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Mar 15, 2015 17:22:35 GMT
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Right, so the thread begins... I feel like this thing has been passed around retroride members like the village bike. It seems to have been everyones banger and that not a huge amount of care has gone into owning it. A real mechanics car, I suppose. Anyway we paid £150 each with a decent MOT. So it would therefore seem a poor choice such a fine automobile as a cross country traveller... But thats exactly what i'm doing with it. Me and my friend Andrew will be manning this vessel to Rome and Back on a 14 ish day banger rally (rust2rome) in June. The car needed to be big enough to store our tat as well as spares etc. Comfortable enough to be able to withstand 4500 miles of cruising, reliable and easy to work on, and lastly be something a bit off the beaten track in terms of car choice. The Carlton fits all of these with great ease. Well done vauxhall. I've never liked vauxhalls, and I never wanted to own one, but at least this one is RWD and a bit quirky. Shes got an 8v cement mixer under the bonnet and its god awful slow. But I think this will be beneficial as it's quite an understressed engine so should be reliable enough. So today marked the beginning of actually getting stuff done. Gave the whole car a good clean, inspected the underside, checked brakes etc. and figured out why the exhaust would blow whenever it feels like. Whats a thread without pictures anyway... I picked this up at the start of January and it sat looking like this: Today I freed off the handbrake (note to self, do not leave cars parked up for long periods of time with handbrake on. Fail) and stuck it on ramps. Found the exhaust problem... Will probably weld this up at a later date. Noticed these funky tubes coming from the rear shocks.... Was really stuck as to what they would have been. So I followed them back into the boot. Awesome! Rear shocks are "Gabriel Hijackers" which upon research is an American company that makes shocks to deal with heavy loads. There were no pressure in these when I checked, explaining the super floppy suspension. I stuck the compressor on and pumped them up to about 80psi (25-200 is the range) and they now nice and stiff! You can literally take the valve out, dump it on its , then reinflate with the compressor and watch it raise again. +7 cool points for this I had way too much fun mucking about with it. The gauge on the underside doesnt work unfortunately but any digital tyre gauge works. The car does sit much nicer now. More cleanliness: And how the rear sits now. Quite different compared to the photo at the top^ Anyway, i'll be updating this as progress creeps along. On the list of things to do are exhaust, smaller belt for the alternator as it's not running the viscous fan, rewire the electric fan to a more sensible switch, Possible clutch and I'm sure there will be other things that crop up. Stay tuned for vaguely interesting GM bargain basement motoring.
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Splitter is win-inducing. The whole thing looks awesome actually. Looked really mean in my rear view mirror!
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I know we have the 'boards on retros' thread, but have we ever had a dedicated rack thread? If it has, feel free to banish this thread from the General Realm. Its been scientifically proven that adding a rack to your car (especially retro) not only adds 'scene' points, but also, in most cases, looks the dogs danglies. The perfect accessory to store your tat when your boot isnt big enough or for when you want to show off your spare wheel & old charity shop suitcase. So, here is me asking you, show us your rack, your wifes rack even your nans rack! See a cool car with a rack, stick it in here One of my own... Thule rack that cost me £5.50 And the stolen:
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Only photos of the burgundy raft of justice I have. This thing will hopefully be going to rome this summer. I almost washed it one day but I ended up just spraying it with the hose.
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This is bugging me so much. Wouldnt have bought my current car if I knew you'd be putting this up for sale! I still want it! If I manage to cobble money together I will let you know.
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You can actually buy them from amazon uk nowadays or I've got a snowboard I bought to make one for the cube but never got round to it. Aye I saw, for £226! I can get one imported for £90 from Amazon.com haha. May just fork out and pay the price.
