Nice to see the father and Son team having fun. Only good use for a Canta is teaching chariot for a teeny (beside moving Amsterdams pensioners) so understandable.
Fin is really quite taken with it, and its potential. No doubt that enthusiasm might well wane as he gets older and other distractions raise their heads, but for the moment anything that gets him outside and doing something is good in my book. Amsterdam is one of my favourite places, and he has come up with the idea of a road trip to there in the Canta if we manage to get it back on the road. That would certainly make or break a father-son bonding. 🤣🤣
Funnily enough, I do actually have a good use for it once it’s done; I have a two mile (3km) commute, that I have to do one way or the other in the early hours of the morning. I currently mainly use the Land-Rover, and it’s less than ideal in those situations. The Canta, in UK spec, is capable of 70+ kph, or about 45mph, and the roads I will be driving it on are urban and either 30 or 40mph limits, so I plan using it daily for work. Hopefully it will allow me to move other projects on a bit, particularly the Land-Rover which always seems like the poor relation, only getting what is immediately necessary to keep it running as I always need it for work ASAP.
Anyway, what’s happened in its first 24 hours in its new abode?
Well, after spending the night in the spare room (could have been worse, could have been the greenhouse), the first job was to do the legal necessities with the DVLA and get it both registered in my name and SORN’d. With that out of the way I went outside and surveyed the majestic bit of engineering in the cold light of day and tried to have a proper assess.
For a car that’s built deliberately down to a weight, and that has had at least one deliberately abusive keeper, it’s actually not that bad. I am very grateful for the work
grizz has put into the car so far. Particularly the cleaning and the new interior trim. I know that he wasn’t massively happy with how the trim came out, but it’s way better than I would have done, and it saves me a load of time and effort. It will certainly do for the foreseeable.
If you watched the video of me driving it in the garden you’ll have noticed that the power take up is pretty savage. This is down to it having completely the wrong drive belt fitted. Way too loose, and too narrow. Instead of drive being fed in gently as the revs come off tickover, it’s not until the revs are high enough to start closing the top variator onto the belt that you get any drive, at which point you have 11hp or so grabbing at the belt and wanting to fling the little thing forward. The correct part appears to be a common go-kart or golf buggy item in the US, but not an off the shelf item this side of the pond. Various specialist suppliers list them from €45 - €80 each (plus postage and no doubt UK Vat/Customs), but my regular belt/bearings/bushes factor can’t cross reference the numbers at all. I have found a couple of US suppliers with them listed at $38 each, and I am hoping to get a couple delivered to my hotel next week when I am on holiday. Failing that, I will have to bite the bullet and get one from Holland. There are a few other bits to address which are, in no particular order:
Rear window. This is a heated glass item as standard, and has a slight curve to it. I think the best way to get it done for now is a bit of 4 or 6mm lexan, bonded on with tiger-seal or some-such.
The brakes need going through. The master cylinder is empty it seems. New ones are ridiculous money from Holland (€200+), so I’ll be stripping and checking it before I do anything else with it. It’s a simple single circuit affair, so worst case scenario I will just have to make a more reasonably priced alternative fit in its place. It currently has a built in reservoir that is pretty inaccessible, so if I change the cylinder I would be looking at a remote one somewhere easier to see and check. Handbrake works, so rear shoes are probably ok. Pads, discs, etc will be attacked as necessary. The current hand control system acts on what is clearly a cut down footbrake pedal, so reverting to foot actuation should be simply a matter of making a new pedal. Rian has given me his surplus MX5 pedalboxes and they’ll definitely give me what I need for that. Accelerator pedal will likely be a Land-Rover one I suspect, but again I have the MX5 one to play with.
A new gear selector cable is required. It’s probably going to be easiest to just buy the right one from Holland, but if not then I will have to have a think.
Steering wheel is tired. Looks like it has a Moto-Lita 9 hole boss. I have responded to a Dutch “for sale” post for one on Facebook, but I don’t think the seller is particularly keen on posting it out of the country. Worst case I will either stitch up the one that’s on there, or fit one of those hideous covers temporarily. I might look at stripping the original down and making a wooden rim for it, but I’m going to keep my eyes peeled and see what comes up.
Have positively identified the column lock/ignition switch as Peugeot 205, and they’re available for much cheapness, so as soon as I have removed the remains of the original and identified the wiring/plug combo I’ll get one on order.
Needs a new wiper panto arm and blade. I might investigate whether it’s a simple job to get it to park on the left side of the screen.
Needs a new interior mirror. Sun visor fouls the grab bar, so that needs a rethink.
Seats have come up nice from Grizz’s scrub. Couple of holes, but nothing a pair of cheap covers won’t sort out. They’ll definitely do for the time being.
Some noticeable play in the steering. I think it’s the top column UJ.
Need to sort out door locks. None of the Canta spares places list them, so they’re either basic PSA parts bin stuff, or they’re off a filing cabinet or something. Probably just as easy to find an alternative, but we’ll see. Definitely need to get something.
Sliding side windows pretty tired, particularly the driver’s side. They’re available from Holland but I’d think it easier to just make a new one.
Engine starts readily on the pull start. Runs really nicely. An oil change is probably all it needs, along with a bit of a clean. Exhaust currently terminates under the car. There’s supposed to be a short flexi pipe, then a long outlet, but no sign of them. Again, probably easiest to just make up something new. Needs an alternator belt too, then we can test out the electrics.
Electrics are completely unknown due to the smashed ignition switch. The engine has a simple self-generating cdi ignition, which is how we’ve got it running, but everything else will have to wait until I’ve got a switch. The wiring doesn’t look molested though, so that’s a good sign.
Wheels and tyres. Been doing some rabbit hole diving on this. Wheels are 3.5j 10” on a 115 pcd, with ET0. Standard trailer pattern. Tyres currently totally perished 4.00-10 crossplies. I’m not at all keen on retaining those tyres, but there’s not much physical room for going much bigger. You can get 13” 4j ET0 rims with the right pcd, but I really don’t think there’s room for even 145/60 tyres which are the smallest available. Looks like my best bet is going to be Mini type 145/80R10. These are a little taller than the 4.00s, but a good deal wider. Plenty of room at the back, but I suspect that I might need to engineer some clearance into the front swing arms at full lock as there’s really not much room to play with. Note utterly borked tyre - they’re all like that.
I can buy 145/80R10 tyres really cheap (under £30 each), but annoyingly the inexpensive ones are marked “Trailer Use Only”. I would have to pay £70 odd each to get “car” versions. Am as yet undecided. Removing the unwanted script carefully with a flap disc would take seconds, but I’m not sure if I want to in this day and age. Anyway, tyres are the last thing I will be worrying about.
So, with it out of the trailer (and the creaking and groaning coming from the floor area of the trailer reminded me that there’s another job that needs doing sooner rather than later), and survey completed, I thought I’d set about doing something physical to get the ball rolling so to speak.
That white spray tag on the bonnet has irked me since I saw Rian’s first pictures of the car.
So, I broke out some stuff that’s really seldom used at Anderson Towers:
Much to my surprise, it hadn’t gone off in the bottle, despite me having genuinely no idea how long it’s been sitting on the shelf. I applied it using soft rag powered by a 14 year old boy (a labour saving device that is, occasionally, a little easier than just doing it yourself).
He was very pleased with the results, as was I.
We are undecided about the GP TURBO stickers, but the Lamborghini one looks like it’ll stay for a while. 😀
With that done, and the firewood obtained yesterday morning cut and stacked out the way, the Canta was gently eased back into its new home in the woodshed.
😀👍
