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16

General Car Chat / How 'retro' styling ought to look

« on: 28 July 2018, 11:45:21 »

Came across this LINK on another forum


Makes the modern attempts like the Mini, Beetle, 500 etc look even worse than they did already

17

Omega General Help / Headlamp washers

« on: 23 February 2017, 13:50:27 »

As my car has just failed its MOT on these not working, and I am seriously short of time, do they have a separate pump to the screens?


And is it a generic Vauxhall one?

18

General Discussion Area / What a stupid thing to do

« on: 04 January 2017, 19:07:39 »

Clean and regrease the bearings on the wheels, and we're changing the brake discs, so remove old ones.


OK


So after doing the bearings on the first wheel, I started on the 9 nuts and bolts retaining the disc. Which got harder the more I undid, and the last bolts didn't fall out.


Then there was a loud bang, and something hit me in the face.


Some utter oppswit had forgotton to let the bloody tyre down 


So that's five bent bolts at a tenner each, and a very scary moment.

19

Omega General Help / Manual crank handle

« on: 26 December 2016, 16:15:14 »

I'm about to use various seat parts to repair my Elite ones. So I don't paint myself into a corner, what are the dimensions of the manual crank handle as in Rob's PICTURE?


I'd like to know the size of the square, and length of the handle. With those I can make an adapter to use with a socket and extension, before I start the job, just in case in case I need it.


Thanks

20

Omega General Help / New Springs

« on: 23 December 2016, 19:25:02 »

I promised myself that when I had some money coming in, I'd replace all four tired springs on my car. That time has come, so does anyone have any suggestions where I source them for sensible money, and not the £300 each that ECP are currently listing them?


They're for a 3.0l estate which has working self-levelling(that I intend to keep), but I think some non S/L springs would be a good idea and a lot easier to find. These seem a little too good to be true though:  LINK

21

Car Parts, bits For Sale & Wanted / 3.0l and MANUAL gearbox

« on: 10 December 2016, 17:05:16 »

This is left over from a previous project.


3.0l engine, complete with wiring loom, ECU and key. It's exactly how the previous owner removed it from a driving MV6 saloon, and still has the plug leads, DIS, cambelt cover, plenum, throttle body, alternator, sump and starter motor in place. I don't have the multi-rams, bagpipes or MAF.


The manual gearbox has not been removed from the engine, so the flywheel and clutch assembly is still in place. I don't have the gearlever though.


I do have the complete propshaft.


I thought this was long gone, and I don't have room or any need for it.


£250 on collection from Rochester Kent.

22

General Car Chat / This Week in Wheeler's Workshop

« on: 10 September 2016, 19:42:03 »

For the first time in ages, I've managed to get up and do something every day this week. Hopefully it will be good practice for when I get around to finding some full time employment.


Monday, I made these:





They're adapters for jacking the tail of a small aircraft, and apparently they're normally a lot more expensive than the £25 I charged


Tuesday I collected a friend's Grand Vitara, fitted new shocks and wipers and put it in for an MOT.

23

General Discussion Area / Turbo encabulator

« on: 21 May 2016, 13:40:24 »

This is old, but it's still relevant:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag


It's what an explanation of how any computer program works sounds to me.

24

Omega General Help / Front suspension tools

« on: 06 May 2016, 17:22:48 »

I fitted new shocks, springs, topmounts, bearings, droplinks, trackrods and poly bushes to another Omega on Wednesday.
Knowing this job was coming up, I wasn't keen on using these spring compressors that I've had for about 25 years:





They work OK on old, parallel springs(like on Capris) but are pretty scary on newer ones.


At the kit-car show on Sunday, Rallydesign had their new range of tools on show and as usual, their prices are better than anyone elses. I ended up buying this set(SWE 166) for £65:





This is a properly robust, secure, safe and quick to use tool, like this:





Removing the compressor then using it on the new spring was just as quick and easy, not the scary job that the old ones were. Money well spent I think, and I can thoroughly recommend them.


I also had a chance to examine their camber setting tools: the Gunson bubble type is cheap, but you would struggle to read it to within 1/2degree, and although the digital gauges read to 0.1degree I would still need some way of fixing them to the wheel. I already have a Wixey magnetic digital angle-gauge that reads to 0.1 degree(that I've previously used stuck to a length of angle iron cable-tied across the wheel), so at upwards of £70 I couldn't justify buying anything new. Some thought and scratching around in my stash of useful stuff, and I made this out of a 90mmx25mm thick aluminium blank, a sheet steel disc and a neodymium magnet all epoxied together:





and the other side





The 64.8x12.7mm boss fits into the centre hole of the wheel, and the magnet holds it against the hub. Zero the angle-gauge on a straight edge across the strut tops, and once stuck to the steel disc it will display the camber:





Works really well if you don't lose the bloody thing between finishing it on Tuesday evening and wanting it Wednesday    


So those pics are of a second one I made this afternoon. Hopefully the first one will now reappear.

