Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Armidillo]

It would pass for an Australian car!

Hard to believe it's ever seen any salt on the roads - could it have been laid up for 17 winters?

[Zelandeth]

It would pass for an Australian car!

Hard to believe it's ever seen any salt on the roads - could it have been laid up for 17 winters?

She is a low mileage example, but I don't think so. From what Steve was saying at the garage they just were that well rust proofed. A good dosing with some Lanoguard will likely happen to help keep it that way. However I'm going to make sure we're done with the suspension work first as I don't want to make poor mechanics deal with everything being covered in goop, so that's happening afterwards.

-- -- --

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.

[mickthemaverick]

Nice stroll down memory lane there Zel, my first car was a Morris 1100 and followed over the years by 3 more Morris's, an MG and 2 Rovers, a 220T Coupe amd an SD1. I have varying memories of all of them even though in the fullness of time they were outnumbered by French, Italian and Japanese marques

[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.

[CitroJim]

That's good Zel and nice and local to me too

[mickthemaverick]

Great result, they clearly know their business, how much did it cost and how long did it take Zel?

[Gibbo2286]

I had a customer, a young guy with a 3 Litre Capri, he twice brought it to me for 'vibrations at various speeds' I checked all the likely suspension and steering causes and concluded that the variety of mixed make tyres was the cause. He didn't agree because all the tyres had legal amounts of tread left.
A couple of days later I was at my local MOT place and I could see his car there on the ramp, chatted with the mechanic, asked what their conclusions were, the mechanic said "We'll replace every steering joint and suspension bush and if that doesn't fix it he'll have to buy some tyres"

[Zelandeth]

Great result, they clearly know their business, how much did it cost and how long did it take Zel?

Was actually on the ramp just over an hour - which is the big difference to the 15-20 mins most places would give to the job. Think it was £99 including VAT. Yes dearer than a fast fit sort of place, but I'd far rather pay that for the job done right than £50 for it to be vaguely waved in the direction of an alignment rig, which looks to be what was done last time.

[mickthemaverick]

That sounds like b****y good value to me!! Well worth seeking out the people who really understand their job!!

[Zelandeth]

That sounds like b****y good value to me!! Well worth seeking out the people who really understand their job!!

Exactly my take on it. I'm always happy to pay properly for a job to be done right.

-- -- --

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.

[CitroJim]

What an excellent company and service Zel

[myglaren]

Quite unusual for a business to step up like that.
They have themselves a lifetime customer now of course.

[mickthemaverick]

Indeed it is!! May I suggest you add them to our recommended garages list Zel, which you can find here

[Hell Razor5543]

Indeed it is!! May I suggest you add them to our recommended garages list Zel, which you can find here

Seconded.

[MattBLancs]

Wow that's excellent of them!