Tracking

Needed to fiddle with the tracking today. Borrowed a mate's pit (thanks Adam/Alan) to tweak the steering column along to make the steering wheel straight.

We were anticipating a fight with the locknuts, but a dose of freeing oil and it came undone surprisingly easy.

Managed a quick look at the tranny fluid too. The dipstick is only accessible from underneath.

Level is ok and the colour is brownish. More importantly it doesn't smell remotely burnt.

I *nearly* succeeded. It's straighter than it was, but still a smidge off.

Anyway it gave me a chance to check the underneath - and I'm quite pleased. Seems fairly rust free, no leaks that I can see either...

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"New" tyres

Fitted some 'new' tyres to the front of the Barge today.

They are in fact second-hand tyres... but before you get all indignant and holier-than-thou these are GOOD second-hand tyres.

2x 205/55/R16 V Michelins with 7mm tread left.

I collected them from Stratford before Christmas, not too far away. The seller had to scrap his Alfa (!) because the turbo blew... I didn't enquire further but I think it was a 156. Having just changed the tyres he insisted on rescuing the tyres from the scrap man.

Anyway his loss is my gain, albeit after £62 had changed hands.

It was only today I got round to fitting them. I tried our local place which wouldn't touch 2nd-hand tyres: "we're not allowed to fit them". Nonsense - you are allowed to do whatever you like.

Anyway found a place in Leamington that did it for £20 cash - that'll suit me fine.

So, £82 for a pair of tyres that would have cost me £200 at Kwikfit. Not bad, I reckon. And people wonder why I bother with second-hand tyres!

In other news I took her out for a spin, and good job I did as it seems she doesn't like neglect. Haven't driven her for a couple of weeks and she sounded a bit reluctant to start at first. I might take the plugs out and clean/re-gap them and see if this helps.

I've recently been told *not* to use copper grease on the threads when fitting spark plugs... seems to go against the grain. However, this was to ensure the correct torque was applied - since I haven't got a torque wrench, this isn't exactly relevant.

Once she was going she went fine though - so I treated her to a full tank of Sainsbury's petrol and a 'Ultimate' car wash. This was mainly to clean the Devon mud off the underside, which was collected over the Christmas trip.

Economy is up to a 'massive' 26mpg... must've been the gentle run back from Devon, although I wasn't hanging about - probably doing 75-85mph most of the way.



Sadly, it's too dark to see if the wash actually made much of a difference!

Insurance - arrgh!

So we arrived back at home to discover a message from the AA. "Please provide further details of your no claims bonus".

Turns out you can't insure a second car using the first car's no claims bonus - 'mirroring' as it's called in the insurance industry.

This is clearly bollocks and simply a way for the insurers to make more money. However, I wasn't about to let them win.

After a little bit of research I found Peter Best Insurance were willing to give a classic car policy to the old girl. Apparently the no claims fuss doesn't apply, hence they won't be needing lots of paperwork faff.

What they *do* need is some signed and dated photographs of the car - printed on proper photographic paper. Front, back, the two sides and an interior pic. Fortunately the Ebay listing has all this already done for me so I just need to buy some paper and ink.

I've cancelled the AA policy and lost about £60 in the process - however the refund from that just about covers the new classic policy (£245), so I've not really lost anything.

She made it (part 2)

The Ovlov is BACK. Back in the Midlands after an arduous 700 mile round trip.

The Devon leg of the trip was seriously arduous for a 13 year old car: lots of very steep lanes with lots of mud.

This involved lots of use of '3' and 'L' gears (downhill) for engine braking - it would be nice if there was one in between 3 and L but it's fine and performed fautlessly.

Next job is to wash it - sounds like a job for New Year's Day if it's fine. It's covered in mud, as all cars are in the South West.

All this uphill struggling and slow hill work has taken its toll on the fuel consumption - last fill up dropped the average down to just 21mpg!

 

She made it (part 1)

The old girl made the trip from Midlands to South Coast. Didn't miss a beat.

One bad thing though: the v5 arrived yesterday. Guess how many previous owners? Six. SIX. Six careful previous owners.

I've been trying to imagine this history in my head: it averages out at about 2 years per owner doing 9,000 miles a year. Not so bad when you think in those terms.

I hope none of the previous owners were idiots, but the odds are stacked against me.

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To gas or not to gas?

If I find the Barge does turn out to be reliable and non-rusty, I will be:

a) delighted, and
b) in a quandary wrapped in a conundrum encased in an enigma.

As you may have gathered, I don't need two cars, so running one makes more sense. I'd love it to be the comfy, automatic, gadget-laden Volvo but I can't afford the 25mpg fuel costs.

However, if I were to sell the Peugeot, that would go some way to financing an LPG conversion. Diesel Pugs are in demand at the moment, just have a look on Autotrader for 306 2.0 diesels and see what traders are asking... £1,250+ for a good one, and mine is good-ish, if a little leggy at 105k miles.

But, the LPG conversion would probably cost more than the car itself.

Again I'm working in circles but it basically boils down to the fact that if the car is sound, it may be worth investing in.

I sent off for a quote from a nearby LPG conversion company just to get an idea of costs: £1,400 inc VAT apparently, but if I 'apply today' I get the VAT off.

I'm immediately suspicious of such an offer - why can't they just give me a sensible price and let me decide if I want to pay it?

I'd also like to do some of the conversion myself to save costs, but I probably haven't got the tools or the time to do it. Ho hum.

In other news I bought six months' tax: £118.50. If the Barge were registered after March 2001 that would be more like £200... another reason to buy the old girl.

More detective work on the Barge's history

Checking through the old invoices I have discovered the previous owner lived in a nice area of Bognor Regis. That's good, in that he was probably moneyed enough to look after the old girl, but bad in that Bognor is right next to the sea. The salty, corrosive sea.

I have first hand experience of this, having lived in Portsmouth for some time. The sea air definitely corrodes things faster than it would further inland - the first thing to go is brake discs.

I haven't had a look underneath yet to assess any rust issues but I'm hoping there's nothing serious. I don't have access to a ramp, but I suppose I could jack it up and just have a nose around in there.

For want of something to do today I checked all the fluids: all present and correct, and the oil looks pretty clean as well. One thing that's a bit crap is that the dipstick disintegrated in my hands - the plastic handle bit separated from the metal dippy bit.

I will give the local unfriendly Volvo dealer a call tomorrow, if my attempts to glue it back together fail. (I'm bound to fail as the surfaces will be all oily and won't hold a glue/epoxy.)



Other work: I undid the armrest/centre cubby cover. It's one of those types that pretends to do seven things at once, and does none of them well: it's a cupholder for the front AND rear passengers, and covers a deep cubby that is quaintly shaped to store cassettes.

Anyway it's broken on a number of levels: the catch that clips it down is broken, and the 'drawer' that holds the natty slide-out cupholder is starting to separate. Again, one for an attempt with glue/gaffer tape. I might even be a bit clever and try to include some plastic washers/rubber pads to stop it creaking.