C16 RKC's car ownership thread

[c16rkc]

Hi all, I'm Chris, and this is my 2010 Audi A6 Avant. I purchased it in November last year.

It was a bit tatty in places, but luckily I've had more time to tidy it up thanks to this COVID thing.

I tend to run project threads on my cars, so thought I'd start one here, where an Audi really belongs.

I've also got a Daimler Super V8.

...and my wife has a Peugeot 508 hybrid.

I'll post things about the other cars too, assuming there is interest. The Daimler has been mine since 2018 and has had very drastic bodywork to bring it up to a reasonable standard - I have lots of pictures of that to share.

So first on to the Audi of course.

The wheels do not look too bad above, but in reality they were really shabby! Unfortunately I never took any photos to Shame them! But work on the Audi started with a nasty slow puncture it had. I took the wheel off and dunked it in the bath. This quickly found the reason for the puncture...



So after cleaning the bath, before Lindsey beheaded me... I decided on a wheel refirb to solve this, and sort the shabbyness out. I had all four done so they would match.

My son Aston helped me apply 3 layers of poorboys wheel sealant to protect them... inside and out! This is my favourite shot, that Lindsey took of Aston with my wheel sealant tub.

They are not perfect, but they are a huge improvement from the flaky finish they had.

...to be continued...



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[c16rkc]

Before I refitted the wheels, it seemed rude not to refurbish the brake calipers too. After all they are painfully visible through those open spokes, and they looked like bits off the titanic that had been raised up from the bottom of the sea!

I pondered what colour to do them in and settled on a mid-tone blue.

I cleaned them up, then taped them up. I then gave a few coats. Finished off with some of those caliper stickers from Ebay, and gave it a few coats of Lacquer.

Did all four, and its smartened the car up a little. Sodding lacquer wrinkled when I applied it... I forgot Hammerite does that to lacquer...

But they do look good enough for a daily driver.

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[c16rkc]

I fancied being able to play music through my phone in the Audi, so after a search on Alibaba I found this Bluetooth aux in receiver. For less than £10 it's great value, and works perfectly. Plugs into the rear of the Nav/memory card unit.

I also decided to tidy up the cloudy rear inner tail lights. Oddly the outer ones are fine, but the inner ones looked awful. Seems pretty common for that to be the case on these A6's, not sure why?

Wet-sanded and polished.

…so lastly it just got a good clean with Aston's help... not perfect, but it does look very presentable now.

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[c16rkc]

So a bit of background, rewinding to summer 2019.

Back then I was driving around in a Mercedes CL500, and Lindsey (my wife) had a Range Rover Sport.

But one night Lindsey was driving the Range Rover to the garage, of all places, for a check of the suspension the next morning. The dashboard lit up like Christmas, and the engine sputtered out. It had to be recovered to the garage, just a few miles away.

Unfortunately the diagnosis was terminal. The oil pump had broke away from is fixings, and ripped through the cam-belt. So we were on the lookout for something new for Lindsey my wife.

Lindsey fancied a change for something cheaper to run, and smaller. We looked at several different cars, people carriers etc. and eventually decided on this:

Lindsey took to it right away, and I confess it's a very refined car for the money. It's a hybrid, so its very cheap on the fuel, and has lots of luxuries I'd not expected on a French family car.

Sadly our little Aston was in and out of hospital throughout September to November, and despite the doctors saying there was nothing to worry about; we were. It seemed inconceivable that our son was getting so many nasty infections, and each one was taking weeks for him to recover from.

Then in December I got a phone call that will stay with me for the rest of my life... Lindsey phoned me in tears after being told Aston had Leukaemia.

The fighter in me refused to beleive this was the end, and some quick immediate research gave me confidence it was treatable. When I arrived at hospital and the doctors spoke to us they did make it sound bleak, and made it sound like we'd both lose our careers and everything, but they did seem optimistic Aston might have a good chance.

So we spent December, through Christmas staying in Leicester hospital, and Lindsey and me now know a lot about type 'AL' Leukaemia. Further tests proved Aston was fully treatable, and early Chemo blasted most of the cancerous cells away. We came out of hospital in January with a 3 1/2 year treatment plan for Aston, but lots of positive feelings on the future.

But this made me think seriously about my cars - at that time I had the Audi, the Mercedes, and the Daimler. The doctors gave us the impression we'd have little spare time for a couple of years, so I thought the time might be here to sell the Mercedes and the Daimler, a harsh January and February saw me doing up to 800 miles per week, and our outgoings rising above our incoming wages... so I got serious about cutting costs.

