Your fleet running reports

[DeskJockey]

The 4 Series continues to confidently claim that either of the rear indicator bulbs has blown when you start it. It depends what day it is as to which bulb it claims has blown but turning on said indicator cancels the warning.

Time to top up the blinker fluid?

[unzippy]

Especially if you're as generously proportioned as I am

Breathe out, get under car, breathe in and put axle stands in place?

[unzippy]

I managed to fit in collecting my Series 3 Land Rover, after giving it to a friend of a friend to do a 3 month chassis swap/refurb about four years ago, which he got 80% through after six months then parked it outside in a farm yard to deteriorate.
I told him that I was coming, but saw him driving in the opposite direction as we were driving to his premises, and unlikely to return that evening, even thought I intended to discuss money with him, as I've not paid him anything to date (I bought the chassis and had it delivered to him), and we haven't talked about a figure for getting it to this unfinished state. His 'employee' had been left to supervise us, and refused to let us leave site without paying for the work.
Given that this was probably me only opportunity to collect it for six months we swiftly agreed on £400 labour plus the receipted parts.
We originally agreed on £1100 labour for the whole job.

Getting it on a tilt bed (rented at short notice from a fairgound community!) with no trailer winch, no brakes, no power and no steering was fun. Pushing it from the back with forklift while towing it with another Land Rover did the trick.
The drivers door came open on the journey (he'd fitted new bolts to to the hinges and keeper plate, had obviously marked up the position with tape, then done an incredibly poor job of tightening it up in that indicated place). The passenger door nearly came crashing to the ground when I went to get inside to tie the drivers door shut, only being held on by a couple of threads on a single loose bolt in the bottom hinge - a lucky find before we got on the dual carriageway!
Rolling it off onto a road and negotiating a narrow alleyway in the centre of Leicester at night was interesting...




I guiltily dumped it at my long suffering mechanic's premises, with a note of apology - I understated the condition it was in, having been lied to by the previous 'engineer'. Peter at Blue Peter Garage is a star for putting up with me, and has generally looked after my older cars for about fifteen years.
I wasn't going to repaint it, but sitting unused in a yard hasn't been kind to it, and I'd forgotten that the lower doors and rear door are tired, so I think it deserves a refresh. I like the traces of its Manchester Met Police past (it was the chief constables car, delivered with a fleet of fast response M62 motorway Range Rovers in 1983) such as the orange safari roof showing under later white paint that is flaking off, additional holes for aerials, lights and rubber bumpers, and special production line coding behind the number plate, so need to consider if/how I retain these.

A picture of one of the Range Rovers (they had sequential number plates, up to A800HND) -

Cool, I like a good restoration.

[mik]

Ben's mum was always hyper-paranoid that one of the other boys would pick up the wrong jumper/lorry after PE.

[Jimmy Choo]

The 4 Series continues to confidently claim that either of the rear indicator bulbs has blown when you start it. It depends what day it is as to which bulb it claims has blown but turning on said indicator cancels the warning.

Check the rear light cluster wiring. The e46 was notorious for melting the earth wires. The standard fix was to bypass the connector and wire the earth to the metal frame in the cluster.

[Broccers]

Bought this genuine replacement part from Lithuania off ebay.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ohjvF2 ... xXHyl/view

After a 3 week wait it arrived unpainted in primer. Apparently this was an error so he offered to knock off some money. As it happens the car was in for scratches and a bit of rust sorting yesterday so the guy in the garage said he's paint and fit for the 40.00 it was discounted by. Some things work out better than you expect.

We're off to the airport later and the hotel apparently takes your car off site (hotel as early flight) - we will be taking the mini as I have bad thoughts about the golf being razzed around Manc for a while.

[Beany]

Especially if you're as generously proportioned as I am

Breathe out, get under car, breathe in and put axle stands in place?

Alas, I'm not generously proportioned enough to lift the actual car.

Anyway, 450 miles today, into central london to strip some old comms gear out. Drove in through Archway/highbury/holloway etc past Old Street roundabout. Given the way people describe driving in London, I was expecting something like Carmageddon, but other than hitting traffic on the way out (which still moved faster than the traffic around St Albans on the M1....an hour to move about two miles) it was fine. Parking is extortionate but it's London, and work are paying so whatever.

Also, finally broke the 40mpg barrier, a first for any car I've owned - 44mpg, brim to brim. Although the 'distance remaining' of >800 miles is charmingly amusing due to it's lack of realism.

Fucking long day though. Shattered.

[integrale_evo]

The what's going on with the e36 m3 update thread.

People may have noticed I've been using the compact for a while and not posted anything of the m3. Well here is the story so far.

I knew I had a few rust issues simmering under the surface, I had done a couple of temporary fixes to buy myself some time.

With the mot looming in November I had a couple of weeks in September put aside to sort it ready for winter. Then I spent one of those doing a clutch on the mrs' car and realised I probably wasn't going to get it done in time so concentrated on getting the blue 316i compact back on the road to use through winter.

I soon realised it probably wasn't going to survive long term and was so slow I hated it. Fine as an occasional runabout, not as an only car. Which is where the silver 318ti came in.

As winter dragged on and on I managed to get a few bits done to get it looking and handling as I wanted inbetween the weather knowing I wasn't really wasting any time I could have spent on the m3 as it's issues weren't quick fixes.

