Zelandeth wrote:
Do give us a shout if you need some extra hands for anything, you know I'm just down the road.
Thanks Zel, that's very appreciated During both clutch and heater matrix there are parts of the work that cannot be done solo...
Not sure when I'll crack into it but I'm likely to take a few days off work to do it as weekends are now pretty heavily crammed with various sporting engagements...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
No worries, so long as I know the day before I should be able to work stuff out, but if you get really stuck with something at short notice please do just shout.
Current fleet:
07 Volvo V70 SE D5, 06 Peugeot Partner Escapade 1.6HDi, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
Had very little chance to do anything today as we were faffing around helping sort a friend's garden out most of the day. I seemed to spend the whole day running around in circles actually achieving nothing. Real annoyance of the day though was walking by the e waste bin at the tip two nanoseconds after the staff member there plucked a Macintosh Pro (the recent odd cylindrical one) and chucked it into the skip behind him...I was having that...narks me it really does when they're plainly ignoring the general junk in there, but being really sure that anything potentially salvageable or useful gets trashed. That could have done nicely to replace my ancient and ailing desktop (with a sensible non-Apple OS installed obviously). Really need to find a decent tip round here that doesn't mind if you have a quick gander. One I usually used in Aberdeen the general arrangement I'd found was that so long as you were honestly dropping something off, they wouldn't mind if you snagged something of value provided you weren't silly. Though my "Eureka!" moment at finding a 60s era fluorescent tube in the lighting bin confused them a bit I think...Hey, I collect old lighting tech, and that was rare enough that even though that was the best part of ten years ago I've still not come across another one.
Been doing some more work on the C5, and coming to the general conclusion that getting the disc properly centred horizontally is *really* hard. I pulled it off on my first test by pure fluke (but it was never going to stay there, the bolts weren't nearly up to the task), but getting it back there with better fasteners is proving a thankless task.
Have had a chat with the cycle shop we generally use, and they reckon the best answer may well be to get a wheel actually made up (as 12" wheels with a disc brake hub seem to be rare), as then I could just bolt everything together. Probably the best part of £100 though...
I'll persevere with it a bit further, but I do kind of question the long term reliability potential of my solution.
What I really need are two metal rings, one to sit either side of the existing spokes. They would bolt to each other, keeping everything locked together and central, then the disc would bolt to one of the rings.
Kinda wish I had a bunch of scrap steel and a lathe handy as I might have a chance then...
The actual left/right position isn't drastically critical as I can alter the caliper position a little with washers between it and the bracket, but obviously the disc needs to be near enough perfectly straight. Can deal with a bit of error in terms of concentricity so long as it doesn't foul the caliper body, but so far that's actually not proven an issue... It's lateral wobble that's the challenge.
Current fleet:
07 Volvo V70 SE D5, 06 Peugeot Partner Escapade 1.6HDi, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
Zel, you are now finding what I hate about disc brakes on bikes
On my disc-braked endurance bike I had the devil's own job to keep the disc centred and the pads well away from the disc to avoid dragging but also gave decent lever travel...
I really don't understand the current fetish for them. Give me the old traditional rim brakes always.. With good pads they are brilliant - even on carbon rims...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
CitroJim wrote:Zel, you are now finding what I hate about disc brakes on bikes
On my disc-braked endurance bike I had the devil's own job to keep the disc centred and the pads well away from the disc to avoid dragging but also gave decent lever travel...
I really don't understand the current fetish for them. Give me the old traditional rim brakes always.. With good pads they are brilliant - even on carbon rims...
#
I'm not sure of the reasons for them on a road bike either. Off-road, the advantages are clear - the discs don't get anywhere near as covered in crud as a rim does, so they always, work, or near enough..
mickeymoon wrote:
I'm not sure of the reasons for them on a road bike either. Off-road, the advantages are clear - the discs don't get anywhere near as covered in crud as a rim does, so they always, work, or near enough..
Off-road I'm the first to agree For roadies I think it's just a current fashion and a fad... It'll hopefully pass..
The professional peloton are still very much divided on them - especially from a safety point of view... One rider is already alleging he's been injured by coming into contact with a hot rotor and has published a picture of his neatly sliced shoe as proof...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
James ex BX 1.9
ex Xantia 2.0HDi SX
ex Xantia 2.0HDi LX
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
So that's another three body shops turned me down for getting the wings fitted and painted on the Lada without even setting eyes on the car or giving me a quote.
Yes, it's a fiddly time consuming job (the wings are welded on)...Therefore I expect to be paying you to do a good few hours of work at your stated rates. As I've already told the couple who have given me the immediate "That won't be cheap..." response, I really don't care! I'm not honestly fussed what it costs (within reason!), and am happy to pay a proper rate to have the job done right and any (hopefully minor) repairs to the inner wings/headlight frame carried out while the wings are off. Having had a poke around with a mirror and a big screwdriver though I've yet to find anything in there that will need welding repairs. Usually they rot out in several specific spots which are all fine on mine - save for the top front outer corner of the wing itself! As I've told them, I fully hope to keep this car for the foreseeable future and haven't the slightest interest in whether their price for the work will be more than they think it's worth. What business of theirs is that anyhow? This is a private job, not an insurance valuation!
Anyone know a decent body shop in the general area of MK?
I already have the new wings (in black primer), just need the old ones off, any necessary repairs made and the new wings welded in place and painted to match the car (solid colour). There are a couple of bits of paintwork I'd like to discuss in person if we ever get that far too...But those are less important and are purely cosmetic details.
Happy to travel a bit for the right service, but obviously want to support local business where I can. Speaking of, I may well drop by my usual garage to see if they have any recommendations.
This refusal to even entertain doing a job or so much as give a quote is something new to me. I very seldom encountered that problem up north aside from the occasional "Sorry, I'm booked up for the next six months solid" which is fair enough. Since moving down here though I've struggled to even get a quote from...
Roofers. Three years on, and still no further on.
Electricians. I gave up after six months and did the work myself.
Gas engineers. Three years on, I'm still trying to get the first annual service done from when we moved in.
Mechanics. Eventually found a decent garage thanks to Jim's recommendation, but I was really struggling for a year before that.
It just really baffles me...Never before have I found it so hard to give people my money! It's really starting to hack me right off, and if anything is going to make me wish I hadn't moved down here, that's it.
...That, and being able to sit in the garden at night looking at the stars with next to zero light pollution and when a full hour could go by between hearing traffic. That I do miss. The scenery too, but that goes without saying. The Grampian region is the New Zealand of the UK I think in terms of scenery, there's a bit of everything.
Current fleet:
07 Volvo V70 SE D5, 06 Peugeot Partner Escapade 1.6HDi, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
This is a Southern thing Zel - I've had it loads. I've had oven repairmen leave my oven in bits and disappear, car repairs not quoted for, it's seemingly impossible to get a painter anywhere in possession of a ladder to paint my upstairs windows and it took me 8 months to get the fence sorted.
Like you, I never had any of these problems up North! I do what work I can but I don't do ladders or fences!
I fixed the oven myself. Likewise the washing machine when that died.
As for supporting local - I say f@*! them if they can't be bothered to quote.
During both clutch and heater matrix there are parts of the work that cannot be done solo... 
