GRIZZ’s ‘79 - 2WD BLAZER Challenge over in London, England. “~It’s not a Project~”

[Grizz1963]

Right.

Friday the 13th October, I was in Shropshire at buddy Craigs place, after my trip up to see @oxb1l buddy Bill the fireman in Scotland.





I had an 11.00 appointment on Teams with my contract’s manager and the company HR representative obviously there for the whole farce of so called “consultation” there was no consulting and the statutory o days were not over yet….. but mehhhhh.

Told that my service/role terminates 15 November at which point the Ford Focus company car, IT equipment including the iPad I am writing this on (I never owned an iPad as one was enough) mobile phone and headset will get collected. Leaving me with the choice of Rezin Rockit and Astro to use as daily. Both are somewhat impractical for differing reasons, and I like them for those reasons, but it became obvious that I would do well having something like the Micra, sold a year ago. So I looked about, including on the auto****e.com For Sale section and saw a car that had previously made me smile, for sale. Sadly, prices of bangers have gone up a lot in the last few years, and when looking at some German and Dutch sales websites, they were even more pricey than the U.K.
so a lot of thinking and a message to the seller followed, including an agreement to leave Shropshire a day early to go view this car.

Resulting in the following.


The New to me, Redundancy Runabout comes from the same retro cars community I am part of.

Firstly, I want to post a link to its previous life in the hands of a gent called Zelandeth

He is as meticulous and OCD as you want someone to be when you buy a car from him.

Weirdly……..

He and I share another link.

He has owned three cars, previously owned by Colin, I now own two of Colin’s former cars, and Zel retains two.

My Chevy Astro that I collected from Colin in S****horpe and the new car were his before.



FIRST INFORMATION SET.


LOOK FROM PAGE 53 IN THIS THREAD FOR ALL THE OCD WORK AND REPAIRS CARRIED OUT BY ZEL BEFORE ME.


https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...ctions?page=53



Of course, as mentioned, the Astro belonged to Colin and is still getting a load of small jobs done by me, just to tidy it up to a standard that I can get along with.









So there you have the preamble to the latest vehicle at Grizz-towers.


I had not intended buying anything else when I bought the Chevy Astro to replace the S10 truck.


In fact, the Rezin Rockit was and is also due to be sold to someone who wants to drive it and play with it.


Simply the logistics of having too many cars on the drive taking up space and needing juggling when something needs doing, using or whatever.


I now need to do some corporate work first but will come back in a bit to post up the FOR SALE ad as originally posted by Zel.


Then we can carry on with this ownership story.

[Grizz1963]

Anyone who's followed Zelandeth’s blog thread on here will know of this little van.


I have rewritten and copied his FOR SALE ad with all the interesting stuff….




He bought this back in January 2022 from @Marm Toastsmith on here when I was in need of something that would Just Work (TM) following a debacle with a Mercedes with what I came to term Schroedinger's Engine - which may or may not have been about to blow up at any time. It was really intended to be a quick stop-gap while I found something more interesting.

However it very quickly became a proper member of the fleet as it drives several orders of magnitude better than I had expected and without a doubt has to be one of the most overwhelmingly useful vehicles I've ever owned.

Since I picked it up I've covered somewhere in the region of 15K miles (odometer currently sits on approximately 115K miles), and save for fixing a couple of gremlins it had when I first collected it (which needed replacement of the air intake throttle assembly as the motor had gone senile, and a couple of bits of missing trim replaced), nothing aside from normal consumables have been needed.

A few people told me when I told them I'd bought this that the 1.9SDI was "Dangerously slow." Complete cobblers. No it's not a racing car...but guess what...it's NOT a racing car, it's a little van. She keeps pace with traffic absolutely bloody fine, and will comfortably sit well above the posted speed limit on a motorway all day long, knocking on the door of 50MPG while doing so. I've averaged 46MPG over the last couple of years, and that's mostly been around Milton Keynes which is absolute murder on economy in anything. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw high 40s day to day in a more normal setting.

While this thing isn't *noticeably* exceptional in any department while on a long trip it somehow seems to have a downright uncanny ability to compress long motorway journeys. I've done Milton Keynes to Aberdeen and Glasgow (twice), and have always got there feeling like I'd been on the road for about an hour, not six or eight.

I did find the nasty plastic steering wheel this came with quite unpleasant though so a leather wrapped one (I believe from a Golf) was fitted which is far nicer to hold.






















In terms of rust the underneath of the dropped floor section at the rear looks quite scabby, but has withstood thorough prodding without issue. It's all just thick box section and flat panels though so even if any future repairs to this are needed they shouldn't be difficult.







The worst rust I know of on the car is on the nearside front jacking point where someone has helpfully folded the bottom of the sill over at some point and the damp has got in.







Here's the same area on the offside for comparison.







The underside in general is actually astonishingly clean for a 21 year old van.







There are a few bits which look a bit scabby top wise, but aren't really a worry in terms of structural integrity or an MOT pass at this point in time.










Engine bay is pretty presentable and surprisingly free of bodgery I was glad to find







Timing belt is still a ways off being due.







