N19's fleet - Focussing on a wiring fault

[N19]

That's the dash out, 

Looking somewhat different, although legally drivable if I put the clocks back up (which is one multi plug, a Speedo cable and probably a cable tie to hold it in place).

Grot both sides of the A pillar.

 

Some cable tidying and re-work to do (there's a few temporary repairs and splices that I'd like to sort properly), also the air ducts are mucky and could do with a good wash out I think. 

I'm not sure whether to replace the blower and wiper motors whilst I've got access. It would be incredibly annoying if I did all of this and then had to do it next year if one failed (both original as far as I can tell).

[N19]

Been trying to expose some of the areas needing work. 

I've also been looking at the dash top. Whether it can be tidied up where the splits are. 

[N19]

Dash brought back home to live indoors for a bit. 

I went for a drive around town in the afternoon, a nice little pootle in an empty and rattly car.  Clocks held on with a cable tie for legality reasons!

 

There's some underseal/waxoyl type stuff under the drivers foot area, presumably as part of a previous repair. It makes removal of the sound deadening a right pain though!

You can see there's been a patch put in before that's rotted away. 

The big screwdriver also attacked the inner wings. Holes happened. 

And in view of the deterioration of the number plates with age, I'm going to see if I can get reproductions done...

[N19]

Continued joy of 1970s Fords.

[N19]

Preparation on the Capri has pretty much stalled, I've stripped out everything I can right now, so it's waiting for the garage to take it onto their ramp. The sills and wings have had significant "corrosion assessment" to expose the weak bits although I'm quite sure they'll be more once the wings come off. 

I took the main beam relay off to clean it out, it was a bit lazy in throwing which meant that the reliable way of getting the lights on involved popping the bonnet and a tap of a spanner in the right place...

 

Nissan has a slight exhaust blow somewhere, need to have a proper look at that, and the Mondeo has a flat tyre (discovered at 0549 on a Monday morning). 

[N19]

The postman arrived with some shiny new number plates. 

See the reproduction Vs the original. Spot on. The original was actually in two pieces when I took it off!

The front has always had a motorfactors plate, so it gets a treat. 

Ironically, today is the day that the Bluebird's fate was sealed. The ULEZ will come in from August and so it'll be £12.50 to even move it. Within the fleet I can justify holding on to the Mondeo for long journeys and big item moves, but I'll most probably be putting this up for sale in the spring, sadly.

[mk2_craig]

Plates look superb! Sorry to hear that the Bluebird looks like it'll have to retire elsewhere, but maybe there's still time for the scheme to be modified, depending on residents feedback.

[bunglebus]

I got an email about extending the London congestion charge yesterday, pretty much reads as "we're extending it out to the M25 everywhere, tough shit unless you're disabled in which case we'll put your hard luck on hold for a year or two"

Looks like I won't be going to Romford for shopping anymore, and my mum will have to have a re-think of how she's getting to her regular hospital visits there too, as her 1994 Astra  and our late 90s VWs will all attract the charge

[Rustybullethole]

Nice work. Guess the bluey can fund the weld repairs for the capri. Picked that ulez email up today. All my vehicles unviable to drive come August but hey there’s a scrapage scheme so one can bin off perfectly good working vehicles and replace them with ones that won’t last as long. If one can afford too. 
Boils my piss. Sorry. 

[N19]

12 hours ago, bunglebus said:

I got an email about extending the London congestion charge yesterday, pretty much reads as "we're extending it out to the M25 everywhere, tough shit unless you're disabled in which case we'll put your hard luck on hold for a year or two"

Looks like I won't be going to Romford for shopping anymore, and my mum will have to have a re-think of how she's getting to her regular hospital visits there too, as her 1994 Astra  and our late 90s VWs will all attract the charge

The ironic/infuriating thing is that I live approx 100m from the boundary, so even popping out of the area is £12.50 purely for that last 100m. Looking at how they did the inner ULEZ, there are cameras at practically every point on the boundary. At the moment, the boundary for the heavy diesel van/lorry LEZ doesn't seem to be fully camera'd.  I also wonder if there will be cameras along the 5-minute trip through suburban backstreets to my lockup (which I do in the Mondeo regularly to cart stuff down/up from there). I think I will set up the auto-pay and see when it triggers.

