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

[myglaren]

Always best to start out with a decent image, less to fix. Ask the Duchess.

[Hell Razor5543]

Just came across this on MSN;

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/reviews/ ... 26cf&ei=19

[Zelandeth]

Just came across this on MSN;

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/reviews/ ... 26cf&ei=19

Interesting, seems odd they didn't seem out a roadworthy car to test though.

-- -- --

Today was mostly spent waiting for a landscaper who never turned up. Being essentially unable to leave the house and not feeling I could get really stuck into any big tasks, I picked away at a few small ones.

Firstly was doing a bit of tidying in the garage. You can't really see much for it, but the mountain of stuff on and behind TPA has really shrunk a lot. She was pretty well buried before! Most of this lot accumulated when I was doing the head work on the Rover.



Still some stuff under the car, but the engine cover is clear now, meaning I was able to hook up the battery charger. Hopefully actually get her out again sometime in the next few weeks.

Actually putting a lot of that lot away will happen once I've backed TPA out of the garage. Trying to get to where anything lives is just such a pain with the car there - which is why I wound up creating such a mountain of tools etc there in the first place.

Still no sign of the landscaper, so I moved on to Trabant tinkering.

Given she's in for the MOT tomorrow I wanted to make sure everything obvious was checked and do a little cleaning and tidying.

I did find we had one brake light out so got that changed. Everything else checked out.

The windscreen wipers were still parking in a slightly odd spot, so I tweaked the position of the arm on the spindle which has fixed that. I also did a little more contortion to tighten up the last two nuts holding the motor onto the bulkhead, so that's securely fastened in place and no longer makes annoying clicking noises each time the wipers change direction.

I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and gave the interior another quick going over. It wasn't too bad, but I'd tracked in a fair amount of dead leaves, plus there was the usual omnipresent layer of dog hair, despite neither of them ever having been near the car. Bit better now.



This bit of loose trim in the rear of the cabin was bugging me.



Obviously missing a trim clip there which I duly replaced. I bought like 40 of these and think I'm down to about half a dozen left now.



Not perfect, still a bit floppy towards the back seat because the panel is water damaged, but it's a lot better.



I then set about trying to remove some of the plethora of oily fingerprints which the car is basically covered in. The paint had a lot of ingrained dirt everywhere too.



Things escalated. I started polishing things - as that ended up being the most effective solution for removing it. Safe to say this definitely makes a difference!



These cars never had a high gloss paint finish even from the factory - it's kind of halfway between an eggshell and gloss finish. It's cleaning up pretty well all things considered, and is looking a lot better where I've gone over it.



Amusing looking at the side photo in that the car is a completely different colour now. It's definitely shifted from "off white" to properly beige.

Started raining after I'd wrapped up. Imagine it's been a while since the paint did this.



This car is never going to be a show winner, and I'm not putting tens of hours into polishing every millimetre, but I'd like it to at least look cared for.

To that end I'd really like to do something permanent regarding the crack in the front of the bonnet. Which because of where it is is a bit tricky. Might be easier to just get another bonnet and have it properly prepped and painted.

Oh, look what I found thanks to a member of the owner's club.



The paint on it is absolutely knackered, but I didn't see any cracks or large chunks missing at a quick glance. It was free though so I wasn't going to quibble over it either way. I'll take a closer look at that sometime in the near future.

What will the MOT bring? We'll have to wait and see. Rust is my biggest concern - I really haven't had a really good dig around the whole underside, so quite likely there could be rot under there I've not spotted.

The Partner is booked in to a garage to have whichever wheel bearing is making a noise sorted on Tuesday, so hopefully that will be sorted soon. Though we will then the following week have the fun of getting that through an MOT - which *hopefully* shouldn't be too painful.

[CitroJim]

What will the MOT bring? We'll have to wait and see. Rust is my biggest concern - I really haven't had a really good dig around the whole underside, so quite likely there could be rot under there I've not spotted.

All the best with the MoT Zel

Pop round and say hello before, during and/or after... I'll be home but knock hard/send a message as I'll likely be busy with my attic boarding project...

[Zelandeth]

This is always a bit nerve wracking even when it's a car you know well. Doubly so though when it's the first time you're putting a 40 year old car through the test. This afternoon it was time to find out whether I'd be getting a pass certificate or an expensive to do list.



The end result?



I'll take that!

Tester was actually very complimentary of the condition of the underside of the car - which is a bit of a surprise when you look at how scruffy some areas are topside.

Glad to have this back into active service. It's only been a week but I've really been missing buzzing around in this little car.

[mickthemaverick]

Great news, a clean pass!! well done Zel!

[Hell Razor5543]

Well done.

[myglaren]

Is that the "Two Wrestlers" MOT station?

Good news on the pass!

[Zelandeth]

Is that the "Two Wrestlers" MOT station?

Good news on the pass!

Yep. It's where all my cars go for the test generally. Only exception was the van as it was too heavy for their ramps. Plus the Invacar as they don't do Class 3 testing (still need to find a decent place to do that).

[myglaren]

Thought that I recognised it from one of Jim's posts some time ago.

[mickthemaverick]

They used to do 3 wheelers at GP Autos Zel, might be worth checking them out: https://www.gpautosmk.co.uk/

[CitroJim]

Well done Zel, delighted she passed and great to see you yesterday

Two Wrestlers do all my cars and have done for ever now... They are at the end of my road, almost...

[Zelandeth]

Kind of annoying day today as the weather kept looking decent for being outside, but pretty much the minute I'd start doing anything the heavens would then open again, for about 2 minutes. Then it would be sunny again. Rinse and repeat about a dozen times before I ran out of patience.

I did at least get the roof of the Trabant given a quick skim over with the polish at least.



It's a bit patchy so will want doing again but is definitely a lot better than the streaky ingrained dirt that was there before.

You can definitely tell which bits have and haven't been polished. Have the passenger side left to go over.



As stated, my intention has never really been to make this into a shiny show car, I just want to do what I can to help it look cared for. I don't mind it looking a bit care worn, but don't want it looking neglected. Chalky and covered in moss isn't exactly the look I want!

Not much else to report, I've just been using the car about as much as I can come up with excuses to over the last couple of days.

[MattBLancs]

Glad to hear of a clean pass, especially given your worries about what could lurk underneath - and more so that you are just using the car for the enjoyment of it

As well as good candidate for the "lovely old garages" thread (think already featured previously) is also a good "period correct" match between car and old shed.

Here (via a bit of artistic licence/ my phone's "filters" ) is the car in for inspection at the height of the cold war:

Zel's image with a tweak

[MattBLancs]

Though next time, can you swop this conspicuously modern plastic oil bottle for a nice rectangular gallon tin please?

Spoiler: show

Ha ha, a literal "spoiler"