Lady Charlotte - 1966 2000SC

Some before and afters for you

2011 on the left 2014 on the right







That mileage is 30521 in 2011 and 70450 today

in those 3 years she's had:

electronic ignition and a sports coil
refurbished rear brake calipers
new poly bushes all round on shocks
front brake caliper seals replaced
drive shaft UJs replaced
cylinder head off twice to fix head gasket and burnt valve
boot mount for spare fitted
headrests front and rear fitted
rear static seat belts fitted
correct front valance fitted
Cibie fog lights fitted
badge bar fitted
relay for headlamps after umpteen switches failed
Cibie halogen headlamps fitted
rear and centre exhaust replaced
repair to rear after someone rear-ended me
new clutch
new seals on clutch slave and master cylinders
Radiomobile radio fitted
new charging system voltage regulator fitted
I shudder to think how much oil and how many filters I've got though :shock:

....think that about covers it :D

Dave
 
Every now and again a little gem pops up for sale. Having static seat belts is a bit of pain when you don't have anything to hang the buckle from. My car has Britax belts so they need a different hanger from the Irvine belts. I just happened to stumble upon a pair of hangers for sale last week. 99p + p&p later and I have these



It's a plastic clip that slips over the belt and allows the buckle to be hung




Brilliant :D

ps Stan if you're reading this it's good to see Occie on the cover of the RSR membership list for this year :D

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

For my P6 I am looking for the same type of hangers. Could tell where you got them from, then I can keep an eye on them if they happen to come for sale again.
Thanks.

Regards,

Kees
 
Dave3066 said:
Every now and again a little gem pops up for sale. Having static seat belts is a bit of pain when you don't have anything to hang the buckle from. My car has Britax belts so they need a different hanger from the Irvine belts. I just happened to stumble upon a pair of hangers for sale last week. 99p + p&p later and I have these

It's a plastic clip that slips over the belt and allows the buckle to be hung

Brilliant :D

ps Stan if you're reading this it's good to see Occie on the cover of the RSR membership list for this year :D

Dave
Click to expand...

Nice one, Dave. Whilst we don't mind digging in our wallets when we have to, it's great to find a peanut-priced solution now and then! :)

Yep...no-one more surprised than me when I slid the RSR Yearbook out of the envelope to find Occie staring at me. I remember that day at Gaydon well...not least because of the suddenly-sloppy handbrake as we parked up. Turned out the slipper on the nearside rear caliper had gone walkies...which some fool had obviously forgotten to nip up. :roll: :)
 
KeesB said:
Hi Dave,

For my P6 I am looking for the same type of hangers. Could tell where you got them from, then I can keep an eye on them if they happen to come for sale again.
Thanks.

Regards,

Kees
Click to expand...

Hi Kees

I reckon this was a one-off, chance find, from a seller on ebay. I have a saved search for "static seat belts" that I'd not looked at for months. I just happened to have a look last week and this popped up. Good luck in your search, but it could take a while.

Dave
 
Those seatbelt hangers are a great find, and so cheap! This was my lazy solution - some mirror hangers I found in the garage. Perfect size and they screwed right into the holes left by the broken old hanger.

q5EVZQC.jpg


(yes I have since cleaned the pillar trim!)
 
Something strange is going on with the good Lady's fuel consumption. Ever since I replaced a burnt out exhaust valve last year her fuel consumption has been poorer than prior to the replacement. I was regularly getting 30+ mpg every fillup but that dropped to as low as 25 after replacing the exhaust valves. I put the poor consumption down to me perhaps not having done a good job of lapping in the new valves and planned to whip the head off again this summer to do them again. I never got round to checking the compression as the car seemed to run as before ie no drop in power and she idled perfectly.

In the past 2 or 3 weeks I've done 2 things:

1. I've refurbished the fuel pump following discovery of a leak. Said refurbishment consisted of replacing the diaphragm, the sight glass seal and the diaphragm plunger oil seal.

Aha! I hear you all cry :roll: of course your fuel consumption has gone up.....your fuel pump was leaking. Now that's a fair point, BUT I reckon I would've noticed if it had been leaking since I replaced the exhaust valves several months ago.

2. The air filter I fitted roughly 10k miles ago was a bit loose in the container and rattled around a bit. When I refurbished the fuel pump I had a go at trying to make the filter more secure in the container. To do this I stretched a large rubber O-ring over the location lip on one side to hold the filter in place better.

That worked a treat and no more rattle :D YAY!

I had half a tank to get through after doing this work and noticed no change to fuel consumption as a result, getting 29ish mpg out of that tank. Then I filled up at the usual Esso filling station and drove around as normal, to work and back etc for a week or so with no change to driving style or the way the car performed. I was absolutely gobsmacked to get 34.3mpg out of that tank, registering the best I've ever had out of the car and 4.5mpg better than the previous :shock: I'm on course to get a similar figure out of the current tankful, which represents around 3p per mile cheaper to run on fuel alone. With the sort of mileage I do that's £450 in a year!

My dilemma is that the car is due a service in a couple of thousand miles (7-8 weeks), during which I'd planned to replace the air filter and spark plugs. The old adage of not being broken so not fixing springs to mind and if I continue to record this level of fuel consumption I may not bother replacing them.

If only I knew why her fuel consumption had changed so dramatically? We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

That is certainly a change for the better in fuel consumption! To see if a pattern is emerging, you'll need to record details for a number of tank fills so as to obtain reliable data.

Summer grade fuel will also deliver better performance and improved fuel consumption compared to Winter grade fuel, at least that is the theory.

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
To see if a pattern is emerging, you'll need to record details for a number of tank fills so as to obtain reliable data.
Click to expand...

It's all tracked on Fuelly Ron. Click on the link in my signature block and you can see for yourself.

Dave
 
Last tankful of fuel returned 33.5 mpg so still looking good :D

I've had a wood-rimmed steering wheel on Lady C for a while now but it was quite worn with the wood effect almost non-existent in places. I'd looked at others' wood-rimmed wheels and it seems there are good ones and not so good ones around. It also seems that some had have some work done to have their wheel refurbished. I had a bit of spare cash this month so decided to have a look at what this company Wicked Coatings could do. I'd seen stuff that they'd done for cars on Wheeler Dealers and been impressed with the process and the finish they can achieve. The process is one of hydrographics, or the application of a plastic film using water. It's all explained on their website where they also have sample 'films' to choose from. I had a look at several and dropped them a line to see what they could do. I knew it would be very difficult to replicate the colour and grain that the original wheel had (does anyone know how that was done?) so I left it to their judgment and expertise to provide a suitable alternative. I think they've done a superb job, but I'll let you judge for yourselves.

Here are some before an after pics:

Before



After



Before



After



Before



After



and fitted



In terms of the details, the job cost £110 all in. I posted it off to them mid-week and they returned it 11 days later. They ask for full payment before they send it back.

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

Looks to be very nicely done :) It is quite a different look in contrast to the original appearance. Are you happy with the change?

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hi Dave,

Looks to be very nicely done :) It is quite a different look in contrast to the original appearance. Are you happy with the change?

Ron.
Click to expand...

Yes very happy Ron :D

Dave
 
Good results on the fuel consumption Dave. Do you think the leaky air filter was leaning out the mixture under load?

I think your steering wheel looks great, presumably it's lacquered over to protect the water transfer so it should last well.
 
Well folks, here we are in October and it's been a while since I updated this thread. She hadn't quite dropped off page one but she was down near the bottom.

Quite a few bits 'n' pieces done in the general maintenance category, including the service I was dreading after getting the fuel consumption above 30mpg again. However, I needn't have fretted. The service was completed, including replacement of air filter and spark plugs and the fuel consumption continues to be between 31 & 33 mpg so all good there :D

I'll start with the strange rattling noise that developed all of a sudden. I started panicking, thinking it was something major like a cracked cam bearing cap, like what happened to redrover :shock: , so I asked the question on one of the Facebook pages that offers assistance. I also posted a video so people could hear the rattle. Two people nailed it almost straight away.It turned out to be this blighter



Which sits in here



You can see the witness marks where it's been spinning and rattling. I think it's supposed to be attached to the hard spacer that sits between the carb and the inlet chamber but they detach after a while and make this horrible rattling noise. I removed it competely and all is well.

Whilst I was playing hunt the rattle I spotted this



Not having a spare hose I opted to wrap it in a bit of old seat belt webbing and ally tape (speed tape for those who are ex-RAF) to prevent the pressure from bursting the pipe



until I could fit a couple of new hoses, which I've now done.

Next up was a bit of TLC for the radiator. It's taken a bit of stick over the last few winters and was looking quite sorry for itself




So I cleaned it up and painted it with some of Eastwood's satin black radiator paint.



Looks far better now, but shows how shabby the rest of the engine bay has become. Must get round to that.

Next up though, as it's October, is the start of the winter prep for the old girl. I decided to start be removing the sill covers, which have not been off the car in the 3+ years that I've had her. I've only been to look at the passenger side so far and I was pleasantly surprised at how good she looks under the covers :wink:





Now I noticed a bit of crunching when I removed the rearmost screw from the sill cover....and sure enough....



First hole I've seen in the underside. I cleaned it up and removed enough crunchy stuff to get back to solid metal




Not too bad and a small repair plate should do nicely



First time I've done any welding in ages and the wire feed was playing up so it's not brilliant. I think a new welder is going straight to the top of the shopping list...

I cleaned up the rest of the sill, removing old underseal,and wire brushing back to clean steel with a cup brush in the angle grinder before applying fresh, new underseal. I've gone for standard Waxoyl underseal on this and stippled it on in thin layers to build up a good covering. We'll see how that copes with winter.





I'll get onto the other side next time.

I think that's all for now :D

Dave
 
ethelred said:
Yep - its waxoyl time of year :D
Click to expand...

I checked the other side and no issues there :D so cleaned up and fresh underseal applied




....and that's another job successfully done. My thoughts then turned to making the drive home in dark, horrible weather a bit less 'anxious' shall we say. Lady C has Cibie halogens fitted and whilst the dip beam is far superior to the original sealed beam units, it's still woefully inadequate when faced with modern HID and Xenon lights. Soooo I did a bit of research and had a look for suitable replacement bulbs that might give me more light output for the same power consumption. That might sound like it breaks the laws of physics, but modern lighting manufacturers have done a great deal to advance the quality of light that the standard 55/60W H4 lamp gives. I've gone for the Osram Nightbreaker H4 halogen bulbs, which I fitted this weekend.



I'm guessing the filament burns hotter for the same current flow, which is why they don't last as long.

Here are some before and after pics:

This is dip before (left) and after (right):



This is main beam before (left) and after (right)



Looks better, but only time out on the road in traffic will tell

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

I am also running these Osrams for a few years now and they are indeed significantly better in comparison with conventional halogen bulbs.
One of them failed after about 3 years of use, so i renew the pair last year anyway.
With the conventional 5¾ headlights don't expect modern headlight levels of efficiency, but in my view they are worth the cost if you are driving often in the dark.
 
That's really quite a remarkable difference. The light look 'cleaner' too so it will be easier to pick out details.
 
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