Dez' 'fleet' thread. Another bl00dy transit!

Some Lupo related things.

When it was repaired after the last crash, I managed to source a new old stock genuine VW passenger side front wing. I wanted to get a drivers one as well, as although it was undamaged the current one has some rust scabs coming through which lets the car down a bit. But i just couldn’t find one, even a good used one, within the timescale necessary.
This is said scabby wing-



Then last week I was perusing FB marketplace and an advert for a Lupo being broken up in the next town popped up. It was even the right colour, soft blue. I said I’d have the arch liners I still needed to replace after said crash and the heater switch I needed as this one only works on one setting now, another common VW fault. and if the wing was good I’d have that too, not holding out much hope as by the time cars are getting broken up the wings tend to be quite rough. There’s also hard to get off without damage as the back half is essentially glued on with polyurethane underseal, and some of the fixings always break/round off.
I was very surprised to find to was near mint. No rust at all and just one small dent on the bit that wraps under the sill at the bottom. Which on a car this low you’ll realistically never see unless your laying on the floor.
So that came back with me and I’ll swap it on when the weather improves.


I also need to do a wheel bearing as it’s got a mild rumble on the drivers side front.
The bigger mechanical issue is it has started
Mixing fluids. Only very mildly, no water in oil, just a small amount of oil sludge in the water.
Seeing as it has absolutely no symptoms of HGF- no smoke, no steam, no difficult starting, no power loss, no oil usage, no water loss, etc. I think it is the oil cooler. Like many other VWs These have a sandwich plate water fed oil cooler that fits between the block and the filter housing, which are known for failure.
I’ve bought a new one so that’ll go on next, and I’ll swap the oil and coolant too so I can monitor of its cured it.

Even sitting there in chopped to hell latticework its still cooler than anything I have, or am likly to ever own, by a big margin!!

Good...

Your sunroof was the same as my '86 E28, we discussed it at the last Swapmeet before the world closed, sad gits that we are

Funnily enough after a bit of a lay-off to finish a few other things, I’ve been back on it recently. Bed is almost ready to go for blasting and paint now. There will be an update once I do.

IIRC my bed extends 4.5’ behind the back of the original chassis, but that’s with a 15’ bed which you don’t need for a model A. It’s actually a few inches shorter now than it was when I bought it.

Well, what happened since February?
Everything and nothing is the short answer. I’ve acquired two more cars and a bike (cars are nothing to write home about, a beater civic and octavia) bike is the ‘54 bantam covered here

The ‘life’ stuff ive been keeping quiet about until my ducks were in a row (and are a big part of the reason this thread exists) has been ticking along. The biggest factor there being we sold our house. Or, the one we were living in anyway. There is another story to be told about where we going and why, which will be covered in the future once we’re all in place and the dots has settled.

In the meantime, I need to get this damn transit finished to drag stuff about with!

It’s another Lincoln. Not mentioned as it’s not mine. There’s various friends/customers stuff up here as well as my own junk.

..fixed that for you

Well the Octavia.
It looked like this.


With a caramactastic interior-


I fixed the no-boosting problem with a new MAF and a breather pipe that was leaking, plus a few new vac hoses, and replaced the broken dipstick tube.








It then did magic snail things again so I gave it a good Hoover and clean and glued some bits of trim back together.

With it all fixed it was ready to be pressed into daily service, so I then swapped it for something else on a whim. It owned it exactly 4 days 😂

The something else? Well…