The Mercedes went up for sale at a bargain price, and was gone within a couple of weeks. But the Daimler needed an MOT, which had ran out the tail end of 2019. So I booked it in.

Sadly... it failed... this is what the MOT tester found:

The front spring pans were badly corroded:

There was rust on these sticky out parts underneath:

These rear subframe brackets were badly corroded:

I managed to find somewhere online to purchase refurbished brackets (these are no longer available new), and I had a conversation with J-Cat (Jaguar specialist) in Norwich. They said go ahead and order the brackets (one less thing for them to source/find) and agreed to do the work/welding.

The Daimler went on it's way on the 24th March, with the brackets boxed up in the boot.

Here it is when it arrived (the delivery driver sent me a picture):

It took a month for it to be finished, and they found more welding/repairs along the way (the drivers side jacking point needed repair too), but I finally received the car back. The bill for everything to get it MOT'd was just shy of £1,500 and really she still needs a service (despite only covering a few hundred miles since the last service...). Here it is loaded up (picture sent to me by pickup driver):

...and here it is safe and sound at home!

So that's the Daimler back with an MOT. Of all places, someone from the Mercedes forum wanted to buy it, but the price we discussed was a fraction of what this car owed me - I've spent somewhere between £7K and £8K by now; sadly she's not worth that much.

But things are not as bad for me and Lindsey as we thought they would be, I'm still working, and the hospital time has stopped being as tiring as it was. We are expecting some intense hospital visits throughout late May to early July, but that should then be the worst over for Aston's treatment. A large part of me wanted to keep the Daimler; and Lindsey had been encouraging me to keep it. As she kept reminding me, it's the car I always wanted, in the colour I always wanted. Now it has had so much spent on it I will be hard pushed to find one in the condition. I have also been pushing ahead with plans for a house extension and new garage, and that might be a reality in early 2021... so perhaps the Daimler just has to survive another winter on the driveway!

...so I decided to keep it!...


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[c16rkc]

Last weekend weekend Aston fancied doing some work on the cars... so I gave him a hand of course. The weather was nice which helped!

First, on Friday night we attacked mummy's Peugeot 508. The drivers side heated seat had stopped working, and so we purchased a new heated pad set from Ebay (Aston assumed it was a broken heating element, as is often the case).

I finish work early on a friday, so I helped Aston get the seat out (just 4 bolts, and the seat was much lighter than I expected considering it was fully electric). Then Aston got straight to work.

Aston narrowed the fault down to this burnt out connector. Shocking - these must be under-rated for the current drawn by the heating elements.

Putting a multimeter across the actual heating elements, they measured around 6 ohms, so they seemed OK - and most importantly not broken!

A bit of web research, and Aston found that this is a common problem on Peugeot models of this era. People seem to usually renew the wiring loom.

So it was straight back to work, because Aston had a better idea. We soldered new connectors (cut them from the new Ebay heated seat elements, that we now didn't need).

Did the same to the cables coming from the heating pad in the seat.

Then put the seat back in the car and tested. To our delight its lovely and toasty now! Works perfectly!

Only took a couple of hours...a perfect Friday afternoon job!

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[c16rkc]

The heated drivers seat in the Audi was not working either, and Aston decided we should do that next. But I insisted we leave that until the next day. Aston's a bit of a workaholic... so this did not go down well!

But the next day Aston was up early washing the cars, so I think he got over it...

Later on we decided to look at the Audi drivers seat, to try and fix it. Got the seat released (again 4 bolts), and took a look. There is a convenient set of sockets in the floor.

Aston decided best thing was to measure the resistance across the heating element after unplugging the seat. The element measured around 7 ohms, which was great, but made it odd the seat was not working...

So we plugged the seat back in, and measured the voltage to the elements.

It was at only 3mV but every 2 minutes it would jump to 13V and stay there for 10 seconds, before dropping back to 3mV again.

Very odd, I was stumped. But Aston said it must be a control issue, and did a bit of research on Audi's. Turns out the Audi has a Thermistor in the seat. The seat can be set at a variety of heating settings between 0-6. The car then compares the setting with the feedback from the Thermistor, and turns the seat on/off to maintain the correct temperature.

It appears my seat thinks its reached temperature when it hasn't. Assuming the Thermistor was up the spout, Aston dived in and pulled the seat apart, so we could investigate.

