Tommy's A-series Misery - Resuming normal programming

[Tommyboy12]

I await pickup at an tiny train station in the depths of Somerset

[sharley17194]

bollard is triggering 

 

35 minutes ago, Tommyboy12 said:

I await pickup at an tiny train station in the depths of Somerset

 

[Tommyboy12]

I was collected

I now own this beauty

Now to drive 4 hours home!

[hairnet]

id be going home tomorrow

nice bus

[320touring]

Woaft! Well played.

 

Safe trip

[Tommyboy12]

Halfway back already. Got stuck at Stonehenge and hailed on. Stopped for fuel and food. The wafting is fantastic

 

[timolloyd]

Has it had an engine downgrade though?

[Tommyboy12]

I am home! Bit of a late one thanks to traffic but the new steed performed admirably. I even found a friend in the traffic.

 

[Matty]

Literally what were the chances 🤣

[MorrisItalSLX]

It’s got the blue velour/corduroy interior!

[Tommyboy12]

The interior is very comfortable. I've been making comparisons to the similarly aged Montego and it's night and day in terms of comfort and quality. Sooo quiet and wafty. It's also nice to not hear the engine straining constantly 😅

[N Dentressangle]

That's a life-enhancing car, that is

[juular]

Pure class. I'm so glad this got saved. Welcome to the pig iron club.

Can't believe you saw another one on route. I've only ever seen one other 240 on the road in the past 3 years. What are the chances?

[KitKat]

1 hour ago, juular said:

I've only ever seen one other 240 on the road in the past 3 years.

That surprises me, especially in Scotchland. I can think of at least two different 240’s I often see around town here, and at least four different 940’s.

[Tommyboy12]

The Volvo was pressed into immediate duty over the weekend after the Fiesta left on Saturday morning. It's already been to the loca breakfast meet and picked up some stuff from the supermarket. It's performing admirably.

Bye Fiesta.

Graceful shot of the brick

The bike is also back from the garage. New headstock bearings and rear linkage fitted. The bill wasn't as bad as I thought it would be which was nice. 

[Supernaut]

Only on Autoshite will you see somebody get rid of a 2 year old Fiesta ST and replace it with a 30 year old Volvo 240!

Well played.

[Madman Of The People]

6 hours ago, Supernaut said:

Only on Autoshite will you see somebody get rid of a 2 year old Fiesta ST and replace it with a 30 year old Volvo 240!

Well played.

 

That's what I love about this place!

 

[Tommyboy12]

Perfectly normal behaviour if you ask me. After all you are talking to a man who bought a ropey barn-find Austin Montego with 280,000 miles on the clock and the wrong engine and dragged it up and down the country several times.

 

[Datsuncog]

Brilliant to see this one remaining within the fold - I adored mine (also in silver with that blue corduroy interior).

Well bought!

[Wibble]

Love these. Back in about 1991,  I took an almost new, though recently re-shelled following a nasty accident, 240GL saloon in silver, on a defensive driving course at Goodwood. The ex police instructors were practically climbing over each other to accompany me for the day. Loved the sound of it and also that it dried my damp jeans on the journey down with it’s heated seats😁

[Tommyboy12]

The heated seats are definitely a bonus! Although the drivers side one isn't working. It's on the list for looking at. Hopefully as simple as a fuse but I'm happy to do a bit of wiring. As far as I can tell it's the only thing not working.

The radio wasn't working because it needed a code. Rather wishfully I rang the local Volvo dealer and quoted the reg and amazingly they gave me the radio code!

[Tommyboy12]

The 240 is now in proper daily service as it has started the commute. It looks noble (and surprisingly small) next to modern stuff!

A Volvo friend was nearby when I came back later

[Tommyboy12]

It's a disaster! The Volvo's first mechanical failure! I've clearly bought a lemon... The tape player has stopped working...

The culprit:

I split the radio open and one of the gears has stripped on the motor mechanism. While it's potentially repairable if I could find the parts I'm going to fit something else instead purely because the radio element isn't working properly either. It gets horrendous loud static feedback despite being locked into a solid radio signal and makes it unbearable to listen to. That and a broken tape player means it's basically scrap. Unfortunately being a 'top mount' radio (as in its mounted high on the dash rather than low down by the gear lever) and the car being 30 years old it's difficult to find a radio surround. The surround for the standard radio is not a standard DIN size either. However! I have found a 3D CAD model of a facia plate for a standard DIN unit. So I've paid a company a whole £12 to 3D print me one in black while I source a harness adapter and a 'modern' radio unit.

Also, someone took some cracking shots at the Hubnut social on Saturday

[KitKat]

If you’ve washed it I’ll be very upset 

[Tommyboy12]

28 minutes ago, KitKat said:

If you’ve washed it I’ll be very upset 

I'm not sure I'd class wiping it down with the spray cleaner I found in the back seat as 'washing' it 😅

[Tommyboy12]

MoT day for the turbo Mini yesterday.

Passed with flying colours! The brake rollers remain a challenge...

[Tommyboy12]

The Volvo now has a working radio! First time I've ever found a practical use case for 3D printing in my life. Its not the nicest looking radio as it's a cheap one but it's functional and I at least think it doesn't look tacky like some cheap radios. I wanted all black and no stupid RGB lighting.  I bought a harness adapter to keep things simple but still ended up doing some soldering as the loom came with a male plug for one of the connections and the loom in the car was male too.

[juular]

That 3D printed bezel looks way better than I imagined it might.

Would you mind sharing details of the process of getting one?  

I've got the original volvo radio which looks great but hasn't worked since I got the car. I was thinking something like a Blaupunkt Bremen would fit in there really nicely, except for the weird bezel shape.

[Tommyboy12]

3 hours ago, juular said:

That 3D printed bezel looks way better than I imagined it might.

Would you mind sharing details of the process of getting one?  

I've got the original volvo radio which looks great but hasn't worked since I got the car. I was thinking something like a Blaupunkt Bremen would fit in there really nicely, except for the weird bezel shape.

Yeah the bezel turned out well. Basically I did a load of digging to find a RHD facia plate and found someone in the UK had already rendered a 3D printable one which is stored on a 3D printing website. Linky below:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4904146

I then approached a company on Etsy that can 3D print on your behalf. I used this company specifically:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/3DLix

It was just under £11 to print it plus postage. I had mine printed in PLA which is a bit temperature sensitive but you could have it done in something more resistant if you think its going to be a problem. Personally I dont think the cabin is likely to reach the 55-60C so I dont see it a being a problem.

I would say the design was good but the slot is too tight. I had to trim inner faces of the radio slot to be able to fit the radio and I fitted it without the cage. Id call it an interference fit 😅 You could ask any company you work with to open up the slot a little bit in their CAD software.

[juular]

Nice one, thank you!  I don't mind opening up the slot a little if necessary so I'll get one ordered.