DozeyDustman's Fleet update.

[Eddie Honda]

Cropping your pictures a little makes them go the right way up for some reason. I do it to all of mine.

That's a fucking chew on. Fuck that.

[paulplom]

I'm that used to doing it I crop the pics I'm not even posting.

[dozeydustman]

About a week after my last fleet update we completed on a house purchase, so things got put aside. A couple of weeks back I made a start on the advisories on the Kia. Front droplinks and ball joints had perished rubbers, which I had purchased ages ago when I guided stepdaughter through the oil & filters change, and as I knew these needed doing with some urgency I made a start. What I found wasn’t pretty.

Both front discs were heavily lipped, pads had worn more on one side and the balljoint tapers were seized enough to break both taper splitters I owned. i also noticed on the driver’s side the wishbone bushes were perished, but the nearside was in good condition. It appears the nearside had been changed a few years back when I went through the car’s history so could stay for now. I was umming and ahhing about what to do next, these cars aren’t worth much as they’re about as popular as going bareback with a pox-ridden whore, and a family friend wanted shot of her old car so I had to sum up what was less - cost of repair vs replacement.

Pair of wishbones £60
Discs and pads (all round) £80
2 tyres £95
Track rod ends £25 (I mangled the boots on these trying to disassemble the front strut assembly)

Friend wanted £500 for her old car so with free* labour from stepdad madam bought the parts.

I was off work last week with a dose of norovirus, which was unpleasant, so between tactical chunders, strategic poos and fighting a fever I made a start.

Every bolt, nut or fitting was seized, so liberal amounts of plusgas and the ugga-dugga gun deployed and it soon came apart with nothing breaking.

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State of the old disc shown in this photo.

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I rebuilt one calliper as the piston was stuck, and the sliders & rubber boots cleaned out and packed with red rubber grease. All bled and they work as they should now.

Bottom balljoints were a pain. N/S couldn’t even be banged out with no tension on the strut hence changing the whole lower arm as well. Nearside did bang out eventually.

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All buttoned up to ‘sufficient’ with hand tools, I don’t have a workshop manual so FT was estimated. Rusty washes were replaced with new and all bolts either scrubbed clean or replaced, and assembled with a smear of copper grease to prevent further seizure.

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this i why I rebuilt a calliper.

Continues……

[dozeydustman]

On Saturday I had a go at the rear brakes.

O/S looked fine, just worn pads.

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N/S had other ideas.

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Pistos weren’t stuck on the back, but there was significant excessive drag on the handbrake when disengaged, to the point the hubs were stiff. These use the inner hub of the disc as a drum handbrake, so I backed off the shoes one notch and the discs came free.

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All 4 rubbers were full of what appeared to be dried up grease and the sliders were again really stiff, so the whole lot was dismantled, cleaned including getting as much flaky crust off the castings as I could.

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Not perfect, but no more build up of old dust, road dirt and what have you.

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All buttoned up, system bled and handbrake automatically adjusted itself, the drag on the wheels is now only just there, and only 5 clicks are required for full handbrake application.

Continues…

[dozeydustman]

Kia got its headlamp cataracts removed and goes for its test today.

Saab was tested this morning.

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Garage are fitting 2 rear tyres and headlamp aim has been corrected already, just waiting them to call then I’ll drop the Kia off.

I have new brakes all round for the Saab, they will be fitted soon.

[Hooli]

I couldn't have done that with norovirus.

[dozeydustman]

I couldn't have done that with norovirus.

It was spread over a number of days so I managed 10-15 mins at a time before resting another 10-15 mins, or running to the khasi taking 6 hours overall each for the 2 fronts and everything was seized and/or crusty. I was feeling a little better by Saturday and managed the whole back end in ~3 hours, but nothing was seized there unlike the front. Did naff all on Friday.

Saab is back and fitted with Invovic tyres at the back, reviews on these are mixed and I did ask the garage not to fit cheap shit if possible. Googling after getting back home I found Uniroyals for £5 a wheel more than the garage supplied rubber, from the same people they ordered in from. Rather have paid the extra £10 but hey ho.

[dozeydustman]

That will do nicely. Garage hasn’t rung me to let me knownif other work was needed, but it sounds like the TRE rubbers weren’t bad enough to fail. They’ll still need unseizing as the steering does still pull a tad to the left and the outside of the n/s tyre was worn so I whacked the spare on!

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[dozeydustman]

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks looking for a cheap car for my stepdaughter’s boyfriend. He passed his test in June and has managed to save a couple of grand to buy and insure something.

There was a reasonable amount of stuff available locally but most of it was absolutely appalling and insurance on what was decent was out of his budget, and wouldn’t accept a loan of a couple of hundred from the wife and me or indeed madam.

There was an older ad on the Beige pages which I showed him and he liked; running an insurance quote ended up being cheaper than a lot of more modern tin. I arranged with the seller to meet up on Sunday, had a spin round the block and ended up with a purchase.

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For insurance reasons I had to bring it back to Sussex but it is indeed a charming old barge. 2.2 old school low-revving diesel and a very smooth ride without being roly-poly. Comparing it to my NG 9-3 it a nice car to pilot but interior space is less. 178k on it but still as tight as a drum, and the owner prior to the seller had owned the car since it was about 2 years old, and had kept it regularly maintained and cared for. Few rusty bits and the lacquer has psoriasis in a few places, but it’s a solid old thing.

The lad is very proud of the car and spent yesterday giving it a wash and valet, shampooing all the upholstery with our Bissell machine. He’s keen on doing his own maintenance so I can teach him a few simple jobs as and when they need doing. He’s also looking at buying a welder so he can repair the bodywork rust!

[LynehamHerc]

My lads and their mates have absolutely no interest in cars and would certainly not consider welding one. In fact I check our eldest's for him otherwise it'd never get checked. I know that I shouldn't but I'd get it in the ear from the missus if something went wrong that I could have spotted, for a few minutes every fortnight it's worth it.

They seem to live in virtual reality rather than what I'd class as reality but being an old fart what would I know?