Lankytim’s general shite related ranting, Ft mystery 2CV and P4 shittery.

[Surface Rust]

5 hours ago, Lankytim said:

The new headlights were delivered last night and were fitted in the dark in a fit of excitement. They’re a quick job to fit although it was a struggle to get the mounting ring over the headlamps. I went out this morning to admire my handy work. They look pretty good, I paid a little extra for the triangle shaped bit of tin inside the headlamp because I think they look cool.  The halogens have a weird blue tint which doesn’t really suit the Rover but the light output  is excellent and they actually work which is a massive plus over the old headlamps. 

Probably just the bulbs though so an easy fix. The triangular bits do look good.

Good display of the excellent lock too!

[Lankytim]

Took the 100 to work last night. The battery seems to be charging ok but the ammeter hovers around 0 much of the time. I’m not sure what the correct reading should be, I suppose I should get a multimeter and see what the battery is reading with the lights/fan etc turned on.

I work approx 8 miles down a 50mph dual carriageway which is a reasonable test for any old crock but spurred on by recent successes I took the long way home and went up the M6 between J15 and J16. It’s not a smart motorway for that stretch so there’s still  a hard shoulder should anything boil over or go bang. 2am is an ideal time for motorway road tests as there’s much less traffic to contend with should you get into difficulties, although it would mean all the lights would be illuminated, fingers crossed I don’t run out of electricity! 

60 MPH was achieved easily although the non functioning overdrive prevented me from pressing on too much. Absolutely nothing bad happened and I sailed past Keele services effortlessly and cruised off home. Brill, what a buzz!

A Quick look under the bonnet  revealed nothing of note, no oil sprayed around and no smoke. I did notice the radiator leaking quite a bit so that’ll be the next job. It’ll probably need recoring. 

[Westbay]

20 hours ago, Lankytim said:

The new headlights were delivered last night and were fitted in the dark in a fit of excitement. They’re a quick job to fit although it was a struggle to get the mounting ring over the headlamps. I went out this morning to admire my handy work. They look pretty good, I paid a little extra for the triangle shaped bit of tin inside the headlamp because I think they look cool.  The halogens have a weird blue tint which doesn’t really suit the Rover but the light output  is excellent and they actually work which is a massive plus over the old headlamps. 

Really nice, well in keepimng with the style ...

[Surface Rust]

48 minutes ago, Lankytim said:

Took the 100 to work last night. The battery seems to be charging ok but the ammeter hovers around 0 much of the time. I’m not sure what the correct reading should be, I suppose I should get a multimeter and see what the battery is reading with the lights/fan etc turned on.

I work approx 8 miles down a 50mph dual carriageway which is a reasonable test for any old crock but spurred on by recent successes I took the long way home and went up the M6 between J15 and J16. It’s not a smart motorway for that stretch so there’s still  a hard shoulder should anything boil over or go bang. 2am is an ideal time for motorway road tests as there’s much less traffic to contend with should you get into difficulties, although it would mean all the lights would be illuminated, fingers crossed I don’t run out of electricity! 

60 MPH was achieved easily although the non functioning overdrive prevented me from pressing on too much. Absolutely nothing bad happened and I sailed past Keele services effortlessly and cruised off home. Brill, what a buzz!

A Quick look under the bonnet  revealed nothing of note, no oil sprayed around and no smoke. I did notice the radiator leaking quite a bit so that’ll be the next job. It’ll probably need recoring. 

I got my rad recored by Wadhams, they did a nice job and I opted for the 'colonies' spec (3 row I think) which proved its worth in 35oC traffic a couple of summers ago.

[Lankytim]

5 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

I got my rad recored by Wadhams, they did a nice job and I opted for the 'colonies' spec (3 row I think) which proved its worth in 35oC traffic a couple of summers ago.

I’ve dropped a spare leaky radiator off with a local guy here in Stoke who’s been in business for ages. Hopefully it can be repaired but if not it’ll get recored. Apparently it’s an original and has never been recored before which is worth mentioning.  Once this one is fixed I’ll swap it over with the defective one still fitted to the 100. I think these rads have stampings on which make them unique to the car, the code for cutting new keys or something. I’m not even sure if it’s still got the original radiator still fitted, or even the original locks. 
 

[Lankytim]

Happy new year everyone! I really want to polish this old crock up but it really needed a good clean to get all the grime off the bodywork, plus the traces of diesel that was sprayed all over the place when the engine finally unsized itself and ejected the diesel from the cylinders via the spark plug holes. 
 

I think I’m going to have to invest in a new battery as the present one was dug out of the garage and is an unknown quantity. This big old 2.6 6 cylinder engine needs a good bit of oomph to get going and the battery starts to die if the engine doesn’t start straight away. Up at the local petrol station with jet wash I got to work scrubbing away, getting the moss out of the screen rubbers and watching the grime disappear down the drain. Lovely! Under the arches were jetted out and road grime removed to reveal nice paint underneath. I decided to leave the engine running and degrime/de-spider the engine bay,  so the inner wings, under bonnet and bulkhead etc  were coated in TFR, scrubbed and washed off. Of course the inevitable happened and the ignition system got wet and the engine cut out. After washing off I tried to restart but despite trying to kick in the battery died too quickly and that was that.

I rang the 4th emergency service (Mrs LT with jumpleads) and 5 minutes later she’d arrived. In the mean time I’d pushed the Rover out of the wash area and onto the car vac bit so we had access to get the leads onto the battery which lives under the back seat. Naturally about 5 cars then wanted to use the vac so I pushed the stricken Rover to some spaces next to the wash area but closer to the petrol station. 
 

Mrs LTs Honda Jazz was readied but before we could connect leads to battery the petrol station manager approached in his tartan waistcoat and snappy shoes. Apparently were were within the “vapour perimeter” and jump starting was strictly verboten as the whole place could explode like in a lethal weapon film or when that nuke goes off in Terminator 2  or something. I told him that I’d taken his message on board but I was going to jump start the Rover anyway (by the time he’d told us all that we could’ve been up and running)  He was pretty insistent that we needed to be recovered but eventually agreed to help push the Rover to the loading area around the back of the shop which apparently was out of the OMG FIREBALL area. 
 

The Rover went pretty much first go and I was soon at home with Mrs LT enjoying a cuppa. 
 

Onwards and upwards for 2025!