Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Never ceases to surprise me how just getting some dressing on the bumpers can immediately make a car look at least 80% less scruffy.





Was drizzling while that was done so I'm sure it will be all sorts of patchy once dry, but looks better for now at least.

[CitroJim]

It certainly does make a massive difference Zel Excellent and it should be dry (ish) for Sunday...

I'm busy trying to make sure I have a working blower in Bluebell so I can join you in Stony I've not had a lot of time today but hopefully I'll find the time to get something working... I'll need a working heater after timekeeping at parkrun

[MattBLancs]

Looking better and better as you say, the bumper treatment has done wonders for the visuals. And then pounds of moss washed out the nooks and crannies= performance weight savings!

[Zelandeth]

Looking better and better as you say, the bumper treatment has done wonders for the visuals. And then pounds of moss washed out the nooks and crannies= performance weight savings!

I reckon I probably blasted a couple of kilograms of mud out of the wheel arches too...

-- -- --

For once a simple job which was precisely as simple as it should be.

These two switches were lacking in working illumination.



Unlike a lot of switches these are actually dead easy to change the lamps in. Only proviso is that you need to have wire ended bulbs with leads of about an inch or so long on hand.



Stock number 360-7913 from RS will do just fine.

The cap pops off the switch easily (take note of which way around it goes!) After this point keep it upright or bits will fall out.

You're presented with the moving parts of the switch (white things at either end) and a combined lamp holder/diffuser (green thing in the middle).



The lamp holder is a friction fit and should be pretty easy to lever out with a screwdriver or similar.

The lamp is simply held in place by two notches that the leads go through, and they're then wrapped around a post on the sides of the holder. These are held against a contact in the switch body so provide the electrical connection.



Replacing it is simply a matter of unwrapping the leads from the tabs on the holder and reversing the process with the new lamp. The new ones are a little smaller than the originals but that shouldn't be a problem in this application.



Should be plenty of room if you wanted to convert to LED illumination - though I figure the originals lasted probably 30 odd years and are so easy to change it's just not worth it here.

Then you just slot the lamp holder back into the switch body, clip the cap back on and put it back in the car.

Success!



Total time to replace the lamp in both of these: About 10 minutes.

Camera makes that look brighter and whiter than reality, the brightness matches the power window switches pretty much spot on.

Now, I rather suspect that that tackling the dead one in the rear window demister (and intermittent one in the hazard switch) will be rather more of a challenge as I'm not sure if you can get these out without some degree of dismantling of the dash.



That however is a job for another day.

[CitroJim]

Good work Zel Sadly I won't be joining you at Stony tomorrow as I've been taken ill and very much on the bench (or in bed) for the next few days

Happy New Year and enjoy a great show

[mickthemaverick]

Sorry to hear that Jim, especially as I was possibly the bearer of the bug that has struck you down. I've been pretty rough last 24 hours too. Maybe we both picked up a bug in the coughing room on Thursday! Hope you improve soon Happy New Year to all reading this!

[MattBLancs]

Sorry to hear that Jim, especially as I was possibly the bearer of the bug that has struck you down. I've been pretty rough last 24 hours too. Maybe we both picked up a bug in the coughing room on Thursday! Hope you improve soon Happy New Year to all reading this!

Happy new year and get well soon, both!

[MattBLancs]

PS good work on the switch bulbs.

Am sure I have seen those bulbs somewhere in some other application, but can't bring to mind where at present!

[furriegurrie]

Window switches in the Xm for instance

[Zelandeth]

Sorry to hear you're down with something Jim. Hope you're up and about again soon.

-- -- --

Following on a similar theme to yesterday I decided to have a closer look at the trio of push switches in the 25 which live to the right of the steering wheel. Only the fog light switch illumination worked reliably. The hazard switch would usually wake up if tapped, rear screen demister was dead.

I had visions of having to dismantle the dash to get these out, but no. Turns out if you remove the little storage cubby immediately below you can then easily push the switches out of the dash from behind.



Actually extracting the switches requires a little patience as the wiring connectors have a very firm hold. Especially the hazard switch which has about 38,274,619 pins.

Which allows you to retreat out of the torrential rain into the house to tackle these away from the weather.



I had no idea going in whether these were going to be an absolute pain to re-lamp, a lot can be. I think a lot of manufacturers just assume the lamps will last "the life of the vehicle" with no provision for replacement other than swapping the switch. PSA, I'm looking at you...the ones in Series 1 Xantias are a massive faff to re-lamp.

Turns out these just like the rocker switches are easy. A little more fiddly and you'll need a pair of tweezers. Not difficult though.

The switch cap can be pulled off easily. There are tabs at the top and bottom so wiggling it up/down while applying gentle tension will make them click free. Really not much force needed.



