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.
Message
Author
User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#221 Post by Zelandeth » Mon Apr 01, 2019 11:21 pm

Figured today I would mostly have a nose at my finds from yesterday. Compressor up first as it was probably the thing that I had the most immediate use for.

Immediately noticed some "quality" wiring where the junction box originally would have been...

Image

However it had most likely been working fine like that for decades so I'm not about to worry about it until the thing has proven itself - if it does I'll obviously sort it properly before it gets installed in whichever corner of the garage it winds up living in.

Doing first tests on stuff like this is where this thing really comes in handy.

Image

For those not familiar with their test equipment this is a Megger. Well, technically it's a high voltage insulation tester - Megger is a brand name. On your average household multimeter when measuring resistance it will apply less than five volts to the test subject. This uses 500V to do that - so can spot where you have issues with insulation that is breaking down at higher voltages, especially often where damp is concerned.

You learn very quickly to keep your hands out of the way as it doesn't half sting if you get zapped by it.

It tested perfectly and the resistance through the windings looked reasonable for a motor of this size. There was oil in the compressor (it actually has a teeny tiny dipstick) so seemed time to see if it would work.

Here's the verdict:

YouTube Link

Yes, and it's astonishingly quiet. Certainly won't be a chore to have it burbling away in the garage now and then. No knock from the bottom end at all which is nice. Hooking it up to the only high pressure gauge I have to hand, it almost immediately pegged the thing at 200psi...so it definitely can pump a decent head. The fact that there was absolutely no change in speed of the motor at that pressure seems to suggest that the motor is somewhat over rated for the job.

Not going to be running air tools with it, but hooked up to a small receiver and pressure switch (probably still have one from back when I used to help out with some HVAC stuff) it should be just dandy for inflating tyres, clearing stuff out of bolt holes and blowing water off cars after a wash. Stuff like that.

Happy with that.

Number two was the other random motor that I grabbed. If it's good I'm thinking workbench mounted polisher/grinder. This one is free of any dodgy wiring at least.

Hooking it up really surprised me...Very brief hum, then near silence, just a really quiet hiss from the brushes. Turning power back off, it kept going for nearly a full minute before it stopped.

YouTube Link

Now that's a nice set of bearings! You just don't get quality like that on a general purpose motor these days. Will definitely need to find that a purpose.

The inverter was up next. Really wanted to see what was in the box, so the lid was pulled. I wasn't expecting it to be exactly packed full...but I wasn't expecting this little in there!

Image

Hooking it up and we had a loud buzz and this on the output.

Image

Not surprised it's high given there was no load connected. Reckon this may well take up residence in the van...not likely to have a huge need for mains when off grid, bit nice to have the option.

The oil can also works a treat, which is no surprise.

I had a couple of errands to run, and with a bit of confidence from yesterday's test I decided that TP should be my transport for the day...so she went and confused people at Sainsbury's again.

Image

Yes...that is a Mazda 2 I'm parked next to...the Invacar is that tiny.

On the way home she was fuelled up actually at a filling station for the first time in at least 18 years.

Image

This literally brought the filling station to a standstill for a few minutes as the cashier felt it was necessary to come and take a look as he had no idea what it was! Only 12mpg indicated...but there are at least a couple of hours static running , plus the carb was playing up for a while so no surprise there really!

Sadly no video of the high speed run as the camera didn't record it properly for some reason...will try again next time I get a chance.

Seems to be running better still...no further fuel leaks from the carb, no oil leaks from the dipstick etc... can't complain. Hopefully she will keep getting better with use.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#222 Post by Zelandeth » Tue Apr 02, 2019 10:28 pm

This turned up this morning.

Image

So shall be able to get the gas system rebuilt shortly. Figured just buying a new one was easier than faffing around trying to get the ancient one cleaned up and sealed properly.

The downpour that we have had overnight has done a good job of highlighting that rainwater is still getting into the one corner of the van.

Still not entirely sure exactly where the point of entry is. However for the purpose of elimination of a possibility I have refitted and properly sealed the high level tail lights (though obviously this will make myself more MOT prep work as I will need to wire them up now). Not actually a bad idea anyway as one limitation of the of the factory lights in the bumper is that they aren't visible from the side at all - the little orange reflector is just that, it's not a repeater. Plus given the fact that so many drivers seem to be in a complete daze addition of extra lights can only be a good thing.

Image

I have also re-bedded one of the bits of sealant just below one of the upper weatherstripping which looked a bit suspect. If this still doesn't do it I will just pull all of the strips and trim off the entire corner of the van, clean back and rebuild everything from scratch. Messy job but it will probably be needed.

