So my unplanned, unexpected and very, very beige new project arrived this morning.
First job for the afternoon was to replace the knackered battery - which meant I needed to have a quick look to see what type I need, giving an opportunity for a 30 second look around the engine bay for issues.
Nice simple looking engine bay.
Things immediately spotted.
[] Vacuum advance unit on the distributor isn't attached to anything.
[] What looks to be the fuel tank return line isn't attached.
[] Random 5mm pipe flapping around in the breeze which looks like it should attach to the hose stub on the back of the carb which is missing it's hose.
[] Several hose clips are loose.
[] Oil level is quite a bit too high and stinks of fuel.
[] Coolant is low.
Nothing that's making me run away screaming...We had to pause at that point as I had to go to pick up groceries - which involved a run to Costco anyway so adding a battery collection to that run was easy enough.
Fast forward a couple of hours and I was back and could actually take a bit of a better look around.
Initial impression: While rough around the edges, I reckon there's the makings of a good car here. A good valet and a set of seat covers would go a long way to making it look better.
The bodywork seems astonishingly free of dents and scrapes for a 150K mile car. Quite likely more than that actually given the exact same mileage is still showing from the previous MOT...
I'm betting the speedometer and/or odometer doesn't work.
Can you get more definitively 80s than these graphics?
The interior to be honest needs more help than the exterior and is looking a little sad.
Aside from just being generally grubby and dusty in that way all old, disused cars are the single biggest issue seems to be decomposing fabrics. It looks like the seats and door cards all suffer from degradation under UV exposure in the same way as seats on Skoda Estelles do.
Not sure what state the front seats are in under the slip covers currently in place (which are fit only for the bin), but I'm guessing not great. The cover seems to have been completely removed from the upright of the rear seat.
While that looks quite dramatic, the foam doesn't seem to be in too bad shape so re-covering them shouldn't be too difficult.
The cloth on the door cards is clearly going the same way. They're flat though so should be easy enough to restore. The headlining looks in honestly miraculously good shape.
Given the reputation these series 1 cars have for plastics with the structural integrity of cardboard there are surprisingly few things that are obviously broken.
All of the driver controls are present and aside from a few scratchy contacts due to disuse seem to work fine.
Looking forward to actually getting to use these in the real world.
They will look a lot better once they've been given a good wipe over to get a bit of life back into them.
The engine bay is filthy but seemingly pretty clear of the usual maze of wiring hacks I'm kind of used to on cars of this age.
Mmm...crusty...
Cleaning this engine bay is going to be immensely satisfying...
Right, let's actually get some things done. First up, new battery in as the one that came with the car seems to have had it.
New one is annoyingly slightly larger than the plastic tray...so much for their fancy cross reference chart...It'll do just fine though, clamp still secures just fine.
My earlier glance around the engine bay revealed a few things disconnected due to prior investigation into poor running.
This one I initially thought was a vacuum line.
Turned out that this was actually hooked up to the fuel pump inlet...my guess folks were trying to run the car from a can.
Figuring this out was helpful as it meant I wasn't missing a hook-up point for the connection for the distributor vacuum advance unit, that had me scratching my head a bit initially.
Sadly the line for that was beyond help.
I didn't have nearly enough 3mm pipe in stock to run a whole new line...so being me it was time to improvise!
Two flexible elbows made line I did have, then connect the two with a bit of copper brake line.
Not pretty but will do the job.
With everything put back where it belonged it was time to do a bit of experimentation. Before I went any further we did a bit of cranking to confirm we had oil pressure - we did. Know she's been running relatively recently, but it's just one of those things I like to do with any car it's the first time I try to start it.
Didn't have any idea how much fuel was in the tank or how old it was, so stuck a can of nice ethanol free Esso Supreme 99 in the tank while I can still get it.
No interest in starting though, feeling like we weren't getting fuel. Turns out that I was right, a blast of brake cleaner down the carb throat would immediately result in the engine springing to life, sounding quite sweet. I was astonished how quickly the car sprang up to running height - far too used to the Activa which takes the best part of a minute to sort itself out.
