Grrrrr.....

Been a very busy three weeks.

Wifes MK1 went for it's MOT, they rang up to say that the front shox were shot and 3 brake lines. Being a tad busy I told them to get on with it. Then they rang the wife and said that one of the springs was snapped, she thought I had a spare pair from the other golf ( I seemed to remember chucking them away!) anyway I rushed home could not find them, so told the garage I would drop of the struts and springs from the other golf in the morning... That was duly done and that car was sorted.......

On the morning of dropping off the shox, we went out to the Scorpio, got loaded up and then found that the drivers window was in a server state of disrepair. As was the lower dash and steering collumn cowling. I was not a Happy chappy.. It was bank holiday weekend and it took from that friday morning until the following wednesday for the glass company to sort it ( so much for emergency glass cover!! )

I was now a little worried about the vunerability of my car, and decided that the drive space where the Golf project was needed to be reclaimed. So, the Sierra was driven onto the drive , and the Golf pushed into the garage where it was cut into manageable chunks and parts stripped.. A sad end.

The garage was then tidied up and the sierra driven back in!!!

Yes she drives, stops and turns. The exhaust is useless but I am getting there!

May is here!

Wow, it's May.

I think I have done the sum total of nothing on the Scorpio. Since the last entry. The horn seems to have packed up though, and the exhuast scrape is getting very annoying! I am getting a second hand Stainless exhaust soon, and I am also going to get another set of wheels and GOOD tyres as mine are wrong and running out of life!

The wifes MK1 golf is due for MOT on Thursday, so I have given it a brife once over. A new headlamp bulb and exhaust mounting rubber should be all it needs.

My MK1 now has the engine temprarily in place ( that was a task!!! ) and I have got the back brakes and a nice mongose exhaust to go on it. I have ( I think ) almaost everything to finsihe her off now.

Lots of work has been done of work has been done on the Sapphire. The engine is now in permenantly and the engine test run. Welding is complete, wiring is almost complete and I have started the preping of the boddy work. Hopefully next week she will be out of the garage under her own steam!

Rob

Keswick Scorpios & SaphWerx

Well today we had another successful scoprio meet at Keswick, nice food in the Oddfellows arms followed by a trip to the Cars of the Stars.. And the more chatting...

Last week was spent on the Sapphy, cleanign up welds, spraying stoinechip, underseal, primer etc.. And modding the fuel and exhaust systems.. Engine has been trial fitted. And I have most parts ready for putting back together now..

And just recently picked up a full leather recaros to repalce the cloth ones :D

So all gooo!!!

Oh and the Golf now has the Vauxhall 16V brakes, VW 100mm Shafts and 16V servo fitted up. It's starting to come back together!!

COOL!!

More work done.

Things are progressing on all fronts!

The sierra Sapphire has had an engine bay makeover, and the transmission tunnel is now complete. In fact all but a couple of tiny bit's of the welding are sorted. I did find out when i ran out of wire that the welder had been supplied set up for .8mm Wire, but the real was .6mm! explains some of the poor welding in the past... Anyway, it's starting to come together. More details can be found at the sierra owners club fourms.

http://forum.fordsierraclub.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=21185

The scorpio is still going ok, it was still poping indicator fuses again. So I have fitted a circuit breaker in place of a temoprary fuse which enables me to reset it rather than wade through endless 10A fuses.

The wife's ( Susan) MK1 Golf has not had a lot done to it. I did fit the passenger door and bonet of the other MK1 a few weeks ago and have tapped back the dent from the tipper truck and covered bare metal with primer. I am now searching for the leak that makes the car suitable for Olympic 1cm diving contests.

My MK1 has had little done, I am amassing the conversion parts which are prety much all sourced now to slot in the HUGE 1.8L Engine. I have also covered up the rusty spots left by Mark after he cleand off various paint.

All in all I am actualy having a fairly productive month so far.

Rob

January Update.

Ok, so it's the new year. What's happend in the last few weeks.

Well I have FINALY finished the transmission tunnel on the Sierra, it only leaves a few minor easy bits to weld up. So the fitting up is begining, I spent some time on the weekend putting the spigot bearing, clutch, flywheel etc on the 24V v6. And have adapted the sump to take oil returns ( it still needs fitting to the engien. ) So things are progressing in that department.

