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Feb 27, 2013 18:13:34 GMT
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Oil level gauge once again works normally. I had a look in the engine bay, wiggled some wires, made sure any plugs I could find where plugged in and... well... it seems to have done the trick. --- Instead of doing productive fixy type jobs, I started the day with the best of intentions and bought a length of replacement fuel hose and priced up some spares for general maintenance, got home and promptly got the polish out instead because the weather has been so beautiful today. There's still more to do on the cleaning front, though you have to be pretty close to the car to see it now. I'll work through it eventually, but I'm in no mood to be removing bits of trim to clean awkward areas or to keep scrubbing at sticker residue just at the moment. I just wanted the car to look as good as it possibly could before any work was done on it proper and I'm pleased with how it's come up. This roof, which was covered in tiny little black tar spots, is now almost completely free of marks. There's some paint damage which I'll need to correct and some larger tree sap blobs that I need a different cleaner to remove but at least it polishes up rather than looking like chalk now. I spent some time with the clay bar and the G3 to get everything all nice and shiny. I can see on the rusty side where there's still some ghosting from when I was working in the snow so I'll have to go back over that at some point to eliminate it completely, but it's certainly looking rather a lot better now. Might seem a bit odd, but after getting the car shiny with the G3, I washed it to remove all the polish and, because a clay bar session wasn't required at this juncture, I dried everything off and went over all the paint with some Autoglym super resin polish which smells fantastic and is very easy to use. Even the road rash and the crack on the bonnet aren't too obvious. This might repair after all now that I can see how well it's cleaned up. Pleased with myself and seeing a good opportunity to make use of some interesting light as the sun was setting, I headed off to see if I could find some suitable locations. Didn't do too badly in the end. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bask in the fruits of my labour thus far, all 20 hours of them. First location is what used to be the local Drop In centre when I was a kid. Before that it was a school or a chapel or both, I'm not sure. I wish I had the funds to buy it to live in, it's absolutely ideal for what I want. Then just drove around until I found somewhere else fun. One thing I've learned about the BX is that it's a big pile of fun to drive! The last time I enjoyed driving a car this much was my old modified Polo which was an absolute hoot on the wiggly roads. Okay, so the Polo could be pushed a lot further before it tried to kill you, but that just adds to the appeal of hooning (safely, occifer) about in an estate car. This BX returns plenty of smiles per gallon and appears to run entirely on fresh air! The other thing I learned is that it's feels very unlikely that the ball joint has failed, I'm going to get the tracking done instead because it might just be that which is wearing that tyre. No knocks, squeaks or rattles to suggest anything on that corner (or any other corner) is seriously amiss mechanically and I do think it's often best to let sleeping dogs lie.
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orangecords
Part of things
yawner extraordinaire
Posts: 892
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That's looking awesome! I like a BX. My dad had the use of a gti 16v for a while and mum owned a 1.4 st moritz garage special edition. Hugely under rated! And, completely against my psyche, the 1.4 was way more fun to drive!!!
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I then wanted to start cleaning the interior as it stinks of wood (the material not the smell of a boner) best quote ever!
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My Photobucket bandwidth seems to be back again, so it's time for an update. I've been doing more technical fixing things on the car now that the cleaning is good enough (though still not finished) so that I could make sure everything was tip top mechanically. I gave the driver's side wheel a wiggle with the car jacked up to find out if there's any play there, a sure sign of ball joint failure, and found absolutely no play whatsoever. Seems like the issue of tyre wear is more likely down to tracking then, everything else seems in good order on this side. I checked the other side too for good measure and that is just as healthy. With the wheel off, I could look for that LHM leak and I think I've found it. The perished pipe, indicated, was replaced only in May of last year and looks more than ready for replacement again. New LHM return pipe is £25-30 posted so not a bank breaker but something that'll have to wait a week or two at the moment. What's probably the cause of the quiet knocking noise and the occasional judder is this engine mount. I can still get a replacement for this, but I'm not expecting it to be an easy job. Looks like a wheel has been chafing this handbrake cable too, but it doesn't look recent. No harm done really, but I'll keep an eye on it anyway. In a bid to improve the cold starting issues - I've been having to manually prime - I fixed the cold air intake for the air box with some gaffer because the pipe has disintegrated and won't seat properly. This also helped me eliminate a jingle I was hearing when