Zel's Eclectic Fleet Blog (Volvo, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & Occasional Distractions)

[rich.]

I've been looking at trabants now...
Is this of any interest?
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/tnMz89Co1aVYX7Do/

[Zelandeth]

I've been looking at trabants now...
Is this of any interest?
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/tnMz89Co1aVYX7Do/

If you have the opportunity to get one, absolutely do it. Or if you want to try before you buy, you'd be absolutely welcome to a shot of mine once it's sorted out if you're in the area.

Thanks for the lead on that engine. I think given the cost of rebuild parts, I'm just going to go for a complete unit from Trabantwelt. Anything else, especially when dealing with shipping from abroad which isn't going to be cheap is likely to end up with the potential to still need a fair whack of money spent on it. I'm going to be keeping this for the long run I'm sure, so I'm not too bothered about the fact it's a bigger initial bill. Should be a lower hassle option long term (hopefully!). The only thing I'm on the fence over is whether to spend a bit more and go for the hotted up 700cc/30hp version or not.

Just waiting on some funding coming my way from an inheritance which will soften the blow of an order that's likely going to be around €2K by the time it's on my doorstep - it's just taking absolutely forever to get the probate sorted out. We're five months in now and counting, which is pretty frustrating.

-- -- --

Slightly belated update on the slightly wobbly Volvo (which I do realise is a bit modern for this forum I guess).

Had a look underneath the Volvo a few days ago courtesy of my preferred garage. Which in hindsight is what I should have just done in the first place. I just always feel a bit bad taking up their time as I know how utterly rammed they are, and they always refuse payment for diagnostic work. In contrast to the previous one where it was a case of book it in and we'll be in touch, this was a case of "You know how the lift works, help yourself and I'll be back in a few minutes."

First up, the light knocking noise from the rear end. This seems to be because the handbrake cable on the offside is touching the anti-roll bar. I'm guessing there would have been a clip or spacer to stop this happening present originally. Should be easy enough to fabricate a replacement.

They are of the opinion that there's nothing immediately in need of replacement. Evidence that the wheel alignment is out, definitely. Nothing is moving that shouldn't be or that should move is doing so more than it should in their opinion. The alignment being out could account for all the symptoms I've seen, exacerbated by the resulting uneven tyre wear. In their view the trailing arm bushes aren't anywhere near worn enough to be causing the degree of handling nonsense we'd seen. If the steering wheel is off straight, that could also in theory be causing the stability control to chase it's own tail, though neither of us were sure if we'd have seen warning lights to indicate the system actively intervening or not.

They have pointed me at the place they would use to get a proper four wheel alignment done if it were their own car, which I reckon I can far further trust to actually do the job properly. Apparently the place I'd used before are fine for tyres, exhausts and routine servicing but don't really have the time or finesse for jobs needing a bit more attention to detail as it's just a production line. Also no evidence that they ever touched the rear end when the car was last in judging from the lack of any surface marking on the adjustment bolts - which is a bit annoying given it was the rear end I had specifically mentioned, but it honestly just feels par for the course these days so I can't even bring myself to get worked up over it any more.

Had a chat with said place today, who it turns out are actually a Jaguar specialist and do look to be very well reviewed, so fingers crossed when it gets a four wheel alignment on their kit it will actually be set up properly. Then we can look at tyres - but there's obviously no reason to throw £400 of tyres on there until I know it's not just going to shred them. Not naming names yet, but if they give good service and do a proper job of it, I'll name drop them once we're done.

Having had a chance to wander around underneath the car though I can confidently say that this is the cleanest car underneath I've ever owned by a comfortable margin.



















I honestly can't quite wrap my head around that being the underneath of a car that's 17 years plus change old.

Suffice to say a care package of a variety of snacks and drinks will be getting delivered to my usual guys shortly as a thank you for the ramp time and assistance of a second, trained pair of eyes. It's really important to me that they know that I don't just take their help for granted.

Aside from the ongoing alignment issues I'm still blown away by this car. The only thing I'd maybe change by choice would be running it on 16" rather than 17" wheels so I could have tyres with a bit of extra sidewall to soften the ride a little. Though the tyres that are in there are pretty old and are XL load rated, so new ones may well help at least a little there. Kind of like a Saab 900 always has to me, it has just almost immediately had the "comfy old pair of slippers" feel to it, and I can't quite believe it's only been a month or two I've been driving it.

It's just such a comfy, easy way to waft around - however can go full cruise missile if you ask it to. Plus the five pot warble absolutely has not even started to lose the novelty. Kind of ridiculous that the nicest sounding engine currently on fleet is a diesel. The Rover has it at idle no question, but honestly the Volvo wins under normal driving. It's not a raw, visceral noise (like the intake howl from the P4 when I had the intake silencer off), it's just such a pleasant noise and something that's just not like any other configuration.

[rich.]

Thanks mate, that's a very kind offer
If it was my car I'd go for the upgraded engine, a bit more power is always useful
I've always been a fan of Volvo's, my nephew's have had a couple and one was a 300.000 mile banger that was like new, he abused it for a couple of years then sold it to a mate who needed a car. It's still going strong.. there is another hidden somewhere in his collection

[gazza82]

30hp must be no-brainer

[Zelandeth]

Well the Partner is now up for sale on another couple of forums as well as here. Hopefully I'll get a bite somewhere as I really don't want to have to deal with the wider public. Last couple of times I've had to do that really did make me question how humanity as a species has survived this long and how some people actually manage to dress themselves in the morning, never mind pass a driving test.

I had kind of expected this year's BL day at MK Museum to end up being called off with how much rain we've had over the last couple of weeks and with the forecast looking distinctly dodgy on the day - but it did go ahead, and aside from a couple of spots of rain at a couple of points the weather behaved at least for the few hours that I was there.

Despite it only being three miles plus change away from home, last time I took it here the Rover decided to overheat (but behaved perfectly on the way home), and thankfully there was no repeat of that nonsense this time round. I'm going to order another thermostat I think as I really feel that's been the root cause of my intermittent overheating issue. There's no other reason I can fathom that we would have something like this happening seemingly totally at random. The one in there is new as I swapped it when I had the heads off - though the fact that it's new of course doesn't mean a damned thing other than that it's entirely likely to be dead out the box. I suspect the one that came with the car is still sitting in the box the new one came out of, tempted to test that and if it passes just chuck that back in given it's at least as likely to be reliable as a new one.

I would have liked to get the car a clean before I took it to the show, but trying to fit things around every day life meant that never happened. You can't really see the grime from 20' though!



Was quite surprised to have the only P6 there, have always been a couple in previous years.

While the P4 definitely pre-dates BMC's involvement in Rover, one of those was in attendance and of course got photographed.



Do think two tone colour schemes like this suit them well.



This Metro aside from a missing white stripe is basically identical to the first of the cars belonging to my parents that I have any conscious memory of.



No, I have no idea what the heck my phone's camera has done with this image. It seems to have major, major issues dealing with bright colours without having a complete fit. The compressed version on here honestly doesn't look much worse than the locally saved version.





While my default colour for BL products given my choice is Snapdragon Yellow, I wouldn't say no to this purple Dolomite.



That said, they are a design which can pull of beige pretty well I reckon too.



Some lovely detail work on that P5 Coupe. Think most of the photos I got of that are on film though.



Unsurprisingly there were a fair number of MGBs there both in roadster and GT form.



I know they're a car that a lot of classic car folks seem to love to hate, but I do still want one. From the time I have spent in/around them my take home message has always been that there's a reason that they were and continue to be so popular. There's more to enjoying a car than 0-60 and lap times, and driving a B to me has always just felt fun and like the designers knew exactly who their target market was and had the car set up ideally for them.



I do always forget quite how much smaller than the B the Midget is - having one parked only a couple of spaces over from the white one a couple of photos above really reminded me of that. They also look like a car that must be a huge amount of fun - essentially being a car that you wear rather than ride in. I do just worry that given I'm a bit lanky that I'd struggle to fit in one - I do struggle in a Mini a bit for that reason.





Have never had the chance to drive one though, have to see if I can fix that one day.

Always fun seeing so many of these parked up together.



Including an 1800GT. Which does the odd thing of having the sportier trimmings while ALSO being beige...and I love it for that.



Given free reign of any that's on the market I'd probably pick a chrome bumper MGB, but if I found the right car I could see me enjoying either version. The Midget however it really feels didn't survive the styling revision nearly as well.



Though admittedly I do somewhat feel MG's pain there in trying to adapt an existing design to meet those new rules with such a tiny car and with virtually no budget to speak of must have been a nightmare.

I really hate myself for the fact that I'm now actually noticing cars like this which wouldn't have had black/silver plates from new...It's like once you've noticed the missing comma in the "Congestion, use hardshoulder" notices on the M1 - once you've noticed it on one car, you can't stop seeing it!

For all they might have a bunch of flaws, the SD1 is still a cracking looking car.





If I'd been able to stay longer it would have been fun if we'd been able to get the P4, P6 and this SD1 photographed together.

Violently coloured 80s wedge? Count me in!



Initially I was internally rolling my eyes at the "modern" alloy wheels on that Range Rover looking to my eyes out of place...before realising that I'm an idiot and that being on an L plate they quite likely were factory spec. My brain repeatedly forgets that they made them later than the mid 80s!

Speaking of violently coloured cars it's hard not to mention this metallic turquoise Mini in that context.



Or indeed a multichrome R8 Coupe.



Probably have another dozen or so photos on film, but I mostly just enjoyed having a wander around and a natter with a few people at what's probably one of the last gatherings of the year I imagine. With the weather turning and nights drawing in I don't imagine there will be all that many more this year.

This was the first time really out-and-about for the camera on the new phone to be used properly, and hopefully redeem itself from the thus far lukewarm reception I've given it. The camera is one of the things that seems to have praise heaped on it in most of the reviews of the Pixel 9. Given the huge slab that sticks out the back of the thing to accommodate it, it really needs to earn its keep - However all this lot of photos has confirmed to me is that it really doesn't stack up against the camera on the Huawei P30 Pro it's replaced. In the right conditions it maybe captures a *tiny* bit more definition, but that's scant reward for noticeable stepping visible on gentle curves, odd geometric interference patterning at times (I'm assuming they're using some stupid AI based upscaling which is doing a crap job), and fact that it seems incapable of dealing with the colour red properly. Either appearing as a massively over-saturated JPEG-compressed-to-hell mess, or muddy purplish mush. The depth of field in macro mode is also even worse than on the Huawei, and the fact that you need to go into a menu to turn on/off the flash rather than just having a shortcut on the screen seems utterly daft. So much for five and a half years of "progress." Really do wish I could have just stuck a new battery in my old one and carried on.

[Luxobarge]

I do always forget quite how much smaller than the B the Midget is - having one parked only a couple of spaces over from the white one a couple of photos above really reminded me of that. They also look like a car that must be a huge amount of fun - essentially being a car that you wear rather than ride in. I do just worry that given I'm a bit lanky that I'd struggle to fit in one - I do struggle in a Mini a bit for that reason.

I have one (1275 round wheel arch, chrome bumpers etc.) and your guess as to what it's like to live with is spot on. Huge fun to drive, especially with a somewhat "tweaked" engine. Hope you get to drive one, if you're ever in the Gatwick area you'd be welcome to pop round and have a go. If I can get in it, I'm sure you can

[gazza82]

I had a Triumph 2.5PI Mk 1 Estate back in the mid-late 70s when the A35 proved to be just a tad too small to act as the family taxi .. neither parents drove! Maroon paintwork and tan leather interior (front seats like armchairs!) and a full length folding sunroof .. that had a habit of dumping the outside elements into the laps of unsuspecting rear passengers.

Absolutely loved to drive it ... overdrive worked in 3rd and 4th. It did use 5 star fuel though! So to supplement my income I often ran parcels to the London stations for work to be sent overnight on Red Star ... Euston, Kings Cross, and St Pancras where the main destinations for me and the big straight 6. Also useful to save on parking at events like Wimbledon stocks .. parked up the mate's cars a few roads away and them they all climbed in. Three up front, three of four in back seat and at least two in the back estate area!

But it had it's issues (apart from the ingress of rainwater!).

Diff exploded after just two months of ownership. Luckily there was a three month warranty! And the delaer had to fit a new battery as that died while it was with him for repairs!

Lost the clutch once when the clutch fork snapped. That big gearbox and overdrive unit was pretty hard to remove and replace using just ramps and axle stands!

Worst still was when we noticed the cooling fan, which was mounted to the front crank pulley would move when the clutch was depressed ... worn thrust bearings which had also worn the block and rear bearing cap faces. I had those metal sprayed to rebuild them and refinished. A previous onwer must have been a clutch-down at lights person.

Then the PI system threw a wobbly. Try as I might I never quite got it running properly so sold it to a mate who swapped out the PI for a pair of Strombergs from 2000.

A week or so later he mentioned that the rear o/s suspension arm had split giving one wheel some excess negative camber! That luckily was able to be welded back up.

[Zelandeth]

Finally!



Immediate and marked difference to how the car drives. It's vastly more stable in a straight line now, rather than needing continual corrections to keep it pointing the right direction.

If you'd told me a few years ago that I'd need to get recommendations from someone in the trade to find somebody who can set wheel alignment properly I'd have laughed. These guys are primarily a Jag specialist, and is one of those buried in an industrial estate types of place you'd never find unless you knew it was there.

The vibration at speed is (unsurprisingly) still there. Looking closer though there's no point in getting the wheels balanced prior to putting new tyres on. Both offside tyres are down to the wear bars on the outer edge, as is the nearside front. What I hadn't spotted until today and the car was up on the ramp though was that the nearside front is *really* close to wearing to the cords on the inner edge. There's also a fair ding in the rim on that wheel. Nearside rear one has clearly been replaced at some point as it's less worn and a different tread pattern to the others.

Anyhow, new tyres have been ordered and will hopefully be fitted on Monday. I feel bad that I'd not spotted how bad that nearside front one was. I guess that's one of the curses of such wide tyres on a car where they fill the arches so much - seeing the inner edge properly any time other than when the car's in the air is near impossible.

The nearside rear tyre still has some life in it, so that will be offered on here for cheap if someone has use for a part worn 225/45 R17 tyre. I could keep it, but I always prefer a matched set wherever possible.

Hopefully that will finally restore smooth, vibration free cruising.

[Zelandeth]

With the alignment finally sorted it was time to get new tyres fitted to the Volvo.



My usual choice.



Wait a minute, what's this nonsense?



Nothing is ever as simple is it should be is it? Turned out we found a crack in one of the wheels. Given she's a heavy old bus running on 45 profile tyres on these roads, I can't really say I'm massively surprised. Of course this isn't the same wheel as we've found a buckle in is it as that would be too convenient.

The guys in the garage however have been really good about it. They're adamant that they can't prove it's not damage they've caused while changing the tyre (though how you'd crack an alloy changing a tyre unless you do something spectacularly ham fisted with the machine I've no idea). As such they're insisting on getting the wheel repaired at no cost to me. They really didn't have to do that. Hopefully we'll have the wheel back either end of this week or early next week with the new tyre on. They really didn't need to do that, so I appreciate the gesture. Guess there is something to be said for being a very low stress repeat customer!

To be honest, getting them all refurbished is something that's been on my radar for a while now as they are a bit scabby up close. Not that you can usually see that for the half inch thick layer of brake dust (seriously, I've never known a car as bad for it as this).

Does mean I've not been able to ascertain if we've dealt with the vibration though as I'm limited to 50mph on the spare, and it doesn't turn up until past that speed.

[rich.]

Sounds like you have found a decent garage.