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Old 28th November 2019, 16:19   #421
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

I am still trying to find and obtain more information about my fancy multitester Bernd and I bought a few weeks ago.

Last night I was studying the one page manual again. The manual is actually pretty clear and all in Dutch. Except for one thing; how to connect it to the car?

It does have a small section, but somebody has been drawing over the lines in the image, which has not improved eligibility. What I did notice is that there was actually some very faded text in the box right to the little connection diagram.

This manual, actually just a pamflet, has a sort of plastic coating on it. So I carefully cleaned it, which got rid of a lot of the muck, but the text was still very very faded. Could not read it.

So I took some photographs of the text, imported in Lightroom, blew up the text and fiddled with the various controls, light, dark, shadow, contracts, sharpness until I had something I could actually read! Then I printed it on glossy photographic paper with my Epson Photography printer. This image does not do it full justice, but I can clearly read the text now!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2037.jpg

I have been trawling the internet for this thing. I have only managed to find one reference to it. A post on a French classic car forum. So I joined that forum and posted some questions. All in English, not sure how the French Classic Car community will take to that. We will wait and see.

I have found two Dutch companies who overhaul and repair these old instruments, but they work on brands such as Sun and would not want to touch my French Souriau. (Not sure I can blame them)

But based on my now eligible text and one image I found on this French forum I believe my multitester must be missing one part. As far as I can make out one of the leads is supposed to connect in between the HV coil and the distributor. It requires some sort of adapter. I do not have it.

More research to follow!

Jeroen
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Old 1st December 2019, 15:51   #422
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

This Sunday morning I decided to do some work on the Jaguar model. It was -2oC when I woke up. To cold to sit in my garage for a few hours, handling minute bits.

So I took everything into my home office.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc010001.jpg

Putting the rest of the model together went fairly smoothly.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc010002.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc010004.jpg

The underneath of this model looks pretty detailled. All of it had been removed earlier, but it all went back easily.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc010005.jpg

The final result:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc010010.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc010006.jpg

I am pretty pleased with it. It is not identical to my Jaguar. But it is pretty close. The most noticeable difference are the wheels. But for instance my wife did not even notice it!

Still some last details to do. Mostly painting indicators and such. I will ask my son Thomas to do that again.

Makes for a pretty unique Jaguar Model! When I was in my teens I worked in a toy / model shop. The owner, Hans, was a very gifted modelmaker. He was very much into truck. He used to modify and re-paint the little HO scale models. He taught me a few tricks. But I must admit I have lost lots of my skills.

This afternoon I am visiting E&R Classics for a coffee and classic car afternoon. Looking forward to it

Jeroen
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Old 7th December 2019, 22:36   #423
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

I am always on the lookout for interesting, vintage measuring instruments on various online e-auctions. There is a surprising amount of them out there. But, I refuse to pay much. I will never bid more than Euro 5-10. Which means I do not win a lot.But that is ok. Earlier this week I won two lots, both for the price of a cup of coffee!

First one is a Techno Intermodulation analyser from the 50-60’s. Not really something I will be using on my cars. I am trying to find some more information on it.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070002.jpg

According to this its serial number is 100! Pretty rare.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070007.jpg

The other win was a set of voltage and amp meter in a nice leather bag. These are made of bakelite, which probably puts them near to the 50-60’s too.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070003.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070005.jpg

Very cool, the manual is just a typed (as in type writer) piece of paper!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070004.jpg

Also, for less than the price of a cup of coffee, picked up these handy tools

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070006.jpg

I am beginning to run out of work space. But I have enough room to put another table next to the first one

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070001.jpg

I have another table like the first one. We bought these from Ikea probably some 25 - 30 years ago. The have come with us to all over the world.

