Seanl82's ringer Storm

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

Complete with elbow pads?

[GrahamU 5]

Just bought a Saab. :silent:

 

 

Aero?

[seanl82 23]

Nope!

 

Its a Vauxhall in drag, AND a soot chucker!

 

Mk2 (2006) 1.9 TID. Its for the missus honest!

 

Tbh, she's been driving a mk1 Fabia for the past year, and now we have two kids, its nowhere near big enough, so HAD to get a decent sized family car.

I had one in 2.0t flavour five years ago, and I honestly loved it, but at the time I just couldn't really afford to run it.

I've hankered after another for a while now, and since we realised the Fabia really was too small (we kind of kidded ourselves it would be ok), I've been looking for something that either doesn't cost the earth to buy, or doesn't cost the earth for her to insure.

Since Saab have gone bust, prices have absolutely plummeted! It is sooooooo much car for the money its unreal, and the bonus is that its actually cheaper, yes cheaper for her to insure than a 1.4 8v bloody Skoda!

The reason we got the Fabia in the first place, was that insurance over comparable cars (Fiesta, Corsa, Polo etc) was absolutely spot on! The Fabia was literally half the price to insure of those above. (She had three accidents in her first year of driving!)

Its a PX that hasn't been listed yet and hasn't been prepped, so got it for a good price, and got a good price for the Fab too, although its pretty mint tbf. The Saab on the other hand is quite grubby, but luckily being confident with a Rotary and some good products, I'll have it sorted in a jiffy!

 

I'll stick a couple of pics up after I collect it tomorrow.

[seanl82 23]

Well heres the new daily for the missus. I cycle to work most of the time so don't really use the car an awful lot except the occasional social outing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plan is just to give it a good service and a full interior, exterior, and engine bay detail in the next couple of weeks, then get rid of the registration back to a standard plate as neither me or the wife are called Des! :camp: :lol:

 

Its got CD/MP3, folding mirrors, electric everything, parking sensors, duel climate, half leather, cruise control, amongst others, and all for the princely sum of £1400!

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

That's a lot of car for the cash and running it should be cheap!

[seanl82 23]

Exactly, shoulder pads n all! lol

 

I did notice on the way back though that half way down on the clutch pedal travel is a slight rumbling. I didn't notice it on the test drive, and I drove it for a good few miles. Seems its an early sign of DMF wear..................oh dear!

 

Not having much luck with cars lately, although tbf, I reckon its got a good few miles in it yet.

Indie prices for replacement of clutch and DMF are around the 1k mark, which would bring it into line price wise with whats on the market in comparable condition and mileage, and at least I know its done and probably never need doing again. I've got the means to do it myself though, so I could do it for half that with a day or two of my free labour!

 

Theres no juddering at low revs or anything like that and its barely noticeable. There's no clutch slip at all either, but I'd replace that anyway whilst doing it as its the original I think. Either way its not presenting itself as urgent so I'll put that off for a little while yet!

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

I'd say it more than likely a clutch release bearing. DMF issues tend to be noticed more at idle. Don't worry about it, life's too short and the car's too cheap to be an issue.

[clumpy1 11]

^^ This won't b clutch mate mine does it slightly as well not a worry just a niggle ;)

[seanl82 23]

Massive thanks to Kip who sent me another ABS Controller to try, unfortunately there is no change. Think I'll look for a new loom, but for the time being I've fudged something together in the workshop that will get it through the MOT. Ask no questions, you'll hear no lies......................:ignore:

[holeinmk1 0]

Ask no questions, you'll hear no lies

 

Wise words, wise words indeed :-)

[seanl82 23]

Been trying to find things to do that don't cost any money as I'm loath to spending money on it until its back on the road. MOT is booked again for Monday at 11, so fingers crossed it goes through this time with my ABS light fix..................

 

Anyway, had some Redline MT90 gear oil that I was gonna put into the Valver last year just before it was written off, so decided to do that today. No discernible difference, gear stick is pretty vague anyway so new linkage bushes will hopefully sort that, as well as one of Dave16's short shifter in the not too distant future.

I've got some rattle cans from Paints4u to tidy up the areas of lacquer peel too, so hopefully start that next week. Its a temporary measure until I can afford a full respray, just to make it look a little more respectable and less haggard!

Other than that, I've just been washing the dust off of it twice a week where its been sitting unused. :eek::(

 

Can't put any of the photos up as I've reached my photobucket download limit for the month! :scratch:

[seanl82 23]

IT PASSED THE MOT!!!!!! :cheers: :dance::dance::dance::dance::dance:

 

 

Updates to follow..........

[axcel01uk 0]

Congrats all that hard work paid off you can finally start to enjoy driving it now

[seanl82 23]

Congrats all that hard work paid off you can finally start to enjoy driving it now

 

Cheers, yeah I was over the moon although I'm taking I'm doing a little paintwork the rest of the week so I won't be using it now! It actually failed this morning at 11. I did all pre-checks and all was good, although one of the sidelights was out at first, but came on after I switched to main beams then back again. All seemed good, and ABS light was behaving.

