Famine's Fleet
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**Minor fleet updates.
Red - Received new Mintex pads all round and finally has a pair of Black Diamond grooves on the back to match those on the front. Not currently MoTed. Impending updates are a new bonnet (Marvin's white one is being temporarily relocated to Red, once resprayed) the SE interior from Marvin and some folding mirrors (once resprayed).
Marvin - Wheels are off and ready for a home refurb. Not much happening on him at the moment.
The Baron - Given that it cost £1k off eBay and had nothing notably wrong while driving or on first impressions besides a gammy handbrake, chucked in for an early MoT. Failed on handbrake and rear hardlines. One £180 set of all the braking components later - Mintex pads, discs, handbrake shoes - and he's due a partial retest next week. Not bad for a 160k BMW.
Windy - Not a lot. Donated sill inserts to Red. They're shiny and say "Mazda".
Blue - Almost sold last week. Buyer wanted A/C model and it was the very last question he asked :roll:**
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**Tiny updates:
Windy/Marvin - Nothing.
The Baron - Did 800 miles in a weekend, three up with dogs and camping gear. 32mpg… Potential wheel bearing noise, but we can't tell which wheel yet.
Red - Minor mothballing to separate all the cars' MoTs and tax dates. Gives me a chance to sort a couple of niggles.
Blue - Did 1,400 miles in two days, to Cologne and back. Fed a tank of Shell VPower Racing 100 and did 35mpg at German highway speeds (130km/h limit) - Cologne to Calais on half a tank. More please! Given some TLC after the epic run and taken for some artistic night-time photography with HDR:
(click for very bigness)**
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**Hurr hurr hurr
Hurr.**
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**Well, a quick check on Red seems to show that the niggles have been sorted. Hooked her up to the charger to top her up, fired the engine and she started straight away - given that she's been offline since May, that's good going. Still have a question mark over the brakes though. All the friction surfaces are new and the system's bled, but the pedal is still long. I'd take her on a test drive to see if it's just a case of bedding-in, but she's SORNed.
While the rear was stripped back I started to clean all the exposed paintwork and… boy, there was a lot of crap back there. But up she popped, red again. Then I took the driver's seat out... :roll:
So, while she's still SORNed, I'm pulling the entire interior out and cleaning all the accumulated shite and detritus from all the little crooks and nannies. Then we just need to pick the best interior plastics, clean those up, reinstall it all and the SE interior and her new, shiny Mazda kickplate badges and she's ready for the winter.
Still need a new bonnet and moonroof to bring her back to her best and a respray wouldn't go amiss, but I can't afford it. Not to mention reconning those SE wheels for added noms. And getting a new condensor and regassing the aircon. It never ends :D**
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While everything is out bud,
http://www.mx-3.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=75285
You might want to look into something like that.
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**That'd actually be very useful - Red's exhaust is a bit on the hilarious side inside the car. And that stuff's just silver-lined loft flashing available from any B&Q…
Interesting...**
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Found it today and tempted myself :)
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**The boat arrived:
That'll be FordRacing Escort ZX2 shocks, Monroe topmounts and camber adjust bolts, with a Centerforce Dual Friction clutch good for over 300lbft.
Rah!**
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Coooool !
You'll have to let us know how the clutch is ? Nearly bought a centreforce
clutch for my turbo project as there retailing at 170 quid at the mo, which
is nearly 100 quid cheaper than the SPEC clutch i was going for!Have fun fitting all those goodies :D
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It's all for Marvin, so it'll be a little while yet. But will do :D
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**And my box arrived from the spring shop:
Hurr, hurr, hurr, hurr, purple, hurr, hurr :D
Momma like. For reference, they're -35mm (preloaded - they won't settle-in), 55N/mm front and 35N/mm non-progressive rear. Stock is 21N/mm front and 15N/mm with 10N/mm progressive rear.
The new rears are shorter than the stock fronts :D**
