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

[Grizz1963]

Interesting gift from mate Bill.

There you go, if it works, great, if not, bin it.

Obviuosly needs to be tested.

[Grizz1963]

Looks like I have sourced a wheel.

Just need to figure a way to get it from Hereford to Kent.



And then get a tyre on it as well.

And paint would help.

[Grizz1963]

While in Scotland, Bill and I took,Blue, his dog for a walk.

Perfect.

Also managed to go see the Falkirk Wheel.

Wikipedia says:

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Tamfourhill, Falkirk, in central Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. It reconnects the two canals for the first time since the 1930s. It opened in 2002 as part of the Millennium Link project.

The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals and reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish Enterprise Network, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Millennium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight.

The wheel raises boats by 24 metres (79 ft), but the Union Canal is still 11 metres (36 ft) higher than the aqueduct which meets the wheel. Boats must also pass through a pair of locks between the top of the wheel and the Union Canal. The Falkirk Wheel is the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world, and one of two working boat lifts in the United Kingdom, the other being the Anderton Boat Lift.



Did a bit of a glued together bit of video of it turning nd lifting a longboat from one canal up to another system.


https://youtu.be/1nOVHFwgpL0?si=UnVttmjINJ6IIQFK


Time well spent, both for me and the dog.

[Grizz1963]

S10 truck Collection on Sunday.

Truck now back to its original registration number.

Astro issued with GRZ733

​So the story continues.

Friday 13th and today at 11.00 is my final redundancy “consultation” not sure what part of this is consulting, as it is more a “tell you”

It will be interesting to hear what they have to tell me.

[Grizz1963]

While I was up in Scotland visiting Bill, I managed to scavenge som plastic trim from a Mazda Bongo van he had chopped up.



Door lock and side needs trim.

This may be a plan.





Not quite a perfect fit, but a grinder, some heat gun action and we may have it looking a lot better.



During the week, while I travelled to Scotland, some anti-slip tape arrived at home.

So I removed the half-arsed attempt by some brain surgeon, leaned up many years worth of old hardened glue and proceeded to measure and cut.



Pretty messy and messed up.



Cut to length



Cut to shape.



Up close.

Liking that a lot.



Cleaned up the removable tow bar and removed the original license plate.



Fitted, with license plate in place.

Not ideal



And replaced the front license plate.

I am liking this.



Next job is to drill the holes for the retaining stip, carefully, in order to get the screws back in to hold the strip down.

Fit the rear license plate, as I had to clean up and repaint the rear plate support.

[Grizz1963]

Raining all day.

Working redundancy style…….

They can’t really fire me now, can they.

Wanted to get some rear entry action in today.

Cut, shape and see if it works to make up a blanking panel for the rear door.

The number plate recess has been tidied and the paint now dried, but rain prevents fitting.



Hoped some time over the weekend to get some stuff done.

[Grizz1963]

Time on my hands…..

Never a good thing.

Full build will be here.

too much copy and paste and my internet sucks big time, so always a struggle to load photos on every site, as my Photobucket is a PITA.

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread...d-sliver-dream


please follow there if interested.

[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]

Back to paint……….


It will be an ongoing theme here, for some time I suspect.


https://youtu.be/uXfRv_4nBcw?si=tC35J9Du-CIh8rxn



Funny how small things can become big things.

Sometimes a fix can lead to a second look, and reward the fixer as well.

When I first saw the Caddy on Zel’s advertisement, the one photo that made it look a bit tired (well, a few really did) was this photo……..

Posture and front wheel…. The wheel just looked tired, but my first thought was that a bit of silver would improve it.
Walking around when I went to look the first time, the rears were just as bad, in a different way.
Someone had smeared some silver over the rust scales with a brush, badly.




So once on my driveway, one of the first jobs to do was to get the wheels all looking the same.

Albeit also with a brush and Hammerite.


So I got straight to it, in fact the first job I got to, 36 hours after collecting, on the Thursday morning, even before the front Grille.



Up in the air.

Axle stands yes.



Sanded them all back, removing flagged lumps of old paint and rust.



Closer up, ready for the next step.



Trusty old Hammerite paint.