Tyres are a matched set of UniRoyal RainExperts, and are I'd say at 50% life (rears more than the fronts as I had some issues finding a garage who could actually set tracking properly, so there's a bit of shoulder wear on the tyres currently on the back). Front brake pads were replaced a couple of months ago as it was noted they were getting low.

So. Current issues.

[] Air conditioning is inoperative. The system is gas-tight but the compressor doesn't pump anything. A replacement is supplied with the car, I've just never had the time to get it installed. The expansion valve was also replaced when trying to fault find the issue so that's new.

[] Short MOT. It's out on November 18th. I'm struggling for both time and space at the moment hence taking a punt on it at this price. If there aren't any takers I'll stick a fresh test on it and re-advertise then.

[] Cracked windscreen.

[] Apparently knowing it was about to be put up for sale, it threw a check engine light at me last week literally as I was about to write this ad. This was a code for a needle lift sensor signal error, which was cleared and hasn't come back in another 200 or so miles of driving. This was after it had been sitting for a couple of weeks and the battery isn't exactly new, so it could be a one-off. However I'm disclosing it here as something which has popped up and I can't guarantee won't reappear.

[] Clutch isn't in its first flush of youth. Bite point is quite low and it does judder. I was pretty much expecting to have to put a clutch in when I bought the van...and it's still exactly the same now as it was then. So may well go on for a good while yet.

[] CV joints click on full lock.

[] The smaller rear door lower latch doesn't reset properly when opened so you need to manually flip the roller after opening the door.

[] Paint is...well you can see in the photos. There's not a single panel on it which doesn't have a ding, scrape or something on it. The front bumper was in primer when I got the van and was very quickly painted with a rattle can by me - it's very much a 20' job but made it way more presentable at a glance. I've always meant to paint the wheels as that would immensely improve the looks in a matter of minutes.

[] Rear seats really are only suitable for short trips or children as they're very cramped. They take about 60 seconds each to remove though if you just want the load space.

[] Wheelchair ramp is NOT operable. The actual ramp itself was removed prior to me getting the vehicle, and the dropped section of the bumper is no longer functional. I don't imagine it would be that hard to reinstate that at least though - I'd always meant to look into it for the dogs, but it just never got to the top of the to do list.



Reason for sale? Simply that I really need to be able to carry four adults in comfort for longer trips, and the Peugeot you see in the background of some of the photos has been bought to that end. As such this needs to move on.

This could be a really useful little van for someone, or thanks to the dropped floor could be an absolutely ace base for a micro-camper build as it gives you a good bit of extra height over a standard van. It's served me bloody well over the last couple of years and I will honestly be sad to see it go. I'd quite happily jump in this tomorrow and drive anywhere in the country. It's been one of those vehicles which really exceeded my expectations in every way, proving to be surprisingly a cheerful little thing to use as my daily.

I always had wanted to do something about the paintwork, my idea there being to do something heavily inspired by the Polo Harlequin, as per this ten minute proof of concept I threw together.










I don't think £750 is an unreasonable price for a vehicle like this in the current climate. Or £1000 with a year's ticket on it - though if you want that you'll need to wait a couple of weeks while I organise it. Will be valeted to eliminate as many traces of our dogs as possible from the back and will come with a full tank of diesel

[Grizz1963]

I forgot to add the video introduction.

https://youtu.be/CgEzHp8Kgkk?si=HBiyXqM7fqLSv8re



.

[Grizz1963]

Here is a short random video of just how sweet and smooth a £2750.00 sixty year old Rover P4 110 can be.

When collected to go buy the Caddy.

Salesmen ehhhh.

https://youtu.be/Qgg_Es9G-74?si=sQaAULVPteJHFI5x

[Grizz1963]

Right.

Having agreed to buy the Caddy.

The rest was a bit of planning, praying, panicking, pfffft.


Report with words and photos coming up in a moment, or three for those who read.


Video.


https://youtu.be/-NELOe4sfsw?si=cN0iwWBaOzxpxhWq

[Grizz1963]

Having decided to buy the Caddy Van from Zelandeth, the next point of interest was insurance………

That was a surprise as my rant evidenced.

Also ended up for some unexplained reason that management tossed a related thread in the whingebin, which is why people walk away from forums. Like it or not, despite any of the reasons maybe put forward for it. Anyway, it was a shock getting screwed by an insurer based on all their ducking and diving and reasons, none of which are actually applicable to me.

Strange that.

My rant, hopefully not to get censored.

INSURANCE COMPANIES……. RIP OFF ARTISTS.

JUST CANCELLED THE S10 INSURANCE, 2.5 MONTHS LEFT ON THE POLICY.

ZERO REFUND.


SWAPPED THE GRZ733 PLATE TO THE ASTRO.

£46.80 ADMIN FEE.


WHAT A BUNCH OF THIEVES.