We found the Thermistor at the back of the seat base cushion.

(Yes that is a screwdriver in Aston's mouth... yes I am the worst father in the world)

A bit more research found a chap who had taken two measurements on his seat. He found 11 degrees C should be 15kohm and 20 degrees C should be 10kohm. Wish I'd found that sooner so we could have taken measurements before pulling apart the seat!

So looking at it, there was a small bead thermistor. Oddly it seemed to be working. At room temp (21 degrees) is measured 8kohms. This dropped to around 6kohm is I warmed it in my mouth.

Aston decided we should order some new Thermistors, so I did some research and worked out a Beta value for a suitable Thermistor using the temperature set points from the guy on the web (hoping they are right).

https://i.imgur.com/JhH6jghh.jpg

I ordered some 10K thermistors (10K at 25 degrees) with the correct B value. These should fix it!

To be continued...

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[c16rkc]

So a further update on the Audi.

A week later on Friday (bank holiday) just gone, and Aston was up early to finish work on the Audi drivers seat. The plan was to solder in the new thermistor that had been delivered this week, with a hope it fixed the seat heater issue.

These are the new thermistors.

Aston carefully soldered one in.

Then he put the seat back together.

I am pleased to say that after a quick test the seat now works! Not much use for it now but it will be great in the winter.

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[S3Steve]

I fancied being able to play music through my phone in the Audi, so after a search on Alibaba I found this Bluetooth aux in receiver. For less than £10 it's great value, and works perfectly. Plugs into the rear of the Nav/memory card unit.

I also decided to tidy up the cloudy rear inner tail lights. Oddly the outer ones are fine, but the inner ones looked awful. Seems pretty common for that to be the case on these A6's, not sure why?

Wet-sanded and polished.

…so lastly it just got a good clean with Aston's help... not perfect, but it does look very presentable now.

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Do you have a link to the Bluetooth adaptor you purchased? What’s the sound quality like?


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[c16rkc]

Do you have a link to the Bluetooth adaptor you purchased? What’s the sound quality like?


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It's just like the quality of playing a CD.

I thought it was Alibaba, but it was Ebay; even better! Looks like they have added a few quid to the price, but it's still good value.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/293058077414

Really easy to install. You also need radio removal tools like this though.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181516591429

Then just plug it in at the back.




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[Novica]

Interesting write up. Keep doing it. All cars are beautiful. Aston is a good workman, I wish all the best for all of you.

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[aleung2]

Great write up and very moving about Aston. Wish you all the best and look forward to further updates.

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[CupraDine]

Great read! Keep it up.

I like the detail you go into, it may help others in the future with similar issues

 

[c16rkc]

There was no stopping Aston this weekend. First of all he had to get those cars cleaned, I helped, watched and learned as always...

This is the standard "brushed aluminium" trim in my Audi. Standard figment on the Le Mans edition, and I hate it...!

I have always loved walnut in my cars, and seeing as it would cost over £100 to buy all the used walnut pieces to change mine over to walnut, I had the bright idea to Hydrodip them (water transfer printing). Aston had to sit this one out as there are dangerous chemicals involved.

So this is the trim all primed an painted.

So that part went well, but when I tried hydro dipping I was less than successful...

So plan Bit is then... so I'd considered piano black, and I had some black paint, but I thought all that black would be a bit plain. So I tried a gold detail. This is it after lacquer.

But I don't like that either, too corny...

...so plan C?

I'm ordering a used wood trim set!

Back to Aston, and he was unhappy with the figment of the rear badges of Mummy's Peugeot.

They are not straight, and appear to be stuck on with Mastic, and the car has clearly had some paint. Guessing a bodged repair. Who knows what hidden history this car has!

So Aston carefully removed the badges.

So then after thorough cleaning to remove all that mastic glue, Aston machine polished the panel to bring it up a bit brighter. The paint job is not the best and it's still a little dull, but better.

Only had time to fit the main badge, the peugeot lettering will have to wait until next weekend...

That's if for now.

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[Novica]

Same with me, I do not like aluminium, so far, I made cluster surrounding and central console in piano black. Door panels and dashboard panel left in aluminium. Better looking.

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[c16rkc]

Yes that instrument panel is much nicer! You have the 6" screen too - I'm jealous!

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[Pee Jam]

Great write up and detail! Aston is a real credit to you and such a hard worker!

