93fxdl
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,964
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Unless the handling is compromised, why change the shocks? They look rough, but unless you are underneath, you cannot see them, if they were leaking or ineffective, i can see changing them, the ones on the back of my caddy look worse, but still work perfectly, so the cash gets spent elsewhere
Ttfn Glenn
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Unless the handling is compromised, why change the shocks? They look rough, but unless you are underneath, you cannot see them, if they were leaking or ineffective, i can see changing them, the ones on the back of my caddy look worse, but still work perfectly, so the cash gets spent elsewhere Ttfn Glenn Really valid comment and actually decided that despite disliking them, you are right, outta sight, outta mind till they fail. If they fail. |
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So glass tinting 101. Never tint outdoors Never tint in winter Don’t tint in the rain Just don’t tint. Of course rules are for losers. So I dismantled one of the side glass windows and brought it indoors. Carefully…….. After first duct tape securing the glass.   After putting some cushions on the floor for a soft landing.  Lino tint film applied. Glass is concave. Glass shape means there is too much film. Concave means that you need to shrink it somehow, Heat gun and a load of repeated squeegeeing action till done.  Fitted back in, in the rain. Not ideal as the duct tape does not stick when pouring rain on glass. Anyway, wheels bin, cushion to hold in place and a prayer that it did not fall and smash itself to bits. Carefully climbed in the rear of the van and screwed the first two hinge screws back in. Then the third one fought me, a lot, eventually I walked away. Frustrated.  And for those interested, what it looks like from the inside through the limo tint, 95% Look at the green steel cabinet in the background, both regular and tinted visible. Before  After.  When it was raining I threw the wet cushions back into the lounge while completing the job. Closed up the Caddy and came back indoors. Someone liked the cushions. Helper cat. Dick.  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for glass tinting. Fingers crossed. |
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maf260
Part of things
Posts: 495
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Looks like you've done a decent job there, you're too hard on yourself! I DIY tinted a P38 I had years ago with pre-cut film - it went really well by taking my time until I got to the rear tailgate window. 3 separate attempts, each resulting in angrily screwed-up tints lobbed as far as I could, ended in a decision to leave the rear window as Land Rover intended!
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Looks like you've done a decent job there, you're too hard on yourself! I DIY tinted a P38 I had years ago with pre-cut film - it went really well by taking my time until I got to the rear tailgate window. 3 separate attempts, each resulting in angrily screwed-up tints lobbed as far as I could, ended in a decision to leave the rear window as Land Rover intended! Thank you maf260 that is very kind of you. I know that it is good enough, but in summer it may have been better. The film is quite resilient and hard to work at 10’C which my house currently sits at. Hoody and tricky bottoms are enough to keep me warm inside and outside the house. Rear bumper…..? May have found one to work on 50 miles from here in the south, near Rye. Headed there by 9.30.  Certainly better looking than the one fitted. Some work on this one, and then pray that the re-engineered back end accepts it once the pieces of the existing bumper are removed.      More later, Hopefully the next glass tint if the weather improves. Friday as well. Double bonus. |
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,734 
Club RR Member Number: 40
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Think tints will make this look like less of a 'Popemobile' so as usual your fettling makes things look just a touch better and more individual.
James
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Think tints will make this look like less of a 'Popemobile' so as usual your fettling makes things look just a touch better and more individual. James Thanks James. I do hope so. Nothing spectacular or super spendy. Just a bit of attention to small things. |
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Up early-ish to get going and head down to near Rye after being offered a “complete but needing a bit of work” rear bumper after the other guy offering a broken one turned into what seems to be a bit of a w@nker. Looked like a great day to tint windows. But priorities.  SatNav took me down some real narrow lanes and back roads, but makes for an interesting drive again.  Also scored some large apples from Justin’s trees, and most importantly,,a VW centre cap he had found by the roadside presented me with the ring I was looking for to keep a centre cap in place.  One of the toys that go into his camper van……  Loads of clever touches. Like these old denim jeans, recycled to form door upholstery, and also have pockets to keep various items in.  While there, we also looked at his Baywindow bus with a home grown Subaru conversion. Filmed for grenade specifically. Apparently a real pleasure out on the motorway. After two hours chatting about everything from Solar to fireworks and making gunpowder, I headed out home. Saw a small shunting loco, trainspotters will correct me.  And pulled over to get a pic of a rainbow during a break in the rain.  Back home via my local village to pick up meds and some random foodstuffs. Unloaded back home. Chuffed.  And laid to rest. This made me grin again.  Got to be better than this one. If I can remove it successfully and reinstall the new one, and then clean it up and fill the dent, or soften and push the plastic out, followed by paint and colour matching.   After a coffee and sandwich it was 3.00pm and I decided that sometimes sitting doing nothing beats going out to tint glass or do something constructive, so weekend on. Netflix and another coffee next. . |
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Last Edit: Nov 3, 2023 16:08:19 GMT by grizz
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Great score ! patience & a little work 👍
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1995 Rover 416SLi Tourer
1965 MGB Mk1 Roadster
1984 Honda Nighthawk 650
All information is useful - the clever bit is how you use it !
