THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[Shep Shepherd]

Saw a mint-looking light metallic blue SD3-type Rover 216 Vanden Plas when I was driving out of the car park of my local Waitrose this afternoon, which is something I haven't seen for a very long time. Sadly, I couldn't stop to take a photo of it, but I'm sure that I'll see it again.

 

I did get a picture of The Volvo in the process of being detailed in the outer reaches of the car park, though:

 

 

Mer bumper and trim restorer is seriously good stuff

[MK5 Escort]

Bad news. My finances are becoming tighter with unexpected outgoings over the next six/seven months or so, so the Kangoo van is going to have to go sometime within the next few weeks. I had hopes of replacing the sills (or at least the driver’s side one) and bunging it through it's MOT in October before deciding whether to flog it on or turn it into a mini-camper of some sort. I've already got some interest in it, so it'll be easy enough to shift.

 

Oh well…

 

I'll definitely have to get myself another small, cheap van of some sort in the future though – it’s been really handy in the time I've had it.

 

Mer bumper and trim restorer is seriously good stuff

 

You can't beat fettling around tidying up grey/black bumpers! An embarrasing hobby of mine that goes back to childhood . I can't stand faded bumpers...!

[Rod/b]

The bloke i bought my old Rover from used to swear by peanut butter for shining up plastic bumpers. PHACT!

[mk1_4dr]

The bloke i bought my old Rover from used to swear by peanut butter for shining up plastic bumpers. PHACT!

 

Yeah, it works, but its damn messy (and thats using smooth, chunky is like thick T-cut).

 

Linseed oil or a heat gun for the win.

[Cavcraft]

Hey Mk5Escort, how much do you want for the Renner van?

 

In other news I turned down a Chevette saloon today because I couldn't afford the £500 asking price. Taxed/tested too, I just can't budge him on the money.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've been down the DVLA office today with a wodge of papers and my chequebook. Now i'm sitting behind the front door with my mouth open waiting for a V5 and taxdisc to drop into it, so i can drive my Argenta! w00t!

[ProgRocker]

Not news as such but last night I dreamt I was driving a Lada Riva. I parked it in a car park next to 2 other Lada Rivas. Most odd.

[cobblers]

Golf running problem seems to have been fixed by me buggering about with the dizzy and coil. Unsure which fixed it , got a spare coil which I'm keeping in the car for when it plays up again.

 

I finally got paid for the work I did in october last year, so I've got it booked in at the "bloke in a garage behind some terraced houses who paints loads of cars and is unreliable but cheap and can do a good job if he feels like it".

 

He's putting the roof back to original metallic black (some pillock has painted it KANDY APPLE RED. Done a really good job, but it looks shit because the rest of the car is black). While he's got the paint out he's going to touch some lacquer peel in, a little bleb under the fuel cap, paint a spare (proper VW not shitty GSF) front bumper and sort out the mess someone made all over the front wing when they tried to stick an arch trim on, and have got filler, silicone sealant, araldite and tigerseal all over the place in.

 

All of these things I could comfortably do myself, but he only wants £180 to do the lot. I'd probably end up spending £100 on materials because I'd have to buy a stack of DA pads and 4.5 litres more thinners than I need, etc.

 

After a set of poly bushes, new ball joints, track rod ends, tyres and the tracking done it's still a proper handful to keep in a straight line when accelerating hard on uneven surfaces. I think I'm probably pissing in the wind.

[myglaren]

Working in Sunderland over the weekend, took the lady of the house to collect her car from the MOT place before they closed at 5pm on Saturday, dropped her and drove off then thought that if it wasn't ready she had three miles to walk home and is disabled, stopped the car and went back to check.

 

No sign of her car (a gray one ) but on the lift a gleaming DB8 that the garage fella said was theirs, ranged along the back wall was a Maserati GranTurismo, a very posh looking sporty BMW, possibly a 6 series coupé, a Porsche 911Carrera 4 and then five more covered sports cars that had more Porsches among them.

Otherwise the garage was empty. Just a hole in the wall place from outside.

 

Her rusty Almera was out the back.

[Cavcraft]

 

Anyone got any spare used chip fat?