Not as good as the bad old stuff, lots of chemicals, carcinogens and poison removed now.



While I waited for the paint to dry, I also tried the Scruffy Micra’s wheels. After all, they cost me £200.00 get looking this good.

Not at all impressed, they are 14’s so the decision made to sell, and sold within an hour of listing for the asking price of £150.00 and collected next morning by 08.00

This meant the door was wide open to start looking for some other wheels to fit as well.

Of course…….. yes, a cheap runaround suddenly escalating and my wallet draining noisily like a bath in a horror movie.



Once I got over the disappointment of the copper alloy fail…….


I crawled around underneath while the van was up in the air.

I was not shocked, I was more than shocked. Zelandeth had warned that the structure underneath was in a crappy state, nothing was hidden, and even peeping under the van when in Milton Keynes was fine to my eye. Now I thought……. MOT Fail?

Flakes of rust the size of my hand waiting to drop off the rear section that had been added into the floor 21 years ago……

These conversions are clearly done at a budget.

Almost non-existent quality control and certainly no long term pride.

Like the saying “If it’s on, it’s gone”

I suspect the builders motto is “Get it done, grab the cash and run”

So another big job may lay in wait, I did not want to go prod with a screwdriver or hammer.

I also could not really figure out how the rear bumper sections will be removed if I can find an intact, undamaged one to fit.

I really do want to fit a decent one to the rear, currently it sucks to look at.







So I went to make a coffee when the paint dried.

Coffee and ginger nuts.

Life savers.

I was pleased with the result of the brush painted steel wheels.

When good enough really means good enough. A temporary fix.




Once refitted to the van I swapped it and the Chevy Astro around.

Took a pic, stood back and smiled.

Small improvements.







And of course opinions are welcome.

I had considered other colours.

Silver is just so, well, silver.

[Grizz1963]

Two small jobs done.

Due to the new to me, Caddy vans arrival, focus was lost for a bit.

So yesterday afternoon I got a couple of minutes in there.

First job, wrap up the rear carpet retainer strip refit, with new screws.

Looks loads better.





Then proceeded to mess with the piece of Mazda Bongo trim I got from Bill @oxb1l in Scotland

Wish I had the original trim, that would be better.

But we can make it up as we go along.



Just needs a dry, warmer day and some tiger seal to make fit.



Marked, cut, ground, repeatedly till it was a decent fit.



Heat gun action to reshape and get a curve into it.



Well, sun is out, now may be a good time before the next lot of rain drowns the ducks.

More small jobs to get done.


.

[Grizz1963]

Once the clouds disappeared and the skies warmed up a bit today, I went to the garage, moved the van into the sun.

Grabbed some stuff.

Prepared.



Clamped in place.

Multiple clamps because there are curves on two planes.

Left for 5 hours and removed the clamps so that I could close the doors before dark and,damp out back.






Result.

I will make up a small filler piece for the top,as well tomorrow.



Happy with this result.

Astro kissing Caddy butt.




Will try to get a better pic for perspective of their respective sizes.

Both are a bit deceptive.

.

[Grizz1963]

So we needed a fresh MOT on the van, expiry on the existing one 18 November.

So I drove down to the MOT testing station to see if this crack would be a fail.

What do you think?



Turns out, the rules have once again changed and it is not an automatic fail.

So cheekily, and optimistically I book the car/van in for a cancelled spot at 4.30, and say “See ya later” heading out to Morrisons to buy some food as I had not gone food shopping since returning from Scotland and Shropshire.

Go outside to the car park.

Brrrr, Brrrrrr. Brrrrrrr, Brrr, Brrrrr…………. Buggerrrrrrrr.

Car turns over, zero fire.

SERIOUSLY ??

So I do the usual, lock, unlock with the remote, try figure if immobiliser has died, NOPE.

Check under the hood, for any diesel dribbling out, any pipe showing a leak, the clear pipe at 3 way filter shows no bubbles.

Buggerrrrrrr.

I call @zelandeth just in case he has advice (zero blame, it is my car) luckily he pulls over in a lay-by, chats to me, talks me through the problem solving I already did, dead end. Buggerrrrrrrr.