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Great score ! patience & a little work 👍 Indeed. Also was saying to the guy, often Karma has the weirdest of connections that she puts out there. 100 miles……. Worth it. |
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Quick out of sync post. Some of you may know that despite not going down the £1000 wheel route, I do like a wheel, and even more so of they are normal, but one can make them look a bit different. And even more so, those wheels you find from other makes that fit your car and makes people scratch their heads in wonder. So I was looking out for some interesting, non-standard/non-VAG wheels to maybe add to the Caddy. Had seen some 1990’s Renault Safrane wheels that would go great in two or three colours. Yea, I like to make work for myself. But the offset was wrong. Chatting to mate Matt pegasus about wheels, he started throwing some very pretty £250.00 plus restored wheels my way, excluding tyres and shipping. I declined all his suggestions, despite a few nice sets coming through and said I prefer curse word sub £100.00 wheels that then ended up costing me another £200.00 to get looking good, plus tyres. The wheels and tyres on the S10 ultimately went on at £950.00 or thereabouts, completely stupid I know. So next day Matt and I were chatting about other stuff and girls, when he again raised the subject of getting some nice wheels on the Caddy. I said it is a scruffy 21 year old van, and I am not planning to fit expensive, super shiny wheels on it, because unlike ratlook or barnfind cars that have that distinct work look that really shows off the wheels, this thing was just not enough in either camp. I would carry on looking to see if I could find wheels that I liked and could be acquired relatively cheaply and then either fitted directly, or cheaply, to blend more with the cars scrapes and age. Next reply from him kinda bowled me over. Of course I have done similar things in different ways over the years, but I struggle overall to accept kindness.  I did decline. Then, typically a few days later I found some wheels I liked the look of on a Caddy group on FB. Enquiring and realising they could be part of another trip, I had planned for the Sunday, I agreed with the owner to go look at the wheels he had. No price yet established. But I told Matt I had found some cheap wheels I liked. More in a bit. |
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So agreeing to go see Sammo about some parts I decided to incorporate the trip to see the wheels I had seen on a random Caddy group post, which quickly led to a conversation with the owner Sams thread: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/201579/caddy-van-vr5-project-pedalsSo once again, the time frame is back to front, because my 140 mile trip led me to Sams place first. But here are the wheels, picture as seen on a chat thread.  They typically were not what I was looking for, but actually ticked a bunch of boxes automatically. I like solid spokes, and 5 spokes are great when it comes to cleaning and maintenance. Any lace or multi spokes are beautiful, but on someone else’s car. IYKWIM. A Messenger exchange and chat with the owner established a few things, yes they fitted, directly, yes they were for sale, yes he would sell me 5 of the 6 wheels as I had no use for a well and truly knackered one. And he seemed a nice guy. Bonus.  So when I got there, as often is the case, we spent over an hour speaking Caddy mods, issues and life in general. When I asked how much he wanted for the wheels, his reply was £80.00 please. So I agreed and we loaded the 5 wheels I had bought into the Focus. The 5th black wheel is super scruffy and Kerbed to death…… but as a spare, with a silly stretched tyre, it will do.  Seller also threw in a Caddy rear floor mat, to be used once I have levelled out the rear floor and fitted a better bumper. Cleaned up at home.  Eventually back home by 3.30pm I had a coffee and sandwich for lunch, then went to lay stuff out to be cleaned. At which point first nickwheeler arrived, and followed later by Mickey next door. So 3/4 of a bottle of Jif/Cif/Handy Andy and a couple of brushes later, we had some sparkling purchases.  Very importantly as well, four centre caps, one missing its retaining ring. And of course a ring found yesterday when collecting the rear bumper 50 miles from here.  Butt ugleee spare. Decent tyre at least.  And the other four wheels had two good tyres and two that I needed to replace.   Pretty pleased and smug with my relatively cheap find, which would need another £160.00-ish for two new tyres, I told amongst others mate Matt pegasus later in the evening. Another exchange ensued, summarised in these comments. Not always easy, but sometimes the right thing to do.  Have I mentioned before…….  Next job……. Try on the wheels on the Caddy. And buy tyres. |
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Two days later……. Test fit. Of course you gotta do this.   Went for a drive to feel the front end.  Then came back, tried them on the rear. Missing the rear shocks.  And of course all round. 16 inch alloys. 195/55 16 tyres to be ordered.   So………… Opinions. Yes, we all have them. I think that unless some mind blowing wheels come along. These can stay where they are. |
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They look good to me  |
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I like them Grizz. When I had my 9n Polo I fitted some 17" Toyota wheels to it. Right offset and everything.  |
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They look good to me Thanks mate. Paid for, so staying. |
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I like them Grizz. When I had my 9n Polo I fitted some 17" Toyota wheels to it. Right offset and everything. Nice. I am cautious about all these large wheels, low profiles. Had a C230 V6 Benz in 2006 and hated the sports suspension and all it delivered for me, after a GTi. |
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So part one of the day trip to collect the wheels was to go meet up with Sammo at his mums house. To look at this Caddy…….   Sam had offered me a pair of Golf VR6 seats to fit into the Caddy. Just plug and play was what he said. Greeted by the most awesome cat…… of course.  I managed to buy the seats I had not planned on buying and also robbed the VW badge off the rear door, followed by a set of black bikini caps for the steel wheels I had at home. Sam also gave me some door lock inners.  Loaded and headed out to Chertsy to see the alloy wheels.   Eventually back at home I got to look at these tired seats that I had bought from Sam. Cleaned the wheels and rear floor mat. Then headed back into the seats.    Also cleaned up the small centre caps I had bought for the steel wheels as fitted, as I did not like the flat caps. Much better I would say.   And straight on.  Seats after all the effort…….. Yes, not too bad.   And of course approved and became the bed for the next four days 24/7 George cat scanned.  And of course all including a rant in a short clip. Pan fried pork chops and vegetables tonight. Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow. |
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Excellent work that man!
Much prefer those centres for the steelies - think it's the contrast in colour.
And those 5 spokes are excellent. Considered a similar set for the Bora when I had it, but could not find any.
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Wheels look OK. You'll have to get another seat, just for George  |
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