cheers John,
I am looking at the fiberglass atm...
I've never had used it before..but I'm sure it'll come in handy for the future.
My car is worth £75 (I've just insured it , and that's what they reckon the
value is)... but what I like about it, is it is very simple to fix (no abs, no power steering, no air con, etc)
I fix computers every day for a living , so I do like the old skool spanner fixes and the simplicity of it.
I do wonder whether there is a market these days, for a simple car, with no OTT computerized sensors to see if the computerized sensors are computerizing properly ;)
A simple car where people can do diy fixes at home..
I'm looking , well, half looking , at the auto electrician route
..... but that may be one day in the future....
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My car is worth £75 (I've just insured it , and that's what they reckon the
value is)... but what I like about it, it is very simple to fix (no abs, no power steering, no air con, etc)
The Pug 106/Saxo were great cars for being easy to repair and parts were/are cheap too. One of the main areas of body rot is around the 3 grommet holes directly behind the front wheels, One reason is it gets grit blasted from small stone etc from the front wheels and the other reason is people tend to use it as a jacking point although it really is not a good place to jack up on and not recommended by the manufacturers as a jacking point.
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Hi WackyRacer,
to be honest , I only found out the jacking up points last year...
and even now, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right.
There's a \~/''''\~/ underneath, and I was using the middle bit, ''''.
I now use one of the \~/ and I would guess that that is the one.
Also, the rear wheel arch / boot side is prone to have a hole.
I'm half hoping that it does need welding ... as it'd make me get my hand in
my pocket and get some hobbyweld argon & 0.6mm wire, to give it a go.
I can't weld too good at all... but itwould be a project , and would force me to improve and learn the learning curve !
I would've thought by now, that "they " would've made a gel which solidified into metal , by the appliance of current...
that would be pretty awesome !
something of the ilk of
www.ted.com/talks/joe_desimone_what_if_3d_printing...n
( about 7:00, if people are in a rush )
Cheers
Liam
Edited by liammcl on 21/02/2016 at 15:37
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I'm looking , well, half looking , at the auto electrician route
..... but that may be one day in the future....
I'm an OAP and share your wish for simple cars (actually, I have one - my old TR7. The engine management system is two pieces of wire, one of which I pull when starting cold). Gone are the days when one could crawl under a car (my old Ford Pop), remove the gearbox, replace the first gear cog with missing teeth and put it back again, with no special training apart from the ability to read and understand a Haynes manual.
Although my generation with an interest in mechanics, brought up on Meccano and toy trains, can save lots of money doing our own service and repairs, the workings of 'computers', whether in the house or in cars, are by and large a closed book. So if you can master car electrics you'll never be short of work! It is highly remunerative - any recourse to 'diagnostics' seems to result in humungous bills.
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Hi John,
what a great car the TVR7 is !
I did have my eyes on one a while back.... I was amazed by the pop up eyes ! I wish now that I had tried more of the 1980s 1990s cars...an old style scirocco , or a cortinas, etc, but they passed me by !
I had a austin princess as the first car.
My job, fixing computers, seems to have had its day... I've been doing it for 30 years ! . Now I'm looking to do something else to keep the wolves from the door.
Just last night, I've been reading Hillier's automotive books ...I started "Powertrain Electronics",
....and within a few pages , .....an apt quote
"In fact, consumer expectations for more and more electronically controlled vehicle systems is only matched by the desire of vehicle
manufacturers to sell more and more of these systems to
the consumer.
When new or improved systems and features are developed, the vehicle manufacturing and sales industries are only too willing to offer them to consumers, who then develop an expectation."
Can you imagine a simple car, which is easy to fix, and cheap to repair by dealerships, mechanics, or old skool tinkerers?
The emissions would be a problem, apparantly,
but maybe there could be a box of tricks at the end of the ehaust to chemically, or catalytically neutrlize the baddies?
For me , who was not mechanically minded at all... the 106 was a god send, as it forced me to learn how to do things, since things kept breaking and falling off :)
(to be fair, it had issues when I bought it from the garage..eg both back brakes not working at all)
A trial of fire was when the timing belt snapped within 4 days of having it.
To show you how clueless I was, it is a 1.1 petrol engine, and I could hear a whoosing noise (from the belt) but thought it was just the turbo kicking in ! :)
Anywho, now, with Youtube videos on almost everything, it is possible , given enough time and energy , to become handy in most things !
s103.photobucket.com/user/liammcl_2006/media/Head%...2
I do feel this generation is missing out on the fun of fixing things....it is good for the character, and the soul...if not the knuckles ;)
I wonder if there is a market for a return of a fiesta popular , old style
or something of that ilk? A simple car for simple jobs.
i103.photobucket.com/albums/m147/liammcl_2006/Wipe...g
In a few years, I really hope there are still 1990's/early 2000s cars available to buy, as I would probably be shocked by the amount of money I would have to pay for surpless electronics which , to me, complicate functions just for the sake of complicating them !
All the best
Liam
Edited by liammcl on 21/02/2016 at 15:24
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ps, just for info...
in the end, I used some instant gasket, masonry paint & a pineapple tin lid :)
(I was a bit concerned about the sticky out bits , of the half bike seat post, ....and also the rain could get down the side of the bolt )
I put loads of instant gasket on the back side where the bolt and plate meets the body..
s103.photobucket.com/user/liammcl_2006/library/Rus...1
and as a bonus, now, the car has a lovely smell of pineapples :D
Cheers all
Liam
Edited by liammcl on 25/02/2016 at 23:59
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