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Feb 16, 2022 23:00:58 GMT
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Coolant filled, bled as much as we could, dash cluster wasn't working so no idea where the temperature gauge was getting to. Worrying that I didn't hear the fan going but we had a thermometer gun on it and it seemed ok. The following day we went to start it and it point blank refused. poked a few things with the multimeter which raised further questions over the glow plugs. Turns out something in the wiring or relay isn't happy but I didn't have time to investigate so wired up an Emergency Cold Start 5000 Straight from the battery to the plugs for a few minutes and it fired up with a puff of smoke. I wanted to get all drilling and cutting jobs done before the bodyshop. I didn't quite manage it but the last big hole to make was to relocate the hook up to the rear panel. Rare action shot here Didn't want to just hack out a square hole so shaped it to the body of the hook up and used stainless M4 rivnuts to secure. All being well this should be central between the number plate and the light, looks a bit odd without either attached. And so with that done the interior units were taken out again and all purchased panels labelled and thrown in. Many more to be bought but we're awaiting the body shop's report so that we don't miss anything. And finally, come Monday morning, away it went. Delighted to have my driveway back again, I moved the MX5 back into it's usual position...very strange looking out and not seeing a big old van So now I can concentrate my time on some of my other duties...
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Last Edit: Feb 16, 2022 23:04:53 GMT by oli8925
Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Van goes in to the body shop on Monday so I took the week off to try to make some last minute progress. Got the front end painted in satin black With a bit of paint left over we did a quick tidy up of the rad Installed the radiator and pulled the wiring back through the holes This is a new section of loom I made a while back to incorporate some changes; new headlight wiring run through relays as the old was corroded and the plugs had deteriorated, twin air horns (why not?), fan override, auxilliary coolant temperature and oil pressure senders to gauges, and tailgate pin switch to alarm. Tried a bit of DIY loom twisting using a cordless drill with some success and slipped over various sizes of PVC sleeving to match the factory loom. I need a slightly bigger sleeving than I have for two sections so will have to finish the job tomorrow then I can fully finish and secure it all. We needed a new bottom hose from the engine, the replacement has a large rigid reinforcement inside at a T junction so wouldn't slide over the front-to-rear pipe fully thanks to these crush tubes sticking out A bit of chat on Club80-90 suggested the crush tubes should be driven in fully, which was no easy job but allowed the hose to slide over almost as much as the original, good enough to secure nicely Auxilliary water pump reinstated. Will fill the coolant system up for the first time in a good few months tomorrow and run the engine up to temperature. Still plenty more to do before next week too...
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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My understanding is the majority of 2 pack paints contain isocyanates as it is contained in the hardener rather than the paint itself. There are some non-iso hardeners around, I think generally referred to as converters or similar, which convert the acrylic from chemical dry via hardener mix to air dry. Here the trade off is the drying/curing time but take it from me, don't bother. They never seem to fully cure and don't have the hard wearing, resistant qualities of true 2 pack paint, you'd be better off with a single pack paint /enamel.
If you did want to go down the 2 pack route they are far safer to apply by brush with care than by gun as you don't have the atomised paint being able to enter via lungs/eyes/skin etc.
As you've read up epoxy primer and epoxy mastic are very different products. Epoxy primer is still very much a primer but as far as primers go has a reasonably thick build, good adhesion and best of all is non-porous. Epoxy mastic is I think designed to be a hard setting, high adhesion top coating but needs good quality prep to work well.
Don't forget to use a converter/primer (like dinitrol rc900) and cavity wax inside any boxed/reinforced sections of your components after painting. From my experience the shot blaster will be able to get more reach in these areas than your paint.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Jan 31, 2022 16:38:00 GMT
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I asked this exact question a year or two ago, also as a complete novice, and as you might expect got a range of similar but different answers. There's no right way and everyone has their own opinion.
I was also going to start with zinc rich primer, BondaRust in my case, and this was confirmed a good idea. It's also delightfully easy to apply.
I was also going epoxy prime (not sure if you were meaning epoxy primer or epoxy mastic) due to the non-porous characteristics but was told this wasn't necessary if the top coat was right.
As you want it to be safe for home spraying I assume you're discounting typical automotive acrylic 2 pack top coat, so not sure what 2k acrylic you're referring to as I'm no paint expert. I was advised against 2 pack epoxy mastics, Jotun/POR15 etc, due to their sensitivity to prep and undercoat, and iirc they can chip and let water underneath similar to a powder coat. In the end I went with Frost Chassis Paint to overcoat and the results have been pretty good. It's a bit more a pain to use through the gun than acrylic 2k, I thinned to 15% with white spirit and use a 1.7 or 2.0 tip and as its single pack air dry I found it takes a good few days/week to fully cure even in the height of summer.
