vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 12, 2018 17:32:26 GMT
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It is an PASS
Rear brakes work but aren't as good as they could be, excercise recommended for them.
Emissions a pass but it was a war getting there. Looks like the new catalytic converter I bought after I failed emissions last year isn't doing as good a job as it should, and is apparently a bit of a rubbish part anyway which I didn't know when I bought it.
Front shocks to replace. One front shock looks like it started to leak at, or on the way to, the MoT, which is a bit disappointing. Probably a result of the car being stood around doing nothing for so long.
Still, it's a pass. I'll take that. The jobs to do aren't massive and shouldn't be hideously expensive, they're just annoying.
In other news, since replacing the door seal and fitting the new interior wind noise is reduced, except for the new top seal/trim on the windscreen which seems to cause quite a bit more wind noise than the old knackered one. The seats were very comfortable for the 80 miles I did today. The 50mph dashboard buzz is gone, don't know why and I'm not complaining. Driver's door jingle is muted now, still there, but muted. Car is no longer an absolute dronefest at speeds above 60mph and 70mph can be done without the insistent drone which is a big improvement, though I've no idea what I've done to make that happen.
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,916 
Club RR Member Number: 40
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Sept 12, 2018 18:03:19 GMT
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Taken off the roof rack ?
Result on the MOT.
James
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 12, 2018 18:13:03 GMT
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Roofrack hasn't been the cause of the drone, that whistles, and is rarely fitted. It was only fitted recently because I needed to put it somewhere while I was sorting the interior out.
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Sept 12, 2018 20:00:11 GMT
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I fitted a complete exhaust including the brand new catalyst the owner supplied to a rover 400 a few years ago, and it promptly failed its MOT, fortunatelly I expected this and had kept the original which was re fitted and all was well. Most oems are putting something like £100 of precious metal in a catalyst, anything which costs less than £200 simply isn't going to work, even above this it is a minefield finding a good one if you don't go oem.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 12, 2018 20:17:33 GMT
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I can't find an OEM Rover catalyst, that's part of the problem. I can find 'type approved' which seem to range in price from £60-120. No point putting the old one back on, even if I could, because when the head gasket failed it properly ruined the cat at the same time and it was even worse than the one that's on now, which is what prompted replacement in the first place.
The worst thing with a cat is you have no idea if it's going to work or not until it's actually on the car and it can be a fairly substantial investment. I missed out on pre-cat regs by 3 months.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 14, 2018 15:02:21 GMT
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POP  20180914-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Was a bit more difficult to remove than expected because there was some rust hiding that was holding onto the seal on the driver's side. The bubbling at the top of the seal wasn't too bad, thankfully.  20180914-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr I wasn't aware of rust problems on the driver's side so I've a little more work to do, including this corner.  20180914-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr This flange was fairly damp and crusty (stop it) and once cleaned back the outer panel layer will need replacing while the inner it spot welds to looks okay. Shouldn't be too difficult to repair since it's a straight strip of metal with good access for cleaning up.  20180914-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180914-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The other top corner I did know about the rust from when I bought the car and has been dosed with rust potions and covered with tape for a while which has kept things from getting really bad. Someone had been in here before and squidged some putty into the seal on the corner so this has been an issue for quite some time. It's the main reason I wanted to take the screen out to do repairs.  20180914-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180914-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr I'll be making a start on these repairs this weekend since this is the most difficult bit to do, the corners particularly are going to be very fiddly to get looking nice. Hopefully the screen goes back in without too much grief. |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 16, 2018 17:23:34 GMT
