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The joys of an older car coming back to life

The little car has now gone to a new owner, a fellow PFM'er, who after meeting him today I know will keep him going for as long as can be.

End of from me, hopefully the new owner might carry this on now.

Lovely to meet you today Dean :)
 
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(continued...)

It was lovely to meet you too, Paul, thank you for trusting me with Hoggle. :)

For those who don't know Olaup (Paul), he's a great guy, a great mechanic and a credit to the pinkfishmedia community.

The car was in superb condition when I bought it in July 2022 and didn't need anything significant doing. But any car, especially a seventeen year old car, is going to need some TLC. During the drive home along the M62 listening to Booker T. & the M.G.'s I realised that I'd got myself a beauty, and out of respect to Paul's skills I made a decision to put a bit more effort in than I normally would when it was required.

This is what happened next...
 
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Tweak #2

Not so much a tweak as a repair. There was a small leak on the steering column - I considered Wynn's Automatic Transmission and Power Steering Stop Leak and other more expensive options but I'm hoping to have the car for the long term so I opted for a replacement rack.

I didn't realise a steering rack could make so much difference, it now has that new-car light-steering feel. Parts & Labour £340 and money well spent.
 
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Excellent stuff!

Mechanics was something I started by putting pushbikes together from scrounged up bits in the 1950s. Mid 60s it was keeping ageing motorbikes on the road and by the late 60s it was cars.

Not many jobs I didn't tackle back then. Parts shops were plentiful and the vehicles relatively simple. Haynes Manuals and Autobooks were your friends...

I recall measuring rusty MOT failure brake pipes with a bit of string, going up to a local garage and getting a straight pipe made to length, then bending it to suit and fitting it. Cylinder seals, brake shoes and eventually brake pads and discs.. all familiar. Brushes for Dynamos and Alternators, water pumps, failed hoses, etc. Spark plus, points, leads and coils.. Even replaced a fuel tank on a Polo because the car was worth it. Same with front sub frame for a Fiat Uno. (Yes! really!)

Valve clearances were a regular 're-setting' job. I never figured out exactly how you were supposed to set the clearances on a rearward sloping Simca 1100 with engine running without spilling oil everywhere.. but managed it sort of...

Fiat 127 'Special' had a leaky head and corroded the mating surfaces, so a skim at a specialists followed by a kitchen table rebuild including a lot of polishing and porting. Worked well.

Polo threw a cam belt and bent five valves, so I pulled it to bits and fixed it..adding new valve seals for luck..

Several years later, same car died due to failed oil pump on Cat and Fiddle pass, so got a motor off a low mileage VW Derby write off and spent three weekends freezing my nuts off on the drive in January to swap engines. Stuck a new clutch in while doing that and got a few more years...

Now..at 74, I can't be arsed so much as taking a wheel off.. but for some reason only trust myself to change the oil and filter.

My mileage is low these days and it would doubtless be much cheaper just to get taxis and use my bus pass, but I don't want to stop driving just yet.
 
Mullardman said:
Excellent stuff!

Mechanics was something I started by putting pushbikes together from scrounged up bits in the 1950s. Mid 60s it was keeping ageing motorbikes on the road and by the late 60s it was cars.

Not many jobs I didn't tackle back then. Parts shops were plentiful and the vehicles relatively simple. Haynes Manuals and Autobooks were your friends...

I recall measuring rusty MOT failure brake pipes with a bit of string, going up to a local garage and getting a straight pipe made to length, then bending it to suit and fitting it. Cylinder seals, brake shoes and eventually brake pads and discs.. all familiar. Brushes for Dynamos and Alternators, water pumps, failed hoses, etc. Spark plus, points, leads and coils.. Even replaced a fuel tank on a Polo because the car was worth it. Same with front sub frame for a Fiat Uno. (Yes! really!)

Valve clearances were a regular 're-setting' job. I never figured out exactly how you were supposed to set the clearances on a rearward sloping Simca 1100 with engine running without spilling oil everywhere.. but managed it sort of...

Fiat 127 'Special' had a leaky head and corroded the mating surfaces, so a skim at a specialists followed by a kitchen table rebuild including a lot of polishing and porting. Worked well.

Polo threw a cam belt and bent five valves, so I pulled it to bits and fixed it..adding new valve seals for luck..

Several years later, same car died due to failed oil pump on Cat and Fiddle pass, so got a motor off a low mileage VW Derby write off and spent three weekends freezing my nuts off on the drive in January to swap engines. Stuck a new clutch in while doing that and got a few more years...

Now..at 74, I can't be arsed so much as taking a wheel off.. but for some reason only trust myself to change the oil and filter.

My mileage is low these days and it would doubtless be much cheaper just to get taxis and use my bus pass, but I don't want to stop driving just yet.
Click to expand...
You were keen, there are some time consuming jobs there. I've only done one head rebuild.
I never had the joy of tappet setting on a running engine but a trick I heard was to buy a spare rocker cover at a breaker and cut holes in it so you could get the feelers and spanners in while retaining the oil. Sounds like a lot of work for a basic servicing job.
 
I used to set the tappets on the old GM cam in heads with the engine running. If you didn’t cover the chain and sprocket you’d get covered in oil. Sure you could gap them static with feeler gauges but more often than not the engine would sound like a bag of nails when running :(
 
Although entirely obsolete, I've still got my valve adjustment tool. You fitted the appropriate-sized socket to it, & it had a screwdriver bit in the middle with a big red knob at the top that you used to make the adjustment (one click per thou' IIRC) & held the red knob whilst tightening up the locking nut. I always had to check the clearance afterwards with a feeler gauge though!
 
Suffolk Tony said:
Although entirely obsolete, I've still got my valve adjustment tool. You fitted the appropriate-sized socket to it, & it had a screwdriver bit in the middle with a big red knob at the top that you used to make the adjustment (one click per thou' IIRC) & held the red knob whilst tightening up the locking nut. I always had to check the clearance afterwards with a feeler gauge though!
Click to expand...


SPQR?
 
stevec67 said:
You were keen, there are some time consuming jobs there. I've only done one head rebuild.
I never had the joy of tappet setting on a running engine but a trick I heard was to buy a spare rocker cover at a breaker and cut holes in it so you could get the feelers and spanners in while retaining the oil. Sounds like a lot of work for a basic servicing job.
Click to expand...

I was sometimes keen, but mostly just broke.

As a kid I investigated mechanical things for pleasure and out of curiosity, though the bike scrounging was reality.

The 70s and 80s especially were one long round of redundancy, more redundancy and full time study to stop the continual redundancy. I had little choice but to figure out how to fix things for myself.
The spare rocker cover with holes in is an idea I didn't hear back then.. Good idea.
Also, I've always had an annoying habit of refusing to pay others to do things I can do myself. Maybe not always the most efficient solution..but...

P.S. NOTHING cured the tappet rattle on the Simca. It was just 'there'. But the 1100, engine was unbreakable. Noisy, but capable of absorbing all sorts of abuse and neglect.
Bigger versions in Sunbeam Alpines etc were the same.
Pity those cars fell off their wheels...
 
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