[cobblers]

 

Anyone got any spare used chip fat?

 

My mate has about 20 gallons of used engine oil, thinners and stale petrol. Are you feeling lucky?

[Cavcraft]

If he's got a match too I might be interested.

[cort16]

I'm finally making some progress on the SD1 thanks to my new welder. I recon I'll be finished all welding on the drivers side this week then I can make a move on the passenger side. I've bought one of them generic wheel arch repair panels to to try to sort the frilly wheel arch on the passenger side so we'll see how I get on with that.

I'm also considering dropping the tank as there's a wee patch to go on the inner sill, which is pretty close to the tank. I don't want it to go boom after all this.

[Mike D]

This occurred last night on my trusty Civic daily:

 

 

hopefully it'll keep going for the same again!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'll be there soon in my Rover!!!

[Shep Shepherd]

The replacement drive gear for The Volvo's odometer arrived today. Not bad considering it was only ordered last weekend and came from Newport News, Virginia:

 

 

The photo shows just how small the thing is; it is definitely the most expensive small automotive component I have ever bought. However, if it gets the car's odometer/trip recorder working again, it will be well worth the outlay.

 

Now, to find time to fit it...

[Guest]

hopefully it'll keep going for the same again!

[Mike D]

LOLita!

 

It has blitzed your estimate DH!

[Cavcraft]

'Site unseen' Clio just purchased. Go it far cheaper than the original buy it now (with submit best offer) price. Turned up expecting the worse to find it's pretty damned straight and tidy, has a fairly good CD player/speakers, two new front tyres, two new discs and some other bits fitted too.

We *think* the water pump problem is actually just the thermostat and there's no signs of water in oil/oil in water. Straight barred it back about ten miles with it running and it was fine.

Shall allow a wry smile or seven if it transpires to be just the 'stat.

[dollywobbler]

Still having trouble with the Rangie. However, it is now at a specialist, so hopefully that'll all be sorted. Fitted the new brake discs and pads at the back but there's still air trapped in the system somewhere I reckon. 2CV's engine is in bits because I'm an idiot and started the cylinder head swap two days ago without any inlet manifold gaskets. That'll be finished next week now - turning into rather more of a job because I've decided that the manifold is in poor condition, so am swapping it for a better spare. Which means changing over a load of carburettor parts. Also need to remember to change the speedo bulb because I keep forgetting. Until I'm driving somewhere at night with no clue about how fast (or slow...) I'm going.

 

EDIT - have a shot of mess.

[cort16]

I went to see an SD1 vitesse tonight for a friend. Pluses are it's almost totally rust free and it's a got a nice manual box and a sweet v8. Minuses are the paint is awful the interiors mouldy and no evidense of the promised 4.2 bored out engine and stage 2 heads (although it could have this and there's no way to tell).

I can't decide if it's worth the asking price or not but it's up to to him as he needs to come up from Engerland if he fancies it.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Today I saw a Triumph Stag being winched onto a low loader at the same traffic lights where my throttle cable broke last week. I couldn't help but I knew how he felt.

 

I especially knew how he felt less than a minute later when, again on the A556, there was a very loud bang and loss of power. Coasted into a convenient layby, where I picked all the little bits of rotor arm out of my distributor. Piece of crap, it only had a couple hundred miles on it. Fortunately I had a spare, but it's the same type as the shoddy one so it's being replaced ASAP.

[Negative Creep]

Some nice new pressed metal plates fitted. Now just need the wheel balancing done and a good clean then it's up for sale.......

[Guest]

Today I saw a Triumph Stag being winched onto a low loader at the same traffic lights where my throttle cable broke last week. I couldn't help but I knew how he felt.

 

I especially knew how he felt less than a minute later when, again on the A556, there was a very loud bang and loss of power. Coasted into a convenient layby, where I picked all the little bits of rotor arm out of my distributor. Piece of crap, it only had a couple hundred miles on it. Fortunately I had a spare, but it's the same type as the shoddy one so it's being replaced ASAP.

 

Was this Stag red, on wires? Had he nearly gone into the hedge near The Swan? I went past him on the way to pick some magazines up early this afternoon.