Very simple, wooden table, with four detachable legs. Very easy to put together.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070008.jpg

Rats, too big! Took 2 minutes to saw of this corner!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070009.jpg

Looks good, I am very pleased with it!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070010.jpg

I have a problem with the hood of the Spider. The little plastic window has a big tear in it. This was a small tear, which i sort of fixed with some plastic bits. But it became bigger!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070012.jpg

I drilled a hole into it, hopefully that will sort of prevent it from tearing further. I put some simple cello tape on it. I would be the first one to admit it looks a bit shabby. But here is the thing. You can not replace just the window. The hood has to come off, and that is not an easy job, some of this has been glued. So replacing window is not an easy of a cheap job. Which means I might as well replace the whole hood. It has done well over 25 years of service and there is definitely more wear and tear all over it. But I never drive with the hood up. It is only up when the car is parked. And it needs to be reasonable water tight then. A new hood, including fitting is well over Euro 1000 - 1200, so I think I can live with this for now.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070013.jpg

I will be honest, I am not very sure about the care of my leather seats. There are many different theories out there. I bought this special stuff last year and so far I have been using this or similar on my Spider once a year. It is supposed to maintain the leather. If anything, it makes the leather looks shiny and new!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070014.jpg

Spend quite a bit of time, polishing and waxing the Spider. In these photographs it looks great. But unfortunately, up close the paints has a lot of blemishes. I still need to decide to get it professionally polished or a respray/

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070015.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070016.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc070017.jpg

Last edited by ajmat : 7th December 2019 at 23:49.
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Old 14th December 2019, 10:52   #424
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Finally my Jaguar was picked up by my local paint shop owner Johan. Nice guy. I should have it back by the end of next week.

We had another look at the Spider. It has been almost 25 years since it had its respray. Red is a nice colour, but it is also one that shows up scratches and wear. And although the Spider is not driven as regular car it has done plenty of mileage all over Europe. So it shows. I had been debating about whether it would need a re-spray or just a very good professional polish. I had got a quote for a professional polish earlier this year. Nice little company, close to where we used to live. But it was a lot of money.

Johan gave me the name and contact details of a guy he works with. Only 20 minute from where we live. I contacted him yesterday, we had a little chat and he is coming over next weekend to have a look at the Spider.

I will take the four wheels off later and hand them over to Johan too. They really need blasting and re-painting. They also need new tires, so it is good moment to get that done all in one go.

Notice a bit of rust on the Spider. Just beneath the chrome strip on the front window. Not too bad, but I won’t know for sure till I remove the flaked paint. Another job to do.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2073.jpg

My wife kept complaining about the noise coming from her (cupped) tires on her Ford Fiesta. I checked the thread. Rear wheels about 3,5-4mm. Front a bit more.

Decided to order four new tires. The tires for these Fiesta’s are relatively inexpensive. Apart from the left front tyre, these are still the original tyres, which have done well over 45.000 km. So I decided to replace all four. It’s winter here and having good tyres is always important, but even more so driving on these narrow windy rural roads, along dikes etc.

These days I order tyres online and have them shipped to a local tyre fitter. Works out considerable cheaper than going to your typical quick fitter such as Euromaster or QuickFit.

I have been using my mini-mill a bit. I am making a couple of brackets. I could have made them out of metal, which would have been a lot quicker, but what would be the fun in that. At last I am getting to grips with my new toy. So far so good.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2069.jpg

Jeroen
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Old 14th December 2019, 21:42   #425
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Got going on the rust on the Spider.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2076.jpg

First thing is to get rid of the flaky pain and rust. With my trusted Dremel that is a five minute job.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2075.jpg

Anti-rust primer, first coat applied. Later tonight another coat. Tomorrow I can paint.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2077.jpg

I have already brought the paint in our home, so it can warm up. It is about 4oC in my garage. That is really to cold to paint. But this is just a small spot and once the chrome rail is back in place it will hardly show. So no big deal.

Jeroen
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Old 18th December 2019, 16:20   #426
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Steady progress on the Spider. I noticed that some small trim parts were missing from the chrome strip in front of the Front window. Called my friendly Alfa Mate Goof and sure enough he still stocked them. He also provided two new clips for the fastening of the strip.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2115.jpg

I am using my air heater to warm up the car prior to painting and during the first few hours of having the paint dry and harden.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2109.jpg

Two coats of red base pain, applied by small brush.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2112.jpg

Next getting ready to spray some clear coat. So lots of stuff to cover up:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2114.jpg

Three very thin layers of clear coat. I am pleased with the result. The chrome window strip will cover this spot almost entirely. But I know it looks good underneath. More importantly, I have stopped the rust spreading further.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2120.jpg

I am making good progress with my first major milling project too!

