Re-sprung

Ahh. TFW, we were reunited and were happy until i realised that the MOT had run out and i had to get on with putting the new springs and dampers on. This was a whole days work, including i might add a 3 bus journey to, and a 3 bus journey from the mercedes tool hire shop, might have been shorter but i was working sans fitting instructions, and i faffed around a bit making a few stoopid errors on the way - the manuals say leave it to the dealerships - meh.

Glad i chose to hire 'the right tools for the job' have i been here before??
Wanna guess how much energy is stored in these springs when they are compressed like this, no me neither but a whole LOT i can be sure of that.

The grenade, ready to take your head off.
Lucky they were already broken, made them easier to wiggle out.

 

 

Grenade armed and ready to chuck in the car.

 

Wonder why these didn't pass inspection, I can't see anything wrong with them. :-/

 

Lower, sleeker, faster, cooler

It was a hard days work made more complicated by the fact of having to work through a matchbox sized hold to disconnect the hydraulics from the dampers... grrrrrr.

Before and after
Like the title says lower, sleeker, faster, cooler, TFW dropped a whole 3cm

The man from NAF he said yes :-)



Sadly for TFW it's days are probably numbered as my first choice of transport, circumstances, well no the weather and -14 temperatures, gave it a dose of the no go.
Don't get me wrong TFW itself was fine but the biodiesel that should have been flowing through its pipes went a bit solid, my fault really, normal diesel would have been OK. So it got left in the shed 120km from home where it left us stranded, to thaw out. Bah.

So what am i looking at to replace it, nothing new, obviously, besides the cost prohibiting it - i like older cars. £35000 for a new basic VW Passat estate anybody?? erm No.

Still ain't going to be cheap, for a 2001 VW Passat estate 1.6 i'll need the thick end of £8000, (yes that is eight thousand) how the hell do people afford cars in this country?? Ugggghhh.

These Boots Are Made for Walkin'

Hei o hupp,

gone just like that, well probably not just like that but gone it is.
TFW has been stolen!

Having your car disappear is one of those super self doubt, double take experiences.
you think 'I did park it here...right?'
[your mind flashes back through the memory of doing just that a a few hours before.]

You then turn around scanning the nearby area, in my case the garage under the building, just in case you'd foolishly parked it somewhere else.

Nope it's gone
[mind plays through scene of parking car in parking space again just to firm up and confirm the reality]
no can't see it here.
[stare at empty space where you now know you parked it]
Hmmm... no it really isn't there.
[brain finally gives in and accepts the facts as presented]

so i now have a large Fat Wagon sized hole in my parking space
I also have a Fat Wagon sized hole in my heart. This car is (was) great.

Practical to the end too as it seems the 'person' or 'people' responsible also loaded up a couple of mopeds into the back of TFW on their way out, cheeky eh.



Bumhats!

Hopefully it won't be the last i see of TFW. It's probably worth more in parts than it is whole, but i'm hoping they'll take pity on the old thing and leave it somewhere it can be found.
Oslo plod have been informed and i expect they have a squad of men working on the case as we speak :-\
If it turns up all fine and dandy if not, ah well there are plenty more cars in the sea eh. come to think of it thats exactly where mine could be.

FAIL !

well no great surprise but a complete jolly pain in the backside anyway, TFW failed it's MOT.
Not quite as bad as i was expecting but a god days work for me to fix or a big sack of money to get somebody else to do it.
Failure points
Broken coil springs in the suspension front AND rear
leaking rear shock absorber.
engine oil leak.
wrongly adjusted headlights.

biggest job is the springs and shock absorber as this being a MB it isn't just any old suspension system but the rear is hydraulically self leveling. I need a few hours trouble shooting before i decide whether it is worth fixing or not.
The dilemma is that a car with no MOT is worth, well not much really, 400 quid maybe or i can send it to the scrap man and get 250. If i fix it up at a cost of 400 quid or so i may be able to get 1500, but it'll need a couple of days work and i don't really have time for that right now. On top of this the Austin's MOT expires at the end of September and with all the goings on in the summer there just wasn't time to get it tested. So i can't move the Austin out and TFW into the workshop either. Bumhats!

