Wibble’s Wittering - Cortina, Senator & occasional Skoda & family ramblings, soz!

[Wibble]

As I may have mentioned before, I don’t like doing bodywork but 30 years ago, I used to get pretty decent results.

Seems I’ve lost the knack over the years. Did a bit more on the Senny’s rear arch today but couldn’t get it right:

I think a lot of the problem is my impatience and using a hair dryer to try and speed things up. I got bored waiting for things to dry, particularly that stopper/putty which just wouldn’t go off.

Resorted to this to pass the time:

Just the one mind, then decided to start again another day as I wasn’t happy with any of it. Even the primer was shrinking as it dried and more imperfections kept becoming apparent. I’ll try again soon and hope the dark colour might help hide some issues.

[Wibble]

We’ll, Arnold kindly agreed to send one of his sharks round to mum’s today to look at the Jazz. Offer went from £8243 to £6200 because apparently it needs 6 panels repainting, 2 alloys refurbing and there is no service history!

The car was serviced by them 2 weeks ago and all she got was a till receipt so I asked if it was possible the service book and invoice weren’t put in the car when it was delivered back and are sat on a desk somewhere? As it wasn’t his dealership, he was from Fiat, I need to phone the MG/ Mitsubishi dealer that did the service although they’re all on the same retail park.

I thanked him for his trouble but declined the reduced offer and may have to go and collect the car after all, which is the very last thing I wanted to do. I do not believe for a minute that they’d would have 6 panels painted when my brother could only see a chip to one. Also, surely they’d just use a SMART repair guy anyway? Sounds bollocks to me.

I have to think hard now to decide what to do🤨

[AnnoyingPentium]

44 minutes ago, Wibble said:

We’ll, Arnold kindly agreed to send one of his sharks round to mum’s today to look at the Jazz. Offer went from £8243 to £6200 because apparently it needs 6 panels repainting, 2 alloys refurbing and there is no service history!

The car was serviced by them 2 weeks ago and all she got was a till receipt so I asked if it was possible the service book and invoice weren’t put in the car when it was delivered back and are sat on a desk somewhere? As it wasn’t his dealership, he was from Fiat, I need to phone the MG/ Mitsubishi dealer that did the service although they’re all on the same retail park.

I thanked him for his trouble but declined the reduced offer and may have to go and collect the car after all, which is the very last thing I wanted to do. I do not believe for a minute that they’d would have 6 panels painted when my brother could only see a chip to one. Also, surely they’d just use a SMART repair guy anyway? Sounds bollocks to me.

I have to think hard now to decide what to do🤨

Sharks as usual. I'd try a few other places.

It's not always a mobile SMART repair, prep centres in Ayr and Linwood have proper* painting facilities and suchlike where they doll up trade ins for them to be sent to dealerships. The valeting bays were next to the paintshop when I worked at the Ayr branch.

[Wibble]

29 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Sharks as usual. I'd try a few other places.

It's not always a mobile SMART repair, prep centres in Ayr and Linwood have proper* painting facilities and suchlike where they doll up trade ins for them to be sent to dealerships. The valeting bays were next to the paintshop when I worked at the Ayr branch.

Thanks but I thought the sharks had Scotland pretty well sewn up and seem to own everywhere😆 I wouldn’t know where else to try but (useless) brother reckons I’d probably polish these scratches out as so minor.

[AnnoyingPentium]

2 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Thanks but I thought the sharks had Scotland pretty well sewn up and seem to own everywhere😆 I wouldn’t know where else to try but (useless) brother reckons I’d probably polish these scratches out as so minor.

Park's of Hamilton? At least grab a quote aff them, surely.

[Wibble]

11 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Park's of Hamilton? At least grab a quote aff them, surely.

Cheers Ryan, I’ll have a look at them but can’t take the car to them which was nearly a stumbling block with the sharks who were at least nearby.

