Victor the Volkswagen - what to do now?

[bunglebus]

Kinda snatched defeat from the jaws of victory today. Changed the oil (clearly a gorilla did the filter up last time), despite it being very windy I only got oil on the cardboard and not the drive. Changed the air filter after fighting with a 10mm head bolt where a 5mm Allen  should have been

Buoyed with my success I thought I'd tackle the blowing exhaust centre section, having scored a new one for £20 off Facebook. Fuck me someone has been a'bodging

Having removed all this shite I need some sort of sleeve to go from the 42mm OD cat to 50mm ID centre section. Someone had tried to do this previously and really fucked it up.

Biggest fight was trying to get the back box off as it wouldn't twist while on the car, in the end I had to remove the NSR wheel and undo the shock mounts to get enough room to pull it off with a foot of sawn-off centre pipe attached. Also realised I lent my hacksaw to someone so had to use a blade in a holder which was a PITA.

Bonus safety third points for using table legs under the jack for extra height

[bunglebus]

I'm having nightmares sorting the exhaust. The (correct) centre section is loads bigger than the pipe on the cat - I ordered an adaptor to go between the two but that meant the centre was too far back. Might have to order a different sleeve and cut the flare off the centre section.

Instead of getting annoyed with that I wet vacced the interior 

[bunglebus]

Ah

That'll be why the passenger window doesn't open then

I do hate bodgers. Not only was the driver's seat held together with cable ties, someone's been at the driver's door too. 

No idea why the rod for the door button is missing, and the window motor seems to be floating in space with nothing behind that empty bolt hole. It's like part of the regulator is missing

[MJK 24]

You’ll have a decent and cheap car at the end when you’ve worked through these issues!

[vaughant]

Bloody bargain that, paint looks really good under the stickers.

[bunglebus]

6 hours ago, vaughant said:

Bloody bargain that, paint looks really good under the stickers.

It's not bad, there are some scratches and chips from delivery drivers not giving a toss, but it'll get a thorough clean and a going over with a touch up pen soon

I got a window reg off eBay and slung it in today, took longer getting the tape residue off the window!

Quite impressed with the new part actually, arrived quickly and had notes in proper English. Seller was "bahuha" and it's made by Senco if anyone's in the market for one!

[bunglebus]

Two steps forward and one back again today. Changed the boot lock, it's a bit of a fiddly bugger until you've done it, then it becomes obvious how to do it - hardest part is removing the clip that holds the lock into the boot handle 

Made slightly more annoying in that one of the clips that holds an actuating rod in place was too small for the rod. Tried enlarging the clip but this wasn't possible. Tried the original clip on the new lock - different size hole that it locates in. In the end I took the lock out again and very carefully enlarged the hole in the plastic arm to accept the original clip - success.

Less successful was fitting a replacement rod to the driver's door lock - 2nd hand part and it's the wrong side. At least getting the lock out is easy! Why it's missing in the first place will remain forever a mystery. 

Thought I'd sling a new fuel filter on - not a bad job once you've persuaded the rusty screw in the clamp to come out, however one of the local cats appears to have killed a bird and I discovered the very decomposed and maggot-infested remains right under the filter where I wanted to work. Yuk!

[bunglebus]

Finally got the b'stard exhaust sorted,  thanks to an eBay sourced adaptor and cutting the front flange off the centre section. The bodges on this car are mysterious, is it the wrong cat?

Also fitted the 2nd hand braces, one of which supports the centre section 

[somewhatfoolish]

Cat does look like it's been bodgerificated at least once.

[bunglebus]

25 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Cat does look like it's been bodgerificated at least once.

Yeah it had 5 different sleeves plus clamps and two tubes of exhaust paste. And still leaked.

New parcel shelf - think it should be dark grey but it's better than a hole

[bunglebus]

Today's the day, finally plucked up the courage to get the cambelt done. Don't know why they give me teh fearz these days, I used to just get on with it. VW special tools in the form of an 8mm drill bit, a punch and two clothes pegs helped get 'er done

After a bit of faffing going off to source a 12 sided 21mm socket and some ¼ to ½ bits for my new Aldi impact driver, it thoroughly failed to get the crank bolt out. However a breaker bar wedged against the lower arm and and a quick flick of the starter did the job.

We won't talk about doing it up to FT without putting the pulley back on first...

[bunglebus]

Found a breaker nearby with a 6N Polo, so I went to nab the spare wheel. Ended up leaving with the alloys too - not going on this one in case they go walkies, but they'll do as a set of rollers if the get the ones on the yellow Lupo refurbished 

[bunglebus]

I couldn't resist slinging them on. Still needs a thorough clean

[bunglebus]

It's almost there, had a thorough wash and various chips etc touched in - has revealed that I need to somehow replace the membrane in the NS door I removed to do the window reg, as water came through the door card

He's a 10-footer but looks pretty good for his 19 odd years on the road. 

Also need to somehow get the radio code after disconnecting the battery while doing the cambelt

[bunglebus]

And off he goes, delivered to my partner's niece who was very excited as she had no idea she was getting a car.

I'm sure he'll be back for servicing etc, he did have a bit of a last laugh at my expense this morning - radio wanted a code the other day after I disconnected the battery. Head unit did not want to come out so I could get the serial number, fought with it for ages and it finally relented - and then suddenly decided to work without a code and even had all the presets retained. Weird...

[bunglebus]

Victor visited today, here he is with his two friends

[High Jetter]

No Victor tho?

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 7/22/2023 at 2:00 PM, bunglebus said:

and then suddenly decided to work without a code and even had all the presets retained. Weird...

IIRC, these talk to the computers in the car etc. to ascertain if the radio matches the serial the car has.

[bunglebus]

Victor has been with the niece for a while now, and has just failed his MoT on some fairly minor bits. She apparently now doesn't want to bother fixing him as she wants a Fiat 500 😐

There was a bit of upset as he needed some work for the last MoT, and it came across to me from her stepdad that it was somehow my fault as I'd done all the work I could see that was needed for it to be safe and reliable for her to use. They paid around £600 for an emissions fault and re-sealing the exhaust that I'd fixed as best possible on the drive at home.

In two minds what to do, I don't really have room for another car at home, and I already have another Lupo needing a load of repairs when the weather gets better, but I also know it's a good car and worth naff all without a valid MoT

[N Dentressangle]

Can't stand people like that.

If the exhaust is fixed, all it needs is the headlights adjusting, no?

[New POD]

11 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

Can't stand people like that.

If the exhaust is fixed, all it needs is the headlights adjusting, no?

Let's call it £700  (with 2 cheapo ditchfinders) for another year of ignoring the advisories =£1.93 per day. 

With an MOT it's worth £1000 without trying. (Ignoring the private plate which is worth more than the car) 

[bunglebus]

2 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

Can't stand people like that.

If the exhaust is fixed, all it needs is the headlights adjusting, no?

The exhaust is hitting the anti roll bar (so the other guy obviously didn't do that great a job), that's an advisory but I'd sort it anyway.

I've polished the lights, there's a load of tiny fractures in the plastic so might want a new pair, and whatever's up with the emissions - it only gets short runs so a blast up and down the dual carriageway might help, I'll check the fault codes too.

If I can, I'll park it at my mate's place and get the MoT stuff done and a new tyre or too, if there are no arguments over what the car is worth! It was paid for by my father in law, but I reckon the stepdad will expect to get the cost of repair back. We'll see.