The Spider has this fancy Kenwood Mask Radio/casette/CD player system. The CD player is mounted in the boot. It is held in place by means of two plastic brackets. These I replaced some 10 years ago. The boot gets warm (exhaust / sun), this plastic because brittle fairly quicky. It almost crumbles.

Time for replacing. Kenwood doesn’t produce these brackets anymore. Last time they were very expensive too. And they only last some 10 years. So I decided to make my own. The quick and easy way would have been to just make some simple metal brackets. But hey, there is not much fun in that. Especially, when you have bought a mini mill. So a nice little project! Good fun. I have been milling away in my garage for many evenings.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2110.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2113.jpg

I had not done this sort of work for more than 30 years. But it is a bit like riding a bicycle. You never forget. You just need to get the hang of the finer nuances.

How to clamp it down properly, aligning. Doing it in such a fashion that you can get as much milling done before having to remount.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2117.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2119.jpg

The first one is almost done. The back needs to have a recess milled into it as well. Then it just needs tidying up a bit. And still a second bracket needs producing as well. Mirror image and it has a large opening in it as well to accommodate the connection/power cable from the radio head unit.

Not sure if you can paint this Delrin material? I might want to spray it black. Next time I might be able to get black Delrin rather than this whitish version.

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 18th December 2019 at 16:23.
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Old 20th December 2019, 12:09   #427
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

I took my wife’s Ford Fiesta to get the tyres replaced. I went to the same place as last year for the Mercedes tyres.

I bought the tyres online, Nokian, 195/50-15 82H. All four still had a decent amount of thread. But the rear ones were badly cupped. The noise was driving my poor wife bonkers. Also, I don’t think she really trusted my diagnose as cupping. She felt there was something wrong with the car!

So ordered four new tyres. On this little car, tyres are relatively cheap. Four tyres on the Fiesta cost about the same as one tyre for the Jaguar.

So I drove out to Leerdam, 15 minutes from home, I had made an appointment for 14.00 hours and they were ready for me

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2122.jpg

30 minutes later, four new tyres, balanced and all!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-img_2124.jpg

I am happy to report that the tyre noise is completely gone. My wife will be pleased. Also, four new tyres gives a noticeable smoother ride. The old set was well over 5 years. Remarkable they were still the original tyres that came with the car new. We have done 63.000 km with these tyres. One tyre had to be replaced a few years ago, whilst in the UK. Given that these tyres easily had another 20K kilometers left in them, I am very pleased with this Fiesta. Very easy on the old wallet.

I have made a little note in my car note book. Apparently, these Fiesta’s are known for cupping tyres. Or so said my tyre guy. So I better rotate them every year once or so.

I also had a guy, Matthieu, come around to look at the paintwork of the Spider. He came recommended by my local paint shop guy Johan. Johan is still working on the Jaguar.

Matthieu is like a younger version of Johan. Own business, by himself, very knowledgeable, likes to talk about his work and he loved my cars.

We agreed he will come and work on the Spider early February. It will take him two days to properly polish the Spider. I will take the rims off to. Johan is going to sand blast them and re-paint them. They will need new tyres as well, so that is easy to combine.

All three cars need an updated formal appraisal in February for the insurance. My best friend and spanner mate, Peter does my appraisals. I already spoke to him and he will make sure to come around second half of February.

Need to finish putting the chrome strip back on and resume work on the production of the two brackets. Not sure when. I might pop over to Brussels this weekend. They have a nice car museum and they have a special exhibition on British Cars. It will only be on for a few more weeks. It is probably now or never.

Jeroen
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Old 22nd December 2019, 01:55   #428
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Today was a half decent day, so I went for a nice long ride on my bicycle. Here in the Netherlands the terrain is mostly flat, so no worries about hill climbing. However, we have winds! To much from the wrong direction can really trip you up.