I've also got some interest in the KN Geminis finally, so fingers crossed.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Was this Stag red, on wires? Had he nearly gone into the hedge near The Swan? I went past him on the way to pick some magazines up early this afternoon.

 

That's the one, I'd have been there about 2:30.

[Cavcraft]

Another bit of a result today:

 

My ace mechanic son cast an eye over the Renner Clio to see what's happening regards the 'stat. He noticed the fan was not kicking in and the seal on the expansion cap is knackered, so we ran it (i.e let it tickover) for ages. Played with the wiring by the fan, nowt doing there so I clouted the (radiator) fan motor with a stick and it started working!

Lobbed the new expansion cap from his 106 onto the header tnak for good measure and all is well. Pondering whether to try and strip the fan motor to see if we can 'rebuild' it (check the bearing or bush and perhaps grease it up) but will probably just get another unit from the scrapyard.

It also needs one or two boot struts (ones is missing and the boot doesn't hold up) and the interior isn't as clean as my OCD would like it.

Pretty happy really and so far it's another good result in the shiting stakes.

[Guest]

Helped SCTSH_ANDY move a mouldering member of his fleet.

 

 

It's been on his Mrs' drive for a wee while, as evidenced by the moss and mould. It's surprisingly solid under all the flora and fauna.

 

 

 

The infamous laquer peel was in full effect under the decay. We had some hilariously unfunny incidents getting it ready though. The tyre compressor broke and then would only work intermittently at 1 psi a time. My footpump was elsewhere, and when we pushed it out onto the road ready to be hitched up to the Disco one of the tyres was so shagged the sidewall delaminated. Not to mention nearly running SCTSH_ANDY over when we crested the brow of his drive and the car didn't stop. Shortly after I twatted myself in the glasses with a strap trying to bungee the knackered OSR door shut.

 

And yeah, the engine's shagged and the leather interior has mould all over it. Good breaker though. SCTSH is going to rebuild the motor and flog it on after the car bites the dust.

[Cavcraft]

Scrapyard visit today. Scored a radiator fan, expansion tank cap and boot struts for the Clio. Realised wiring was different to mine for the fan (luckily I twigged this at the scrappy) so cut off the plug and sorted it when home. Fan kicking in/cutting back out just as it should so well happy with that.

 

Slightly less of a result was the boot strut. The o/s one wasn't there so went to fit it and noticed neither was the bracket that bolts to the inside of the hatchback itself, so that'll be another trip to the scrappy today or tomorrow.

Still, the car seems to run superbly and is easy to work on plus another Brucie Bonus was making my own bonnet check strap as the old one had come apart.

[wuvvum]

Rain stopped play for most of today, but it brightened up early evening so I jacked the Innocenti up and took the driver's side front wheel off to find out how much of a pain in the arse it was going to be to get the broken studs out. It's been so long since I had the front wheels off that I'd completely forgotten that there are spacers behind them - presumably for cosmetic purposes as the track is quite narrow at the front. Both studs had broken off flush with the wheelnuts so with the spacer off there was enough thread left on both to fit replacement nuts quite securely. I didn't have any spare wheelnuts with the right thread, so I nicked one off each rear wheel for now. It's a temporary solution, but it has made the car driveable again - the rear wheels on the Innocenti are under very little stress (it's so light on the back end that an 11-stone weakling like me can lift a wheel off the ground) so shouldn't be a major issue.

 

I also drove down to south Norfolk in the Stagea this morning in the pissing rain to pick up an electric outboard motor I've bought, and found that the combination of soaking wet Norfolk backroads and a powerful RWD car with Pirelli P6000s on the front and Hu Flung Dungs on the back makes for an interesting driving experience.

 

Plan for tomorrow, weather permitting, is to have a look at the scooter I've just bought for running to work on. It's a Yamaha Aerox 100, and it runs well enough but the throttle cable seems very slack, so I'm going to see if there's a tensioner on the carb and hopefully improve on the bike's current 47mph top speed.

[Cavcraft]

Sorry for the slightly o/t subject Wuvvum, but are those electric outboards any good? I fancy a small boat (probably a rower) for some gentle river/canal use and having seen those 'leccy motors dirt cheap brand new on eBay I wondered if they were much cop? Cheers.