After this started a good hour or two of experimentation while I tried to get the thing to take fuel. However no matter what I did I couldn't get any fuel into the float bowl.
I've proved the line to the tank as I was able to pull a good stream of fuel through under vacuum. Seems there's an issue with one/both of the check valves in the fuel pump so it's just not delivering any pressure whatsoever. Most likely it's got gritty rusty particles in it.
Will pull the pump apart tomorrow for s clean and then see where we are.
Once it was dark I was able to have a look at how much of the dash lighting works.
Ah.
We have *one* working illumination lamp it looks...above the blanked off space above the fuel gauge. Zip from anything else. Yep...that will need to come apart then!
Speaking of lights that are out, noted that we have no light working in the hazard switch or dash tell tale for the fog lights.
The light in the glove box is working though!
The dash light for the indicators initially wasn't working, but I blinked and it came back to life without requiring any intervention.
The radio works... though a car with only an AM radio really tells you how long ago this car was made and that it wasn't a high trim level!
Things which so far I've found don't work/have issues.
[] Fuel pump doesn't.
[] Dash lighting 99% dead.
[] Fog light tell tale dead.
[] Hazard Light switch tell tale dead.
[] Fuel gauge showing nothing... though there may just not be enough in the tank.
[] Heater blower inoperative. Doesn't seem to pull any current so hopefully just sticky brushes.
[] Slight blow from exhaust somewhere towards the rear it sounded like. Looks brand new so probably just needs a clamp given a tweak.
Expect more tomorrow. Hopefully the fuel pump will respond to a good clean out.
If the folks working on this car have been fighting a low fuel pressure issue all along they could have been chasing their tails for a while. It's helpful in that it now won't start at all as it gives me a solid fault to hunt down rather than hunting a random intermittent issue!
Cautiously optimistic at this stage. She sounded sweet when she was running, even though it was only on brake cleaner!
Proof she has run though as the suspension has raised!
Watch this space! There will be more.
First job for the afternoon was to replace the knackered battery - which meant I needed to have a quick look to see what type I need, giving an opportunity for a 30 second look around the engine bay for issues.
Nice simple looking engine bay.
Things immediately spotted.
[] Vacuum advance unit on the distributor isn't attached to anything.
[] What looks to be the fuel tank return line isn't attached.
[] Random 5mm pipe flapping around in the breeze which looks like it should attach to the hose stub on the back of the carb which is missing it's hose.
[] Several hose clips are loose.
[] Oil level is quite a bit too high and stinks of fuel.
[] Coolant is low.
Nothing that's making me run away screaming...We had to pause at that point as I had to go to pick up groceries - which involved a run to Costco anyway so adding a battery collection to that run was easy enough.
Fast forward a couple of hours and I was back and could actually take a bit of a better look around.
Initial impression: While rough around the edges, I reckon there's the makings of a good car here. A good valet and a set of seat covers would go a long way to making it look better.
The bodywork seems astonishingly free of dents and scrapes for a 150K mile car. Quite likely more than that actually given the exact same mileage is still showing from the previous MOT...
I'm betting the speedometer and/or odometer doesn't work.
Can you get more definitively 80s than these graphics?
The interior to be honest needs more help than the exterior and is looking a little sad.
Aside from just being generally grubby and dusty in that way all old, disused cars are the single biggest issue seems to be decomposing fabrics. It looks like the seats and door cards all suffer from degradation under UV exposure in the same way as seats on Skoda Estelles do.
Not sure what state the front seats are in under the slip covers currently in place (which are fit only for the bin), but I'm guessing not great. The cover seems to have been completely removed from the upright of the rear seat.
While that looks quite dramatic, the foam doesn't seem to be in too bad shape so re-covering them shouldn't be too difficult.
The cloth on the door cards is clearly going the same way. They're flat though so should be easy enough to restore. The headlining looks in honestly miraculously good shape.