driving which turned out to be the jubilee clip bouncing around on the pipe and jingling merrily on anything metal it found. Finally, I turned my attention to the fuel filter. I still don't have a manual but tbh, thanks to the forums and the knowledge I've gained over the past couple of years I surprised myself by just wading in and getting on with disconnecting the filter to clean it out. Two bolts hold it in place and once these are undone you just disconnect the fuel lines (wedging them upright so fuel doesn't go everywhere), and when you've got the filter unit over a suitable recepticle (kitchen sink in my case) undo the allen bolt on the underside of the filter housing and cover everything with whatever's left in the whole thing because it's full of various fuel oils and diesel and just like me you forgot that's what happens. Speaking of veg oils, one of the previous owners ran the car on what looks like unfiltered used veg oil with some animal fats, it had made a proper mess in the filter housing. This filter is fairly new too, having been replaced not long before I bought the car. I did purchase a new filter, but didn't manage to collect it until too late in the day to do anything about it. Instead, I cleaned off the worst of the slime and greb from the old filter and reinstated it. I will put the new filter in that I have, but probably only after the old one has had chance to catch any more slime and crud that's still in the system. Happily, I no longer have cold start issues, though the car is a bit lazy to fire up, this could be down to any number of things but I'm guessing lazy glow plugs, a partially blocked fuel filter and sludge still in the system are the main culprits. The fuel hoses I planned to replace actually don't look or feel as bad as they did since I've been using the car so they're untouched for now. Pocket money now has to go towards fuel so I can get to Brooklands for the Austin Morris day and pick up some stuff for my Princess - sad I can't go in the Princess - and after that I can start spending properly to get the BX tip top for the MoT in a few months time. The list, as it stands: > Welding, obviously £I-dread-to-think/FREE > 1 LHM return pipe £30ish > Timing belt & waterpump (doesn't show problems, but ought to be done and I have the parts to do this) FREE! > 1 engine mount £10ish > Tracking £15ish > PAS fluid flush £? > Glow plugs £20-40 for full set Niggles: > Acquire missing interior trim > Acquire passenger door mirror > Interior lights (works on passenger door switch, not on driver's) > Central Locking (works after a fashion) > Driver's side rear light cluster/lens > Rear washer jet > Tidier front washer jet/reinstate spray bar
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,253
Club RR Member Number: 160
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AEP direct sell genuine return pipes for about £15. Google them, they are a great supplier of stuff for the BX. I think they all chafe the handbrake cables, mine did with stock steels too.
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AEP are the suppliers I'd been linked to, not been able to beat them and they have a good array of Stuff. They're about £25 inc. VAT with £6ish delivery on top now.
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Rather than tinkering with mechanical stuffs, I've gone back to some bodywork on Stripey. Finally got the rest of the stripes off the tailgate, this was made much easier by letting the sun warm the tailgate while I worked on the rear wing. Speaking of that rear wing, I attacked it with the flap wheel to eliminate as much rust as possible. I'd noticed that the flakes of paint were revealing more rust and although I didn't have perfectly matching paint (satin white, not ideal) I thought it best to arrest as much rust progress as possible. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, I was genuinely surprised at how honest the paint had been about the rust beneath. Some bits did fall off, but I was expecting this too. That's the top half that sits behind the bumper, the bottom half is still on the car, and the bracket that attaches the inner wing to the outer wing. That bracket was in a bad way. Looks like someone has bodged it to the car with fibreglass in the past, if it had been dealt with properly the rust probably wouldn't be so bad now. At least I don't have to go under the car to inspect what's what. Looks like I might need a little patch to the inner wing where the bracket sat. It also looks like there's a mud trap up in here that I missed cleaning out, so that needs dealing with sooner rather than later. I can get the hosepipe in a bit easier now at least. I gave the whole lot a coat of Kurust, and for the most part judging by the reaction colours, the metal is quite healthy except where the rust is obvious. It's a big repair, I have no illusion on that score, but it's not an impossible repair. After the Kurust had done it's stuff I roughly masked off what needed to be masked off and set to work with the paint. This is not my usual standard as it's only a preventative measure rather than a proper cure. Yes, it does bug me that the paint is a different colour and a different finish and it bugs me that I haven't tackled the inside of the arch, cut out the rot and welded in fresh metal... but I've done what I can and it at least looks marginally more presentable and less inclined to scatter bits of rust everywhere. It's a bodge at best, I make no excuse about it, but it should at least slow the rust down a bit while I save for the welder and serve as a marker for the likely areas to get welded up.
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75nut
Part of things
Posts: 512
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Like you say at least you have curbed further rust for the moment. I know Ill probably be shot down for suggesting this but I would get a cheap gassless welder. You are going to be working outside mostly and are no stranger to a flap wheel for cleaning the welds up. Its not like you're going to be doing structal areas, just panels and you not going to be looking for Tonybmw no filler invisible welds at first lol
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90 Alfa 75 3.0 V6 Cloverleaf 79 MGB Roadster 88 Saab 900i Convertible 94 MK1 MX5 1.6 05 Volvo V70
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Welding machine plans are in motion, just got to keep a few plates spinning at the moment, hence the bodge job which cost nothing because I had the materials to hand.
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stealthstylz
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,840
Club RR Member Number: 174
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Looking at how bad it is on the bits you can see I'd just run it till it fails the MOT in then bridge it and buy another. Even a competent welder would struggle to weld that panel and keep it straight due to the size and flatness of it.
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We'll see what happens. I'm an enthusiast, not a realist.
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craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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I would put some gaffer tape over that if i was you, I don't think your local plod are going to be too happy with those sharp edges
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Since none of it is structural, I had toyed with the idea of rebuilding the area out of fibreglass, properly like, so that it can't rot. After all, done right fibreglass panels can be (and indeed are on this car) bonded on without any real issue.
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Noticed on your list, PAS flush? Is the steering not LHM powered?
I will be putting 10% paraffin in mine to flush it, and after 2000km or so, new LHM.
I apoligise for the short message / poor speeling, still drowsy from the general anasthetic :/
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It is indeed powered by the LHM, I had thought it was a separate system. I think a full clean out of the filters and fresh LHM is on the cards but regular use seems to be improving most of the niggles in the car, particularly the electrical stuff. Hope the anaesthetic isn't the result of anything too serious and you're well again soon!
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Thanks buddy, before you change the LHM, take out a liter or so (around 10% of overall system volume,1L is for an XM so do check), put in some diesel / paraffin and then bleed the brakes to make sure it is all round the system. Then leave it in there for a couple of months or 2-3000km. It will TRANSFORM the suspension and steering. I will be fine, hopefully better than before all being well
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75nut
Part of things
Posts: 512
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I feel that a fireglass repair is perfectly acceptable.
As you say its only a panel and its never goig to be a high value classic , its a fun practical runabout thats different. Id go for it.
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90 Alfa 75 3.0 V6 Cloverleaf 79 MGB Roadster 88 Saab 900i Convertible 94 MK1 MX5 1.6 05 Volvo V70
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blown_Imp *6 million dollar man theme* 75nut: something you've done before at all? I'm going on theory with it. The ideal is obviously to put metal in and I'm still aiming to do that, but the advantage of fibreglass is that it cannot rust.
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Last Edit: Mar 5, 2013 20:57:35 GMT by Deleted
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75nut
Part of things
Posts: 512
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Not on a long term project like the 75 or the MGB but on dailys like my Saab 9000 that was a £300 car, hell yeah! Just like you I like my motors tidy, even if cheap so when there was a rust arch Id clean back, kurust and then fibreglass. Horses for courses as they say. You can always cut it out later and replace with metal when funds and welders allow
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90 Alfa 75 3.0 V6 Cloverleaf 79 MGB Roadster 88 Saab 900i Convertible 94 MK1 MX5 1.6 05 Volvo V70
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75nut: I think that'll be my back up plan, having looked into it a bit further. Still aiming to get stuff welded because that would be better, but at least there's another way. ---- Just a tiny update today. A few moments ago a whole bunch of stuff arrived! It was like Wintereenmastide come early because every parcel revealed more BX goodies sent my way from the good folk of the internet. Thank you to all that sent me stuff at bargain prices, it is all useful. Set of (non BX) wheel trims, a fuel filter, big socket, ball joint removal tool, diesel engine HBOL, BX HBOL and a super special surprise gift that was hiding in the wheel trim box. That special suprise gift, amaze indeed. Handy too because it looks like one of my old clear bulbs (pictured below) was about to blow so I'd've needed to replace the sidelights soon anyway. Timely. Maybe wait till it's a bit darker to show them off better, they really are very yellow indeed... MUCH better now, so happy to not be looking at rusty steels anymore on this car. One step closer to three spoke alloys too.
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It's amazing what a set of hubcaps can do...!!! I was surprised there was no trademark 'interior-out' clean on this motor but it looks like it's come up darn well anyway. All in all a cracking car that has found its way to someone who is going to give it a major shot of TLC and mojo J'adore le BX...!!!
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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