THE GUBBERMINT ALWAYS KNOWS BEST

[Lukas]

The Legacy with 242.000km on the clock passed its austrian-MOT on saturday without any problems. It just needed new brakepads on the front, otherwise no problems. The exhaust is a bit rusty and the handbrake has seen better days, but no problem for this year. So the car is road-legal again until 05/2012!

 

Toyota-quality from the 80s is still out there. Buy a 90s-Subaru!

[Shep Shepherd]

I've owned TV2 for two years today:

 

 

Despite my initial misgivings about front wheel drive Volvos, it's turned out to be the best car I have ever owned

[dollywobbler]

I wrote a letter to the previous owner of the Saab - owner number 1 - and have received a nice email reply. Even better, he's sending me all the service invoices etc! Apparently the dealer told him not to include the stuff with the car. Is there any reason why they might suggest this? I'm glad I decided to write the letter now.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

'Elf & Safety innit

[dollywobbler]

'Elf & Safety innit

 

What, because it makes a pile of paper that's too heavy to lift without a manual handling course?

[Rod/b]

I've been hooning around Doha in the LR2 with the autobox left in Sports mode.

 

Conclusions:

 

1. This car is actually quite good fun

2. This kind of behaviour makes the dial with the petrol pump sign next to it go south very quickly indeed.

3. There are loads of early 90s Crown Vics, Town Cars and Chevy Suburbans parked up in the burbs a bit further out from the centre. I wonder how much they go for?

[Lord Sterling]

Right, after the ever rolling p/s fluid saga, I think (hope) that it might now be resolved, after exploding for the 4th time and spitting p/s fluid at the mechanics face, the mechanic manipulated metal pipe that comes out from the pump, fitted a longer flexi-pipe and secured the pipes together with better jubilee clips. It cost nothing, despite the receiving gallons of p/s fluid only for it dump it on the floor.

 

I took the car for a good run and using the steering alot in rough conditions, so far it seems ok. Watch this space...........

[Mike D]

I whipped the rear wheel spacers off the Porsche last night and took them to work with me today to machine 3mm off, fitted them tonight, the tyres now clear the arches and don't rub

 

(PS) I like it on the Cup alloys, it looks proper gash on the dog dish efforts

[dollywobbler]

EFA.

 

(PS) I like it on the Cup alloys, it looks proper shite on the dog dish efforts

 

Which is why we all love them!

[Cavcraft]

Got the leaking power steering pipe of the Astra tonight. Now time to see if Vauxhall are going to dry bum me for a new one or whether the scrapyard is the better option. The car isn't half cleaning up well though, a bit of RED HOT T-CUTTING ACTION XXX has done wonders.

[trigger]

Just got the Kadett booked in for it's MOT at short notice for 4.15pm today, Fingers crossed it will pass...

 

In other news I've just got a price to fit a cambelt on my slow selling Bora, £80 labour plus parts which are about £75 for the cambelt kit, I've booked it in to be done as every email and call I've had about it have asked me when the cambelt was done, when i tell them 60000 miles/5 years ago i never hear back from them again.

 

Edit - how this for luck, As soon as i posted this my mobile rings with someone interested in the Bora who's coming to view it in the morning!

[trigger]

Yeah! It passed!, It has a small advorsy for a oil leak which i think was coming from the cam chain cover but apart from that it past with flying covers!.

 

It was the first time I've seen it up on the ramp and i was impressed with how clean it was, There's no sign of any past welding, Properly been kept rust from the oil leak!

 

I've also given the Escort a bloody good clean and polish today and it's come up like new as well as wash the Mondeo, So all in all it's been a very pro-active day.

 

Have a fleet photo I've just took to celebrate.

 

My current fleet by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

[Guest]

My pointless trip to Luton last night did at least allow me to set a MPG record in the C4:

 

 

When I filled up after doing a few errands locally, the counter was at 780 miles and the fuel light was on. That more or less equates to 60 MPG. Chuffed with that.

That's the most it's done. I got 11 from it chasing Capris around Castle Combe, and was called 'a mad bastard' by one of the circuit instructors.

 

Bleh.

[Cavcraft]

Looks like the Corsa has been sold. My lad worked some magic with a mate of his, he's been for a look at it and is well chuffed. Which he should be really as we didn't half put some work into it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

My Fiat is up and running at last! the bastard.

[seth]

My Fiat is up and running at last! the bastard.

 

Make sure you get that done at a sensible time of day so there's plenty of people about to share your joy, eh?

[oman5]

coming home from work last week in the trusty ovlov 740 and the back box fell off. one of the support brackets had snapped, so it being a non-urgent job (ie, the car's still running) it's still like it now.

then coming home from work yesterday it started misfiring..cleared itself, but wondering if the misfire was related to the missing back box? never come across it before

[skattrd]

coming home from work last week in the trusty ovlov 740 and the back box fell off. one of the support brackets had snapped, so it being a non-urgent job (ie, the car's still running) it's still like it now.

then coming home from work yesterday it started misfiring..cleared itself, but wondering if the misfire was related to the missing back box? never come across it before

 

Possibly, the exhaust snapped on my Avanzato last year and it ran like crap & misfired with half the exhaust missing.