Best of luck with whatever you decide.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Another weekend down and it feels like progress is as slow as ever, but we have finally gone from patchwork To one colour Even if it is only primer. Now this is the first time I've used 2 pack epoxy, we bought an HB Body kit from Jawel but what arrived was in Jawel's own tins and lacked any mixing instructions so I just stuck with HB Body's. Is unmixed epoxy usually so thick and gloopy it doesn't actually pour out of the tin? Horrible stuff to mix, the hardener and thinner brought it back a lot but it was still so thick my 1.7 needle was struggling, so I thinned it down a bit more to ~35%. I had hoped to get it thin enough to use in my mini gun so that I could fit it in the gaps much easier but no chance, and it actually unwound and blew off* the flow regulator cap. *The fact it was dirt cheap may have had something to do with it. Other than that a few other small jobs ticked off. 14 days to go until it's collected, it's going to be tight. Meanwhile I felt guilty abandoning the MX5 so took that out tonight. My brother-in-law gave a log from my last run a look over and made some adjustments, so I loaded the new map up and took it for a test drive down to (ex)SVA Imports in Dover. I wasn't sure from the internet whether they were still operating, but it seems not. Other than a cold start issue it's behaving itself fairly well at the moment, idle could be leaner but doesn't seem to want to go there.
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Last Edit: Jan 31, 2022 1:31:03 GMT by oli8925
Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Jan 23, 2022 23:50:51 GMT
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Another while without an update due to not much progress being made. I'm not sure why that is; other distractions, weather, lack of time, oh and the last time I tried to weld up the bulkhead it went terribly and I threw a strop. That's probably why. I later realised my wire reel had gone rusty and was binding on the liner but I was still in a stinking mood. The van's now due into the bodyshop in less than a month. They weren't expecting to weld the bulkhead and I wanted it done and painted so we could resintall the radiator and get it running and driving to load onto the trailer. Thankfully this time it went reasonably well, a bit of self-belief was restored and we'll hopefully get it finished in time. I realise I didn't take any before pictures, so have a crop of a screen shot of an old picture. It's unclear to see but there were two self-tapper holes for the old alarm siren. Over the years the rot had set in and the vibration and the weight of the unit had fractured and split the bulkhead between the two points. A few holes were blown in the second attempt but I think this was due to thinned metal from my attempt to clean up attempt one. In the end I reached a stage where I was happy enough that there were no pin holes and a skim of filler would see it right enough. The same goes for the inside but you'll have to take my word for it. The entire bulkhead will now be cleaned up and keyed for some epoxy primer and satin black (mrs8925's choice) from the gun, hopefully in the next week or two. This flurry of activity also spread to the garage where the new diff I picked up for the MX5 was de-rusted (lovely job!) hydrate 80'd, primed and hit with chassis paint - as per I seem to have lost any photos of this. Then I went a bit mad. I'd been looking at electroplating kits for a while as this was part of the MX5 refresh I wasn't happy about. As I hadn't planned to go to such lengths at that point all the bolts were cleaned up and sprayed with cold galv spray and hammerite. As expected it didn't take long for surface rust to come back without any proper protection. Now the 9000 'resto' is in sight I wasn't going to make the same mistake again so spent out on the kit, and then all the extra accessories you need to make a good go of it, then the 75l of deionised water...all said an done it was flipping expensive, but hopefully worth it. The diff bolts were going to be my first test subjects. I'd start off by de-rusting them by electrolytic cleaning A day later, followed by a scrub with a brush A wire wheel on a bench grinder cleaned them up ok, ready for the plating procedure. Here is where I lost the instructions so did everything by memory. And didn't take pictures. 20 minute soak in alkaline cleaner followed by a quick dip in the acid pickle solution, then 30 minutes in the zinc-nickel plating solution, and finally a dip in the yellow passivate, rinsing in clean water between all steps. The outcome was...ok. I don't think I had enough faith in the passivate so left them in for too long, I should have inspected more at the plating stage as some of them haven't taken very well and need to be redone, and I think I did too many in one batch contributing to the inconsistent plating and meaning they knocked each other when they shouldn't have. I'll need to find the instructions as some guides say to pickle again after plating and before passivating, some don't. And I need another two tank heaters. Still, could have been worse
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Last Edit: Jan 23, 2022 23:54:56 GMT by oli8925
Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Dec 19, 2021 22:54:57 GMT
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I didn't know anything about these until I followed one on my commute with a poorly applied, bubbly, rear window tint and a peeling Ralliart sticker. We both turned off at a roundabout with an immediate two-lane uphill section. I was in my diesel commuter, so nothing remotely exciting and quite a boat but 190bhp so not too much of a slouch either. As I was mid overtake the Colt dropped a gear and pulled away with some ease. A bit of a douche move but a knowing nod and a smile was shared at the next roundabout. From then on I've paid these a bit more respect.