 

10 hours ago, Rustybullethole said:

Nice work. Guess the bluey can fund the weld repairs for the capri. Picked that ulez email up today. All my vehicles unviable to drive come August but hey there’s a scrapage scheme so one can bin off perfectly good working vehicles and replace them with ones that won’t last as long. If one can afford too. 
Boils my piss. Sorry. 

I think I'll reinvest some of the money from the sale of the Bluey into something small and Ulez compliant (but suitably autoshitey) - as old as possible - maybe a Ka or something of that size - to blat about locally in the suburbs in. In fairness that will save money in tax and fuel as the Bluey and Mondeo are both expensive in those regards.

 

13 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Plates look superb! Sorry to hear that the Bluebird looks like it'll have to retire elsewhere, but maybe there's still time for the scheme to be modified, depending on residents feedback.

Unfortunately, I somewhat doubt it. It would have been nice to have some sort of 'taper system' or 'sunset period' but I doubt it.

[N19]

Cold snap this week, the Mondeo's battery gave up. I think it's about ten years old so fair enough. 

Swapped it with the Bluebird's 096 until I can get a new one (the Bluebird starts, albeit sluggishly, on the knackered battery). Although the Mondeo's central locking has started acting up, which I assume is something to do with low voltage. 

[sierraman]

39 minutes ago, N19 said:

Cold snap this week, the Mondeo's battery gave up. I think it's about ten years old so fair enough. 

Swapped it with the Bluebird's 096 until I can get a new one (the Bluebird starts, albeit sluggishly, on the knackered battery). Although the Mondeo's central locking has started acting up, which I assume is something to do with low voltage. 

Could be damp, the solenoids in the doors don’t like cold weather. 

[N19]

5 hours ago, sierraman said:

Could be damp, the solenoids in the doors don’t like cold weather. 

It did various odd things this morning including randomly beeping the horn, some relays throwing etc. The central locking has always been a bit vague during winters, I've disconnected the boot from it to avoid issues since I couldn't get it to lock otherwise!

[N19]

Fitted a new battery today (so I can return the borrowed one to the Bluebird!), gave everything a clean up and it seems ok now. An eye will be kept...

[N19]

Snowbird. 

 

 

Any further active work on the fleet waiting until January now. Hopefully the Capri will go into the bodywork place, the Bluebird can then come into my lockup as there's a variety of little jobs which need doing. 

[N19]

On 12/3/2022 at 10:51 AM, sierraman said:

Could be damp, the solenoids in the doors don’t like cold weather. 

A good point - the central locking is spot on in summer, in winter it usually clunks into action after a while once the car is nice and warm. This was rather odder though, anyway it was resolved once there was a new battery on and consistent (rather than jump starting, swapping batteries over etc).

 

[N19]

Yesterday presented the first opportunity in a while to do anything down the garage, when I both had the time and it wasn't freezing cold. 

Bluebird exhaust bolts nipped up and general check over before MoT. Capri got down off axle stands, pootled around the yard, let it warm up and run for a bit. 

It certainly left a mark

Mondeo door switch I think is faulty - it's been sensing the door as being open intermittently. This results in interior lights staying on all the time which is sub optimal. Pulled fuse until I get a chance to have a poke. 

[N19]

Door switch off, no continuity at all. Although, randomly, a bit later it seemed to go the other way and be stuck on. 

Replacement £6 off eBay ordered. I think that's probably where the battery/electrical issues I had last month stemmed from, if the footwell lights were randomly staying on. In view of the rain, and my tiredness, I didn't strip the unit down, but once I've swapped it out I'll have a nosey. 

[uk_senator]

On 11/26/2022 at 10:56 PM, N19 said:

The ironic/infuriating thing is that I live approx 100m from the boundary, so even popping out of the area is £12.50 purely for that last 100m. Looking at how they did the inner ULEZ, there are cameras at practically every point on the boundary. At the moment, the boundary for the heavy diesel van/lorry LEZ doesn't seem to be fully camera'd.  I also wonder if there will be cameras along the 5-minute trip through suburban backstreets to my lockup (which I do in the Mondeo regularly to cart stuff down/up from there). I think I will set up the auto-pay and see when it triggers.

My parents, the place where I do all the work on my autoshite fleet, is 50m inside the north circ, as a result, I`ve not been able to do any work on them since the end of last year. 

I`m debating whether to get a dodgy ticket on my 99 Jag XJR & chop that in on the scrappage scheme (after swapping the alloys & interior with shite ones to get some extra resale coin back).

I did take the liberty of driving one of my massively* polluting Uno`s to my parents for Crimbo, seeing as ULEZ was turned off for the day...

