Your fleet running reports

[Sundayjumper]

REIS. All mine are with them now.

[_andy]

REIS. All mine are with them now.

REIS are who it was insured with, and gave me the £800+ quote. As I said to the lady there it makes me feel like I'm 19 yo all over again

I'll give them a go when I reinsure the Spazda, I'll probably just park up the Civic for a while until I can sort it out. It needs a MoT too and as it didn't come with a catalytic converter I'll need to sort one out.

[_andy]

Swinton were very reasonable for my supercharged mx5. Available to quote online too, just tick options on the drop down modifications menu.

Thanks, I'll give them a go too.

[NGRhodes]

Don't forget some insurances get cheaper when you declare more modifications (conversely others have limits on number of mods).

Admiral have devious terms in their policies called the Standard Parts Replacement Clause, which means though they will cover a car with modifications, the SPRC means they will only replace with standard parts !

[Sundayjumper]

REIS. All mine are with them now.

REIS are who it was insured with...

Huh. My Compact is on a motorsport policy with them and doesn’t have a cage. If you’re keeping the car a couple of years it’s probably cheaper to just fit the cage ??

[_andy]

REIS. All mine are with them now.

REIS are who it was insured with...

Huh. My Compact is on a motorsport policy with them and doesn’t have a cage. If you’re keeping the car a couple of years it’s probably cheaper to just fit the cage ??

Did you reinsure with them recently? They told me that the underwriter had changed their requirements and some sort of cage and competition seats/harnesses were now needed. I did look at cages and I'm not adverse to the idea, but it's going to be £500 or more for a rear rollover type one (which I understand would qualify), and it has a Sparco seat fitted already, but if I can do without and insure it more reasonably somewhere else I'll do that.

[Foz]

I tried REIS that were great for Honda Loltus but they were no where for the wagon- not modified enough

[Sundayjumper]

Did you reinsure with them recently? They told me that the underwriter had changed their requirements and some sort of cage and competition seats/harnesses were now needed. I did look at cages and I'm not adverse to the idea, but it's going to be £500 or more for a rear rollover type one (which I understand would qualify), and it has a Sparco seat fitted already, but if I can do without and insure it more reasonably somewhere else I'll do that.

Fair point, my renewal is in July. I've got seats & harnesses already. I'd better give them a call just to head off a nasty surprise in July where they refuse to insure me ! A cage has been on my list for ages but like you say, it's a chunk of money, and it's never quite made it to the top of my to-do list.

[KiwiDave]

The 86 is in at Toyota today for it's service. Have instructed them to swap the woeful wiper blades out, check the drivers seat over as it's creaking like a cunt (less than 70'000kms) and sort out why the exhaust has developed a buzz as the air con compressor passes up and down through about 850rpm - suspect it's an exhaust hanger or the bumper catching somewhere slightly. It's got ANOTHER minor oil leak from one of the heads, which if they fix it properly will mean re-doing the seal-instead-of-a-head-gasket for the fourth time. All under warranty though so that's on them.

I continue to love the car immensely, can't think of much else to replace it with which matches the running costs and purchase price and remains so safe (first one probably saved me some major injuries when it was written off), but it still fails on two points.

1) The standard suspension is actually great but it's also crashy for every day use, sign of cheaply built dampers. I have some Ohlins to go on it but they need a rebuild and the agent for them here is changing.

2) It's built by Subaru and feels cheaply put together, quite a stark quality difference getting in the loan car Corolla today.

Edit to add, it also kinda fails on the muppets who are buying them being associated with you. While most car guys could tell those which are done as driving tools and those which are fucking ruined in the name of style, most people by association identify you as a massive wanker for having one. Beginning to make me contemplate selling it.

[McSwede]

Bridgestone Potenza Sport fitted to the rear of the M140i yesterday. New UHP tyre just launched this year. Took a punt on these as there are no Goodyear F1SS available. Already run MPSS and PS4 so time to try something new.

Took it out tonight, switched everything off and gave them a spank. Very impressed with wet grip. Some of that effect will be from changing the slicks that were on it before but they feel really good. Progressive breakaway when grip is finally relinquished. I have high hopes for these if initial impressions are to be believed. Never got on with Bridgestone tyres before so it'll be interesting to see what these are like as I put some miles on them.

[V8Granite]

Well I “Think” the worst is over for the underside of the 500e now.

Dave has removed every single part from under the car, the front had 2 small repairs due to a stud rusting and needing repairing. He then put under seal, seam sealer and all manner of goo on the front so it never sees rust again.
He removed brackets and things like the radiator frame so they could be blasted before he refits them.





The back end at some point before me and Brian owned the car had a coming together with a kerb I think. The rear left hub was a newer design (they updated some parts in the facelift and original Pre-facelift parts are NLA) and also he found a stress crack by a spot weld and a section of floor from that same piece. He was stripping and pulling that all back to be sure it hasn’t propagated any further but currently signs are good.
To say I’m pleased with how much rust/ damage has been found on a well maintained but not pampered car that’s 30 years old is an understatement!!!! The surface rust is just that and always had solid metal behind it apart from a few very small areas. I’ll have to check but the metal needing to be put in is only a couple of square inches in total.



