I'll get round to it at some point - Bratislava and Back: Things not to do in a mk2 Clio

[Rust Collector]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

All good progress!

In case you're wondering (and I know the audio isn't great) here's how much difference that another 20 years of progress made to the refinement levels.

https://youtu.be/vv8f-PxNSGE

 

That sounds familiar 😅 I reckon with my exhaust sorted I’ll be down to the normal level of strange noises!

[Rust Collector]

Royal Mail visited with an exciting brown box today:

That should be everything to sort out the knocking exhaust. Out with what’s there currently then:

Goodbye springs, you noisy bastards!

Phun Phact: the most annoying thing to remove was the nail that had been used to hold the (now disintegrated) exhaust rubber at the point where it hangs from the boot floor. It had been bent at the pointy end to stop it falling out, and the bracket was bending rather than the nail when pulled on!

Bonus Phact: the Lada was parked round the corner from my house, lowering property values in the next street. I didn’t want to carry my tools this far and so all work was done using the tool roll in the boot! Luckily there were pliers and a pokey thing to fire the springs at my face.

New kit goes on next then, for the rubber I re-used the split pin at the top as the hole in the bracket wasn’t big enough for a bolt. I should probably pain that witness mark… and sort the rust!

Straps on:

I’ve since taken it for a drive to take the dogs out, and I’m pleased to report that the exhaust no longer hits the boot floor like it’s some kind of petrol powered drum. Now all you hear is the raw power* of all 1300 cubic centimetres running away as the clutch slips and the queue of traffic builds. Much better!

[wesacosa]

looks like you have been spotted out in the wild, not sure where they got the "G" from though

[stuboy]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:45 PM, wesacosa said:

not sure where they got the "G" from though

Great motor

[uk_senator]

A fine collection of chod. I like the Yugo, I think I`d be tempted to put an X1/9 1500 lump in it for the LOLz, or maybe even an Uno turbo one, for ultimate sleeper status. Anyway, I thought I recognised BX number.. Um..  4 was it? And sure enough, I did, here it is when I saw it in the wild in 2017:

[Rust Collector]

On 1/4/2023 at 7:45 PM, wesacosa said:

looks like you have been spotted out in the wild, not sure where they got the "G" from though

I've never been spotted in any of my motors, and then yesterday the Lada was spotted by two different people in two different groups 😅 But yeah G reg is a little bit off, she's on an X reg from memory. It's not quite on daily duties because of the slipping clutch but it does get used regularly for local shopping etc.!

11 hours ago, uk_senator said:

A fine collection of chod. I like the Yugo, I think I`d be tempted to put an X1/9 1500 lump in it for the LOLz, or maybe even an Uno turbo one, for ultimate sleeper status. Anyway, I thought I recognised BX number.. Um..  4 was it? And sure enough, I did, here it is when I saw it in the wild in 2017:

I would love to put something different in the Yugo but the reality is that with so many projects I need to just focus on getting it over the line - I still haven't checked what is causing the loss of compression on one cylinder!

Interesting to see the BX in its past life, presumably that was up in London as I think the person I bought it from had owned it some 20 odd years. There are some very interesting* repairs on it from that time, I'm slowly unpicking bits and pieces so that when it does move on to a new home it hopefully isn't too hard to live with for the new owner.

 

*EDIT - The Lada is V reg, shows what I know about my own cars 😅

[uk_senator]

16 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I would love to put something different in the Yugo but the reality is that with so many projects I need to just focus on getting it over the line - I still haven't checked what is causing the loss of compression on one cylinder!

Interesting to see the BX in its past life, presumably that was up in London as I think the person I bought it from had owned it some 20 odd years. There are some very interesting* repairs on it from that time, I'm slowly unpicking bits and pieces so that when it does move on to a new home it hopefully isn't too hard to live with for the new owner.

I know what you mean, I`m a world class procrastinator as well, so my fleet has a to-do list as long as all my limbs that I`ve been largely ignoring (I now have the imminent ULEZ to contend with & no storage, which is forcing my hand, or will do when I get round to acknowledging that it is actually coming..)

I saw the BX in outer east London, somewhere near Ilford I think.. Looking at it then & now, a lot of the repairs/bodges must have happened since I saw it, & he did quite a bit of compounding since too.

[Rust Collector]

8 minutes ago, uk_senator said:

I know what you mean, I`m a world class procrastinator as well, so my fleet has a to-do list as long as all my limbs that I`ve been largely ignoring (I now have the imminent ULEZ to contend with & no storage, which is forcing my hand, or will do when I get round to acknowledging that it is actually coming..)

I saw the BX in outer east London, somewhere near Ilford I think.. Looking at it then & now, a lot of the repairs/bodges must have happened since I saw it, & he did quite a bit of compounding since too.