Given the reputation these series 1 cars have for plastics with the structural integrity of cardboard there are surprisingly few things that are obviously broken.
All of the driver controls are present and aside from a few scratchy contacts due to disuse seem to work fine.
Looking forward to actually getting to use these in the real world.
They will look a lot better once they've been given a good wipe over to get a bit of life back into them.
The engine bay is filthy but seemingly pretty clear of the usual maze of wiring hacks I'm kind of used to on cars of this age.
Mmm...crusty...
Cleaning this engine bay is going to be immensely satisfying...
Right, let's actually get some things done. First up, new battery in as the one that came with the car seems to have had it.
New one is annoyingly slightly larger than the plastic tray...so much for their fancy cross reference chart...It'll do just fine though, clamp still secures just fine.
My earlier glance around the engine bay revealed a few things disconnected due to prior investigation into poor running.
This one I initially thought was a vacuum line.
Turned out that this was actually hooked up to the fuel pump inlet...my guess folks were trying to run the car from a can.
Figuring this out was helpful as it meant I wasn't missing a hook-up point for the connection for the distributor vacuum advance unit, that had me scratching my head a bit initially.
Sadly the line for that was beyond help.
I didn't have nearly enough 3mm pipe in stock to run a whole new line...so being me it was time to improvise!
Two flexible elbows made line I did have, then connect the two with a bit of copper brake line.
Not pretty but will do the job.
With everything put back where it belonged it was time to do a bit of experimentation. Before I went any further we did a bit of cranking to confirm we had oil pressure - we did. Know she's been running relatively recently, but it's just one of those things I like to do with any car it's the first time I try to start it.
Didn't have any idea how much fuel was in the tank or how old it was, so stuck a can of nice ethanol free Esso Supreme 99 in the tank while I can still get it.
No interest in starting though, feeling like we weren't getting fuel. Turns out that I was right, a blast of brake cleaner down the carb throat would immediately result in the engine springing to life, sounding quite sweet. I was astonished how quickly the car sprang up to running height - far too used to the Activa which takes the best part of a minute to sort itself out.
After this started a good hour or two of experimentation while I tried to get the thing to take fuel. However no matter what I did I couldn't get any fuel into the float bowl.
I've proved the line to the tank as I was able to pull a good stream of fuel through under vacuum. Seems there's an issue with one/both of the check valves in the fuel pump so it's just not delivering any pressure whatsoever. Most likely it's got gritty rusty particles in it.
Will pull the pump apart tomorrow for s clean and then see where we are.
Once it was dark I was able to have a look at how much of the dash lighting works.
Ah.
We have *one* working illumination lamp it looks...above the blanked off space above the fuel gauge. Zip from anything else. Yep...that will need to come apart then!
Speaking of lights that are out, noted that we have no light working in the hazard switch or dash tell tale for the fog lights.
The light in the glove box is working though!
The dash light for the indicators initially wasn't working, but I blinked and it came back to life without requiring any intervention.
The radio works... though a car with only an AM radio really tells you how long ago this car was made and that it wasn't a high trim level!
Things which so far I've found don't work/have issues.
[] Fuel pump doesn't.
[] Dash lighting 99% dead.
[] Fog light tell tale dead.
[] Hazard Light switch tell tale dead.
[] Fuel gauge showing nothing... though there may just not be enough in the tank.
[] Heater blower inoperative. Doesn't seem to pull any current so hopefully just sticky brushes.
[] Slight blow from exhaust somewhere towards the rear it sounded like. Looks brand new so probably just needs a clamp given a tweak.
Expect more tomorrow. Hopefully the fuel pump will respond to a good clean out.
If the folks working on this car have been fighting a low fuel pressure issue all along they could have been chasing their tails for a while. It's helpful in that it now won't start at all as it gives me a solid fault to hunt down rather than hunting a random intermittent issue!
Cautiously optimistic at this stage. She sounded sweet when she was running, even though it was only on brake cleaner!
Proof she has run though as the suspension has raised!
Watch this space! There will be more.
