Volvo 240 Resto, Modified Vauxhalls & Suzuki Jimny
Discussion
The Paseo
The Paseo finally got a minor upgrade today. One of my favourite little things to buy for any car is a decent set of mats. I don't like the cheapo needle-pile rubbish you get from Halfords, and I don't like rubber mats, because if anything they stain easier than carpet. So, after I found a site that supplies tailored mats for the Paseo, I went for some nice OEM-style velour-ish mats. I could finally replace the previous owner's mix of hand-me-down carpets from other cars, and door mats.
In other news, I still have the Yaris. The DVLA had a security issue regarding the previous owner's V5 that I sent off, but failed to send me a letter asking for details to resolve the issue (that or the postal service lost it). I contacted the DVLA 3 times asking where my V5 was, but only on the third attempt did they ask if I had filled in the letter they failed to send. Long story short, the government has screwed me out of 3 months of VED because I couldn't SORN the car or sell the car without the new V5. Either way, I got it this week, nearly 4 months late, so I gave the car a jolly good clean to get it ready to sell.
When I last saw it, it looked like this...
Naturally, the stickers had to go, so that was first on the list. I then polished up the headlights a little.
I then gave the engine a quick once-over.
I also removed the towbar to hopefully sell separate, but a saving of roughly 15kg was also more than welcome. Other than that, I attacked the car with the usual steps;
-Pressure wash arches and wash wheels
-Rinse car and agitate seams with brush to remove greenery
-Snowfoam and contact wash
-Treat with solvent for tar spots and clay bar
-Quick machine polish
That all took roughly 3 hours. Since it was washed by the previous owner, the difference isn't amazing, but here's the before and after either way.
I potentially have a buyer interested, hopefully will have the Yaris sold within a week or two.
The Paseo finally got a minor upgrade today. One of my favourite little things to buy for any car is a decent set of mats. I don't like the cheapo needle-pile rubbish you get from Halfords, and I don't like rubber mats, because if anything they stain easier than carpet. So, after I found a site that supplies tailored mats for the Paseo, I went for some nice OEM-style velour-ish mats. I could finally replace the previous owner's mix of hand-me-down carpets from other cars, and door mats.
In other news, I still have the Yaris. The DVLA had a security issue regarding the previous owner's V5 that I sent off, but failed to send me a letter asking for details to resolve the issue (that or the postal service lost it). I contacted the DVLA 3 times asking where my V5 was, but only on the third attempt did they ask if I had filled in the letter they failed to send. Long story short, the government has screwed me out of 3 months of VED because I couldn't SORN the car or sell the car without the new V5. Either way, I got it this week, nearly 4 months late, so I gave the car a jolly good clean to get it ready to sell.
When I last saw it, it looked like this...
Naturally, the stickers had to go, so that was first on the list. I then polished up the headlights a little.
I then gave the engine a quick once-over.
I also removed the towbar to hopefully sell separate, but a saving of roughly 15kg was also more than welcome. Other than that, I attacked the car with the usual steps;
-Pressure wash arches and wash wheels
-Rinse car and agitate seams with brush to remove greenery
-Snowfoam and contact wash
-Treat with solvent for tar spots and clay bar
-Quick machine polish
That all took roughly 3 hours. Since it was washed by the previous owner, the difference isn't amazing, but here's the before and after either way.
I potentially have a buyer interested, hopefully will have the Yaris sold within a week or two.
The Yaris
So, the Jimny's days seem to be numbered. There's oil in the spark plugs and the temperature gauge pretty much gets to the max. mark on a 15 minute trip. I'll make a scientific guess and say that the engine has eaten its own s***. The price of replacing the head gasket and whatever else the overheating issue has damaged (piston rings are likely) is too much to bother with, but replacing the engine is fairly reasonable. We've left the Jimny at the workshop while we decide what to do with it. Either we sell it as is, fix it and sell it, or fix it and keep it.
In the meantime, I still have the Yaris I bought at Christmas. The potential buyer went radio silent, and I've had no other inquiries since. So, we've decided to just use that since it's an automatic. I've removed a few bits, because it's literally just Katherine's commuter car, so I may as well try to make it as cheap-to-run as possible. As I mentioned before, the towbar was removed...
I also removed the spare wheel and jacking kit. My favourite part was removing the trick sliding rear seats, making the Yaris a 2-seater. Those seats were very heavy!
Another small change I made was the rear wiper. If you look at previous photos, you might notice the rear wiper arm is missing, but the motor and spindle are still there. I removed the motor and used a universal bung to plug the hole.