This is the worst in the back end, you can see the crack to the left of the strut where the spot weld has detached.





Couldn’t be happier with his attention to detail on this and was the reason I’ve waited so long to have him do it. Whatever is found I know he can make a quality engineered repair as apposed to a patch etc. Hen the entire underside is completely bare you have to have faith that it’s put back together properly

This is all back now and stripped and powder coated bar the back plates and a hub ready for rebuild.



When all new hoses, power steering pipes and oil cooler pipes and brake, fuel pipes, bushes, linkages etc are all added up I’d rather not know the final number!!!!

I cannot bloody wait!!!!

Dave!

[Sundayjumper]

I've just drained a load of water from the n/s headlight

@Nic - you mentioned changing the ballasts on yours - because of water ingress ? Did you figure out where it was getting in ? The internet doesn't seem to have a clear answer.

[Sundayjumper]

Cayenne. MOT. Clean sheet.

WIN

And the costs so far.

Essentials:

4,995.00 Purchase inc. delivery
16.58 Rear wiper arm
119.50 Battery
113.53 Cam & crank sensors
33.22 Thermostat
148.65 Starter motor
107.48 Boot struts
31.03 Residual air valves
13.52 Antifreeze
115.99 Brake light
31.14 Engine torque bush
130.50 Propshaft
135.92 Front wishbones

5,992.06 SUBTOTAL


Electives:

17.00 Nav disc
31.00 Mudflaps
13.97 Key casing, numberplate lights
19.00 Wheel bolts
250.00 Towbar
22.00 Towbar hardware
24.92 Instrument cluster
22.00 Coin tray
4.35 Towbar hardware
9.99 Tailgate button
2.35 Towbar spare key
(32.67) Sale of old cluster

383.91 SUBTOTAL


6,375.97 GRAND TOTAL


There's really nothing too scary in there.

[Rich B]

Cayenne. MOT. Clean sheet.

WIN

And the costs so far.

Essentials:

4,995.00 Purchase inc. delivery
16.58 Rear wiper arm
119.50 Battery
113.53 Cam & crank sensors
33.22 Thermostat
148.65 Starter motor
107.48 Boot struts
31.03 Residual air valves
13.52 Antifreeze
115.99 Brake light
31.14 Engine torque bush
130.50 Propshaft
135.92 Front wishbones

5,992.06 SUBTOTAL


Electives:

17.00 Nav disc
31.00 Mudflaps
13.97 Key casing, numberplate lights
19.00 Wheel bolts
250.00 Towbar
22.00 Towbar hardware
24.92 Instrument cluster
22.00 Coin tray
4.35 Towbar hardware
9.99 Tailgate button
2.35 Towbar spare key
(32.67) Sale of old cluster

383.91 SUBTOTAL


6,375.97 GRAND TOTAL


There's really nothing too scary in there.

it's like Wheeler Dealers! Good work Ed, sorry Steve!

[Sundayjumper]

it's like Wheeler Dealers! Good work Ed, sorry Steve!

You mean the conspicuous absence of labour costs ? And tools, incidental materials, overheads...

But I just do this for fun. It’s a hobby. If you started costing the time you spend on hobbies it would get quite depressing.

[jamcg]

it's like Wheeler Dealers! Good work Ed, sorry Steve!

You mean the conspicuous absence of labour costs ? And tools, incidental materials, overheads...

But I just do this for fun. It’s a hobby. If you started costing the time you spend on hobbies it would get quite depressing.

I spend a fortune on tools for work. I ignore that as it’s too depressing to think about

[Coaster1]

First problems with my Ultimate Driving Machine....

There’s a tiny bit of smoke when under power, at lower revs, in lower gears. I checked the oil on the trip computer (no dipstick) this morning before I set off, and it’s on ‘max’, and after my spirited drive I checked again and it’s one bar below max. Need to keep an eye one it.

Second problem is with the radio display.... it got all fuzzy today (was fine when I bought the car). As long as it doesn’t get worse, I can live with that.

Other than that, car’s fine, gearbox smooth, clutch no problem, air con works. The steering is very heavy in relation to the light throttle/brake/clutch pedals, so the whole experience doesn’t feel ‘in sync’, and the pedals feel and positions are not the best for H&T, but perhaps I will get used to it with more miles driven.

Overall though it’s quite a fun car to drive!

With all history lost, mid-term plan is a full service, and possibly fitting all-season tyres in October to replace the budget tyres.

[Coaster1]

And a fun photo from last week (with Barry, permissible travel)

Finally got to use it as intended.

[Matty]

A Tesco sandwich? Isn't that where the poor people go?

[mik]

Egg & cress? I hope the windows were open YK