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N19's fleet - OMGHGF


N19

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That is a great quote.. I have no problem with Khan for the most part, but I do have a problem with gross misrepresentation of figures & the unfair way the whole systems been implemented..

£12.50 is bugger all in the grand scheme of things, a third of a tank of petrol in the Uno, but, I`m already struggling financially, so I could really do without it.

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23 minutes ago, Andrew353w said:

At London prices what really is £12.50? To quote an 80s record; "two pints of lager and a packet of crisps!" 

Ironically Genghis Khan was being interviewed on a London T.V. programme a few days ago and he was explaining about deaths caused by vehicular pollution and became quite animated, ending his rant with "what price a child's life....??" To which the interviewer replied "well, according to your calculations, Mr. Khan, £12.50!" BRILLIANT!!

EVERYONE wants cleaner air, but this is NOT the way to make it happen!   

The thing is, non-compliant vehicles will gradually ramp down (at least with 'normal' owners) as they suffer uneconomic bodywork/mechanical issues, get sold on, owners pass away etc. What benefit will be brought by bringing this curve forward a few years? 

If you would like to look at excessive emissions, how about the glut of delivery vans chasing each other around the same estates delivering two parcels each. Or the minicabs sitting idling outside the roads round the back of the hospital for hours. Or the double deckers running empty for miles across town because it has been decided, for example, that the 91 (from Crouch End to Aldwych) should not be run by either of the two garages which it practically passes the door of, but from a garage in Stockwell (?!).

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9 minutes ago, N19 said:

The thing is, non-compliant vehicles will gradually ramp down (at least with 'normal' owners) as they suffer uneconomic bodywork/mechanical issues, get sold on, owners pass away etc. What benefit will be brought by bringing this curve forward a few years? 

If you would like to look at excessive emissions, how about the glut of delivery vans chasing each other around the same estates delivering two parcels each. Or the minicabs sitting idling outside the roads round the back of the hospital for hours. Or the double deckers running empty for miles across town because it has been decided, for example, that the 91 (from Crouch End to Aldwych) should not be run by either of the two garages which it practically passes the door of, but from a garage in Stockwell (?!).

I regularly come home late, the amount of times I`ve been behind busses with 1 or 2 people on, & seen them coming the other way, also with a couple of people on...

As well as that, my brother & one of my friends also live overlooking busy bus routes, obviously I tend to gravitate towards the window to look at the road numerous times when I`m at their places, & again, sooooooo many empty or neigh empty busses.. How "eco" is that? How much do they weigh? 12 tons? Even when they arent diesel (& most are), how much 2.5 do they put out in the form of tyre & brake dust? To transport half a dozen people 3 miles?!?

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10 hours ago, N19 said:

The thing is, non-compliant vehicles will gradually ramp down (at least with 'normal' owners) as they suffer uneconomic bodywork/mechanical issues, get sold on, owners pass away etc. What benefit will be brought by bringing this curve forward a few years? 

If you would like to look at excessive emissions, how about the glut of delivery vans chasing each other around the same estates delivering two parcels each. Or the minicabs sitting idling outside the roads round the back of the hospital for hours. Or the double deckers running empty for miles across town because it has been decided, for example, that the 91 (from Crouch End to Aldwych) should not be run by either of the two garages which it practically passes the door of, but from a garage in Stockwell (?!).

Agreed 100%! The change from leaded (2,3 & 4 star) to unleaded petrol, which removed lead particulates from the air (and, oddly, reduced crime!) was accomplished smoothly, with everyone agreeing:

1/ Unleaded petrol was cheaper-financial WIN!

2/ Car manufacturers was "on board" new cars can on unleaded-WIN!

3/ Older cars simply "died off" or the owners paid to have them converted-WIN for the environment or the local garage!  

As an aside, your remarks about buses applies in Barnet; the 84 route, a vital link between Potters Bar and Barnet was cut (partly as a result of the U.L.E.Z. regulations, although other factors were involved) yet many buses running from Barnet into London are garaged in Potters Bar. The result is that 263s & 134s run empty from Potters Bar to Barnet (but I appreciate this is veering off the original topic).  

