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

[jonathan_dyane]

It's a beautiful car mind!

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

And breathe…

Glad that’s over.

I’ll book an MOT for my day in the office, which means I’ll get to drive it to Eastbourne (look out for green streaks @High Jetter) which is a pleasant jaunt down the A259 from Seaford with fantastic views over the Seven Sisters. And if it fails, I can take a two minute detour on the way home and push it over Beachy Head.

What’s our bets on the MOT abandonment and/or fail this time then? Answers on postcards please!

Ooh, when is that? Maybe meet up for a coffee or beer or something.

[Matty]

On 05/06/2024 at 13:25, Rust Collector said:

Even if everything works, it’s going to need more preventative maintenance than say a 5 Series or Audi 100

But when you've finished you've got a car that's massively more interesting than either of those. Which makes you immediately more interesting than any of them bmw or audi wankers 😄. Real dog with a bone stuff this pal, fair play to you. Don't give in!!

[Rust Collector]

18 hours ago, jonathan_dyane said:

It's a beautiful car mind!

I think that’s why I forgive it each time. Once it’s sorted it will hopefully be a lovely car for someone!

18 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Ooh, when is that? Maybe meet up for a coffee or beer or something.

Tuesday is my office day this week, but I might come in and do an extra day if the MOT place doesn’t have availability Tuesday. Meeting up for a coffee wouldn’t be a bad shout, I’m only about a 5 minute walk from the arndale centre beacon.

18 hours ago, Matty said:

But when you've finished you've got a car that's massively more interesting than either of those. Which makes you immediately more interesting than any of them bmw or audi wankers 😄. Real dog with a bone stuff this pal, fair play to you. Don't give in!!

Thanks mate, it’s certainly been more work than I expected 🤣 Despite all the anguish it has caused me, I was sat admiring it out the window yesterday evening as I had my ‘winding down’ gin and tonic.

I can put my money where my mouth is RE the 100, as I’ve still got to go and drag out the 2.3e Avant from the field behind the stables and get that sorted… it will definitely* be much easier than the XM I’m sure, I can’t see that claim ever coming back to bite me on the arse! 😅

[Rust Collector]

As promised, there’s some hot Proton action occurring today:

This far all I’ve done is make a patch for the ‘easiest’ section of the 3 areas on the sill that are holed.

It’s a bit rough and ready, and I bent my shitty Chinese vice whilst trying to put that drain channel in, but it’s good enough. I’ll be zapping it in shortly.

If I can break the back of the welding today then that’ll be a result and I can crack on with the little bits that need sorting prior to putting it in for a ticket, as they’re mostly suited to being evening jobs.

[Weird Car]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

As promised, there’s some hot Proton action occurring today:

This far all I’ve done is make a patch for the ‘easiest’ section of the 3 areas on the sill that are holed.

It’s a bit rough and ready, and I bent my shitty Chinese vice whilst trying to put that drain channel in, but it’s good enough. I’ll be zapping it in shortly.

If I can break the back of the welding today then that’ll be a result and I can crack on with the little bits that need sorting prior to putting it in for a ticket, as they’re mostly suited to being evening jobs.

I can’t wait for this to be finished so you can sell it and I can buy it back 😆 great work though especially on the XM, that hammer through the window did get a chuckle out of me. Something I’ve dreamt of doing for a while especially when the MG is misbehaving 

[Rust Collector]

The electropigeon visited and left his trail.

You can see there were quite a few bits that didn’t take well, so I went back over a second time then chucked the only primer I had left over it.

I was pressed for time to get any more done, I did make a second patch and cut the final hole out for it, but I didn’t like the fit of the patch so I’ll be making another. I went and bought some weld through primer and chucked it on the two holes I’ve got left to fill in so that it won’t flash over with surface rust… hopefully.

The rear section is going to be the hardest to repair. The internal reinforcement needs repairing at the base, the wheel arch needs repairing where it meets the sill and the sill has two overlapping panels. I’ve got one patch made up already, so I’ll just methodically plug away at it and hopefully finish it at the weekend.

Once that’s done, I need to give the rear brakes a once over and I need to remove the headliner, repair it and then re-seal the sunroof as well.

I may live to regret this, but I’m kind of looking forwards to doing the headliner as it’s not something I’ve done before and should transform the interior.

[Rust Collector]

7 hours ago, Weird Car said:

I can’t wait for this to be finished so you can sell it and I can buy it back 😆 great work though especially on the XM, that hammer through the window did get a chuckle out of me. Something I’ve dreamt of doing for a while especially when the MG is misbehaving 

As soon as she’s ready I’ll give you a shout! I’m just sorry it’s taken so long, I was hoping for a fast turnaround but life always gets in the way!

[Weird Car]

2 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

just sorry it’s taken so long

Don’t apologise life gets in the way it’s just part of the hobby, thanks for first refusal though I’ll most likely be taking you up on that 😅

[2flags]

It's great that you have taken the time and effort to battle through all the problems this has thrown at you. Many would have cut their losses and bridged the fucker.

[Rust Collector]

Not much to report from last night other than that I made a new patch for the sill of the Proton. This is the second ‘easy’ one. I’m working my way up to the rear of the sill.

It looks like it was made by a moron with a hammer and a broken vice, because it was.

I need to try and track down my nice Sheffield vice and panel hammer, I think they might be up at the farm.

The next couple of nights I will be busy with the kids, so finishing the welding on the proton is probably a weekend job now.

In exciting XM news, it’s scheduled in for an MOT on Thursday. I’ll be driving it in before work, dropping it off and then sitting at my desk feeling anxious all day. I think the MOT is at 15:30 or thereabouts. I’m praying nothing else gives me a shit time on this car. I need either a pass, or a fail with some easy jobs I can sort at the weekend!

[Rust Collector]

I’m having the worst luck with the XM!

Ive just had a call from the garage (a different one than I’ve used prior), they’ve let me know that they can’t accommodate my booking now and the earliest they can offer is a week today…

Now I get to call round frantically to see if I can get it done sooner elsewhere as I’m sick of waiting for a verdict on this bloody car.

[DSdriver]

I wonder how long you can keep driving to pre-booked MOTs that don't happen! Just tell them you'll have the car in the area next whenever, can they put it on their to-do list but it doesn't bother you if they don't get it done.

[beko1987]

8 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

I wonder how long you can keep driving to pre-booked MOTs that don't happen! Just tell them you'll have the car in the area next whenever, can they put it on their to-do list but it doesn't bother you if they don't get it done.

"3 weeks tomorrow is fine, cheers!" 

Drive around normally... Then it might shit itself before getting to the ramp 😂

[Rust Collector]

I’ve managed to book the XM in for 4:50pm with the tester in Lewes that I’ve been antagonising for weeks.

This can only end well*.

[wesacosa]

Good luck, mate.   Keeping my fingers crossed 

[Datsuncog]

Best of luck, dude!

Just give yourself plenty of time - don't do what I used to do, and get stuck in traffic in the Cuilfail Tunnel while the Viva's temperature gauge shot off the end of the scale...

(Used to work in Ringmer and it was hellish getting through Lewes between 4 and 5pm - though that was 20 years ago, granted)

[Rust Collector]

7 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Best of luck, dude!

Just give yourself plenty of time - don't do what I used to do, and get stuck in traffic in the Cuilfail Tunnel while the Viva's temperature gauge shot off the end of the scale...

(Used to work in Ringmer and it used to be hellish getting through Lewes between 4 and 5pm - though that was 20 years ago, granted)

Thanks mate, I’m just telling myself I’ve done everything I can 😅

I’m leaving Seaford just after 4pm, and the test centre is just behind where the jaguar / Land Rover dealer used to be. Hopefully shouldn’t have too much grief coming through the cuilfail tunnel in that direction.

It’s still misery coming the other way though and trying to get on to the A27. I’ll have that to enjoy on the way home, assuming the car doesn’t explode on the ramp or something.

11 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

Good luck, mate.   Keeping my fingers crossed 

Me too, but I feel like I could vomit from the anxiety right now 🤣

[Rust Collector]

I should add as well, we’ve cancelled our summer holiday as both my partner and I agreed we were putting too much pressure on ourselves and the timeline (early July) isn’t achievable now.

Its not solely the car situation, we’ve had some bad luck and large expenses in other parts of our life over the last month or so combined with my job change and some tax shenanigans and so we’ve ended up spending almost everything we put aside for the holiday in order to keep on top of what we could. The only saving grace is that we hadn’t booked anything yet that wasn’t free to cancel, so we’ve not lost out in that regard.

We sat down last night and made a plan of things to sort over the next 3 months or so that should get the house, cars, dogs, kids, work, finances and anything else that’s difficult currently in order. We will then hopefully be able to go away in September, and all being well we should actually enjoy ourselves as the big list of stressors should have been whittled down by that point so we can just focus on enjoying the holiday with the kids.

[Oi_Oi_Savaloy]

Everything happens for a reason - tbh it's great you can sit down with our other half and actually have a sensible conversation for the betterment of all you.  It'll all work out (and the cars!)   And that holiday is going to be all the sweeter in September

[Tickman]

I think the law of averages are in you favour to actually get a test done. Fingers crossed for it.

Very wise pushing the holiday back to a time you should be able to enjoy it.

[grogee]

Very sensible @Rust Collector. Get your affairs in order then you can relax on holiday. I'm willing to bet September weather will be nicer than July & August if you stay in UK. Has to be better than this shitty June.

Making a list of the things that need doing and 'compartmentalising' them also makes a long, scary list seem much more manageable. 

Everything crossed for the XM, I've got cramp now so do let us know the outcome. 

[2flags]

Best of luck with the car. You deserve a gold star for your perseverance with this one. It's no fun going on holiday worrying about money. You end up having a thoroughly miserable time with you acting like Scrooge every time the kids ask for something. Don't ask me how I know. 

[Rust Collector]

It has made it over the threshold without event…

[Rust Collector]

She’s not looking good on the smoke test 😬

[2flags]

The moment of truth. You can do. We have every faith in you. 👍

[Rust Collector]

10 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

She’s not looking good on the smoke test 😬

But one of the lads says she’s squeaked through that bit, hopefully.

Ive gone for a walk now as I can’t take the anticipation 🤣

[High Jetter]

I'd be surprised if it fails after your TLC but if it does at least you'll know what to sort next.

[Rust Collector]

It has been parked outside and the man from the ministry is typing out his notes…

[petermcpete]

F5 F5 F5 F5