GOT A QUOTE FOR A VEHICLE OFF THE SAME COMPANY RECENTLY £578.00 WITH 3K MILES, SINGLE DRIVER, PERSONAL USE ONLY.
REPEATED SAME QUOTE ONLINE £337 UP TO £1000
SELECTED TO BUY A £350.92 OPTION FROM CAROLE NASH - WENT TO CHECK OUT…… SYSTEM REJECTED PURCHASE.
CALLED CAROLE NASH DIRECT NEXT DAY TO CHECK.
NOPE…… PRICE NOT AVAILABLE, NEW PRICE NOW £372.00
I KINDA LOST IT, AND BY BEING REALLY NICE, INSISTED ON SPEAKING TO A SUPERVISOR, WHICH DID NOT HAPPEN, GOT THE ORIGINAL PRICE 20 MINUTES LATER.
IT IS CRAZY HOW THEY DIP THEIR HANDS INTO OUR POCKETS AND STEAL BECAUSE IT IS ALL LEGISLATED THAT YOU WILL HAVE INSURANCE.
AND OF COURSE ALL THE WRIGGLING TO NOT PAY WHEN YOU HAVE AN ACCIDENT/DAMAGE/BREAK IN.


THIS REALY IS TIRING.

WATCH YOUR POCKETS.

So the plan, after seeing the car on Saturday on the way back from Scotland, was to take a train on Monday to collect, but having to sit for an extended period trying to deal with the insurance company would mean a late departure…… so I decided to leave on Tuesday instead.
Just as well, because the roads were murder on Monday.

So up early, Mickey next door earned his £10.00 pint money taking me down to the station at Strood, Kent.

Tickets bought. Add this to the purchase price, as well as Dartford Toll crossing and Mickey’s taxi fare.



Strood station wait.



Then I minded many gaps, switching and using 4 trains on my way up to Milton Keynes.



First train change at Gravesend, broken public toilets and a 20 minute wait for the next train, used the ladies toilets as I identified as a guy needing to pee.



Through to London, over the Thames river.



And into Charing Cross or Charing-X station for the next change.



Then onto the underground and up for air at Euston tube and overground station.





Once I surfaced at Euston overground station, I got onto the Avanti train service.

Interesting to note the price of my connection ticket, online the same item was £8.00 but restricted to possibly one train only. Dickheads.

The intercom on Avanti also warns you, reasonably clearly, that if you are caught on a different class carriage to what your ticket permits it will be another £222.00 fine/ticket.

Very tidy trains, much much better than the stock I am used to travelling on on my routes.

You kinda don’t mind paying the exorbitant fees for quality like that.



Uneventful, 30 minute trip, both comfortable, and without the usual riffraff that often polite South Eastern and whatever the other service is that I am reliant on.

Coming out of the station at Milton Keynes Central station, I had to walk as far as Subway sandwich shop and find my ride.

What a great surprise.

Sublime.



And the interior……… Pure 60’s Britain.

What a lovely place to be.



And just for fun, a two minute inside video.

https://youtu.be/Qgg_Es9G-74?si=qYZs-wd2Wjb5r4ms

Getting to @Zelandeth ‘s home, we did the usual ritual dance of buying old cars.

Time to pay……

Hmmmm…. Transaction rejected in various ways. Barclays Bank proving why Cash is King.

System down, which meant jumping into the Caddy replacement, a Peugeot Partner van, slightly newer, but with the same familiarity as my old Prozac Berlingo.
So we headed back into the town centre to the actual bank branch, only to have the transactions declined repeatedly to the embarrassment of the staff member helping us navigate their future of banking machines.
Ultimately, thankfully, I managed to withdraw a pile of cash and hand it over to Zel.
Thanks for your patience mate.
We headed home to see me off to the motorway and going South on M1 and M25, followed my A2/M2 till I got to the Medway area.

Leaving and mileage as purchased.



Then went via Halfords to buy some VW Reflex silver paint for repairs already in mind.



Then home, and a big grin all the way.

This little van really was proving to be way more than the sum of its parts within the first 100 miles of driving in town and on the motorway.

Got home and parked up behind the outgoing company car.

Happy.



Door to door first trip 104 miles, so just over 160km



Then indoors, pee, coffee, gloat, walk around, gloat, smile.

And then the big decision, like buying your kid his/her/its first beer/cocktail.

The Caddy got its own front door key.

Not only that, a key ring.

Found in the gutter outside the house.

Honestly.



Later I went over to Sallys for dinner as she cooked.

100% gutted that she took no notice and was not interested in the new little lifesaver.

Well, she does not care for cars, does she?

Went home and to bed later with that stupid grin we have when buying a new to us, car.

Little did I know there was pain ahead.

[Grizz1963]

RESTLESS.


Side glass, great, BUT…..

Security, privacy, Grizzification……

As usual I have/had a few things in mind before even buying the car.

So I ordered dark @95% limo tint for the side glass, and some black vinyl for the small strip of silver between the glass panels.

Only the side glass to go Limo tint, the rear doors will get 35%.

Ideally it gets done on a warm day to help the tint and vinyl relax. So right now may be too much of a hurry.

But I will try later.

Because

May need extra hands to place it on the glass as well.



And my dirtiest of attempts at photoshop.

Just edit with a black marker.

Get the idea?




May or May not get to it today.

Lucky to have loads of other jobs to get done on the Astro and Caddy.

[Grizz1963]

I know my young friend @nickwheeler will agree and look me straight in the eye, winking knowingly, when I say some people should never be allowed within six foot of a rattle can of paint.

Exhibit no 1



So on the way home from collecting the car, I picked up a couple of colour matched cans of VW Reflex Silver.