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Today was going moderately well, certainly made healthy progress with the surround repairs. I went around the surround and cleaned back anything that looked suspect, uncovering two more areas that needed small patches. Then I made cardboard templates for the patches, which you can see here in white, ready to be recreated in metal.  20180916-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Putting the new pieces in was much easier than taking the old rust out since I didn't have to worry about cutting through too much with the cutting disc. Welder behaved itself and apart from feeling awkward because this all felt like it needed to be done left-handed, it was looking reasonably good. I hadn't had any errant sparks go into the cabin or on the glass, all was well (I did protect things better than the pictures make it appear, photos were done a taken out of order).  20180916-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr Then, just as I got the penultimate piece tacked in...  20180916-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr ... black smoke EVERYWHERE. Something was very on fire. Something in the boot... the boot I'd forgotten to empty out because I forgot that there's a straight route from the bit I'm welding into the boot itself. Open the boot, or leave it shut? You know when an engine catches fire you're supposed to not open the bonnet because it can make things worse... Open the boot because otherwise how am I going to put it out, maybe it's just a lot of smoke and nothing else. OMG THAT'S A BOOT FULL OF FIRE. It's something behing the spare wheel, quick hurl that out of the car! Oh no, more fire, quick grab something to pull out the thing that's on fire! That's no good, that's a plastic door bin and that's on fire too now you idiot. Just take your welding gloves off and grab the edge of it. curse word IT'S PLASTIC. Now there's bits of plastic in the boot on fire and bits of plastic on floor on fire. Grab that leather jacket, it makes a good fire blanket. Good, boot isn't on fire any more. Now put out the fire on the floor by stamping on it because... no don't do that! It's plastic you idiot.... ... eventually the fire went out. I burned my hand a bit but not A&E amounts, just a couple of small blisters. I breathed in some plastic smoke, not very pleasant that. I'm okay though. No harm really done. Most importantly the harm to the Princess was really minimal with just some soot staining in the boot and a couple of blobs of melted plastic on the floor mat. The culprit was a welding spark going down the inside of the C pillar and setting fire to the front door moisture membrane and tool bag, both plastic, that were stuffed behind the spare wheel well.  20180916-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180916-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr I'm normally really careful, I have no idea why I didn't think to empty the boot today. I'm just grateful the damage wasn't worse or lasting to me or the car. Be careful when you're welding, kids, it's a dangerous hobby. |
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 2,006
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Sept 16, 2018 19:53:49 GMT
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I feel your pain, had a similar accident years ago. I since clean up very well, both my work area and the escape routes. I always have a bucket full of water and a wet sponge handy (not worth much in your case) and I use cheap fire blankets to protect the surroundings of the weld area from splatter/ sparks. They make good, ehm, fire blankets too should you need them! I've also invested a couple hundred quid in proper fire extinguishers throughout the workshop, not those cheapy powder things that don't work when they need to, or if they do, damage everything the powder touches. Keep safe!
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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Sept 16, 2018 20:50:33 GMT
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Well rescued that man.
I've got an old school fire bucket of sand in the garage and a little extinguisher in the house. But do I ever take them to the car when I'm working on it? Do I hell...
Good wake up call Mr V.
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Sept 16, 2018 21:11:46 GMT
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nothing like a little fire to wake you up eh?
I now have 11 CO2 extinguishers around the workshop.
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,319
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Sept 16, 2018 21:15:13 GMT
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Well done for keeping it under control.
There are only two types of people who weld cars: those who have set them on fire accidentally, and those who are going to... Welcome to the club.
These days I do all my welding outside whenever possible. Ultimately I would like a dedicated "hot work" area, but that's about as far distant as the most distant thing I can imagine right now; so the next best thing is industrial levels of paranoia.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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Sept 17, 2018 7:58:35 GMT
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my biggest moment was just after welding on a new outrigger to landrover no.1. just after i had slathered waxoyl in the internal cavities, then i thought i would melt the waxoyl into the crevices with a paint stripper hot air gun.
damn, i am beyond the reach of my longest extension lead, but wait, i have a plumbers blow lamp......