Ilford was where I bought it from, so it's possible you saw it on the street it lived on. The seller kindly polished it before I picked it up, including all the glass and plastic for some reason, and left the residue on everything 😅 I've given it a half hearted mop since but the bodywork is so utterly gopping that it's not worth too much effort as what's really needed is filling of dents and new paint. I was tempted to paint it with a roller just to get the red into a uniform colour and coverage but it's quite low on the agenda as far as jobs go currently. Much like yourself the list of jobs needed on each project is pretty staggering, which combined with my ability to spend 20 minutes working followed by 40 minutes of thinking about working means that progress isn't always fast. Luckily I don't have any real deadlines other than my partner asking 'what's going on with the cars' if I spend a bit too much time sat on my arse in front of the TV.

[Rust Collector]

Whilst I'm in my thread it is probably a good time to post a little bit about what I've been up to most recently:

The doom blue ZX had been languishing in the corner too long so I decided to wash it and remove the rear beam.

As a reminder, this is how she came in:

She looks a little better now I've washed the grot out of the nooks and crannies:

Rear beam then... First was some dicking around making an alignment tool. I was going to make it from metal before I remembered the 3d printer which I reckon will be good enough.

Minus points for forgetting that I had a blue spool in and not putting a brighter colour in instead.

Photos get a bit scant now as it was raining on and off and I was in that 'just get the bastard job done' mindset.

Wheels off:

Carpet removed:

Upper nuts located and removed:

Handbrake cables tugged:

What the hell is this thing that looks like it should be connected to something:

Not pictured; brake lines separated, rear bolts removed, trolley jack supporting beam lodges into asphalt planings, beam gets dragged out sideways.

Beam is lab tested, results not good by the expression on his face:

Beam goes into trailer (just!) for the journey to my house:

Beam is home:

Not pictured: I nearly give birth to my colon by trying to step up into the conservatory whilst carrying the beam.

Fuck me is that thing heavy.

I now realise I'm missing the ARB seals so I'm waiting on them to rebuild it. If I have time at the weekend I can strip it down at least. It feels good to be making some progress with the car at least so that's something.

[horriblemercedes]

2 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

What the hell is this thing that looks like it should be connected to something:

First time I've seen a ZX with the "Underbody Outdoor Stop Tap" option. Not many people ticked that box

[Fumbler]

17 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

...I nearly give birth to my colon by trying to step up into the conservatory whilst carrying the beam.

AS quote of the year.

Muchly great updates as always.

[Rust Collector]

Stuff has been occurring.

An alarming amount of non-moving vehicles were piling up on the driveway. This was a problem as a) it's the most convenient place to work on projects and b) my partner wanted me to make a clearway down the side of the house so that she could bring the pram round to the utility room easily.

The Audi 100 was a non-runner because I completely borked the throttle body when taking it apart. In my defence, it was so heavily corroded that it was fucked anyway and the car couldn't idle on it as it was so seized. The springs were crumbling away and so it wouldn't return when you let off the throttle. Luckily I found one in Spain for £35. Unluckily, postage was £65.

The only difference was that the throttle cable bracket appeared to be broken on the new one. Luckily it was ok on the old one and not a huge job to replace. The new one went on painlessly:

The fuel lines are in a really bad way and I will be replacing them all in due course. In the meantime I keep a fire extinguisher handy...

All back together, and checked by Daisy the safety dog:

It ran* and was duly moved over to provide space for a pram.

Daisy approves, and assumes that the car being moved means we are going somewhere. She's driving apparently:

Next up I fought the rear beam of the ZX for a couple of nights.

It's all apart, aside from the torsion bars and trailing arms which are seized cock solid. I've got some ideas, I just haven't had time to implement them. Hopefully have that sorted and rebuilt in the next week or so as the ZX really needs putting back together and rehoming.

Some collections next, so first we make space:

Naturally, the clutch cable or bracket appears to have snapped on the BX and so you can only move it by putting it in gear, cranking the starter and hoping that it doesn't fuck off on you. I moved the Audi onto the lawn to give the BX a clear run back to the garage, and then 'reversed' the BX on the starter. Naturally, at the gateposts it fired into life and fucked off at an alarming pace backwards, god knows how I didn't take a gate post out or put it through the fence. at any rate, the job was done and I could head to another garage a couple of streets away to extract this:

I agreed to buy it about 3 months ago, but there was no rush for it to be collected and it just happened that the earliest date that worked for me and the seller (who lives up North) was this weekend just gone. I put a fresh battery on it, it fired into life and I drove it home.

I've bought it as a bit of a light restoration project, which once completed I'll be looking to sell in order to fund some of the current projects and definitely not* the purchase of more cars. I'm really pleased with it, and despite telling myself I wouldn't like a 1.4 and so it' be easy to let go of, I really like it and if it was practical to I'd probably hold onto it.