The weight-reduction was nothing to be sniffed at in the end. The rear seats weighed almost exactly 30kg! The towbar was about 15kg, and the space saver, jacking kit and wiper motor come to another 14kg or so, giving us a weight saving of just under 60kg!
Considering the Yaris and Jimny both have a 1.3 litre four-pot with 85bhp, the Yaris is a rocket compared to the 4x4.
Since the Yaris works so well and seems like it'll be fairly trouble-free, our dilemma will now be deciding which car to keep...
So, the Jimny's days seem to be numbered. There's oil in the spark plugs and the temperature gauge pretty much gets to the max. mark on a 15 minute trip. I'll make a scientific guess and say that the engine has eaten its own s***. The price of replacing the head gasket and whatever else the overheating issue has damaged (piston rings are likely) is too much to bother with, but replacing the engine is fairly reasonable. We've left the Jimny at the workshop while we decide what to do with it. Either we sell it as is, fix it and sell it, or fix it and keep it.
In the meantime, I still have the Yaris I bought at Christmas. The potential buyer went radio silent, and I've had no other inquiries since. So, we've decided to just use that since it's an automatic. I've removed a few bits, because it's literally just Katherine's commuter car, so I may as well try to make it as cheap-to-run as possible. As I mentioned before, the towbar was removed...
I also removed the spare wheel and jacking kit. My favourite part was removing the trick sliding rear seats, making the Yaris a 2-seater. Those seats were very heavy!
Another small change I made was the rear wiper. If you look at previous photos, you might notice the rear wiper arm is missing, but the motor and spindle are still there. I removed the motor and used a universal bung to plug the hole.
The weight-reduction was nothing to be sniffed at in the end. The rear seats weighed almost exactly 30kg! The towbar was about 15kg, and the space saver, jacking kit and wiper motor come to another 14kg or so, giving us a weight saving of just under 60kg!
Considering the Yaris and Jimny both have a 1.3 litre four-pot with 85bhp, the Yaris is a rocket compared to the 4x4.
Since the Yaris works so well and seems like it'll be fairly trouble-free, our dilemma will now be deciding which car to keep...
The Yaris
We've still not decided how to deal with the Jimny as of yet. Meanwhile, the Yaris is making a very good case for itself, other than how the steering feels. The Jimny has been struggling to do more than 240 miles to a tank since the head gasket issues came up, but the Yaris has barely used half a tank in the same distance.
Since I've been struggling with boredom and depression, I've decided to use up some time on the Yaris to make it looks as good as I can without spending any money. It'll give me some satisfaction to help with my mental state, and it'll help the resale value if we decide to be masochists and keep the Jimny. I did give the car a very half-hearted machine polish a month ago when it was ready to sell, but it definitely could benefit from some more effort.
As and when I have the time, I'm doing a slow and methodical polish of the car, a panel at a time. Since the car hasn't gotten too filthy in the few weeks we've used it, I've simply cleaned each panel with a bucket and a wash-mitt, no hose or pressure-washer, since it'll be polished anyway. The general process is, per panel;
-Wash
-Treat with Autosmart Tardis solvent tar remover
-Re-wash, and dry panel
-Clay bar, then dry again
-Machine polish panel
-Buff, and apply wax
-Leave wax to set, then buff with two clean microfibre cloths
My machine is still a fairly basic DAS-6 PRO which I've had fairly average results with, but the longer you spend, the better the results. The product I've found best so far is Scholl S20 polish. I spend roughly 5 minutes of straight polishing per 20cm squared area, so between re-applying polish, the bonnet, which is where I started, took about half an hour, not including the initial prep or the coat of Collinite 845 I applied after.
I was pretty happy with the results this time. The swirls were almost gone, and there was a really nice glassy finish.
I moved on to the front wing next, and achieved similarly good results.
That concluded my first session, which took about 2 hours.
The next day, I attacked the front bumper and passenger side door. I removed the broken number plate with its mismatched screws, to clean and polish underneath. At some point I'll probably replace both number plates.
The door was next. Given how many scratches the Yaris has picked up over its 22 years, results here weren't quite as good, though the pictures don't really show any scratches, there were a fair few that the polisher improved, but didn't remove completely.
On my third session, I changed things up for myself a little by cleaning out the door shutlines with some solvent to remove some tar spots that had found their way through the panel gap. I applied some Autosmart Platinum by hand with a small applicator sponge. Platinum is a fairly good all-rounder. It gives good gloss, hides and fills scratches to a limited degree, and offers some water-beading and protection too. In low-traffic areas, or garaged cars, it lasts quite a long time.