By Thursday I had already started to disassemble the car.

Prizefighter look.





And Ugleeee……



Cleaned off, then repainted Simoniz chrome.



Mehhhh….. Fail.



So the rest of the grille was cleaned, scotch pad prepped and then plastic primer added.

Cold, wet day out there, so I used a paint stripping gun to add some heat and dryness to the paint drying.

Followed by silver all over , then cut out masks for the grille bars, and painted black.





Looking like this up close.



Tried out together.

Not quite.



Also repaired a tab that was broken before I dismantled it all.

Two pack epoxy.



So I fixed the wrong sized, curse word grille badge.

Not able to find one yet.



And next day when red paint dried, I tried it on.

Liking that.



So glued in place.



Following day, reassembly.




And of course a short video on the badge getting done.


https://youtu.be/ntRQT9w1wJw?si=RKs4lJavhKxhgCTL


Little things.

Bigger changes,

Whatcha think?

[Grizz1963]

Well, the weather in the South of England SUCKS right now.

BUT….. I have not yet turned the heating on, and we are on the 2nd November.

A personal record, I think.

So I wanted to start with doing the side glass Limo Tint yesterday when there was a break in the rain.

Only to realise, you can unscrew two of the pop out windows and then do them laying flat indoors, much easier than doing it all vertically.

BUT…… you need to have either glaziers suckers, or a friend, like Mickey next door to hold the glass so it does not smash on the floor.

Any advice or ideas, in case I cannot get Mickey out in the cold?

He hates the cold, being as skinny as he is, the wind blows through him.






Today is not looking promising either.

But I am restless.

[Grizz1963]

So glass tinting 101.

Never tint outdoors
Never tint in winter
Don’t tint in the rain
Just don’t tint.

Of course rules are for losers.

So I dismantled one of the side glass windows and brought it indoors.

Carefully……..

After first duct tape securing the glass.





After putting some cushions on the floor for a soft landing.



Lino tint film applied.

Glass is concave.

Glass shape means there is too much film.

Concave means that you need to shrink it somehow,

Heat gun and a load of repeated squeegeeing action till done.



Fitted back in, in the rain.

Not ideal as the duct tape does not stick when pouring rain on glass.

Anyway, wheels bin, cushion to hold in place and a prayer that it did not fall and smash itself to bits.

Carefully climbed in the rear of the van and screwed the first two hinge screws back in.

Then the third one fought me, a lot, eventually I walked away.

Frustrated.



And for those interested, what it looks like from the inside through the limo tint, 95%

Look at the green steel cabinet in the background, both regular and tinted visible.

Before



After.



When it was raining I threw the wet cushions back into the lounge while completing the job.

Closed up the Caddy and came back indoors.

Someone liked the cushions.

Helper cat.

Dick.





Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for glass tinting.

Fingers crossed.

[Grizz1963]

Quick out of sync post.

Some of you may know that despite not going down the £1000 wheel route, I do like a wheel, and even more so of they are normal, but one can make them look a bit different.

And even more so, those wheels you find from other makes that fit your car and makes people scratch their heads in wonder.

So I was looking out for some interesting, non-standard/non-VAG wheels to maybe add to the Caddy.

Had seen some 1990’s Renault Safrane wheels that would go great in two or three colours.

Yea, I like to make work for myself.

But the offset was wrong.

Chatting to mate Matt @pegasus about wheels, he started throwing some very pretty £250.00 plus restored wheels my way, excluding tyres and shipping.

I declined all his suggestions, despite a few nice sets coming through and said I prefer ****ty sub £100.00 wheels that then ended up costing me another £200.00 to get looking good, plus tyres. The wheels and tyres on the S10 ultimately went on at £950.00 or thereabouts, completely stupid I know.

So next day Matt and I were chatting about other stuff and girls, when he again raised the subject of getting some nice wheels on the Caddy.
I said it is a scruffy 21 year old van, and I am not planning to fit expensive, super shiny wheels on it, because unlike ratlook or barnfind cars that have that distinct work look that really shows off the wheels, this thing was just not enough in either camp.
I would carry on looking to see if I could find wheels that I liked and could be acquired relatively cheaply and then either fitted directly, or cheaply, to blend more with the cars scrapes and age.

Next reply from him kinda bowled me over.

Of course I have done similar things in different ways over the years, but I struggle overall to accept kindness.



I did decline.

Then, typically a few days later I found some wheels I liked the look of on a Caddy group on FB.

Enquiring and realising they could be part of another trip, I had planned for the Sunday, I agreed with the owner to go look at the wheels he had. No price yet established.
But I told Matt I had found some cheap wheels I liked.

More in a bit.

[Grizz1963]

So agreeing to go see @sammo about some parts I decided to incorporate the trip to see the wheels I had seen on a random Caddy group post, which quickly led to a conversation with the owner
Sams thread: https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...project-pedals

So once again, the time frame is back to front, because my 140 mile trip led me to Sams place first.

But here are the wheels, picture as seen on a chat thread.



They typically were not what I was looking for, but actually ticked a bunch of boxes automatically.

I like solid spokes, and 5 spokes are great when it comes to cleaning and maintenance. Any lace or multi spokes are beautiful, but on someone else’s car. IYKWIM.

A Messenger exchange and chat with the owner established a few things, yes they fitted, directly, yes they were for sale, yes he would sell me 5 of the 6 wheels as I had no use for a well and truly knackered one. And he seemed a nice guy. Bonus.



So when I got there, as often is the case, we spent over an hour speaking Caddy mods, issues and life in general.

When I asked how much he wanted for the wheels, his reply was £80.00 please.

So I agreed and we loaded the 5 wheels I had bought into the Focus.

The 5th black wheel is super scruffy and Kerbed to death…… but as a spare, with a silly stretched tyre, it will do.



Seller also threw in a Caddy rear floor mat, to be used once I have levelled out the rear floor and fitted a better bumper.

Cleaned up at home.



Eventually back home by 3.30pm

I had a coffee and sandwich for lunch, then went to lay stuff out to be cleaned.

At which point first @nickwheeler arrived, and followed later by Mickey next door.

So 3/4 of a bottle of Jif/Cif/Handy Andy and a couple of brushes later, we had some sparkling purchases.



Very importantly as well, four centre caps, one missing its retaining ring.

And of course a ring found yesterday when collecting the rear bumper 50 miles from here.



Butt ugleee spare. Decent tyre at least.



And the other four wheels had two good tyres and two that I needed to replace.





Pretty pleased and smug with my relatively cheap find, which would need another £160.00-ish for two new tyres, I told amongst others mate Matt @pegasus later in the evening.

Another exchange ensued, summarised in these comments.

Not always easy, but sometimes the right thing to do.




Have I mentioned before…….



Next job…….

Try on the wheels on the Caddy.

And buy tyres.

[Grizz1963]

Two days later…….

Test fit.

Of course you gotta do this.





Went for a drive to feel the front end.



Then came back, tried them on the rear.

Missing the rear shocks.



And of course all round.

16 inch alloys.

195/55 16 tyres to be ordered.






So…………


Opinions.


Yes, we all have them.


I think that unless some mind blowing wheels come along.


These can stay where they are.

[Grizz1963]

So part one of the day trip to collect the wheels was to go meet up with @sammo at his mums house.

To look at this Caddy…….





Sam had offered me a pair of Golf VR6 seats to fit into the Caddy.

Just plug and play was what he said.

Greeted by the most awesome cat…… of course.



I managed to buy the seats I had not planned on buying and also robbed the VW badge off the rear door, followed by a set of black bikini caps for the steel wheels I had at home.

Sam also gave me some door lock inners.



Loaded and headed out to Chertsy to see the alloy wheels.





Eventually back at home I got to look at these tired seats that I had bought from Sam.

Cleaned the wheels and rear floor mat.

Then headed back into the seats.







Also cleaned up the small centre caps I had bought for the steel wheels as fitted, as I did not like the flat caps.

Much better I would say.





And straight on.






Seats after all the effort……..

Yes, not too bad.





And of course approved and became the bed for the next four days 24/7

George cat scanned.




And of course all including a rant in a short clip.

https://youtu.be/ee6fKXnS0Cg?si=8-kFXS1JwooaikZj



Pan fried pork chops and vegetables tonight.

Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow.

[Grizz1963]

So.

One side done, loads of swearing under my breath.

Reached out for the matches, could not find them…..

Carried on installing this hateful stuff.

One side done, eventually.



Drivers side.

Glass out.



Cleaned up first.



Done and refitted, with lodgers help holding mounting button in place.



Last glass done.

And for some reason it was not easy.

Aaaahhh yes, concave glass.





Woke this morning.

And guess what……..?



Kept on working it, eventually settled and happy to move on.



And both sides behaving.





Time to move into the next phase.

Blackout.

Can you see what needs doing?



Template.

CAD to the rescue.



Done.

Needs to be seen stepping back a bit.



And next little job….

Curved ball.

Door window frame……..



Cut out.



Applied.



AND LOOKING AT THE COMPLETE PICTURE.

MEEHHHH…..





Another small job done.

Time consuming, and many people would neither notice or get it done.

But works for my head and need to make small changes.

Video.


https://youtu.be/mE2D4uY5A2Y?si=G2ua2KlcNw3kp-9v


That’s a load of time consuming, non sweat inducing work done.

Do I like it?/

[Grizz1963]

Yesterday ended up a bit corporate.

I had not done expenses since July, and that includes daily mileage claims.

Thankfully I am a bit weird, as I actually do keep a daily, written mileage logbook of my own in the cars door pocket.

But every trip has to be entered from postcode to postcode for the whole day, so minimum three lines of entries.

Departure, arrival, return destinations, get why it is a ball ache

Today it is all my parking, and other expenses from August on to next week when they collect all the IT stuff.

Posting up, video editing, all the stuff I use the company iPad for will cease.

As I do not own an iPad or such to work/play on.


Back to replacing the teats in the Caddy with Car seats from a VR6 as bought from @sammo from his VR5 Caddy build project.


The Caddy’s standard seats are such that a courier or longer day user would be comfortable, and they are good seats, but of course we always want to modify stuff, well…… I do.

So the standard VW interior, hard wearing, functional, dull.









Seats bought from Sam.

Before.