 

The steering wheel is the biggest let down of the interior, despite the car being garaged it's still falling apart. I'll try and find a replacement if possible. The amount of history with the car is staggering, the chap documented almost everything. I do need to sort some of it into date order, but it tells the story of the car and in some way the chap that owned it too. It was great to see local garages and shops in the receipts that I remember as a kid but are long gone now.

The main thing it needs prior to an MOT is a small spot of welding in the rear arch, which looks like it was gone at before:

It shouldn't be too miserable to sort by the looks of it.

The engine bay is a breath of fresh air compared to the turbo diesels:

The intake hosing was loose, and the air diverter set to summer mode so I sorted that:

It now runs alright considering it's got stale fuel in the tank. I will give it a service and chuck some fresh fuel in then put it in for an MOT.

That was Saturday, onto Sunday then...

On the W210 owners group a chap had fessed up to having ground clearance issues on his E320 CDi and bursting a couple of radiators. Facebook internet diagnosis gave him 'spring perches fucked M9' and so it was offered up for scrap money if anyone wanted it before the local scrapyard. I decided that I wanted it, as we are in the quest for a bigger family car and we already have 10 estate cars in various states of repair this could surely make a decent family wagon.

Best get the trailer out then:

All went well apart from briefly seeing this as I arrived at the dumping ground:

I did the obligatory checks:

It's got liquid in and it's red, and it doesn't smell awful. The V6 runs really hot in the engine bay and I was dicking about idling a lot as I got towards home so I wonder if it's heat soak or something. I'll look at adding in an extra cooler for the gearbox before I do any heavy towing again.

On to the barge then:

Beautiful*. I've no idea why someone cut the sides of the bumper off though, I'll need to track a replacement down before my partner notices...

Inside is rather nice if I do say so myself. The main attraction is the boot, I'd forgotten how versatile these are:

The rest isn't too bad either, considering the age and mileage:

This is a relic:

The money shot:

I'm quite keen to see how this weighs up against the 4.3 V8 in my other one, and if it turns out to be a solid car then I will be very jealous of my partner having it 😅 She's already said it's not for me to drive around in...

Speaking of which:

At a glance whilst it's on the trailer, it doesn't look to have fucked perches. I'll get the wheels off once it's on the driveway and check thoroughly, but I think the issue the past owner may have been having was just that he wasn't taking into account the slightly lowered suspension on Avantgarde cars... more investigation required. First thing's first, I need to put one of the spare radiators on it and take it for a run. I'm hoping to get that done this week as I'd really like to get my partner into this car sooner rather than later so we can check from Gremlins, however my productivity has been at an all time low since our son was born in November and we now have a number of projects that even I think is daft... Let's see how we go.

[Rust Collector]

Time for an update I think!

The BX has been fairly straightforward. I've removed the trim and cut the rot out the rear arch:

11/10 for neatness to whoever applied that underseal paint the last time it was repaired.

My plate was tacked in, slightly overlapping the hole:

I then slowly cut around it, and tacked it in flush as I went. Once that was done I went back round to make a seam weld and set fire to the underseal in the wheel well, then ground it flush before going back round a second time to blob some weld into any pinholes that were exposed by a work light strategically placed below. A mid job welder replacement occurred also (not pictured), as the 130 shit its liner out the gun and so I went back to the trusty* 105:

I was pulling the excess I'd trimmed out from below, when I felt some resistance. I pulled it a bit harder, and at the exact moment I thought 'I should probably put some gloves on' the nice rusty piece of metal slit my fingers. Nurse!! NURSE!!

I'm getting my money's worth out of the first aid kit at least.

That's about as far as I've got with the BX hatch, next up is to grind those last few welds down, paint the inside and put some paint and some stone chip on the underside as that's where the rust originated from - the previous repair doesn't seem to have been protected from underneath very well.

I'd be interested to know if people think I should paint the inside white again as per factory (which would mean the shitty job of removing the underseal that somebody else applied) or if I should just chuck some primer and black paint over what I've put in.

Onto the Mercedes then...

All I can say is it's an ungrateful bastard that refuses to accept my attempts at returning it to some sort of functional state.

It turns out that almost all W210's have interchangeable rads apart from the E270 CDI and E320CDI which have the connection for the header tank moved up to clear the intercooler pipework.

Other rads foul this pipework:

Could I find a good used or even a new rad in stock locally? Could I fuck. In desperation I phoned Mercedes who quoted over £300 but said they don't carry the part anymore.

There were new options on Ebay, but with lead times of 2-4 weeks. In the end I relented and bought one that said it would land in about 4-5 days, which I managed to track down after frantic parts number searching and many headaches.

Incredibly I got a text from my mrs saying it landed yesterday, ahead of schedule! 'What good luck, I'll get this done tonight' I naively thought.

No pics as it was dark and I was rushing, but the good news is the new rad fits perfectly.

