The (sort of...) Jap scrap (sort of...) sensible turnip garage

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No, a bit further down. Machynlleth/Caersws/Bala/Dolgellau basically. Some of the best roads in Wales around there and generally quieter than up round Snowdonia.
 

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Poor thing was filthy as you would not believe, inside and out, after a few winter weeks in England taking in Yorkshire, Dorset, Cambridge and Wales. But have to say this must be the most forgiving colour in the world for not showing up all the dirt. Still took two days to clean, lol ๐Ÿ˜… ๐Ÿ™ˆHappily she scrubs up well. And yes, I know, the wheels are a due a refurb ๐Ÿคซ The dealer was supposed to refurb them as part of the deal but as far as I can tell that basically consisted of applying the equivalent of black Tippex, lol.

Before:

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After:

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Cleaned up the engine bay too because, well, just because :innocent: It's compact in there but well packaged and most things accessible. Note how far back the engine sits!

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And then the big update for this time - light bulbs! Changed all the interior bulbs, and the reverse bulbs, to LED. Night and day, literally! The standard incandescent bulbs were so feeble they might as well not be there. And often I actually thought they weren't working...

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She's very discreet for sure :innocent: But once you get in and drive nothing else matters, it's unreal how good it is. Immense through Wales, even on summer tyres in those conditions. Really lovely on the long motorway schleps too. Can't wait to take her to a track at some point.

Very, very few modern cars make you just want to go out and drive. Won't even need a whole hand to count them. This is one :cool:
 

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Yep, saw that today. Thought it might have been my old one but it isn't. But that's Emma cheekily in the reflection there getting a wee beauty treatment :innocent: Few more bits to do but not long now!
 

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I see Pete had them both on his FB "stories" last night. Generations :cool: I do miss the P* sometimes. One of the loveliest cars ever made, and drives like no V60 has any right to do. And THAT noise ๐Ÿ˜ But I don't regret selling.
 

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Like a proud father ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿคฉ ๐Ÿ˜Š

After paint at Nufinnish:

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And after prettyfication and ceramic coating at PMG, and refurbed wheels from Powdertech.

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Not often things turn out exactly as in the head at the start but wee Emma has ๐Ÿ˜

Next up - sort out a dodgy gear linkage. At least the pile of bits in the spare room is getting smaller ๐Ÿ˜… ๐Ÿ™ˆ
 

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@svensktoppen on a serious note would you ever consider organising or even help plan an RMS Sven Milk Run with a few members.

For someone like myself I would love a run like the wales you have done above but have zero knowledge of those areas etc. would be fun for 1/2 dozen cars to do it
 

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@svensktoppen on a serious note would you ever consider organising or even help plan an RMS Sven Milk Run with a few members.

For someone like myself I would love a run like the wales you have done above but have zero knowledge of those areas etc. would be fun for 1/2 dozen cars to do it
Thank you! Don't know about organising, just wouldn't have the time. But certainly happy to help with pointers, or even meet up somewhere.

So many nice routes and places here on Ireland. Never mind England, Scotland, Wales. And beyond. It's a fantastic country we live in. And still have tons of places I haven't been yet!

the t5r looking great ! paint always let mine down being black too but looked awsome in the right light
Thanks, yes, know all about black cars :innocent: ๐Ÿคซ Will be a nightmare to keep her this clean, lol, no free lunches there!
 
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T5R is awesome Iโ€™d love one. The noise is just something else from them. My father was a big Volvo fan and we had some amount of 240โ€™s and 740โ€™s back in the day.
 

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Really shouldn't have her out on the roads right now but couldn't resist. It's been far too long! Had almost forgotten how much fun this car is, just hilarious ๐Ÿ˜

Popped out for some milk. Over Ballygowan, Saintfield, and Ballynahinch; cross country to Hilltown; up to Clough and round the A2 over Ardglass to Strangford; Portaferry and across via Portavogie and Ballyhalbert; and then back over Newtownards and Crawfordsburn. As you do ๐Ÿ˜‡

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She's just back from another round of random updates. Basically some odds and ends left over from the last round.