Grizzified (cleaned)



Changing seats should be a 5 minute job per side.
If you have the right tools on site , 10mm spanner and Allen key.
Undo a single retaining bolt, slide out original seat, remove.
Slide in replacement seat on rails, bolt down, Done.

But of course it took me two hours or more over two days.

Problem number 1 was this is a converted Caddy.

Done by a disability type company.

Cheaply as possible.

One directional “engineering” so not much stance of restoring to original.

Obstruction number 1 and 2.

Wheelchair safety belts. Electronic.

Made removing the original seats quite awkward.



Removing them, a significant hurdle as access to the retaining nut was zero.

So alternative leverage plans needed to be figured out and applied.

Locking the nut to the body with force.





Cats are weirdos, I am sure they watch their subjects die, and then start eating them…..

George waiting for me to die or give up.

Horrible back seats came out to give access, and coz they suck.
.



No chance getting in there, all closed and welded shut after original bracing had been removed.

Much struggling and swearing later…..

First one fitted, or was it just placed in position while I tried to figure how to fit it.

Problem was that the wheelchair seat belts stick into the rear footwell by 100mm and the rear seat back brace on the VR6 seats fouled against it, meaning you just could not get the runners to engage with the rails.

Trust me.



Drivers seat was a lot easier once the seatbelt was removed.

Another interesting thing you will see in the video, is that the adjustment lever for forward/rearward move,ent on the Caddy seats are to the left…….. under the seat.
On the VR6 seats, they are to the left.
So I had to modify and flip the release levers as well.
Nothing in the manual to warn you about it.

Once done, it looked great and like it was always this way.






Despite liking and being very happy with the original Caddy seats, the replacements are a lot nicer.

I found myself going and sitting in both after fitting them, grinning and gloating to myself as they are that nice.

Video is a bit longwinded, but it captures some of the process and fighting to fit these 5 minute job seats.

https://youtu.be/yDGPDgdkB_s?si=HWvdpspLIpFX0Sca


Hopefully the video is of value to anyone who is faced with this sort of change.

.

[Grizz1963]

While I was over at mate Darren’s engineering shop to get some steel for @pauly to build a restoration rotisserie I noticed this car he is currently building.

3.5l V8 Ally block Rover.

The rest of it weighs almost nothing as well.

He was saying that just test driving it locally on some private land was “Interesting, scary”





So it will be run at Pendine Sands in Wales at the next beach races.

Check out on GOOGLE if you want to see more.

It is along the same theme as these races in France:

CLICK LINK FOR PHOTOS:

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...es-2023-photos

Looks a great day out.


.

[Grizz1963]

So the Caddy continues to:

Firstly, MAKE ME SMILE
Secondly, MAKE ME WORRY
Thirdly, CHALLENGE ME.

I have never owned a diesel, Fly by wire type car, company cars are fully maintained, so do not count.

Having bought it and faultlessly driven home the first 104 miles, then refusing to start outside the MOT station, followed by later self correcting and starting 3 hours later, I was still happy to do stuff to it, and for it.

When you buy an old car, or a new one (enough examples out there) you buy it with a great big prayer stuffed in your top pocket that it will just keep going until it is time for you to move it on for something else, or it becomes part of your deceased estate/fails MOT catastrophically.

So having done 13k plus miles in the last 22 months, my expectations are that it will always need some wear and tear fettling, and service maintenance.

AND OF COURSE MODIFYING.

So on Tuesday I headed out to go price up some 16” tyres for the alloy wheels I had bought previously, before going online and looking at Black Circles and other options. Despite spending unnecessarily on the Caddy, I want to still try contain the fiscal damage.

So I headed out, enjoying the clatter of the diesel and the drive, which in all honesty, is MUCH MUCH BETTER than some people make out, this includes people who have actually never driven or lived with one.
It has to be pretty decent, or else you would not have seem as many sold in the years of productions, and most of them being commercial vehicles, they would have been ragged to an inch of their lives.

Imagine my surprise when I left the second roundabout from home, a mile or 1.6km away when suddenly there was no throttle to accelerate from the roundabout…… The engine was idling happily, but prodding, feathering, stomping, swearing at the throttle and car made absolutely not one iota of a difference.

So I cruised to a standstill at the bottom of the road, even trying to bump start and turn the ignition off and on before coming to a halt, all four wheels, only just on the grass verge, but it beats the way I have seen people break down and abandon cars halfway in the road before.
This road is used by loads of heavy goods vehicle and construction and farm vehicles, and there was no side road to drop into.

Opened the bonnet/hood, of course greeted by a beautiful expanse of plastic, no tools in the Caddy because not expecting to have to undo anything, except a spare wheel in case of a flat.



So obviously not much I could do there.
In the mean time, the engine was happily sitting idling away.

So I considered calling Green Flag recovery, of course the last time, they never actually made it to me as after 3 hours the car fixed itself.

