joeytalent
Part of things
ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Feb 11, 2021 20:50:51 GMT
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That ain't cold! I had to start the Volvo when it was -30C on Monday after staying at a cabin up North. Car was definitely not happy.
Joking aside, glad the Maestro is working out. Appreciate the videos!
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Feb 11, 2021 20:57:20 GMT
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Well yes, it's hardly Minnesnowta here, barely even a light dusting really, but we do like to be dramatic about the weather here in the UK. Remember, it's not winter, it's OMG SNOW CHAOS. -30C though, that's proper big coat weather is that.
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joeytalent
Part of things
ITB Everything.
Posts: 440
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Feb 11, 2021 21:19:20 GMT
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It's weird, the coldest I've been was my ten years in Scotland. Must be the damp and darkness. Minnesota is really dry, so although it's cold, a big coat (and boots) is really all you need.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Feb 16, 2021 16:10:32 GMT
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Scottish weather, for Scottish people.
---
It's that time again.
I'll do the words and pictures update later when I've a bit more time to devote to it. Don't forget to do all the Youtube usuals on the vid, the interaction helps promote the channel and motivates me to do more and, hopefully, will get info out there that other folks can find useful in the same way the channels I watch have helped me out with all sorts of jobs I didn't know how to do.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Feb 16, 2021 19:10:45 GMT
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Now that I'd identified the most obvious points for the water getting in, it was time to try and put a stop to it. First up was the quick fix, that being using the Lanchester's hat to keep the rain off the key suspect areas. This proved to be pretty effective until Storm Bella tore one of the elastic straps out, thankfully only tearing the stitching not the fabric, so I could easily sew that back together. After drying the car out and repairing the cover, I think applied butyl tape to the rear driver's side light cluster which looked to be the most obvious ingress point at the back. I was probably too much but at least there wasn't really going to be any way this wouldn't seal. At the front, I applied some Arbomast to the window seal. The front and rear screens are bonded on the Maestro, with a rubbery-plastic trim to fill the gap. Since the Captain Tolley's had proven the screen was leaking, the first thing I did was seal up where it looked like the leak was. I didn't go all the way around the seal, preferring to just do where I knew it was leaking. If it leaked more afterwards then I'd apply more until it was sealed up fully. I prefer to put a little on where the leak appears to be and work outwards on these things rather than just smothering everything in sealant straight away. Not the tidiest job because I wiped it off rather than using a scraper. Initial signs were promising. As an aside, the front driver's door top hinge has a fair bit of play in it, probably a worn out door pin. The Princess has the same issue and I haven't been able to find replacement pins for either. The first owner has been in here and done a repair that I haven't disturbed, I'm not entirely sure what it's supposed to be doing and since the door still works I'm opting to leave it alone. The right metal clamp with allen headed bolts shouldn't be there. Water was also found to be coming in through the tailgate somehow. The foam on the back of the trim panel was gone so I replaced it with butyl tape. Then it rained after I'd sealed things up, typically, so I had to reseal everything. It was still coming in at the front, but not as bad. I felt like I was on the right track with this one. Just requires patience to get to the bottom of it. To finish, I was fed up of the wipers juddering in the rain and while the front ones didn't look that old I thought it best to replace them. Sunday during lockdown wasn't the best time for wiper shopping but since I didn't want to wait I headed to Halfords and spent considerably more than I wanted to on a full compliment of three Bosch wipers. Usefully, the Maestro takes the same size wipers front and rear so it was at least easy to get that done and replacement was done in Halford's car park. There's an occasional judder from the driver's wiper if the screen isn't quite wet enough, but these are otherwise fine. No noticeable difference over much cheaper offerings but perhaps these will last more than a year before needing to be replaced and that's why they're more pricey. We shall have to wait and find out I suppose.
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Feb 16, 2021 20:43:41 GMT
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Give the screen a good clean, toothpaste is good for de glazing the glass of road film. Wipers should glide over them better then.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Feb 16, 2021 21:45:19 GMT
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Good tip. Normally I claybar, glass cleaner, then glass polish the glass. So far, I've only really done a basic glass cleaner on it because of the ridiculous weather we've been having. The rear screen makes a 'sandy' noise when the wiper goes over it but it looks and feels smooth so I suspect there's some overspray on there from historic repairs which a claybar and/or thinners will put right. Hopefully it's not micro-grinder-spray and I can avoid getting a razor blade to it.
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,204
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Feb 16, 2021 21:53:50 GMT
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Scottish weather, for Scottish people. --- Your point ?
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Feb 16, 2021 23:08:55 GMT
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To use the vernacular of my Scottish friends, they're both "double hard b*st*rds".
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,204
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A small sprinkle of snow and things grind to a halt up here as well, like last week
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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I know on the Metros they used to leak around the wiper arm and rot out from there.
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Feb 17, 2021 15:48:43 GMT
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Keep an eye on the black strips on the roof, they're prone to leaking. Also check the heater inlet/outlet pipes. All the ones I've seen were steel, so if it's been run without antifreeze they'll rot and leak.
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1953 Minor (Long term project) PT Cruiser
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Feb 17, 2021 16:02:33 GMT
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Can confirm it's not the Metro issue, that part of the tailgate is nice and solid. It's also not the gutter trims, gutters, or heater pipes, thankfully this one looks to have been run with antifreeze (although it is due a change when the weather gets better).
