior light will be one of two things 1. switch on light itself, 2. pin switch TADTS

temp gauge should sit just below 1/2 and go upto about the same above half when the fan cuts in (the led on gauge is red)

chech fuse box for interior light relay location- there should be a metal bridge plate across 2 of the pin holes to make lights work- take it out and replace with relay and voila timed delay

fuse box looks like a few missing to me on row 8/9

i had 2- a 1.3 bASe & 2 litta* mg efi

*pronounced in a Geordie accent

Bet a 2l efi one flew! They don't look heavy! Could the brakes steering gearbox and suspension keep up though?