So I always look up the weather forecast before I set off and decide based on the wind what route I will take. Today I peddled over to the nearest little town and took a train that took me about 35-40 kms east from us. From there I peddled first south west and then north east. Wind was SSE, force 5, so most of the time it was not bothering me too much.

Usually I ride along the dikes. Today, again because of the wind, I decided here and there to avoid the dikes and stay within the various villages to get a bit of protection. Which turned out to be a good call. Not only bicycle wise, I also ran into this lovely little museum: De WolfsBurcht

https://www.wolfsburcht.com

I had seen some adds for it in classic car magazines. So I decided to stop and have a look.

The museum is all about VW air cooled cars. It is owned and operated by a very nice couple. They are both very keen on old VW. Their main business is running their farm. This is a hobby interest of them and they also stock and sell VW Classic car parts.

It is called Wolfsburcht after the first VW factory in Germany.

It is not very large, but it has a nice collection. Apparently about half the cars are their own and the other half they have on loan. They own more cars than will fit in the museum and they constantly rotate the various cars, get new loaners etc.

This by far is the piece they were most proud of:

A completely original, unrestored, VW Beetle from 1950

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210005.jpg

It went into storage somewhere up north in Sweden in 1963 and did not see day light until a few years ago. They bought it, imported it into the Netherlands and put Dutch Registration plates on on it. As the north of Sweden is cold, but more importantly very dry, virtually no rust and a gorgeous patina look!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210007.jpg


I found the next display quite fascinating. I had just seen a documentary on TV where I learned about this VW stamp system. In the late 30’s VW offered potential customer a way of saving for your own Beetle by means of these stamps. A stamp costed 5 Reichsmarks. A new Beetle was just under a 1000 Reichmarks. You had to buy a stamp every week. If you missed one week, you would loose your savings and would not be eligible for the car.

Nobody actually bought a car under this scheme as the war broke out in 1940. After the war several families sued VW and somewhere in the 70s VW was ordered to pay back the savings or supply a Beetle!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210006.jpg

Just about all variant lined up

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210008.jpg

Here you can see the difference between the earlier models with the straight front window and the later versions with the curved version

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210041.jpg

An image of the original Wolfsburcht. Which translates into Wolve’s castle. Apparently it still exists today

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210010.jpg

In those early days, all cars had these beautiful badges, showing the Wolfsburcht in some shape or format. Same for the horn on the steering wheel.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210027.jpg

The famous VW air cooled little engine. If memory serves me right, bolted to the chassis with just four bolts. You would put a support under the engine, undo the bolts and electrical connections. Then with 3-4 guys you would just lift up the rear and the engine came out!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210011.jpg

They had a beautiful replica of the local VW garage workshop, with all the original VWmanuals, tools etc. Notice the viewer on the left. Not sure if you ever had those in India. Many workshops when I grew up had these things. All parts were on microfilm and you would use these viewer to look up part numbers.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210016.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210018.jpg

A very nice looking 411 Estate

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210017.jpg

Various other VW air cooled engine models.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210021.jpg

Everybody loves a Beetle of course. My very first car was a VW Beetle. I bought it for 50 Guilders. To put that into context of those years (1977), it would take two weeks of delivering news papers to earn 50 guilders! No MOT in those days, this was not a particular good Beetle, but it got me to Naval College every day.

The most loveable Beetle of all, Herbie

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210026.jpg

Loveable as the Beetle was, they were not particularly nice to drive. Here in the west many people will have owned a Beetle at some point in time, or at least have driven in it. So people go all misty eyes when they see a nicely restored Beetle. But they were real pigs to drive. Especially in wet and windy Holland. With an air cooled engine in the back, heating of the cabin was almost non existent and de-misting your front window was impossible. It was also highly unstable in cross winds situation. Most owners put 30-50 kg of bricks or similar in the front boot. That helped a bit.