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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We had the Lanchester out of the garage for the first time this year to try and fit the door cards. This job was... not great. What we expected to be a straightforward job ended up being anything but due to the fact we were reusing old parts and combining with new. Unforunately, it means all of the door cards are going to need to be partially dismantled for some minor modifications. Thankfully because we put them together with the original style tacks, it's not going to be anywhere near as difficult as it would had we used contact adhesive and staples. I'd share a photo, but the only one I have of the day's proceedings is a blurry shot of a screw, so you'll probably have to wait on the video for that one.
Speaking of video, there's a new Maestro one coming out tomorrow at 3pm and while it deals with water, it's a diversion from the water ingress updates. In fact, car videos go out at 3pm every other Tuesday, and then the photos and write up happen here either on the same day, or shortly after. I'm still getting the hang of what works best with the time I have available and working out an update schedule that keeps things interesting for folks on the two different platforms I'm using. The other Tuesdays are devoted to sewing and crafts videos, probably some furniture restoration in the future... basically the other DIY stuff I do. Again, still getting the hang of that, but the support of the folks that tune in is motivating and it's keeping me focused on projects at the moment, which is very welcome.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Write up time then. After replacing the temperature and fuel gauge pack, I discovered that the car wasn't really getting hot, it was barely getting warm. I suspect a stuck or maybe missing thermostat so ordered one but, with Covid, it meant waiting a while. So I decided to have a go at making a radiator muff. The theory was sound but I found the vinyl I was using wasn't really suited to the shape I was trying to create on my machine with its standard foot. I made a couple of attempts at it and just couldn't get it to keep the shape I wanted so gave it up as a bad job when I ran out of material. Ah well, not every job works. The original plan was to blank off the upper grille and have an openable flap in the middle if it proved to be too much air restriction. If the muff proved inadequate I was going to make a second one for the lower grille. As it happened, I resorted to plan C which was to wedge a bit of cardboard into the back of the grille. This was MUCH easier to do, and invisible once the grille was reinstalled. Since the grille can be removed by unscrewing just two screws, it really wasn't difficult to sort out. The end result of that was that now I was getting heat into the engine and some out of the heaters. It was still taking a bit longer than I would have liked to warm up, however it was still significantly better than when the car arrived so it would do in the meantime. When the new thermostat arrived I set to fitting that on quite a cold day. I totally failed to get any pictures of the process, check out the video for the process in full. I was amazed that the fixing bolts came out with no trouble, it looks like they were greased at some point so they hadn't seized which was a huge relief. The thermostat housing is a bit confusing, it's got a what looks like a spacer block with one outlet that goes on the block, and then another piece that goes on top, and a bracket on top of all that which bolts the thermostat housing securely to what I imagine is an engine mount? It's a fiddle. I made two fresh gaskets since the new thermostat didn't come with any for some reason and installed the new thermostat. Since I didn't have anything to copy, I had a look in the book and put the thermostat in the bottom so it lives in the block. Turns out it should actually go on top of the spacer piece instead to work optimally for the heater, so I'll correct that when I change the coolant later this year. The big difference is that now the car got up to temperature much quicker and stayed at half gauge, or just under, quite reliably. The heaters do feel okay, not fierce, and since I can't remember what the heaters were like in the other Maestros I've been in I didn't realise anything might be amiss there. It's good enough for me at any rate, and I can drive without gloves on now. Then it snowed. I was grateful for the now working heater. Recently I found that the centre fresh air vents weren't putting anything out and the wheels were unwilling to move, then all at once they unstuck and now work fine and I can confirm the blower motor is nice and strong so that's going to be welcome when we switch from rain to unbearable sunshine and heatwaves. I'm also on the look out for a tailgate. I'd like a really good one, obviously. I'd also accept a tatty one so I can take mine off and repair it once I've got the welder up and running again. The tailgate does have some rot in it, just not so much it can't be repaired. Unfortunately it's going to be one of those jobs that's a small repair that needs a lot of work to get to so that it can be repaired properly... I'll be bodging it in the meantime. Big issue at the moment is losing a month of work due to a shoulder injury (mostly healed up now, thankfully) so funds are a bit on the low side and I'm a looooong way off earning anything through the Youtubes.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Mar 10, 2021 17:23:49 GMT
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Okay, so that's a knitting video and I know you're mostly not here for that *but* you do get to see the Maestro and Princess in action at the end so if you're missing your Princess fix, skip to about the 31 minute mark for a quick dose of noisy old BL tat.
I wanted to double-check the Princess OMGHGF thing is true and yeah, it's still true. I also need to pump up that tyre which is now quite flat, but that means getting the Lanchester out of the garage since the pump is in the boot of that, and I can't do that while our street is having the gas main replaced so... flat tyre it is for a bit longer. The spare is also flat.
Also, if anyone knows where I can get a pattern for an old fashioned brown overcoat or overalls I'd appreciate that. I really want to make some from the 1930s-1970s period just because I never have and I reckon it'd be a fun and useful project.
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Last Edit: Mar 10, 2021 17:33:39 GMT by vulgalour
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logicaluk
Posted a lot
Every days a school day round here
Posts: 1,373
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Have you checked behind the rubber roof strip for your water leak? I've had a couple of acclaims let water in there, I find parking the car in the sun to warm them up before starting to work them out helps soften them up. Dan
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Mar 13, 2021 14:15:42 GMT
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I have, and it's not that. There's a couple more vids on the water leaks to come which will explain how it's getting in. I reckon I've to the bottom of it now, just a bit of a slave to the update schedule... I don't want to give too much away ahead of the videos going out, next one goes out on Tuesday coming, and the write up will go out at about the same time.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,280
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Mar 16, 2021 20:49:07 GMT
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Have I done it? Have I fixed the water ingress problem? Write up later but for now, grab a brew and check the video out.
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