And I know making it of steel would save sticking on the steel disc, but I already had these blanks and only small magnets which probably wouldn't be strong enough.

25

Omega General Help / Poly bush preparation

« on: 29 January 2016, 23:06:09 »

I refurbished my wishbones with new rear bushes, ball-joints and poly fronts about 4 years ago. Replacing the rear bushes was an easy job in the press, but it's too small to do the fronts. So I spent ages cutting the old ones out. I know the guide reckons that's doable on the car, but there is no way I'd do it like that.


Now the rears are knackered again, and I'm not too keen on the ball-joints so I bought a new pair of wishbones(plus droplinks and tie-rods). I'm going to reuse the poly bushes, which means removing the existing ones.


I'd hoped to use my bearing puller set:





but the sleeve is too big a diameter  to fit on the wishbone.


So I machined a corrector to help:





This was from a 25mm thick 'washer' which I picked up somewhere. Unfortunately, it turned out to be some awful work hardening stainless, so it took bleedin' ages to enlarge the central hole to 60mm!


A drive piece is needed for the other end, so I repurposed an existing tool:





Assemble with some studding and a couple of nuts:





A few seconds with an impact wrench and a spanner







Now, with this tooling, I would be prepared to do this job without removing the wishbones from the car!

26

Omega General Help / Headlamp refurbishment: some thoughts

« on: 10 January 2016, 13:47:36 »

We know there are two problems with the Omega headlamps, broken adjusters and dull lenses. The maintenance guides offer useful advice to fix them, but here are my experiences having done 5 pairs in the last month.





Left to right: what the original adjuster should look like; what they usually look like; the aluminium replacement adjuster; and the recent resin adjuster.


The original ones are a hard plastic shell, and for various reasons crack and then break apart. The one in the photo is cracked, but  hasn't yet broken. The aluminium ones are clearly CNC machined from a 3D model, good quality and are a permanent fix. But they are now longer available.


The resin ones are solid, with a separate metal ball inserted. The mould they are cast in was clearly taken from an original which had been adjusted to suit the process. Although not as well made, they fit well and are likely to be reliable. They are also slightly cheaper than then aluminium ones were. Both benefit from a little fettling; run an M5 tap down the threads and remove the sharp edges with a fine file:







Push the clip onto the adjuster, and using a 4mm allen key screw it onto the thread:





These are very low geared, and using a small electric screwdriver is a good idea.


Clean all the components and reassemble the lamp.


I found that they easiest way of removing and refitting the lens was to heat the entire lamp in the oven for 10minutes at 100C; once you've released the clips you can push the lens off/on with your fingers.

27

General Discussion Area / I feel better already!

« on: 14 October 2015, 19:43:31 »

I've been feeling unwell/jaded/burntout for most of this year, which I suspect(hope!!!) is the last 12 years of minimum 60hour weeks plus on-call nights catching up with me.
So, yesterday I handed in my notice and find myself unemployed for the first time ever. I'm writing off the rest of October, and will be looking for work that doesn't take as much time.
What surprises me, is that my family, friends, colleagues and even my (now previous) boss have all said that it's about time I did this.


I feel better already!!!!

28

Car Parts, bits For Sale & Wanted / Wanted: rear bumper

« on: 12 September 2015, 21:34:51 »

For a facelift estate.


Silver would be good


Thanks,
Nick

29

Omega General Help / External trim removal

« on: 10 September 2015, 09:54:06 »

I've been putting off sorting the scruffy wheel arch for some time. Looking down the side of the car there are lots of little dents and other small damage, so it makes sense to paint the entire side. This will make the colour match less critical.

I would prefer to remove rather than mask stuff, so my questions are:
   Is the trim under the rear side-window easy to remove, and if so how is it done?
   How are the door mirror casings removed, as it would make sense to paint my good ones whilst doing this job. Mine are both damaged, and are stuck on.

The car is an estate, as well as in a state

30

General Car Chat / Don't ignore odd noises!

« on: 26 August 2015, 22:09:11 »

I noticed it earlier, and then tuned it out.

Now I'm sitting at the end of a residential cul-de-sac in a 7.5ton truck with 4snapped propshaft bolts. Getting it is going to be interesting, and the wrecker isn't likely to get here before midnight which is going to make us really popular!