The swirls from the car wash is quite unbelievable. I'd expect that much from years of car wash abuse build up but not from one wash on a previously presentable car. Terrible. And the body shop. Kudos to the detailer and yourself, that's a very tidy looking car now.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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I really enjoy these threads, interesting to see what people choose to be their worst and why.
Mine should probably be my first classic mini, bought sight unseen as a 17 year old looking for his first car. It looked great in the photos, less so in real life. A healthy amount of rust, boot floor and inner sills had disappeared, engine running on 3 if you were lucky, and this a car with 12 months 'MOT'. It was repaired and fixed up, developed another running issue which meant I couldn't even drive it for a few months after passing my test, literal torture. But no, I loved that car and can forgive it for all the great memories.
Maybe it should be the Viva which, now I look back on it, I probably spent as much time fixing as driving. But I loved that too. Objectively rubbish, but full of character to me, probably as I'm not quite of its era.
The worst for me was a 2005 E46 320d. Low mileage, one owner who happened to be a family member, full BMW service history. It was meant to be me growing up, my first truly sensible and relatively modern car, and reasonably well equipped. Obviously you don't expect it to be the pinnacle of fun but what an incredibly dull, bland, and outright average car. It didn't do anything particularly well, but equally it didn't do anything particularly badly, which made it even worse. No redeeming qualities, no underdog qualities, and despite its mileage problems and niggles soon started to develop all over the place. Nasty, notchy 6 speed 'box which constantly demanded my attention due to the narrow torqueband of the asthmatic and dangerously unresponsive engine. I was so glad when it was rear ended. A small fight for the payout left me in a reasonably decent position with which I unfortunately bought another relatively boring family commuter, but for 80% of the price bought a newer, bigger, much better spec'd estate which was surprisingly pleasant to drive, had 30% more power and most importantly of all didn't make me hate it.
Second to that maybe the MX5, but I still own that so can't bad mouth it yet.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Dec 13, 2021 18:42:37 GMT
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Bookmarked. Would absolutely love to go to town on one like this but probably won't now. Happy enough to have owned and spent a few happy years in two Thunder edition Pumas before growing family and rust got the better of us. Potentially one of the most underrated cars by the general motoring public.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Dec 11, 2021 13:21:12 GMT
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Last few days for offers on the cage and cd changer before they end up in the bin
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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These have now been collected by the very kind chap and lady who archive and document historic racing on sportscars.tv along with some of the other collections that sold on ebay.
Very happy they've gone to good use.
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Last Edit: Dec 8, 2021 15:33:20 GMT by oli8925
Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Last chance for these to go to someone to enjoy them, if they aren't picked up by the end of next weekend (12th Dec) they'll go in the bin. Happy to work with the RR Pony Express if it helps anyone. Cars & Car Conversions 34 magazines Car 49 magazines Autocar & Motor 47 magazines Popular Motoring 18 magazines Hot Rod and Popular Hot Rodding 9 magazines Various Motor Show reviews History of the Motor Car
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Last Edit: Dec 8, 2021 10:34:01 GMT by oli8925
Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Astra Radio sold
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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FYI, ashtray is for a mini, mk3(or is it mk4) onwards I think Ah, thank you. Maybe it's one of mine then. I'll throw it in the stash if no one wants it.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Nov 27, 2021 17:08:41 GMT
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Nov 27, 2021 16:51:53 GMT
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I know it's going to limit buyers but to be honest I doubt anything will go for enough money to make it worth my while posting them. 50-100 magazines is heavy and bulky and I don't have any suitable boxes to courier them so will take some sorting out. I'm happy to work with the RR Pony Express for anyone.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Nov 23, 2021 22:10:11 GMT
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Over the next few days I'll be listing my dad's clear out of old magazine following a house move. Figured they may be of enjoyment to someone, there's a lot of old, cool stuff there. I've listed the first few tonight, lots more to come. www.ebay.co.uk/sch/oli8925/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=Hot Car Custom Car Practical Motorist Car Mechanics Motorsport Magazine AA Drive Vauxhall Motorist Cars & Car Conversions Car Motor Autocar & Motor Popular Motoring Bedford Transport Car and Driver Popular Hot Rodding Hot Rod Autocar & a job lot of others
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Last Edit: Nov 23, 2021 22:10:37 GMT by oli8925
Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Nov 20, 2021 23:28:55 GMT
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I see, my initial Googling was too brief and I didn't realise it was a one off. Maybe a Europa owner will be interested then. I have a brochure from Netmos dated February 1970 regarding the car. Having a clear out of old car bits and would be a shame for it to go to waste.
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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Nov 20, 2021 17:44:09 GMT
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As per title, can't imagine there are many around but on the off chance...
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Project Diary1975 Viva / 1988 T25 Camper / 1989 Mini / 1991 MX5 / 1992 Mini / 1994 Saab 9000 / 1997 Saab 9000 / 2008 Saab 9-5
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