The Car (and jeep)

[FarmerPug]

I havent done nothing to the car, i plan to get the door skin seals and new clips to stop some rattling. But all seems good, and i went into the kitchen and found one of these:

an eagle i believe, so i fed it some grainy bread, white bread isnt good for birds, i learnt that after 2 of my hens died from eating white bread.

[steve_earwig]

Better off feeding it cat food. Or feeding it to the cat...

[FarmerPug]

The dog seen it, and the dog would normally have a go at catching rabbits, rats and mice, but with this he just sniffed it and returned in front of the fire and went to sleep, wasnt worth the effort of eating. But it was a nice birdie i wouldnt want the dog to eat it.

[FarmerPug]

My uncle bought me a new battery for xmas, through the farm supplies shop so got it for £48 Brand new, look its even cleaner than the car:

Now for a picture of the old battery, which produces a spark when one bridges the 2 metal connections at the end of it, meaning its going to be used in the suzuki:

And an empty box:

i decided to use cable ties to hold the red/brown wires for the leds/internal 12v supply against the sidewall of the battery box, just to keep it out of sight and tider under the bonnet, but i dithered about and it got dark by the time i finished:

much tidier this way and with the battery in place hidden, but still not suceptable to being frayed because of the shape of the battery this place isnt somewhere the battery exerts pressure upon:
The new battery in place:

Stuff to keep the terminals from corroding:

apparently it also keeps your skin healthy. Then with the battery cover on, the new battery is completley hidden as are the unsightly wires:

Now the car starts in the same manner as before, ie on the first turn of the key with perhaps 1-2 seconds turn of the starter. The test will come in the real cold, but i wouldnt mind changing the heater plugs, are they hard to do, ie as easy to change as spark plugs?

[Welly]

If the car starts ok then I'd leave the glow plugs alone, if one gets stuck in the head you'll be sorry

I broke my battery-holding-down strap by over-tightening the thing.......some crafty use of big tie-wraps later and it was all good again

[FarmerPug]

The battery holdererrerer downer thing i hate these, on old cars like the suzuki because the battery in them goes flat so often and i need to swap it over for a charged battery. But hopefully this new battery wont need taking out for at least 3 years, only 1 of the screws seemed happy about moving on its own the other would have needed me to hold a nut on the other side with a spanner, and i was already using that specifc spanner on the top. Another issue with the new battery was the negative terminal was actually a bit loose, so it had to be tightned in a bit with pliers, now its good 'n' tight. I see 2 of the clips holding the battery cover into the box, have broken off and remain in the box, so a bit of superglue will be used some day for that unless its not a superglueable plastic.

Im still interested in changing the glow/heater plugs, ill have it to do sometime eventually so why not let it be now before i go off the idea. And ive changed the spark plugs in a suzuki 1.3 engine, and on a vw t2 so it gives me a 2 spanner rank according to the haynes system, then when i took the engine out of the jeep i became 3 spanners. But still dont know much about the glow plugs.

[Welly]

When you reach mu age you'll bevcome a 'complete spanner'

I think the trick with glow plugs is to give 'em a good soak in WD40 or something a day or so before 'the removal' to reduce the risk of them shearing off in the head. I'm not saying they get stuck a lot but the risk is there.

You could ask Jasper for some advise here as he's done a shed load more than anyone else I imagine.

[steve_earwig]

Perhaps it might be an idea to do it whilst the engine is out & easy to work on, rather than two years down the line when they're seized in even worse

[FarmerPug]

Ive no intention or need to remove the engine of my car, where are the glow plugs located, surely a consumeable part (im assuming heater plugs are changed routinley) like them is located in an accessable place, i have no idea what they look like though because my mechanical knoledge is limited to a lawnmower engine, and a suzuki engine.

[waue1978]

That's a rather large tub of vaseline you've got there...

[Doggy]

Indeed.

[FarmerPug]

yip, seen it in shop, and recall james may using it for the distributor cap in his suzuki, so i bought a big tub and did the same to my distributor, then ive also used some to keep the door seals fresh. On a few battery terminals, a squeaky door hinge, the internal components of my anchient record player have got some to keep it going smooth. And thats whats left in the tub, plenty for a nice sandwhich.