Have also added a little sticker to the rear window showing support for a friend of a friend of a friend who has been going through some exceptionally hard times over in the US.

Image

I usually go great lengths to avoid putting stickers on my cars - though this is for a good cause, plus I think you can get away with a bit more on a camper without stuff looking silly. I think these little guys are cute anyway...
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#223 Post by Zelandeth » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:01 pm

Today has been a rubbish day to be honest. Mentally I have good days and bad days these days (and I have my doubts that the group therapy session that the NHS have offered me - after I make it past the waiting list which is apparently around 10 weeks at this point - will help with that). Today has been a bad day, so finding energy to do anything has been a real struggle.

I did manage to get the Lada over to the Magic Hand car wash over on Monk's Way for a bit of a clean up. Felt kind of guilty taking it to them in that state, but needs must. They had kit far more likely to shift that gunk than I did.

Did a decent enough job too. Couple of bits missed, but given the state it was in I'm really not complaining - especially as she really needs a polish anyway.

Image

Image

Image

They always do a really good job of the interior too.

Image

Image

Image

Need to attack the engine bay with an air line to get a whole load of pine needles out of the scuttle etc.

Image

Image

Oh - completely at randomly I spotted a copy of this in an eBay listing yesterday...

Image

Have been chasing it around the van since I got it trying to work out where on earth it lived. Turns out the answer is underneath the toilet cassette - intention I guess is to help prevent the tank sagging in the middle when it has 20 litres of liquid in.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#224 Post by Zelandeth » Fri Apr 05, 2019 11:37 pm

I was quite pleased with how the Invacar behaved when I last had her out. So when I had a local trip lined up this afternoon if obviously made sense to take her rather than have the Activa drink another half gallon of fuel.

While only a couple of miles across the town centre, this would be the furthest from home that I had ventured so far. Did she make it?

Image

Of course she did. Place only opened a couple of years ago, so I doubt there has ever been an Invacar in that car park until today.

Had to swing by the pharmacy on the way home, which left me the opportunity to watch out the window for several minutes watching people walking past TP and be totally baffled by what they were seeing.

The size comparison to a Skoda Roomster is somewhat comical.

Image

Back home an hour or so later and a milestone has been reached.

Image

Those of you with far better memories than me will recall that the odometer read 11353 miles - the first additional mile was done attached to a drill when the engine change was underway as I wanted to confirm that the odometer worked, so call it 11354. So at close of play today that's 51 miles covered since the previous keeper rescued her from that field.

She definitely earned her keep today...proper week's shopping onboard.

Image

Didn't miss a beat either, so as a reward for good behaviour I got a small but important detail seen to.

Image

Finally put the badge back on. Not quite sure whether this will make people more or less confused when they see her now.

A few shopping bags have now been assigned to the car for future shopping trips.

Image

Which I know I will never remember to take into the shop with me because I never do.

I reckon based on my experience today that bungee may get stuffed in one of the doors to help keep stuff still as the floor mats combined with shopping bags appear to result in zero friction whatsoever...so my shopping slid all over the floor and was generally an utter pain on the way back.

The carb I am glad to report seems to be reasonably happy now. Only grumble with it is that the choke cable has come off again, but given she lives in the garage that's hardly a major issue, I'll sort it at some point.

The only recurring gripes are the grumbling drivetrain - which I'm pretty sure at this point is down to pitted pulleys (I do have a plan in mind to see about cleaning them), and the dead travel in the brakes. That's better than it was but still needs improving ideally.

Now we have passed the magic (and utterly arbitrary) 50 mile mark I will probably drop the oil and change the filter this weekend as if there's gunk floating around in there, it has probably been washed into the sump by now, time to clean it out.

Really do need to do something about the front end bodywork now too, especially given the car seems to be getting into a vaguely usable state now...the duct tape and my laughable first attempts at fibreglass need to go...I can do a lot better job of that now.

Hoping that this weekend I will have the opportunity to get a few more miles covered. Would be nice to get a photo of her somewhere other than another underground car park!
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#225 Post by Zelandeth » Sat Apr 06, 2019 9:50 pm

Encouraged by the success of the let couple of runs I figured it was time to start working on getting TP looking slightly less like an escapee from Scrapheap Challenge. The huge chunk of duct tape on the offside front had to go.

Image

While I was at it I finally got some matting down over the huge crack in the offside rear quarter with a view to actually tidying it up at some point.

