I fitted my refurbed alloys yesterday.
On the car they are considerably greyer than my originals?

Item 11 ticked off for now

Fitting the alloys I established I need a new wheel bearing on the o/s/r. Is it better to fit both sides at the same time?

Used some "Black Colour" polish this evening on the door pillar covers and mirrors. Pretty pleased with the result, simples.

While you're at it, the rubber trims around the quarter lights and screens respond well to a tube of black shoe-cream

Shoe cream?
The black car polish seemed to work well on the window frames and quarter lights.
With the refurbed alloys and a bit of polish here and there, she's beginning to look not half bad!
I'll need to start working on sprucing her up under the bonnet next....

Bonnet? Can one actually open it?

You mean there's something in there

Yes, it looks flipping complicated under there!

Took the Porto along to Bathwick Tyre & Battery today, for them to take a look at why my exhaust is moving?
Having taken a look last week, I was hoping it needed a hanger repairing...
Turns out the welds in the mid box have come away!
The system, I believe is a Lifelong stainless steel one.The "Lifelong" warranty only applied to the previous owner .
According to the mechanic it could be welded, but might not last long...

Update - edit function not showing on original post?

Items 6 (New Brakes & pads ), 11, (Refurbished Alloys), 12, (Repaired exhaust) plus additional item 18 - Wheel bearing all completed.

The repaired exhaust and new rear wheel bearing has transformed the car....happy days!

Well in an effort to tidy up my garage today, I brought the Porto out of her hiding place and after later in the day spraying off some of the garage dust, I decided to take her for a brief run around the Forest of Dean this evening.
Listening to the 5 cylinder warble again after about a month off, was just great!!!

great stuff brilly! keep it up
regards mitch

Having cleaned the car inside and out over weekend, I came across some tyre dressing today and applied it in a spare couple of minutes to the Coupe's wheels.
It's amazing how something so simple and costing so little, can immediately improve the look of the car!

I am thinking I want to get some of the minor dings sorted now....
However the priority is to find a fix for the airbag dash light that has been on since I acquired the car, but is now an mot fail

Going to have another go at sorting out the washers, this pm, by fitting a new y junction.
Fixed them last year, but they are no longer working properly with the n/s wiper having no water emitting at all.

Well through a process of elimination, I think I have found the problem, being a blocked valve. The force of washer jet is not great though!

That said, now the car won't start!

It is turning over but not firing up? Thinking maybe I have flattened the battery, a tad, whilst testing the wipers , as the car has been in the garage all last week and so I've put it on the charger.
Lots of clicking noises coming from under the passenger seat???

Put the battery on charge and after a couple of hours, she started no problem? Back safe in the garage!

Porto is off to Bromyard next week (Joe) to see how she is and to see what is the plan of attack is going forward?
I'll let you how we get on!!!!
The first priority is to get her through the MoT, plus find out why the throttle has been sticking open?

Good luck, hope you make it through the storms let alone the MOT!

Thanks Simon, hopefully things will have died down by Wednesday???

Fresh Mot today via FCSS in Bromyard.

Whilst there, Joe and Dan gave the car the once over.

Mine has a few issues, but hopefully all is not lost!
Joe patiently talked me through what needs attending to and in which order.
My original "To do list" had 15 items on it and now I can work my way through 16 more!!!
(To be fair, there is some duplication!!!! )

Dan, has sorted out my washer jets, which after my own botched efforts, are great to have working properly, so no more excuses for not taking her out in unclement weather...

Thanks also for the loan car, my first experience of a N/A, which I thought had nice handling, well sorted brakes, it made a nice noise, but perhaps previous loanees have given the clutch too hard a time!!!!

Oh and very embarassingly, my sticking throttle was put down to the drivers mat jamming the throttle on!!!

Thanks for popping up top see us yesterday Mark, to be fair your Coupe is in pretty good condition for it's age and mileage. We see many horror stories that look lovely on top but come the underside they're untouched, and in some cases covered in layers of under seal that have been applied over serious corrosion issues much like the example I showed you on my PC yesterday.

There's a few jobs that need tackling asap but other then those nothing drastic.

Happy driving

Cheers Joe
I came away with renewed enthusiasm for the old girl and so no doubt I'll be back in touch soon.
Did you have any concerns about the compression test?

All jet washed and chamoised before put away in the garage for the week.
I need to start thinking how to go about cleaning up some of the rust under the bonnet?
I'd like to clean up the area around the horns and brackets.
Should I use an electric drill with a wire brush/emery cloth type attachment?
Any "how to do's" on here?

I painted kurust on the brackets then black hammerite....

the horns themselves came up a bit even if the ageing bakelite was threatening to crumble....

Cheers Simon
I'll use your before and after pics as inspiration!
Need to look out your krusty kurust!

Following a couple of episodes of having a flat battery, my old chap popped by and showed me how to use a volt meter to test whether a) the battery had any life and b) whether the alternator was charging the battery.
(You don't learn these things with a newer car )

The conclusion is the existing battery is probably on the way out if it cannot hold a charge after a week's lay up?

As I don't think my original Clarion radio/cd/stereo has a security code, swapping to a new battery should not cause the usual problems of resetting things?

It will just forget the prestored stations you might have saved.

Cheers Barnacle.

Made a start on re-furbishing the horns today. As you can see they are in quite a state!

Started by spraying on plenty of WD40 to help free off the nuts.
The first obstacle was one of the 10mm nuts which hold the horns to the brackets, had rounded edges and all my 10mm sockets and ring spanners, kept slipping off !!!!
Eventually I found a socket which held firm and was able to free the nuts to remove each of the horns, after disconnecting the electrical clips.

Once the horns were removed I turned my attention to the brackets themselves.
However I then noticed water seemed to be poring out from somewhere at the bottom of the washer bottle? I believe the pump must have come dislodged, but initially I thought the washer bottle had a leak!

So I then set about looking to remove the washer bottle.
When trying to remove the electrical regulator box which sits on top of the washer bottle, one of the Phillips screws had already been rounded off?

To try to help loosen off the remaining screw, I set about using a small hacksaw to create a groove for using a flat bladed screwdriver. Despite this I could not remove the screw. However with the other screws removed, I was able to free off the regulator box. (Cheers Dan!)
I set about loosening the remaining bolts and with the expansion tank lifted out of the way, I was able to wriggle the washer bottle free.

With it removed, I could see it was not split, but presumably the washer pump must have been dislodged enough for water to escape?
Whilst removed, I tried to give the bottle a good clean. On the inside, mould and algae has gathered up and is very difficult to get too!

Unfortunately I did not have the appropriate brushes for getting all of the dirt out and will have to have another go!

Looking closely at the horns, I am not sure they are able to be fully restored?
I may go on and look out for new alternates for now, with a view to stripping the originals right down, if that is possible without wrecking them?

Bought some new horns from Halfords yesterday, but not sure I can bring myself to put them on as they look very loud (no pun intended) in bright red plastic and a chrome grills!

I also picked up a tub of some Hammerite rust remover.
It says it is a non drip gel(?). Does it work? Has anyone tried it?
Joe at Bromyard says I need to have a look at some rust which has started coming though in my boot!!!!
Frightened once I start, I'll be covering the whole car in gel?