The bad news is that as I was putting de-ionised water into the header tank, at about 4.5 litres I started to a some water trickling on to the floor.

Further investigation suggests the water pump leaks like a sieve, although that's not a confirmed diagnosis as it's bloody difficult to see anything in that engine bay with a radiator fitted for the third fucking time.

Whilst removing the engine fancy dress in a vague hope to see the leak better I found this too:

So my future involves pulling injectors and cutting seats at some point.

Meanwhile, a water pump is on order and due to land at some time this week.

Who would like to place bets as to whether a new water pump is the end of my cooling system woes?

Tune in next time to see me losing the will to live as I try to replace the head gasket jubilant in triumph as the water pump goes in effortlessly and the car runs fine.

[Rust Collector]

I spent a little more time on the E Class this evening.

I’ve taken the viscous fan off the water pump so that I can see what was going on. It’s a pretty annoying job as there’s no easy way to stop the pulley spinning as you undo the bolt for the fan clutch, but it got done in the end:

Taking the rad out probably would have helped, but I’m buggered if I’m doing that again.

The good* news is that now I can see the pump, from my highly scientific tests of chucking more water in the system and sticking my hand in all the nooks and crannies around the pump, I’m 90% sure there’s a 60% chance that it could be the water pump.

The water is definitely coming from the vicinity of the water pump. The only other thing I’m trying to avoid thinking about is the engine I removed from the SLK, where an impact with a kerb had actually cracked the engine casting. If this block is cracked then the car is destined for the scrapyard after all as a replacement OM613 is more than I would want to stretch to on this car.

The replacement water pump lands tomorrow, fingers crossed it solves my problems.

[Rust Collector]

Today I remembered that I haven’t driven the Lada for weeks. I haven’t even checked on it to see if it was still where I left it, a couple of streets away…

Once I got home I wandered round to where I left it parked. Happily it was still there, which was a good start. I was expecting the battery to be flat, although as the Lada has a starting handle I wasn’t too worried. To my great surprise, it cranked over on the battery, then fired into life! To make the most of this great success I drove home to take the tools out my insight and load the Lada up instead.

 All loaded up I went and chucked some fuel in the Lada and then drove to the halfords in the next town over to buy the two female torx sockets that I’ve lost, which are the two sizes needed to replace the water pump on the Mercedes.

I don’t really know why I haven’t driven the Lada in so long, it’s a really fun car to run around in.

 At any rate, I got to the Mercedes and support car mode was achieved:

Here the pictures get a bit few and far between as I was in a ‘just get this done’ mindset.

However, after some fumbling and swearing the old water pump was liberated.

Fitting the new pump would’ve been much easier with the radiator out, but as mentioned before I decided to leave the rad in to make the job as miserable as possible. It did eventually go in with the gasket lined up.

Once the hoses were on it was the moment of truth. I tentatively filled the reservoir with distilled water, and I heard no leaking water on the floor which was encouraging. After putting about 8 litres in the reservoir was full… no leaks to report, so it would appear the new water pump has sorted that!

With that sorted, brackets went back in, idlers were refitted, and then the drive belt was put on. It didn’t look right, so I checked and yes I’d run it round the tensioner wrong. I put it on the right way, then went to start the car… before I turned it over I had a moment of self doubt and checked the belt again. Lucky I did as I had it half off the AC compressor pulley. I adjusted it a third time, checked it and finally cranked it over.

Success!!

It fired up and the water all stayed in the coolant system.

Next up I need to clear the trifecta of merc faults (BAS, ESP, TCS) which I’m hoping are low battery voltage from the car being sat. Then I can start doing some test runs in it to see if it could actually be a real life, genuine, useable vehicle.

If sorting the coolant leak wasn’t enough cause to rejoice, I then got to enjoy the short drive home in the Lada.

Things normally don’t go right, so on balance this has been a rather pleasant evening!

[Rust Collector]

This is my 1,000th post, and incredibly it’s actually good news!

After work today I went straight to the Mercedes

Today is the day!

Its finally off the trailer and ready for road testing.

I was about half a mile up the road from unloading when I got to a fairly steep hill. Just as I came over the crest of it there was a massive bang and a woosh of air. The car began to run rough and there were plumes of smoke behind me… oh dear. Best have a look at the most likely suspect:

Yep, intercooler hoses popping out will cause you problems.

The clips for the intercooler hoses are fucked so I’ll have to look at how to sort that, in the meantime I’ll make some sort of cable tie brace and hope for the best.

With the hoses poked back in I set about replacing the bonnet release that I broke

A nice easy job for a change.

Now that I could open the bonnet without pliers I went for another drive.