Image

On the subject of cosmetics I also figured that it made sense to get the infill strip in the gutter put back in. The original one had turned to plastic so atomised when I removed it. However I have tens of metres of the stuff for the van, so nicking a couple of feet wasn't an issue.

Image

This actually does a lot more to tidy the car up than I expected - which shouldn't have surprised me given the visual impact of doing the same on the van.

The original fire extinguisher was a huge point of concern for people. As a result I have made the decision to swap it for a modern one.

Image

It's a shame that whoever fitted the original extinguisher just drilled holes in the vehicle build plate. I will probably move the extinguisher at some point as I really don't like it there. It looks messy and gets in the way whenever you want to get the service hatch out. I reckon in the footwell on the opposite side of the car to the washer bottle would be better. Easier to grab in a hurry too I reckon.

This lot done it was time to get some more miles done. My aim for today was to get ten miles done in one run...doing the math when I got home...nine miles! Blast! Oh well, just have to try again tomorrow!

First step was Halfords to pick up some more paint as I ran out halfway through throwing some colour on the bodywork I had just done.

Man this thing is tiny.

Image

Unsurprisingly she generated a bit of a crowd and several people took photos while I was walking back across the car park.

Given she seemed to be behaving pretty well I decided to take a slightly roundabout route home to give me the opportunity to get a couple of photos somewhere slightly more photogenic.

Image

Image

Got slightly confused looks from the guy who runs the burger van in that car park...

Back home with more paint I was able to throw some on the bodywork I had just repaired.

Image

Image

Definitely getting there. Really looking forward to getting her out of the garage for some time on the road tomorrow.

Backing the van back into the drive (I have to do some automotive Tetris to get to/from the garage) the exhaust suddenly became louder - didn't take long to discover why.

Image

Interesting. Especially interesting in that the engine feels far more responsive now...so I do wonder (especially in light of where the silencer is split) if something has collapsed in there causing excessive back pressure. Will see what I can do about this shortly. On the plus side, having separated this join will make getting the main silencer off though. It's heavy enough to be almighty awkward even so.

Hopefully tomorrow will include confusing even more people by driving around in a tiny blue car.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#226 Post by Zelandeth » Sun Apr 07, 2019 10:20 pm

Not a big report from today.

One tool I had been missing for a while was my little sander - which finally surfaced today hiding in a box in the shed. Not the foggiest idea how it got there, but it's back where it lives now.

Image

Main reason I had been looking for this was so that I could get working on smoothing out the surface of my newly made bodywork. As you can see looking closer, it does need it!

Image

Not going for a Rolls-Royce mirror finish here, but hoping I will be able to get it reasonably flat with a bit of work. The above image shows just some of the high spots sanded a bit.

Quite clear with a very quick spray of paint that even a few minutes of work has improved things.

Image

Unfortunately while I found the sander - I did not find the sanding discs to go with it.

Of course because it's Sunday and in England everywhere was closed by the time I got to working on car stuff, so that will need to wait until tomorrow. I still keep getting caught out by that...

The latter part of the afternoon was spent changing the obviously fried capacitors on my old PC motherboard...

Image

Full gas tank in soldering iron, solder present, flux pen present, caffeine present... let's go.

Twenty minutes later the offending caps were swapped out.

Image

Did this resolve the problem? Of course not. Went back and changed all of them in the power supply section of the board in addition to the ones that were visibly cooked, still nothing. It appears that there's a deeper problem as there is still a lot of current being drawn from the additional 12V ATX connector, yet absolutely no signs of life from anything. I have a sneaking suspicion that the CPU isn't even running given the lack of heat being produced... I've tried...but it's time for a new board now methinks. Twelve years ain't a bad run really by today's standards.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#227 Post by Zelandeth » Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:07 pm

Every time I do any work on an exhaust I swear that it will be the last time. Today was no exception.

The van's exhaust consists of four main assemblies.

[] Manifold, downpipe and Flexi.
[] Expansion box.
[] Silencer.
[] Ridiculously long tail pipe.

Both the expansion box and silencer one mine are stuffed. The silencer has a heap of holes in and the expansion box suffers from a broken hanger in addition to one of the baffles having come loose so it buzzes like crazy at idle. Pretty sure the main silencer had collapsed internally as well, making the system far more restrictive than it should be.

The expansion box came loose without much protest. The silencer on the other hand...

After roughly two hours of swearing, hitting things with hammers, heating stuff with a blowtorch then burning my fingers on it, I finally wrestled the main silencer off.

