Today I mostly .....

[excossack]

Went sea fishing from a mates boat. Caught the following.
2 x small Dab
1 x plaice
1 x small crab
1 x small mackerel
2 x burnt knees

[excossack]

Went to Ikea...
Organised a aerial fitter for a new TV aerial.
Jet washed the decking down ready for staining tomorrow.

[GvidoR]

Picked up a 7-piece car valeting kit at Aldi for €12.99 and washed the Bora. Nice and shiny now.

[Zelandeth]

Dismantled both of the front doors on the Saab, drowned the innards in Kurust, and once it had dried (which in the sun took about ten seconds), drowned the lower parts of the insides in Dinitrol as best I could. Hopefully that will stop them dissolving from the inside out for a bit longer. Also went hunting a gremlin in the central locking, but lost interest on account of poor access to the mechanism. Will attack it again another day when I've researched it better. Currently it will on occasion fail to register that you've unlocked the door until you prod the electric window button a few times. Or sometimes after a random period of time it will just catch up (and scare everyone in the car half to death when the passenger door and the boot unlock). My money's on a dodgy ground. It's annoying rather than problematic, so will investigate later. Takes all of ten minutes to get the door card and such out, so not too worried.

Also gave things in the engine bay a wipe down, and once again pondered whether I should look into getting some exhaust wrap for the manifold/downpipe as the heat that comes off that side of things is insane. However I also worry that the concentrated heat might just end up cracking the manifold, and I personally don't fancy trying to remove 24 year old exhaust manifold retaining bolts...

Also, this happened - and unusually I both spotted it and managed to find a layby to stop in to snap the photo.



Just about run in now I think.

[Zelandeth]

Especially a lazy, unstressed normally aspirated 8 valve one.

Not sure what I've done this evening, but the act of giving the engine bay a wipe-down seems to have gained me about 20 or 30 horsepower...Not sure if there was maybe a bit of damp somewhere in the ignition system that I've now driven out or something...most odd.

Either that, or it just decided it really likes the weather conditions this evening...no idea.

Oh well, not complaining at extra power!

...Looking at that photo now, I can see the instrument panel desperately needs cleaning. Eww...Oh well, add it to the to do list tomorrow. It's on show on Sunday so needs a good clean anyhow.

[GvidoR]

When I took a picture of my Citroen Xsara hit 100k miles, I didn't look for a "layby to stop in".

[excossack]

Yesterday, with the help of my Uncle we did some work on the Landy, we replaced the rear brake pipes across the rear axle, the flexi, the long pipe down the chassis and the front drivers side brake master to flexi with new copper ones.
The flexi is a braided one. The front braided ones look they are the wrong ends so need to contact the supplier.

Discovered that I could not remove the locking wheel nuts as the locking nut tool has split and the locking nuts are really on tight! So looks like new locking wheel nuts needed

[RobbyD]

gave the niva a bath, fitted my spotlights only to learn none of the foglight wiring works for it(power was scalped for the radiator fan) and now going to get the diagram and take the wiring from the headlight wipers which are long gone. will re-wire it into the swich and take the two i need for the spots, then on to finding the headlight wiring issue. the rightside almost doesnt come on without the highs on, and the day time running light only the white left side comes on. also replaced all my front bulbs other than the head lights with LED bulbs, as theyre brighter when they actually come on.

[rob-o]

Got home from France, the Nivas first big trip under my ownership. Home in Farnham down to Troyes, a night of camping, then on to morzine for a week on the mountainbike. used the same campsite in Troyes on the way home too. it was a really good trip, if a little loud (loud pipes save lives, but they arent good on the motorway and if the Gendarmerie (special police) hear you they'll give you a 45 euro fine, ask me how I know!)

We covered 1350 miles in total, used 2 litres of engine oil (due to a leaky vapour seperator) and averaged 25.5mpg. im pretty pleased considering that 3 weeks ago I was fitting a used cylinder head of unknown condition and this was its first 'proper' test.

Rob

[Zelandeth]

Well done, Rob. Economy sounds spot on what I would expect really from my figures over several years of driving my 1.7i, and you'd probably drop a bit with it being the TC I imagine.

Today I mostly...attended the 2013 Grampian Transport Museum Classic & Vintage Gathering.

Good day, helped out the poor guy trying to single-handedly arrange the bus display, and *finally* managed to tick both Leyland Atlantean and National (MK I) off my list of stuff I needed a shot of. Even though the Leopard without power steering nearly killed me in the heat when trying to reverse it back into the garage, and the National attempted to gas us all while we were still in the workshop trying to work out why the accelerator wasn't working. It's a bit smoky that one when cold...Turned out to be one of the door switches - there are two on the rear exit door apparently, one for the warning light and buzzer, and another one for the accelerator interlock. Thanks Leyland. The Atlantean also tried to break my neck thanks to a sticky throttle giving us some impressive kangarooing moments when I first tried to get underway. Pretty sure that must have looked comical for anyone watching.

Olympian with the 18 litre Cummins L6 engine and very little silencing still sounds the best though, and still goes bloody well. May have done a few extra laps around the test track with that one...just to make sure everything was OK. ...That and there was a car parked in the exit!

Also got myself *thoroughly* sunburned. Advice: DO NOT use Tesco's own brand supposedly SPF50 sunscreen...I reckon it must be SPF -20 or so, have never burned this bad before, even when not using anything! Oh, the next few days will be fun...

Will stick a couple of photos of some of the more interesting things there maybe tomorrow. No Ladas sadly, and mine was the only Saab there. Few nice things though, Mk I Passat for one being something I'd never seen before, Opel Commadore, couple of original Morgan 3-wheelers, several Stags, Citroen DS, a lovely looking late Maxi in a really nice metallic green colour I'd never seen before, a Cavelier GTE Pickup truck and goodness knows what else I've forgotten! Now...to bed.

[excossack]

Yesterday went to the Wirral Classic car show, well more of a parade of card that tour through Wirral and pause for lunch in the local garden centre which is handy is its a short walk down the road.
Plenty of cars,
Paterson 30 1907 like this > http://www.flickr.com/photos/41557568@N04/8054041671/
Willy's Jeep
Buick's
Austin Healy

Will post some pics later.

[excossack]

Got the wifes Focus MOT'd and also the Aircon fixed. MOT passed and Aircon is cooooool!

[excossack]

It had 55g of gas left so they topped it up, I think to 600g and now cold as ice...
Luckily it was just a re-gas

[RobbyD]

gas depletion is a sign of a leak or other problem, should have i filled with some uuv die then run under a black light

[RobbyD]

and have your filter/drier inspected