THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[scaryoldcortina]

Time for some red Hammerite?

 

Don't you fuggin dare. I'll come round and kick you in the nuts. Hammerite will look shitter than faded paint, and be a bastard to remove when you are sick of it. I've just spent ALL DAY with a DA sander removing silver hammerite from a capri, only about a third of it is done and I'm almost out of discs.

 

Also, investigated the rough running. The brand new motorcraft plugs I fitted 6,000 miles ago have mysteriously evaporated and been replaced by 3 ngk and one beru that look like they did 20,000 miles and then got buried in a swamp for 4 years. The rest of the box of plugs are now el cheapo brand and the wrong type for a pinto (long reach B thread not short A thread..) but still in the motorcraft boxes...... ah well, I better buy some plugs.

[M'coli]

Is that a bit of cereal packet in there?

Nah, it's the Hadrian sticker.

[scaryoldcortina]

Very odd is what it is Norm, back plug came out easily enough (and wasn't the odd one) and I'm absolutely sure that you had the right ones when you set off because I opened a new box of 10 motorcraft plugs, fitted 4 to the engine and put the rest in the boot!

[scaryoldcortina]

Don't worry about it! New plugs are only a phone call away, and I'm sure I own something that these ones will fit

 

worry about all the other stuff I found in the car I feel a thread coming on....

[BMC Dan]

The VDP may possibly be going to a new home in Brightlingsea soon. The owner plans on using it as his daily, mainly to commute to his workplace and back in Colchester...

[AnthonyG]

Defintely grovel to your brother and keep it in his shed.

[trigger]

The VDP may possibly be going to a new home in Brightlingsea soon. The owner plans on using it as his daily, mainly to commute to his workplace and back in Colchester...

 

Great news, I might see it about then!, I past a blue Allegro today in Colchester funny enough.

[wuvvum]

Replaced the fanbelt on the Renault 6 today after yesterday's little incident, and without wanting to tempt fate it looks like I've got away with it - I've driven it a few miles (far enough for the heater to get warm) and there's no sign of water in the oil, and the engine's still running the same as it always did. It would appear that whoever fitted the last belt ran it the wrong way round the tensioner pulley, which may have contributed to its demise - this has now been corrected, and the car now appears to be charging and pumping water as it should. Which is good.

[HillmanImp]

Decided to replace the crankshaft oil seal on the DAF today. In some sort of automotive miracle, nearly all the nuts and bolts came away easily and I bobbed down to Machine Mart along the canal on my bike to pick up a pulley lever before it closed.

 

Came back and set about getting off the oil cooler and it has one of those 2 bolt attachments like you see on brakes. Dont know what they are called. However its a bit stiff so i give it some welly, one of ther the spanners slips, spins the pipe and puts a fucking kink in it. Fucksticks.

 

Hopefully should be able to lob a new pipe on. Dont think the kink is coming out unless anyone knows any tricks?

[scruff]

Had a kwality weekend!

 

Cut big chunks out of my Land Rover

 

 

 

 

 

Then went to a partay/BBQ for a mate's birthday, then after getting home this afternoon put a CD player in the 205 for commuting choons, hurrah

[dollywobbler]

Nice one Kev. Do like the Series 1s. There's a 107 pick-up not far away from here as well as that LWB I saw in town!

 

Anyway, the promised 2CV roadtrip story. The first step was to get to Kent. I was hoping to do the trip in my new car, but logistics prevented me collecting the Saab until the journey home. Given the subsequent discovery of a non-working cooling fan, it's a good job the Tin Snail got this trip!

 

Firstly, we needed to get to a motorway. That took us the best part of 2 hours but after a lunch break, we hopped onto the M4 for a 'free' trip across the bridge into England (you have to pay to get into Wales). On this section, we saw lots of tank transporters. Bloomin' huge things towing massive tanks. Are we planning another invasion?

 

I kept the speed to an indicated 70, which is 63 according to the sat nav. That's about 5000rpm. Not exactly relaxing but with the roof back, most of the noise can escape and sun worship is always fun. After an hour of this, we reached a stop-off in Berkshire, where I had a little work to do. Then we continued until we hit the M25. We were just in time for rush hour. Balls. This was very frustrating and slow, especially annoying as the 2CV's throttle linkage kept sticking, so it'd idle at about 2000rpm. I'd blip the throttle. It'd settle down. Then we'd have to move again. Throttle would stick again etc etc. Tedious.

 

Eventually, we reached Medway in Kent where we recovered by staying up until 3am. Got up at 8am the next day as we were visiting friends in Lingfield, Surrey. Another joyous drive in the sun marred only by yet more motorway. Back to Kent and knowing that I had to drive home the next day, I went to bed at 8pm. Shattered.

