FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron

[IronStar]

Surely you can disconnect that bit of pipe with a grinder, and re-attach straight bit of same diameter pipe with a welder? Probably a real PITA without a proper lift though, and if you’re putting it on a lift, might as well wrangle it off and straighten it. 

[fatharris]

Its ok, no-one willingly admits to being in Gosport!
In all seriousness, I'm 10 mins from HMS Sultan if you need tools, room to work in a dry, lit garage or a lift. Tea, Coffee and snacks are also available. With the car on the lift, we could probably wrangle the complete exhaust off the car and bend it back into shape?
 

That's where I'm working for the next three months Sultan for a career course

Thanks very much for the offer, if I get a spare moment, I'll very much be in touch, even if it's just to have a brew with a fellow Shiter!

It's probably an awkward exhaust off kind of job - after the crash, I resorted to some unusual methods to attempt to straighten as much out as I could, by tying a rope about the backbox, tying the other end to my old Rover, and driving straight ahead to pull it out

[Stinkwheel]

9 hours ago, fatharris said:

 

 

That's where I'm working for the next three months Sultan for a career course

Thanks very much for the offer, if I get a spare moment, I'll very much be in touch, even if it's just to have a brew with a fellow Shiter!

It's probably an awkward exhaust off kind of job - after the crash, I resorted to some unusual methods to attempt to straighten as much out as I could, by tying a rope about the backbox, tying the other end to my old Rover, and driving straight ahead to pull it out
 

 

I did that with my 206, previous owner had bent the back end and never fixed it, so i got a new hatchback to fit and found it wouldnt, so tied it to a big tree and drove away, hatchback fits now 🤣

Many moons ago i worked in a BMW parts department when Herman was current. The guys in the workshop hated fitted the one piece exhaust to them, so i know your pain.

That said, its a lovely car, but i still prefer the E32 7 if im honest 

[JakeT]

Nice work on having the gearbag finally work properly! These cars are very economical for what they are. Autocar ran one in the 90s, and even driving it like you don’t need to pay for fuel they would get late 20s fuel economy.

 

[fatharris]

Nice work on having the gearbag finally work properly! These cars are very economical for what they are. Autocar ran one in the 90s, and even driving it like you don’t need to pay for fuel they would get late 20s fuel economy.
 

If you go full mingebag, sit at 56 and slipstream lorries, you *can* get an indicated 40.9MPG.

I've always found the on board display to be within 1MPG of my written calculations so that's not too shabby

[JMotor]

14 hours ago, fatharris said:

I'll add a photo of the issue tomorrow, but does anyone have any helpful suggestions to getting them higher up? I was tempted to put a trolley jack under the affected area and pump it, hoping to re-bend the pipe back into roughly the same area. This seems risky though.

It's a bit of a bodge. But it might work for a short while.

Jack the system up to take the weight off the hangers. Then either cable ties or jubilee clips around the outside of the hanger rubber and tighten it up. So it compresses the thing to make it shorter, bringing the system up a smidge.

 Hopefully my crap picture helps explaining it.

Please feel free to dismiss this as a stupid idea.

[fatharris]

Well, good news and terrible news.

The good news is Herman has been doing excellent work shuttling me up and down the country, and everything seems to be freeing up nicely, even averaging 34MPG on the way up which will do nicely.

He was rewarded with a wash and hoover out on Sunday afternoon - pointless in the end though, because they were firing leaf blowers around at work yesterday and the car is filthy again as a result.

As I'm away from home for a couple of weeks, I decided to drop the Rover off for an MOT - I knew it was going to fail, but I figured a definitive fail list will help me decide it's fate.

The news....was not good.

Unfortunately, whilst I did poke the hole by the rear door, I never actively investigated it, but it was highlighted that somebody has gotten there before and bodged it.

Yep, expandable foam. Lovely and flammable when trying to weld. Presumably the other side is a similar state, I never looked at it. The ball joint fail was sent to me in a video and had an appalling amount of play - I had checked this last year when I had the other sides balljoint changed during the clutch job and it felt perfectly fine then. Shows how quickly things can deteriorate.