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13 hours ago, uk_senator said:

If my entire family (including kids & elderly parents) & friends & contacts weren't all here, I would..

In that case you need to oppose it. Get involved with the protest group (Which is growing rapidly) buy some telescopic tree pruners and cut the camera wires.

Obviously vote tactically to get rid of Labour from City Hall. They have always despised the motorist and treated them as a cash cow, and this is no surprise to see.

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Guys, we`re in a agreement in some regards, but definitely not all... I don't want to clutter up N19`s thread with what will almost definitely escalate into a potentially messy & divisive political debate. I/we`ve been over this before in the ULEZ topic, so, I`ll leave it there..

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I headed down to the lockup this afternoon and tried to start the Capri, starter motor clicked but no turning. Out came the mending hammer and the jump leads... 

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I gave the Capri a quick 'bed bath' to remove the dust and so on that's accumulated through sitting in the garage.

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then off came the passenger door....

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To try and give myself a bit more 'working room', I put up a shelf on the side, having measured where it'll fit in relation to the body shape of the Capri.

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I also realised how difficult reversing into a garage is when the doors (and hence wingmirrors) are off!

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When I popped into the local hardware shop for some shelf brackets I saw this in the car care section - the batteries expired in Jan 2004, so it must be a good 25 years it's been on the shelf? Anyway, for £2.99 I picked it up. Just need to get some non-expired AA batteries now... 

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  • N19 changed the title to N19's fleet - my feet are wet

I gave the Mondeo a proper wash, and did the wheels. I picked up a set of simoniz products (£3 for about 7 or 8 bottles of stuff) and tried the wheel cleaner. Surprisingly, a lot of the brake dust melted off after a bit of agitation! these wheels have never been anything other than murky brown...

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I accidentally ended up parked next to a Fiesta of a similar vintage and colour. It sounded dreadful, engine tappety as heck.

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Capri, still waiting for a date that the welder can start work on it. Annoying that it's taking so long, but it's not the biggest priority for them I know and I want it done by someone I know will do it properly.

 

Got in the Mondeo today to discover the carpet soaking wet in the drivers footwell. I don't know if this was to do with my excessive pressure washing the other day! the floor bung seemed loose, so I blobbed some silicone sealer on it, and gave the carpets a thorough wet vac. I've left it with newspapers in the footwell.

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It wasn't the floor bung - the carpet's remained wet all week. I've sealed up the tops of the scuttle panel, which had very deteriorated foam underneath, so we'll see if that makes a difference.

Capri wise, although I never intended to go quite this far, it's probably going to be stripped entirely and the shell sent for blasting. It does make sense, if I'm going to spend time, effort, money on getting work done, to make sure that every single bit of rot is gone on the shell before it gets rebuilt. That does mean a more full-on stripout than I'd anticipated though. I'll be removing more ancillaries tomorrow, putting the doors back on and doing a heck of a lot of labeling up of the loom (this bit worries me for reassembly time!). It'll go up to the garage to have the engine and running gear removed before being sent away for the blasting. Meanwhile there'll be plenty of time to clean, repaint, tidy up all the odd parts.

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You'd have been most welcome Andrew, but just got home after a busy couple of hours.

First stop of the day was Costco Watford, to swap over the wiper I bought last week for the Mondeo. Some little git had swapped an old one into the packet! Refunded and a new one bought.

Whoever decided to put the bolt for the heater/blower box right behind the windscreen wiper motor on Capris, 40-50 odd years ago, I dislike you!

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But we got it out in the end - just needed to use the open end of a spanner moving it about 3 degrees at a time. 

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It's now sitting in the bath in my flat having been flushed through both ways - no crud came out, just antifreeze, which is good.

I re-routed the coolant hoses under the bonnet to bypass the heater matrix, let the car run for a bit, lovely to smell and hear the engine in the sun again.

Shock absorbers next thing to come off.

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O/S took quite a bit of 'persuasion', I've become quite a fan of 'Crack-it' - freezer spray with lubricant. Usually, sprayed on and left for a bit,a breaker bar will then work. Having had significant grief with the O/S, I sprayed up the N/S and stopped for tea-break to let it do its work. Creme egg break complete, the N/S came off nice and easy.