Do you happen to have the details of the thermistors you ordered? My drivers heated seat is also no functional atm.

Thanks
Peter

 

[c16rkc]

Have you belled out the heating coil? I'd do that first if not. Broken heating coils are the most common cause of heated seat failure, although I was amazed at the thickness and quality of the coils in these Audi seats.

If so, then you might have the same issue as me? I fitted one of these thermistors:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172167726230

For electronics whizzes, or for if the above link breaks, it's a 10Kohm at 25 degrees C thermistor with a Beta of 3950.

The old thermistor is at the back on the seat base, near the middle of the back edge where it meets the backrest. You have to cut away some fabric to find it - but careful you don't damage the giant heater coils.

I just cut out the old one, then soldered in the new one.

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[c16rkc]

Thought I'd update Daimler progress and wishlist:

- Thoroughly clean the car, inside and out - This is 90% there.....
- Assess any remedial work to the paintwork (including pinstripes/overspray); then add plan to address using wet-sanding/compounding etc. - Getting there, 75% I'd say...
- Re-colour the armrest, and front seats where necessary.
- Re-colour passenger side armrest.
- Re-fit all door cards with brand new clips (most are broken or missing)
- Re-spray of front bumper.
- Re-spray of rear bumper.
- Assess if front sill covers can be re-fitted; fit if possible (If not, new sill covers BEC21887 at around £44 a pair).
- Re-fit the jacking point covers.
- Paint all parking sensor brackets, and refit new parking sensors (possibly with rear bumper re-spray?).
- Adjust position of wonky parking sensors. - Have done one, the other I did not like to disturb...
- Check height of exhausts, or is bumper wonky between exhausts? Investigate.
- Have rust attended to (by new bodyshop) on corners of passenger side doors.
- Have rust attended to (by new bodyshop) on front side, of drivers side front arch (where it meets bumper).
- Wire in some USB charging points and fit under armrest.
- New front Grille (there is minor marking around the "D" badge).
- New radiator "D" badge (mine has been badly painted gold!).
- New rear drivers side light, mine has crack in plastic lens.
- New rear passenger side light, as bodyshop have damaged the chrome surround.
- New "Daimler" or "V8" badges for side window chrome pillars (mine have once again been badly painted gold).
- Install "Audio aux input" (maybe this:*http://www.discountcarstereo.com/aux-jagr.html, or this:*http://factoryradioservice.com/jagua...nput-p-37.html)
- Investigate Bluetooth phone install (This might help:*http://jimroal.com/cars/X308Bluetooth.pdf)
- Re lacquer all wood trim (as it is faded and cracked in places)
- New gear knob (mine is faded)
- Thoroughly clean engine bay.
- Have gearbox oil changed.
- Purchase and fit missing under-bonnet tool kit.
- Re-fit brake cooling duct.
- Check arch liners front and rear; are the present, do I need new ones? (these are important for fitting the brake cooling duct).
-Full suspension bush kit, as there are a few knocks down there!
-New chrome lower window finisher all doors (GNA1710AE+GNA1711AE+GXF2521AD+GXF2520AD). These total around £800, for just the three they have, on Jaguar classic parts, so this might not ever get done!
-*NEW* Replace speakers for something better, maybe look into an aftermarket Amplifier too.

Completed items:
- Replace missing rear passenger side reflector (LNC5022AB) DONE!
- Repair drivers seat back rest adjustment (new seat module). DONE!
- Adjust rear side profile to line up properly with wing. DONE!
- Purchase LNF7361AA rear*parking sensor*bracket, then re-fit*parking sensor(Ordered from Jaguarclassicparts). DONE!
- Re-fit the chrome trim at drivers side front sill. DONE!
- Source set of original lambswool mats. DONE!
- Fit new tyres to rear wheels. DONE!
- Recolour drivers side armrest. DONE!

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[Pee Jam]

Have you belled out the heating coil? I'd do that first if not. Broken heating coils are the most common cause of heated seat failure, although I was amazed at the thickness and quality of the coils in these Audi seats.

If so, then you might have the same issue as me? I fitted one of these thermistors:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172167726230

For electronics whizzes, or for if the above link breaks, it's a 10Kohm at 25 degrees C thermistor with a Beta of 3950.

The old thermistor is at the back on the seat base, near the middle of the back edge where it meets the backrest. You have to cut away some fabric to find it - but careful you don't damage the giant heater coils.

I just cut out the old one, then soldered in the new one.