I then continued the usual polishing routine on the rear quarter...
My next job was removing the rear light cluster. Having removed a few here and there to change bulbs, I know all-too-well how much gunk gets behind. I'm glad I did this...
After removing the foliage and a few ants, I moved on to the bootlid and rear bumper. Since it was sign-written, the bootlid had been de-badged by a previous owner, making polishing easier, though I'd like to at least get a new Toyota badge for the centre.
The rear bumper has a metal bar at the bottom which is prone to rusting, and the plastic section had plenty of scuffs, which the machine polisher masked a little, though again, results were nowhere near perfect.
For its age, the Yaris is scrubbing up quite nicely. I won't be bothering with the roof, thanks to a large amount of lacquer peel. I may get a quote for respraying it in black at some point. That's where I'm up to currently. I'm not sure what to do next once I've polished the driver's side.
We've still not decided how to deal with the Jimny as of yet. Meanwhile, the Yaris is making a very good case for itself, other than how the steering feels. The Jimny has been struggling to do more than 240 miles to a tank since the head gasket issues came up, but the Yaris has barely used half a tank in the same distance.
Since I've been struggling with boredom and depression, I've decided to use up some time on the Yaris to make it looks as good as I can without spending any money. It'll give me some satisfaction to help with my mental state, and it'll help the resale value if we decide to be masochists and keep the Jimny. I did give the car a very half-hearted machine polish a month ago when it was ready to sell, but it definitely could benefit from some more effort.
As and when I have the time, I'm doing a slow and methodical polish of the car, a panel at a time. Since the car hasn't gotten too filthy in the few weeks we've used it, I've simply cleaned each panel with a bucket and a wash-mitt, no hose or pressure-washer, since it'll be polished anyway. The general process is, per panel;
-Wash
-Treat with Autosmart Tardis solvent tar remover
-Re-wash, and dry panel
-Clay bar, then dry again
-Machine polish panel
-Buff, and apply wax
-Leave wax to set, then buff with two clean microfibre cloths
My machine is still a fairly basic DAS-6 PRO which I've had fairly average results with, but the longer you spend, the better the results. The product I've found best so far is Scholl S20 polish. I spend roughly 5 minutes of straight polishing per 20cm squared area, so between re-applying polish, the bonnet, which is where I started, took about half an hour, not including the initial prep or the coat of Collinite 845 I applied after.
I was pretty happy with the results this time. The swirls were almost gone, and there was a really nice glassy finish.
I moved on to the front wing next, and achieved similarly good results.
That concluded my first session, which took about 2 hours.
The next day, I attacked the front bumper and passenger side door. I removed the broken number plate with its mismatched screws, to clean and polish underneath. At some point I'll probably replace both number plates.
The door was next. Given how many scratches the Yaris has picked up over its 22 years, results here weren't quite as good, though the pictures don't really show any scratches, there were a fair few that the polisher improved, but didn't remove completely.
On my third session, I changed things up for myself a little by cleaning out the door shutlines with some solvent to remove some tar spots that had found their way through the panel gap. I applied some Autosmart Platinum by hand with a small applicator sponge. Platinum is a fairly good all-rounder. It gives good gloss, hides and fills scratches to a limited degree, and offers some water-beading and protection too. In low-traffic areas, or garaged cars, it lasts quite a long time.
I then continued the usual polishing routine on the rear quarter...
My next job was removing the rear light cluster. Having removed a few here and there to change bulbs, I know all-too-well how much gunk gets behind. I'm glad I did this...
After removing the foliage and a few ants, I moved on to the bootlid and rear bumper. Since it was sign-written, the bootlid had been de-badged by a previous owner, making polishing easier, though I'd like to at least get a new Toyota badge for the centre.
The rear bumper has a metal bar at the bottom which is prone to rusting, and the plastic section had plenty of scuffs, which the machine polisher masked a little, though again, results were nowhere near perfect.
For its age, the Yaris is scrubbing up quite nicely. I won't be bothering with the roof, thanks to a large amount of lacquer peel. I may get a quote for respraying it in black at some point. That's where I'm up to currently. I'm not sure what to do next once I've polished the driver's side.
Edited by The Bearded Tit on Sunday 19th May 13:15
Edited by The Bearded Tit on Sunday 19th May 13:16
A very minor update today - we finally emptied a tank so we could test the fuel economy of the Yaris. The Jimny's best was 42mpg, but as the engine was failing it was closer to 34mpg. The official figure for the Yaris 1.3 auto is about 45mpg, and with the rear seats and spare wheel removed, we were hoping to beat that. And, we did! On our first tank, we managed to achieve 49.5mpg! Best automatic we've had on petrol!
As a result, it's pretty much decided now that the Yaris is going to be Katherine's long-term daily, and the Jimny will probably have to go. Originally the Yaris wasn't going to stay because the 45mpg we were expecting wouldn't be enough of an improvement on the Jimny's average 40mpg to really make a difference. But then the Jimny's engine started overheating on every trip and getting 35mpg. Now realising that the Yaris is capable of 50mpg means that what we thought would be a roughly £80 saving in fuel over the course of a year is closer to a £250 saving, so between that, the road tax being £130 cheaper, the Insurance being about £30 cheaper, and the Yaris' better reputation for not crapping itself, it looks like the Yaris will save us quite a bit in the long run.
Here's the best I've managed out of all the cars I've owned;
2010 Vauxhall Combo 1.3CDTI 59.8mpg (average 54mpg)
2002 Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 56mpg (average is 55mpg)
1996 Toyota Paseo 1.5 49.9mpg (average is about 47mpg)
2002 Toyota Yaris 1.3 Auto 49.5mpg
2001 Renault Clio 1.4 Auto 45.8mpg (average was 39mpg)
2003 Suzuki Jimny 1.3 Auto 42mpg (average was 39mpg until engine failure)
1992 Volvo 240 2.0 35mpg
The Corsa and Yaris both have further to go if I carry on making changes to help with fuel consumption, and I could probably eke more out of the 240 as well. Out of all of those our old Clio automatic was probably the most disappointing. The tank where we managed 45.8mpg was a fluke. Every other tank we tested never beat 40mpg. My target with the Yaris is to consistently beat 50mpg, and once the awful Toyo T1R tyres wear out on the Corsa, I can get some better all-rounder tyres to aim for a 60mpg.
As a result, it's pretty much decided now that the Yaris is going to be Katherine's long-term daily, and the Jimny will probably have to go. Originally the Yaris wasn't going to stay because the 45mpg we were expecting wouldn't be enough of an improvement on the Jimny's average 40mpg to really make a difference. But then the Jimny's engine started overheating on every trip and getting 35mpg. Now realising that the Yaris is capable of 50mpg means that what we thought would be a roughly £80 saving in fuel over the course of a year is closer to a £250 saving, so between that, the road tax being £130 cheaper, the Insurance being about £30 cheaper, and the Yaris' better reputation for not crapping itself, it looks like the Yaris will save us quite a bit in the long run.
Here's the best I've managed out of all the cars I've owned;
2010 Vauxhall Combo 1.3CDTI 59.8mpg (average 54mpg)
2002 Vauxhall Corsa 1.0 56mpg (average is 55mpg)
1996 Toyota Paseo 1.5 49.9mpg (average is about 47mpg)
2002 Toyota Yaris 1.3 Auto 49.5mpg
2001 Renault Clio 1.4 Auto 45.8mpg (average was 39mpg)
2003 Suzuki Jimny 1.3 Auto 42mpg (average was 39mpg until engine failure)
1992 Volvo 240 2.0 35mpg
The Corsa and Yaris both have further to go if I carry on making changes to help with fuel consumption, and I could probably eke more out of the 240 as well. Out of all of those our old Clio automatic was probably the most disappointing. The tank where we managed 45.8mpg was a fluke. Every other tank we tested never beat 40mpg. My target with the Yaris is to consistently beat 50mpg, and once the awful Toyo T1R tyres wear out on the Corsa, I can get some better all-rounder tyres to aim for a 60mpg.
The Yaris
So, the Yaris has been pretty uneventful, which is a good thing. We drove it on our usual trip to Devon, and it didn't miss a beat for the 700 miles we did over that week. It got 52mpg on the way there, and 56 on the way back! Not bad for a 4-speed auto! One thing I wanted to do since we've been back is remove the throttle body to clean and polish the inside, like I've done in the past with the Corsa and the Volvo 240. It helped a tad with throttle response and I enjoyed the process so I figured I'd give it a go on the Yaris, too.
I started by removing the very dirty air intake system.
Once I got to the throttle body, I ran into an issue - the hose clamps were pretty much inaccessible from above with the standard pliers that I have, which made it impossible to fully remove the throttle body from the car. I settled for simply cleaning the gunk inside it with some acetone and putting it all back together. A clean throttle body certainly can't hurt either way.
Since I love cleaning individual pieces that I've removed, I brought all the plastic piping in to clean all the parts in the sink with some washing up liquid and a small brush. Once rinsed, I sprayed some water-based plastic dressing on each part, and dried with a microfibre to leave a natural shine. Once all back together, it was nice and clean while not being so glossy that it looked out of place.
I'll work my way through the whole engine bay as and when I get the time.
The Volvo 240
The 240 is finally out of hibernation. The damp garage hasn't really done it any favours, so I've given up the tenancy for the garage, saving me £700 a year. It needed some work after having been more or less ignored for the last 3 years. It failed its MOT on a rusted rear trailing arm, so it's had those replaced, along with the rear springs (now 40mm lowered), mounting bolts and spring seats. At some point I'll get the shocks replaced with gas-filled alternatives, too. No photos, but the car has a clean bill of health and I've decided to use the old barge for work and get some bits done to the Corsa. After several months outside near trees and other foliage, the Volvo had a decent layer of unsightly dust and tree-residue, particularly on the roof and bonnet.
A careful wash had the geriatric looking its best again.
While it's in use, I wanted to do a few minor bits and bobs, too. One thing that's always tickled my OCD is the headlight wipers. The motors are failing and you can't get replacements. If you use the windscreen washers, the headlight wipers will try and start, and one of them will stop in the upright position, making the car look a bit comical. I've unplugged the motors so the wipers are now purely for show, and I removed the hoses that supply the headlight washers, to tidy some of the mess of wires and rubber behind the headlights.
Since the headlights were out, I also cleaned up some bits that were otherwise inaccessible. I removed the battery tray and air intake as well to get more access to the nearside.
I also found a few metal plates and brackets that were doing nothing other than gather rust, so I removed them as well, so I've got a bag full of little odds and sods weighing about a kilo. If I can do that throughout the car, I figure it'll eventually add up. If possible, I'd love to find a way to remove the headlight wiper motors entirely and just keep the wiper arms themselves for show, to remove a tiny bit more dead weight, but the spindle is part of the motor assembly, so I'm not sure it's possible.
So far the Volvo has shed a bit more weight than you might expect. It had a towbar that I never weighed when I removed it going on 8 years ago, but I struggled to lift it, so it must have been about 20kg. The spare is out, saving another 15kg or so, and the rear-facing bench seat was removed, too, which is probably somewhere around 8-10kg. Factor in the crazy light 14 inch alloys that replaced the steelies and the car has probably shed 50kg or so, without removing anything that might compromise comfort or NVH. Supposedly they hover around 1320kg depending on options so hopefully the old girl is below 1300kg at this point!
So, the Yaris has been pretty uneventful, which is a good thing. We drove it on our usual trip to Devon, and it didn't miss a beat for the 700 miles we did over that week. It got 52mpg on the way there, and 56 on the way back! Not bad for a 4-speed auto! One thing I wanted to do since we've been back is remove the throttle body to clean and polish the inside, like I've done in the past with the Corsa and the Volvo 240. It helped a tad with throttle response and I enjoyed the process so I figured I'd give it a go on the Yaris, too.
I started by removing the very dirty air intake system.
Once I got to the throttle body, I ran into an issue - the hose clamps were pretty much inaccessible from above with the standard pliers that I have, which made it impossible to fully remove the throttle body from the car. I settled for simply cleaning the gunk inside it with some acetone and putting it all back together. A clean throttle body certainly can't hurt either way.
Since I love cleaning individual pieces that I've removed, I brought all the plastic piping in to clean all the parts in the sink with some washing up liquid and a small brush. Once rinsed, I sprayed some water-based plastic dressing on each part, and dried with a microfibre to leave a natural shine. Once all back together, it was nice and clean while not being so glossy that it looked out of place.
I'll work my way through the whole engine bay as and when I get the time.
The Volvo 240
The 240 is finally out of hibernation. The damp garage hasn't really done it any favours, so I've given up the tenancy for the garage, saving me £700 a year. It needed some work after having been more or less ignored for the last 3 years. It failed its MOT on a rusted rear trailing arm, so it's had those replaced, along with the rear springs (now 40mm lowered), mounting bolts and spring seats. At some point I'll get the shocks replaced with gas-filled alternatives, too. No photos, but the car has a clean bill of health and I've decided to use the old barge for work and get some bits done to the Corsa. After several months outside near trees and other foliage, the Volvo had a decent layer of unsightly dust and tree-residue, particularly on the roof and bonnet.
A careful wash had the geriatric looking its best again.
While it's in use, I wanted to do a few minor bits and bobs, too. One thing that's always tickled my OCD is the headlight wipers. The motors are failing and you can't get replacements. If you use the windscreen washers, the headlight wipers will try and start, and one of them will stop in the upright position, making the car look a bit comical. I've unplugged the motors so the wipers are now purely for show, and I removed the hoses that supply the headlight washers, to tidy some of the mess of wires and rubber behind the headlights.
Since the headlights were out, I also cleaned up some bits that were otherwise inaccessible. I removed the battery tray and air intake as well to get more access to the nearside.
I also found a few metal plates and brackets that were doing nothing other than gather rust, so I removed them as well, so I've got a bag full of little odds and sods weighing about a kilo. If I can do that throughout the car, I figure it'll eventually add up. If possible, I'd love to find a way to remove the headlight wiper motors entirely and just keep the wiper arms themselves for show, to remove a tiny bit more dead weight, but the spindle is part of the motor assembly, so I'm not sure it's possible.
So far the Volvo has shed a bit more weight than you might expect. It had a towbar that I never weighed when I removed it going on 8 years ago, but I struggled to lift it, so it must have been about 20kg. The spare is out, saving another 15kg or so, and the rear-facing bench seat was removed, too, which is probably somewhere around 8-10kg. Factor in the crazy light 14 inch alloys that replaced the steelies and the car has probably shed 50kg or so, without removing anything that might compromise comfort or NVH. Supposedly they hover around 1320kg depending on options so hopefully the old girl is below 1300kg at this point!
Edited by The Bearded Tit on Tuesday 23 July 20:33
The Volvo 240
It's been quite a while. Motivation has been a struggle thanks to abnormally high levels of depression related to the frankly ridiculous process of applying for a mortgage, not enjoying my job anymore, and welcoming a puppy into the house, which has been a royal pain. Car projects have fallen by the wayside in the meantime, but this week I forced myself to do a few things.
I've been driving the Volvo for work since July '24 because the Corsa is having some work done, but it's not been a high priority for me or the mechanic who has the car, so it's been somewhat ignored. The Volvo has pretty much just been driven. Some bits I've enjoyed, others not so much. The shocks are pretty much done for, and I'm wondering if they are actually the originals, but I'm not convinced any shock absorber would last 195,000 miles. So I'll be replacing them soon.
I've also not washed the car once in the last 8 months, which is making me a bit sad, but I need to order some new products before I tackle it. I have been keeping the interior mostly clean though.
Whilst driving it this week, I accidentally turned on the rear wiper, which rotated 45 degrees, and then stopped. Then it rotated a little more. Then it went back again. Basically it didn't do anything remotely normal. Since I do love a bit of weight reduction, partially inspired by Kaveney's threads on his old Fiesta ST, as well as his current Fiesta and FN2 Type R, I decided to just remove the whole assembly, and shove a universal rubber grommet in the hole.
I've removed three or four rear wiper assemblies at this point, and they've all been rather simple, but the 240's was an utter ball-ache. The motor itself is located off to the side, because there's no space for it in the centre because of the number plate recess. It rotates a metal arm, which is connected to the wiper spindle. Fitting all that crap inside the tailgate, along with the number plate lights and the rather bulky locking mechanism, along with a mounting bracket for the motor, meant there was very little access. I didn't think to take photos until after I was finished, but this is what I removed.
It weighed 1.5kg. Since there's a small hole in the tailgate, I got my trusty box of universal rubber grommets. I fitted one that was slightly too large, since it fits more snug, and will likely keep the rain out more effectively.
All in all, the back of the car is a tiny bit tidier. I prefer it either way.
The Toyotas
No photos, nothing special, but the Yaris is running nicely. Still returning an average of at least 50mpg on rural journeys, and it's utterly filthy on the outside. The exhaust fell off just before Christmas which was convenient. I ordered a new cat back system from Ebay for just over £100, and managed to get it fitted before our new year's trip to Devon. We also fitted some sound insulation to make the old heap quieter.
Meanwhile the Paseo has been gathering dust since November. It's been a great shed, and I have no plans to be rid of it, but it does need some work, mainly cosmetic. I took it for a quick run today, and scraped off some of the peeling lacquer from the bonnet, because it was literally flying off the car as I drove it. I'll get it looking nice one day...
