MOTOR CHAT

[jimihendrix]

Re: Re:

Mark a most enviable collection as expected! Particularly like the Imps and Fiats and the Capris of course and the muscle The 240 sounds like a great opportunity missed, I'd love one of them as well. I once missed out on a minty 2.0 sport, signal orange with tartan Recaros, seller sold it to someone else, I was gutted.

Cheers K.

Passing up the 240Z (and selling the Charger) is one of my regrets, can still see it sitting in the guys workshop, would have needed about another grand spent to get it finished and looking nice, you need at least 5K for a worthwhile 240Z project these days (if you can find one)

Ach, dinnae worry about startin a collection..

Whats the story with the 02 HF ?, project or driver ?, looks tidy in the pic.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Just got its ticket after dry stored for seven years.

No issues, just some detailing needed. Not the original paint.

Will be gracing the appropriate websites shortly!

 

[jimo746]

Re:

windscreen washers not working :roll:

-There IS washer fluid in the resevoir.
-I can hear the washer motor whirring when I pull the stalk on the steering column.
-No obvious leaks or disconnected hoses (although I can't see all the hose, it runs down, under, through the front wing).
-I've not tried a pin in the washer nozzles yet, will do that tomorrow.
-car has been sat in my garage for 2 months, not used.
-it's a Shitroen Berlingo 2003.

Anything else I can check/do??

 

[highlandsflyer]

I don't know about the particular car, but the motor whirring does not mean it is pumping anything.

Try to find the pipe going to the jets out of the pump and whip it off at a convenient location and try it.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Re:

I was going to suggest that as well to make sure the pump is pumping because the fluid may have turned to gunk/thickened and blocked a hose or the jets.
Have seen mould in the fluid in washer bottles in the past.

 

[jimihendrix]

I don't know about the particular car, but the motor whirring does not mean it is pumping anything.

Try to find the pipe going to the jets out of the pump and whip it off at a convenient location and try it.

Agree, could be the impeller has worked loose on the motor shaft.

This can happen to an engine water pump too, common on 90's BMW's.

 

[jimihendrix]

Re:

Bit more progress on the Lotus, still not got it MOT'd as i had other stuff on the go yesterday.

Got this done a few weeks ago.

As bought i knew it had a dodgy repair on the right top tailgate hinge, removed the tailgate and dug it out to find this horror, the bodywork that the hinge mounts to was gone.

Started by filling the stress cracks with fibre matting and resin, also drilled holes at the ends of the cracks to stop them spreading further.

The other side is pretty sound (though stress cracks are starting here too) so used this as a guide.

Made up a steel repair section, front part is in 1mm steel, rear part is in 2mm to take the weight of the tailgate.

Screwed, bolted and fibreglassed the repair section into place (forgot to take pics), trial fitted the tailgate.

Covered it with red primer for now, it's not pretty but a hell of a lot stronger than it was, trouble with a repair like this though is it'll be hard to make it invisible if i'm getting the car resprayed, proper solution would be to cut a section out of another car and let that in or i could cover the roof and the repaired section in carbon wrap.

Other stuff, i fitted a new Facet Silver top fuel pump to replace the duff SU item, replaced the filter and fuel lines at the same time, also fitted a pressure regulator, fitted a new larger battery in a custom (E-bay) alloy battery tray, centre mounted in the boot.

Got the centre console and gear stick stripped out at the moment, centre console is out to tidy it up as it had been butchered to fit a head unit, it's cheap fablon covered steel so will be easy to sort, once done i'll cover it with carbon wrap and do the glove box and centre console inserts to match.

Gear stick is out to try and improve the shift, will shorten the stick too while it's out.

How cool are these rear seats ?, obviously needing restored/coloured/conditioned, have tryed them out for size, suspect they are only really comfortable for someone my height (5'7") or shorter though.

Won a pair of new K&N filters for the twin Dellorto's on E-bay for £50, they turned out to be slightly too big so had to alter them a bit but really pleased with them, the alloy air horns in a previous pic are inside them so the motor sould sound ace at full chat, will clean up the alternator and it's mounting when i have less important things to do.

Also got the leaking cam cover gaskets replaced, painted the cam covers while they were off, replaced the frayed throttle cable which turned out to be a nightmare of a job :facepalm: .

Waiting on a timing belt kit, oil filter and a few other non essential bits, i've found a couple of excellent specialists for these cars so parts are really easy to get.

I'm finding though patience is needed as though it's a simple car even basic jobs can be time consuming :roll: .

Disappointingly one of the headlight pods is faulty, only the right one is raising and lowering with the switch so there is a fault in the plumbing somewhere, (the pods are opened with a spring and closed with engine vacuum so the system is quite complicated), so will just disable the system and present the car for MOT with the headlights raised till i can sort the system out.

So this is how it's looking at the moment :facepalm:

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Re:

Jeez, that's a bummer to find it's as bad as that.
Instead of finding and cutting up another Lotus :shock: couldn't you cut a thin piece of ply to shape so that you could fix(small self-tappers?) it across the missing part on outside then glass-fibre it from behind ensuring that the ply is waxed so that resin doesn't stick to it? Remove ply and you have a surface that is flush with the body either side, well at least not proud like the metal repair, some filler to hide imperfections.
The part the hinge fixes to could be done by getting some plasticine to make a mould from other side hinge mount (that's if they are the same :roll: ), with a bit of ply with a couple of screws through it, pushed into plasticine to bridge over top of roof to hold it in same place when transferred over to other side. Glass-fibre on inside over all the repaired bits.
I've not repaired glass-fibre bodywork but loads of glass-fibre canoes over the years. Mostly cracks though, cut along crack with hacksaw blade, clean up edges, layer of tape on outside then glass-fibre on inside, back on river same day.

I'll tell you about my method of making a glass-fibre bucket seat for my kitcar another day if any of the above is any use. :roll:

 

[jimihendrix]

Re:

Cheers for that OCP, i've done tons with metalwork over the years but done hardly anything with fibreglass.

Cutting a section out of another Elite is not a horrific as it sounds, there is (depressingly ) quite a large number of these cars still being broken for spares mainly due to chassis rot (S2 Elite's were galvanised), quite a few left sitting in driveways and gardens for the same reason.

Discovered that Viva enthusiasts are using the Lotus 907 engine in HB's too.

 

[highlandsflyer]

That is a fascinating project. I truly loved all the Lotus models, and would have jumped on something like that were I able to drive it. Wonderful stuff.