So plan B

Call Mickey next door, he is a good one for helping with recovery and having towed him home years ago in his Focus that had stopped running one day, knowing he would have some heavy duty strops/straps to tow me home with.
He agreed and said give him 5 minutes.
So I set to, removing the cover over the towing eye in the lower bumper, using the key to get it removed, Zelandeth had engineered it into position before.
Once removed, I tossed it in the rear along with the little blanket I had kneeled on.
Tried to turn on the car again, success !!!!!!
And the throttle, which was dead 5 minutes before, was functioning like before……
So I called Mickey to tell him it was working and that I would drive it home in front of him, just as he came off the roundabout in the distance.
Drove it home, accelerated a few times, pulled up onto the drive and thanked Mickey.

I needed to get to the GP and a couple of other appointments, so took the Company car, Focus.

On the way back, I stopped at a local garage that Sally and her sons uses, I have used their tools before and gave them some tools a few years ago when a lodger brought some massive sockets home, they also did the servicing and some repairs on the MX5 for me years ago.
I went in and said that I had a problem with the Caddy and needed to read the codes that it would obviously throw up, what charge, and did they have some time to pop it on for me same day.
Yes, bring it down or take the OBD reader, so I opted to fetch the car and hope it would go the one kilometre down to their workshop without bother.
So we hooked it all up when I got there, Cliff headed out to get their own work van MOT’d and some tyres fitted, so Steve the other mechanic helped me, fortunately, they were waiting for parts delivery on two vehicles on their lifts.

Steve crawling around





Cubby hole/glovebox held in place with a panel screw….. Yup the result of 21 years and 103k miles on the road.
Stuff wears out and breaks.

The reading.



Steve Checking and cross referencing results, also a phone call to some specialist, and more Google searching.



Next up, we opened the air intake just to see if the throttle body was maybe dirty, causing something, like the butterfly to get stuck open and send an error message to put the car into limp mode.

What we found.



No butterfly and no screws.

120 miles of my driving and it had never felt weird, hesitant, or made a scary noise.

So we checked the price of a new throttle body, only available on back order, and at £628.00 plus 20% VAT it was going to mean a car scrapped……

BUT…… if I could find a broken throttle body, I could rob the butterfly from it and fit it to the van. Searches by @westbay Tony revealed that the price of a used unit was a whole lot more palatable.

So I stood chatting cars, bikes and trials riding with Cliff and Steve for another half hour or so and agreed that I would try source the parts and then fit them.

Feeling quite insecure because of the missing parts, but also a certain amount of F@CK1T I drove the van home and pulled it through to the back drive. I still had tinting to do to the glass.

Next, I went indoors, made a coffee and started a WhatsApp chat with @zelandeth who once again engaged in a chat and explained stuff to me.
I am so thankful for the times he has patiently answered the phone or text messages to talk me through stuff.
Conversation as per WhatsApp below.

Grizz

Morning,
My little VW Caddy van just stopped working a mile from home. Engine running and no acceleration on pressing accelerator pedal. Called my neighbor to tow me. 5 minutes later I tried throttle again and it was fine.
Are they drive by wire?
Guess I need to find out.

Zelandeth

That's an odd one, yes it is fully fly by wire, so hopefully just a pedal sensor on the way out.

Grizz

Well……
The throttle boddy is missing its butterfly and screws.
Somewhere something happened.

Zelandeth

That can be disregarded - that throttle body is only used by the EGR system to generate manifold vacuum, and apparently they are well known for disintegrating so the plate was removed when that throttle body was replaced when I first got the van as it was acting up then.

There is no throttle in the traditional sense on a diesel, it's all done by controlling the fuelling.

So the components of that are not in the engine you'll be glad to know.

Grizz

Lololol.

And…….
You will know by now that I am no mechanic.
The quote for a replacement on back order was £628 plus vat.
I am suspecting it could be the actual throttle pedal whatever thingy.
And 13k miles later it still was not needed.
I said to Steve the mechanic that I had done 120 miles without hassle, except the non start at the MOT station.

Zelandeth

Yeah, the replacement cost £35 on eBay for a used one which I then removed the guts from as you've seen as it serves no real useful purpose.
Throttle position sensor error code definitely fits - it's a moving part that's got 120K miles and 22 years behind it so not a hugely unexpected item to be wearing out.
The original throttle had completely lost its marbles and was randomly closing on light throttle, causing loss of power and a proper James Bond smoke screen.

Grizz

I honestly have no clue.
Other than losing the ability to fuel and rev up today, and being a smelly diesel, and then 5 minutes later being fine…… I have xero clue.
But if the throttle regulator needs replacing that would be a good/great fix.
You type fast like a teenager

Zelandeth

Wouldn't surprise me if it was related to the non-start you had before, hard to say for certain but it seems suspicious that it's popped up very soon after that happened.

Grizz

And there is an intermittent immobiliser fault

Zelandeth

Missed that, that could also explain it. Though I've no real advice on that one as it's modern enough stuff I've no prior experience to call on.

Grizz

Gotcha.
Driving it, still is a pleasure. And I like it.
Just glad you are prepared to share your 22 months, 13k miles of experience as I am clueless.

Zelandeth

It's by a long shot the most modern vehicle I'd owned until the current Peugeot in terms of engine electronics etc, so there was definitely a learning process for me too!

First common rail diesel, first using fly by wire nonsense, and only the second vehicle made this side of 2000.



So that was last Tuesday.

Since then I have been occupied by various things that needed doing.

Over the weekend @joem83 and I had a chat that ended up with his reply confirming more wear and tear theories.

