Car D.I.Y.

[neil_merseyside]

With the velour interior and squarish steering wheel....I had one for a few weeks once as a teenager.Dad lent it me.

Quartic? wheel I think, Skoda have them now - for all the BFB's getting in and out (Yes I own a Skoda, and I might be OK!)

 

[gbb]

What car DIY did you start and never finish or gulp and realise...I've gone deeper than I thought ?
Front wheel bearings on a Maestro...yeah, no problem, I can do those. Until I got the hub off and realised I couldn't get the press fit bearing off because its pressed on up to a flange so you cant get any normal pullers on them. Put it all back together and drove it to work and used the workshops bench press, grinder and cutting discs etc. Nearly bit off more than I could chew.

Marek at work is a very very good mechanic, always doing cars on the side. He stripped a Beemer engine top end for the first time then realised he couldn't figure how to get all the variable valve timing bits back together. He had to go to a scrapyard strip one to see how it went back together

 

[screenman]

Funny you guys fix cars for fun, I fix cars for fun also but because I charge then I am working.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

What car DIY did you start and never finish or gulp and realise...I've gone deeper than I thought ?

Back in the late 70's possibly very early 80's had a Ford Cortina MK3 1600 GT 2 door, 1972 (I think) rare even back then, hens teeth I would imagine today. But it failed MOT on the front top arm wishbone bushes, it's a bolt 15-18 inch long that goes from one side to the other through a tube obviously no grease points in it. It had seized, we ended up with 2 blow torches & a sledge hammer to try to get it out, not a F'ing chance, we ended up bending the subframe. Had to go to the scrapyard & get a full front subframe & suspension of of one in there to get it through the test. This was a car that was less than 10 years old, young uns of today don't know they're born with cars these days.

 

[screenman]

Back in the late 70's possibly very early 80's had a Ford Cortina MK3 1600 GT 2 door, 1972 (I think) rare even back then, hens teeth I would imagine today. But it failed MOT on the front top arm wishbone bushes, it's a bolt 15-18 inch long that goes from one side to the other through a tube obviously no grease points in it. It had seized, we ended up with 2 blow torches & a sledge hammer to try to get it out, not a F'ing chance, we ended up bending the subframe. Had to go to the scrapyard & get a full front subframe & suspension of of one in there to get it through the test. This was a car that was less than 10 years old, young uns of today don't know they're born with cars these days.

The idea was to drop the cross member out and put it on a press if I remember correctly, I was working on those for a living back in the mid seventies.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

The idea was to drop the cross member out and put it on a press if I remember correctly, I was working on those for a living back in the mid seventies.

You could well be right, we couldn't shift the furking thing, it was a very badly designed idea, something that probably looked good on a drawing but not in practise on British roads.

 

[Pale Rider]

With the velour interior and squarish steering wheel....I had one for a few weeks once as a teenager.Dad lent it me.

Nah, leather seats and a walnut dash on the Vanden Plas.

I had an Allegro 1750 HL, it had a crunch sometime that required you to continuously hold the steering wheel to stop it hauling itself off the road , must have had a bent steering component...amazing really, you just wouldn't do it now but I suppose needs must when you are young, stupid and skint .
It was a good car otherwise, never had any other problems with it, pokey as well.

Mate of mine had what might have been an 1100 Allegro.

He thrashed it over many miles, and it never missed a beat.

Lots did give bother, but there were a lot that didn't.

 

[keithmac]

One of my ex girlfriends dads had a Maestro that talked to you, early 90's possibly?.

My first car was a Rover Metro 1.1s, had suspension you pumped up iirc? loved it!.

 

[fossyant]

One of my ex girlfriends dads had a Maestro that talked to you, early 90's possibly?.

My first car was a Rover Metro 1.1s, had suspension you pumped up iirc? loved it!.

It was the Maestro. One of the lads at work had a brand new MG version.

My Metro was a 1.4 GTa and that went like poop of a shovel. No weight ! It was also good for carrying bikes.

 

[Bazzer]

What car DIY did you start and never finish or gulp and realise...I've gone deeper than I thought ?
......

Early in my car career I did a cylinder head decoke. Up to that point other than the usual tyre pressures and coolant checks, my biggest jobs had been changing the spark plugs and the rear brake shoes.
Doing it after work, it took a week and there were a couple of times I thought I had bitten of more than I could chew.

 

[screenman]

One of my ex girlfriends dads had a Maestro that talked to you, early 90's possibly?.

My first car was a Rover Metro 1.1s, had suspension you pumped up iirc? loved it!.

I had one in fact a couple when I was dealing cars SOX 5Y was the the of one of them. The plate is now on a Ford.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

My first car was a Rover Metro 1.1s, had suspension you pumped up iirc? loved it!.

I have a pump in my garage for them

 

[fossyant]

I have a pump in my garage for them

And you could re-grease the suspension with a grease gun.

 

[I like Skol]

Fixed that failed headlamp on wife's car earlier. 1st replacement bulb lasted 2-3 days before it failed. Don't know why, looks perfectly good. Filament appears intact and glass is sparkly clear with no smoking or fingerprints (I made sure not to touch it) so just a random premature failure).
Let's see how long the 2nd replacement lasts. It was bought at the same time as a spare, that's foresight fire you.....

 

[fossyant]

Fixed that failed headlamp on wife's car earlier. 1st replacement bulb lasted 2-3 days before it failed. Don't know why, looks perfectly good. Filament appears intact and glass is sparkly clear with no smoking or fingerprints (I made sure not to touch it) so just a random premature failure).
Let's see how long the 2nd replacement lasts. It was bought at the same time as a spare, that's foresight fire you.....

I've found the 'posh' bulbs don't last that long, so I've given up - they are a bit better, but they are run harder, so fail much quicker.