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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Mar 19, 2016 23:51:22 GMT
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/\ Why would you want to stop this?
Oh, I see what you mean...
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Feb 29, 2016 20:03:45 GMT
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That looks fantastic! I especially like the C pillar - IMO it really finishes the shape off and makes it look 'factory'. I've got a soft spot for the Cortina, seeing as I own the Mk6 version ;-)
Hats off to you for your work rate too...
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Nov 30, 2015 20:11:55 GMT
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I want to get mine back to a similar after market unit that was offered in 1996, does anyone know where I can find brochures from around that time This has plenty of catalogues from the 90s, unfortunately in French but you can look at the pictures and do an eBay search for the make/model you like! antique-autoradio-madness.org/page-liens/autoradios-eur.htmBTW, I have this which you could have for say a tenner posted? Decent sound, not too flashy and with front & rear pre-outs.
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Last Edit: Nov 30, 2015 20:23:46 GMT by matfenwick
Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Nov 29, 2015 22:39:01 GMT
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Liking the wood effect Kenwood! One thing which bugged me about just playing music from the phone through a line-in, was actually controlling it. With a touch screen, you can't just operate it by feel (although I guess with an iPod you can to some extent). So it was a pain to stop and select a different album. While the USB interface viewed via a tiny display is a bit 'clunky', it's a lot better for me. With speakers I didn't want anything obvious, so underneath the original grilles in the rear... ...are a set of Eminence 289 speakers: The original shelf was layered on top of a piece of plywood to provide a solid mounting. I've got a Mckenzie 12" subwoofer hidden away too, but the cone surround has started to perish so I need to replace that at some point :-( And I'm VERY tempted by this! www.ebay.co.uk/itm/High-End-Pioneer-DEH-P645R-W-Reciever-CD-Wood-finish-Remote-Near-MINT-/371494540790
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Last Edit: Nov 29, 2015 22:40:23 GMT by matfenwick
Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Nov 29, 2015 11:36:20 GMT
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Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm only just discovering the rest of the forum outside Reader's Rides! This sort of thing is right up my street. I like retro stuff, and it bugs me when something looks out of place. Modern radios just seem to be as garish as possible to stand out in Halfords! Although this isn't too bad I suppose. In my case I've had the car for nearly 20 years now, and shortly after I got it (for my 18th birthday) I bought this: This served me well for many years, and even survived a break-in as I'd mounted it very securely - although they smashed up the front trying to get it out. Last year I wired up something which spliced into the aerial cable, blocked out any other FM signals and transmitted audio from my phone via FM. This was OK but a bit on the quiet side. Then earlier this year I bought this, which I'd been after for a while: Sound quality was supposed to be better (although I couldn't notice a difference!) and it had an IP-bus input, meaning I could add an interface for a USB drive. But, I wasn't a massive fan of actually using that head unit. The buttons were mostly the same by feel, the white LEDs were a bit too bright and didn't match the dash illumination (a pet hate), you had to fold down the front to load a CD (which I still do from time to time), and lastly, I much prefer the old Pioneer logo! It also had no pause button, so to stop playback you had to scroll through the function menu and turn it on or off by turning the knob. So I sold it. With the proceeds I splashed out £2.07 on this, which is almost identical to the original, except I was able to connect up the USB interface. There's something rather satisfying about getting old technology to work with a device which didn't even exist when it was made!