 

Felt a lot better after 12hrs in bed so with levels checked (well, engine oil - there's not much else to check!) it was time to refuel and head home, collecting the Saab from South Wales en route. There were no congestion worries now, but plenty of frustrating times. Quite a few people would accelerate as they saw me trying to overtake and one bloke in a Nissan CashandCarry just carved me up completely. The 2CV gamely soldiered on. We reached Pontypool after about four hours of pretty much flat-out driving and aside from a hot coil causing starting issues, we were soon underway with my wife driving the 2CV and me in my new car demonstrating how good the MPG could be.

 

We made it back home just over six hours after leaving Kent. The 2CV really is remarkable in the way it just sits at near-motorway-limit speeds for hours on end. The only slight issue is an exhaust leak that steadily got worse and the sticky throttle linkage. The total mileage covered in three days (after actually looking at the numbers rather than just guessing) is 669. Well done Tin Snail!

[michiel]

Nice! I'd love to drive mine to Belgium (about 340km one way) in a few weeks if I can trust it enough.

[Shep Shepherd]

After just over five years of use, The Volvo's hitherto superb Blaupunkt Boston stereo decided to malfunction on the way home from work this morning, repeatedly turning itself off and on and therefore becoming totally unusable:

 

http://s512.photobucket.com/albums/t326 ... ction=view¤t=VIDEO0001.mp4

 

Interestingly, the Blaupunkt Ontario unit fitted to the car from 2004-2006 failed in exactly the same way...

 

Luckily, I managed to snag an identical new-old-stock replacement for £49.95 all-in from the eBay when I got home (apparently, the unit was offered as an accessory on VW vans in the 2000s, so there are a lot of them around), which is good, as if I had to fit a cheapo unit from Halfords, Argos or wherever, I'd lose the ability to play cassettes (and use my cassette-derived MP3 adaptor) and my CD changer would become redundant, as A) cassette players are seemingly almost impossible to find new nowadays and Blaupunkt CD changers only work with Blaupunkt stereos. Hopefully, I'll receive it within a few days

 

Shep asks: I wonder if there's any practical way to fix it? In any case, it will soon be joining its predecessor in my 'it might be useful one day' cupboard.

[trigger]

Today i attacked the wheel arches on the Escort, Filler work is one of those messy jobs i hate doing but find quite rewarding when it comes out looking good.

 

 

What a mess!, Mind you it's starting to look more like the right shape now.

 

 

This was the easy side, Looks a bit better now.

 

 

 

I've sealed the welds in the battery tray with some Tiger seal and I've now etch primered it ready for some proper paint tomorrow.

 

 

Tomorrow I plan to etch primer the arches, Run some stone chip on the rear end of the sill and maybe depending on time spray some grey primer on them ready to flat and paint on Wednesday.

[Spottedlaurel]

Good to hear the Escort's getting some TLC. Its overall condition and excellent history justifies it.

[scaryoldcortina]

Shep - I had a Blaupunkt Cambridge in an audi that failed with the same symptoms as your two... I took it to bits and it was a dry solder joint where the on/off/volume knob meets the PCB. Maybe a common fault?

[Cavcraft]

More Corsa fun today. Seeing as the bellend I bought it off nicked the fucking bulbs and the holders out of the dash it's been unbelievable fun to try and get some holders. Ended up buying a dash off a posher model with a rev counter and nabbing the bulbs out of that, only to find out I'm still three or four short

Oh well, my lad removed the front seat (again) so we could tidy up the cable to the pre-tensioner and I started trying to polish out some more marks etc. Bit of a result with my Halfords Trade Card too: oil filter (about £4.50), engine flush (about £4.99) and a new headlight bulb (£6.99) and I got the lot fort something like £6.12 so that wasn't too bad.

 

Next up (due to no time tonight) is engine flush, oil and filter change and the last few bulbs for the dash. At least the ECU, battery, oil and handbrake lights are working now and we took the Cortina to Halfords for a run out..

[autofive]

went to asda yesterday and parked next to a newer Cortina equivalent

 

after a harsh winter the Scimitar rear bumper was looking a little rusty.

 

ive keep noticing it, and for last 4 weeks been thinking about it, so today armed with a brillo pad and some warm water i set to work. After about 3 minutes:

[Shep Shepherd]

Shep - I had a Blaupunkt Cambridge in an audi that failed with the same symptoms as your two... I took it to bits and it was a dry solder joint where the on/off/volume knob meets the PCB. Maybe a common fault?