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They look a bit cosmetically tired but seem ok. As the scope of the job increases, I think anything that can be done afterwards with reasonable ease will have to wait (see also re-covering of seats) as I concentrate time (and money) on the bodywork.

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  • N19 changed the title to N19's fleet - shocking

Productive couple of hours this evening. I popped by on my way home from work and one of the guys from another lockup was there with a large van blocking any access - can be a character, so I decided to go home and do a few other bits first. On the return he was still there, albeit packing up.

First and foremost, chips eaten.

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One door I managed to get on yesterday, but tightened up properly once I could pull the car out.

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Door switches removed (there's a mod you can easily do to give a buzzer-if-lights-left-on warning for the drivers door open, which I may do on reassembly).

The doors are heavy buggers, and need to go on at a certain angle, one of the hinges was very stiff (which actually helped reassembling!)

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A little tip - which I don't know if it'll work on other cars, but... a bit of string tied to the hinge (on the door), then threaded through the bolt holes on the bulkhead. Gives you something to pull on to pull the hinge the right way and close enough in, to be able to hold it all in position whilst running the first couple of nuts on. A quick snip with the stanley knife and it pulls out. Ta da.

I've written up the order of disassembly just so I can be sure for when I put it all back together. We are currently at 67 items (and another couple just popped into my mind).

Hello to @Andrew353w who popped to say hello whilst I was mid horn removal. Was good to catch up and hopefully see you again some time :).

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Arrangements made for the Capri to be picked up this morning to go away for welding works. The plan had been for the local garage to do this, but their welder left in January, so they don't have capacity to do anything other than MoT plates. Through some contacts they put me on to somebody who can do it, and who from what I've seen and heard has the right attitude.

The remainder of the interior was taken out, mainly boxes and bits of soundproofing. (pictured - tea break sitting on the floor)

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This morning, took a photo of these two together (possibly for the last time if the ULEZ claims the Bluebird - although if I'm able to find out about the NOx levels of the Mondeo, I may be on to something).

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Soon enough, it was Beavertail time. I've never driven anything up onto the back of a recovery truck before, the smell of clutch was something to behold!

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Waved goodbye (it's very weird seeing your car being trailered away...). One of the neighbours asked me in a concerned fashion whether I'd sold it! Welder rang a couple of hours later, he sounded super chuffed by it and will have a proper look tomorrow, but he's quite happy with it (and also happy that I left it in a running condition).

Immediately I managed to fill the garage with all the stuff that'd been sitting in the back of the Capri or around the sides. Mostly it's various parts that live with it, so a bit more sorting out and then they can live nicely to one side.

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There's a few parts which need some work - bumpers and associated bracketry, for example, needs a thorough wirebrushing, rustproofing and repainting. That'll keep me busy for a bit!

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  • N19 changed the title to N19's fleet - goodbye Capri for now...

very cool car. miss my Capris 

I have to say that pre padding 3 spoke from the Capri and some mk2 Escorts is my favourite steering wheel ever. 

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I remember when I was 17 getting a telling off from my mum as I spent my last tenner buying one for my mk2 Escort 1.1 Popular instead of putting it towards the tax, petrol or extortionate insurance 

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3 hours ago, wesacosa said:

very cool car. miss my Capris 

I have to say that pre padding 3 spoke from the Capri and some mk2 Escorts is my favourite steering wheel ever. 

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I remember when I was 17 getting a telling off from my mum as I spent my last tenner buying one for my mk2 Escort 1.1 Popular instead of putting it towards the tax, petrol or extortionate insurance 

They certainly don't feature in any form of crash safety - I'd not like to whack into it! Ironically most would have been ripped out in the nineties on capris I'll bet replaced by higher spec ones. 

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Bluebird exhaust has been blowing for a while. I've only been able to tighten the odd nut up and/or try slapping a bit of putty on it thus far. The garage being empty now gave me an opportunity to see about doing something with it. 

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Gaskets pretty tatty. Hoping a new set will sort it. 