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After one of these for my current non-retro Impreza. Just bought Thule roof bars to cart my mountain bike around and fancy a fairing for the front but you can only buy these in America. Before I go and import one for much monies (too much. More than the rack cost infact) does anyone here have one/something similar I can purchase? It'll need to be around 93 - 100cm wide. Brackets included if possible but i'll make my own if necessary. Doesnt have to be thule, can be any other brand or can even be home made if it looks good! Like this one... Gracias
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Feb 17, 2015 21:28:25 GMT
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garthalgar, you havent bought a car off me this month... Cheeky curse word. Although I wouldnt go as far as calling this a 'car' yet I had to scrape together money for the Carlton and that is doing a perfectly good job of taking up space on the drive at the moment. Good luck selling this though, I'm sure there must be someone after a decent project!
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Feb 14, 2015 13:42:14 GMT
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I just put the lower bars on mine with mirror extenders,but only the stock Kawasaki low bars I did have plans to mod it but I think I will just fit some better fork springs as they dive a lot under braking and some hagon rear shocks and leave it stock after that Its a great bike not mega powerful but nice to ride Aye youre right about the forks they are a bit weak! Think i'll be making some spacers for the top of the springs to put a bit of extra preload on. Nicest bike i've ever ridden despite being slow and cumbersome And for your viewing pleasures... She came out today for a warm up. Lovely.
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Noice. Took a bit of faffing to get the throttle to snap back properly but it all seems to be smooth and operational now. Reminds me of my old DRZ in terms of seating positing so i'm loving it as I can feel some hooliganism on the way. Payday is the 14th so I'm going to be getting a braided front line, new grips, smaller indies and a smaller headlight. Still need to make a front mudguard too then I can attempt an MOT when I think everythings done. On another note, I replaced the clutch springs and friction plates tonight because It was slipping quite badly under load before and It would never adjust right. The old friction plates were definitely worn but the springs were really bad. Not surprised it was slipping. The ends of the springs were getting quite thin and they were very scratches so looked as though they were rattling a bit. Didnt take pictures of this due to oily hands and the fact that it isnt actually that interesting Old left New right. I put most of the height difference due to the springs I used being EBC 20% stiffer jobbies, but the top coil on the old is about half as thick as the top coil on the new one. I used these on my SV650 and it made it awful in town because of how heavy the clutch was. 100% improvement though when pushing on. I only really buy them to please my inner manhood and put another few hairs on the chest.
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Aye battles is right its the original brake pipe. The handlebars went from big buckhorn American style bonneville ones to cafe bars and I re-used the pipe and cables rather than getting shorter ones. At some point i'll get a shorter braided line for the front but it does the job for now Keep the longer brake and speedo (assuming that's at the front wheel too?) for swapping to MX style bars. These machines look great with upright, MX style bars. You'll see one like it and fall in luurve... You mean like these? I honestly have this debate every other week... might just do it and see how I like it... I like flat trackers too
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that brake pipe looks wrong. thought it was because you had lowered it but it looks the same in the first picture.so guss thats how its ment to be. Aye battles is right its the original brake pipe. The handlebars went from big buckhorn American style bonneville ones to cafe bars and I re-used the pipe and cables rather than getting shorter ones. At some point i'll get a shorter braided line for the front but it does the job for now
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Any updates on this? I hope you do as cool a job on my old Carlton. Unfortunately I had to sell the Bluey. It was costing me too much money and time that I didnt have so cut my losses and bought something kind of modern. Granted I caused the problems myself but It was up on axle stands or with the bonnet open more than I drove it. Work were also getting annoyed that I had to keep borrowing a van haha. Shame really because I loved it. Part of the reason I bought the carlton really as I was craving something curse word again! The guy I bought it off swiftly lowered it more and snapped both rear coilovers which put and end to its 'cool' hoverboard look The Carlton will be going to Rome in the summer but I havent decided on a theme yet! It will be getting tarted up though Loving the fog light-fan situation by the way. Classic. Needs a few wee bits but I'm hoping it will be reliable enough.
