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

[CitroJim]

Zel, happy to spend some time with you on the Activa blower problem at a mutually good time...

Following the Invacar with great interest too... Lots to do on that one but nothing is overly complex... A great project

[Zelandeth]

Cheers Jim. Should hopefully be okay as I've played this game before! Only thing I need to look up is which pin on the connector is where the control voltage should be. Also, having it stuck on is preferable to it being dead as at least I have ventilation - noisy ventilation, but I can live with that until I get a day when it's not soaking wet outside.

I think the thing which surprised me most about having a proper look at the Invacar was that while it's very basic in terms of creature comforts etc, is how crude it actually isn't. For one I was expecting a tiny live axle much like on the Reliant Robin - not semi-trailing arms, a separate diff and CV joints etc. Even the front end looks more substantial than on a Robin bearing in mind how little weight it's dealing with (one person can lift the front end clear of the ground with relative ease - probably the single biggest handling vice right there). Even the handbrake mechanism is nicely engineered.

In terms of adding clutter? Hopefully not actually. More likely it might give me the proverbial kick up the backside I need to get off my lazy tail and actually clear some of the stuff out of the garage. For a start there's a box of lighting stuff in there about the size of a coffin that can be decanted and filed away in the loft and the duplicate stuff passed on to other people.

There's a radiogram in there as well which realistically I'm never going to find anywhere for here. It just doesn't fit in this house, and while it's a lovely thing, it stick out like a sore thumb (I somehow managed to get away with sneaking the organ in, still not quite sure how I managed that), but that's never likely to have a home. I believe you'd shown some interest in that, Jim? Yours if you want it! Would add the ability to play 16 and 78rpm records to your musical arsenal...From memory it's never really undergone restoration...think I replaced the grid coupling capacitor on the output valve when I got it as a precaution but that was about it. I think...it was at least eleven years ago! Half the reason I've never really attacked it before is that our garage is so narrow that for any of the other cars it's always been a case of the car *just* fits in there and that's it (forget working on anything other than front or rear), but this is small enough that I can both keep some storage and actually work on the thing indoors.

Think if I were to take on that thing as a project the single biggest rule I need to set myself is to give myself a systematic to-do list and stick to it. There are a lot of jobs that need to be ticked off, and if I go in with masses of enthusiasm but no real plan I'll rapidly end up overwhelmed and will lose patience with it in short order. I'm pretty sure that's where a lot of restorations of vehicles from priceless pre-war relics to your ubiquitous MGBs fall down.

...I fully realise however that making it run reasonably well will probably wind up being number one on the list simply because that's a very gratifying part, and *knowing* it does run well us useful for ones mental health when some job down the line is getting you down and you feel like punting the thing into the nearest canal.

[CitroJim]

Cheers Jim. Should hopefully be okay as I've played this game before! Only thing I need to look up is which pin on the connector is where the control voltage should be. Also, having it stuck on is preferable to it being dead as at least I have ventilation - noisy ventilation, but I can live with that until I get a day when it's not soaking wet outside.

It'll all be in here somewhere Zel...

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=24786

That's the 'sticky' for all issues related to Xantia blowers...

There's a radiogram in there as well which realistically I'm never going to find anywhere for here. It just doesn't fit in this house, and while it's a lovely thing, it stick out like a sore thumb (I somehow managed to get away with sneaking the organ in, still not quite sure how I managed that), but that's never likely to have a home. I believe you'd shown some interest in that, Jim? Yours if you want it!

Consider it rehomed Zel

You'll find a good sort-out and de-clutter will work wonders... Consider me for any other electronics you may have but wish not to have too

I can see this Invacar turning out to be an excellent project... All the important stuff is there...

[Zelandeth]

That's my thinking Jim.

I'll certainly keep you in mind when I start digging in the garage...To be honest I've forgotten a lot of what's in there - aside from 3/4 of a Sinclair C5, a shedload of 1995-7 issues of Autocar, and a load of lighting stuff. A lot of the rest is honestly going to be trash - it was essentially the entire contents of my bedroom and a fair chunk of the loft from my parents house thrown unceremoniously into the back of a van and then transferred into the garage.

There are a bunch of radios at the back mind you (one if which has a reservation on it for someone else on here if I remember rightly), and a 1983/4 TV which has thus far stubbornly resisted all my efforts to resurrect. That will be staying, though I may drag you in at some point and see if a fresh pair of eyes can see something daft I've missed. Speaking of TVs, there's a 50s GEC one in there too which was rescued from the garage of a friend years ago. I don't *think* there's all that much else that's not just random bits and pieces that I really ought to just bin/recycle as appropriate.