Of course, no Beetle collection would be complete without some Buggies. In fact there was a very famous Dutch Buggy factory at the time, Ruska. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruska_(car)

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210025.jpg

The museum has quite some nice models on display as well

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210029.jpg

This brought back memories for me. Just about all the police forces in the Netherlands uses VW Beetles and the VW van in the 70x. The white version was used by the cops in Amsterdam. I remember them well.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210031.jpg

This is not a particular large museum. But is well laid out, nicely curated and the owner and his wife are on hand and are very keen to talk to you!

Downstairs is their VW parts shop.

Just about every part for any Beetle ever produced is still available. Lots of upgraded parts are available as well

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210043.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc210044.jpg

I spend about an hour and a half here. Then I had seen it all, definitely worth the visit!

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 22nd December 2019 at 02:00.
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Old 22nd December 2019, 11:00   #429
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeroen View Post

A very nice looking 411 Estate
Actually, it is a a 412 judging by the headlights. A friend of ours had one which caught fire in his garage while his mechanic was working on it and melted the kitchen tiles of the adjoining wall.
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Old 22nd December 2019, 11:18   #430
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmat View Post
Actually, it is a a 412 judging by the headlights.
I looked it up, because I am not very good with the differences between all these models, VW or other brands as a matter of fact.

You are correct, it is the later 412. Learned a few more things too. It was styled by Pininfarina no less. Despite that it is known as the ugly duckling. For its time it was a very advanced car in just about every way. VW added Bosch D Jetronic in 1969. There is a thread on the forum whether modern car will last as well as current old vintage cars, main worry being the electronics. Well, these VW412 and many other cars from the late 60’s are still going strong on 50 year old electronics!. This fuel injected engine was the same as in the Porsche 914 at that time. A staggering 80 bhp!

It had crumple zones and fully independent suspension with MacPherson struts.

Less than 400.000 of these 411/412 were produced. Despite it being very advanced for it’s time it did not appeal to the public.

Not many of these cars left. Whilst the mechanics and electronics are very reliable body panels and trim is a problem. Even thought they are rare they are a relatively cheap vintage car if you can find one.

Jeroen
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Old 23rd December 2019, 22:33   #431
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

I worked most of today, but I was done at 16.15. So my Christmas holiday has officially started. Straight into my garage!

Finished the Spider. Looks really nice again.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230001.jpg

Next I finished the first bracket for my Kenwood CD player. I am very pleased with how it turned out. Looks good and fits perfect. Not bad after more than thirty years of not milling!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230002.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230003.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230004.jpg

A quick test mount and a perfect fit!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230005.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230006.jpg

Old and new.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230007.jpg

One down, one more to go. Second one is going a lot faster!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc230008.jpg
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Old 24th December 2019, 12:30   #432
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Last Sunday I drove down to Brussels to visit Autoworld:

https://www.autoworld.be/onthaal

I have visited Autoworld before, see https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/beyon...r-passion.html (Brussels Autoworld, Italian car passion)

At the time they had a special exhibition about Italian cars. This time it was a special exhibition, British cars and lifestyle.

Brussels is less that 1,5 hour drive from us, all motorway, about 150 km. So I set off early on Sunday morning, stopped for a Starbucks on the way and arrived at the museum just as they were opening.

Probably one of then most iconic British cars ever at the entrance

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220068.jpg

They had managed to pull together quite the eclectic collection of modern and classic British cars and bikes.

Bentley Continental

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220005.jpg

McLaren 720

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220007.jpg

Nice JLR line up

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220018.jpg

This one is from the permanent collection. One of the early RR chassis. You bought it like this and then took it to a coach builder. Even without the coach it has some interesting details:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220020.jpg

Quite a number of bikes on display. Of course, the British had, at one time, a huge bike manufacturing industry.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220022.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220030.jpg

And of course, a Royal Enfield Bullet, 500cc, 1954

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-80394270_1421008171390363_7816953079877599232_n.jpg

Some serious racing kit:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220032.jpg

Like with the Italian car special exhibition, here again, on the upper floor they have made some very interesting, very British, back drops to these British cars.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220038.jpg

Waiting for a cab

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220039.jpg

From the left, a 1950 Jowett Jupiter, Lotus 7, Morgan, Airel Atom

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220037.jpg

I remember a TopGear Episode where Jeremy Clarkson drove the Atom with his mouth open, his face flopping about, very funny.