The tester ummed and argghed and then said 'Fail.'

It's still running as sweet as a nut though, never missed a beat the year in my ownership not bad for 850 quid.

Go faster stripes

After a long winters rest which carried on through the spring and into summer it was finally time to test out the Austin's new boots. So a quick blast round the local roads proved it was money well spent and it now cornered slightly lees badly than before - it did however stop a whole lot better than TFW, a jab on the brakes and it stopped as directed.
A long hard stomp on the brakes in TFW and it might decide to come to a rest, this rather worrying discovery prompted me into deciding that it really was time to take a proper looksee at TFW's anchors.
What i found isn't for the faint hearted.
Even the least car savvy of you out there will understand that this isn't how brake discs or pads should look.








a few happy hours spannering attaching expensive new shiny bits to the old grotty bits and things were beginning to look good again.
Two new brake discs, one new brake caliper (a wallet hurting kr 1600 alone - ouch) new brake pads and a quick bleed of the brake system and we were good to take a test drive down to the petrol station to get some grease.




It's all a bit agricultural and not something Maud's grandma would be putting up with but it's 2 kroner cheaper than regular diesel and super environmentally friendly.
So here is TFW's first tank of biodiesel.
The engine will run happily on biodiesel no problems (harvested in europe so no small villages of brazilian peasants suffer for my decadent choice of automotive transportation) but it does seem to eat through any older rubbery bits in the fuel system so expect a breakdown sometime soon :-)





AAAAhhhh yes go faster stripes something every boy racer like me should have - except i'm too stingy to buy any such thing - not to worry find the nearest yellow painted wall and scrape the car along the side of that...just the ticket.
D'oh stripes as created by the worlds biggest dumbass ... me. and i couldn't even blame it on bad brakes either.




Oh and the Austin burst a heater hose spilling half the contents of the radiator onto the tarmac, my fault for forgetting that sometime way back in the winter i had replaced the ageing radiator cap with a new shiny one creating more pressure in the system than 44 year old rubber tubing could handle.

All work no play

Not so much to report really, been a bit pre-occupied with estate agents, work and other such stuff. Still the postman arrived with 4 new tyres for the Austin all the way from Germany, dumped them in the back of TFW and i drove them up to the workshop. Took all 4 wheels off the Austin and left it stranded in mid air on axle stands but I think delivering them to the tyre fitter might have to wait a little while until i have the time and the cash, shame cos i can't wait to get on the road again.

TFW has been performing faultlessly since being put into service as a removal vehicle, a tighten of the alternator belt to stop it screeching is the only bit of maintenance in the past month.

Plenty of tread left on the old tyres but they are as hard as rock and starting to crack. I've had the car for almost 4 years so these tyres have probably been on there for about 10 - time for a change - the new tyres are closer to the correct size anyway, slightly taller sidewalls and bit narrower as you can see - may help my weedy arms a bit by making the non power assisted steering a touch lighter - only one way to find out.

Finally get rid of the cheeeeezy white walls too.

Automobile abuse + new shoooz

TFW is back in action - it has a super cavernous boot and is a great car for lugging stuff around so it has been pressed into hard labour transporting the first few loads of boxes we have packed getting ready for moving in april.
Having recently expanded my workshop space i'm now using part of it for storage during the move - a whole load cheaper than renting a room in one of these city self storage places.

I am also in the process of building a new workbench in my newly aquired space and for this TFW is fantastic - need a 3m length of 3" x 2" no probs - just dump it on the roof and tie it to the rails and off we go.



Haven't had time to touch the austin the last few weeks but i did get around to ordering it a new set of tyres. Pretty difficult getting hold of an long obsolete size. 185 x R14 is OK if you own a van but those tyres are no good for a car - all low profile stuff these days so what to do - the good old internet of course. Ordered these (just the tyres not the wheels) from dekkonline.com should be here within a week or so. I can then throw the wheels with old tyres and the new tyres in TFW and trundle on down to a near by tyre fitter for them to put them on.... well thats the plan anyhow.
Have to see if the postman has room for 4 tyres in his bag all the way from Germany.