Has there been some sort of secret pact to stop posting to this thread or has everyone left their cars alone for almost a week?
Well as a non member of this conspiracy I have done the following to my car and am telling everyone about it!
Over the last few days I have:
Fitted the final piece in the retro fitting of AC to my MK3, the control knobs. I found a non climate control AC controller on the Ebay for £35 complete with silver knob surrounds. I butchered to old unit to replace the knob surrounds on the new piiece which were getting a little grey and the knob centres were also exchanged with the exception of the fan controller as that was the whole point of fitting this unit. The cooling cools and the heating heats and the fan does what it’s told. Marvellous.
Fitted a set of 8 inch Alpine SXE2035 speakers in the doors. A little cutting and the help of an 8mm thick speaker ring and they are snug as a bug and produce more bass than a man my age should need.
Fitted close-able vents in the middle. A bit pointless really, I’m probably never going to close them but not being able to bothered me for some reason.
Fitted new rear speakers. The original ones were of no use especially compared to the efficiency of the new fronts so a new set of Alpine SXE0825 were put in their place. The holes in the metal are slightly too small for the speakers but I found that if you mount them behind the holes you can bend to tabs of the fittings around and that is enough to hold them in place without rattles. A new piece of circular foam (a polishing pad with the centre cut out!) stops the sound bouncing back into the boot. A stark improvement I think, I will have to wait until tomorrow to test it out on the raod.
I had my kicking strips off at the weekend, so I could stick the stainless steel on properly. I couldn’t resist to chance to run them over the polishing machine and now they are all super shiny again.
The actual forum is a bit hopeless it times out quite often, and then does multiple copies of your post at times… that can’t be helping.
For myself i had a rubbish attempt at changing my springs. Decided randomly to do the rear first I thought that would be easier. spent a day struggling with the passanger one and gave up. Dropping it out below it kept getting stuck i think i was one bolt away from getting it out, but i just gave up in a huff. Need longer levers :)
So i’m deciding if i want to try again or just pay someone to do it… leaning towards paying at the moment.
Really easy once I got the ramps out. I’m very impressed with the build quality and the results… plus it was lovely laying on the drive in the sun for an hour or so!
I’ve owned my Mk1 for four or five years now, but only clocked up less than 1000 miles per year, mainly short B-road outings on sunny days. Using it so little I’ve never really got used to it’s handling characteristics, often struggled to find the lights switch and time and time again switched on the windscreen wipers when I intended to switch on the left turn indicator. I’m retired so I don’t get to do many regular journeys.
Finally I got the chance to daily commute starting last Monday doing two weeks jury service with a round trip of 58 miles every day, mainly motorway. What a revelation, it’s much better than I anticipated now I’ve finally got into the groove with it. I expected it to be a bit of a chore because most road tests I’ve read say these cars are too noisy and too slow for modern motorways. Not a bit of it, it happily cruises at 85 mph, and acceleration from 70 to 85 quite briskly. As for the noise, I just turn up the volume on the stereo.
Come Friday my jury service will be over, and both the car and I will return to a quiet life, but I’ll still have this the memory of this glorious fortnight, and hopefully less likely to be tempted to sell it because, “It just sits in the garage every day.”
Fitted the mod4cars Smart-Top
One touch operation, and works while reversing so I can get the roof off when I am leaving work without having to wait before reversing out.
Today I have been mostly fitting a new thermostat. Engine temp was peaking at 69 degrees on the move with the old one according to my OBD2 reader. I took the opportunity to fit a new header tank by Davefab and do a full replacement of the FL22 whilst I was there. Engine now runs at a toasty 86 degrees and the car feels both warmer and a little more sprightly.
Last year my youngest daughter’s house was broken into twice in two months; specifically to find the car keys to steal her two year old Polo and then the like-for-like replacement. She only had the first car a month, and the same time for the replacement.
Living in London, and with her limited mileage she now hires a car, using one of those car sharing Apps, as and when needed.
I went for the horror show of rust repairs this week.
Both front chassis members completely replaced and both sills internal and external repaired and internal rust proofed.
Malcom at Speedweld Engineering is a very skilled trades man, he really knows his stuff. Satisfying to see an almost invisible sill repair before filler and paint.
Structural rust sorted Now time for the rust prevention.
