Practically Classics Forum

JPB wrote:

Landy Mann wrote:Good to see it progressing again, MOT by Christmas?

A shiny fifty pee to a charity of your choice says that Mitsuru will have his car on the road before July!
Anyone care to raise the stakes?

If your going to start a sweep stakes then setup a separate thread for it please,
and not clutter this thread up with it thanks.

Oh FFS!

Here, allow me to pick up that dody that you seem to have spat out again.

Nice work it is coming along well. Though try doing the paint in serveal thinner coats, or pre-heating the part first to minimise rubs, works for me anyway.
I'd put 50p on, cracking pace with the nice weather

I decided to leave the brain unplugged today.
So I decided to wash and wax the car. I should have engaged the brain!!!
I used a different wax to what I was planning to, and applied it too thickly.




I would been better off washing the dogs as they need a bath too!



I finished wiping down the car, I didn't was to use colour match turtle wax as
I needed to find out how many scratches, scuffs, dents and any rust.

There are scratches on most panels, scuffs on the bumpers, and only one bit
of rust and its a rust blister. The rust blister is the size of a ten pence piece ,
on the front corner of the bonnet!

The rust blister is under the green paint, as the bonnet was previously blue and
had been painted green. The paint on the bonnet, boot, right front wing and
front bumper is rough to the touch. They were painted not in a paint shop but
by the garage which ripped off it's employees, I am regretting getting it done
there now but hindsight is twenty twenty!

More done on the voyager wiring loom.



Time to try the voyager loom in the neon with the modifications.





I stopped when I couldn't get the plugs in the right sockets!

I've been and collected the Custom radiator from Motorcool.
Apicture says a thousand words so!







Yes the radiator has not been completed so it is a little raw!
Ok I struggled to squeeze the radiator in, this is because the bottom
outlet pipe is too long.



Nice and low sitting as the radiator is sitting flat on it's bottom, there
are no fixing pins.



As I was having a custom made radiator, I had the bottom outlet moved
an inch closer to the centre to avoid the oil filter, as this has made more
clearance I will get a shorter straight outlet to replace the current one.



There is still plenty of room behind for the oil cooler radiator.



I might need to get two new slightly smaller radiator fans which would need
a spacer at the top, the bottom brackets might just need some new fixing
holes for the bolts.





I will need to get some sheet brass to match the radiator tanks for the sides
so the air goes through the radiator nit around it!



As I dented and bent a few fins on the radiator, so i spent some time with a
thin metal ruler and a bent flat head screw driver teasing and straightening
them back into place.

I have marked up where a couple of nuts will need to fitted so the oil cooler
radiator can be mounted on the rear. I will drop the radiator back down to
Motorcool on monday.

I have managed to get a full gray leather interior out of a mk2 neon, it's off
ebay for £80 plus £60 for courier. It is to replace the cars current seats.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... OU:GB:1123

Now I just need to get that bloody star drive bolt which is the bottom fixing
bolt for the rear seat.

After a bit of reading and countless rechecking incase I got it
wrong, so I didn't cause any damage either wiring loom.
I connected the transmission range sensor plug via plug B33
of the Voyager wiring loom to the neon's Park/neutral/reverse
switch wiring after cutting off that plug.

Using a lead off an old multi metre I connected one to the the
battery positive and the probe into connector/pin 6 of the plug.
A set of jump leads attached to the car as the battery sat on
the drive.



Well thats the reverse lights connection sorted!



While the battery was connected I tried the screen wash and
wipers. The wipers worked perfectly but the washer reservoir pump
did not. I unplugged it and connected a multimeter while dad pulled
the leaver, the car was providing power.

The washer pump has definitely had it I even tried it off the car just
incase it was a dodgy connection. The Neon's washer pump is on the
right the one on the left is for a BMW I bought to make a headlight
washer it last year.



If I can't get a replacement washer pump then I will make an adapter
plate and make the BMW pump fit!

I have also made some earthing cables connecting the rear cylinder
head directly to that bolt next to fusebox on the battery tray and then
to the car body at the headlight.

Okay to recap, I bought a set of seats and door cards of gray leather for
£80 for them and £60 for shipping.
This is the picture from the advert on ebay.



However in the above picture they look a darker shade of gray than the
pale gray that they are!
To show the comparison between the two sets of seats, the below two
photos show the back seat the upper is the mk2 pale gray and the base
of the mk1 it was to replace.





The Colour difference is far too much for me to use them without it
screaming at me either when I see it or think about it!

If I was to return them I would be paying anything from £60 to £80
just in shipping which means any money returns would cover only the
shipping, as the shipping would not be covered in the refund.

Until the bad weather passes, and until I decide what to do I put the
seats in the back of the car and put the cover back over the car to
hide that they are there.



I was driven down to Motorcool in Thornaby to drop the radiator off
for one or two minor alterations, and fixing pins and other stuff to be
added to hold the oil cooler radiator to it.

Oh it was sleet coming down for a short time on the way home back up
the A19 on the way home.

Could you not re-colour the new seats using one of the specialist kits on the market?

suffolkpete wrote:Could you not re-colour the new seats using one of the specialist kits on the market?

Vinylkote should do the trick. With a light leather like that you could even go for a wilder colour than plain grey