Image

I really want to get a better designed stainless system fitted with the tailpipe venting to the side of the van well clear of any air vents, but may just have to settle for a stock system until the MOT is out the way.

The Invacar was out and about again today, confusing people in central MK.

Image

She does a pretty competent job of being a local runaround it seems.

Having a check over when back though it looks like something has been touching the sidewall of the nearside rear wheel.

Image

Having a quick look didn't reveal anything obvious, so I'll pull the wheel off tomorrow to check. At least there should hopefully be an obvious mark to show where it's been happening. Most likely a loose bit of bodywork that thirty seconds with a drill and rivet gun can fix. Will report back when I've had a chance to fully investigate. Other than that she's continuing to run well so far...need to take a brave pill and venture more than a mile or two from home soon...
Last edited by Zelandeth on Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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.

User avatar
JPB
Posts: 10319
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:24 pm

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

#228 Post by JPB » Mon Apr 08, 2019 8:29 pm

Regarding that scrubbing on the tyre at that rear corner.. :idea: Could it be that it has the front wheel mounted in a rear position? I only ask because Reliant tricycles - although their front suspension and steering arrangement seem very different from this AC's setup - have a front wheel whose centre is much more offset from the rim than the rear pair of wheels are. This means that anyone trying to fit a Reliant three wheeler front wheel to a mini or indeed to Reliant's own kitten or Fox, will risk having that wheel catching on the rear spring or, if fitted to a kitten front hub, catching the upper wishbone inside the rim of that wheel on lock or when that side of the suspension is in certain positions either side of its default, straight line off-load position.
Not all Reliant three wheelers have this odd front wheel as some later ones (ten inch) have rear drums with inbuilt spacers so that a full car set of wheels can share the same ET figure, or are supplied with three in a set where the front one is slightly offset (twelve inch) relative to the kingpin centre, an eccentricity that mustn't affect the Reliants ability to self centre or to run true as I've driven a variety of these and they always seem to feel much the same in terms of steering weight, feel and general cornering behaviour.
I'd be comparing the offsets between the rear wheel that catches and the remaining two on the car plus the spare.

I'm not certain about this at all since I'm comparing chalk with cheese and know the square root of jack sh*t about AC three wheelers whether they be a vintage Petite or one like your more modern example, but cannot think of any other possible reason for one rear wheel to rub so, if I'm barking up the wrong tree, or just plain barking, then at least I'll sleep soundly knowing that I've offered a possible answer to this conundrum.
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#229 Post by Zelandeth » Mon Apr 08, 2019 9:42 pm

Interesting. Never thought about wheel offset issues. I believe the 10" wheels used here were standard Mini items so it shouldn't be an issue.

By far the most likely issue is just going to be bashed bodywork that needs to be anchored to the chassis properly - there's not much clearance in the wheel tubs to start with, so all it will take is one rivet coming loose for things to touch.
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.

User avatar
Zelandeth
Posts: 1126
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2017 9:11 pm
Location: Milton Keynes
Contact:

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

#230 Post by Zelandeth » Tue Apr 09, 2019 3:06 pm

Investigation this afternoon in the one hour of actual time I had was for the rub mark I had spotted on the offside tyre inboard sidewall.

Pulling the wheel off made it pretty clear that something had been touching, albeit not particularly hard.

Image

Looking in at the wheel arch helpfully there was a nice clear witness mark where the tyre had been rubbing.

Image

Turns out that the whole body moulding there had a good 3/4" of wobble because the tiny 1/4" bolt (no washer used on it) at the top of the wheel tub meant to hold everything in place had pulled through the body. This affected pretty much everything from the rear of the door to the tail light.

I drilled three holes to the rail behind there and using nice big washers riveted the back of the wheel tub to the chassis. Whole area is rock solid now, and it looks like we have more clearance. While I had the wheel off the ground I also took the opportunity to adjust the handbrake again as now fifty miles have been covered the shoes have bedded in a bit as you would expect.

One thing I had noted on all my previous high speed runs had been a very noticeable smell of hot rubber, will be interesting to see if this turns out to be the culprit rather than the CVT belt that I had automatically been blaming...doubt I'm lucky enough for it to be the cause of the vibration at speed too, that's more down to the condition of my secondary pulley I reckon.

Given that they never seem to have used a load spreading washer on that bolt it was only a matter of time until it failed, so I'll be taking a look at the nearside shortly to try to ensure the same thing doesn't happen there. Despite the damage to the wing there it is solid though, so it seems likely that someone has already done a repair in the past...
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.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests