dinkus

You're going to be looking at another £400 or so for a clutch and timing chain parts. FYI Stealth charge circa £700 for the job all-in, but no idea on a yokel place.

40 square feet and sludge?? How many cars are you doing? :lol: I'm not sure if you're aware, but the front of the car (from the rear footwells forward) have got carpet, bitumen backed matting (about 2cm thick) then a thick gooey layer of wax before you get down to the metalwork. I'd avoid going in there cos it's going to be very messy and you won't really gain much from doing-so. Would be interesting to see how you get on with the goo though - is it Spectrum, or Spectrum Sludge? Either way, I don't think you can/want to put Damplifier over the top, so that would leave just the boot sides, rear 1/4s and doors to coat with Damplifier... which is no more than 20sq ft max :lol: Could be an interesting experiment to use it as underseal though... hmmm...

Yeah, I'm looking at swapping it for perhaps a Becker Grand Prix, but really not sure. I'm trying to not look into it too much, otherwise I'll end up buying one and I need to spend the money on other things first :lol: As I've got cloth, I'm hoping the old Luxury Liner Pro will work as a nice substitute for that leather door-card padding and give me a nice quiet ride...we shall see though.

Nah, they all do that at low revs, so nowt you need to worry about. TBH a service is basically just a lube/filter chance so won't make any difference to how it drives.

Yeah, I got a load of heavy-duty spray de-greaser from Audioscape (says Skins stuff on the invoice, but labelled as Audioscape own-brand). That cleared through the gunk nice and easily with the aid of a grubby rag or three. The bit below the side impact bar was particularly nasty. I got most of the wax off, but left a fine layer there (mainly cos I couldn't be arsed to get a scraper out). I left as much wax as I could in the bottom of the door while clearing out the gunk, then doused it all in Waxoyl after I'd put the sound deadening in. Oh and I also put a Skins wave diffuser along the lower part of the door at the end where the speaker goes (cut a sheet in half). It's eggboxy type foam designed to diffuse the backwaves from the driver. I agree that it does get into a world of diminishing returns though. I'm not really sure there's any point in doing under the rear seats and not even all that sure the boot floor makes much difference. However, I have noticed that cars with leather often sound much quieter than cloth - I suspect because the leather door cards are padded. Similarly, my last C didn't have any rear 1/4 panel deadening and I was still getting quite a bit of road noise - hence why I'm gonna slap some on this time and see what difference it makes. It's all a good bit of experimentation really :lol: And you're definitely welcome to have a listen when it's all in. After it's in and I've got the mechanical bits done, it'll be new head-unit time. The fancy DVD player I've got now is just that, but doesn't really sound all that great.

Again, no idea where it is on a valver, but on the VR it looks like it's a bastid of a job, but is actually fairly straight-forward. Just jack the engine up a bit and it clears the inner-wing and comes out easy.

Sounds like the engine's just coughing/spluttering because it's not designed to spin that slowly :lol: Give it more beans/put it in a lower gear. If the clutch is slipping, you'll get the revs going up, but not go any quicker, like if you keep your foot half on the clutch.

If you're not completely happy with their first offer, tell 'em to go forth and multiply and keep pestering. They'll probably give you a low-ball offer straight off and then take forever to get back to you with a new offer in the hope that you'll just give-in and accept. Pester like hell though and you'll get a decent amount out of them :)

Water pump All models excluding 2.9 VR6 037121010BX £28.30 £20.87 via TPS Prices are all plus VAT and from last year, so might not be a bit out of date. I've no idea where the pump is on a valver, but I wouldn't have thought it'd be much more than an hour's labour to change...?

Ahh see, you missed out there. I've also gone for the optional saluting Welsh Guard with mine so I get a stirring rendition of God Save the Queen and a snappy salute :lol:

Ye canne link to pictures on PH. Save and attach and/or link to the PH article instead...

Ah yes, torsional not tensional :lol: I thought that might be the case. The car had some plastic chrome cappy things on the bolts when I bought it, but they'd all split and had blu-tak on. Any idea where I might find such products in Stainless? I've had a quick search, but don't seem to be able to find anywhere in the UK. Edit: Actually, that's gonna be a bad idea. I wonder if it's possible to get the caps chrome plated instead?

You don't need any different stuff to do the boot, but as weight isn't as much of an issue there, I went for the full-on daddy stuff :lol: If you can do the boot floor, boot sides and behind the rear 1/4s that'll make a big difference to the noise. I only did the boot floor and under the rear bench in the last car, so this one's getting the sides done too. The Damplifier Pro is your normal sound goopy-backed, foil covered sound deadening stuff. If you're getting a bit silly then you can stick a layer of Luxury Liner or Luxury Liner Pro over the top to give it extra deadness. The LL Pro is heavy stuff! :lol: It's not cheap and if you want to get it in the UK, you need to buy it from Car Audio Direct I'm halfway through my install at the moment. Hopefully I'll get the doors finished off during the week and get on with the boot/rear 1/4s over the weekend, so can take pics and/or let you know how I get on with things.