The MK1 Project golf is in "PARTS ACCUMULATION" mode. I have sourced Vauxhall calipers, 16V master cylinder and servo and fuel pump to aid with the upgrades. I was thinking about a colour change but decided best to keep it the same for now for ease and time. I have also got some front wings for it. I am bolting things back up that Mark removed.. The doors are needed as the car cover keeps blowing off!!!!

The scorpio is ok, managed a 800 mile trip to the folks in devon with out issue, even got nearly 30mpg! The indicators have started blowing again though :(

And the wifes MK1 golf is turning into an indoor swimming pool again, possibly due to the replacement door from the other MK1... I have yet to investigate.

1982 VW MK1 Golf...

My m8 Mark bought this about 11 Months ago in a complete but requirng a bit of work state. Within a month it was in a stripped and requiring a fair bit more work state..

http://1982mk1golf.blogspot.com/


Now he's moving house, has got nowhere and has given me the project to complete....

Should be done i a few weeks :D :D :D ...

3 Monts on, and Work on the Sapphire...

Wow! it's been over three months since I last bought a car... I am quite happy with the Scorpio at the moment. I fixed a realy bad idle problem and the car is a lot nicer to drive. I have replaced the dreadful speakers and fixed the Indicators twice now... My list of faults on the car is growing shorter which is nice. It's got over 3K under its' belt ( with me ).

I have now had time to work on my Sapphire project again, modifying the transmission tunnel in order to take the 4x4 Gearbox. It's not prety but it will do the job...

Other than that is been a quiet couple of weeks, I did spin over the 1.8GTI engine that's eventualy destined for my wifes MK1 golf... And have played arround with bits for the 24V engine that's going in the sapphire.

I am hoping to have all the welding on the Sapphire finished by the new year.


I am thinking of taking on my mates stalled MK1 golf project though......... With a 1300GT engine running Bike carbs ;)

Scorpio Meeting.....

Sunday 30th October 2006..... Scorpio forum Borders Meetup.

I had initiated this meet up of fellow owners, but somehow had to travel the furthest to get there!! Anyway it was at the scotish meuseum of flight at East Fortune Air Base, Near Edinburgh.

5 cars made the trip. (3 x 24V) (1 x 12v ) ( 1 2.3 DOHC )

We had a good chat, and a look round the air meauseum and generaly had a good day.

We did a bit of fiddeling with cars, My indicators packed up so we spent some time sorting them. And Tintin's 24V had been put back together very wrongly in terms of it's vacume hoses.. So we started to sort that out..

My car is 4th from left in the photo, and you can see how low it sits on the wrong tyres...

A Grand day out... next time.. KESWICK...

Rob

Fix one, create a load more.... PROBLEMS....

ARG...

I decided to find out why my rear speakers would not work, and to replace a blow front speaker..

After taking half the dash appart I found the speaker outputs from the amp and they were fine, so I checked at the rear speakers themsefls and found that the speakers were DUD....

Anyway, I replaced 2 faulty dash bulbs so that was that fixed...

Next I looked at the speaker, I had to Muller it to get it out, and none of my spare speakers was a direct fit... So that is wedged in at the moment.

I then discovered my CD and Stalk was nwo dead.... BUMMA... Dash will have to come appart again...

And then next day my indicators have packed up!! Marvelous as I was on a Scorpio meet 120 miles from home...

Dam thing...

Fixing problems...

The scorpio continues to keep me busy in my spare time...

I replaced the tailgate release motor last weekdn and happily that has cured that problem and I can open the car from the remote :D, I also strapped up a loose exhaust shield that was dragging.. And replaced a dodgy lambda sensor. ( that code has now cleared... )

This weekend I sold the horrid 15" wheels to another guy from the scorpio forum.. He got about £200 of tyres with them!!

www.fordscorpio.co.uk

so spent half the day dropping them off,

I then fitted a replacement wiper stalk so I now have
wash on front and back!