So I try again, at which point a guy in a Japanese Garage overall comes to add his advice, opinions and double checking my checklist.

Of course we keep trying to start the basterd thing. Brrrrrrr, Brrrrrrrr, Brrrrrrr.

NOPE.

Now we are joined by two “tree surgeon” types nd their 12 year old nephew who is clearly not in school and learning the trade IYKWIM.

More advice, opinions, and a pair of knackered old pliers.

We are also joined now by a very very grubby, real mechanic…. No, a diesel mechanic named Bryan, another super nice guy, really nice.

“Do you have any quick start?”

Nope.

Deodorant?

Nope.

So mechanic no 1 disappears, while I open the scuttle to make sure nothing is under water under there.

Nope, all dry.

Buggerrrrrrr…….

Mechanic no 1 comes back from inside the test centre, toilet spray in hand.

WTF?

So we try open the air intake with said pliers which the Tree surgeons had graciously let us use.

Fail. Pliers are only good for melting down into something more useful.

So I grab an empty sample aerosol can of VW Reflex Silver that Zelandeth had tossed in the back for me to use as Sample when I went to buy paint, and said toilet refresher spray to pry open the demon clip around the air intake pipe, and mechanic no 1 pulls it off.

So back inside, ignition on, mechanic no 2 (the diesel guy) spraying toilet spray and once it almost sounds like a fire up, but no, must have imagined it.

One tin of toilet spray later, the engine compartment smells lovely, I am frowning and sweating, been there an hour already.

Buggerrrrrrr…..

One by one the witnesses disappear to do more interesting stuff, like ordering pizza over the road.

I close the door, take the key and sheepishly go indoors to cancel my 4.30pm test.

That’ll learn me to be so cocksure.

Buggerrrrrrr…….

So I go to plan C (A was me alone, B was the team) which is calling a recovery service.

Green flag take down my details, and problem explained clearly ,and say a company will contact me soon on their behalf (subcontracting at its best)
Telling them the whole story in detail, I make the fatal mistake of saying I am 1. Male, 2. Safe, 3. No dependants present.
I would regret that later, when 40 minutes later, said recovery service sub-contractor office calls me to say they understand my cars battery is flat and their guys will be there in 30 minutes.
So that will make my being there around 120 minutes.
40 minutes later, a text, stating that due to high demand their technicians are still dealing with the previous case and are delayed.
40 minutes later another text SERIOUSLY, DUE TO HIGH DEMAND technicians will be there at 5.45pm

In the mean time I had smelled other peoples pizza, asked a pair of guys sitting in the back of a Transit van with a supersized pizza each, if it was good, they confirmed this, not offering to share or anything like that.
So I walked over the street, ordered a 10” American hot.
Possibly the best, cheesiest pizza I have had in 10 years, seriously, with raw Birds Eye chillis.
They reminded me at 3.00 am just how good they were…… despite the early, rude awakening, zero regrets.
Best part of my day for sure.



So when the second delay text came through, it was about 5.45pm.

The test centre closes at 5.30 for last test.

So I was mildly pi$$€d despite the good memories of the pizza.

So I just randomly walked out and tried to start the Caddy.

Brrrrrrrrr…. Zippp, Clatterrrr Clatterrr…..; Diesel engine noises.

It’s a bloody miracle, it’s running again !!!

So I leave it running, head back indoors, into the partially closed office and reception area to say I got it started, as I get to the door, one of the testers comes walking out, we always chat when I take stuff to be tested, and he had told me the glass would not be a fail on the test.
So he says do you still want it tested?
I reply that it is now 5.50 and they need to shut shop and head home.
He replies that he will see if someone can test it for me, and that I need to just quickly go tell the receptionist to add it back to the system, and if nobody can test it, he will do it for me.

SERIOUSLY ???

So I go indoors and speak with her, citing tester no 1’s comment.

She says “No Problem, I will go see if the boss can test if for you”

FCUUUUUK NOOOOO!!

I do not want the boss testing my 21 year old, rusted box, just been dead for three hours outside, Caddy van for me.

That’s got to be a sure recipe for heartache and disaster.

Receptionist comes traipsing back in

“Yes it’s fine, the boss will test it for you, where’s the keys?”

“Inside the POO car” is my reply as the Caddy had already become known as “The Poo car” because of the registration number and its behaviour.to the test centre staff who had seen my distress all afternoon.

OK, I will tell MICHELLE.’

WTAF ??

MICHELLE ??

Seriously?

The boss, is testing my car, way out of business hours and is called Michelle.

As if my day could not get any worse.

So I expected to bearded bloke with salamander blue eye makeup, red lips, fake tits and rainbow coloured finger nails to test the Caddy.

Hello Halloween month of horrors.

Keep in mind, this Caddy had fought me even when I tried to pay for it…….

The damn demon thing hates me.


So the Caddy outside, engine running was waiting for its date with destiny, or density.





I went to pee, as I was pretty much ready to do so in my jeans.

While I was in the toilet, coincidentally, the Caddy disappeared into the test centre and up on the ramp.

With Michelle hovering underneath it, light poking up underneath it, automated testing stuff cleverly testing all the suspension parts, geometry etc.

So I asked permission from my friendly tester who had set this nightmare in motion to ask if I could take a few pics up on the ramp, for my blog, forums and YouTube channel stuff. “Let me go ask Michelle” moments later he was back and said, “Yes, Michelle said no problem, you are the last person left in the test centre” which happens to have about 9 ramps, yes, 9 lifts for testing, one of them for ultra low stuff, and also to test Pickups and high roof, long wheelbase Sprinter sized vehicles and of course motorcycles.

Some took a few pics, watching Michelle move under the Caddy.





Being the chatty guy I am, of course I walked closer up and asked permission to take a few pics underneath as well, and to inspect for myself the Rusty stuff that will need attention.

SURPRISE !!!!

Michelle, the boss, with 20 years of MOT testing experience, learned her trade from her dad, and now runs her own show, turned out to be a lovely, knowledgeable and informative lLADY.

So I took a few more pics, none of her, she is lovely.

Her comment was that, other than the welded in ramp box for the original disability use, the rest of the Caddy is in really good Nick, and has obviously been looked after, having had the right parts replaced and serviced over time.





I then left the shop floor while she carried on testing and by 6.35 the emissions test came in, PASS.

And by 6.45 I got my MOT PASS CERTIFICATE and paid for the test.

Said my thank yous to all and left.

Not switching the car off, I drove straight home and got there with the speedo showing the miles at this point.




That was a stressful day….. well, for me at least.


Massive thanks to all involved, from the tree surgeons in their rotten white Transit van, to the two mechanics and the staff at the test centre, and of course @zelandeth who took the call, and had said originally that there was no reason for it to fail a test when I bought it, and also the reason why the price was not negotiable.


Right……


Now relax…… 13 months of MOT test to use.


.

[Grizz1963]

You know those days when the weather conspires against you, no picnic, no BBQ, no car time?


https://youtube.com/shorts/P7SZ1HKNy...3vJ8kERKzuFtRV


Sometimes you just need to squeeze a bit of time out of them when nobody is looking.

Bottle of G3 compound and an old rag, joined by a knackered T-shirt.

Not exactly “Valet Heaven” and the purists will be sucking on their plastic refinish gel by now.

Still, a few minutes can change things, and add motivation and a feeling of accomplishment.

The whole Caddy is 21 years old, with loads of giffer style damage, careless scratches, tiny dings, chipped paint, rust in expected places. All these can be corrected with a bit of patience.

So I give you exhibit number one: @dozer my younger brother would walk away from a car like this “because it’s rusted” He hates rust.

Half the problem is the rusty water staining on the surrounding paint. After all….. it took 21 years to get like this.



So a few minutes of concentrated fingering gets you this result.



Other side, rear wheel arch, must be the plastic arch liner that chafed away at the paint, with added road grit and no cleaning.



And afterwards, just a bit better. If you now walk up to it as a potential buyer…… you can see the extent of the rust but it looks tidier.



Remember the previous life this van lived was as a wheelchair accessible vehicle.

