vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 26, 2024 15:53:38 GMT
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I have a significant price rise coming soon. If you want to get a commission or original at the current prices do it now, they won't be this price for long.
Having spoken to curators and artists today I've learned my prices are far below industry standard and have been advised to raise them accordingly. This is people who have been in the industry longer than me, have experience promoting their own work and the work of others, and have assessed my original work in person today.
This will hopefully give me the time to create better work, to take on technical training, to promote my work better and, eventually, have a much better standard of living due to a healthier wage.
If you want things at the current price, book/buy NOW. I'm not keeping the current prices for long.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Bilbo's mk1 Cavaliervulgalour
@vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member 146
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Apr 24, 2024 11:50:22 GMT
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That's turned out really nice, happy bonus that the door carpet doesn't need recolouring now since it looks deliberate along with the new seats and dash recolour. I'd leave the centre console black so it flows into the bottom half of the dash nicely, especially if you're keeping black carpets with red mats. Nice thing with the dye is if you don't like any colour choice you can just go over it again with a different colour.
You might be able to get a rubber gaitor from a tractor supplies place, I was looking for similar a while ago and they had all sort of different shapes and angled bellows gaitors for all sorts of tractor applications.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 23, 2024 19:30:13 GMT
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Done a few more miles so it's time for an oil leak update.
Fuel pump - seems to have stop leaking. If it is leaking it's such a tiny amount I can't see it. Oil filler tube - no more leaking. More to the point, the oil that was on the front of the block as pretty rapidly self-cleaned off Belt side - No reappearance of oil. However, there is an appearance of muddy water all over everything which does look and feel slighytly oily. There might be a minor gasket weep for the oil filter/pump housing, but that might also be dirty road water.
Clutch hydraulics are remaining trouble free too, if I had a leak there I'd definitely expect to see it by now and I'm not losing a drop of fluid or having and gear selection woes. I've also apparently cured the dead spot issue and I have a theory on why that might be. Since the deadspot would only happen after changing gear, often when setting off, and nothing else - carb settings, ignition timing, etc - made any lasting difference I suspect I've had a bit of air stuck in the clutch hydraulics. If my theory is correct that means that most of the time the air is in just the right spot that everything works as it should, but every now and then the air is in a place where I can't get proper travel on the clutch arm in relation to the pedal, and that was causing the dead spot issue. It was a lot like the clutch wasn't engaging properly, but not a slipping clutch, and because of the intermittent nature of the problem it had proven impossible to pin down. Now, it could also be that the problem has just gone away for a bit like it has in the past so I'm not counting any chickens and that's why my theory is just that.
I am actually enjoying just having the Princess to worry about lately, it's all the car I need and it's nice not to be distracted by other project cars for the moment. I'm also looking forward to heading back down to Kent later this year to see Pat and the Lanchester and for that I think I'd like the Princess to be trustworthy enough to take me since she is cheaper than the train and takes no longer to get there and back. Might have to install some sort of tunes first, it's a 4-5 hour drive and I don't fancy that in just my own company.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 22, 2024 18:34:25 GMT
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Good luck with your time management endeavours. Could be a good excuse to acquire a DeLorean. I've been doing battle with a nasty cold this weekend, so it's just as well the weather hasn't been so great. That said, bullied myself to get out and do something on the car and might have found and fixed a couple of minor oil leaks. Time will tell on that. Put the shiny wheel trims on too, fancied a change. Work was finished on the white Rover a little while ago, that's just awaiting collection.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 21, 2024 15:38:04 GMT
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Fluid leak situation update for you all. Clutch fluid is remaining exactly where I left it with no signs of any leaks anywhere, I also still haven't been able to get the dead spot to reappear which again may be coincidental or it may be I've accidentally found the cause of it. Perhaps that dead spot has been low clutch fluid all this time and I simply hadn't brimmed the reservoir to the correct level. The fuel pump leak was a lot less serious than usual and I did find the bolts were not quite as tight as one might expect. Nipped them up just a smidge did a test run and the oil leak has thus far not reappeared. What has happened is one of the paper gaskets has taken on an odd shape though so I think I'll likely have to remove and regasket the pump anyway. The other suspect oil leak was proven to be so when I remove the oil filler tube. I've had this off several times over the last twelve years and it's only ever been put back on with sealant because when I got the car it never had a gasket fitted. It was clearly leaking when removed so I cleaned everything up and fitted a cork gasket here. As with the fuel pump, I've not noticed any fresh oil appearing here after a run so hopefully that's that one resolved. The other oil leak I cannot pin down at all. At the belt side of the engine there's a few tiny spots of oil as if it's been thrown up from somewhere else but none of it looks particularly gunky or old. I begin to wonder if maybe I've driven through something that looks like oil but isn't because the belts do pick up stuff and throw it all over the place due to the lack of undertrays and only a minimal cover on top of the belt as standard. I cleaned it all off and I'll see if it reappears. Other than that I'm not really seeing any issues aside from a lot of storage grime I need to hose down and some hastily applied paint that has finally failed and needs redoing. Would have liked to do more this weekend but I've been absolutely hammered with a cold since Thursday so there's a bit of a gap between what I think I can do and what I can actually do when I try and do anything.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 19, 2024 10:40:51 GMT
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Ah, it turns out I did rebuilt the clutch master cylinder in July 2020. Odd that I don't remember doing it, and good that I had reference of doing the work. I did the slave cylinder at the same time, so the system was basically overhauled three and a half years ago.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 19, 2024 10:00:32 GMT
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Don't give it ideas!
