[ozsubrosa]

Looking at this version, I see what you mean by the nut and wiriing:

Bee Sting Aerial Antenna Base Gasket Seal Grommet Vauxhall Astra Corsa Vectra | eBay

ASTRA VECTRA CORSA ZAFIRA. Class service. We will endeavour to replace any incorrect or faulty tem as fast as possible.

www.ebay.co.uk

what a PITA that looks like. I might have to let the damn thing drip until better weather. Counter-intuitive, I know, but I don't see anyone in my household holding anything for me while I fiddle about in this weather. Thanks for the headsup.

 

[Peps]

That one is the wrong one anyway. It had to slide over the aerial itself so the hole has to be big enough to get around the aerial base. Also those ones with the square holes are plastic, so don't stretch.

The process was the plastic interior light lens came out, shoved a spanner through the hole to undo the nut holding the aerial base, cut the old rubber grommet, slid the new one over, then I needed Katherine to hold it in place whilst I screwed it back on. Could take a minute or could take five minutes because it's quite fiddly. I've got pretty skinny fingers and it was still a struggle to get the nut started on the thread again.

 

[ozsubrosa]

I went looking for a listing that showed the nut you were on about, but thanks for pointing out that those seals would be the wrong item (I have a horrible record for buying stuff that's feasibly correct but wrong and not worth returning).

I had a look inside the Tour in this thankfully sunny weather. The front leather seats had a fair old mould - despite using the Heko to allow a window slightly down - but no worse than the Focus which had also been standing and the cloth rear bench was unaffected. 20 minutes to decontaminate. The aerial drip was not as puddlicious as it was in December, but I'll get a new seal ordered.

 

[Peps]

The Clio; February 2020 - April 2020

Mechanical

So, once I had bought the Clio, the first thing was to get it checked over, and remedy any issues. So, we knew about the squeaky belt, which turned out to be brand new, but covered in grease, causing the noise, but not accessible enough to clean, so we left it. The wheel bearing was indeed worn, so we got it replaced, along with a broken coil spring and an idle speed sensor which was causing the car to stall when cold. Next came an ABS fault which was a rear ABS sensor, and then the auto selector stopped working, turning out to be the linkage came apart. With all that done we've spent about £200 and got the car to a pretty good standard. I then finally got around to giving the engine bay a good clean...

We also found the number plate light was yellow and bodged, so we found an eBay replacement for that too.

Interior

Despite having spent a decent amount of time on the interior already, I found more to do. Under the passenger seat is a piece of plastic trim, apparently to put bottles in... I guess the French like their wine so much they need a place to safely store it in their car. Held in by one bolt, I removed it and cleaned underneath.

The plastic trim surrounding the handbrake could also be removed easily, revealing a few years of Staffordshire bull terrier fur.

After cleaning those, the interior got another once over to remove any last stray hairs from the previous owners.

Next, I cleaned the door shuts...

With the interior clean, we wanted to do something to brighten up the overall grey, dull look, so we found some cheap tatty pinstriping trim on Wish and fitted it around the interior light and the door pullers.

It's not much but it livens it up a little at least. Last for the interior, it's not the quietest car once at speed, and the spare wheel would rattle around over bumps. So, I stuffed a pile of that foam-wrapping stuff you only ever get in Amazon parcels underneath the spare and around the jacking kit, I put a thick carpet cut to size over the top, under the boot floor, and for the dog, we put a blue tarp down to keep it tidy, and some fancy dog bed down to keep our little waste of space comfortable.

Next will be finally giving the exterior a good once-over. Also in the pipeline is a roof spoiler for the Combo...

 

[ozsubrosa]

I'm amazed that my Modus has its original, unbroken coils. Looking at previous MOT fails of listed cars, they seem to be very common on the Clio and Modus. I like the little detail on the interior; the Combo Tour was such a sea of mid-grey that I needed a few highlights (many thanks to you for the silvery stuff).

Combo roof spoiler? Perks up. Tell me more. I'd be tempted myself.

 

[Peps]

I'm amazed that my Modus has its original, unbroken coils. Looking at previous MOT fails of listed cars, they seem to be very common on the Clio and Modus. I like the little detail on the interior; the Combo Tour was such a sea of mid-grey that I needed a few highlights (many thanks to you for the silvery stuff).

Combo roof spoiler? Perks up. Tell me more. I'd be tempted myself.

Quite literally a universal ebay/wish/amazon lip spoiler cut in half and stuck on. You can get carbon fibre effect variants which I avoided for plain black.

 

[Peps]

The Clio; April 2020

Exterior

With the interior at its cleanest in years, the exterior was next. While not filthy, the silver paint was hiding a fair bit of dirt built up over several months.

First, Katherine and I cleaned the wheels, soaking the tyres with TFR, pressure-washing, then scrubbing the tyres with APC and a brush, before tackling the alloys with a few different brushes and two wheel cleaners. The tyres were later coated with Meguiar's Tyre Gel

Next, we used some more APC and a small brush to dislodge the greenery stuck in the seams.

With that loosened, I soaked the bottom-half in TFR, pressure-washed, coated the car with TFR and began the contact wash. It was then rinsed, treated with tar remover, re-rinsed, clay decontaminated and rinsed again, before being dried and polished by hand.

The end result was not bad at all for a 19-year-old runaround.

I've also made two small changes to the exterior; the first (before the wash) was a cheap chrome exhaust tip which is probably completely tasteless but I thought it added a little something to the look.

The other change was the front bumper lip - the original was warped and not secured all the way around, so I ripped it off and fitted a cheap Wish stick-on lip.

Before...

After...

Personally I think it really improved the look.

Speaking of tatty stick-on plastic, the Combo has a new spoiler!

 

[ozsubrosa]

Very good job on the Clio. Even though battleship grey is a terrible colour to look spruced in photos, that's clearly got a sparkle. My Tour looks horrible inside and out after standing untouched outside since January but the ceramic will hopefully make the outside an easier clean. Service and MOT next week. I've been going lockdown crazy. I saw a very Riiicer! bonnet (all grooves and vents) which has fortunately sold (£35) before I got 'project' ideas but there's still a (quite tasteful, for once) raceboy front bumper/spoiler aftermarket that I really ought to not watch in case I get silly.

 

[Peps]

You might be surprised by how good the eBay stick on splitters look, may be worth a punt on one of those.

 

[ozsubrosa]

The Riiicer front bumper got pulled, either for an off-ebay sale or because the seller worried it would go cheap. Just as well, for me, really - might have been tempted.

OTOH, I have looked quite a bit at those ebay sticky splitters (best screwed in, I've heard) and I agree - for a few quid they might look quite good. Also, some parking place kerbs in Spain (the communal one next to my place being one) are pretty high and the graunching sound of my bumper plastic scraping is never pleasant.

 

[Peps]

You'd find that replacing the original with a Leon Cupra R splitter actually increases the height at the front, might be worth finding one of those cheap.

 

[ozsubrosa]

It looks good, too, going by your Combo. But I was thinking that some of those 'carbon look' rubbery things jut out a bit and are quite flexible, giving me some warning before scraping and cracking the pricey part. Plus, they do look reasonable and are around £7. I'll see how my lockdown time influences my hobby work. When I next take it to Spain I am going to make that its new home (still using it for trips back to UK) so I'm likely to spend this Spring making it as near-sorted as I can, given how expensive things are in Spain and how my facilities are more limited.

 

[Peps]

Good point, oz. It's worth noting that those eBay splitters literally take 10 minutes to stick on, less if you have someone to hold it in place.

In other news, I've bought yet another car this week, and here it is.

Say hello to my 1997 Nissan Micra. Oh, it gets better. She's got a 1 litre, CVT automatic!

So, why have I bought a milk carton? Well, I didn't. The previous owners didn't want to see this old girl scrapped, and what with scrap value locally being around £40 a tonne (and the Micra isn't even a tonne at 820kg), it wasn't even worth scrapping. Their neighbour happens to know me and suggested I take it on, and I figured why not?

So, she's got 76,000 miles, two bald tyres, sills already patched and she needs a service, for which the previous owners already had the parts lying around. So at the reasonable price of zero pounds I could hardly say no.

I got insurance for a day, taxed her for a month and drove her away, and honestly I was quite impressed. Very comfy, buttery smooth, the CVT doesn't drone like their reputation suggests, and goes much faster than a 52BHP automatic has any right to.

Must admit it looks like ******** though.

Those are the only photos I've taken so far, but I have a few plans for this little car, besides an MOT, service, two tyres and a clean. Being free, this car (assuming Shaun doesn't find anything major to fix) gives me scope to actually put some money into non-essential things to liven the old girl up.

So... more coming soon!

 

[ozsubrosa]

I remember them well - a hire car staple in Malaga in the 90s that I successfully avoided. Like the (much, much more horrible) previous Micra it was a bit of a pensioner magnet, which makes it quite a good project for you. That reads like an unintended insult - hear me out. What I mean is that, in a rural area like yours, an automatic with none of that new-fangled electrickery plug-a-blasted-computer-in-before-you-can-find-out-what's-wrong has an appeal if it's clean and working. 3drs makes it easier for Ethel and Roy to get in and out of. Should get a few hundred for it. I know the Modus (another easy in/out car) automatic sells for more money than it should - especially given its catastrophic mpg and both the Quickshi[f]t SA and Pug-sourced DP0 fully auto are renowned basket cases. The CVT was a good idea in theory so, if it's working in practice, there's a buyer for that car down the road.

EDIT: You can even keep the straw in the boot for their 18y.o. dog

 

[ozsubrosa]

Peps, just going back to your Combo's pedal tart up. I got a set of the alloy covers myself a few months back but only now got around to fiddle in the footwell. With my pedals, the brake looks/feels like a rubber that can be yoinked off, but the clutch and the accelerator really do feel like one-piece plastic items. Really had a tug and furkle, but I couldn't feel that clip around on the throttle, and the clutch (nearest to the door in my LHD) looks and feels like solid plastic.

Am I missing something, and that's how they feel but they do come off? Or does it sound like (as usual) I'll have a bigger job on my hands than I thought? Perhaps mine is an older or cheaper spec.

 

[Peps]

The clutch and brake pedal rubber should be identical. For the throttle, I found it easier to remove the whole pedal assembly, 3 bolts, 1 plug and a cable tie holding it in place. With the pedal out it's much easier.

 

[ozsubrosa]

Thanks Peps. It really seems like I might need a clutch and accelerator pedal replacement; not just a cap swap. Probably more effort than I need.

 

[Peps]

Try shining a torch and taking a photo of underneath using the selfie camera.

 

[ozsubrosa]

I'll try that (once I've got a busy Weds-Thurs out of the way). Annoyingly, I've got one of those scope lenses that plug into a phone's USB. Not used it in yonks and I've left it in Spain. Dang; would've made it a doddle.

 

[Peps]

Selling the Micra

So, there was a good bit of excitement surrounding the Micra, and unfortunately it was premature. Shaun checked underneath and found that the floor had more holes in it than my knowledge of cookery. He estimated that it would take up to four days of welding to get the car structurally sound, and yet none of this was ever advised on any previous MOT tests... one would think rust this bad might have flagged up? Either way, seems that the Clio was the safer car after all!

Anyway, the Micra was no good, and it was uneconomical to repair, and with the previous owner's wish that it not be scrapped, the only option was to be honest, and advertise it on facebook as a rustbucket with 3 months MOT for someone who knows how to weld. After a few hours and about a dozen people interested, I got £175, which was a decent £130 profit.

I did want to at least do something with the Micra, so I vacuum cleaned the mess inside.

The result was nothing special, after all I just pushed the hoover around for an hour, but it was still satisfying to get rid of all that straw. I had also found one of the front tyres was flat, due to a tyre valve being so badly perished that it was leaking air. So, I swapped the spare wheel on before the new owner took it away to make sure it would get them home.

It's a shame the car was so bad underneath - I was really looking forward to doing more to transform the old girl. Still, I made some money on it so that's a win. In other news here's a ridiculous photo of our pathetic little dog sitting in the back of the Clio.