Unfortunately, I think this will be the end of the road for the Rover and I. I'll get it home when I get back in a couple of weeks and will most likely be selling it as a parts car, as with my current work and revision schedule, I'm not likely to be able to touch it until at least Jan 2026.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

10 minutes ago, fatharris said:

Well, good news and terrible news.

The good news is Herman has been doing excellent work shuttling me up and down the country, and everything seems to be freeing up nicely, even averaging 34MPG on the way up which will do nicely.

He was rewarded with a wash and hoover out on Sunday afternoon - pointless in the end though, because they were firing leaf blowers around at work yesterday and the car is filthy again as a result.

As I'm away from home for a couple of weeks, I decided to drop the Rover off for an MOT - I knew it was going to fail, but I figured a definitive fail list will help me decide it's fate.

The news....was not good.

Unfortunately, whilst I did poke the hole by the rear door, I never actively investigated it, but it was highlighted that somebody has gotten there before and bodged it.

Yep, expandable foam. Lovely and flammable when trying to weld. Presumably the other side is a similar state, I never looked at it. The ball joint fail was sent to me in a video and had an appalling amount of play - I had checked this last year when I had the other sides balljoint changed during the clutch job and it felt perfectly fine then. Shows how quickly things can deteriorate.

Unfortunately, I think this will be the end of the road for the Rover and I. I'll get it home when I get back in a couple of weeks and will most likely be selling it as a parts car, as with my current work and revision schedule, I'm not likely to be able to touch it until at least Jan 2026.

Sad times. I spotted it earlier when I dropped mine off for some work and meant to ask if yours was in for repair. It's a pretty rare motor - I guess the repair costs are likely to outweigh the value? 

[fatharris]

Just now, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Sad times. I spotted it earlier when I dropped mine off for some work and meant to ask if yours was in for repair. It's a pretty rare motor - I guess the repair costs are likely to outweigh the value? 

I would suggest so - it's been an amazing 18 months of owning it but MrsH has been so calm about me wasting sinking loads of money into the fleet and having so many vehicles, so I think moving one out isn't that big a sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.

I did get one offer via the owners club but I've not heard much from them this evening, so that's probably a non-starter so I'll look to take anything I want off the car and getting it cubed.

Smart money would be finding a solid non-Ti and moving the running gear over, but I simply do not have the time or capacity to do anything like that next year. Hell, the Mazda and Beat won't be leaving the garage at all for 2025!

Judging by that rusty crack to the right of the rust hole, I guess there's more demons lurking there.

[RoverFolkUs]

I need a rusty Rhonda about as much as a hole in the head, but I do hope somebody can save it! 

[RoverFolkUs]

@fatharris I can't get this car out of my head, any idea how much you'd want for it as it stands? 

Based on frequent references to @twosmoke300 I assume you/the car is in the arse end of nowhere so I'd either need to assess the viability of getting it transported to leafy sussex or maybe get the dangerous ball joint sorted out at a *ahem* nearby garage and then drive it back to a pre booked MOT 🤔

[twosmoke300]

Yup deepest darkest cornwall .

 

[RoverFolkUs]

3 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

Yup deepest darkest cornwall .

 

Lovely. Just to help* matters I was bouncing the idea off a mate about buying this shitty looking rover that's actually quite the sleeper and has a turbo which is most likely in Cornwall. He helped talk me out of it by offering a lift down because he has a lodge there!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

12 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Lovely. Just to help* matters I was bouncing the idea off a mate about buying this shitty looking rover that's actually quite the sleeper and has a turbo which is most likely in Cornwall. He helped talk me out of it by offering a lift down because he has a lodge there!

GIB!

[twosmoke300]

15 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Lovely. Just to help* matters I was bouncing the idea off a mate about buying this shitty looking rover that's actually quite the sleeper and has a turbo which is most likely in Cornwall. He helped talk me out of it by offering a lift down because he has a lodge there!

Do it ! Meet up for a pint and moan about the trade while you are down here 

[RoverFolkUs]

It's not like I have an abundance of space or time to do it but I would like to try and make it work!!