[N19]

59 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

My parents, the place where I do all the work on my autoshite fleet, is 50m inside the north circ, as a result, I`ve not been able to do any work on them since the end of last year. 

I`m debating whether to get a dodgy ticket on my 99 Jag XJR & chop that in on the scrappage scheme (after swapping the alloys & interior with shite ones to get some extra resale coin back).

I did take the liberty of driving one of my massively* polluting Uno`s to my parents for Crimbo, seeing as ULEZ was turned off for the day...

It's a pain in the backside isn't it? The boundary of the new zone nearest to me will be at the Arkley Hotel, and I live near the Esso garage. 

Does the scrappage scheme apply to everyone, I thought it was only disabled etc who were able to make use of it.

[uk_senator]

14 minutes ago, N19 said:

It's a pain in the backside isn't it? The boundary of the new zone nearest to me will be at the Arkley Hotel, and I live near the Esso garage. 

Does the scrappage scheme apply to everyone, I thought it was only disabled etc who were able to make use of it.

I didnt know the boundary was going to be that far in, I thought it was going to be no more than 50m inside the M25 for most of it, not that it`ll help either of us either way.

Not sure what the stipulations are with the scrappage yet, just thinking out loud, as I know I`m going to have to decide what I`m going to do within the next few months. Franky I`m depressed about the whole situation, as my cars are the only things of value I own, & I wanted to keep them till I kicked the bucket & leave them to my kids...

[N19]

Just now, uk_senator said:

I didnt know the boundary was going to be that far in, I thought it was going to be no more than 50m inside the M25 for most of it, not that it`ll help either of us either way.

Not sure what the stipulations are with the scrappage yet, just thinking out loud, as I know I`m going to have to decide what I`m going to do within the next few months. Franky I`m depressed about the whole situation, as my cars are the only things of value I own, & I wanted to keep them till I kicked the bucket & leave them to my kids...

There are a couple of specific roads which are outside it - I think because they can be used as diversionary routes? The A1 down to Stirling Corner is fine, and the back-roads between Barnet and South Mimms are too, then there's a couple of routes which are inside the zone but are excluded - so you can go from St Albans Road, past the TA centre, then left at the lights towards Potters Bar fine. 

[uk_senator]

7 minutes ago, N19 said:

There are a couple of specific roads which are outside it - I think because they can be used as diversionary routes? The A1 down to Stirling Corner is fine, and the back-roads between Barnet and South Mimms are too, then there's a couple of routes which are inside the zone but are excluded - so you can go from St Albans Road, past the TA centre, then left at the lights towards Potters Bar fine. 

Really? I didn't know that, as far as I know theres no exceptions with the current ULEZ boundary, aside from places like Colney Hatch Lane, where you have to branch off left onto overpasses to turn right, so I assumed the M25 boundary would be literally that, more or less.

[uk_senator]

(I`m gonna look at some maps now, to see where Hertsmere starts)

[N19]

Just now, uk_senator said:

Really? I didn't know that, as far as I know theres no exceptions with the current ULEZ boundary, aside from places like Colney Hatch Lane, where you have to branch off left onto overpasses to turn right, so I assumed the M25 boundary would be literally that, more or less.

There are a few exceptions to the current ULEZ, but not many - the one at the bottom of Colney Hatch Lane where you go to/from the retail park is one, there's another in Neasden where you turn left to go underneath the 406 - essentially, places which are geographically within the current ULEZ but which only serve to link you to places outside it. 

[N19]

2 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

(I`m gonna look at some maps now, to see where Hertsmere starts)

See here : 

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/ulez-expansion-2023

 

Hertsmere starts pretty much at the end of High Barnet AFAIK, so I assume that the slithers of road which are exempt are purely to link them up. I do wonder how much camera-age there's going to be, and whether any journeys will be possible without setting the cameras off.

[uk_senator]

13 minutes ago, N19 said:

See here : 

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/ulez-expansion-2023

 

Hertsmere starts pretty much at the end of High Barnet AFAIK, so I assume that the slithers of road which are exempt are purely to link them up. I do wonder how much camera-age there's going to be, and whether any journeys will be possible without setting the cameras off.

Cheers for that, I may well start parking my lot just outside then, & "commute" up to them if I`m going outwards..