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Last Edit: Sept 17, 2018 7:59:27 GMT by darrenh
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ade36
Part of things
Posts: 509
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Sept 17, 2018 8:11:35 GMT
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 Glad no serious damage was done to you or the car. Good progress too
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 18, 2018 15:36:55 GMT
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Today went better, there was much less fire and hardly any swearing. First job was to empty the boot and get the fire extinguisher in the workzone, because we're learning from yesterday's mistakes today.  20180918-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr  20180918-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The most awkward repair was the simplest looking of them all, which was the long strip that had rotted away. Before welding this in, I cut a long strip to size then drilled holes so I could puddle weld it in place. Then I found that the welding tip could have done with being chisel shaped to get into the line where I'd made the cut. There's probably a better way to do this repair, inexperience meant I approached it in this way. I don't have a finger-file either so I had to improvise by using a grinding disc, flapwheels have spoiled me because grinding discs seem much louder and aggressive and just hurls tiny bits of metal filings all over the place.  20180918-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr The top outer and inner corners went reasonably well. Getting into the inside corner to clean up the welds smooth is very difficult with my tools but the weld doesn't protrude so much it's going to make the seal sit wrong. I've cleaned back what I can and then I'll use some seam sealer just to smooth out the uneven surface to prevent this being a water trap and causing the rot again. I also welded up the extraneous trim holes along the top of the C pillar since I shan't be using those again.  20180918-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr It looks okay. It's certainly free of holes now, which is good.  20180918-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr I was very much taking my time so by the time I was putting rust treater on everything there wasn't time to really do any of the next jobs. It will give the rust treater time to do its thing and when I go back in I can clean everything down again and get the sealant and filler work done where required, then strip the paint off the C pillars and get the whole lot painted freshly ready for the screen to be reinstalled. After that, it'll be new lights time, which should be a fairly quick job since I know exactly what I'm doing on that now.  20180918-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr |
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Sept 18, 2018 17:26:12 GMT
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I hope you mean by much less fire there was none  Good progress, always difficult to clean up inside channels. |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 18, 2018 17:32:09 GMT
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There was the normal amount of fire permitted with welding, that being an occasional disposable lighter flame sized flicker that self-extinguished. I still had Mike on fire-watch just in case. Next bit of welding at least has an incredibly low fire risk rating. One trouble I had with the channel was that the inside of the C pillar was acting like a chimney, so when there was a little flicker you had to stop and let things cool down so it didn't get ideas above its station. I guess there's some glue from the headlining, or some paint, or sealant, or something like that inside the C pillar that you can't see.
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Sept 18, 2018 17:53:26 GMT
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I can recall the Princess / Ambassador range when new and both the front & rear screen seals leaked like a sieve from leaving the showroom / dealers forecourt - being that you now have a rear screen rubber that is a few decades old are you going to be applying a sealer before you refit and if so do you want some info on what to use (there is a load of products out there for this task but I know of only one that does what it says on the tube)
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,268
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Sept 18, 2018 18:02:08 GMT
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funnily enough, my rear screen never leaked, it's just the front one that's bad because the rubber has perished (another job to do soon, got the new seal to go in). I've been advised not to use sealnat on the rear screen seal because of the drain holes in the bottom corners. My rear screen seal is still in surprisingly good shape and since new ones aren't available I plan on just reusing it and hoping the screen doesn't leak, I'll be doing my best to make the surround nice and smooth and even to give it the best chance. It could be the only reason it wasn't leaking before was that the water was just going straight through the rust holes, down the inside of the rear quarters and out the bottom of the wings where they'd rotted, so me fixing things might make it all worse.
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Sept 18, 2018 18:25:11 GMT
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funnily enough, my rear screen never leaked, it's just the front one that's bad because the rubber has perished (another job to do soon, got the new seal to go in). I've been advised not to use sealnat on the rear screen seal because of the drain holes in the bottom corners. My rear screen seal is still in surprisingly good shape and since new ones aren't available I plan on just reusing it and hoping the screen doesn't leak, I'll be doing my best to make the surround nice and smooth and even to give it the best chance. It could be the only reason it wasn't leaking before was that the water was just going straight through the rust holes, down the inside of the rear quarters and out the bottom of the wings where they'd rotted, so me fixing things might make it all worse. I hope you are that lucky - however in the vast majority of cases with rubber string in type windscreen seals - they leak once you have disturbed them - I have never relied upon the drain hole design to prevent water ingress finding it's way into the car - it's a bonkers idea to have a rubber seal that retains the screen in place but yet allows water past the outer lip of the seal into the aperture that might eventually end up down a small pea shooter drain hole (that's if it's not become blocked in the first place) - so there is no surprise that you had a rotten aperture - however you are not on your own - the majority of the Leyland range suffered the same stupid design - I know of someone who purchased a new Marina - only had it a few days when his wife opened the glove box and got her legs & feet washed with the half a gallon of water that the leaking windscreen had deposited into the said glovebox  |
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Last Edit: Sept 18, 2018 18:26:01 GMT by Deleted
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Sept 18, 2018 18:38:08 GMT
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I think Angyl has already got a tube of Arbomast Chris, I assume that's what you would recommend.
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Glad no serious damage was done to you or the car. Good progress too