An ancient gear cable finally gave up, and obviously new ones don't exist any more. I had new ones made up last year for spares, but they don't have the bulk head grommet which is a one-piece thing and part of the original cables. In the end there was a way to repair the old cables and that seems ok so far. See how long it lasts.

With it all out I had the gear knob taken off as well for refurbishment. Nothing wrong with it, just could do with sorting some chips in the lacquer. In theory it is just held on by a ring spring and pulls off the shaft. But if you pull from the top all that happens is the shaft gets pulled out of the shifter and wrecks the bushings there. So the only safe way to get it off is with it all out. Still nerve wracking considering there is no chance of ever finding a replacement. I saw one on auction in 2020 and that one sold for ยฃ650 then, lol. Don't want to even think about what it would fetch these days!

Also new stalks installed, and a new wiper relay. A VW one that's a straight replacement but has a variable rate interval wiper function. Basically you turn the interval wiper on and then straight off again; wait a bit; and then turn it on again. Whatever the wait was is now the interval. It's weird but it actually works, lol. A pita to change though - the relay panel is in the driver's foot well right up under the windscreen, and this particular relay is obviously right at the top. So I let Rick do that too ๐Ÿ˜…

And then he replaced the steering wheel. She had a wooden one from Japan. They're actually rare and sought after among Volvo folks but wrong for this car. Original T-5R wheels are obviously impossible to find so I got a standard wheel off Ebay and had it retrimmed by Royal Wheels in the original T-5R style. Came out a treat if I may say so myself :cool:

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I also have a front strut brace which she could really do with. They had this as standard but not present on this car. Original Volvo ones are obviously impossible to source, lol (there's a theme here!), but I got hold of an after-market one from Ultra Racing in America which allegedly fits RHD cars. Which it does. But unfortunately turns out it won't clear the ABS controller ๐Ÿ˜ข Might be possible to move the controller enough to clear, we'll see next time.

With the car back after all that the stereo wasn't working and was instantly blowing the fuse. So ripped it all out. Eventually turned out someone had reconnected the factory amp behind the centre console. It's dud in my car, but obviously they didn't know that. It's a pita to get to so I removed the whole thing. I have a replacement second hand one, and even an old but unused one (you guessed it, you can't get them any more! ๐Ÿ˜…), but I haven't dared installing either because I'm not sure about how to connect it without blowing everything up ๐Ÿ™ˆ That and the head-unit is pretty good and I'm not sure it needs the amp.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall:

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The little offender:

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Humpty Dumpty together again:

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Then the rear headlights... The way they are constructed, there are studs that bolt through the body. The studs are attached to the lights through wee plastic "cylinders". And when they are tightened up to the car, the studs break the plastic in the light assembly ๐Ÿ™ˆ Brilliant design! The thin plastic is hard to glue too.

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And of course... actually, the lights are still available, lol! The passenger side one was broken when I got the car, and I had already replaced that. Now the driver side had broken as well... So new one in there too. At least I know how to do them now without breaking it.

So anyway, milk bought, job done! Not sure, but there might just be room in the boot for one more bottle there ๐Ÿ˜‚

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Bit of a "fun" day today, lol.

Was up at Rick's to collect the Hondus wheels to get some new tyres on. No bother with the mighty Honda - that's four complete wheels and a full set of tyres in the boot with room to spare :cool:

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This is what a butt naked Hondus looks like :innocent:

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Getting a new clutch in to replace the absolutely awful pink Exedy. Nice standard blue Exedy instead. It might not last as long but so much nicer to drive. And a few other bits and bobs while in there.

Good news first - the transmission failure turned out to be a completely destroyed CV joint. Not the usual one though. The inner passenger one on this car is basically a consumable, lol, just from the angle they sit at. That one usually fails gradually and I know the signs so I can nurse it home and get it changed.

The others are usually fine. But this time it was the inner driver side one, and it completely disintegrated. Just shrapnel left in the boot. And with the Quaife that meant no drive and game over.

Normally I just replace the joints as they go but had a full set of shiny new driveshafts on the shelf so in they go (another long story to do with NLA parts, lol - old cars!).