`kin livid reading this on their page though: 
"Poor air quality is impacting the health of Londoners, and it's mainly caused by polluting vehicles. It's not just a central or inner London problem. In fact, the greatest number of health issues related to air pollution occur in outer London areas. That's why the ULEZ is expanding across all London boroughs (see map below)."
Making it sound like this is going to be some kind of cure for pollution, when the projected improvement is predicted to be less than 2%.. Just absolute bollocks.. Infuriating.. Makes me wanna punch everyone at TFL.. 

[N19]

11 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

Cheers for that, I may well start parking my lot just outside then, & "commute" up to them if I`m going outwards..

`kin livid reading this on their page though: 
"Poor air quality is impacting the health of Londoners, and it's mainly caused by polluting vehicles. It's not just a central or inner London problem. In fact, the greatest number of health issues related to air pollution occur in outer London areas. That's why the ULEZ is expanding across all London boroughs (see map below)."
Making it sound like this is going to be some kind of cure for pollution, when the projected improvement is predicted to be less than 2%.. Just absolute bollocks.. Infuriating.. Makes me wanna punch everyone at TFL.. 

Could do, the bit of Hadley where the Saab guy parks is outside the zone....

The thing that annoys me is the selective nature of it all. Yes I'm sure that an elderly car pumps out more emissions than a new 1.0l eco whatsit thingymibobby - let's set aside the whole throwaway culture, engines designed with a finite lifespan, manufacturing resources etc etc for a minute - the traffic inside central London is primarily (a) commercial vehicles, (b) super rich people who will just pay any cost anyway, (c) taxis, minicabs, couriers. There's an awful lot of work which could be done in dealing with the inefficiencies which lead to empty minicabs circling central waiting for a fare, couriers duplicating routes, a 3.5t van going all the way into Central to drop one box etc. But also, crucially, the number of pre-2005 cars living in the outer suburbs will (a) do fewer miles, because they primarily trundle to the supermarket once a week, to B&Q for some bits for the garden, and maybe the odd trip out of town to see Aunty Doris, (b) be reducing in number each year as the non-shiter driver finds he's got a massive bill to pass an MoT and sends it over the bridge.

[uk_senator]

1 hour ago, N19 said:

Could do, the bit of Hadley where the Saab guy parks is outside the zone....

The thing that annoys me is the selective nature of it all. Yes I'm sure that an elderly car pumps out more emissions than a new 1.0l eco whatsit thingymibobby - let's set aside the whole throwaway culture, engines designed with a finite lifespan, manufacturing resources etc etc for a minute - the traffic inside central London is primarily (a) commercial vehicles, (b) super rich people who will just pay any cost anyway, (c) taxis, minicabs, couriers. There's an awful lot of work which could be done in dealing with the inefficiencies which lead to empty minicabs circling central waiting for a fare, couriers duplicating routes, a 3.5t van going all the way into Central to drop one box etc. But also, crucially, the number of pre-2005 cars living in the outer suburbs will (a) do fewer miles, because they primarily trundle to the supermarket once a week, to B&Q for some bits for the garden, and maybe the odd trip out of town to see Aunty Doris, (b) be reducing in number each year as the non-shiter driver finds he's got a massive bill to pass an MoT and sends it over the bridge.

And those are exactly the arguments I`ve been having in various section of the internet.. Tens of thousands of cars being scrapped (& they will be, just like last time) is NOT at all green, especially when a good number of those cars are actually more efficient pollution-wise than the bloated, under-engined, needlessly complicated moderns that they`re being replaced with. And contrary to the green activists wishes, the vast majority of these cars WILL be replaced with more cars, as people who are still driving in London, with all the agro that entails, NEED to drive for whatever reason, & aren't about to dash off to their local bike shop, nor waste hours a day pissing about with public transport.

Its all total bollocks.

And its funny you should mention empty cabs, both my brother & my best mate live in flats in busy areas (Southgate & Kilburn) along main bus routes, whenever I go to either of their places, I repeatedly drift to the window to see whats going past, obviously a lot of busses go by, & 95% of the time (outside rush hour), the busses are virtually empty, sometimes completely empty.. Theres literally thousands of bus journeys every day all over London catering to a tiny handful of people, how environmentally friendly is that?!??

[uk_senator]

On 10/9/2022 at 7:35 PM, N19 said:

Followed by a quick spin around and then popping home.

I just realised where that is! 🤣
I`ve seen you go by in the Bluey a couple of times, but I don't recall ever seeing the Capri.. I did see one in the same colour outside a garage not far away a few years back (but not yours):