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Last Edit: Nov 29, 2015 11:40:20 GMT by matfenwick
Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Nov 13, 2015 22:15:08 GMT
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Update time! It's now under cover for the winter - just as well given the weather we're having at the moment. So I've been doing a few 'tinkering' jobs, one of them being sorting out the radio. All my music is on my phone, but with an old head unit there's no way of playing back the music without having to control it from the phone. Which isn't something I want to be doing. But then I found that back in the early 2000s, Pioneer did an accessory which connected to the CD changer port, allowing a USB input. Full control from the head unit, and track titles too :-) Presumably discontinued as it didn't encourage people to upgrade their head units... I'd been looking for a while but any that did come up were used and over £100 :-( Until I found one BNIB for sale over the pond for $25 - better still it was Canadian dollars so only £12.50! It was on a community sell/swap webpage, so I applied to join. Unfortunately they wouldn't let 'outsiders' in, so I emailed one of the admins to explain the situation. She agreed to contact the seller, but sadly they didn't want the bother of packaging it, finding the cost to the UK etc. So I thought that was that. But the admin then offered to buy it and post it herself, and when I told her to add something on for the time and trouble, told me she didn't want any extra, just to pay the favour forwards! Anyway, long story short and all that, here's what arrived today: Next change was the head unit: Whilst I can't fault the sound quality, I'm just not getting on with this. The buttons are mostly the same by feel so difficult to operate without looking, the white LEDs are a bit too bright and don't match the dash illumination (a pet hate), you have to fold down the front to load a CD (which I still do from time to time), the only way to pause playback is to navigate through a menu and lastly, I much prefer the old Pioneer logo! So for £2.07 this was a bit of a bargain! And almost identical to the original head unit I bought back when I was 18. There's something rather satisfying about getting old technology to work with a device which didn't even exist when it was made - USB drives only came out in the early 2000s.
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Oooh, retro car audio is right up my street! Even more reason to enjoy this thread :-)
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Good work there - looking great now! Loving the history behind it too.
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Oct 29, 2015 22:37:28 GMT
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Definitely not just you. I found it helped to be working on several areas of the car at once - that way that even if one job went badly, chances are there was at least something you could finish and get the mojo going once again. And stuff like dash lights makes it feel more like a car again :-) As for the memories, with you 100%. The first drive of the Stellar after 10 years sitting idle (and nearly 20 years of ownership) I spent some time just sitting in the driver's seat and listening to music of my youth. It may be just a car, but the memories make it special.
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Lovely scenery, we'll be down that way ourselves in a couple of weeks!
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Sept 30, 2015 21:28:08 GMT
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I really needed to replace the fuel gauge sender, as the original read full for the first 20 miles after a fill, then quickly fell to half and then dropped as normal. So even when showing empty there'd still be near enough half a tank left. Problem was, the 'new' sender (from a later car) had a range of 0-100 ohms, and the gauge expected 10 to 180 ohms. Even after playing around with zero and span adjustment pots I couldn't get it reading right at both ends of the scale. Enter this little device which I found: www.spiyda.com/magento/index.php/fuel-gauge-wizard-mk2.htmlSo I wired it in (the wrong way round at first!!!) and after a fair bit of adjustment got it reading spot on over the whole range of the gauge. There's even adjustment for linearity, as on some senders the resistance doesn't change linearly with fuel level - presumably if the tank is non-uniform in profile over its depth. One more job off the list!
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Last Edit: Sept 30, 2015 21:48:42 GMT by matfenwick
Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Sept 18, 2015 22:28:07 GMT
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He would have done for £250, but I already have a shedful of spares (apart from the bits above!), and the only road legal tow vehicle I have would cost £100 just to get inside the LEZ. So looking like the purchase price doubling to get it back home what with trailer hire and fuel. Not to mention the grief I'd get bringing home another car!