It's been quite a while. Motivation has been a struggle thanks to abnormally high levels of depression related to the frankly ridiculous process of applying for a mortgage, not enjoying my job anymore, and welcoming a puppy into the house, which has been a royal pain. Car projects have fallen by the wayside in the meantime, but this week I forced myself to do a few things.
I've been driving the Volvo for work since July '24 because the Corsa is having some work done, but it's not been a high priority for me or the mechanic who has the car, so it's been somewhat ignored. The Volvo has pretty much just been driven. Some bits I've enjoyed, others not so much. The shocks are pretty much done for, and I'm wondering if they are actually the originals, but I'm not convinced any shock absorber would last 195,000 miles. So I'll be replacing them soon.
I've also not washed the car once in the last 8 months, which is making me a bit sad, but I need to order some new products before I tackle it. I have been keeping the interior mostly clean though.
Whilst driving it this week, I accidentally turned on the rear wiper, which rotated 45 degrees, and then stopped. Then it rotated a little more. Then it went back again. Basically it didn't do anything remotely normal. Since I do love a bit of weight reduction, partially inspired by Kaveney's threads on his old Fiesta ST, as well as his current Fiesta and FN2 Type R, I decided to just remove the whole assembly, and shove a universal rubber grommet in the hole.
I've removed three or four rear wiper assemblies at this point, and they've all been rather simple, but the 240's was an utter ball-ache. The motor itself is located off to the side, because there's no space for it in the centre because of the number plate recess. It rotates a metal arm, which is connected to the wiper spindle. Fitting all that crap inside the tailgate, along with the number plate lights and the rather bulky locking mechanism, along with a mounting bracket for the motor, meant there was very little access. I didn't think to take photos until after I was finished, but this is what I removed.
It weighed 1.5kg. Since there's a small hole in the tailgate, I got my trusty box of universal rubber grommets. I fitted one that was slightly too large, since it fits more snug, and will likely keep the rain out more effectively.
All in all, the back of the car is a tiny bit tidier. I prefer it either way.
The Toyotas
No photos, nothing special, but the Yaris is running nicely. Still returning an average of at least 50mpg on rural journeys, and it's utterly filthy on the outside. The exhaust fell off just before Christmas which was convenient. I ordered a new cat back system from Ebay for just over £100, and managed to get it fitted before our new year's trip to Devon. We also fitted some sound insulation to make the old heap quieter.
Meanwhile the Paseo has been gathering dust since November. It's been a great shed, and I have no plans to be rid of it, but it does need some work, mainly cosmetic. I took it for a quick run today, and scraped off some of the peeling lacquer from the bonnet, because it was literally flying off the car as I drove it. I'll get it looking nice one day...
The Paseo
The ugly duckling has been sitting unused since its MOT in November '24. It was SORN'd and uninsured since I was trying to save some money because we'd just applied for a mortgage. Well, that got rejected after months of back and forth because big companies are run by chimps with no basis in reality. Rant aside, I decided it was time to get the Paseo running again.
Obviously the battery was dead. I charged that, and got an oil + filter change. While the interior and exterior were both clean (lacquer peel notwithstanding), I've never done anything under the bonnet in the 2 years I've had it, so I decided, finally, to try and give the engine bay a decent clean-up.
The starting point could have been worse...
From a short distance it didn't look awful, though if you get up close, it's fairly grim.
I didn't take too many while work was in progress but I removed all the air intake and the battery. I cleaned those separately and then cleaned under the bonnet - mainly with some rubbish solvent tar remover a customer gave me from a Supagard kit. It's nowhere near as good as autosmart Tardis for example, but it was fine for underbonnet duties. I worked small sections at a time, rinsing with the pressure washer, spraying some solvent on, agitating with a brush and blasting off the rubbish with the pressure washer again.
Overall the result wasn't too bad. I'd like to do something with the rocker cover at some point to make it a little less ugly.
The ugly duckling has been sitting unused since its MOT in November '24. It was SORN'd and uninsured since I was trying to save some money because we'd just applied for a mortgage. Well, that got rejected after months of back and forth because big companies are run by chimps with no basis in reality. Rant aside, I decided it was time to get the Paseo running again.
Obviously the battery was dead. I charged that, and got an oil + filter change. While the interior and exterior were both clean (lacquer peel notwithstanding), I've never done anything under the bonnet in the 2 years I've had it, so I decided, finally, to try and give the engine bay a decent clean-up.
The starting point could have been worse...