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Today had to drop off a CV at a local bakery. Not expecting to be successful, while at the same time being very aware you miss 100% of the shots you never take. That meant using the Princess, since it's about 5 miles drive. Fluid level in the clutch master cylinder is still where it was so it hadn't leaked out overnight and the gear change still felt okay.
Off we trundled and immediately one thing became apparent which is the weird dead spot when setting off, especially when the car is cold, had gone. This could be coincidental of course, this is a problem that has come and gone for years now, but even when I tried to replicate the conditions that would make it happen I couldn't. Clutch control at lower speeds felt a lot better too than it has in a very long time.
I'm going to keep an eye on this one, make sure I check the clutch fluid every week alongside the other fluids (which I arguably should be doing anyway) and just monitor the situation. There's still no sign of fluid leaking out anywhere either inside the car or inside the engine bay so if it is leaking it must be a very tiny leak.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Bilbo's mk1 Cavaliervulgalour
@vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member 146
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Apr 18, 2024 17:37:49 GMT
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You chose the right red, goes well with the seats. Hope it wears as well in your cabin as it has in mine. Vauxhall colour interiors from this era were excellent, and a little later when they did the colour matched interiors with crushed velour seats.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 17, 2024 20:31:12 GMT
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It's possible. I've not seen any sign of leaking inside the car and obviously the fluid must be going somewhere so for now I'll just keep an eye on things and see if I can discover where it's escaping. It has had a replacement hose and slave cylinder when they both failed a while ago, the master cylinder I've never touched so might need a rebuild.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 17, 2024 16:56:51 GMT
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Slight fright today, although I was half expecting it since things have been going so well. Yesterday the clutch pedal felt 'off', but I couldn't figure out if it was just me being tired, or the car being cold or what, so just had to wait and see. Today on trying to reverse out of a parking bay I couldn't actually get reverse. Now, the Princess has done this to me before a couple of times, I know the drill. If the gear change is notchy, that usually means the oil is getting low so I check that and it wasn't as low as it would have been to affect the gear change. Dropped a tiny bit of oil in anyway to bring it to almost the full line and it made no difference. That means it's clutch cylinder related. It's not the clutch, it's not slipping, I'm just not getting full travel of the arm in relation to the pedal. That is usually failed seals in the clutch cylinder or a collapsed clutch hose. Checked those out and both are dry and don't show signs of damage. Checked the fluid level in the clutch reservoir and it was actually very low. It's been a while since I've checked this and the car had been sat around doing nothing for a while, it made sense that it might have disappeared a bit like brake fluid does sometimes. Topped it up, still no change, opened the bleed nipple to check the hose wasn't restricted and found that there was air in the system, probably because the fluid had dropped a bit too low. Once bled, all gears back to normal and reverse considerably better than it's been for a couple of weeks.
We'll see if normal service continues, it might, or I might need another clutch hose (there's at least three different lengths, which I found out last time I tried to get one) or to rebuild the clutch cylinder again. Time will tell. It's a bit of a relief something went wrong to be honest, it's been a bit overdue.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 17, 2024 10:33:55 GMT
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I did discover some rubber sheet/webbing last night that's leftover from another project, could that work? I'm just thinking since it's flexible and the rubberised backing on the original blanking plate actually works, maybe it would be more effective since it has a bit more squish to it than cork or paper or card.
Or is it something I should totally avoid. I've no idea if the rubber I've got is heat/oil safe since it wasn't bought as gasket material, so I might just make it worse.