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Not checked anything out as yet, apart from making sure the plugs underneath the seat were plugged in! Just wanted to have some parts to hand when I do take the seat out

 

[c16rkc]

Not checked anything out as yet, apart from making sure the plugs underneath the seat were plugged in! Just wanted to have some parts to hand when I do take the seat out

Yes that's a good idea, after all they are only a coupe of quid. Let me know if you want help identifying the wires.

The seats a pain to get apart too.

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[c16rkc]

Well another Audi update...

My new walnut trim set arrived this week. I snapped it for £60 posted, it was just missing the passenger side rear trim, which I have acquired for £15 elsewhere.

The state of it explained the low price...

This will need touching in, think a little back paint will take the eye off, and luckily its tucked down by my waist when fitted.

So removed all the trim, and cleaned thoroughly.

Aston polished it all up with ultimate compound.

Bottom/right half is polished, top half not.

So the it was goodbye shiny aluminium trim:

...and hello new Walnut luxury!

It's not all finished, more trim to go back in. But I am so please with the result!

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[Pee Jam]

Looks very nice.

Out of interest, what are you doing with your old trim? I currently have a mis-matched center console, its a flat grey and the rest of the cars trim is brushed aluminium!

Thanks
Peter

 

[c16rkc]

Unfortunately I painted the centre console (see further back), so it's only really fit for the bin...

I have all the other pieces, which you are welcome to, but sounds like you have those!

You can buy brushed aluminium ones ever so cheap on Ebay though.

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[Pee Jam]

Unfortunately I painted the centre console (see further back), so it's only really fit for the bin...

I have all the other pieces, which you are welcome to, but sounds like you have those!

You can buy brushed aluminium ones ever so cheap on Ebay though.

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Ahh yes, now you mention it, I do remember you tried painting your one first!

No probs, ebay it is

 

[c16rkc]

Well that's the interior all put back together.

Before:

After:

I think it's a huge improvement, it really adds some warmth and colour.

I'm thrilled!

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[c16rkc]

So this morning Aston attacked the Daimler drivers seat. He commented that the seats are much worse than he thought.

It appears they have been re-coloured before, very badly. It was obviously a very poor colour match, and the finish is patchy and cracking.

So Aston suggested a deep clean first. It was Meguiars super degreaser on this occasion, used neat and applied by brush. Lots of dirt and grime removed, but this seemed to release the old layer of leather dye someone had sprayed on.

This was a scary time, as we were not sure if the original leather dye was coming off or not - and in some places it did... But Aston is fearless when it comes to these things, and assured me he knew what he was doing. Thankfully I trusted him, and it's all worked out.

So now the seat is clean, wet-sanded down and ready for paint. Here are some before and afters.

I wanted to paint them today, but Aston said wait until tomorrow... so they can dry out...

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[c16rkc]

Lots of painting later... and Aston has the seat is looking much better.

It's not perfect, as there are creases, it really needed leather filler to smooth out. But it's an improvement that will do for now... although it does not live up to Aston's high standards...

The colour is not a perfect match either but its closer than the previous attempt by someone else.

The car has other priorities at the moment, but Aston thinks a partial retrim of the front seats is required one day.

So here is the seat installed:

Much better!

In preparation for the next step, Aston looked at the treadplates. The drivers side treadplate base was damaged by the monkeys who did the body/paintwork last year.

So it's been removed and the sill has been cleaned ready for a replacement.

The rear drivers side one cleaned up nicely, took ages to clean all the residue from the old tape off. Used Autoglym Tar remover. Then cleaned with Meguiars Super degreaser and polished up.

Ditto the rear passenger side:

Could not help a sneaky picture of the inside....

Noticed this grommet was missing by the rear door closure bracket:

Front treadplate base is ok, so Aston just cleaned it up ready for new treadplate cover.

So that's it for this week. Have ordered new fixings for the other door cards, and the missing treadplate covers.

Need to source a drivers side treadplate base, which I cannot imagine will be hard. They are aluminium so will not rust.

Daimler looking nice in it's new home at the side of the drive. A rose "to the side of" two thorns...

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[c16rkc]

Aston was eager to start yesterday morning. Straight on to cleaning the remaining door cards.

Some goodies have arrived in the week. That's the door card fixings, and two new treadplate finishers from Jaguar. Then a new grommet and treadplate base from Black Cherry Jaguar.

Had to dye this front passenger armrest.

...a shot during (Aston was too busy for a finished shot before it went into the car.

Could not get this over spray off... so will.need a good used replacement door card, or might try something stronger another time... it's the rear passenger side door card.

Used double sided sticky foam to fit the tread plate covers.

All fitted and looking much better:

Passenger side door card looks good, and armrest repair looks nice.

Did a repair to the passenger side seat base, the back rest was actually pretty good.

So that's the interior looking much better!

The only downside was that our new treadplate was actually worse than the one I had removed.

I am being a bit of a fuss pot here, but I don't think this is good enough. I asked for a treadplate in decent condition, and I did not expect to receive one that has been damaged by someone trying to pry it off before realising there are screws to remove... I suppose the chap at Black Cherry Jaguar has a different opinion. That's £32 for a grommet then....

Have bought another full set elsewhere, hoping that at least one of the fronts are usable. Won't be using Black Cherry Jaguar again as his standards are obviously way below Aston's and mine! The funny thing is, without asking, the chap sent me 4 blurry photos before he sent the part, and I thought 'how odd', as all they did was show me how dirty they were... I did not really know what to say... Now I know why, so he can say... "I did send you photos first"...

So next couple of little things...

Smartened up the V8 badges, which I'll change to the correctvDaimler ones eventually....

Tried one of the speaker grille logos too. They appeared to have been gold originally, so touched them up.

Then we need to source a cover for the rear passenger side puddle light cover. This one was help on with sticky tape..

That ends the weekend's work on the Daimler...

I did spend a couple of hours cleaning the rear leather seats in the Audi, thoroughly with Meguiars degreaser at the weekend (while Aston was having a nap), but I never got any photos. They do look much better, and I'll be doing the fronts!


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[c16rkc]

Nothing major to report, except I fitted this Brodit bracket to the Audi.

I've not got the actual phone holder part yet, but the base was easy to fit and does not look too out of place.

I'm not usually a fan of phone brackets, but I need to be able to skip up/down tracks when using the Bluetooth aux input from my phone to the MMI.

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[c16rkc]

Minor update time.... sorry there is only one small Audi part...

So first of all, Aston and me gave the Daimler a thorough clean a few weeks back. We moved it to the grass while we moved on to cleaning the Peugeot, and I took a couple of pictures while Aston was busy cleaning.

The car really is looking smart now, but there is still lots to do...

So then Aston entered stage 4 of his Chemotherapy, and he became quite ill. We ended up having to take him to hospital. But he slowly got better over a week, and here he is enjoying the hospital food!

So then Aston's priority was doing more work on the Daimler!

I managed to buy a used driver side mirror off another Daimler Super V8. These have to be powerfold, and Electrochomatic, which is rare on X308 models.

But unfortunately, as with pretty much every one we see, the mirror glass was a stick on piece over a cracked original.... so we still needed the glass!

The glass is £200 new from Jaguar. There is even some clown trying to sell a used and clouded/corroded one for £200 on Ebay (what a prat...).

But then we sourced one for £86 BRAND NEW, on Ebay. I've fitted the mirror, but the power mechanism is not aligned correctly. Need to have another go then I'll fit the lovely spangly new mirror glass!

Then after reading an interesting post from a nice fellow on detailing world, I bought a great Brodit phone bracket for the Audi.

This is the Brodit bracket.

Then fitted a nice cheap universal holder.

I don't usually like this sort of thing. But the Bluetooth interface in the Audi does not allow me to skip tracks, so having the phone in a holder will allow me to control using the phone screen.

Then we attended to the rear lights on the Daimler. Both were damaged. The right one has a nasty, and badly repaired crack.

...and the left side on has damage to the chrome thanks to the idiots at the bodysuit, and a crack too.

Managed to source an "as new" pair from Ebay for a bargain £60.

They look stunning!

Last thing, we replaced the puddle light cover that was cracked, and has therefore been missing these last few weeks... A bargain at £5...

Thats all folks!

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[c16rkc]

Another update today.

First, the good lady wife's Peugeot. The wheels are looking very scabby (and they were like this when Lindsey got it).

So they were bundles into the boot of the Audi today, so I can drop them off for a refurb tomorrow morning.

I do love having an estate car!

Then Aston wasted no time fixing that drivers side mirror power fold mechanism.

We also fitted the brand new mirror glass.

You can see the nice new one next to the old one with stuck on piece.

So thats much better then!

Then we had a nice drive around the garden in the Daimler, Aston driving of course.

Parked it up and took some more photos.

Looks nice in the sun, although it needs another wash... it's very dusty!

I taxed it a couple of weekends ago, and Lindsey is taking the Daimler to the hospital while I take the wheels to the refurbishers.

Aston got a bit inpatient and tried to take those Peugeot wheels himself...

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[Seanchadwick2k3]

Love the Daimler's my uncle has a coupe wrapped up in a garage I hope I can get my hands on one day. Hasn't been touched for at least 25 years. Yours is looking spot on!

Hope the little fella is feeling a bit better, great how he gets stuck in.

 

[c16rkc]

Love the Daimler's my uncle has a coupe wrapped up in a garage I hope I can get my hands on one day. Hasn't been touched for at least 25 years. Yours is looking spot on!

Hope the little fella is feeling a bit better, great how he gets stuck in.

I'd love a coupe, they are such a beautiful design.

If I were you, I'd buy it and put it away now if you can. A barn find is worth £3k to 5k now, but they were worth £500 and struggled to sell 15 years ago. A good one is at least £25k now, where as I nearly bought an MOT'd and running V12 Daimler coupe for £2K in 2007, so values have already rocketed.

I think they will only continue to go up due to how rare they are. Better than the much more common E-type in my opinion.

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[c16rkc]

Few more tiny updates, as I am on holiday this week.

While mummy's wheels are being refurbished, and fitted with new tyres, Aston insisted we tart up her brake calipers. He is such a slave driver...

(For anyone who is worried, I can assure everyone that this is a joke, and Aston was never allowed near the spray paint!)

We then took a family drive in the Daimler.

That was yesterday, so today we tackled the Daimler drivers side sill, that we were not able to do a few weeks back.

Some may remember mine had been damaged by the bodyshop, by them trying to lever it off. I then ordered a replacement from Black Cherry Jaguar spares, and it turned up ever worse - and absolutely filthy too!

So then I bought a whole set of four from Simply Performance Jaguar spares (for the same price as one from Black Cherry!), and thankfully this time I had a result. All four were in nice condition (not immaculate, but these are 20 year old cars!), just a few scuffs, but most importantly no physical damage.

Aston picked the best one, then fitted it on.

Then Aston very carefully fitted the stainless steel plate cover - and completed the satisfying task of removing the protective film!

Shame it gets stuck to your hands...

All finished!

So he decided a celebration drive in the Audi... the pest...

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[CupraDine]

Love reading this, keep up the good work! Everyone is doing work on their cars with all this free time.

Ordered some bits for mine, but only maintenance bits.

Also found out how much a new genuine undertray was from the stealers... nearly £300 they wanted!

 

[c16rkc]

Thanks for the positive comments!

Ouch thats pricey! Just for an under-tray!

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[c16rkc]

An update from last weekend.

Lindsey's wheels came back fully refurbished with spanky new tyres, so fitted them along with shiny new bolt covers and wheel centres.

Aston gave mummy's car a wash to keep it shining like the new wheels.

We'd also promised mummy a new phone bracket, and charging cable. Annoyingly the bracket sent was wrong...

But they have promised a orrect replacement has been sent.

Then I started work on a charge cable I could route to the bracket when it arrives.

Pulled apart my fast charging adapter.

Soldered in some new power wires.

Then poked them through the case, and put back together.

All taped up and ready to go in...

So then I hacked into the cigar lighter socket power, and ran a charge cable out.

Just need the bracket now!

So that brings us up to date.

But I did score this book from Gumtree. Got it second hand for £5, might have a series 2 one day?

Hoping Aston and me get more time on the cars this weekend....


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[c16rkc]

Today Aston got tooled up to attack daddy's car.

After the successful addition of a power charging cable to mummy's car, he thought it was only fair one was added to Daddy's car too.

So we made up another lead out of a second Samsung fast charger. Then hacked onto the power circuit in the Audi to install it.

Ran the USB cable up to the front of the centre console.

Then put everything back together, and there is now a convenient charge cable below the bracket, which will fast-charge Daddy's phone... Excellent!

Good boy Aston!

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[c16rkc]

This week I am trying something a bit new... an update video!



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[c16rkc]

After the successful install of the Bluetooth module in my Audi A6, I've been enjoying streaming music from my phone every day on my commute.

I windered if there was anything similar for the old Daimler, unfortunately I could not find anything... so I decided to make my own:



Sorry its not Audi content everyone - but though some might find it interesting.

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