[Stanky]

11 minutes ago, twosmoke300 said:

Do it ! Meet up for a pint and moan about the trade while you are down here 

@RoverFolkUs could trailer the Rover 25 down to you since he's heading down that way? y'know, give you something fun to keep you occupied for the day? </trollface>

[RoverFolkUs]

6 minutes ago, Stanky said:

@RoverFolkUs could trailer the Rover 25 down to you since he's heading down that way? y'know, give you something fun to keep you occupied for the day? </trollface>

ROVER TWENTY FIVE? Go fuck yourself with a cactus. MG ZR TROPHY SE I'll have you know 🙄😂

[RoverFolkUs]

I have a better plan, @twosmoke300 garage sorts the ball joint, I just buy a shitty little Fiat Pan-cinque-seicento (delete as appropriate) and drive it down and leave it as payment in lieu 😎

[fatharris]

If it's going to a trusted Shiter then there is definitely a good discount to be had, and I'll even throw my spare parts in, including a replacement balljoint

I'm not home for a couple of weeks too, so there's no real rush, I just want to take the splitter and headlight protectors off because I've promised them to a mate.

With that in mind, I think £350 would work for me - I'd just be happy to see the car get a fighting chance of survival, and even if it was worse than anticipated then it'll break for much more.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts, it's not advertised anywhere else yet.

[RoverFolkUs]

Sounds promising, could I get an approximate idea of the area so I can price up transport? A trip down would be a lovely but that's a big undertaking for me with precious little spare time any time soon!

I've just heard from a mate with storage available so that's one box maybe ticked..

I fear transport is going to be close to £500 which would write the idea off for me sadly, but there's no harm in checking!

[fatharris]

I'm near Redruth in Cornwall - A30 adjacent

[fatharris]

Like I said, I'm not in a rush to move it on, so if you find yourself at a loose end with a train ticket then I'm sure that can work too

[twosmoke300]

Do I fancy a jolly ? That is the question 

[RoverFolkUs]

Perfect, I'll try and work some magic with some trade contacts who may know someone heading back with an empty trailer at some point which would keep costs down and make it more viable. But I certainly wouldn't want to waste your time so if you need to get shot of it before I work things out then go for it! 

I'd love a trip down but I think a 5 hour trip is moderately piss taking for a pre-booked MOT

Or I'll follow the "if something ain't right then shift it at night" motto 😂😂

[AnnoyingPentium]

As someone who doesn't have a stake in any of this... @RoverFolkUs, bought it yet?

[fatharris]

Perfect, I'll try and work some magic with some trade contacts who may know someone heading back with an empty trailer at some point which would keep costs down and make it more viable. But I certainly wouldn't want to waste your time so if you need to get shot of it before I work things out then go for it! 
I'd love a trip down but I think a 5 hour trip is moderately piss taking for a pre-booked MOT
Or I'll follow the "if something ain't right then shift it at night" motto

You won't be wasting my time, I'm not home until at least next weekend

[RoverFolkUs]

😎👀

[RoverFolkUs]

Right, predictably quotes are coming through in the region of £500+ just for transport 

I'm thinking it's a bit wasteful to pay for someone's transport time when I'd happily do that bit myself if I could (I completely understand and acknowledge the cost involved for the service they offer) 

Would be better for me to put that money towards actually fixing the thing.. 

Serious question time - if timescales and logistics allow, would a local garage to the car be able to do the work (with me being the customer of course to save the hassle on @fatharris end) and get it through the test, then I "simply" come and pick it up myself whenever its road legal?

Effectively I buy the car and get it repaired by proxy then actually come and get it when it's ready?!

Ideally I'd do the work myself because I can but it seems wasteful to spend £500 just on transport and then still have to do all the work myself when I could put that money towards someone else actually fixing it which seems more efficient to me 

@twosmoke300 would this possibly be a job you have the capacity to take on at the moment? A hospital job or whatever, I don't care. No rush on my end, I'll be the easiest customer in the world I promise

 

[twosmoke300]

I could do it but the welding would definitely be a dirty patch job . I’d be embarrassed to let another person in the trade see it . 
I could send some pics to my local chap that does my trickier welding jobs and see what he would charge if you like .

And I’ll do the mechanicals