I can't help myself but feel sorry for an underdog. Enter current car number 6, of a running total of 31!
Some of you may have noticed this in the classifieds since June I think! Looking a bit sorry for itself, but basically sound, plus I knew the seller. A motorbike clipped the front and dented the wing and bonnet and pulled the bumper off. But it was about 85 miles away in North London. No MOT, not insured obviously, no rent. I don't have a vehicle with a tow hitch nor a trailer. So enter Southern Self Drive!
OK it's French, but in its defence it drove OK, did about 35MPG and wasn't limited to 56 which was nice. It wasn't cheap at £130, but my word it was so easy. Came with an electric winch and proper tie down straps. Picked up Dave on the way and we had ourselves a little road trip!
Got to London easy enough with not too much traffic and Found the house I'd been to a few times. Found the car sitting forlornly sitting in a bush:
A quick boost from who's ever car it was parked next to it with my awesome jump leads and it burst into life instantly!
Then drove it up onto the wagon with no hassle at all.
Love the Irmscher back box!
A smooth drive home followed, the truck driving even better with a weight on the back, sort of like a hard top after a convertible. Back home I got Sharon to experience the unloading:
She loved it of course, although the car was a bugger to jump off the poor old Mk2.
Next up a quick damage assessment:
Bumper is hanging off, but a closer look reveals the bracket, not the bumper has broken.
Nice! Front fog is goosed, as is the headlight and a ripple in the wing. Headlight and a wing in the right colour (78U0 sourced from eBay, along with a new wing brackut. Offered it all up for trial fit, looked good! I'd also got the original nearly new wheels th previous owner has just shod with a pair of Pirelli PZero Neros!
Next up Peter very kindly vacuum tested the AC. It had no gas in it at all. Details of the cars previous life were a little sketchy at this point, but I did find out it had a new alternator fitted whilst the owner was away at university an she was horrified to find on a visit to the garage to see the car with the entire front end missing. This kinda makes sense as the alternator is down low at the front of the engine. So since the system held vacuum nicely, we assume the AC condenser was simply removed during the repair. Pete chucked some gas in and the compressor duly kicked into life!
Boom! Works lovely now. Then Pete broke out the mop and buffed the arse out of it!
Not so flame pink now.
Next up, cambelt. The interval for a post 2003 1.7CDTI is 100k/ 10 years. Car is 10 years old, 109k. Gates kit (two rollers) along with oil and filter sourced from Benn's place. Thanks!
It's quite a good system, lock the cam pulley with a M6 bolt, the fuel pump with an M8. The tensioner also has a spring so it self tensions too. So bung belt on, turn it over a few times, tighten tensioner bolt and job done. Fair bit to remove including the now obligatory engine mount.
Whilst I was doing that, Dave fitted a new battery (old one was original and totally dead) and found the wiper linkage came out with just two bolts as the scuttle panels need to come out to swap tha battery in a C, especially one of this girth! So he stripped it down, cleaned the spindles and applied some fresh grease.
Thanks Dave. So now the engine starts easily on it's own, I can move the car and not worry about the belt letting go. It's getting near to being on the road! But next I wanted to swap the springs as the previous owner had fitted -30mm Eibach springs due to rear one snapping. Personally I thought it was too low, so got some standard ones from Benn's place. Strip down is easy as most cars are these days. I found it prudent to unclip the speed sensors so the weight of the knuckles doesn't strain them.
Old and new:
And how it sits now:
A tiny bit higher maybe, but then I'm totally unfamiliar with Cs, and a lot of cross-referencing confirms they're right for a the 'heavier engined' Corsas, so we'll see how it goes.
Next on the list is the broken front fog replacement is supposed to arrive tomorrow (!), then find a rear wiper mechanism as someone thought a stupid grommet is much more use than a rear wiper in the boot lid. And find some rear head rests. And a radio.
Then insure it somehow, then er, dunno. Anyone want it? I may have done a deal with my Dad to sell him my Mk4, so I will use this, but not 100% yet.
