Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rootes75]

It was nice to take the Hillman out for a nice run on a sunny day and get together with everyone for a good chat.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Rootes75]

Another good couple hours down the yard. It's lovely to be working on the Commer engine, nice to once again be getting our hands dirty as they say.

Managed to remove all the con rod cap nuts today. The caps though will not budge so we've left them all soaking for a few days now.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[MikeEdwards]

After a few days of avoiding the workshop first because of the state of the roads, and then because it's just cold, I've been and done a bit of weld grinding. I'm also trying to clean the paint off a pair of plastic sill trims - someone had painted them gold, but hadn't used any kind of plastic primer, so most of it is coming off easily. It's not a priority job, but I can do it on the bench with the heater going. I've lost track a bit of what I need to do next, so this is just to be doing something, anything, that is one less thing left on the list.

I'd like to wash the daily Audi, but I'll leave the yard like a skating rink so I'm leaving it for now. Also it's already damp inside, so I don't want to spray a load more water at it.
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1976 Vauxhall HP Firenza, 1976 Vauxhall Sportshatch (x2), 1986 Audi coupe quattro, 2000 Audi TT

[Rootes75]

Another frustrating morning trying to free off the con rod ends caps, all locking nuts are off but the caps are not budging.

We managed to free one off but that's it. Will look to apply some heat next weekend to try to break them free from the con rods.
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[MikeEdwards]

I was finally able to wash the daily Audi off at the weekend, of course it got dirty again on the way home but at least I've cleaned some of the previous few weeks of dirt and salt off it.

I've also added a second charge wire to the Sports Hatch, which has been displaying some seemingly-random battery voltage drops. It'll drop as far as 11.5v then come back up again, but I'm always concerned about what if it doesn't? The only wiring difference between that and the Firenza is that the latter has two charge wires from the alternator, so let's see if that makes any difference. It may allow more current out, but also it adds a by-pass wire so if there's something like an internal break or a dodgy connection that I can't see, the other wire will take over. When it gets dry I'll take it out for a road test and see what happens, though the nature of random faults is that it's difficult to be sure they've been fixed.
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1976 Vauxhall HP Firenza, 1976 Vauxhall Sportshatch (x2), 1986 Audi coupe quattro, 2000 Audi TT