So, a few weeks ago I got started. The only outward signs of an issue were a couple of bits of seam sealer in the engine bay lifting and a couple of rust stains breaking through.

Scraping off the seam sealer and a slight prod with a screwdriver revealed this



And removing the arch liner and giving the underseal a prod...



The small round hole is a drain hole, in the middle of the square hole is where there should be a little plastic plug to hold the arch liner up. It's a common rust area, the blue compact is starting to go in the same area


Having a feeling it would be pretty bad when I started digging I had already chopped some donor panels out of a compact someone local was breaking ( before I had decided to break mine )

So started drilling out the spot welds to see how the sections were pieced together.



There's the upper rail ( which the wing attaches to the top of ) the turret and the closing panel which forms the main tub of the inner arch, and wraps around the inside of the turret and is welded again along the side.

I didn't want to use the entire turret as it would need the engine to come out, plus there would be no way without constructing some sort of elaborate jig to be able to guarantee maintaining the original geometry.

Thankfully my upper rail was perfect which meant it wouldn't have to be cut and would be a fixed reference point, I would then chop sections out of the turret a piece at a time only cutting out the minimum unneeded to to completely remove the rust.

I made a rough cut to the under panel just to get it out of the way, it could be neatened and trimmed back later.


And chose the first section of turret to remove. I picked the rear corner as it was already corroded through in the corner and not really doing anything to support the rest of the turret anyway.



With that welded along its back and top edges and through the spot weld holes to the rail I could move to the next section which needed a far higher cut.


I literally just skimmed the top of the rust ( upper right of this section ) there would be a piece behind which is why it's gone through the rust on the left side.


New piece cut trimmed and clamped


And stitched


Onto the next section, daylight is never a good sign,


This was where there was a telltale rust stain bursting through the paint. Thankfully I was able to start cutting back in towards the seam.


The last piece, just needed a small section of the turret flange, but a larger chunk of the inner wing as there was some rust behind the brake pipe bracket, those two spots are where it was attached.


And from inside


Frankenstein


With the turret solid and stable I could trim the inner tub where I wanted it, and trim the donor tub to suit


Which was then plug welded through the drilled put spot weld holes from both underneath and on top, and given a tickle with a grinder



Being impatient I gave it a squirt with an aerosol to make sure the general shape was ok and whether any bits would need more work.


I then asked mr Flew what he used for underseal. He showed me a nice wurth gun, I did some reasearch and decided it was way out of my budget

Handily he had his old gun kicking around which he sold to me along with some sprayable sealer.

I used the underside to practise, and tried to replicate the original ripple finish.


And decided it was time to bite the bullet, mask it up and spray the visible seam inside the engine bay.


Which has to be painted within 4 hours to ensure a proper bond with the sealer, so mixed up a little paint I had spare and gave it a coat ( this is purely to colour the seam and won't be the final finish )



A lot of it won't even be visible once the wiring, washer pipes, washer bottle etc are back in place


And that is how it sits at the moment.

I wasn't going to post any of this initially, I wasn't sure I wanted people to see how bad it was, but I'm proud of how it has gone and how it has turned out and thought people might be interested. I'm sure there are 'better' ways, I'm sure many will wonder why bother, but it's my car, I want to keep driving it and I kind of wanted to see if I could do it

[Rich B]

Fair play Harry, how many miles is it on now?

[DeskJockey]

Can't fault your commitment to the highest mileage E36 M3 in the world (you still retain the title I assume).

Looks a good result to me.

[JLv3.0]

Christ Harry, good work

Not tempted to lease a Golf R then?

[integrale_evo]

It's around the 285,000 mile mark from memory. Part of the desire to fix it is wanting to break the 300k triple explosion barrier in it

Not tempted by a cheap lease, and as long as I don't count my 'fun' hobby hours and tools I've bought which will be used many times on many projects, so far this fix has cost about £60.

I still like old cars, and honestly having great fun in the compact, although I will admit that the mrs now having a very tidy and low mileage car has taken a bit of the worry out of running a fleet of old sheds

[integrale_evo]

I would also like to add that all the panels, seams and welds looked totally original, no signs of any previous accident damage or activity which may have compromised it and started the rust.

The main issue seems to be the rubberised underseal starting to dry out and crack allowing water to creep into the seams, some of it just peeled off in big long strips.

Needless to say, I will be removing anything loose, revealing and adding copious amounts of waxoil inside any seams and box sections before I proclaim it finished!

[Beany]

The lack of tools, lack of space, and generally being hamfisted is why I didn't do this with the Puma.

[Jobbo]

That looks excellent Harry. Will finishing it give you the opportunity to do the VW camper?

[Marv]

Great work Harry.

300k on the M3 would be really impressive

[speedingfine]

Excellent Harry, must give you great confidence to fix something like that. Do you want to do the W124?

[John]

Great work

[unzippy]

That looks excellent Harry. Will finishing it give you the opportunity to do the VW camper?

[Alex88]

Just picked the 650i up from BMW. Been there for almost a month having its valve stem seals replaced under the extended warranty. I am so glad I got that warranty!

The bill wasn't cheap. Glad I wasn't paying...