But then he showed me this:

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Those are the remains of one of the VTec thingies (getting very technical here ๐Ÿ˜… ). And it was all in the sump... Ouch! Shattered rocker and scored cam to boot. She was flat out 8krpm in second gear when the CV joint went, and as that left the diff open the theory is she over revved. Still ran just fine though, I had no idea at all - got to love Honda :cool: So now the hunt is on for a donor head. Obviously all the parts are NLA from Honda.

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Final wee cheeky picture of Red in the display section of the Volvo car park :innocent: Unfortunately the attempted gear cable repair on Emma didn't work, or at least wasn't enough. So she's going back once Princess is done.

In the meantime I'll get Mitsi out tomorrow. Can't wait! Have a few jobs to do with her that I'm actually going to attempt myself - what could possibly go wrong ๐Ÿ˜…
 

gav525

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That's mad it still ran fine after that lol. Sounds like you got away lucky enough though, always good!
 

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It's a Honda, you can't break them :innocent: Well, short of picking first at 100mph or something, lol.

Yep, lucky escape there! Because it lost drive I've only really had it ticking over since. Its the v-tec yoke that's bust. All those wee pins, they open up and lock in when VTec kicks in. It's all part of the rocker so basically that valve has been stuck closed since. But it's scored the cam so that needs replaced too.

Race it, break it, fix it, race it again :cool:

Biggest problem is actually getting parts, it's all NLA from Honda now. Most of us don't think of EP3 as old cars but they are ๐Ÿ™ˆ
 

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Oh and Jonny just sent through this today :cool: Eight years since the Lotus became a Hondus!

For the archaeologists it's all at the start of this thread:

===

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Popped up round the coast last Sunday. And made some new friends :innocent:

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And round most of County Down yesterday:

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She really needs suspension, brakes, and the new wheels and tyres on. But even like this she's just such fun, basically a waterproof Lotus. Tiny too, yet loads of room inside. Very practical and sensible car! ๐Ÿ˜

Have been working away at some random small turnip proof jobs. First up - tunes! Have a nice Blaupunkt headunit I was going to use, but it has a fixed surround and has to be mounted from the front into a cage. And in this car the stereo bolts directly in at the back of the console with the facia going on top so that didn't work. Seems most headunits are like that these days... So I pulled an old Pioneer BT/DAB unit out of the Hondus and used that for now. Does the job, I now get Six Music through the single speaker in each front door (nothing in the back) - somehow modern entertainment wasn't high on the priority list with these cars ๐Ÿ˜… Even the phone works, stuck the microphone up on the visor out of the way.

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The usual Jap nest of worms ripped out and replaced while in there. This one was particularly bad ๐Ÿ™ˆ ๐Ÿ˜…

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Proper job off eBay. Honestly, how hard can it be? ๐Ÿ™ˆ

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Next up, new steering wheel in. Much better! (if I may say so myself)

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One of the rear wheel arch liners was missing so that went in. Easy once I stopped trying to fit a front liner in there ๐Ÿ˜‚ Honestly, I shouldn't be allowed out! There isn't much back there it turns out, just a wee cover for the gap behind the quarter panel.

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After that I had a go at getting new seats in. I did make a good effort, honestly! But the mounts will need a bit of "persuasion" so I'll leave that with someone with actual skill, lol. At least I had enough wherewithal to start with the passenger seat! Have it bolted in on one side only for now. They're lovely and actually easier to get in and out of than the Honda seats. Can't wait to get them in properly.

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Some basic security for now. Haven't used one of these in a very, very long time! Should hopefully keep the opportunists at bay at least. The locks on these cars are basically purely decorative, no central locking either. Manual winders, manual mirrors from outside only. Proper old school. Did I mention a waterproof Lotus ๐Ÿ˜‡

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Finally fitted shiny new wiper arms and blades. Even got the box of vital but rarely used tools out and grabbed the special puller, but sadly it wasn't needed and they just popped off. Ah well.

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The old manky ones for the box of spares. With old cars nothing ever gets thrown away!

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Thanks for reading :cool:
 
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