From a short distance it didn't look awful, though if you get up close, it's fairly grim.
I didn't take too many while work was in progress but I removed all the air intake and the battery. I cleaned those separately and then cleaned under the bonnet - mainly with some rubbish solvent tar remover a customer gave me from a Supagard kit. It's nowhere near as good as autosmart Tardis for example, but it was fine for underbonnet duties. I worked small sections at a time, rinsing with the pressure washer, spraying some solvent on, agitating with a brush and blasting off the rubbish with the pressure washer again.
Overall the result wasn't too bad. I'd like to do something with the rocker cover at some point to make it a little less ugly.
A New Car
Yep, I've gone and bought another one. For the longest time, I've always loved warm/hot hatchbacks, particularly the simpler, naturally aspirated variety, like the old Toyota Yaris T Sport or the Honda Jazz Si. One of my all-time dream cars is the Suzuki Swift Sport, specifically the first-generation ZC31S from 2005-2010. It's nice to keep your expectations from life pretty low
Anyway, I'm a tad picky. The Swift Sport was sold in four colours. The washed-out dark red and silver are not to my taste, so I'd go for either white, or black. In an ideal world I'd also have an earlier model with the red seats - I'm fairly sure there was an update which changed the red seats to black. While I've always had this little requirement, it's not like I've been seeking out one of these Suzukis, since I've got too many cars as it is. A spanner was thrown in the works, though.
Last week, I saw an ad on Facebook marketplace 20 minutes down the road that was too good to ignore. I went to see it, came home, and talked to my other half. Usually I try and talk myself out of just about everything that involves spending money, but she thankfully encouraged me to go for it. So, here it is.
So, it's a 2007 Swift Sport, in black with red seats (yes, please!). It has a misaligned rear silencer...
A small rust spot on the outer rear arch...
Some very unflattering stripes...
Alloys that have seen better days...
The seats are diseased...
And it has 165,000 miles on the clock, along with an engine warning light relating the catalytic converter. However, it was £850 and has decent service history, the front end appears to have been resprayed, it's definitely not on its original clutch, still has two keys, and most importantly, it's a bloody Swift Sport!
So what's the plan with it?
Drive it, enjoy it, clean up what I can, and I believe I'm supposed to sell it towards the end of the year. So naturally in the meantime I'll be desperately trying to find a way to keep it. For now, it's sitting at my friend's workshop waiting for a proper checkover before I start driving it.
Yep, I've gone and bought another one. For the longest time, I've always loved warm/hot hatchbacks, particularly the simpler, naturally aspirated variety, like the old Toyota Yaris T Sport or the Honda Jazz Si. One of my all-time dream cars is the Suzuki Swift Sport, specifically the first-generation ZC31S from 2005-2010. It's nice to keep your expectations from life pretty low
Anyway, I'm a tad picky. The Swift Sport was sold in four colours. The washed-out dark red and silver are not to my taste, so I'd go for either white, or black. In an ideal world I'd also have an earlier model with the red seats - I'm fairly sure there was an update which changed the red seats to black. While I've always had this little requirement, it's not like I've been seeking out one of these Suzukis, since I've got too many cars as it is. A spanner was thrown in the works, though.
Last week, I saw an ad on Facebook marketplace 20 minutes down the road that was too good to ignore. I went to see it, came home, and talked to my other half. Usually I try and talk myself out of just about everything that involves spending money, but she thankfully encouraged me to go for it. So, here it is.
So, it's a 2007 Swift Sport, in black with red seats (yes, please!). It has a misaligned rear silencer...
A small rust spot on the outer rear arch...
Some very unflattering stripes...
Alloys that have seen better days...
The seats are diseased...
And it has 165,000 miles on the clock, along with an engine warning light relating the catalytic converter. However, it was £850 and has decent service history, the front end appears to have been resprayed, it's definitely not on its original clutch, still has two keys, and most importantly, it's a bloody Swift Sport!
So what's the plan with it?
Drive it, enjoy it, clean up what I can, and I believe I'm supposed to sell it towards the end of the year. So naturally in the meantime I'll be desperately trying to find a way to keep it. For now, it's sitting at my friend's workshop waiting for a proper checkover before I start driving it.
B'stard Child said:
I think he s referring to the catalyser warning - if the cat has been previously thieved and a cheap aftermarket one dropped in?
Fair enough. I have no idea if it's original or aftermarket. I'm sort of went into it expecting to have to replace it either way. We'll see once it gets checked over, hopefully this week.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff