Bank holiday pottering
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2018 4:58 pm
As today is Bank Holiday Friday, I thought I'd have a bit of a potter about in the garage. I got quite a few little niggly bits done.
Now I'm sitting in front of the fire with a beer, waiting for the washing machine to finish. Remarkable how long these little jobs take!
- Fitted a new choke knob. The old one wasn't locking into place, but the PO had retained the broken original, so I ground out the remains of the cable from it using a Dremel, then soldered a bicycle brake cable into it. Pulled the old cable and popped in the new and it is done. I think the knob is correct as it has the same shape as the headlight and fag lighter, and it locks properly. No more rusty screws needed to hold the choke on.
- Had a look under the driver's floor mat. Absolutely soaked. I ripped out all the soundproofing and threw it away, then put a fan heater in the car to try and dry the carpets out. Meanwhile, I put a load more flowable silicone around the pedal box under the bonnet. If I'm really lucky the major leak is (temporarily) fixed. If not, it's "pedal box out" time. What fun, eh?
- Adjusted the handbrake calipers. Now, when I pull the "umbrella", it stops half way and the car cannot be moved. Looks like the handbrake works now!
- Did a bit more "Oatmeal vinyl washing". This time, using a paintbrush and Muck-Off, a proprietary cleaning solution for muddy mountain bikes. It's nasty stuff, so you need to rinse it off and dry the vinyl. I thought the results were ok. Even the grime trapped in the Oatmeal grain came out, after a few repeated applications.
- Washed the carpet inserts in the door panels. I think these are never going to look clean. I wonder what they looked like new? I've cleaned the mats but they didn't come up too well, so I chucked them in the washing machine to see how well that works, along with garage towels, polishing rags and a few pieces of carpet (by way of experiment - I can see a new set of carpets in the not too distant future).
- Lubricated the passenger door latch, rods and levers. I'm not sure this is going to cure the very annoying squeaks coming from the door when I'm driving, but that was the intent. As it has pissed down all day, I've not been out to test it.
- Lubricated the horn pencil, which has started squeaking again. God, I hate squeaks in a car. Drives me mad.
- Checked the engine breather pipe. I took the air box back plate off, pulled the rubber pipe and fitted a bit of petrol pipe, then sprayed a load of highly volatile brake cleaner down the pipe and blew it for a while. Seems to be clear now, but it's been bodged with a length of rubber petrol pipe and this is restricting the flow of crank case air a little. The old breather fitting (plastic) looks like it snapped off. Will need a new one I think.
- Had a go at polishing the bumpers, for a laugh, with Autosol. They came up OK, where there is chrome, but the rest of it is dull. I have a spare front bumper but it is quite badly pitted and I think it's been pulled off an Anglia as it has evidence of the bumper overriders showing in the chrome. I might be able to get away with the rear bumper for now, but it's marginal. The front has had it.
Now I'm sitting in front of the fire with a beer, waiting for the washing machine to finish. Remarkable how long these little jobs take!