 

Sounds like that could well be the problem with both of them. I'll let my tame electronics chap have a look at them at some point

[Father Ted]

DooVLAy in helpfulness shocker.

 

Somewhere else I mentioned that the dealership selling the C8 registred it in my wifes name. I had to pop up there today with the paperwork for the now departed Zafira

Explained the issue - the dealer drafted a letter for the DVLA, I popped down to the DVLA office in Preston and bugger me, if they didnt swap the cherished plate and sort out the issue of the wrong owner there and then. I even forgot to take my MOT cert -" no problems sir, just destroy the old one will you."

[Cavcraft]

Mixed news:

 

Some wanker has gone down the sides of the Beemer in the car park, probably whichever twat was driving a silver Volvo I saw next to it earlier. Not a huge amount of damage but still mightily annoying. If I see/recognise the car again I'm going to put the Corsa into reverse and give him/her some of the same back and let one of their tyres down.

 

Merc: the export man is on his way. I never really get sentimental over cars, they're just a means of A-B which sometimes bring a smile to your face but it'll pain me to see it go. Oh well, shit happens and it's a waste of a car sat in the garage doing naff all for years and would probably never have got fixed as I just never seemed to bother. It might as well piss off abroad and keep fifty Nigerian scammers warm and dry as they plug their laptop onto the battery and try and diddle people out of their savings.

 

Corsa:

More T-cutting action and changed the oil and filter giving it an engine flush in the process. Still more (cleaning/putting dash bulbs in/trying to score some genuine Vauxhall wheeltrims) to go but looks shed loads better already. Engine seemed to like the flush and change, it's quieter and seems smoother plus leaving it running for absolutely ages showed no signs of HG FAIL or water loss. Fan kicks in when it should too. Happy days?

 

So turds can be (slightly) polished and if nothing else those stupid fucking Lexus lights and alloys have gone, along with the spasticated wiper blade/spoiler things.

[trigger]

That Corsa is looking miles better, It's amazing what a bit of de-chaving can achieve.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

That looks like a much more honest car now. nice work.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Nice work on the Corsa, Cavette.

 

Also can't bleed the brakes on my car because my Gunson's Eeeezibleeed has a broken cap and no amount of gluing will fix it. Seeings as it's just a bottle with two holes for the pipes, I'll probably try to make one out of a jam jar and end up showering the car with broken glass and brake fluid before handing over the £15 for a new kit.

 

 

...and here it is working next to my screen wash reservoir, which is an old Dolmio jar

 

MAKE DO AND MEND, DIG FOR VICTORY ETC

[Negative Creep]

MOT booked for Friday. Have to say I don't have a good feeling about it, not because I know there is loads wrong with the car but because money is so tight any big bills and I'm going to be screwed. However I know I won't be screwed over by the place it's going to and the owner has already told me I can pay him off at a later date. Not many garages would do that!

[barefoot]

My camper went into the garage a week or so ago to have new/replacement doors fitted & painted.

 

The MOT is due at the same time, so it nipped across the road for a test and failed on just the things that weren't bolted on that should have been.

Like windows & door handles & so on. Bit of a result I thought.

[trigger]

I was wonder if anyone can help me here, I'm wanting to fit a CD player into my Escort so I've gone and ordered a ISO harness listed for Fords of ebay but the one that's turned up is the normal one (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150521231512&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT) but the wiring on my car is different.

 

 

I've never seen this set up before, I'm guessing it's because of the balance control toggle on the dash, Does anyone one know if there is a ISO harness available for this set up (I've looked but couldn't find one) or do you know how to wire it it up?.

 

It's the speakers that's the main problem, Each speaker has two wires going into it as the normal, a + and a -, which means 8 wires but as you can see there's only 4 wires for the speakers so I'm not sure what to do.

 

I was think of using the new ISO cable I've got and fitting scotch locks to the old cable and joining them up with the 2 wires on the new cable, If you see what i mean.

 

There is this harness, although the power socket looks right, the speaker one is wrong. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PC2-16-4-Ford-Cap ... 230bda1846

[Timewaster]

I was think of using scotch locks

 

Please don't! Scotchlocks are SHIT.

 

Autoleads do a kit to fit that, but for the life of me I can't remember the part no. (I used to sell them).

 

A Decent car audio shop should know it, or take the old head unit in.

[Rod/b]

Here y'go. Autoleads catalogz: http://www.armourauto.com/2010-catalogue-download

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Radio

If you do end up snipping the wires, would you consider selling me the old plugs? I have one of those rubber button Ford headunits I'd like to fit in my car and you can't buy the car loom side of the plugs anywhere.