Poking a small screwdriver or similar in through the holes in the white body of the switch plunger will allow the diffuser/filter to pop out. It's just a friction fit.



Now the fiddly bit. Actually getting the lamp out. This is especially a pain in the rear on the rear screen demister switch as it doesn't latch in, so you need to keep the white plastic portion pressed fully in while trying to fish the lamp out - and it fits quite firmly.

They take normal capless 1.2W 12V lamps.



New ones just slot in. Which is precisely as, if not more fiddly than getting the old ones out.



Then everything should just clip back together leaving you with a complete switch.



Which you can then refit to the car. I did test all these lamps before fitting them so was fairly confident they would work.

Success.



Sorted. Again, took about 10-15 minutes all in.

Quite pleasing to find a little thing like this that's actually easy to resolve. It's obvious that some thought has been given to ensuring that these are serviceable. Which was definitely not a given by the 80s.

[CitroJim]

Excellent Zel and I trust you had a great time down at Stony today...

And nice weather for it too!

Gutted to have missed it... Hopefully in 365 days time

[Zelandeth]

First trip out to a show for the 25 in my ownership over to the annual New Year's Day show at Stoney Stratford.



Was quite pleased to come back from my first wander to find a DS parked next door. The Seat SUV on the other side of me, not so much.

Definitely will need to make an information sign to go in the window. Virtually everyone thought it was a 21. Guessing that's because the headlights and grill are more similar to those on the 21 than on the facelift cars - and this is I think the second pre-facelift 25 I've ever actually seen in the metal...so the general public at a glance can be forgiven I think.

She's definitely still a bit cranky about the engine bay washing. I've got one cylinder dropping out under heavy throttle at lower revs, which to me says weak spark on it feels like just one cylinder. She started up initially off one so that tracks.

Looking at the distributor cap revealed two things.

1. I need to add "replace distributor shaft seal" to my to do list. No particular stranger to this issue from my Saab days.



2. This definitely won't have been helping our spark.



I'm not going to worry too much about that oil seal immediately. This thing has done so few miles over the last few years and the oil isn't great so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. I've had oil leaks like this on long dormant engines vanish on their own once there's good oil in the engine and it's back in regular use. Not often, but it has happened! The oil I'm hopefully going to get changed tomorrow. It and a filter are in the boot.

I cleaned up the cap, left the HT leads off at the plug end while the engine was hot to hopefully help any moisture that might have been trapped between the boots and the head. It spluttered on me once today, but is 90% better.

Something which became immediately apparent when I took the distributor cap off was that the HT leads are completely and utterly petrified. I suspect they may well be the originals so have very much done their time. A new cap, rotor arm, HT lead set and fresh set of plugs has been ordered. Plus while I was poking around on Autodoc I found a few other things stocked that I didn't expect. Crankshaft position sensor, ignition coil, oil pressure sensor, both coolant temperature sensors and air intake temperature sensor. Given these are only going to get harder to find and we're only a few quid each for the sensors and £11 for the coil I just decided to order them on the spot. They can just live on the shelf as insurance that I won't need them. They're the sort of things that are likely to be a right pain to find in a reasonable time if I do come to want them. Especially the crankshaft position sensor - which is the one that provides the timing signal to which both the ignition and injection systems are referenced. So you lose that, you lose the lot. The spare for that will be living in the boot. At least it's dead easy to get to on this car, right on the top of the bell housing.

I didn't actually take many photos at the show. It was really busy so hard to get a good line on anything. So I just concentrated on actually looking at what interested me and enjoying the show, just snapped what really interested me.

This...thing...definitely fitted the bill.



I mean...just look at it!



I was thoroughly expecting this to be something purely to be trailered to the odd show for amusement value only until I walked round the corner.



It's only road legal! Taxed and tested too.

Obviously built before the current IVA rules came into force which would render building something like this today totally impossible for road use. Though irrespective of when it was built I suspect using the rear engine on the road would be rather frowned upon!

Yes, that rear engine does appear to be functional, and if I'm not mistaken is a Rolls-Royce Gem - so about 1000hp worth. Something this small would shift...rather well I suspect with that much shove.

I'm not usually one for wacky one off things built just because they could be...but this one really appeals to me. It must be a royal handful to drive irrespective of power source, especially as there's no linkage between the bars and front wheel, so cornering lock is basically limited by how far you can lean - and with that size of a tyre up front with no small amount of weight on it I doubt it's light.

I am very jealous of the owner and slightly in awe of them if they do actually drive it more than a few miles a year. Irrespective, I really want a go!

Until the last five years or so I had relatively little interest in pre-war stuff, but lately I've really been finding myself drawn more and more to it. This one in particular drew me in like a month to a flame.



Not sure if it's unrestored or just been done sympathetically done (no idea on what colours you could originally get one of these in), but irrespective it's obviously used and not babied and polished every other day. I doubt anything we're driving today will look half that healthy after 107 years.

