Zel's Fleet Blog...Rover, Renault, Peugeot, Trabant, Invacar & Sinclair C5

Post pictures and stories about your cars both present and past. Also post up "blogs" on your restoration projects - the more pictures the better! Note: blog-type threads often get few replies, but are often read by many members, and provide interest and motivation to other enthusiasts so don't be disappointed if you don't get many replies.
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rich.
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#141 Post by rich. » Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:11 pm

i take my hat off to you repairing the fridge, i dislike those american ones as they take up so much space & ive installed a few for clients which usually involves trapped fingers :(
nice dog, does it tow the c5?

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#142 Post by Zelandeth » Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:26 pm

rich. wrote:
Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:11 pm
i take my hat off to you repairing the fridge, i dislike those american ones as they take up so much space & ive installed a few for clients which usually involves trapped fingers :(
nice dog, does it tow the c5?
Given we're a household of four adults we need quite a bit of capacity, so that sort of fridge is pretty much essential for us.

The C5 isn't even vaguely tidy... it's presentable from about 20 paces, but there's not a single surface on it that isn't scratched, dinged, cracked or generally beaten up. It's a working vehicle though so that works fine! The dog does very much enjoy pulling it, which is why I really need to upgrade the brakes.


Have been struggling for enthusiasm today given I got basically zero sleep last night and have had a raging headache all day, but I was determined to tick at least one thing off.

Today's one was what I reckon is a sensible addition to any classic car, but is almost essential on one with as rudimentary an approach to fuse protection as this - a battery cut off switch.

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This will mean I no longer need to physically remove one of the battery leads every night so I'm not worried about it spontaneously combusting in the garage overnight.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

rich.
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#143 Post by rich. » Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:19 am

thats a good idea, how much did it cost? ive got one on my truck for the tipper control.. meanwhile, back to fridges a friend bought american fridge & put it in storage for 2 years while his house was being renovated.. when it was finally fitted the card went after 2 years & when he went to get another he was quoted 900€...

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#144 Post by Zelandeth » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:08 pm

Can't remember precisely, but it wasn't expensive. Has been floating around in the "that will be useful box" for years. Think I originally bought it for the C5, but never got around to fitting it.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#145 Post by Zelandeth » Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:29 pm

Today I've been trying to work out what battery I need for the Invacar. It's currently got an 038 in (read: nicked from the C5) but that's too long to be secured by the battery clamps.

Here's a close up of the battery tray.

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The hard limits are the distance between the two posts which the clamps fit into at 210mm (8 1/4") and the width at 140mm (5 1/2") as the brackets wrap around the end of the battery.

Looking through my extremely dog eared battery cross reference table, it looks like the 054/5 size is the best match at 187mm (7 1/3") long by 127mm (5") wide and 220mm (8 2/3") tall. Height is irrelevant as there's bags of room above.

Longer term I'll be looking at moving the battery up front to provide some additional front wheel ballast, but that's at least months if not years away yet!

Have been doing some further digging and it looks - depending on where the measurements are taken from a 063 (S4 001 in current Bosch talk) might *just about* fit, so I think I'm just going to wander into Costco tomorrow and take some actual measurements. It seems that for all the type numbers should be standards - there's a huge variance from maker to maker looking at data sheets.

So tape measure and bracket in hands I'm just going to go take a look and see if they've got one that fits. Hoping so as it will probably be cheaper than even a U1 or lawn tractor battery will be elsewhere.

All being well the fuel tank should be done next week so getting stuff like this ticked off is getting more important!
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Atodini
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#146 Post by Atodini » Thu Jan 17, 2019 12:52 pm

For a conventional lead-acid battery, take a check on the Banner "Starting Bull" 530 030 (this number is for the version with lug fittings, though there is also a post fitting one with a slightly different number).

Batteries, size and fitting of, are a constant headache for Reliant owners as we too are saddled with tiny batteries with little available room.. Over the years I've tried all manner of motorcycle ones (work but don't last that long) and the Banner is what I've ended up with. Bought this one over the counter in Milton Keynes (Bedford Batteries I think) and it fitted perfectly and has been fine for that last 6 years now. Not expensive either.....

John
"I thought I was wrong once - But I was wrong"...

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#147 Post by Zelandeth » Thu Jan 17, 2019 4:32 pm

The 030 looks to be 265mm long - the space between the two posts the clamps fit into on the tray is only 210mm.

After a rummage round a few places locally today I wound up picking up a U1-R.

Aside from a lack of a flange round the base I don't reckon this can be all that far off the size of the original. Heck of a lot lighter than most car batteries as well at just under 8kg, which in a car with less than 20bhp can only be a good thing!

It might not be a long, long term solution but it should get me mobile at least.

I'll need to make up a bit of a spacer to fill out the brackets but that's nothing too difficult.

Here's a quick snap of the new battery in place before it was hooked up.

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At some point in the future I'll probably look at relocation of the battery to the front of the car and will have more options to play with then.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Zelandeth
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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#148 Post by Zelandeth » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:04 am

Not had a particularly productive day.

While digging around I discovered that the hose routing air to the cabin outlet was actually hanging off and the last inch or so had disintegrated. Thankfully there was just enough left to trim it back to sound hose and reattach it.

Next step was trying to get rid of the crud in the various hoses in the interests of not getting crud in the eye halfway down the A509.

Sealed the inlet side of the system off...

(Read: pull the duct off and stuff a rag in the end)

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I know the heat exchanger and the hose from there to the control box is clear as I'd already dealt with that off the car.

Then set both the heater and demister on before attaching a vacuum source to draw air in through the demister, through the control box and back out through the cabin heater outlet.

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With this setup in place I basically went around and battered every inch of the ducting with the handle of a screwdriver until I could no longer hear stuff rattling down the vacuum cleaner hose.

This is basically the point at which progress stalled as I decided to change the fan belts. Which was fine until I got back from the motor factors and it immediately became apparent that the two belts they had given me were in fact not identical.

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Got back there to discover they didn't have a second longer one in stock, so will have to go back tomorrow. Blarg. By this point I'd wasted an hour on that and immobiliser the car as the starter motor was no longer attached to the engine essentially.

I have however given myself some more time to consider a proper permanent seat attachment system. These were picked up as a major part of that.

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They're 2.5mm thick steel and far chunkier than they look in the photo. The basic plan is that these will be attached to the Invacar seat frame by two M6 bolts each, and then the runners of the new seat will be bolted down to these brackets.

This will be far, far more sturdy than my original bodge, and in addition will retain both the lateral and height adjustment features of the seat. It will also give me the ability to compensate for the runners on the seat being offset roughly an inch to the right, which is nice.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more productive.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#149 Post by Zelandeth » Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:43 pm

So first task of the day was to get the new belts fitted. Ten minute job, and the tension even seemed to be right off the bat, though obviously I expect that to change once the engine has run.

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10x813 is the belt size in case you wondered.

Attempting to *do* that was foiled by the thing refusing to start again. I'm willing to bet money the offside cylinder has flooded and fouled the plug again. This seems to be an issue after a series of very short runs, and I'm hoping will resolve itself once I'm able to get it a proper run. I decided after it started on one cylinder to just file this under "come back to later as I've better things to do just now."


Next up, seat. Let's get this sorted out once and for all.

Here's where we ended up.

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Doesn't look that different to things before does it? At a glance, no.

Here's the "before" shot in case you were wondering....

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There's been a hell of a lot of planning, measuring, calculating and such involved to get to that point.

Originally I just had four huge U-bolts wrapped around the entire rails of the Xantia seat clamping it to the original seat's frame.

Now we've got an M8 bolt on each corner down through the original Xantia mounting points into the angle brackets you saw yesterday - which are then bolted to the original seat frame.

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The rear ones are currently bolted through the original seat clamp onto the frame (hence there only being one bolt per side at present), whereas the front have had a pair of bolts through the seat frame.

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I think given things have lined up in such a way to allow for it I'll probably drill a hole and add an additional bolt at the rear tomorrow.

They're lined up in such a way to help centralise the seat (the rails are offset to one side by an inch or so), and it seems to have worked.

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Driving position now feels perfectly central rather than noticeably offset to the left as used to be the case.

There are some big additional features compared to the original seat "bodge" that I had in here though. All of the original adjustments available are now fully functional (as is the original left/right sliding setup from the original Invacar seat) - which allows an additional party trick...

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Yep, with the seat slid fully forward and the backrest tilted forwards, it's possible to get the rear access cover in and out without removing the seat.

I did have one "oops" moment however when I realised that I couldn't get at the head of the big M8 bolt that I'd used to secure the seat down onto the brackets (which has a slot to allow me to fine tune the left/right position) to tighten them up.

Cue me getting inventive.

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Take two nuts, screw onto the end of the threaded section and make a lock nut - then used that to stop the bolt rotating while tightening the nut holding the seat down up. Job done.

I was worried that it was going to be too flimsy a solution, but it seems to be perfectly fine. It's worth mentioning that the whole lot it depending on a few tiny screws and a pair of nylon rollers in a runner at the back to hold that side to the car anyway! So I get the feeling that this is probably over-engineered if anything...It's stood up perfectly fine to me (literally) jumping into the seat without moving a millimetre. Seatbelt isn't secured to the seat like on many modern cars - it's secured to the bulkhead at the top and to eye bolts secured to the chassis crossmember at the floor level. So the seat is purely something that you're sitting on, it's not involved in actually holding you in place.

Having a proper adjustable seat means I can get into a much more comfortable feeling driving position with my feet braced against the bulkhead, so I think this is a good result overall.

I'm somewhat amused at how close a colour match I seem to have randomly found in Halfords...

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No that's not the "finish" I'm going for - that was purely a "let's see the colour" test. I need to trim the bottom of the panel back as well.

Speaking of paint - I'll be giving the brackets and such I've just added to the seat frame a coat of blue paint as well so they'll hopefully blend in with the original metalwork better.

Feels like a reasonable couple of hours work this evening and a decent step towards roadworthiness, see also the "stuff I orginally bodged together but need to do properly before she hits the road" list.
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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Re: Zel's Fleet Blog...Lada, Citroen, Mercedes, Sinclair & AC Model 70

#150 Post by Zelandeth » Sun Jan 20, 2019 9:29 pm

Yesterday was one of those days where I acheived what looked like quite a bit of work in a relatively short time. Today was the opposite sort of day, where quite a bit of time was spent but it looks like there's very little to show for it - though it's actually quite a big step towards the car being roadworthy.

Step 1.

Spend the best part of an hour crawling around on the floor attempting (and eventually suceeding) in extricating this.

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Two factors made this a pain. Firstly the fact that the T-piece (the bit I needed to reuse) was positioned directly above the handbrake linkage. This made getting at it difficult. Secondly was the fact that as with everything on this car it was held on with a bolt and non-captive nut. The other end of which I couldn't really get at with anything. Eventually though I managed to mangle the bracket enough to get a spanner onto it and got it undone.

Step 2.

Spend another hour wrestling the two remaining brake pipes out of it.

They *really* didn't want to come out - however eventually a combination of brute force and the MAPP Gas torch of persuasion were victorious.

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Thankfully the threads all seem to be absolutely fine, so the T-piece with a fresh set of unions is ready to be used again.

Step 3.

Apply some forward thinking to the siting of the T-piece.

I'd already played getting new pipes onto that thing once on KP. Getting them off TP was equally as much of a royal pain. The way the brake pipes were all tucked up into the chassis made it tricky to carry out a visual inspection of them unless you were up on a ramp as well.

As such, I decided to move things a bit. The T-piece is now attached to the bodywork just below the service hatch, and the lines will run along there before heading off to the flexis going to the rear wheels. I'll install some P-clips along there to keep them in place (the original pipes just seem to by and large rely on luck from keeping them in place and preventing them rubbing through on stuff).

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This will make future inspection and maintenance easier (as the whole of the brake piping setup from the T-piece to the wheels will then be visible with the service hatch open), and should keep stuff further away from road grime under the car hopefully.

It also means that I can do the actual connection of the brake lines to there while sitting in the car rather than contorted into horrifically uncomfortable positions underneath the car. Surely that's got to improve my chances at doing a decent job of it. The body of the T-piece will be secured in place while the unions are done up of course - I won't be applying all that torque to the tiny area of fibreglass it's currently bolted to.

I'm definitely not discounting the idea of at some point converting the braking system on this car to a dual circuit setup, so anything I can do to make it more user friendly in future has to be a good thing I reckon.

With a bit of luck tomorrow I should be able to get the actual lines connected up to this and we should be pretty close to being in business. At least I have a stock of unions in the garage now, so if I mangle the odd one here or there it's no big deal.

Edit: The fuel tank is apparently all but finished! Just going to drop the sender unit off with the guy making it so he can double--check that the holes are spaced correctly before the boss is welded onto the tank. Soon I can dispense with having to precariously balance a fuel can whenever I want to move it...
My website - aka. My *other* waste of time
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 88 Renault 25 Monaco. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.

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