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Lowered the forks through the triple trees about an inch as I always thought the front end was a bit high compared to the back. Put on my new plate, did and oil & filter change and it can now sit until the nice weather for an MOT. Me and my dad are going to the TT this year which means riding down to Heysham... Not too sure how comfortable this will be. Actually i'm pretty sure i'll be in crippling buttock pain but at least it looks good. Still need to make a front mudguard... or buy one from Japan like I did my other bits. Ive got new clutch plates and EBC stiffer springs to go in as the clutch slips quite badly despite only having 16k. I also realistically need new pilot jets but I'll wait until later for that.
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Hi dude, Just stumbled across this post and I may have some wheels of interest. They are 5 spoke antera 309s with a bit of dish 18" size in need of new tyres and a return but all straight and ready to roll otherwise. Bought them for my Audi a3 but sold the car shortly after. Would want £100 notes for them. Let me know Cheers for the offer but I've already blagged a set off of eBay! Would have had them otherwise.
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Dec 29, 2014 12:22:28 GMT
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That's nice is that mate! Have I seen it on twingo133 before? Was thinking about changing my orange bits to black like you've got tbh! Love the wheels aswell And what mm drop? I've actually got some coilovers ready to go on, think I might wait a month or so now incase it snows again! Anymore left overs for sale? Cheers! Yeah I had a thread on the net for dished wheels on a Twingo with mixed opinions haha. All the silver bits I wrapped myself If you go for it the only difficult bit to wrap is the spoiler that took forever. Drop there was 40/30 I think. Unfortunately it hardly made a dent in the ride height of a twingo. Wheel specs were 16" 8.5j ET20 if I remember, incase you were thinking of doing something similar. Back could have come out much more though. I had a set of FK coilovers to go on but insurance were having none of it so I ended up selling the car, buying and MX5 and switching insurer! Unfortunately springs are the only thing I have left over! Wheels and springs were the only thing I changed haha.
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Dec 28, 2014 18:48:28 GMT
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I appreciate this may be a bit of a long shot on here, as I doubt a lot of retro-heads will have these sort of things lying around, but if you don't ask!
Looking for some 5x100 18" wheels. They must be 8 or 9j wide and an offset of around 35. Preferably with a lovely dish because I just like that kind of thing. Trying to get something with a fairly aggressive fitment for my Impreza, and it seems a lot of golf wheels fit the bill. If you have a set lying around that match what I need then let me know!
Cheers
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Dec 28, 2014 16:29:44 GMT
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Ah. I used to have a Twingo GT. Cracking wee car that was. I've still got a set lowering springs in the shed if youre interested!
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Dec 27, 2014 17:33:54 GMT
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Had this almost a year now and love it to bits. Shes been taking me to work every day in the rain or shine and ive done almost 2000 miles on her, giving her almost 8k. There isnt much I havent taken off of this and put back together in preventative measures. I've never wanted it to be concourse because it gets used every day, so all mods have been done with daily use in mind. Thats how it looks today after a quick wash. Runs sweet as the proverbial nut. I got it like this: Instantly took it apart to protect it from rust and found that it didnt have a spec of the dirty brown stuff. Worst nightmare crisis averted! Rust prevention christmas edition (this was last year): Took me to staggering new speeds: Then I bought another one That came with enough parts to fill two big car boots. My shed is now FILLED with NOS Honda C90 parts. It is nice to know that if something goes wrong I can walk into my mini dealership and find almost ANY part I need no bother. If anything it will keep me on the road for years to come. Shocks from a CG125... Best mod i've done so far, especially helpful when me and the girlfriend are on together. Yes, I ride this stallion 2-up. Also a chain guard from a C50 because the pattern C50 chainguard looks and fits better than the pattern C90 ones (top tip) Then Number 2, appropriately named, got roadworthy and sold, while Betsie my daily passed her MOT with no advisories and has been in daily use ever since. I was looking forward to the winter so I could stick knobblies on her and ride her through the snow but the weather hasnt held up its end of the bargain. I'm still buying knobblies though... they look cool
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