Some of you may have noticed this in the classifieds since June I think! Looking a bit sorry for itself, but basically sound, plus I knew the seller. A motorbike clipped the front and dented the wing and bonnet and pulled the bumper off. But it was about 85 miles away in North London. No MOT, not insured obviously, no rent. I don't have a vehicle with a tow hitch nor a trailer. So enter Southern Self Drive!
OK it's French, but in its defence it drove OK, did about 35MPG and wasn't limited to 56 which was nice. It wasn't cheap at £130, but my word it was so easy. Came with an electric winch and proper tie down straps. Picked up Dave on the way and we had ourselves a little road trip!
Got to London easy enough with not too much traffic and Found the house I'd been to a few times. Found the car sitting forlornly sitting in a bush:
A quick boost from who's ever car it was parked next to it with my awesome jump leads and it burst into life instantly!
Then drove it up onto the wagon with no hassle at all.
Love the Irmscher back box!
A smooth drive home followed, the truck driving even better with a weight on the back, sort of like a hard top after a convertible. Back home I got Sharon to experience the unloading:
She loved it of course, although the car was a bugger to jump off the poor old Mk2.
Next up a quick damage assessment:
Bumper is hanging off, but a closer look reveals the bracket, not the bumper has broken.
Nice! Front fog is goosed, as is the headlight and a ripple in the wing. Headlight and a wing in the right colour (78U0 sourced from eBay, along with a new wing brackut. Offered it all up for trial fit, looked good! I'd also got the original nearly new wheels th previous owner has just shod with a pair of Pirelli PZero Neros!
Next up Peter very kindly vacuum tested the AC. It had no gas in it at all. Details of the cars previous life were a little sketchy at this point, but I did find out it had a new alternator fitted whilst the owner was away at university an she was horrified to find on a visit to the garage to see the car with the entire front end missing. This kinda makes sense as the alternator is down low at the front of the engine. So since the system held vacuum nicely, we assume the AC condenser was simply removed during the repair. Pete chucked some gas in and the compressor duly kicked into life!
Boom! Works lovely now. Then Pete broke out the mop and buffed the arse out of it!
Not so flame pink now.
Next up, cambelt. The interval for a post 2003 1.7CDTI is 100k/ 10 years. Car is 10 years old, 109k. Gates kit (two rollers) along with oil and filter sourced from Benn's place. Thanks!
It's quite a good system, lock the cam pulley with a M6 bolt, the fuel pump with an M8. The tensioner also has a spring so it self tensions too. So bung belt on, turn it over a few times, tighten tensioner bolt and job done. Fair bit to remove including the now obligatory engine mount.
Whilst I was doing that, Dave fitted a new battery (old one was original and totally dead) and found the wiper linkage came out with just two bolts as the scuttle panels need to come out to swap tha battery in a C, especially one of this girth! So he stripped it down, cleaned the spindles and applied some fresh grease.
Thanks Dave. So now the engine starts easily on it's own, I can move the car and not worry about the belt letting go. It's getting near to being on the road! But next I wanted to swap the springs as the previous owner had fitted -30mm Eibach springs due to rear one snapping. Personally I thought it was too low, so got some standard ones from Benn's place. Strip down is easy as most cars are these days. I found it prudent to unclip the speed sensors so the weight of the knuckles doesn't strain them.
Old and new:
And how it sits now:
A tiny bit higher maybe, but then I'm totally unfamiliar with Cs, and a lot of cross-referencing confirms they're right for a the 'heavier engined' Corsas, so we'll see how it goes.
Next on the list is the broken front fog replacement is supposed to arrive tomorrow (!), then find a rear wiper mechanism as someone thought a stupid grommet is much more use than a rear wiper in the boot lid. And find some rear head rests. And a radio.
Then insure it somehow, then er, dunno. Anyone want it? I may have done a deal with my Dad to sell him my Mk4, so I will use this, but not 100% yet.