I also continue to investigate the cause of my rough idle, I did find a melted vacume hose which I have replaced. But there is still a problem and I still suspec a vacume leack on the EGR and EVAP systems...

Otherwise I am still relaly enjoying the car. with over 2K covered in 7 weeks.

Getting down to the volov dregs now.. I have sold over £2K worth of parts and recon I can squeeeeze anotehr £500 if I am lucky. Lots of auctions runnign now...

Rob

A busy week!

It's been a busy week.

I sold one of my 24V Granada engines on saturday in exchange for some new alloys for the Scorpio, it looks much better but the tyres make it sit 2cm lower and the exhuast is scraping...

I also finished taking the volvo to bits and today ( Wednesday ) it's off to the scrapper..

Lot's of parts now on auction and stuff is selling well.. On course for a reasonable return on investment.. Leather interior was collected :) and hopefully someone is up for the gearbox on sunday...

Went to Gateshead in the Scorpio and it was very well behaved. Going back across on saturday to pick up a spare 24V Scorpio engine!!

So the drive is now free :)

Rob

LPG Cheep Motoring.

Being the kind of person that likes to have power on tap, I try and go for the most powerful car in the range.

The volvo T5, Scorpio 24V, etc..

Needles to say power requires fule...

And the 24V uses this in abundance.

Hence I am looking at LPG conversions, modern systems use closed loop multipoint injection and work very well. A modes drop in MPG is usualy expected but with fule being half the price I would be looking at an effective 40MPG urban as a cost comparison.... COOL!

It would take me about 2 years to break even, but one would be more inclined to use the car knowing the costs were lower and every mile is a mile twords saving money.

Expected conversion cost is likly to be £1200.

I just need to get the car running corectly on petrol before even thinking seriously about letting the garage mess with it.

This is my local supplier.

http://www.autogascumbria.co.uk/

OBD-2

I have been playing with OBD2 ( on board Diagnostics 2 ) which is a standard that has been adopted by the majority of motor manafactureres for diagnosing faults in automotive engine/abs and asociated management systems.

I Purchased a lead and software from http://www.obd-2.com/ ( I got the three way lead )

First code read showed 4 DTC ( diagnostic Trouble codes ) which I cleared without paying much attention to them.

Next day I read the codes again and found the code for Bank1 Lambda 2 had a heater problem... Well I have yet to investigate this, or pull any further codes.. But at the very least I have saved £25-£50 already!!

COOL!!

Update as of today. 27/9/6

Ok so I am actualy giving updates!!!

Smoky 4x4: This has now gone to Nathan from the FSOC, he was going to just buy the old engine from the 2.0i Ghia but struggled to get up due to weather.. And that prompeted his short quest for running gear to convert his car to 4x4.... Hence 2 weeks later he cam up and drove her away to meet her maker.... Various parts will be returning to help finish the Sapphire project.

Volvo: Over £1100 worht of parts have now gone which is great. Maximum return would now be in he region of £2400 which would be wonderful but every penny is gr8 at the moment. Final stripping takes place this weekend with a view to the scrap man taking away the shell on monday....

Scorpio: Comming up to one month of ownership and I am fairly happy with the car, 1500K under the belt. One major annoyance is that it has a very poor idle. I have done a couple of things to sort this ( cleaned MAF, ISCV ) but it's still poor. Diagnostic codes don't show much so a bit more investigation will be needed.

Scorchhhpiooooooooo

I have done it,

Gone and bought the car I should have done when i bought the Volvo...

Ok, the volvo is in bits and selling nicely... Projections are in the region of £1500-£1700 return. Which is a Bangernomical loss of about £300 so not too bad.

Anyway, I started tentativly looking for a Scorpio 24V estate.

Imediatly I found an R-Reg one 40 miles away in auto trader, 1 owner, 90k, GR8!!!

SOLD :(

So onto ebay.. Nowt.

So I was already to save up for a few months to get a Good 24V l8 model.

Then it croppe dup on ebay. 1995 24V estate, and it was within walking distance ( literally!.. )

All the toys... More details to come!

Volvo update..

I fitted a turbo exhaust housing blanked off to test the engien without the turbo core, after 15minutes the car was smoking again... So with the turbo rulled out the only option was either worn rings or stems...