Now you rarely see Macho Formula One drivers, or off Roaders and Burly Builders driving these cars, more often, irate women in long floral dresses and knitted button up jumpers with untidy hair, or their male counterparts wearing ugly black shoes. Now before you attack me….. THINK ABOUT IT. Looking after any form of disabled person takes a load more effort than shouting “Johnny get your school bag, did you brush your teeth, put down the Gameboy/whatever, the bus is here, you’re going to be late for school” all in one extended sentence. So clothing, hair, your own life becomes secondary to the person you are caring for. Included in this is many sleepless nights, weekends between work weeks at a day job where carers don’t come because they get paid more at a local private institution, so suddenly the 48 hours you are meant to rest……. No rest because you are caring for your child/relative. I have good friends who do this every day of their lives and I can only respect them.

Washing, cleaning and doing maintenance on these become something secondary, maintenance usually covered by various motability schemes or manufacturers warranties.

The knocks, scrapes, dents and marks……

Often the result of trying to get your charge unloaded close to a buildings door, ramp or tour own home when the weather in the video above, prevails.

Just look at the amount of shameless dick heads parking in disabled spaces, or parking right up close to the rear ramps of cars, clearly marked as needing loading space. Think Stephen Hawking sized wheelchairs.

So the option of dinging and denting and scraping these cars are often forced on the drivers by society’s selfishness.


Rant over, for now.


When I bought the Caddy, this long scrape that someone had tried to clean up with a piece of 400grit sandpaper really bugged me, it had the clear coat scuffed, really badly, it also has an associated dent all the way down, and if you zoom in over the wheel arch bulge, more damage and what looks like ingrained plastic from another vehicle plus another deeper set of scrapes near the rear light.

But after previously sorting the Astro paint with a lot of effort, and hand buffing, I knew it was not impossible.

Marks are all obvious in the original for sale pics, I never took a better up close pic, but it’s obvious.



So I spent quite a bit of time on these marks, till the increasing rain stopped me outright.

I will be returning for another, more thorough and complete run at this, it should be possible to clear the paint scratches but not the dent, which I have to live with.


Better?








There is a lot to be said for just putting a bit of effort into things.


.

[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]

Amazing…..

Over 150 views per 24 hours.

Not one comment.

[Grizz1963]

Rear bumper…..?

May have found one to work on 50 miles from here in the south, near Rye.

Headed there by 9.30.



Certainly better looking than the one fitted.

Some work on this one, and then pray that the re-engineered back end accepts it once the pieces of the existing bumper are removed.







More later,

Hopefully the next glass tint if the weather improves.

Friday as well.

Double bonus.

[Grizz1963]

Up early-ish to get going and head down to near Rye after being offered a “complete but needing a bit of work” rear bumper after the other guy offering a broken one turned into what seems to be a bit of a w@nker.

Looked like a great day to tint windows.

But priorities.



SatNav took me down some real narrow lanes and back roads, but makes for an interesting drive again.



Also scored some large apples from Justin’s trees, and most importantly,,a VW centre cap he had found by the roadside presented me with the ring I was looking for to keep a centre cap in place.



One of the toys that go into his camper van……



Loads of clever touches.

Like these old denim jeans, recycled to form door upholstery, and also have pockets to keep various items in.




While there, we also looked at his Baywindow bus with a home grown Subaru conversion.

Filmed for @grenade specifically.

Apparently a real pleasure out on the motorway.

https://youtu.be/L3i51XC0A3Y?si=BM98q_pQR6PrEh2z


After two hours chatting about everything from Solar to fireworks and making gunpowder, I headed out home.

Saw a small shunting loco, trainspotters will correct me.



And pulled over to get a pic of a rainbow during a break in the rain.



Back home via my local village to pick up meds and some random foodstuffs.

Unloaded back home.

Chuffed.



And laid to rest.

This made me grin again.



Got to be better than this one.

If I can remove it successfully and reinstall the new one, and then clean it up and fill the dent, or soften and push the plastic out, followed by paint and colour matching.






After a coffee and sandwich it was 3.00pm and I decided that sometimes sitting doing nothing beats going out to tint glass or do something constructive, so weekend on.

Netflix and another coffee next.

.