I'll get round to it at some point - (Air) Strut Your Stuff

[rob88h]

To be fair to it, I bet a whole heap of friction is required to stop a vessel of this magnitude. I refer you back to this:

On 7/11/2023 at 3:46 PM, rob88h said:

 

🤣

[Rust Collector]

7 hours ago, mercedade said:

Fantastic work, and hats off to Andrej.

Next time you stamp on the brakes, that piston might* jam again, so avoid the emergency stops (this happened to my Saab, new caliper time in the end)

 

Thanks mate, yes it definitely could have done with rebuilding but not a job I want to do so far away from home. I'll be keeping an eye on my breaking distances all the way home!

[Rust Collector]

Today we started the journey home:

Photo taken at the edge of the known world (according to the sat nav)

This thing is brilliant for the Autobahn. Our route home covers a lot of dereistricted Autobahn. In the Insight it was something of a chore. In the Lexus, it was effortless to the point that when it got busy I'd think 'why the fuck are we going so slow', then look down and see that the traffic was still flowing at 80mph...

Some chod spots on the way, but I daren't ask my partner to take constant photos when she was looking after our son in the back. Surprisingly, she did photograph this when I was out fetching a burger King

It had 'Carrera' graphics and was really tidy.

We're at the hotel in Baden-Baden now. I've lucked out and picked a good one, I didn't realise I was booking an apartment in a spa hotel as I was rushing and the price seemed reasonable. My Mrs is happy and it's a shame we can't stretch out the stay another day (dogs at home) as I'd love to leave her to have a spa day whilst I go and explore the area with my son. Oh well, in the meantime I'm enjoying the German refreshments.

Onwards to Calais tomorrow, then home.

[rob88h]

49 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I didn't realise I was booking an apartment in a spa hotel

To be fair you could say this about the back of the Lexus. 

[Rust Collector]

6 minutes ago, rob88h said:

To be fair you could say this about the back of the Lexus. 

I was hoping to get chauffeured today so that i could enjoy the facilities, but the Autobahn was busy all the way and the weather was on and off so thought it better to do all the driving as my Mrs hasn't done much driving in Europe, despite learning to drive there! On the few sections that were clear I didn't want to swap as I knew this is probably the last time I'll get to drive a V8 barge on roads with no speed limit 🤣

We may swap for some of the driving in France tomorrow, see how we go.

[Rust Collector]

Chauffeur service today:

This allows me to do important things like feed my son spot Ladas.

[Rust Collector]

Homeward bound!

 

[Rust Collector]

And home:

The final score on the door:

I forgot to reset the trip counter on the way out, and so its only counted up from calais on the outbound route. I reckon we've done just over 3,000 miles in total.

Now just the ball ache job of unpacking the car...

[High Jetter]

Glad you made it back safe, after an enjoyable time.

[Rust Collector]

Cast your minds back to when I collected the XM, and I also brought home a spare engine and gear box with them. They’ve spent a fair amount of time sat in the back of the landy and tonight I decided it was time to unload the Disco so that I can use it for stuff.

Target home for the engine:

Car shunting to make room for the engine crane:

Things you shouldn’t put in the back of a car you want to keep clean #127:

Danger mode activated:

And after a lot of swearing, it’s in its new home:

I definitely didn’t* spill loads of ATF all over the driveway.

Cars emptied: 1

Hernias: TBC

If anyone can recommend some better castors for an engine crane then I’m all ears. Mine just gets stuck at every small joint between concrete sections of the driveway - a 1mm step up defeats it.

[High Jetter]

Maybe it's not the crane's fault...

[Rust Collector]

Are you suggesting that my beautiful 1950’s driveway may not be the ideal surface for moving heavy equipment over? If you’re lucky*, sometimes you find a spot that was laid directly over mud and the castors just go straight through the concrete 😅😢

[High Jetter]

"You may have a beautiful house..."

[Rust Collector]

Shall we do a bit more car content then folks? I'm thinking of some sort of rambling fleet update.