So now I have to HAUL the engine out and put the hopefully good one in...

Times runnign out though, the wife wants it for a trip at the end of september.

Rob

Update... Aug 10th...

Well I haev had the XR4x4 for nearly 3 months... and done something like 1700 miles to date.. 700 was done on a trip to Fort William and SKy.

It's driving OK, the THROB at 60MPH is getting annoying...

I had to replace the front outer CV boot last week, and ended up having to drill out the bottom hub pinch bolt.. Only to find I did nto need to undoo it!!!

I also replaced the lock set so 1 key now does everything appart form the boot ( I can't be botherd with that at the moment!! )

It's doing well in the Miles/£ stakes..

Still looks like crap though...

Almost all of the 2.0i Ghia has now gone. Something in the region of £400 was recouped from the sale of parts.. which means that it cost me something like £20 to do 3700 miles!!! BARGIN!

I am always on the lookout for another bargin though....

The volvo is needed back on the road, but trying to get her started the other day was fruitless... The fule rail is now in bits and the battery is on charge!

Rob

The Blue Ghia.... It's Fate...

Well today we began our trip back from holiday in Devon. so far we had covered about 700 miles during the holiday, mixed driving.....

Then 30 miles into the return leg, the propshaft rubber coupling started to break up....

At 7:40am we pulled into cullompton services and called the AA...

At 9:15 the AA arived. After about half an hour trying to obtain the part ( yeah some chance!! ) they called for recovery and said it would be about an hour.

At 11:40 the recovery truck arrived, had to unload, have a break and then load us up..

Approximatly 12:30 we were on our way. we were told that they would ring ahead to arange an onward transfer....

Appx 13:30 call comes in to collect another vehicle at the next services says it will only take five mins to hook up.. Screen shows Dewoo Musso... ( I query that it's a 4x4 and will need to go on the flat bed. ) Driver struggles to find car until I pint it out.

13:40 Unload Sierra, query the fact that
1) It shoud not be spec lifted by the front wheels as it's an RWD auto.
2) It should not be running on the rear whels as the prop may fail...

AA Mull this over, check the details and we decide to do a rear wheel suspended tow.

14:15... Finaly on our way again.

15:40.. Arive at Birmingham services expecting transfer. Told it should be there soon. Told again at 4pm within the hour.

4:30pm.. AA rig to say recovery will be with us by 5:20pm

5:07pm Recovery rig arrives.

5:18pm on our way again..

8:30pm Arive home at Carlisle... and Unload....


BLOOMIN NACKERED!


So she was up for sale, now not the case. I think it's going to be broken for spares.

Watch this space...

K202 FJN was another EBAY find....

I was not in any particular need for another car at the time, but this was on ebay and only 100 miles away. Couple of months tax and MOT to december.

I was not that attatched to the 2.0i Ghia Sierra, so this looked like a good alternative.

£126.02 won the auction.
£40 got me and Richard ( again ) over to York for the collection.

I was a bit dissapointed by the condition of the bodywork, it had been described as GOOD, yet the drivers door had been damaged by a break in, the boned had more ripples than the Atlantic and the car was devoide of ~40% of the laquer!!!

It drove nicely though, and is the best Twincam I have owned ( yes I know I have said twice before that I would never have another twincam!!! )

She's clocked up about 500 Miles so far.

2.0 Ghia Auto...

Well. Times were hard, the Volvo's MOT was just about up and there was not much chance of getting her fixed in the near future.

The capri was put up for sale to raise some funds. I was offered this in exchange for the capri.

1992 2.0 Auto Ghia, short MOT but a few month tax..

First impressions on arival were a bit so so... But after a week of driving I was fairly happy with the deal. It needed an exhaust and the brakes were supposedly in need of attention.

That was sorted for the MOT and it passed with no problems.. The car seems to be going quite well.

The bodywork has a number of large panel defects which is a shame, I unfortunatly added to them when I caught the drivers door on the gate post and bent the hinges..

Overall it's not bad.. It's solid underneath and the engine is smoke free and pulls ok. Autobox is a bit vauge sometimes though.