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Last Edit: Apr 17, 2024 10:34:19 GMT by vulgalour
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 16, 2024 15:36:04 GMT
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Hoping for reasonable weather this weekend and enough energy to make use of it. Regular use of the Princess has helped me find the cause of a couple of oil leaks I want to resolve and the car generally has been so well behaved lately that I'm feeling a bit bad that I've not been able to give it more attention than I have. Was quite please that I managed to get a pic with some cherry blossom before the weather obliterated it. Matchy-matchy!
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 15, 2024 14:17:07 GMT
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I want to keep it proper twins rather than singles and spots. I also want to move the indicators and sidelights up into the headlights so two pairs of those above would answer all those challenges.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 15, 2024 13:11:07 GMT
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 14, 2024 21:21:29 GMT
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Hylomar with the gasket- not instead of. I've tried sealing that pump with just a paper gasket, just Hylomar, and paper gasket and Hylomar together. The latter is the most effective but it always starts leaking again eventually. I can stop it for, at best, six months before needing to redo it. There's something about the design of the area that's causing the leak, probably to do with imperfect mating surfaces, heat cycles, and vibration. Funnily enough, when it's just the original rubberised metal blanking plate that's fitted it doesn't leak at all but since I've not yet had a reliable electric pump on this car, that's not an option either. Cork gaskets have worked well for me before with stubborn leaks like this so I'm hoping it'll work on this one too.
I could really do with a weekend where I've the time and energy to get on with sorting this out, since the house move I just seem to be busy and/or wiped out every weekend and it's pretty tiresome. Thank goodness I've only got one car to look after!
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 14, 2024 19:02:38 GMT
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Bit late on the old reply here, missed the above.
I found this set which is pretty close to what I had in mind. A chrome bowl like the ones you link with the indicator function would have been perfect but I don't mind the styling enough that I think they'd work on the front of the Princess thanks to the black plastic section. £260 is still a lot to spend but that's balanced out by the fact they solve a couple of things in addition to the lighting upgrade so they're bookmarked for when I can afford them.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Bilbo's mk1 Cavaliervulgalour
@vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member 146
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Apr 14, 2024 15:28:22 GMT
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Straight over black on the vinyl, no bleaching or whatever required. Didn't really take any more coats than going over the brown either. Here's one of the front seats with the first coat of red going on. Plenty of light coats prevent a sticky finish, you just have to be patient building them up and all at once you have decent coverage as you do it. Door cards were a pale brown, coverage was a bit quicker there.
I didn't try it on the velour, I masked that off since I wanted to keep it black. I see no reason why it wouldn't take, the dye chemically bonds to the vinyl which like the velour is a form of plastic. What might happen is the dye might rub off on the higher wear areas of the seat facings, that was another reason I chose not to dye those bits and left them black, the other reason was purely aesthetic.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Bilbo's mk1 Cavaliervulgalour
@vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member 146
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Apr 14, 2024 13:20:50 GMT
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Other option for the red interior is to dye it. My interior was originally black and brown vinyl, it's now red (the black you see in here is the original fabric). Got the dye from www.vinyldye.co.uk/TRG-Vinyl-Dye-Spray-Paint and it does the job pretty well. I did that almost four years ago now and it still looks the same with the exception that the gloss has settled to a more OEM satin look which is what I wanted anyway. I didn't use a top coat but it would probably be a good idea if you want the extra protection on the colour. I think I used 6-8 150ml cans for four door cards, two kick panels, two B pillar trims, four grab handles, and the vinyl portion on all the seats to give you some idea of quantity needed, the Cavalier is going to be pretty similar proportions to the Princess I expect on the interior.
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Last Edit: Apr 14, 2024 13:22:18 GMT by vulgalour
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,080
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Apr 14, 2024 13:10:38 GMT
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blackpopracing: I've used Hylomar and found it 90% effective. It couldn't seal up that phenolic spacer for much longer than a regular gasket. It will do a good job on the oil filler tube though, ideal for that sort of thing. spacekadett: That's exactly where it's "leaking" but I'm pretty sure it's not actually leaking there. If I clean it off the oil doesn't reappear at the seam first, it starts appearing nearby, I just haven't pinned down exactly what is putting the oil out in the area yet. Of course, it could be leaking from there, wicking back with capillary action to another area, and confusing the source because you know, that's how these things go. I'll keep an eye on it for now. On the plus side, oil usage (whether through leaks or consumption, maybe both) does seem to be reduced since I've been using the car more often.
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