Rusty Triumphs in Scotland

[captain_70s]

Bird shit cleaned with a wet rag = fucked paint.

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Will need to source a passenger side wing before repainting it though, current one is humped and already blistering again...

[Hooli]

Gah!

That reminds me, I've got what appears to be a cowpat from a flying cow to wash off the XJR too.

[LynehamHerc]

You think you've got problems.

It's nearly conker season and we've got a few horse chestnuts towering over the drive. They fucking hurt when they hit you, the conkers not the trees. I don't think one of those bastards would leave anything other than a mush. A couple of years ago one smashed a big hole in a plaster ornament my missus had bought. I'd have been quite happy to bin it but ended up repairing it with fibreglass and filler.

So we're now in the car shuffling time of year, working out which ways the cars should face and in what order.

[Scruffy Bodger]

Bird shit cleaned with a wet rag = fucked paint.

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Will need to source a passenger side wing before repainting it though, current one is humped and already blistering again...

Maybe buy a pot of Bilt Hamber speed wax? It's meant to last 3 to 5 months in one application, I've found that to be true. The old mans 350Z suffered paint damage in the lockdown last year due to fucking rats with wings in the trees where the car was parked. Since using that it just washes off and no blemishes. It's no that cheap but goes a very, very long way and is considerably cheaper than these new ceramic coatings that in tests it beats most of anyway. I originally bought a pot for the 405 and it's lasted well. As the Z was going to Portugal for the sun to play havoc with it too I messaged Bilt Hamber, the MD emailed me back and advised me that the speedwax had very good UV protection qualities too.

[captain_70s]

Fleet update.

Acclaim, battery is toast. It's running the Dolly's old battery, which led a hard life in that car, and lack of regular use has killed it. Twice the car has run out of juice in the last few weeks.

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Popping over to GingerNutz's place this weekend to start rigging up a new rad for it.

Meanwhile, the Volvo.

Got new dash bulbs, so now everything lights up instead of nothing:

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Got TIPEX'd mudflap text, because FUCKERS MINT.

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Took me and Girlfriend_70s on holiday to Scarbourough.

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Continued it's electrical senility by only having the radio work sometimes through one speaker despite me having pulled it all apart multiple times.

Then the heater blower motor resistor died - these are NLA so replacement will be fun. So last night the dash came out, I found even more redundant wiring bullshit.

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Then I realised the carpet under the floor mat was sodden.

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More wiring under the carpet.

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MORE wiring under the foam sound deadening...

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The floor was soaked, all the bitumen sound deadening shit was cracking flaking off and the you could push your thumb through the floor. Coolio. It's actually rotted from the inside out, the factory underseal is holding the floor together as the only bits I can hole are directly above the chassis leg, which can now be prodded with a screwdriver from inside and is actually quite good.

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Elected to removed the entire centre console to allow better access for hunting for water ingress.

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Found even more redundant wiring and ripped it all out. I think it's mostly defunct alarm/immobiliser stuff. There is some stuff hacked into the ignition barrel I've not really touched yet.

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Then I threw baby powder all over the place to try and get an idea of where exactly water is getting in. Current suspects are the sunroof drains, windscreen, door mirror holes and windscreen wiper holes.

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Lots of car related work has crept up on me this autumn, new job sees me out of the house 6 till 6 fairly regularly and the concept of working on cars in the dark and rain with no access to electricity has not been a tempting one.

[paulplom]

What is all the wirning off? It's time as an ambulance?

[Hooli]

There's enough spare wire there to rewire another car!

[DodgeRover]

Not got a zip in the headlining?

[captain_70s]

What is all the wirning off? It's time as an ambulance?

I assume so. All the gubbins were gone when I got it but it definitely had a beacon and 2-way radio type deal installed, plus an aftermarket alarm/immobiliser type setup. There was something in the back rigged into the main fuse box through a 20amp fuse in it's own holder, fuck knows what that was.

Headlining, and the rest of the fabric bits of interior have been replaced with a 940 interior. Apparently the original was rotten, I can believe it.

[SiC]

Possibly a unit that keeps the engine running with the keys out? I know it's common on police cars to allow the electronics and other kit to stay powered without flattening the battery, but if someone tries pulling off without the key it'll stall.