Your fleet running reports

[McSwede]

My Dad will be 80 this year and has just had me order some coilovers for his MK3 MR2 Good effort!

[Sundayjumper]

Guess who’s a massive idiot and managed to lock the only key inside the car, with the engine running, and had to break the window to get in ?

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It’s not even the first time I’ve done it. I did it with the old E46 Touring about ten years ago.

They. They did it.

Ahem.

[mik]

Doh!

Apps that allow you to lock/unlock are pretty useful…..

[Jobbo]

How did you lock it in? Nobody presses the lock either the door open then holds the handle up to shut it these days, do they?

[Sundayjumper]

Fairly specific and totally my fault. I wanted to do some work on the rear suspension and wanted to set it to max height first. It won't let you raise or lower the suspension with the door open and I didn't want to sit in the car waiting - for some reason the final stage to get to max height takes quite a long time. Solution is to open the window, close the door and then lean in to press the switch and leave it to it.

Once it was raised I thought I'd be clever by leaning in the window and hitting the one-shot to close it again without needing to open the door. Not entirely sure why I was leaving the engine running. The button to lock all the doors is right by the window switch and I managed to hit both at the same time. Knowing the window was going to close quite quickly I'd already pulled my arm back when I realised the <clunk> of the doors locking. In hindsight the only solution at that point would have been to reach back in and block the window, but deliberately putting your arm in front of a moving object is very counter-intuitive. Self preservation instinct beat logic in those couple of seconds as I watched the window go up.

And here we are.

I've hoovered up all the glass I can see but I know I'll be finding bits for months. I've ordered some s/h glass from ebay for £30. It's relatively easy to change. I did the same job & more when replacing a broken cable on the Touareg.

So not the end of the world and it makes an amusing story

[integrale_evo]

Not my fleet, but seem to be playing with motorbike bits at the moment.

Over Christmas I painted up a tank and side panels for a mates 70s Honda, was pretty pleased with how it came out, first time I’ve used clear over base on a solid colour. I always assumed you’d be able to tell it was lacquered, but nope, just looks like a normal deep gloss red.





Unfortunately when he put it on the bike and filled it up it leaked fuel out of a couple of pinholes hidden under the original paint on the underside which crept under and peeled off a strip of paint



The challenge was to try and blend in the repair with no visible line and without damaging the decals. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to as it was such a small area.

I blended out the colour with some very careful spraying, then lacquered the entire tank again, over the top of the decals.

I was really happy with the results, and so was the owner.


You may have spotted another tank in the background. This is for a different mates Suzuki of somesort. It had some pretty nasty dents including the whole front corner where he managed to drop it after removing it from the bike, which deformed the fuel filler surround area. Here you can see some of the layers and shaping that went into it ( still very much a work in progress at that point). The tank had been lined so I couldn’t spotweld any studs on to pull it out. It’s never going to be a show bike, but I still wanted to make it look better than it was.



Today I finally got the last coat of colour on and lacquered it. Ford imperial blue. Still needs a cut and polish, but I think it will look very good when finished.


I don’t really like doing things for other people because I’m never really sure what their expectations are and whether they’re going to be happy with my enthusiastic amateur efforts, so I don’t charge, I just ask them to cover the cost of materials. I enjoy doing it and the more practise I get, the more I learn and improve.

[DeskJockey]

That looks really good!

Since we've stopped the daily school runs in the Galaxy the MPG has improved significantly. Before I'd struggle to get much over 400 miles to the tank, but as we're now almost exclusively doing longer drives it has crept up just shy of 500 miles to the tank.

[jamcg]

@integrale_evo they look great. Bodywork terrifies me……


It’s amazing how many jobs were willing to take on ourselves and not do for others- I’ve fit all my own carpets but I’d never do it for anyone else

[John]

A friend of mine had the same problem with pinholes leaking fuel. He spent an absolute age preparing and painting the tank and then the first fill up ruined it.

[Rich B]

That's got to be irritating. I bet you'll be testing tanks after stripping the original paint and before applying new paint from now on!

[integrale_evo]

Yeah, it was pretty annoying. At first we thought it was a problem with the paint until he spotted the holes on closer inspection. I assumed it was off a running bike and was just giving it a tidy up so hadn’t even really looked at the underside other than to see there was paint on it.

In other news, the x5 is proving a handy thing to have. It transported 5 adults in comfort with a rumbling soundtrack on Saturday. On Sunday I pulled out the sliding boot floor and plonked on a 1/2 ton bag filled with garden waste and slid it straight into the boot along with various other junk for the tip.

Starting to think about swapping things back to nicer wheels. Tempted to stick the centrelocks on the compact for a bit if the tyres aren’t too old and perished…

[Sundayjumper]

I checked back, last time was 19th Feb 2013. Near enough exactly ten years.

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[Sundayjumper]

Tempted to stick the centrelocks on the compact for a bit if the tyres aren’t too old and perished…

If you do, post pics. I'm curious how it all goes together.

[Gavster]

Loving the ventiliation were you wearing a respirator?

[integrale_evo]

Yes, I’ve got a decent disposable one, can’t smell the solvents at all and leave the area as soon as it’s been painted. Starting to get sensible in my old age

I’d prefer to paint outside but not really possible at this time of year.

[V8Granite]

Vito. Utter ducking arsenuggets.

It’s up for sale, I have someone who says they’re happy to buy it if it passes a fresh MOT. The MOT is booked for Tuesday. Today I decided to change the glow plugs as it’s been flashing a warning for a few months but starts & runs perfectly so it’s not been high priority.

#1-3 changed no problem. But #4, closest to the bulkhead, seemed to be only finger tight. And kept turning and turning. It’s hard to get to and you can’t even see it clearly but I’m pretty sure the hex part has sheared off from the threaded bit. If so it’s not coming out without removing the head and taking it to a machine shop

I am sulking.

Do check first as I think there is a mobile chap who does glow plug repairs and injector repairs on this era of Merc diesel.

Dave!

[Gavin]

Garage has looked at the Merc and advised me to trade it in to get rid ASAP. Apparently Mercedes Main Dealer, when they shoehorned the sun roof shut have totally fucked it so they cannot get it to open even a wee bit to clear the drain holes, added to that, water has reached the SAM unit, whatever that is, so horn already not working and likely to have a litany of electrical gremlins.

Not worth replacing the entire pan roof unit as might also need various ECUs etc!

So that sucks as I really liked it and have no clue what to change it for.

[Sundayjumper]

...the SAM unit, whatever that is...

Signal Acquisition Module. It's a box - there will be more than one - that collects data from sensors and pumps it into the CAN bus to pass it around the car. If it's proper borked it'll cause all manner of problems.

[Gavin]

...the SAM unit, whatever that is...

Signal Acquisition Module. It's a box - there will be more than one - that collects data from sensors and pumps it into the CAN bus to pass it around the car. If it's proper borked it'll cause all manner of problems.

Ah, that will be the one then! Booooooooooooooo

[Sundayjumper]

Probably quite easy to replace, but obviously no point without fixing the water problem first. Which sounds like a massive PITA.