[FarmerPug]

I wanted to sort out the rear speaker grilles so heres a few pics to show whats wrong:

it doesnt sit flush.

look at the difference:

terrible isnt it, the car might just need towed away to the scrap yard right away, and it got worse:


the jbl signs were worn away, terrible isnt it.
So out comes the parcel shelf, this bits useful to you folk who want to know how to take it out, so heres a sort of in depth guide to removing it even though the level of detail is completley unnecessary it cant do no harm. First start with a pry tool:

Open the boot of the car by pushing the button in the middle of the boot which is the name of the panel at the back end of the car, other noticeable features to distinguish it as the back of the car may be an exhaust pipe and red lights, in this compartment known as the boot, or trunk in america you will find 2 red handles located at the top of the boot, pull on them to release the lock holding the rear seat backrests in place, which will allow them to fold down giving access to the fixtures holding the parcel shelf into its designated place.
TOO MUCH DETAIL, lets try less.
Flap the rear seats down, then pry out the seatbelt surrounds:


let the seatbelt pass through the break in the middle:


repeat steps for the 3 seatbelts in the back.
Now take out the 3 black rivet clips in the back, pull the centre out, then pull the whole clip out like this:



take all 3 of these out.
Now the tricky part, pull the bit of the shelf closest to you out clearing the seat catches:

now pull the whole shelf up, with most of the lifting done to the corners or else this can happen:

with the clip side end of the parcel self cleared, now pull it towards you ie towards the front of the car, to let it clear the slies at the front. And you will see something that looks like this:

now the seatbelts are holding it in place, you have some options, either cut the seatbelt, cut the shelf, or just undo the bolt holidng the seatbelt in place, i chose to unbolt the seatbelt at the floor mounting point which meant taking out the seatbase, which allowed a good discovery. So with the seatbelts loosened the parcel shelf will come right out, in my case i have used pink grip and bits of ice lolly stick to hold the grille in place tighter which will be shown tommorow. But with the seat base out i discovered this:


nothing serious just a bit of surface rust i assume caused by the leaky door, ive scraped at it with a wire brush and its cleaning up well, so its basically just some brown but light surface rust, what should i do though, should i completley remove all the rust, and apply waxol, or is there any other combination of paint i need to use such as primer and a colour. Keeping in mind this is inside the car, im no expert here at paint, and bodywork all im capable of doing well is removing this rust with the wire brush and some sandpaper.
Also ive been driving without the parcel shelf and rear seat base in place until the pink grip dries, and obviously until this other issue is sorted, but its amazing the difference they make to refinement, without the rear seat base id swear the back door was missing theres that much road noise.

[FarmerPug]

rust sorted, now back to the serious issue, the parcel shelf, and even more serious the jbl badges, i started off with my pallete, and a brush, thats the joy about working on a french car its can be turned into a bit of art:

the tools actually used:

initial ballsed up attempts, which were undone with alcohol wipes:


even ballsed up the logos look good.
and now some final draft finshed logos, which takes a fine brush, and a very steady hand:



since even that small blob of paint was drastically too much for the job the rest was used for this fine piece d'art, its called 'le voiture et les orieaux et finale une doodle':

open to offers, anything above £10000 considered
And remember about the corners creasing if the parcel shelf is pulled out wrong, with it out, pump pink grip into the holes caused by the crease in the corners, get a block of wood on the carpet side, and clamp it into place overnight:


solid as a rock now, pink grip is mighty stuff once it sets:

and finally the back of the speaker grilles to show it glued down firmly into place:

and thats it, the parcel shelfs still out of the car as im waiting for the jbl logos to dry, they are too fiddly to do while the parcel shelfs in place, and they do look much better when painted.

[FarmerPug]

heres a sneaky solution against the frost. -10 this morning, and here was the car:

opened the doors, lifted the blanket away, and i was ready to drive:


Yeeeah the frost doesnt stick to my windscreen.