OV9

I attempted to change the ball joint on the Smart car last weekend, as usual nothing was easy and one of the bolts that holds it to the upright is seized in place. For some reason Smart decided the best Idea was to put the bolt in from the disk side so that you have to take the brake caliper, brake disk, hub (held in place by a one time use stretch bolt) and backplate off to make room for the bolt to be removed, rather than put the nut on that side One of the two exhaust studs is also not coming out so I've booked it in to be done by a local garage, and once that's done I'm thinking about selling it and get something else, it's been non-stop lately and I'm over it.

Bought a new steering wheel for the Civic, its one of the standard fit Momo's that came on early MX-5's, and a DC2 ITR titanium gear knob (not shown) to replace the shonky ebay special that was on there, hopefully I'll be able to drive it sometime...

[mention]_andy[/mention] I don’t suppose you could measure the PCD of the screws that hold the wheel on, could you?

NotoriousREV wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 3:58 pm @_andy I don’t suppose you could measure the PCD of the screws that hold the wheel on, could you?

No prob, looks to be 70mm.

[mention]_andy[/mention] Awesome, thanks!

You're welcome, planning a purchase for the Camaro?

_andy wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 5:54 pm You're welcome, planning a purchase for the Camaro?

I was but the Camaro wheel is 3.5”. I wonder if there’s an adaptor out there somewhere?

Incidentally, the Camaro is an astonishing mix of imperial and metric which makes finding the right tool a bit hit and miss

NotoriousREV wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 6:19 pm

I was but the Camaro wheel is 3.5”. I wonder if there’s an adaptor out there somewhere?

That is very small - no wonder you want to fit something a bit bigger

NotoriousREV wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 6:19 pm

_andy wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 5:54 pm You're welcome, planning a purchase for the Camaro?

I was but the Camaro wheel is 3.5”. I wonder if there’s an adaptor out there somewhere?

Incidentally, the Camaro is an astonishing mix of imperial and metric which makes finding the right tool a bit hit and miss

Looks like there is:

https://gsmperformance.co.uk/product/ch ... -boss-kit/

I got my hub adapter for the Civic from these guys as they seemed a good bit cheaper than anywhere else.

I’ve bought a few things from GSM, they’re very good to deal with.

Awesome! Great find.

John wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 2:02 pm

Swervin_Mervin wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 12:41 pm @John I've just seen the Spotted for Sale on PH - you replacing with anything suitably as interesting?

That came as quite a surprise.

Not sure on replacement but thinking of going more classic maybe, nothing in mind though.

Keep us posted.

Always quite liked the look of the MX5 you have, back to when Ste first advertised it. Just looks a lot more together than a lot of the stuff out there - more factory

It is a nice looking car, and I'm not even a big mx5 fan

Hopefully it's getting collected on Saturday as a CASH deposit has been left.

John wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 10:27 pm It is a nice looking car, and I'm not even a big mx5 fan

Hopefully it's getting collected on Saturday as a CASH deposit has been left.

Right time of year to sell

So the Defender had crept up to its next polish, I do it on a rolling schedule to preserve the paint and integrity of its body protection. Last done in late 2009 it was starting to not quite bead after raining, the chalky surface felt like sandpaper and after spraying some Iron X onto the door it looked like a chain saw massacres movie bedroom

So, 500ml of decontaminate, 2 clay bars and a hand polish and wax later I’ve done........ 1 side and the bonnet



Both Jerry can lockers are rotten, I hate powder coat for this reason, so I need to replace those and I need to replace a bulkhead outrigger. I think I’ll have all the outriggers replaced as I have 2 anyway and it would mean I have an excuse to freshen up the chassis. I don’t like waxoyl as I think it hides rust for too long but the surface rust all over my chassis is starting to look quite crap so think I should paint it all. It’s a big job so will do it piece by piece.

Spare wheel going back on the bonnet too, without one it looks less rugged and more like a Chelsea tart.

Dave!