Oh, and the Crypton machine...though that will be useful in future I reckon so will be staying - probably moved to the back wall once I've rearranged things. You'll of course be more than welcome to utilise it for the Skoda etc as well.

[Zelandeth]

So far the only surprises I've found are a very late 90s HP DeskJet printer and a GEC Gamma 6 (I think) streetlight. The rest so far is a fairly even mix of tools, junk and what I can only class as "misc."

Misc which if I were any normal person I'd toss in the trash without a thought. Being Autistic is a bloody pain sometimes. Biggest problems I have are general social anxieties (seems a common theme among the group of people I consider friends and extended family), and an absolute unwavering dislike of things changing. Sadly that often extends to my brain deciding that chucking out some random nick knack to which some memory has a tentative connection to as though it's going to somehow wipe it from existence somehow. Some of it is just me being overly sentimental, but a lot is just bloody stupid.

There's a garage under here somewhere...

Oh...found what I think is a Yugo 512 instrument cluster too. No idea where that's come from as I've never owned a Yugo. Driven a couple, but never owned one. Not bad little motors for what they were (and cost), but always felt very insubstantial compared to Ladas or Skodas. Go surprisingly well if you stick a big Weber carb, better coil and back out the back box though.

Speaking of cars though, the Saab needs to go.

I know I'm never going to have the energy to give her the attention she needs. The to do list is longer than that for the Invacar, but is mostly stuff that does need time and money spent to sort. The body in particular is a damn good candidate for catching and getting back to A1 condition now (especially being 3-door in a nice colour), but I just don't have the resources to do that. My welding skills can just about hack patching holes underneath up, but I can't do a good job of things like door bottoms, wheel arches etc where it's visible.

Prior to the head gasket failing she was driving spot on though, and is I still reckon the nicest all round driving 900 I've driven - and I've driven quite a few right across the range.

Big kicker for me though? In that car is the last place I ever really spoke to my mother. Next time I spoke after last time we were out for a drive her health had taken a nose dive and she "wasn't really there any more" if that makes any sense. Was hard to explain to folks at the hospital when she passed on and I just stood up and started to organise things that as far as I was concerned she'd died about a fortnight before when she ceased to recognise anyone.

Me and mum didn't have a conventional relationship, especially for mother and son. Both her and dad had a serious drink problem right up to the end, and had basically all through my life. There's a good reason I could drive by the time I was 12. So while a lot of parents went around apologising for what their teenage children had been up to, I was wandering around apologising for those two and trying to keep them under control. I'd like to think I managed to at least keep some balance in place for a few years, and helped them at least be happy despite life having dealt them some royally harsh cards. Dad I never really saw eye to eye with after he had a brain haemorrhage back in 1994, he came out of that seriously disabled, but also with a hell of a temper and seemed to put a lot of blame unjustly on my mother, which I never saw as right. He also refused point blank to give up smoking despite both of us having asked time after time. Mum couldn't back doing it with him smoking in front of her - and her death certificate lists the CoD as lung cancer due to smoking.

Mum and I got along great though, but more like best mates down the pub than mother/son a lot of the time. We could argue with each other for hours sometimes (usually coming to the same conclusion), but never once actually getting angry - aside for the occasional thatrical effect. We both loved that we were quite willing to challenge each other on a subject, but could then spend a whole evening deconstructing the issue at hand (usually with many tangents along the road), generally emerging at the end feeling we were both smarter for it. Even if everyone else in the pub hadn't the slightest idea what we'd been waffling about for the last three hours. I really bloody miss those conversations, and my single biggest regret was that I didn't really get involved with one of my biggest hobbies nowadays until after she'd passed on as I think she'd have found it a truly fascinating phenomenon. Having been an artistic/creative type her whole life (not to mention a bloody good singer a few years back - think a slightly deeper voiced Berlinda Carlisle), so it would have been right up her street. Will metaphorically be kicking myself about that for the rest of my days.

Yyeeeeahhh... I've gone off at a tangent again. I do that. That's why I'm somewhat more concerned about what will become of the car than I probably should be. It's also why I think it's time to move it on. There's a lot of happy memories in there, but because of how suddenly things ended, also a lot of emotional baggage.

If anyone knows anyone who would be interested in a classic Saab 900 in need of a head gasket (supplied) that's wanting some light restoration, let me know. Make me an offer, I'll probably agree to it. Even if it's less than the £500 the two (Cooper) tyres and (full) exhaust it's had in the last couple of thousand miles.