I feel like such a tart for asking this, but does anyone know if you can get polished stainless steel wheel bolts? Are they of the correct torsional strength? My Compomotive MOs have the wheel bolts right on the face, so the polished zinc-plated bolts I got with them looked great for about a week and have now corroded... I was thinking some stainless ones would look much better for longer.

It's quite interesting actually - I'd just assumed that sound deadening was sound deadening and the price difference was all snake oil... But, I've just done my doors in Second Skin Damplifier (not the pro stuff) and despite being thinner and lighter than the Skins stuff I used on the last car, it's actually doing a much better job of deadening vibrations! (Got both cars next to each other, so it's not just my memory :lol: ) It's also pretty expensive stuff, but well worth it for the doors. If you put too much weight in there, it'll eventually make the hinges droop :( I've got me some Second Skin Damplifier Pro and Luxury Liner Pro for the boot :norty:

Yup, they still need to pay out the agreed value for the car. You then buy the car back from them for a certain amount and the two transactions should be independent of each other.

Ideally, if you've got the space - don't let them take it away and keep it yourself. Otherwise, give the insurance company a call and say you want to buy it back and they'll sort it out. Make sure you don't send the actual V5 off until you've agreed everything and got the car though.

Just had a look on ETKA - the only part on there is the whole throttle plate assembly for a million pounds :(

That's actually quite a cool idea 8) FYI - the plate holder is uh, a plate holder :lol: Plaketten just means badge or somesuch in German and are the 2 round things that go between the letters (look like this)

Looking very nice. I remember fitting those seats into scarlett's C! It does amuse me how parts do the rounds of forum members though :lol: I've got all manner of parts in my car(s) that I've had and sold and ended up with them again, or stuff that Kev's had and sold on to someone who'se sold them on to me.

Hehe oh yeah - shuffling around within the convoy and generally dicking about is most of the fun. I was just thinking of tips for keeping everyone together.

Oh that's far too cool! 8) If you were really bored, you could do a dubmeister type thing where you can pick and choose wheels/tyres/lights/etc and build your own virtual car...

In my MK2 Golf days, the quickest car was usually at the rear of the convoy :D ;) :)

As I've been in a fair few convoys now - some good, some bad - I just thought I'd compile a few tips on keeping a convoy together. Please feel free to suggest amendments/changes/stuff you think is wrong :) Planning the route Allow at least an extra 30mins or so for each meet-up point. You'll be surprised at how long it takes for everyone to turn up, go to the loo, refuel, eat a £12 9 day old sandwich, etc.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Plan rest and refuel breaks in advance so if anyone does get a bit lost they know where to head to and meet up again. Unless they are so off course they could never get there in time... but could at least report in and attempt to get back on track at the next stop.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Sensible distance refuelling stops should prevent anyone having to stop alone at a garage then driving like maniacs to catch up again.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Try to avoid rush-hour ;)[/*:m:3dkax5qd] General tips Make sure you've got a few people that know where they're going. Ideally, not just the guy at the front... if you don't know exactly where you're going then at least have a vague idea in case you get lost![/*:m:3dkax5qd] Get as many people's numbers as you can before you set off... or at least the numbers of the people that know where they're going[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Don't panic! Don't dive into spaces, jump lights and other silly things just because you're in a convoy. People will wait and you can always catch them up/call them.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Don't follow the car in front too closely - the only thing worse than a bent Corrado is a convoy of bent Corrados...[/*:m:3dkax5qd] If the person in front indicates, indicate too so that the person behind you can see the signal too[/*:m:3dkax5qd] If you're overtaking, stay out for as long as you safely can and keep indicating. It will help the people behind to overtake as well as they can see that the road ahead is clear, even if they can't see the road itself. Please don't completely rely on the person in front though - keep an eye out on what's going on and make sure you leave enough space to get back in if you need to.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] If you can also have someone else that knows where they're going as a sweeper at the back, that helps keep people together too. Ideally the guy at the back should be in one of the faster cars so they can keep up.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] If you've got some walkie talkies, they're always good fun to use[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Better yet, get someone to ride with you for company/ogling/goofing around with/picking silly music[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Tips for the leader The lead person should ideally be someone in one of the slower cars as you don't want them (often unintentionally) disappearing off into the distance.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Plan ahead - it's amazing how much time and space you need to get a convoy of cars into another lane or off at a junction. Try and keep the size of your convoy in your head when changing lanes and more importantly turning off at junctions. Make sure you leave ample time for the guys behind to get over safely. Similarly, don't jump lights and dive out of junctions where there's room for only one car.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] If you're getting off at a junction, indicate waaaay in advance so the message gets down the convoy and everyone knows what's going on. Sometimes it can be hard to tell if you're just pulling over to the inside lane, or actually indicating to turn off. If you indicate a long way ahead, they know they do need to actually get over and off.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Try and get a spotter with you who can keep an eye on the convoy and/or answer your phone/call someone if they get lost.[/*:m:3dkax5qd] Don't nail it. If you've just buried your foot into the carpet, every car behind has to go a little bit quicker to catch up. The whole convoy will then get strung out and the poor schmuck at the back will stand no chance of catching you.[/*:m:3dkax5qd]

It won't be perfect, but better than bare plastic...