Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Upholstery disaster!

On Monday morning I was horrfiied to discover chewing gum on the back seat of Blue. I paid a visit to a local Tesco in the hope of finding something to remove the gum. I ended up buying some stain remover for just short of £3.50 and when I tried it out I was amazed to see the gum dissolve before my very eyes. The back seat of my Dolomite 1850 got a few grease marks when I was putting some of my parts into storage so I'll give it a go on in. The stain remover was well worth every penny.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Auto box

After some thought on how to get the auto box I'd been offered for Brown (AKA the Dolomite 1850) I took the plunge and decided to collect it in Blue. In order to protect the interior (no room in the boot) I put a sheet on the back seat and wrapped the auto box in bin bags. The journey to Coventry to collect the auto box was problem free and Blue was none the worse for having the auto on the back seat. Next up will be to fit it. My intention is to remove the engine/auto box as it is easier to do it with the engine out of the car. I'm hoping to change the engine oil and the filters at the same time.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Time for an update

It's been some time since my last post. This was because I haven't done any spannering on my cars so I've had nothing to write about. All that has changed. Blue was overdue an oil change and money's been a bit tight lately but it had to be done so I bought engine oil, oil filter, air filter and a fuel filter. I also needed a replacement glass for my nearside door mirror. The oil change went quite well this time as I hardly spilt any (unlike the last time) and it has made the car run better. One of the Dolly 1850's headlights wouldn't work on dipped beam so I immediately suspected a blown filament in the headlight unit. I bought a replacement but the problem remained. The problem seems to be a wiring problem but when I checked the wiring near the front lights I found it to be a bit brittle and two of the wires broke off. I've got some terminal blocks to reconnect the wires (not ideal but better that twisting the wires and wrapping insulation tape roiund them) but the cold, damp, foggy, snowy weather had put me off doing the job and the front spoiler doesn't help much. I've sourced a replacement automatic gearbox in Coventry for the Dolomite 1850 so I'm hoping to collect it. Got to be worth a punt at £25 from the TDC. Better that the club gets my money.