Sorry that turned into such a ramble. Guess this is one of relatively few places I sort of feel like I'm among a friendly enough bunch I can just ramble a bit.

Also means that even when the day comes there's nothing French on the drive, you'll have a bloody hard time getting shot of me!

[Michel]

I for one really enjoyed reading that post Zel, thanks for sharing a bit of your past with us.

I'm also a social anxiety embracer, as my Talking Therapist and monthly prescription bag will confirm. I find embracing this and my "depression-like symptoms" makes them easier to deal with. I'm not depressed, it's a side-effect of my thyroid problem that gives me "depression-like" symptoms, and occasional (now much more infrequently) bouts of unbearable fatigue.

I never really got on with my dad. At the moment 18 months after he died, my atheist self is hoping there's an afterlife that I can meet him in and give him a kicking...

[CitroJim]

I for one really enjoyed reading that post Zel, thanks for sharing a bit of your past with us.

Yes, same here, very much so...

A lot of what you say comes very close to home with me Zel...

My OCD causes me quite a few very similar issues and it's only in recent years, mainly due to my speech continuing to improve, that I have finally lost virtually all of my social anxieties and have gone almost to the opposite side and become very gregarious...

[Zelandeth]

Well just had a message back from someone else who knows their Invacars and they seem to reckon that this one is a very viable project as everything that matters is there.

They also reckon that reconstruction of the nose should be doable, and that it's logical to assume that once moulds were made that there could well be at least some demand for repair panels. Hard to say for certain though.

Don't know if I was hoping for a "goodness you're mad, run screaming!" or for my own logic to be confirmed as (reasonably) solid...

Still somewhat undecided on the value price being asked, though given their rarity and fact that there does seem to be quite a bit of demand it's probably not that far out of the ballpark. Probably doesn't need more than £500 spending on it realistically given how basic a vehicle it is...and I seriously doubt I'd be able to buy a decently restored one for two grand - last sale I've managed to track down went for well over five. At that level it's well out my reach!

I've also got quite a lot of what I'll need (brake pipe, fuel hoses, just random sundry items like that which soon add up) in stock in the garage anyhow. I also reckon the windscreen seals are the same as used by Lada - which I can get for a quarter of the price of the usual (Mini) ones...

Back to the garage tidy this afternoon with a bit of luck, if I ever get out of this queue in the slowest pharmacy ever anyway. Having a space for it to go into is essential to selling the idea to the rest of the family I suspect. Especially given its current "cosmetically challenged" state!

[CitroJim]

That's good news on the Invacar project Zel

[Zelandeth]

Well made some progress...Four large black bags of trash out now anyway, not that it seems to have even made the slightest dent!

Did discover this titchy little RCA CRO though which is crying out for a home. Valve based from memory.

Behind the scope is a Grampian branded PA Receiver I think. Both of those came in a job lot with other stuff and I've utterly no use for.

Radiogram is waiting patiently for me to actually dig my way through to it.

It's been very deliberately boxed in like this to try to prevent it suffering the otherwise inevitable bangs and scrapes which result from long term storage.

Also among all manner of complete trash, came across a box full of soldiers which I think belonged to my my grandfather (possibly great grandfather), which I reckon I should probably wave under the nose of someone who knows about such things in case they're actually worth something. If not, they can stay in their box and get moved to the loft...if they are, they'll be getting moved on as I've no real interest in them nor attachment to them.

...and a Citroen GSA Owner's handbook! Goodness only knows where that came from.

[CitroJim]

Zel, as I say, anything vintage electronic I'm interested in

You certainly need to let someone with a skilled eye look at those soldiers... They could be very desirable to someone and valuable... I guess they're made of lead?

[Zelandeth]

Certainly feel like lead. Seem to recall tin was another popular metal for casting them, but they ain't tin - way too heavy. I took one out the box, unwrapped it, then put it back under the basis of "I know nothing about this" and filed for further investigation.

Had a bit of a chat with everyone about my fleet shuffling plans, and it sounds like I've managed to sell the plan reasonably well somewhat to my surprise.

[Stickyfinger]

A note: White Metal, a mix of Tin/Lead was used as lead is too soft. (Often called lead however)

[CitroJim]

Had a bit of a chat with everyone about my fleet shuffling plans, and it sounds like I've managed to sell the plan reasonably well somewhat to my surprise.

Excellent!

[Zelandeth]

A note: White Metal, a mix of Tin/Lead was used as lead is too soft. (Often called lead however)

You learn something every day! I didn't know that.