 

Got to the MOT centre thinking all was well, then the ABS light refused to come on, and the sidelight didn't work! :mad2:

 

Booked it back in straight away for half 3, then whizzed back into work. Took the sidelight out, put it back in, and all was well with that. Had a look at my ABS "fix", and had voltage to the unit, but not to the LED. Measured resistance of the .........Resistors, and all was well, so took a punt and soldered in a new 555 timer. Boom, working again! Left it unplugged until I got round the corner of the MOT station, fixed it in and that was that! :cheers:

 

Got a couple of advisories too;

 

"Nail in Nearside Front tyre" - Bloody car club yard! Will get a new one on asap.

"N/S headlight beam a bit high" - :roll:

"Slight Oil leak" - New sump gasket required as it looks to have been silicon sealed and poorly at that, and the gearbox needs to come off at some point as I'm pretty sure the timing chain cover has not been sealed correctly. Either that or the crank seals gone, but its gearbox off either way. Will get round to that...................

 

Just glad I can now start doing things without that monkey on my back!

[clumpy1 11]

Well done Sean after all the work you have done it is just reward :thumbleft:

[seanl82 23]

The best thing is I'm now definitely on for National Day! :cheers:

[holeinmk1 0]

thats excellent news mate. well done!

 

​Tom :)

[seanl82 23]

Cheers guys! Started rubbing down the lacquer peel on the bonnet today. Got interrupted half an hour in to go and handle a load of **** samples for the rest of the day! :mad2: Had Compulsory drug testing team at the base so had to document all that. Had the two patches on the bonnet down to bare metal, so had to spray a quick bit of etch primer to cover it up whilst I did that. Will need re-doing again tomorrow as I hadn't got it all out on one of them. Its a PITA, the pealing keeps spreading when trying to rub it down, even when you come from the other side of it. The whole reason for doing it was to make it catch the eye less. I now have two big grey patches on the bonnet! :bonk:

Just took a mate out, then let him have a go too. He has an EP3 Type R Anniversary and he was pretty impressed! He bangs on about his V-Tec like its the best thing since sliced bread. When the VR comes on song and gives you a kick in the back at around 4.5K RPM, he couldn't believe it and was making similarities, although he has to wait until well past 6k to get his! Think he wants a C now! :lol:

It did get a little naughty though................:ignore:

[daveb142 10]

Greats new mate! :d bet you're over the moon! good luck with the lacquer peel on the bonnet btw! Contemplating fully respraying mine :scratch:

[seanl82 23]

Cheers Dave, yeah the lacquer peel is no fun! Full body respray will happen next winter I think. for the moment I'm just trying to hide it a bit so its not so noticable, as I don't wish to be embarrassed toooo much in front of all the no doubt minters at national day! Hopefully have most of the paint done by the end of the week so should have pics, then it just a case of flatting it back once its fully hardened. Still need to order a sump gasket and clean the pickup and oil and filter change, then a new tyre due to the nail and I'm good to go!

Edited June 30, 2013 by seanl82

[clumpy1 11]

Alright Sean I take it you are going to make it to National Day mate? If so that is good news mate and don't worry about how your's look's you will be surprised at how other's look that you think are minter's pic's can make a car look alot better than what it actually is will b good to have a chat :thumbleft:

[seanl82 23]

Yeah I'll be there now buddy! Really looking forward to it, as is the missus actually! Will be great to finally put some names to faces and have a good chat with everyone. :thumbleft:

[seanl82 23]

Well I've almost finished the bit of paint rectification I'd done, just needs a final polish to sort a little bit of hazing that's still there around blend lines, although I'd planned on giving it a full machine polish when off work next week in preparation for National Day anyway. Process was rub down with 240, 600, 1000 grit to bare metal/plastic, prime with three coats of etch/plastic primer as necessary, and flat back with 1000 grit after final coat. Panel wipe & tack cloth everything inbetween obviously. 3 coats of basecoat, 3 coats of lacquer. With the rattle cans obviously having a poor spray pattern, there was alot of dry mist (I did it indoors so no wind btw) that sat either side of the intended area. This was most apparent on the bonnet being such a large are. This created a LOT of orange peel and overspray, so it needed flatting back before polishing up. This was achieved using 1500, 2000, then 2500 grit wet sanding. I then went over it all with 3M FCP on an old 3M yellow pad. This has bought it up to a reasonable shine, but I didn't paint the whole bonnet so there are obvious lines if up close where it hasn't blended well at all. Looks great from 10 feet away though!!!

The rest of the painting has so far turned out Ok. Although the bonnet looks pretty poor tbh, but still better than two big and obvious lacquer peel areas. The paint wasn't as good a match as I'd hoped either. I used paints4u, as I have on a number of occasions previously and they were always excellent matches. :shrug: Anyway, it was a bit dark, but its not massively noticeable unless its pointed out or you're looking for it.

 

A few before and after pics. There were two big areas on the bonnet, but I only got a pic of one before I'd started rubbing it down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

 

As said, its alot better than it was, without being great. Its temporary until full respray next year, just to tidy it up a little.

 

Ordered a new sump gasket today too, so I'll give it the oil and filter change and clean the pickup at the same time as the detail.

Other than that, I've just been enjoying driving it really! :smug:

[holeinmk1 0]

wow really nice work fella. fancy doing mine? :D

 

Seriously though that looks excellent work mate. you must be well chuffed.

 

​Tom

[robrado974 1]

Well done mate , looking between your first post and now up to date , it's great what you have done with your Rado .