I'm really surprised how expensive Model-Ts aren't. Yes I know they're not exactly something you can use every day, but given the age of them and historic importance in the story of the car they just seem a lot cheaper than I'd expect. Always have done. If I had a decent sized covered storage space I'd really be tempted by something like that as a weekend toy.

The little details are so nicely thought out and so different to what we'd consider normal these days. Your temperature gauge for one.



I have been lucky enough to drive a Model-T, albeit only once. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Best advice to anyone else: Don't try to think "this is the equivalent to that control..." - Just try to forget everything you know already and listen to your tutor who is telling you "this control does..." And hopefully you should be fine. Around 40mph has never felt quite so fast though!

While I may be able to middle my way through driving a Model-T, I'm not totally sure where I'd start with this!



Dating from 1896 this really is from the dawn of the motor vehicle when most people would probably have still assumed steam was the way forward and that the new fangled internal combustion engine things would never catch on.



This thing is fascinating. Here's what the engine looks like.



I wouldn't even know where the heck to start driving this...looking at it just for a few minutes there are a bunch of controls I've no idea of the purpose of!

It's interesting to see that the Model-T above dates to 1915, this thing from 1896, and in the middle in 1903 Oldsmobile produced this.



Which very much ticks the "horseless carriage" description really. Underneath where the luggage rack normally would be there is an engine, albeit barely recognisable by today's standards.



I think looking at the controls though that I could figure out how to drive this though given a bit of time and a nice big area to experiment. I saw this pull in though and it sounded lovely. I know plenty of stuff built in the last ten years which don't run half as smooth - and given this only has a single cylinder that's saying a lot!

I don't know if I'll ever own a pre-war car, but I have absolutely come to the conclusion that I need to spend some proper time around them sometime.

There were a few more relatable things in evidence though.

I swear I recognise this XM, the reg number just seems really familiar though I can't place it for the life of me.



An absolutely pristine Nissan Primera GT was on the high street.



Primeras of any description seem to be one of those cars that just vanished overnight. Imagine they fared poorly on the scrappage schemes given they'd have been right at the bottom of the depreciation curve around then. Not a car I've any interest in owning myself, but it's nice to see them being preserved.

Likewise early Mondeos are a rare sight these days.



I didn't even know that an estate version of the Fiat 500 existed until I came across this one.



Not a car that mere mortals like us can really directly relate to, but it would have been rude not to snap a photo of this Rolls-Royce.



Back when it was a brand name which actually meant something. Gorgeous car.

I'd have liked to stick around a bit longer, but was pretty well frozen through. It wasn't *that* cold, so you didn't really notice it. However a few hours later you suddenly realise that you're absolutely frozen through. It took me hours to get warmed back up again.

Tomorrow the Renault will be getting dropped off with a garage to have the front suspension tended to. I'll feel much more comfortable driving the car once that's sorted out.

I only did the bonnet, but I wanted to see how the paint would take the a polish/wax. Still feels quite rough to the touch as there's so much ingrained crap still in there - really wants a good machine polish/clay treatment, but that doesn't surprise me in the slightest given how absolutely disgustingly filthy it was.

Does look better in the rain now though.



Have to wonder how many years it is since water actually ran off it like that.

[Hell Razor5543]

That 'trike' looks like something out of '2000 AD'.

[CitroJim]

Wow! That was a cracker of a show Zel

So disappointed I missed it At least you took some great pictures and brought the atmosphere of it to life

Roll on next year's event

[Zelandeth]

Not been much going on with the Invacar lately. Given the weather lately and the rudimentary heating system it's just not been a sensible choice of car to use. Especially as it's been windy and Invacars do not like wind.

One big bit of progress has been the arrival of a package from a friend though which contained this lump of metal.



Some of you may recall back in September 2019 I had an issue with a snapped wheel stud. At which point I discovered that the studs on these hubs are not a standard off-the-shelf part. I then made my life even more difficult by making an utter hash of drilling out the remains of the one stud which refused to come out and damaged the hub itself. So I have wound up with one odd wheel bolt going in where I had to drill that one out larger - which I've never really been a fan of.

This spare hub has a broken stud in it - but I'm not about to make the same mistake as last time. This will be a good opportunity to check if our prototype replacement stud is a good fit.

First step will be to get the damaged one out - though I now know there's a blob of weld over the inner face, so I'll zap that off with the grinder before trying to wind it out this time!

Watch this space. We might actually have a properly sorted hub on the car soon, which will do a lot for my peace of mind.

Having the later style hub here with the half moon cut outs in will make working on the brakes way easier too - the originals didn't have those and there is very little clearance between the hub and the wheel cylinder, so getting the springs on is a royal faff. Having the cutouts will make that way less fiddly.