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I'm no expert on the workings of Diesel engines, but as I understand it they're more economical if left ticking over for short periods of time, as opposed to being switched off and then re-started. It's something to do with a "dollop" of diesel fuel being squirted into the engine all at once on start-up, as opposed to an extremely small amount being used when the engine's idling. I'm probably wrong, but I feel I've read or heard this somewhere....  

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Having ordered up the gasket required for the Bluebird, I remembered that I'd previously done just that, and looking in the parts box there it was. So, clean up and everything back together, engine run, no leaks, hurrah. New nuts and bolts for good measure.

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Except.... is that a chuffing still to be heard...? I goes and looks at the back silencer,

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I could order up a new rear section, but for now, some gungum will hopefully keep it reasonable.

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The welder started looking at the Capri last night. Props to him, he doesn't hang around. The top of the wings are totally rotten and he's reckoning that's going to be half of the time needed. Sending him links to the pattern panel list that's available. So far, very impressed at the communication. 

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Today being the last day of my annual leave from work, I did promise myself that I wouldn't spend all day pissing around with broken cars, and true enough I only did a bit in the evening.

While the car is away, I've got a few mini bits and pieces which need work, such as these bumper brackets. Some idiot reversed over one of these a few weeks ago (ahem) so a bit of percussive repair technique was required to return it to shape.

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Only a spray can job, but taking the time to do it properly should hopefully pay dividends come re-assembly time. The mini dremel-type thing was £20 offve Amazon, perfect for sanding down the detail bits on this that the wire wheel is too big to reach.

 

I also have the entire carpet in my living room, covering most of the usable floor space, while I gradually clean it down.

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  • N19 changed the title to N19's fleet - Capri away being welded, meanwhile parts cleaning and improvement happens.
  • 2 weeks later...

Drive it day today - I usually use it as a good excuse to take the Capri on a longish drive around, but this year it it's definitely missed.

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photo above from Feb 2022.

Current status - body work shop is busy pulling away at things. It looks like previous repairs have patched on top of rusted panels etc. My knowledge of bodywork is almost non-existant, but I know that's a Bad Thing. One of the repairs to the wings was in 1996, and another in 2007, certainly for the former I suppose nobody would have expected it to last another 23 years?? 

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Ordered some replacement panels to the body shop. The welder messaged me with a somewhat -ve view of their usefulness, enclosing this picture.

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All of which means that the whole thing will cost more than I'd hoped, but I'm in it now and I did expect that!

 

Meanwhile, back at home, I've been continuing to go around the removed parts and put right anything that needs putting right with them. These are the bumper front fixings that hold the bumper to the chassis rail, taken back to metal (at one end) and primed. Handy holding-whilst-spraying attachment pictured.

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  • 3 weeks later...

All quiet on the western front. Welder has finished work on one side of the wing, sill and a pillar, and is moving to the other side. Car should be back with me in a couple of weeks (although I'm away for a bit then!).

In the meantime, I'm researching paint work, trying to work out exactly how much it'll need. There'll certainly be bits on the wings, under the bonnet, and the rear sills. Whether it then becomes easier/better to just do the whole panel I am unsure.

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Local classic car show held in town today. Not entirely my cup of tea, but it's only 5 mins walk from home.

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The most Autoshite worthy attendee was this Allegro. The owner has at least three on his drive!

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Back home, work in progress doing the last of the brackets.  

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The to-do list when the car comes back includes quite a bit of reconditioning as well as reassembly, new bolts and fixings in almost all places I work, new fuel lines, then a full service which really should include cambelt and water pump. 

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10 hours ago, N19 said:

A purchase has been made in the quest to give me ULEZ-friendly but also AS-style transport. The collection caper will also involve stopping via the workshop where the Capri is, dropping off some parts there too. I've not done a collection thread before!

Looking forward......

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  • N19 changed the title to N19's fleet - collection mission happens
2 hours ago, N19 said:

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Fake News Alert!  The Northern Line is never that empty, where are the tramps, discarded chips, newspapers and other dross that society brings to a transit system? 
Oh, it's 7AM and you're at the outer reaches of the Northern Line where it's nice.  Carry on, as you were.

Seriously though, watching this with interest N19.  Have a great journey!

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