 

I'm not saying that definitely is the cause of your problem, but imo its worth fixing before looking elsewhere.

[cort16]

I'm fitting a new water pump to my 2600 SD1 tomorrow. I've never done one before so am hoping I don't kill it.

It's got a new gasket with the pump but should I also smear it all in gasket paste to be sure or will the new gasket be enough?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I would make sure the joining faces are super clean then put a tiny bit of gasket gloop on.If you put loads on it will squidge out when you do up the nuts/bolts, which will then make it look a right bodging b@$t@rd has been at work on your engine.

[shite_meister]

Just replaced the Driver's window regulator and motor on the Lexus LS400, from start to finish I think it took about 15 mins, either I'm shit-hot at mechanics or more likely Toyota were thinking ahead when they thought about how all this shit goes together.

 

Try pulling that shit on an Audi A3/VW Golf Mk4, nowhere near as well thought out, having seen many of them done they look like some sort of Justin Bieber three-way-fuck-fest-with-your-beloved type nightmare.

[dollywobbler]

Scimitar has been hard at work hauling sand, gravel, bricks and general rubble about. Ended up a bit overloaded because the stupid council tip is closed today, despite stating on the website that they're open on Bank Holidays! Still bloomin' quick, even uphill, though the rear suspension was groaning a bit, so I took it easy on the bends.

[Cavcraft]

You should have taken your own bags and popped down to Tonfanau quarry with a shovel and a look out man/woman.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I started flatting back and polishing the (shite) paintjob my car got 18 months ago, no more gloss bonnet and matt sides for me. Just a few white spots where the paint has worn back to the primer.

 

[HillmanImp]

Started work on the DAF at last. Its in remarkably good nick. There is bits and bobs of rust here and there but in most cases there is metal underneath. Have found some bits where repairs have been done before but as this is more of a 'preservation' rather than 'restoration' I am happy that its probably okay-ish under there so am not digging too deep. The only reasonably big bit of welding i had to do so far was round the headlamp.

 

 

All the other rust bubbling up was solid underneath so has just been sanded back treated with hydrate 80 and has been filled. I am waiting for it to dry as I write this. Will t-cut the paint over the weekend weather permitting and then spray the bits I have just done later in the week. Still need to sort out that bloody pipe that i bent on the oil cooler though.

[Cavcraft]

Had a bit of a touch at the scrappy this morning: went for a power steering pipe for the Astra and managed to get that plus an unbroken grille surround in the right colour, the exhaust heat shield c/w airbox pipe (which was surprisingly like new) and a fog light to replace the broken one for £30 the lot.

Just need to fit the bits now and get some p/s fluid, bleed it and see how it goes. I've noticed one mirror is of the non-colour coded variety so I'll either get the right coloured spray from Halfords or do the driver's door mirror black to match the replacement passenger one.

 

Next up is either borrow a buffer to get the paint how I want it or T-cut it again (it's looking really good but not good enough for my liking) then polish and wax before valeting the interior.

[Cavcraft]

WINNAH!

 

Power steering pipe fitted, new fluid inserted, test drive taken. Running very nicely indeed, steering is A1 and most of the other jobs are now finished. Grille trim doesn't want to play ball though but I can live with that.

Tomorrow is buffer and valet time, made a start and it's coming up nicely by hand though and I've cleaned the alloys up which look loads better. Oh, will have to fit the replacement front fog too but hopefully it won't be too bad. There's half a tank of fuel in the bastard too and I'm determined to burn as much of that off as I can before I try and find a new home for it.

[Pete-M]

Billy in an Astra. Is there a finer vision of motoring nirvana to be had? That's just made me chuckle.

 

Anyway, decided today to have a fiddle with the Jag. Screw had fallen out of the passengers door handle, so I replaced that. Which was too easy to do so I decided I'd have a look at the fubar lcd clock while I was in the mood. The clock - is the same one fitted in some Aston Martins, so it is over £170+ vat new and has the lifespan of a gnat in a cloud of '70s Winfield flyspray... Spent 10 mins stripping the dash down to get it out, then ten mins fiddling until the display came back on as it should. Put it all back together, reassembled the dash and centre console and was all smug.

 

For about 5 minutes until it went back off. I will have to investigate it properly some time.

[Shep Shepherd]

According to the SpeedView app on my mobile telephone (the most useful app I have so far downloaded from the Android Market), both The Volvo's and TV2's speedometers over-read by as much as 5mph, thus confirming my long-held suspicion that they weren't very accurate. Better than under-reading by 5mph, I suppose!

[cort16]

I've just spent the last 7 hours changing the water pump on my SD1. It's by far the most mechanically complex thing I've done but now I'm paying for a lockup I thought I might as well give it a shot. Just in the nick of time too as the bastard pump seized solid about 300 yards from my lockup causing plooms of smoke to pour out the bonnet and much sqealing. Some of this was from the car.

I couldn't believe how quiet the engine was when it started up once the new pump was in. I thought it'd developed a rattly top end, which I was doing my best to avoid thinking about but all along it was this ropey water pump.

 

Time for beer