I really like this car, the straight six turbo diesel is just spot on. Bags of torque and really smooth. The sound is great when you give it some throttle. I’m gutted that it’s going to be my partner’s and not mine…

As is traditional, here’s some moody photos from the seaside dog walking session that follows the test drive:

Still to sort out are the warning lights, injector seals and couple of other bits, but overall I’m incredibly pleased with this car - so far I’m only in for £590 and a few nights of misery which is a win in my book 😅

[barrett]

God, that LEADER is great. I'm sure I won't be able to afford it but please let me know before it's offered up to the great unwashed (maybe you'd like a TD Xant in PX??).

I reckon a 1.4 with manual steering might actually be be 'peak BX'. As much as I love the XUD, they feel so much lighter with a pez engine, and the 1.6 feels a bit odd and heavy with manual steering (although a little more refined at high speed), whilst the 1.4 is so chuckable and silly it made mefall in love with BXs all over again. I definitely needd another in my life. Also, what's this ZX you're going to sell? Good job I live miles away from you, eh.... oh, wait. Fuck's sake. Fancy a 205?

[Rust Collector]

8 hours ago, barrett said:

I reckon a 1.4 with manual steering might actually be be 'peak BX'. As much as I love the XUD, they feel so much lighter with a pez engine, and the 1.6 feels a bit odd and heavy with manual steering (although a little more refined at high speed), whilst the 1.4 is so chuckable and silly it made mefall in love with BXs all over again.

I bought that Leader thinking that it would be really easy to part with as I didn't expect the 1.4 carby petrol in what is pretty much base spec would do much for me. Just from a short drive in it, all I can say is oh how wrong I was 🤣 It's a completely different car to the higher spec turbo diesel and petrol estates I've got. Like it literally feels like a completely different car, despite the lack of power steering it feels really light and nimble. I'm looking forward to the first proper drive once it has a ticket on! Feel free drop me a message if you want to come and have a look around it at some point.

8 hours ago, barrett said:

maybe you'd like a TD Xant in PX??

 

8 hours ago, barrett said:

Fancy a 205?

Oh don't tempt me, it's like somehow you know I can't help myself for these sorts of things 🤣🤣🤣

The ZX is this glorious 1.9d non turbo estate:

The rear beam is still resisting my attempts to remove the trailing arms so that they can have new bearings fitted and be inserted into a new rear beam, but it will get done shortly along with a timing belt and service, glow plugs, tyres and a bit of rust proofing underneath where it's needed.

Ultimate goal is to shed at least 3 vehicles from the fleet, as a few came in on a promise to my other half that they'd be sold once completed. I'd not say no to a P/X for something I'd enjoy running, as long as it wouldn't cause offence if it was sold/roffled etc. shortly after in order to get fleet numbers down and money back in the car fund!

 

 

[Rust Collector]

That’s the intercooler pipes fixed* then:

I’ve been for a test drive and given it some welly and they’ve stayed put, so in the spirit of ‘there’s no fix more permanent than a temporary fix’ I can see these being left like this for now…

[barrett]

On 2/17/2023 at 9:54 AM, Rust Collector said:

I bought that Leader thinking that it would be really easy to part with as I didn't expect the 1.4 carby petrol in what is pretty much base spec would do much for me. Just from a short drive in it, all I can say is oh how wrong I was 🤣 It's a completely different car to the higher spec turbo diesel and petrol estates I've got. Like it literally feels like a completely different car, despite the lack of power steering it feels really light and nimble. I'm looking forward to the first proper drive once it has a ticket on! Feel free drop me a message if you want to come and have a look around it at some point.

 

Oh don't tempt me, it's like somehow you know I can't help myself for these sorts of things 🤣🤣🤣

The ZX is this glorious 1.9d non turbo estate:

The rear beam is still resisting my attempts to remove the trailing arms so that they can have new bearings fitted and be inserted into a new rear beam, but it will get done shortly along with a timing belt and service, glow plugs, tyres and a bit of rust proofing underneath where it's needed.

Ultimate goal is to shed at least 3 vehicles from the fleet, as a few came in on a promise to my other half that they'd be sold once completed. I'd not say no to a P/X for something I'd enjoy running, as long as it wouldn't cause offence if it was sold/roffled etc. shortly after in order to get fleet numbers down and money back in the car fund!

 

 

I was EXTREMELY drunk when I made that post but I would definitely like to at least have a look at it when it's on the road. LMK if you'd like a go in the world's shonkiest P6 Rover or whatever

[Rust Collector]

1 minute ago, barrett said:

I was EXTREMELY drunk when I made that post but I would definitely like to at least have a look at it when it's on the road. LMK if you'd like a go in the world's shonkiest P6 Rover or whatever

You’re more than welcome to stop by for a drive of it once it’s sorted mate, or for a poke around the rest of the chod here. Definitely feel free to bring the P6 or anything else that will get the neighbours’ curtains twitching 😅

 

[Rust Collector]

Time for another update I think. Not a huge amount done, but family stuff seems to be consuming my time a lot lately.

