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Mar 31, 2024 15:38:48 GMT
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That's really interesting because I have always been under the impression that the programme has an unlimited budget and that Fuzz does minimal amounts of work leaving virtually everything to a team of specialists including engine builders, mechanics, panel beaters and auto electricians. The 911 Targa that I saw recently even involved Tim going to Stuttgart to collect panels from the factory and everything forward of the firewall cut off. The labour charges must have been colossal not to mention Porsche prices for the ultra rare panels. There have been other cars that would normally have been considered beyond economic repair but they were transformed to what appeared to be concours standard.
My impression of Tim and Fuzz is that they are genuinely nice blokes and that they really care about what they are doing in providing joy and happiness to folk who have had it very hard over the years. The surprise and glee at seeing their cars fully restored certainly appeared to be absolutely genuine.
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Mar 31, 2024 16:20:09 GMT
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sounds like some of it may have been done by people with no experience of older cars, rubber mounted glass and dooors that don't fit in the apperture are something you don't get in the modern car repair world.
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Mar 31, 2024 17:38:06 GMT
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John, there is always a budget, the program relies on firms offering the parts for free in return for the advertising. No company could do that work for free and the TV program stumps up the cash for the rest.
I'm sure Fuzz and Tim are 100% genuine and care.
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Mar 31, 2024 17:40:19 GMT
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Kevin's,
I can't really comment too much as the people involved may end up reading this.
I think it's more to do with time constraints and possibly some people involved getting fed up with the amount of work required and thinking 'that's enough'
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Back to my car again. A while back I bought new carpet for it, so I've made the effort to go into the garage to have a go at fitting it. With the passenger seat out the black carpet can be got at. It's not fared too badly to be fair.  With the carpet stripped out the floor is exposed - still looking pretty perfect considering I painted it nearly 20 years ago.  the 8mm underfelt is cut to size;  and the new dark grey carpet is trimmed to fit. I'll probably get it edged at some point (might even do it myself) It's only resting in place at the moment, it will be fixed down later.
 And a little sneak preview of the light grey carpet that the rear floor, boot floor and possibly the tunnel will be covered in. Not sure about the tunnel - I really like the painted ally look and I've only got one chip (as you can see in the photo) in the last 8 years so carpet is not essential.  |
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Wonderful work and a great thread. Thank you
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It is good to see how well your work has stood the test of time - Well Done!
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Thanks both of you , nice to get some feedback 😀
Off to fix the car SOS pop this afternoon as it dies after a couple of mins running.
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Car SOS sometimes use specialists and it strikes me that their first port of call should have been Blackpopracing and had a proper job done. I can imagine the disappointment of your friend after the euphoria of seeing and believing that his car was in pristine condition only to discover that it was all superficial.
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Well John, it's tricky to say stuff on here without it seeming a bit like I'm running them down - it's a great car but it's not really been finished.. To be fair - Car SOS had never done a hot rod before, its a lot easier to replace parts on a classic as you are fitting what the factory intended - which was properly tested to make sure it worked properly. They did what they could but they also relied on others (hot rodders?) to sort some of the car and I think that this is where a lot of the issues have arisen from. Anyway, I went over today with Phil & Mark so we could see why it was not running right. Fired it up and everything was running really well. Later in the day I found the coil positive connector was really loose and barely connected, so we suspect this may have been the cause of the rough running and cutting out. We left it running for a while and the electric fan kicked in and all was still good. The electric fan did not kick out again though, so I checked the temp on the controller and it was set to 80 degrees. I changed this to 90 degrees and it seems to work a lot better now. Next job was to sort the seized door wedges, after chiselling off the paint & filler and adding some spray grease they now work properly so the doors now shut without having to smash them into the body. Next was to sort the inner door handle as Andy was struggling to open the door from inside, again this just needed a good greasing and it now works properly. Then I had a couple of hours trying to sort some of the wiring issues. Oil guage goes to max with ign on, but drops to zero slowly when engine running - its a smiths guage so I'm a bit stumped at present on that one. Water guage, dead. Tried grounding the sender wire, but still dead. I suspect the person who wired it shorted it out and killed the guage. The ign panel, it's wired wrong and the warning lamps don't work (they were not wired up!) Live from battery terminals (17mm) with no covers fitted going into a steel panel....  Tried rewiring them so it worked how Andy wanted - but this caused other issues, so for now its noted which wires do what and I will have to investigate further another day. A lot of the wires fell out of the crimped (insulated) terminals - reinforcing my hatred of these - I much prefer uninsulated and heat shrink. Now the bad bits, First one - this is the kickdown cable - not connectd to anything at all   Next is this sodding great hole between the engine bay and the passenger compartment;  Front suspension - assembled with no locking nuts anywhere  Before we left for the day I took it for a test drive to see what Andy meant about the heavy steering. My anyalsis of this is its truly shocking. It's not heavy - its binding! It's difficult to turn, and when you do turn it if you don't turn it back it stays turned! I don't know if it's the column or the rack or something else but it's bloody awful. Anything more than half lock and the tyre treads catch the front wings, and there is about 3" ground clearance. It will be coming over to me next weekend to start on some of the issues, there are many,many more that I have not listed here but I'll go through them as I find them. Overall, it's a good car, but it's let down by the fact it's been very rushed, and some of the work has be done without any care by some of the people. |
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Enbloc
Part of things
Posts: 398
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Seen this so many times and experienced it myself.
