Ivan's coupe: bodywork is done

[Knudsen]

Ivan141 Wrote:AArghghhhHH...times are bad..
To top it all off my oil filler cap came off during a drive to the beach..I havent driven it far without it but you can imagine the mess it left under the bonnet

I can imagine it looking a bit like this...

[Ivan141]

Yes that looks familiar. You dont want to know how much oil I found under the sparkplug cover. There is still some left so I'll have to clean that off later today. The engine is starting to respond a little bit better again, but I think it really needs some detailed cleaning of electronic parts before I get it to run like it should again.
In the meantime I'm just lucky that there was no sand in the engine bay after the cap flew off...could have been much worse..

[robokill]

..... you don't check your car very often any more????

[Ivan141]

Infact I check it more often, hence my mistake after topping up the engine oil. I didnt screw the cap on tight enough I guess. I keep a close look at oil/coolant levels, temperature and pressure during driving as well.

[Ivan141]

Just brought my car to a garage for it's yearly MOT. It's a dreaded time of year where a garage takes a look at my car and look what they can find to make some money with (my opinion about the Dutch MOT system is not very high). Probably the usual swiss-cheese exhaust, possibly the soggy brakes, hopefully no rust that needs repairing.
I always get so damn anxious, I hope it'll come out without too much problems.

[Ivan141]

Ok...my mood is wrecked for the rest of the week. It failed the MOT miserably..(which I could see coming), but the worst part is where the mechanic started saying that it's a waste of money to try and get it back in good shape. I know that it's a money pit, but hearing this guy's opinion didnt help out much.

A short list of immediate problems:
-the exhaust (always has been a problem).
-the brakes: I cant get the air out of my system no matter how hard
I try bleeding them. The pedal just stays soggy. Parking brake cables are stretched and dont work well enough any more.
-tires (have plenty of those)
-rear stabiliser mounting point on the right is loose (broken bolt, have had this for a while).

That's all they bothered to look at...they didnt charge me for the check-up either (he said they felt like they should be giving me some money if I want to get it fixed up).

I'm so fucking depressed...I know that much worse cars have been restored by some of you guys, but my hopes for keeping it on the road on the short term are a bit broken.

[Dorito86]

Ivan, please hang in there man. Is there no way to take it off the road for a while, get some money together and do a good restoration?

[Mux213]

Ivan, keep your hopes up man, you're car aint that bad, these problems can be solved and the shell itself may have a few bits of rust that need to be worked at but nothing major.

The exhaust is expensive but the rest should be very doable. The broken bolt we just need to drill out (and bring the right tools this time ), the brakes indeed is a strange one but I can't think of anything else then a broken brake booster and didnt you have one of those ordered already?

[Ivan141]

It's difficult for me to do that, because I need transportation. Seems like I might need to start using public transport. I think that I can get the car approved at the dodgy garage that also did the volvo 360, but I'm going to have to start doing some major work on the hachi soon.

[jamiemirror]

Ivan,

Quote:the brakes: I cant get the air out of my system no matter how hard
I try bleeding them. The pedal just stays soggy. Parking brake cables are stretched and dont work well enough any more.

Check the brake master cylinder.