[High Jetter]

4 hours ago, Wibble said:

We’ll, Arnold kindly agreed to send one of his sharks round to mum’s today to look at the Jazz. Offer went from £8243 to £6200 because apparently it needs 6 panels repainting, 2 alloys refurbing and there is no service history!

The car was serviced by them 2 weeks ago and all she got was a till receipt so I asked if it was possible the service book and invoice weren’t put in the car when it was delivered back and are sat on a desk somewhere? As it wasn’t his dealership, he was from Fiat, I need to phone the MG/ Mitsubishi dealer that did the service although they’re all on the same retail park.

I thanked him for his trouble but declined the reduced offer and may have to go and collect the car after all, which is the very last thing I wanted to do. I do not believe for a minute that they’d would have 6 panels painted when my brother could only see a chip to one. Also, surely they’d just use a SMART repair guy anyway? Sounds bollocks to me.

I have to think hard now to decide what to do🤨

Call their bluff?

[Wibble]

25 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Call their bluff?

Thought that, but how? The service book has disappeared but was always in the glove box. Can’t ask Dad, sadly and I’m 400+miles away so can’t physically do anything.

[Wibble]

Open to sensible offers😁

[AnnoyingPentium]

10 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Open to sensible offers😁

Bumper bag of Quavers and a Focus...? 😂

Seriously though, would have been ideal for a friend who is local, but she's got her eye on a K12 Micra and a low budget unfortunately. 

[Wibble]

😂No worries, I realise it’s value is out of our normal territory. I do like quavers and Focus’ mind🤔

[Wibble]

Managed to spend a bit more time in the Senny yesterday and today and it now looks like this:

Needs a bit more machine polishing but it’s better than it was I think:

 

[Wibble]

As mentioned earlier on the charity shop thread, I won this on eBay tonight for a bargainous £9.99+postage.

The last one I saw listed was about £100 but I’ve  no idea if this works as it was a charity listing. Worth a gamble at that price and I hope I can have original audio back in the Senny soon!

[danthecapriman]

Great work on that arch, paint job looks really good. You did well managing to get it done without getting rained on just lately!

Radio certainly looks the part too, fingers crossed it works.

[Wibble]

19 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Great work on that arch, paint job looks really good. You did well managing to get it done without getting rained on just lately!

Radio certainly looks the part too, fingers crossed it works.

Cheers Dan, it really isn’t that good. It’s so difficult doing this outside with the weather and wind interfering! I’ll probably do it again at some point but it’s ok from 10 feet away🙂

Yes, fingers crossed the radio works as it’s the same as the original🤞

[wesacosa]

Try Cazoo for the Honda. We got a good quote on our Bini last year and no bartering down or admin fees like WBAC

[Wibble]

32 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

Try Cazoo for the Honda. We got a good quote on our Bini last year and no bartering down or admin fees like WBAC

Thanks for this, I hadn’t even considered them. Still undecided what to do with it and have told mum to get brother to disconnect the battery for now until I have time to decide what to do.

[Wibble]

Just watched the new Land Rover Defender advert. I thought it very considerate of them to reverse them up to the cliff to make it easier for the recovery driver🙂

[Wibble]

The charity stereo arrived today and I paid £12 on line to get the security code for it.

It only bloody works! Sounds excellent and plays tapes without problems. Auto reverse works, radio reception is great and even the display is 100% working😁

What a result! Normal service resumed for less than £30!

[Wibble]

Mrs W’s Yeti is booked in for service (It has a full history so far, so trying to keep with that for now) and MOT on Friday and needed two front tyres. Best price and nearest was actually Shit Fit so went there this afternoon. Price included a “free” alignment check. Of course, “it’s out front and rear so will be £90 to adjust.” Er, no thanks! Even if it is, many other places will do it for £50 around here. Gave it a wash and cleaned the inside as was a tip!

Whilst at it, thought I’d give the Senny a quick wash too, even broke out the trim dressing!