_andy wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 3:00 pm I attempted to change the ball joint on the Smart car last weekend, as usual nothing was easy and one of the bolts that holds it to the upright is seized in place. For some reason Smart decided the best Idea was to put the bolt in from the disk side so that you have to take the brake caliper, brake disk, hub (held in place by a one time use stretch bolt) and backplate off to make room for the bolt to be removed, rather than put the nut on that side One of the two exhaust studs is also not coming out so I've booked it in to be done by a local garage, and once that's done I'm thinking about selling it and get something else, it's been non-stop lately and I'm over it.

Bought a new steering wheel for the Civic, its one of the standard fit Momo's that came on early MX-5's, and a DC2 ITR titanium gear knob (not shown) to replace the shonky ebay special that was on there, hopefully I'll be able to drive it sometime...

Has someone put an instrument cluster out of an Auto in it for some reason, or do they all have the Auto gear display on them?

I'd noticed last week that the car was looking cleaner on most panels than the passenger door, and I didn't give much thought to this - just idly wondering if perhaps that last real polish the car had, the door had been missed or not buffed off properly.

Chatting with my neighbour tonight, turns out he'd taken it up on himself to clean it last weekend early on a morning, but had to leave before finishing off

He'd offered to give it a once over when he was doing his car recently and I said sure, just gizza a shout and I'll muck in - turns out he just cracked on anyway.

(I know the guy and he takes car of his car, so no, no preeny bullshit about scratch marks/swirls etc)

He's currently looking at R50 Minis as a project car so I'll have to offer to pass him sockets when he gets that idea moving.

Started getting a bit OCD about keeping the cars clean. Weekly washes whether they really need it or not.

I'm not full on detailer spec machine polished perfection standard, just properly cleaned.

Had a delivery of some bulk Autoglym trade products, 5l tar remover, 5l 'lube and shine' quick detailer and 5l of fallout remover. I like using magma, but the trade version works out far more cost effective, the retail version is approx £12 for 500ml, trade works out just under £10/litre.

Seems to be worked big anyway, mito and merc were almost hard to look at in the direct sun this morning.

Who says white cars don't shine?

That fallout remover, does it remove wax aswell ?

I have used some on the Landy and it looked like a purple Jackson pollock but knew that hadn’t seen wax in years.

Are they all pretty similar ? Seeing the purple runs was quite satisfying

Dave!

Yeah, all pretty much seem to do the same thing. Amazing how much it can pick up which you can't really see.

Doesn't seem to affect my wax at all, was still beading superbly when I rinsed it off.

I don't do the whole car often unless it's starting to feel a bit gritty, mainly just the back end and along the sides behind the wheels where brakedust gets flung out.

If it's not been done for years / ever than I bet it looked pretty spectacular

Also been chasing an annoying squeal on the mito for a while. Only really seemed to happen when turning right. Wasn't too bad at the start of a journey but really annoyI guess by the time I was pulling up at work.

Checked and rechecked the wheels several times. No play, no signs of roughness, no heat from the bearings or brakes.

Made sure the pads were free to move, checked the sliders, checked all the hoses weren't pinched, basically everything sensible, but it was still doing it. Light braking or lightly coming on/off the brakes would also do it.

Had decided that it was the offside front doing it so had another look at the brakes. Popped the pads out then spotted the lower part of the outer pad starting to lift from the backing plate. Only a fraction of a mm, but maybe enough to cause an issue.

Because I never throw anything out, I still had the old pads as they still had a few mm left. Swapped the suspect pad, and after a couple of days commute the noise hasn't returned.

Assume the 'give' from the separated section was enough to leave the pad partially pressing against the disc as the tiny play in the bearing caused a slight change under load.

Not very impressed given that they're less than a year old, don't think I'll bother with standard spec pagid pads again. I've had similar happen in the past, but only on cars which have been sat ages and corrosion has worked it's way behind the pad material. Never on something regularly driven on pads so new.

Rather than buy some new ones I need to hurry up and stick the brembos on