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Sept 18, 2015 21:21:20 GMT
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Oops, missed the comments on this! Yes, you're right about the beach - great places for photos, and a BBQ watching the sun go down :-) Thanks for the compliments, it's nice to hear. As for upgrades, well you never know but in all honesty I'm enjoying it as it is at the moment! Wouldn't want to take it off the road for work, as then I wouldn't be able to drive it...one winter maybe. Probably more likely to rebuild the existing engine rather than a new lump, tempting as that may be. I found out about a Stellar being prepared for banger racing a week or so ago, so contacted them and made them an offer for a few bits. Trouble was, it was in central London, and the only time could get down was Friday afternoon. For some daft reason I took the Stellar, which I almost regretted! The car was stored at his workplace, so he was initially going to hang around after work for me to arrive. But after hitting traffic near Brum I said I'd let him know when I got closer, so he could go home and come back nearer the time. This is when the car started to give me grief :-( I'd guesstimated at the right size restrictor in the return fuel line, to allow some flow at idle to prevent vaporisation, yet not too much so the pump can keep up with engine demands at full throttle. This it seems isn't optimally sized for prolonged traffic on a hot day! After about half an hour of near stationary idling, it started to get a little 'fluffy' when pulling away unless the throttle was fed in very gently. This caused several stalls - not normally a problem but more so in the middle lane of the M6 with a dodgy starter motor. And no usable hard shoulder. Anyway, after a while things started moving a bit and just the slow airflow through the engine bay was enough to stave off problems. As I was running late I decided to skip stopping to eat, and let him know when I was an hour away. All looked good until I was 10 miles/20 minutes away, which ended up taking an hour and a half - in fact a whole hour just to do 2 miles. After about 45 minutes the vaporisation was getting quite bad - even cutting out if I allowed the engine to idle. The starter problem was worse in the heat too :-( On more than one occasion I was stopped, and unable to get started for a while. People honking and shouting, you get the picture. It helped if I revved the engine, but this increased the heat coming through the bulkhead! On top of this I was starving, thirsty and exceedingly grumpy. When I eventually got there I was very happy to see he'd remembered some of the things I'd mentioned, and started getting them off while he was waiting :-) Such a relief to finally head homewards. On the plus side, at least the engine cooling system is fine as the gauge never budged over half way, although was pinking badly for a few minutes after finally getting moving. Here's the two cars together - the only time you're likely to see two Stellars in one photo? And here's the haul, including that sill trim! My 3D printed wheel centres came out a few weeks back too, so it was time to do a spot of tarting up. Mud flaps: And sill trims now on, although still fastened up with tape for now.
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Aug 28, 2015 21:11:00 GMT
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You truly are living the dream. That is all.
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Aug 20, 2015 19:09:50 GMT
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Unbelievably, three weeks later, certain that I'd been scammed I rocked up there and he came out dressed in full Toyota overalls with my cock in his hand. Did make sure you had adequate lubrication? If not then maybe you can use some of this.
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Aug 17, 2015 19:28:37 GMT
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All of this happened to the soothing Karaoke background of a lubricated performance of Hotel California by a V8 Stellar driving crooner. You mean there's ANOTHER one? Great story, I'm always reluctant to get rid of any car as any I do seem to disappear
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Last Edit: Aug 17, 2015 19:30:21 GMT by matfenwick
Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Aug 15, 2015 23:03:13 GMT
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Never owned one, but always had a soft spot for them! I'll have to get one before prices go up too much...
What's in store for it?
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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Aug 15, 2015 22:39:32 GMT
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Me too! You should already have my email address...
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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I suspect that the alloy block V8 weighs around the same as the iron block 4. A guy I knew here in New Zealand back in the '90s had an HC Viva with a Buick 215 alloy block V8 in it and my hazy memory tells me that the original front springs did the job just fine. If you think that the springs you have are not hard enough you could perhaps use the ones from the Australian assembled six cylinder Cortina (if you can find any) although they might be too hard as those iron block, iron head 4.1 litre lumps are tremendously heavy. How many diffs have you broken so far? If none you must be a very sensible driver. My gut feeling is that the springs themselves are fine, as if they were too soft it would be sitting lower, surely? The problem is more that the ride feels a bit wallowy, and dives a lot under braking. All the dampers are new, or rather were 10 years ago and I think NOS even then. The fronts were 'gas assisted', but what I don't know is whether the gas actually contributes to the springing significantly, or merely keeps the oil under pressure to reduce foaming. If the former, and they've lost pressure over time I wonder whether that could be causing the issues. A set of Gaz adjustables doesn't seem bad value, so seems a sensible first step. Custom coilovers would be nice, but pricey given that the future situation with work is unknown :-( It's only been on the round for a few thousand miles, so no diffs failed yet! I suppose I am getting to be a sensible driver, as I've hardly spun the wheels at all - and when I have it's been unintentional!
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Sometimes, others may not understand why you like a car so much. Sometimes, you may not even understand why you like a car so much. But none of that matters; all that matters is that you like the car, and having it makes you happy.
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