 

Tomorrow should see me trying to find a noise it’s making which sounds like a sticking calliper, a swish, swish sound increasing with speed. Hopefully cleaning and red greasing some sliders might sort it🤞

[Wibble]

Didn’t get to look at the Senator’s brakes as when I started it the next morning, the low coolant light was on🙁

I found that the shitty jubilee clips on the sleeved repair of the pipe to the matrix had failed. Went and bought better ones, replaced and topped up coolant and all seems well again. I reckon they failed pretty much from the start and fortunately the leak was a very slow weep, so no saturated carpet.

Anyway, back to Mum’s Jazz. I contacted the local Chips Away franchise who reckoned they could help. Then they asked if I’d be contacting the same dealer again to sell it and when I said probably, they fell silent and I haven’t heard from them since! 
 

One of my sisters wants to visit Mum next month and use the car, so I’ve said we’ll leave it now until I’m up in August. I’ll bring my polisher and some paint and we’ll go from there. At least I can tout it round a few places myself then.

[Wibble]

Jacked the Senator up today and found the o/s/r wheel quite hard to turn, so suspicions of a sticking calliper may be correct. Could also be a collapsing flexi I suppose and, as I have a new set, I’ll probably do that first.

This meant using the Cortina for my weekend transport and that now has a slight pull to the left on braking. I’ll look into that but at least I now have finally got round to reconnecting the speedo drive. Forgot what a faff it was. Dash screws, dimmer knob, column cowling, under dash carpet, heater duct, lower the column, take off lights/wiper switch etc. Fortunately, on getting under the car, it was clear there was enough cable to push back through the clips to the engine bay, giving enough slack to reconnect it to the speedo without disconnecting it from the gearbox. Wish I’d checked that before! 
 

Reassembly was reversal of removal etc and the speedo now works without jumping all over the place too. Another small win🙂

[Wibble]

My usually faultless Superb company car threw  up ESP & ABS faults when leaving work  last night but it soon cleared. Tonight it did it again but now also with additional warnings for power steering and tyre pressure problems:

 

I wonder if this might be a speed sensor going bad? Yes, it does need a clean and yes, it may well be the oldest company car around😆 Might have to try dropping hints to the MD to replace it, which he said he was going to do 3 years ago!

[somewhatfoolish]

On 5/27/2023 at 8:06 PM, Wibble said:

Anyway, back to Mum’s Jazz. I contacted the local Chips Away franchise who reckoned they could help. Then they asked if I’d be contacting the same dealer again to sell it and when I said probably, they fell silent and I haven’t heard from them since! 
 

One of my sisters wants to visit Mum next month and use the car, so I’ve said we’ll leave it now until I’m up in August. I’ll bring my polisher and some paint and we’ll go from there. At least I can tout it round a few places myself then.

Hoy it through Wilson's in Dalry; it will get a market rate and no fannies lowballing you and nitpicking about non-existent bullshit. Still a good idea to find the service book and have a go at the paint though.

[Wibble]

24 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Hoy it through Wilson's in Dalry; it will get a market rate and no fannies lowballing you and nitpicking about non-existent bullshit. Still a good idea to find the service book and have a go at the paint though.

Thanks, sounds worth a try. I’ll be up in August and will give it a polish and attempt some paint correction. Have since received photos like this:

I’m hoping these polish out and they weren’t there when I washed the car in February 🤦‍♂️

Still need to track down that service book too.

[somewhatfoolish]

A half-day with a dent-doctor type would probably pay for itself. 🤣

[Wibble]

19 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

A half-day with a dent-doctor type would probably pay for itself. 🤣

And that’s quite likely to happen depending on how it actually is when I see it!

[somewhatfoolish]

What are WBAC offering?

[Wibble]

Haven’t tried anyone else since the dealer viewed it. Very difficult trying to sell a car that’s 400 miles away🫤

[Wibble]

Ok, so a quick scan confirmed rear left ABS sensor to be bad on the Superb. MD said book it in but I’ve suggested we just order one and I’ll do it myself. He didn’t say start looking for a replacement car though🫤