First up I did a bit of car washing after getting the E Class home:

Still need to sort out the derpy front bumper though, not sure why the PO chopped the sides off:

That's a bit better!

That's a bit, errr, something.

Next order of business was a reluctant hand over. Here's a grainy pic of my partner driving the Merc for the first time:

A look of complete concentration there 😅 I'm pleased to report though that she has decided she loves the car, so that's a result. She's been running it for a couple of weeks now, and I'm told that it it has made life much easier in terms of transporting the dogs and the baby compared to the Clio.

When we got the Merc it had some of the fan/temp controls which had no back lighting. No before pic, but I did pull the thing apart and sort it out. You just have to pull the knobs off (snigger) and then change the tiny bastard bulbs tucked below using tweezers...

What a pain in the arse job if you have moron hands like me. It did improve the feel of the cabin though.

Next up I figured out the bluetooth phone connection - the last owner said it was broken, but it just needed the tiny switches in the back of it adjusting to the correct position:

Good stuff.

Some random dog adventures in the car:

The roll out dog/cargo net is brilliant when you have a golden retriever obsessed with being beside the baby.

With no diagnostic tools cheaply available for this car, I half heartedly investigated the BAS/ABS/ESP warnings by checking fuses. This big bastard has blown at some point, from memory it was a completely unrelated circuit but I should probably replace it. No points for guessing how many times I've passed Halfords and forgotten to stop in for the fuse.

My regular reminder not to reverse a RWD car on to my front lawn:

Luckily the towing eye was present in the spare wheel well, and I towed it out with the 4x4. I really need to put a hard surface in place of that lawn...

No time for that though as we were going away for a bit

Where we got to run around in this, courtesy of father-in-law:

It was really quite lovely, inside was like it was out the box and it drove beautifully. Small economy cars used to be mega.

OMG kids in the car, etc.:

It did make me a little nervous taking my son out in the Corsa, mainly because of the local standard of driving.

Some of the other vehicles owned by the in-laws:

They had an old Hyundai 4x4 thing which I didn't photograph, but we did use in anger through the woods which was good fun.

Some other random vehicles that I spotted in an Austrian border town:

The one thing I'll say about the Corsa and the C3 Picasso we had use of, is that they were really lacking in luggage space. Once home in England, it was a relief to get out of the airport and be greeted by this old bus:

First weekend back from the motherland and it was time to do something proper*. The Merc had an intermittent warning light for the glow plugs. Best get her undressed then:

My regular reminder of what I will be fixing soon:

I've ordered some washers, a stretch bolt and a clamp. I've got the rest of the tools for fucking around removing and reseating the injectors so wish me luck. That's for another day though.

Back to glow plugs - after fucking around and breaking the plastic housing of one connector, I realised that the easiest way to check the resistance on these is to measure from here:

To a suitable place on the block:

Lovely stuff:

 

Obviously the two fucked ones were the front and rear ones, which are the hardest to reach. Now call me a cynic, but the 4 easier ones looked brand new compared to the two broken ones...

Oh well:

I forgot to get any penetrating fluid, so I used a mix of ATF and diesel as that's what I had laying around. I put it around the plugs, then got the engine warm. Surprisingly they came out fine:

Before they came out I would've bet all my money that they would have snapped.

Either way, the new ones went in without a fuss and the car is moderately happier now. It's easier to start from cold, but I do think there's an air leak in the fuel lines somewhere, and obviously at least one injector seal is in a bad way.

Next up, I really must MOT the BX Leader and sell it!

 

[Rust Collector]

The repair kit for the injector on the E Class has turned up. Naturally, it's been put on the shelf to begin the period of rest that all car parts must undergo before I pull my finger out and do something.

The BX is nearly ready to submit for MOT, I've cleaned up the welds on the rear inner arch and thrown some filler primer over it. I'll nip it back this evening, blast some suitable white paint over (once it arrives) and I'm calling it ready to go in for test. Seeing as I love a bit of procrastination, whilst applying the primer I also replaced the foam in the rear vents. For reference, the coarse black foam you can buy for pond filters is a good replacement, you can buy it cheaply in sheets which you then cut down.

I'll be glad once the paint is on, the trim is back in and I'm not constantly hanging out the boot of this thing.

Something I noticed with the BX was that the choke wasn't great, it felt very vague, the indicator light would flicker and the idle was a bit rough. I forgot to take a picture, but when I looked at the carb I could see the bracket holding the end of the choke cable had been loosened off - adjusting the cable and tightening the bracket has made a huge difference, the engagement of the choke is much more positive, the light doesn't flicker and the idle is much smoother. Happy days, can't beat a free fix.

Speaking of procrastination, another car has come into the collection:

I'm quite taken by it, it very much reminds me of the 80's and 90's Hondas I used to run. Everything is straight to the point and simple, and all laid out in a fairly practical way.

