The "Today I did something to my car" thread

dgt

Seat change


Purple for feckin purple :rolleyes:

Out with the old


The reason why: broke


Quick clean while out


For goodness sake, thread in by hand first and don't cross thread the bolts!!!!!!!


Finished!


To my own car. First, I decided not to wash it. Waste of time


I had the wheels spotless, what sh*te brake pads :mad:


I'll make sure they get burned off and replaced with new discs and pads, they're in need of changing anyway

A familiar sight!


These things are so much easier to work with when the engine is out :cool:


More bits and bobs...


What black gearbox oil....


More later!

challengemaster

Always bloody impossible to follow a dgt post

These arrived


Picking up a load of electrical connections over the weekend for wiring up the seats, and there's a new thermostat arriving shortly as well

Bpmull

Cleaned the focus today. Even polished it. I thought it turned out well there is a few marks but that doesn't bother me.

Toyotafanboi

looks very cool all colour coded did you do that yourself?

Bpmull

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

looks very cool all colour coded did you do that yourself?

No it came colour coded. Actually now that you mention it you don't tend to see many van versions colour coded.

Hal1

dgt

Yep, I'm at it again :pac:


Found the oil leak it was like finding wally.... High pressure feed was loose, I sowed the fecker on when putting it in red threadlock this time!



Look at that mess :mad:


I've gunked the crap out of it, shall take pics in the daylight

damo86

These arrived today for the golf, going back to sea on monday..so dont have a chance to enjoy or fit them!

Koni FSD and VW racing springs



Few photos of my bluetooth retrofit:


Just washed:

joujoujou

My twins - washed, detarred, washed again, waxed and buffed.

Ded_Zebra

Today I changed my gear oil, power steering fluid and brake fluid. Took me from just after 11 this morning until 5, longer than I was expecting but I ran into a few problems along the way as always :rolleyes:.
Access to the gear oil drain is awful, couldn't get a spanner on it I did get a socket on it but then I couldn't fit the ratchet on the end. Got it eventually though:).
The other problem was that someone decided that it would be a fantastic idea to not put the little rubber covers on the brake bleed nipples:rolleyes:. Thankfully only one was completely blocked.

All in it was a nice day working out in the sun which makes a mice change:D

MetzgerMeister

Today I gave the car a wash and then gave it its first coat of Collonite 476S wax. I must say I really like it apart from the fact that it can leave a bit of a chalky residue when buffing. The best part of the job today was seeing the result of the glass polishing I did and Gtechniq SmartVision that I applied last week. The glass now beads better than the paint!

Here's a video, it's sideways so apologies. The windscreen wasn't treated as I have more polishing to do on that so you can see the difference between treated and untreated.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/7771/lmfrfxxuxseicrkiqitykc.mp4

advertsfox

Dropped the car off at 10AM and collected at 12.30PM after getting the top mounts, drop links and brake pads changed and the overall front end noise has hugely decreased - at last!

Brakes - still a bit of life left but a bit damaged due to lack of copper grease.
Links - fairly bent out of shape esp. on the drivers side so a necessary swap.
Mounts - not bad condition but a lot of free moving in them so perfect time to swap.

Next up? Plastic arch covers need to be changed on driver side as its missing a good piece from a past experience which has been worn away further by the wheel. The last owner left evidence of DUCT TAPE from it to the the chassis as a quick fix - think I will make it a bit more permanent with new ones / fittings.

Today was a good day

dgt

Bayyyy.... Cleaned! Ish


Most of the oily crap is gone, I'll get the rest at a later date

Soil.... Again :rolleyes:


Transferring looms


Oil pressure sensor is different


Corrosion to clean off


Pump back on


Flywheels changed


Gearbox to engine, note the vicegrips for the clutch! :rolleyes:


Not running as I was fairly busy elsewhere, hence lack of pictures....! Shall hopefully have it all plumbed up and ready to go for Monday, tomorrow

challengemaster

And here's what dgt picked up for me and photographed with a calculator or something :pac:

Alanstrainor

It's DGT's unique photography style!

vectra

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

. The best part of the job today was seeing the result of the glass polishing I did and Gtechniq SmartVision that I applied last week. The glass now beads better than the paint!

That stuff looks damn impressive :cool:

Hal1

It sure does, curiousity killed the cat an all...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZWMdWgleiQ

Must pick some of that stuff up in me travels.

MetzgerMeister

Cleancar.ie is where I got it and as far as I know, they are the only crowd selling Gtechniq products in ROI. There's also another one I'd love to get but it turns out very expensive. It's a coating for your paintwork, think it's called Crystal Lacquer but it's something like €65 for a 30ml bottle of it. Granted a little bit goes a long way with Gtechniq stuff but imagine having that kind of water repellancy on your whole car!

akura

So today I got my new door on after getting rammed into by a half blind 90 something year old :mad: , I also washed it:)

From this


To this

Nissan doctor

Over the weekend the Astra got a full brake overhaul, It was planned anyway for the near future but a rear right brake failure on Thursday brought the job forward a bit:eek:

Rear shoes, cylinders, fitting kit and drums:





Fronts:



For the bin:

dgt

The small details

New O rings


For these boyos


Essential tools for refitting the strut to the hub


Always clean up the bearings and copper grease them so they come out easier the next time. Same with the hub splines


I had a very stubborn bolt, so got out the correct tap and cleaned it up. M12 x 1.25. Flies in and out now


A curse to put back in


It runs and the high pressure feed to the turbo let go, blowing new oil everywhere. So still no car,a new pipe to order and an unholy mess to clean up

Rather disappointed with myself and the car to say the least

Mar4ix

my oul banger passed NCT with flying colors. another year for my 15 years old toyota avensis

shinkansen

dgt wrote: »

The small details

New O rings


For these boyos


Essential tools for refitting the strut to the hub


Always clean up the bearings and copper grease them so they come out easier the next time. Same with the hub splines


I had a very stubborn bolt, so got out the correct tap and cleaned it up. M12 x 1.25. Flies in and out now


A curse to put back in


It runs and the high pressure feed to the turbo let go, blowing new oil everywhere. So still no car,a new pipe to order and an unholy mess to clean up

Rather disappointed with myself and the car to say the least

do you ever thing of buying a car in fairness? you are no doubted skilled mechanic, could get a new motor sorted out no end.

just saying...!

Alanstrainor

shinkansen wrote: »

do you ever thing of buying a car in fairness? you are no doubted skilled mechanic, could get a new motor sorted out no end.

just saying...!

:P

Where's the fun in that

shinkansen

true....lol

dgt

shinkansen wrote: »

do you ever thing of buying a car in fairness? you are no doubted skilled mechanic, could get a new motor sorted out no end.

just saying...!

As Alan stated, I get my kicks from turning crap into visual crap but something special to me underneath. I do what I do because it's what I enjoy, I learn as I go along, I face new challenges with each car. It's the problem solving; how I did it, why it went wrong, where I can improve things etc.... I set my vision on how I want each car to turn out and stick as close to it as I can. I do it all on the cheap, specifically to point out I can have fun in a car that cost as much as a bag of chips...

Now if I drove a dull, generic, soul-less blandbox that never went wrong, wouldn't you all miss my pic heavy updates of engines being torn out, suspension work, brakes, tyre swapping with balancing, re-wiring looms for toys, welding, painting etc?

I'm not a mechanic either, I learned a lot of this stuff myself and the heavier more interesting stuff from my dad who was a mechanic since he was 14

Like this update I'm sharing... On diesel pumps I had to research it myself, spend hours gawking through forums, deciding what was optimal, what interchanges. I've only dismantled the pump so far, still waiting for my seal kit then I'll crack on with rebuilding it

Enough ramble from me... Pic time!

First, remove the remains of the high pressure pipes


That gave me access to the delivery valves, stop solenoid and room to remove the "tamper-proof" cover

Loosening the nut on the main driveshaft. On the transit it locks onto position, I've done so with a bolt once lined up


Did someone say tamperproof???


Removing the high pressure feed revealed a yellow liquid that didn't smell of diesel or veg oil...!!!!!!!


Naughty naughty :pac:

I hate when they come with these screws as I have to use the impact driver on them. Open carefully and evenly, there's a spring underneath


Then I butchered my hand.... That didn't stop me!

4 allen screws to remove the top of the pump off. Remove the max rpm screw to gain access to the 4th allen screw. This pump didn't have a cold start advance, so less t worry about. Gently tap the throttle lever whilst lifting the cover...


What you're left with is the governor cradle and spring assembly. This regulates:

• How much diesel gets injected gets depending on throttle and
• Max rpm of the engine

By modifying the governor one can affect the drivability of the car drastically. A common mod is shimming it, to eliminate travel of the main spring thus holding the throttle further for longer. This means the engine doesn't feel flat towards the end of it's rev range. I'm going to attempt to fit the Transit spring to the Pug pump.

The small spring at the end regulates the idle hence is called the idle spring

I'll try fit the main driveshaft to the Pug pump, the Transit uses a 21mm diameter shaft vs a 16mm on the Pug. The result of the cutout for the woodruff key puts extra stress on the shaft when using a bigger plunger head, thus may snap it :eek:

Puller needed


After some wriggling I have the main piece out: the plunger head


What's left for now is the rest of the internals ie timing piston, vane pump, main driveshaft, cam disk + rollers, yoke + dampers etc... I'll strip them in due time


Don't get me wrong, I'm no expert on these but I'm finding all this fascinating :cool:

Bpmull

Done a good bit with the focus today. Replaced the intercooler pipe which had a hole right the way through it. Drained oil changed oil filter and put in fresh oil. Then the old number plates I could count 5 ways in which they were illegal so they had to go. Inspected the air filter and that needed to be changed so got a new one.

Old intercooler pipe meant to get a better pic but forgot.


Air filter which the owner said it was changed 1k km ago. I doubt itit was rotten. Defiantly wasn't changed anytime recently.


Now to the number plates the previous owner decided he would rivit on the crap illegal non matching number plates.




Look closely the front and back number plates are not even the same:)


Number plates off


Finally the new normal number plates.

MetzgerMeister

Ah jaysus....another "I have a lovely garage" bastard

166man

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Ah jaysus....another "I have a lovely garage" bastard

I thought it was another ''ah here I have a pink car'' post...:D

Bpmull

166man wrote: »

I thought it was another ''ah here I have a pink car'' post...:D

That's just the light and the fact it's dirty it doesn't actually look pink in real flesh . As for the garage it's grand full to the brim with crap but when it's clean and empty it fits 4 cars. And we have another shed up the back that would fit 2 cars but again is filled with crap. The next time the garage is empty and clean I might post up a pic everyone seems to talk about I suppose it is handy:) remote control electric door and all probably the best thing about the whole garage.