First up was general maintenance on the Mk3 Clio. The windscreen washer pump had died a death so that was replaced. I'd just like to say fuck you to whoever started hiding washer bottles behind wheel arch liners.

Gubbed one out, hoses I disturbed reattached, job jobbed. I did an oil and filter change next. Having seen people's reviews of the Lidl style pumps I bought this from Amazon.

What a game changer. That pump combined with a 20l plastic chemical container from Amazon made the oil change a piece of piss and mostly mess free. Once again though, I'd like to say fuck you to whoever put the oil filter on this particular engine on the back, at the far end under the drive belt and above a chassis leg. What the fuck was wrong with putting oil filters on the front of the engine block?!

I'll put a pair of tyres on the front of it this week hopefully, and chuck the exhaust mount on that I've been meaning to fit since the daw of time and then it will be back up for sale again as the family member I've leant it to doesn't need it any longer.

The S210 is still plodding on as a general family wagon:

The front suspension is getting noisier by the day so I need to get under there and have a poke around at some point and work out what's borked. It went through the MOT without issue so I'm fairly confident the front end isn't about to fall off, but it's definitely not right.

LS430: I ordered some replacement parking sensors from China, and so on the day they arrived the air suspension went into arse dragging mode...

A couple of hundred quid later and I have a quality* used item. Looks right to me:

Phail:

Some pics of the strip down and rebuild. When the interior came apart it had that distinct feeling of 'this car will never be quite the same again', however it went to back with no issue and is probably a testament to the build quality of Toyota Lexus. I won't do a step by step as it was an easy job in the end, but hopefully the pics help to show how things like the adjuster for the 'spring' damping setting are fitted and where everything is located. I could not find this information online which was annoying as I like to see things before I break dismantle them.

I improvised this 'fat guy foot peg' to stand on and get some movement out of the lower arm in order to fit the new strut:

It was awkward feeding the studs up into where they mounted, and so I had to call my mrs out to help 'guide it in'. Fnar fnar etc.

At any rate, I was left with a working car after this and so I was a happy boy.

Still to do on the LS: Service it, replace timing belt, diagnose and replace the remaining faulty parking sensor, replace the headlight washer that fucked off into a low earth orbit somewhere in Germany.

The Disco of doom continues to operate mainly as my dog car.

Whilst the Lexus was laid up with a knackered air strut, I did daily the Disco for a bit. Here it is showing solidarity for it's fallen air suspension comrade, with an arse up face down salute.

Apparently this is due to the replacement compressor not being the right one or something, and needs coding out. It settles by the end of the road so it's somewhat on the 'at another time' list.

It's really not good when you're counting on a Land Rover as your backup daily 😅 It is a nice place to be though, so we'll forgive its faults. I need to do some maintenance work on it soon, the drive belt and tensioners need replacing by the sounds of it and I don't think it would do any harm to change the oil and filters as I have no record of when they were last done. Cam belt roulette is obviously on the go as well, so I should think about that soon.

What I'm really meant to be doing is getting the Proton ready for sale. Last Friday was the day I was meant to start that, so I fucked off to see my mate Rupert for a drink or two at his house instead. He was out doing some gardening when I arrived, which I thought made for an interesting photo 😅

The weekend was when I finally pulled my finger out on the Proton.

New clutch slave fitted:

Biting point is still in the floor. Bollocks. Need to have a look and see if there's something painfully obvious that I've missed, such as bleeding the master cylinder...

I decided to have a look at the rust then. The offside sill was causing a problem when it was last presented for a ticket, and after removing the plastic and doing some grinding these were my main areas of concern.

I decided to start with the worst bit, but my helper suggested first I procrastinate a little:

A missing bolt from an exhaust hanger was an ideal distraction:

I did desperately look for more simple jobs, but sadly none were found so I had to start on what I was meant to be doing.