The other TG relic is the bike at the back:

This is a 1948 Vincent Black Shadow. For quite a long time, this was the fastest production bike in Europe. I was watching the “TG Race to the North” the other day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Ge...e_to_the_North

James drives a Jaguar XK120, Jeremy is the stoker on a steam train and Hammond is on the Vincent. Epic!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220064.jpg

Some very nice cars, in a nice setting

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220041.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220043.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220046.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220049.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220050.jpg

An absolutely drop dead gorgeous 1955 Jensen 341

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220053.jpg

Typical British see-through between a Jaguar and a TVR. Could be anywhere in the UK!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220059.jpg

And another one. This is an original serie 1. They are worth serious money these days. Would love to own one.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220061.jpg

No exhibition about British motoring would be complete without Stig, obviously.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220062.jpg

Two views from the top:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220063.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220066.jpg

The last image of, what else an E-type.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220056.jpg

If you ever find yourself in Brussels, this museum is always worth a visit. The permanent collection is very interesting. They also have a very nice museum shops. Lots of models, quite some rare ones too on sale.

Best kept secret in Brussels: Parking in front of the museum is free! It is probably the only free parking available in all of Brussels, but there you go, smack in the centre free parking.

Also, if you visit Autoworld you must pop over to the other side of the square and have a peek at the Belgium Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History

http://www.klm-mra.be/D7t/en

I visited this too some years ago, whilst doing the Italian cars exhibition at Autoworld. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/comme...s-belgium.html (Royal Museum of the Armed Forces, Belgium)

Just a few images to give you an impression of the aviation section

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220069.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220070.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc220072.jpg

The museum shop is really excellent. Lots of models and lots of books. Lots about aviation. The museum shop alone is worth a visit.

Enjoy

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 24th December 2019 at 12:34.
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Old 24th December 2019, 21:56   #433
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Today is the 24th of December. I have taken the day off, just about all my colleagues are off, so it is no use working all by myself. Busy day, final preparation for our big Family Christmas dinner.

I got an email last night from my favourite toolshop HBM, that a tool I was looking for was back in stock. So I decided to quickly pop over and get it. It is an open endend / ratchet ring spanner, size 11. For some reason this size has been missing from my set and HBM has been out of stock of this size for several weeks.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc240001.jpg

Picked up another little measuring tools that comes in very handy when I am milling and two pieces of Delrin. What is the English term for it?

The pieces of Delrin HBM stocks appear to be completely random, size, colour and otherwise. So I just pick up a piece I think might be useful at some point in time. They come very cheap. The total cost of these two tools and two pieces of Delrin was just under Euro 6.

Also, in between running around with the hoover, fixing our robo-Hoover, Roomba, doing some shopping I managed to work on the second bracket for my Kenwood CD player.

This one is the mirror image from the first one and it has a large hole to accommodate the power/connection cable from the radio head. So some fiddling with paper templates.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc240002.jpg

Beginning to look good!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc240003.jpg

Perfect fit!!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc240004.jpg

Put both new brackets on the CD player and mounted it back into the boot of the Spider. Checked and everything works again! Job well done!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc240005.jpg

Very pleased with my mini mill.

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 24th December 2019 at 22:01.
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Old 24th December 2019, 23:26   #434
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Engineers square or machinists square.
Try square is for carpenters.

Regards
Sutripta
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Old 29th December 2019, 20:58   #435
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Re: My Car Hobby: A lot of fiddling, and some driving too! Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123 & Alfa Romeo Sp

Almost a whole day of fiddling with my cars. Mostly the Spider.

But first, I had a few more sign to hang. I really like the three Shell signs, they are cast iron, real heavy. The maximum height sign I picked up yesterday at a brocante market at one of the nearby farms. It cost Euro 1, which is a steal. But then again, this sign is probably stolen! Because it is an original road sign.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290001.jpg

Next a couple of little jobs on the Spider. When I got it back from Goof after its major overhaul, the gear jumped out of third. Goof told me it was due to the new rubbers/seals on the gearbox lever. But I was not convinced. I have replaced these same rubbers/seals well over twenty years ago and I do not recall this problem afterwards. Also, the other day I noticed they had not put one of the pieces of trim back properly.

So I decided to have a look and if anything refit the piece of trim properly, if anything.

Which means removing a lot of trim under the dashboard and around the centre console

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290003.jpg

I removed the big hose clamp and peeled back the rubber boot, there is another one underneath. But it was evident that they have plenty of space to move around. If anything the gear lever seemed a bit close to the top of the centre console, what with the leather boot around it too.

So I decided to try and move the whole centre console somewhat further forward, if possible. Which meant I needed access from both sides to the centre console. More trim to remove.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290012.jpg

In the end I managed to move it a few millimetres forward. We will see if that is enough. The problem with these repairs is that Alfa’s are not particularly well build and they do not take well to being taken apart. The older they get, the worse they do. If you go through this thread you will notice I have taken all these pieces of trim of several times. It causes additional wear and every time you want to re-install it, you find bits are broken/damaged.

This time one of the bushes in which the driver knee board pivots, was broken. (You can see it on the above image just behind the hood release handle)

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290005.jpg

Not sure what sort of material it is, but is quite soft. Which usually means difficult to glue. But I got my special glues and filler out. Bit of grinding with my Dremel and voila, as good as new:

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290006.jpg

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290008.jpg

This is the other part of the driver knee board. This little flap is supposed to cover the space between the cover of the steering wheel mechanism and the dashboard. But it was badly damaged.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290009.jpg

One rivet and a bit of bending and hammering and it looked half decent again.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290010.jpg

The flap I managed to glue back on as well!

Around 1500 hours my wife brings me tea and a mince pie. We still have several boxes to go! Actually, I needed hot drinks all through the day, it is around 3oC outside and about 5oC inside my garage!

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290014.jpg

Whilst I was waiting for various glue-repair jobs on various trim bits to harden I decided to have another look at the battery tray. The other day when I had it out to work on the rear light I had noticed two of its welds had broken. It was not a big thing, but I do not like leaving these sort of things.

Took the battery and battery tray out and used my pneumatic drill with steel brush to clean the welds properly.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290011.jpg

I decided to get some proper metal bonding type of glue, so I popped over to our local DIY store.

Got one of these special two component super bonding glues. Got my heater going to warm up the metal and to let the glue dry a bit.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290019.jpg

With the glue applied and the heater going I went back to refitting all the trim. It took me about 10 minutes to remove all the trim. It took about an hour and a half to refit it all. Always a PITA on these Alfa’s. Real fiddly and difficult to get good access. I have done it so often, but still you need some luck. I fiddled for well over half an hour with the last bolt. I could not get it to go in. I tapered it, so it would hopefully go in a little easier, but no.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290015.jpg

In the end I had to remove almost all trim again, do this one bolt first and then redo everything else. Looks good and nothing shows this is just a very awkward, fiddly job.

My Car Hobby: Jaguar XJR, Mercedes W123, Alfa Romeo Spider, Jeep Cherokee & Mini One-pc290018.jpg

So a lot of hours happily fiddling. We have a thread on the forum about whether current modern cars would still be around and can be maintained 30-40 years from now. A lot of folks seem to think not. But I believe many people just have no idea what it takes to keep old cars going, or to restore a car that has sat idle for many years.

Obviously, there is likely to be some work on the engine and other major components. But if a car is properly maintained there should be very little. It is really all the endless little odd jobs, such as these that take up time. Nothing very high tech, nothing very difficult, just time consuming. It requires just patience, some improvisation and the ability to source or repair all these silly little bits and pieces of trim.

And of course, dealing with rust. Even on modern day cars, rust 30-40 years from now is going to require constant attention.

Jeroen

Last edited by Jeroen : 29th December 2019 at 21:08.
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