Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.
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badhuis
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Joined: 20 Aug 2008 Posts: 1390 Location: Netherlands
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Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:08 pm Post subject: What did you do to your car today? |
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Usually this is a popular topic on other (owners club) forums, so I thought I start one here. What did you do today with/to your classic car? Would be nice to see what you are up to or what you did. Repair or maybe took it out for a drive or a wash. Or what problems did you have and how did you resolve it.
I will start with my work today and yesterday on the Jaguar 420. This has a heater which sits in front of the bulkhead, in the engine compartment. An old fashioned large metal box containing the heater matrix and a flap which controls the air stream: through the matrix (hot air) or bypassing that (cold air). An electric fan is built to the housing.
A month ago I noticed cold air was coming inside the car, which seemed had nothing to do with the heater which works fine. I could not find a reason for that. The heater box is covered with Hardura (to insulated the heat) but this was almost non-existent anymore, it had hardened and overall looked messy. The air control flap rattled inside. So I decided to take the unit out, clean and paint it, new hardura and new seals and replace.
Of course this was not as easy as it sounds. The unit was in pretty good condition, a bit of surface rust here and there and all seals had disintegrated / returned to dust.
When my house (an old city bath house) was converted to living space and garage back eleven years ago, the builders had left surplus rolls of foam which were used for spacing out the concrete floors and somewhere in the ceiling I think. Two thickness of closed cell foam which came in handy now for making new seals for the control flap and for sealing the air inlets and outlets of the heater unit to the bulkhead. I had a roll of Hardura so made new coverings and glued them to the casing.
Putting it all back was more difficult than removing. The box is fixed with 5 7/16” bolts to the bulkhead, the bottom ones were very hard to reach because of the depth of the box and little room beside it. On one side there was not enough room for a socket deep down so I had to improvise there. On the other side there was just enough room for a short length spanner, this bolt took ages to fit. Then there is the cable fitting which also is far down at the bulkhead, and use a small 5/16” bolt which is very fiddly to “feed” into its hole.
I am always amazed at the amount of tools that I have used when finishing a job.
In all, what probably should have taken a few hours now took three more or less full days. Cleaning and painting takes a lot of time, also the Hardura coverings took a long time. Plus the fitting to the bulkhead.
Next on the list for this car is to replace some very old and dodge wiring at the alternator. The charging system still works well although the warning light does not work anymore - I cannot remember if it ever did. But the wires are very old and almost breaking so high time to take action.
![](https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4737/38393205595_18a66e1119_b.jpg) _________________ a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment |
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Rick Site Admin
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22447 Location: UK
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Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:51 pm Post subject: |
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Good idea to resurrect the thread, we had one a few years ago initiated by Marina owner Larry, "clan chieftain", as I recall.
As mentioned, other than exercising the Moggy after a spell of inactivity today, not much to report. Yesterday I did induct junior into the "oily rag" method, using an oily rag, a tin of WD40, and an old E83W grille as a test piece
RJ _________________ Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
https://www.redbubble.com/people/OldClassicCar/shop |
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BigJohn
Joined: 01 Jan 2011 Posts: 954 Location: Wem, Shropshire
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Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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Yesterday, Christmas Eve, I went to my lock up, started the Escort and then made 3 trips back to my newly built garage at home with three loads of spares to add to the pile all ready at home. Skoda Yeti's make very good vans as the back seats lift out.
This morning I waded into sorting the spares mountain, and hopefully will be able to get the Escort in before the New Year. Now I'm all scrubbed up ready to go out to lunch.
Merry Christmas Y'all. |
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misterbridger
Joined: 09 Oct 2015 Posts: 46
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:20 am Post subject: |
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Didn't actually DO anything to it, but watched it on TV! Took part in the filming of the Mini episode of "For the love of cars" and watched a DVD recording of it in preference to all the absolute cr*p that passes for Christmas TV. |
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Rick Site Admin
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22447 Location: UK
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baconsdozen
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Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1119 Location: Under the car.
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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I suppose nobody would say a P38 range rover counts as a classic but Ive been putting my study of its electronics to use with a new fangled fault code reader. After a lifetime messing about with carbs,points and mostly AF tools the range rover is a bit of a learning curve but not quite as daunting as i thought it would be. Having got rid of a couple of faults (which sadly seemed not to improve anything) I waqs consoled by the fact that it ran no worse and then spent a little time in more familiar territory adjusting the bonnet catch on the P5b. _________________ Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired). |
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ukdave2002
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4105 Location: South Cheshire
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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baconsdozen wrote: | I suppose nobody would say a P38 range rover counts as a classic but Ive been putting my study of its electronics to use with a new fangled fault code reader. After a lifetime messing about with carbs,points and mostly AF tools the range rover is a bit of a learning curve but not quite as daunting as i thought it would be. Having got rid of a couple of faults (which sadly seemed not to improve anything) I waqs consoled by the fact that it ran no worse and then spent a little time in more familiar territory adjusting the bonnet catch on the P5b. |
Electronics is the only trade I have a qualification in, as part of my degree we had to get some work experience , this was the mid 80's when jobs were few and far, so our Polytechnic organised some work experience in the local tech college, so I spent 6 months on lathes, welding, milling machines etc; one of many courses that were laid on.
What I would say is that most 80's, 90's electrical and electronic faults are straight forward to diagnose and cheap to rectify as long as you possess a proper circuit diagram a decent meter or 2 'and the correct knowledge.
Code readers for later vehicles mean that a monkey in the dealership will be able to diagnose the fault and point at a "module" that requires replacing, an engineer will possibly fix just the faulty component.
A few years ago I was quoted £1650 from a BMW dealer to fix an electronic fault, I ended up fixing it for 27p (capacitor from Maplin)
and about 40 mins of my time!
Dave |
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Border Viking
Joined: 06 Dec 2010 Posts: 17 Location: North Cumbria
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Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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Took our Granada mk1 to the Boxing Day meet at the Lakeland Motor Museum.
A good turn out at a very good venue. Did a 110 mile round trip which gave the car a good run out through some some stunning Lakeland scenery, went down past Windermere and returned via Coniston. |
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Rick Site Admin
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22447 Location: UK
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MikeEdwards
Joined: 25 May 2011 Posts: 2471 Location: South Cheshire
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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Fitted the rear mudflap, so they're both done now. Dropped the back down onto the floor and tried to start it, but it's not interested for some reason, so that's a job for next time. |
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Penguin45
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Joined: 28 Jul 2014 Posts: 381 Location: Padiham
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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Relaced dynamo on the red crab, set timing very, very exactly (guaranteed to run like a nail) on the refurbished distributor and fought the handbrake into submission.
Did the tracking on Twin #2's Matiz (It was cross-eyed...) and welded up one of the neighbour's Xsara exhaust.
Apart from that, did nowt.
P45. _________________ '67 Wolseley MkI 18/85, '70 Austin MkII 1800 The Landcrab Forum. |
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troutrunner
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Joined: 03 Dec 2012 Posts: 185 Location: South Lincolnshire
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:56 pm Post subject: |
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I cleared a the accumulation of rubbish build up from in front of the Model Y and had a bonfire, some serious work soon to start...... _________________ Paul
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1937 Ford Model Y.
1939 Austin 10.
1955 Austin A30.
1958 Ford 300E van.
1961 Austin A40.
1964 Wolseley Hornet.
1965 Series2a Land Rover.
1968 Wolseley Hornet.
1994 Peugeot 405 Est. 2of.
Nil illegitimi Carborundum |
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Richard H
Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Posts: 2148 Location: Lincolnshire, UK
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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Carried on fabricating the new sunroof drain deflectors for the Standard, got the repaired rear wing bolted back on and got the refurbished offside wheels reunited with their tyres, and fitted back on the car for the first time since October. Hopefully it will be brought out of the garage on Saturday, turned around, and put back in to tackle all the rot and filler on the passenger side! _________________ Richard Hughes |
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Rick Site Admin
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22447 Location: UK
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Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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Richard H wrote: | Carried on fabricating the new sunroof drain deflectors for the Standard, got the repaired rear wing bolted back on and got the refurbished offside wheels reunited with their tyres, and fitted back on the car for the first time since October. Hopefully it will be brought out of the garage on Saturday, turned around, and put back in to tackle all the rot and filler on the passenger side! |
Standard Twelve eh? Have we been introduced as yet?
RJ ![Smile](images/smiles/icon_smile.gif) _________________ Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
https://www.redbubble.com/people/OldClassicCar/shop |
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Richard H
Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Posts: 2148 Location: Lincolnshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 9:51 am Post subject: |
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I'll start a thread soon ![Cool](images/smiles/icon_cool.gif) _________________ Richard Hughes |
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