I'd been hoping to get away with just making a patch for the outer, but as always there's more to be done. I will repair that inner bracing panel, and I will repair the patch of sill to the right which is also holed. Whilst the surrounding parts were there I made my first patch panel:

Wit a mm or two shaved off that'll drop in nicely, once I've got it adjusted to size I will add the bottom and rear lips to it so that they can be spot welded like the original panel.

Part of me feels like this is overkill and I should have just bodged an MOT style patch on, but knowing that I will likely be selling it on here I wanted to do my best of it to be a long lasting repair.

I suspect I won't get to look at this again until the weekend, but I'll try and keep the momentum up and get it done as I'd really like to run the Proton as a daily for a while. I do really need to move it on though as I'd like to put the money back into other projects as I'm burning through the pot of car money at an alarming rate lately!

[Rust Collector]

So in other threads I mentioned that a load of the ‘on hold’ projects got moved…

This was just a handful of the stuff that got moved, and to be honest my mojo was pretty much gone after seeing everything in one place and thinking about how much work was there.

It’s not ideal and I need to pick up my rate of work so that all this stuff doesn’t end up totally fucked and returning to Mother Earth.

Then, as mentioned in a couple of other threads my partner was unwell and that took over most of last week.

My plan for the near future is to pull out anything that doesn’t need a huge amount of work for an MOT, get it done and sell it. I’m sure that once I get a few cars gone I’ll buy several more feel better. The XM and proton need sorting urgently as they’re blocking my drive; I need the XM as a daily and the Proton will need a new home.

I’ve leant the LS430 to my Dad as he doesn’t have a car and hasn’t bothered to buy one. This is handy as it means I can keep it for now without having to deal with the ruinous fuel cost.

Moving back to work I’ve done this weekend then.

Ken’s Xantia was attacked with a welder and underseal. It’s now booked for a retest Tuesday.

I tackled the rear brakes on the Clio, the last job needed before I sell it.

Yep, they’re done.

New shoes:

Old drums painted with hammerite:

This is where I fucked up. I should’ve bought new drums, but I didn’t realise the drums were such a cunt to adjust on these. There’s no adjustment hole on the drum or back plate, so if they’re lipped you can’t get the adjustment right. I should’ve ground the lips down to get the adjustment right. The brakes and handbrake work but there’s more travel than I would like, so I’ll get to revisit this during the week. I can’t wait…

Yesterday’s excitement (bar the welding) was my mum getting pissed off that I couldn’t pick up hay bales as required - when hitching up I found a big bastard crack in the side of one runner:

The amount of movement from me standing on the rear of the trailer was mad. The runner would banana so much that the wheel lifted off the ground. Anyway, to keep the peace I went to sort it today. Note how I didn’t realise how long the cracks were, so I got to drill the end holes twice:

Clamps and a lump hammer provided precision alignment, and then I just started blasting.

Straight enough:

I was giving it some enthusiastic encouragement with a BFH and all the welding stayed put which is encouraging.

Then some structural paint was applied:

It’s like a new trailer, that’s seen decades of use.

It’s solid now at least, the bed isn’t making banana shapes anymore and I’m fairly happy it’s ready for some more use.

Longer term trailer plans are a complete overhaul of the brakes (they work but are outdated) and to clean up any rusty bits and paint it. That’s probably a job for next year now though.

[Dick Longbridge]

3 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

So in other threads I mentioned that a load of the ‘on hold’ projects got moved…

This was just a handful of the stuff that got moved, and to be honest my mojo was pretty much gone after seeing everything in one place and thinking about how much work was there.

It’s not ideal and I need to pick up my rate of work so that all this stuff doesn’t end up totally fucked and returning to Mother Earth.

Then, as mentioned in a couple of other threads my partner was unwell and that took over most of last week.

My plan for the near future is to pull out anything that doesn’t need a huge amount of work for an MOT, get it done and sell it. I’m sure that once I get a few cars gone I’ll buy several more feel better. The XM and proton need sorting urgently as they’re blocking my drive; I need the XM as a daily and the Proton will need a new home.

I’ve leant the LS430 to my Dad as he doesn’t have a car and hasn’t bothered to buy one. This is handy as it means I can keep it for now without having to deal with the ruinous fuel cost.

Moving back to work I’ve done this weekend then.

Ken’s Xantia was attacked with a welder and underseal. It’s now booked for a retest Tuesday.

I tackled the rear brakes on the Clio, the last job needed before I sell it.

Yep, they’re done.

New shoes:

Old drums painted with hammerite:

This is where I fucked up. I should’ve bought new drums, but I didn’t realise the drums were such a cunt to adjust on these. There’s no adjustment hole on the drum or back plate, so if they’re lipped you can’t get the adjustment right. I should’ve ground the lips down to get the adjustment right. The brakes and handbrake work but there’s more travel than I would like, so I’ll get to revisit this during the week. I can’t wait…

Yesterday’s excitement (bar the welding) was my mum getting pissed off that I couldn’t pick up hay bales as required - when hitching up I found a big bastard crack in the side of one runner:

The amount of movement from me standing on the rear of the trailer was mad. The runner would banana so much that the wheel lifted off the ground. Anyway, to keep the peace I went to sort it today. Note how I didn’t realise how long the cracks were, so I got to drill the end holes twice:

Clamps and a lump hammer provided precision alignment, and then I just started blasting.

Straight enough:

I was giving it some enthusiastic encouragement with a BFH and all the welding stayed put which is encouraging.

Then some structural paint was applied:

It’s like a new trailer, that’s seen decades of use.

It’s solid now at least, the bed isn’t making banana shapes anymore and I’m fairly happy it’s ready for some more use.

Longer term trailer plans are a complete overhaul of the brakes (they work but are outdated) and to clean up any rusty bits and paint it. That’s probably a job for next year now though.

Any progress is good progress. Is it you who had a family member doing up/selling an ST182 Celica at some point? 

[Rust Collector]

6 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Any progress is good progress. Is it you who had a family member doing up/selling an ST182 Celica at some point? 

My brother owns this:

He doesn’t like angry grinders and it needs a lot of welding. Inner and outer sills, door bottoms and then anything else we find. He also had some shit luck with rockauto and brake parts, it’ll need all callipers, discs and pads replaced.

He wants to sell it but not for scrap money, so it’s not going to get sold - we’ve just chucked it in a corner until I have time to do the work.

It’ll make for a nice car once it is done - pop up headlights are the best thing ever, and that Toyota lump will run forever.

[Dick Longbridge]

34 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

My brother owns this:

He doesn’t like angry grinders and it needs a lot of welding. Inner and outer sills, door bottoms and then anything else we find. He also had some shit luck with rockauto and brake parts, it’ll need all callipers, discs and pads replaced.

He wants to sell it but not for scrap money, so it’s not going to get sold - we’ve just chucked it in a corner until I have time to do the work.

It’ll make for a nice car once it is done - pop up headlights are the best thing ever, and that Toyota lump will run forever.

That's the one! I remember seeing it peeking out from the corner of one of your photos at some point. I'm probably going to sell my MR2 fairly soon and was toying with the idea of a ST182 at some point. I owned a lovely import ST 185 Carlos Sainz RC years back (along with several mk1 MX5s) and never tired of the pop-ups! Keep me in the loop please - probably not, but there's a chance the stars will align with timings at some point.

[AnnoyingPentium]

13 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

My brother owns this:

He doesn’t like angry grinders and it needs a lot of welding. Inner and outer sills, door bottoms and then anything else we find. He also had some shit luck with rockauto and brake parts, it’ll need all callipers, discs and pads replaced.

He wants to sell it but not for scrap money, so it’s not going to get sold - we’ve just chucked it in a corner until I have time to do the work.

It’ll make for a nice car once it is done - pop up headlights are the best thing ever, and that Toyota lump will run forever.

My Mum bought an imported ST185 Carlos Sainz LE in this colour sight unseen from a dodgy place in Luton. Used about 2L of oil on the return leg home. She flew down on a whim to pick it up and drove it back home.

Pretty sure I'll have a photo of it on the computer.