A quick appraisal of it as it came in reveals that the rusty sill shouldn't be too bad, provided I don't have to disturb the inner arch as I start hunting for good metal. It starts, runs and stops ok. The clutch is a bit low, so I'll bleed it and see how we go. The overheating issue is still present, but I notice the cooling fan doesn't kick in at any point so I'll short the switch and see if the fan runs. I'm fairly certain that either a replacement fan switch or fan should see it working properly again, although it takes a long time to warm up so I will check that the thermostat is present and operating correctly. Exterior, interior and engine bay are all in really good condition, so once the mechanicals are sorted I think it'll be a really nice example.

Once I was done playing with the Proton, my brother joined me and we decided to have a look at the ZAZ, which has sat neglected in the corner ever since we picked it up.

We chucked a spare* battery on to it:

Signs of life were observed:

Almost all of the wiring in the dash and cabin has been fucked around with, which is promising!

The starter wiring added by the last owner is pretty wild too - he wanted remote start so he could stand at the engine bay and crank it whilst spraying flammable stuff around.

We found that we weren't getting a spark, even when earthing a plug direct to the battery. The car has been swapped over to electronic ignition at some point:

The coil measured an ok resistance, but I had no idea how to check the ignition amplifier/module thing. Handily, the car had all the original parts with it to run it on points.

We found that the old coil is missing the contact inside the connector for the king lead though, and we couldn't cobble anything together from the other coils we had so had to call it a day. Not before blowing a couple of fuses as I guessed at worked out the wiring that had been cocked around with previously. Luckily the fuses are rather utilitarian and come complete with spare wire:

Shame it didn't run, but I don't think it's far off.

On returning home I discovered a wiring diagram online, that's even I can read and mostly understand.

The coil is ballasted and receives 12v direct from the starter, along with a feed from one of the relays. I'll work on getting that contact secured into the coil and then we should be able to wire everything up as per the diagram. The fuse box is definitely wired wrong in my car, and looks to have been messed about with, so I'll have a look at that plus the dash wiring whilst I'm there. I'm quite looking forward to sorting out the spaghetti, it should be a nice cathartic process. Possibly.

That mostly brings us back up to date - hopefully this week I should have a better update on the BX, I really want to get it in for a ticket by Friday.

 

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

Seeing as I love a bit of procrastination, whilst applying the primer I also replaced the foam in the rear vents. For reference, the coarse black foam you can buy for pond filters is a good replacement, you can buy it cheaply in sheets which you then cut down.

That sounds like a Top Tip, must try to remember it.

[grogee]

On 2/7/2023 at 12:33 AM, Rust Collector said:

Stuff has been occurring.

An alarming amount of non-moving vehicles were piling up on the driveway. This was a problem as a) it's the most convenient place to work on projects and b) my partner wanted me to make a clearway down the side of the house so that she could bring the pram round to the utility room easily.

The Audi 100 was a non-runner because I completely borked the throttle body when taking it apart. In my defence, it was so heavily corroded that it was fucked anyway and the car couldn't idle on it as it was so seized. The springs were crumbling away and so it wouldn't return when you let off the throttle. Luckily I found one in Spain for £35. Unluckily, postage was £65.

The only difference was that the throttle cable bracket appeared to be broken on the new one. Luckily it was ok on the old one and not a huge job to replace. The new one went on painlessly:

The fuel lines are in a really bad way and I will be replacing them all in due course. In the meantime I keep a fire extinguisher handy...

All back together, and checked by Daisy the safety dog:

It ran* and was duly moved over to provide space for a pram.

Daisy approves, and assumes that the car being moved means we are going somewhere. She's driving apparently:

Next up I fought the rear beam of the ZX for a couple of nights.

It's all apart, aside from the torsion bars and trailing arms which are seized cock solid. I've got some ideas, I just haven't had time to implement them. Hopefully have that sorted and rebuilt in the next week or so as the ZX really needs putting back together and rehoming.

Some collections next, so first we make space:

Naturally, the clutch cable or bracket appears to have snapped on the BX and so you can only move it by putting it in gear, cranking the starter and hoping that it doesn't fuck off on you. I moved the Audi onto the lawn to give the BX a clear run back to the garage, and then 'reversed' the BX on the starter. Naturally, at the gateposts it fired into life and fucked off at an alarming pace backwards, god knows how I didn't take a gate post out or put it through the fence. at any rate, the job was done and I could head to another garage a couple of streets away to extract this:

I agreed to buy it about 3 months ago, but there was no rush for it to be collected and it just happened that the earliest date that worked for me and the seller (who lives up North) was this weekend just gone. I put a fresh battery on it, it fired into life and I drove it home.

I've bought it as a bit of a light restoration project, which once completed I'll be looking to sell in order to fund some of the current projects and definitely not* the purchase of more cars. I'm really pleased with it, and despite telling myself I wouldn't like a 1.4 and so it' be easy to let go of, I really like it and if it was practical to I'd probably hold onto it.

 

The steering wheel is the biggest let down of the interior, despite the car being garaged it's still falling apart. I'll try and find a replacement if possible. The amount of history with the car is staggering, the chap documented almost everything. I do need to sort some of it into date order, but it tells the story of the car and in some way the chap that owned it too. It was great to see local garages and shops in the receipts that I remember as a kid but are long gone now.

The main thing it needs prior to an MOT is a small spot of welding in the rear arch, which looks like it was gone at before:

It shouldn't be too miserable to sort by the looks of it.

The engine bay is a breath of fresh air compared to the turbo diesels:

The intake hosing was loose, and the air diverter set to summer mode so I sorted that:

It now runs alright considering it's got stale fuel in the tank. I will give it a service and chuck some fresh fuel in then put it in for an MOT.

That was Saturday, onto Sunday then...

On the W210 owners group a chap had fessed up to having ground clearance issues on his E320 CDi and bursting a couple of radiators. Facebook internet diagnosis gave him 'spring perches fucked M9' and so it was offered up for scrap money if anyone wanted it before the local scrapyard. I decided that I wanted it, as we are in the quest for a bigger family car and we already have 10 estate cars in various states of repair this could surely make a decent family wagon.

Best get the trailer out then:

All went well apart from briefly seeing this as I arrived at the dumping ground:

I did the obligatory checks:

It's got liquid in and it's red, and it doesn't smell awful. The V6 runs really hot in the engine bay and I was dicking about idling a lot as I got towards home so I wonder if it's heat soak or something. I'll look at adding in an extra cooler for the gearbox before I do any heavy towing again.

On to the barge then:

Beautiful*. I've no idea why someone cut the sides of the bumper off though, I'll need to track a replacement down before my partner notices...

Inside is rather nice if I do say so myself. The main attraction is the boot, I'd forgotten how versatile these are:

The rest isn't too bad either, considering the age and mileage:

This is a relic:

The money shot:

I'm quite keen to see how this weighs up against the 4.3 V8 in my other one, and if it turns out to be a solid car then I will be very jealous of my partner having it 😅 She's already said it's not for me to drive around in...

Speaking of which:

At a glance whilst it's on the trailer, it doesn't look to have fucked perches. I'll get the wheels off once it's on the driveway and check thoroughly, but I think the issue the past owner may have been having was just that he wasn't taking into account the slightly lowered suspension on Avantgarde cars... more investigation required. First thing's first, I need to put one of the spare radiators on it and take it for a run. I'm hoping to get that done this week as I'd really like to get my partner into this car sooner rather than later so we can check from Gremlins, however my productivity has been at an all time low since our son was born in November and we now have a number of projects that even I think is daft... Let's see how we go.

Illuminated glovebox in the BX?

Flash wanker.

[Rust Collector]

22 minutes ago, grogee said:

Illuminated glovebox in the BX?

Flash wanker.

I feel privileged just to have a working glovebox door, the other 3 have fallen off!

[Rust Collector]

A very small update - I went up the stables last night and I was able to test the radiator fan. The setup is nice and straightforward, the fan is supplied 12v and earth is switched by the coolant sensor in the radiator. When I shorted the connector to earth, the fan ran happily enough, so I'm confident the fan sensor/switch is the culprit - I did check that the replacement radiator had a connection to earth, just in case that was the issue. A new sensor/switch is now on order.

 

[mercedade]

On 27/03/2023 at 15:14, Rust Collector said:

The repair kit for the injector on the E Class has turned up. Naturally, it's been put on the shelf to begin the period of rest that all car parts must undergo before I pull my finger out and do something.

And I thought that was just me. I will go to my grave believing that purchasing the replacement for the broken part is absolutely as effective as physically replacing it.

[Rust Collector]

Late last night I finally got some paint on the BX inner arch repair. It's not perfect, but for something that's going to be behind trim and have a wheel brace clipped over it's good enough I reckon. In an ideal world, I should have got rid of all the thick black stuff behind, and done an extra layer of white or grey primer, but I'm sick of this being sat here for want of paint and the trim going back in, so here we are!

It looks much better if shown in progression rather than in isolation, so here's some potatocam photos taken in the dark:

I'll tidy up the overspray and chuck the trim back in, then give it a once over and book the MOT. I've missed my self imposed deadline due to other shenanigans, so now next week is the target. I am starting to need this thing to be gone!

[grogee]

On 3/30/2023 at 11:17 AM, mercedade said:

And I thought that was just me. I will go to my grave believing that purchasing the replacement for the broken part is absolutely as effective as physically replacing it.

In that case, my Maestro is basically better than factory spec. 

I have about £1000 worth of spares to put on it when it finally emerges, butterfly-like, from its Northampton welding cocoon.