The thing with it is that a lot of things are going to be things that I can only really test once the car is mobile.
Brakes I know "provide stopping power" but how effectively is hard to judge going back and forth on a driveway. Not really much to go wrong with them though, they're 9" Girling drums...The drums themselves are fine, the shoes are old but fine, and wheel cylinders are available for pocket change if any turn out not to be earning their keep. No servos, no ABS, no load balancer valves or anything...just a master cylinder and three wheel cylinders. Main task left for the brakes is just tidying stuff up. In an effort to satisfy the "being able to move it around without it rolling off down the hill" requirement I just ran a quick and dirty line from the front of the car to the back, but it needs to be properly routed...shouldn't be a hard job though.
The drive system being a belt driven CVT isn't something you can really judge the condition of in a static way...Though I have had it up to normal road speeds with the car on axle stands and it *seems* to behave - whether it will actually do so under load will be another question.
I get the feeling that the carb and engine in general will probably be a good deal happier once I've been able to give it a decent run at speed and get all the fluids and such properly hot, get some of the condensation out of the crankcase and such like. There's quite a bit of "mayo" in the oil filler neck, despite having done several oil changes already.
I'm very curious to see how much clag appears out the back of it the first time I give it full throttle under load...I know that the power unit in here has spent time being used as a caravan park tug...so has probably done many hours idling and on stop/start duties, so goodness only knows how coked up it really is. She smokes a bit, but compression is right on the numbers, so guessing sticky oil control rings are to blame for that. We'll see if a proper old fashioned high speed thrash will help there.
Engine parts are readily available though and not even that expensive, so I'm not too worried there. I've heard three running in person so far and this one actually sounds the smoothest, most eager and generally "healthy" of the three. So long as all other boxes remain ticked and the oil consumption isn't excessive I'm not going to worry if she smokes a little.
I reckon the first cheeky run round the block here depends on the following happening.
[] Fit fuel tank when it arrives.
[] Properly route fuel & brake lines.
[] Fit some slightly less terrifyingly old tyres.
[] Reattach front service cover (no, I'm not beyond using cable ties for this purpose).
[] Rebuild the offside front corner as I just did the nearside.
[] Do something with the rear apron? Aside from it currently meaning there's nowhere easy to put the number plate light, that's probably not a massively high priority. The only thing it covers really is the exhaust, and even as it is it's tucked away more than on virtually any rear engined car that's had a few mods done...
Of course with the above to do list, the only sensible thing for me to do was to continue pulling more bits off wasn't it?
Simply put, the interior trim panel above the windscreen was really bugging me.
One of the screws did eventually relent and come undone with me hanging on the end of a really decent screwdriver. The other however just stripped the head. Fine...Out with the drill. As with most of the screws I've had to drill out on this car, it appeared to be made of titanium, but did eventually relent...and the panel came away. Showering me with the remains of a (thankfully vacant) mouse nest.
I feel slightly more vindicated for being determined to get it off now. Does explain why bits of finely atomised foam kept falling out from back there too. Five minutes with the vacuum cleaner dealt with that mess.
Unfortunately I can't get the windscreen demister vent assembly or the heater control box off as the bolts in question are 1/8" Whitworth...and I have a grand total of *one* spanner in that size - and I need two to get anything apart as the nuts used here are - as it seems with any on this car - aren't captive, so just start spinning as soon as you try to unbolt anything.
I want to get the heater control box off to clean and paint it, because it's horrible. I want to get the vent assembly out to confirm that it's not full of rodent nests and to properly seal it to ensure that as much air as possible actually finds its way onto the windscreen where it's needed.
My plan for the panel itself is - once I've figured out how to remove the remains of the adhesive...
...Will be to give it a nice coat of black hammered finish paint. I reckon that should look like it had left the factory that way. Will be interesting to see if I can find anything that will dissolve that adhesive, failing that I reckon five minutes with the carbide polishing mop on the grinder will sort it.
Annoyingly the bolts I'd planned to sort the gutter with are no good. The heads are too big to fit in the channel.
Fine, I'll run by Screwfix tomorrow and pick up something more sensibly sized.
Glad to report that a little package of goodies arrived this morning.
This contains a fuel gauge sender unit, a new air filter (finally!) and one of the later style Curtis/Veglia fuel gauges. So irrespective of which variant of gauge sender I've got I should be able to make it work.
Plenty to be keeping me busy!
It's a bit OTT surely?
When is it going to be on the road?