Including this……

This is what problem I had lol.

At the top of the pedal in the car is the poteniometer thing, it's just hooked to a normal accelerator pedal. It's dead easy to replace. I replaced mine to no avail.

Ended up pulling the ecu, taking the pcb out and cleaning all the corrosion off with PCB cleaner and a toothbrush.
Put it back in, cleared code and it was fine.

I made a rain cover for the ecu out of a plastic folder thing & cleared all the drain holes.

So this is possibly the culprit.




So at the weekend, between all the rain I crawled into the drivers door-twill, did a bit of disassembling and found this……

Glovebox removed, cover in place.



Exposed.



And the possible culprit.





There certainly is some damp in there, so of course 101 other gremlins could be waiting to be flushed out.

We will see.

There you go, always interesting stuff happening here.



.

[Grizz1963]

Late yesterday afternoon while dry, I went and removed Relay 109 after some more reading about it and other reasons for the potential failures.

Seems Relay 109 is a really big culprit in the VW scene for letting people down, and causing intermittent break downs, limp modes and various issues, that then resolve once replaced.








So I pulled it and went down to Euro Carparts.

Price quoted by the really helpful lady behind the counter, an eye watering £28.00

Knowing that a Chinese version would take up to 3 weeks and more to arrive, we looked at other parts suppliers, not much better news, then I checked my Amazon app and came up with a variety of prices.

I do not have Amazon Prime as I am not a very regular user, maybe 5 transactions a year, so £8.00 per month to save the £5.00 shipping fee makes not a lot of sense to me on a £10.00 part.
To the rescue comes @craigrk whose home runs on Amazon products, and Ienvy him for it, but not enough to justify his lifestyle.

So he placed the order on my behalf, hopefully delivered later today.

Prices vary widely on here as well.



Ordered.



While I was there, I also bought a tin of electrical contact cleaner for when I go in under the hood and under the dash later.

£5.39 hopefully well spent.



Next job is to dress warmly, including shoes and then head out and see what I can find under the hood/bonnet.

Wish me luck.

[Grizz1963]

And another quick question.

Possibly for the likes of @joem83 and other VW buffs.

I noticed this bridge, which seems to be “aftermarket” but clearly has a role to play.

Any ideas?







ONLINE EXAMPLE. Not bridged.




Thanks.

[Grizz1963]

Amazon delivered last night.

So we have Relay 109 which is often blamed for issues.

Interestingly, half the address was not on the label, including house number and postcode and of course it was Craigs surname on the label.

Yet it made it here.

Pretty Pleased about that.

Made in Germany.




Overnight, another response to a damp interior question from another guy that I had replied to, got another definitive answer.



It confirms in part my and @kevins thoughts about drying out the interior to possibly solve or prevent recurrent issues.

I will report from my iPhone later today as the company iPad and phone are being collected later today.

I will be so naked and vulnerable 😉

[Grizz1963]

So back to Relay 109

Replaced it.

Caddy runs well

Throttle worked as well.










VIDEO.

https://youtu.be/ncyvBoziOhs?si=NqS7MCToYgkL4E05


After this I got on with the Scuttle cleaning.

[Grizz1963]

Remember the Seat 16” alloys I bought.

Centre caps needed a retainer ring. Fixed ✅

Logos or decals were knackered ‼️

Ordered some frpm Ebay not realising its China.

Delivery today.

Surprise!!


Old vs New



Needed doing.



Picked old logos off.

But not good enough to add new aluminium pieces on top of.



Sharp pointy knife and carefully worked them all off.



Cleaned off old automotive double sided tape.

Applied new badges.

OCD gang……….

Note all aligned.




I an really happy with that.

Will make a noticeable difference when the wheels and new tyres are fitted

Small steps every day is Progress

.

[Grizz1963]

So I started to dismantle the scuttle, wipers etc.



I found a royal mess in there.





And on and on it went.



Eventually read to rinse it all



Loads of leaves and dirt dug out.

Even more flushed out with all the water used to rinse the area.



After all the cleaning I recalled @joem83 mentioning an added bit of water protection.

So I rummaged through my supplies.

Found one of these.



Destroying one as I tried to make it.

Success



Looks like this.



Total job results



And reassembled.



I had also fitted the new 109 relay

Started the car up and it all seemed good.

I will take it out for a drive in the next few days when it stops raining.


Video a bit long winded

Editing on the phone really is a PITA.

https://youtu.be/CwewL5uiBYE?si=5uBqxTnGKsgm7K6r


Happy with the clean up.


.

[Grizz1963]

Out for the first time in three weeks, driving the Astro.

Not got all the parts that I wanted but at least got a new pollen filter for the Caddy

Super nice to drive the Astro around

Big silly grin all the way.

An Irish guy in a Vauxhall Vivaro van came up to me in the carpark where I had pulled in to find out more about the “beautiful noisy van”

I like it when strangers show interest.

He was shocked when I told him its just standard 4.3l V6 Auto. Stating that was surely too much power for a small van.

Went into Euro Carparts for a pollen filter and also a Throttle Position Sensor which they didnot have in stock.





Came home and removed the old one

Compared.



And fitted.



Another small job done.

Progress every day I guess.