This car will end up completely rebuilt from the ground up because there won't be a single aspect that doesn't need rebuilding, replacing or reengineering.
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,152 
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Doesn't seem to be evidence of any lubrication or paint around that suspension bolt/mount, which is pretty disappointing.
I've noticed that it seems to be common on these car related tv shows that everything is assembled dry, never see any sign of grease or copperslip being used.
Might be just me, but anything I put together that's exposed to weather/road spray or even just the elements gets lubricated and painted, a legacy of a lifetime working in adverse conditions (underground and offshore) where things rusted in front of your eyes.
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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Hate to say it but they are making a TV program and the productions schedules will trump everything. I'm guessing the work was done shortly before the broadcast date?
Anyway, it's in good hands now. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.
James
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By and large they will re-assemble them as the manufacturers specified and thats generally dry joints, most manufacturers are far more worried about the bolts coming undone when they are not supposed to rather than getting them undone 20 years down the line.
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I think it was mostly thrown together to meet deadlines. Not been on for a few days as been busy in the garage and also my 2 cats are poorly/injured so a bit stessed about them. Carrying on the re-carpeting of mine, paper templates were made of the floor;  and transferred to the carpet with a chinagraph pencil.
 I missed taking photos while doing this, but the same was done for the wheel arches, template being made here for the rear floor.  And the carpet cut to size and fitted.  I had some (2 bits) left over fur flex from around the doors, and luckily they were EXACTLY the right length for both wheel tubs - how often does that happen??? So they got glued to the carpet edges and it finishes off the fold over the tubs nicely.
 Carpets in with the old heel plate, Ill try to make a nicer one that is a bit bigger next.
 And all done. I'm not so happy with the middle bit - I really preferred the bare painted aluminium, but this should be a little quieter and it's behind the seats so not really on show. I think I'll leave the tunnel in it's painted glory.
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Looks really good,
(Sorry but prefer it carpeted,)
Hope the cats are better soon,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Apr 10, 2024 12:20:51 GMT
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No need to be sorry Nigel  The carpets are nice, but it's race car style & the carpets are more street rod. It also loses all the definition of the panels. I might do the tunnel carpet anyway - just may not fit it. |
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Apr 14, 2024 20:31:39 GMT
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THe Car SOS pop made it over to Blackpopracing HQ today, to see what all the issues are. Andy just arrived here and my pop waiting to be put away. Andy's pop soon got tucked away in the workshop and immediately up on stands with the wheels off to try to find out why the steering is binding. The bonnet was removed to provide better access, That's Phil helping (he owns the Grey Pop I rebuilt a while back). Wheels all stripped off to investigate. First job was to disconnect the rack from the column to find out which bit was tight. Turns out they both are........   |
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Apr 14, 2024 20:47:55 GMT
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Lets take the wheels off.......first problem, one of the wheel nuts just spins round and round. Luckily it was loose enough to be able to hold on to the back of the stud and unwind it by hand. What was the problem? Hole is not worn, its just drilled far too big. There are a few other studs that are loose as well. They will need to have small welds added to secure them properly. So.......lets remove the rack..........hmmmm.......not actually possible as it went in before the engine and one bolt holding it on has a stripped thread, mr angle grinder soon had it removed though. In the end after much swearing and removing the oil filter we managed to get the rack off. Can anyone identify what the rack is from? Sooooo, the rack is tight. The driveshaft is also not straight. It waves around like a whore trying to attract customers. Its been welded at both ends, the weld you can just see right by the entry to the rack is not welded on straight, so the opposite end rotates around about a 4mm arc at the other end.  The other end is even worse, it's been welded on completely pi55ed. The rack I suspect is also not straight inside, which is why it's tight. It's also not narrowed enough as the wheels have around 30 degrees of lock at max turning. So...the rack is junk and belongs in the bin.
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Apr 14, 2024 20:57:13 GMT
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Moving on, the steering in the car is still really tight. Looking in the engine bay there is a bearing just in front of the firewall. This was unbolted and it jumped away from its bolt hole - you can see how far from this photo.  Unsuprisingly the steering is now quite free.
This 'should' be an easy fix - except the engine is now completely in the way. The plan is to ditch this bearing & mount and build a new one that will bolt to a different section of chassis so I can make the (adjustable) bearing mount off the car and then make the chassis mount after it is fitted back on the column. The exhaust will need to be removed for access as well.
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