kws

I should have also said, I took the car for a quick run around the (private, closed and in Mexico) block to get it up to temp and see how it drove after the work I did previously (fixing air leaks, replacing AFM, and binning the restrictive air filter). The car takes a few cranks to build fuel pressure when cold but starts and settles into a nice idle easy enough. Throttle is responsive even when cold, which makes a huge change. The biggest difference is that the car has gained about twice the power it previously had. Its responsive and can actually haul itself down the road at some pace now. Some lifter clattering was present on the cold start, but otherwise was not present during driving. I'll touch wood, but maybe the engine is starting to be a bit happier.

It's been a lot of work, but Lucas has moved on considerably since the last post. I'll break this down into bite-size chunks. This will be a massive post though as it's a week or two of work. Rust Repairs/Interior Right, so continuing on from where we left off. Once the seam sealer was dry, everything top and bottom was coated in primer and then a couple of good coats of paint. The underside then got a couple of coats of a proper underseal. When the paint was finally dry, it was time to refit the interior. First, the carpet needed a damn good vacuum. Everyone cleans their carpet on the roof, don't they? Next I laid down the underlay. The old underlay was ruined at the front, but the rear half was still in great condition, so I cut it in half and refitted the rear. The front was made from a roll of "underfelt" I had left over from doing the TVR Carpet. Both sides were done in the same way. In theory, because the front section is separate, and isn't stuck under the seat, if/when it does get wet I should be able to remove that section to aid in drying. With the underlay in, the carpet was next. Gosh this is a big lump of a thing to maneuver around. I mentioned it on social media, but it's crazy how much just adding carpet to a car makes it suddenly feel a million times nicer and more like a "car". Can't wait to get something in the Marina too. The seats were next. Just a case of wrangling them from their spot on the back bench, onto the mounting points and inserting the bolts. The center console would go in next, but first, there was a lot of cleaning to be done, and repairing the heater control panel as the top had broken off it at some point. To remove the heater panel, the two slider knobs just pull straight off. The two direction control knobs are clipped in, so require gently levering off. Be careful not to scratch or crack the faceplate. A screw on either end secures the faceplate. Once the faceplate is free, you will need to remove the fibre optic cables from the rear of the faceplate by unclipping and sliding them out. Once removed it was just a case of mixing up some epoxy, cleaning everything and then sticking it together. I took the chance to glue the crack in the tailgate trim since I had the epoxy out Until the epoxy was dry, I was at a standstill on the interior, so moved to the next task. Front Window Regulator Replacement I already had some annoying issues with the RH front window, such as it trying to jump out of the rail when going up, and being loose in the rails, but after sitting for a couple of weeks the window was now completely dead. Its kind of a blessing in disguise as it allows me to hopefully fix all my window issues in one go. Removing the window regulator starts with removing the door card. Much to my surprise, there was no vapour barrier fitted to this door, so the insides of the door and all the water when it rains, were open to the door card and by extension, the inside of the car. With the door card off, the next step is to securely tape the glass into place. Thankfully mine was jammed up, so it was easy to work with. I used duct tape to hold the glass, with cardboard over the top frame so I didn't end up taking the paint off the frame when pulling the tape off. It needs to be pretty damn secure, you do not want that glass falling into the door, or onto your hand/arm if it drops. The regulator is held in place by a bunch of bolts. The two with red lines on do not need to be removed as they secure the door handle mech to the plate. Once you remove all the bolts, things start to get a bit wiggly. I noticed when I removed one of the main regulator bolts that the whole regulator twisted away from the door frame as if it were under a lot of tension. I wonder if this is why the window kept coming out of alignment. Remove that plate with the big X on it (it has a regulator rail on the back of it too) or drop it down into the bottom of the door if you don't want to disconnect the handle. One quick bonus bolt to undo is the one above the speaker, which secures the bottom of the window run channel. Removing this allows you a bit more space for moving the motor about. Disengage the arms from the runners on the bottom of the window, fold the arms together, disconnect the motor and move the motor up into the top corner as much as possible. This should allow you to squeeze the arms out the hole and withdraw the whole regulator The regulator was toast. I managed to get it to move after feeding 12v directly into the motor, but it was slow and jumpy. Even removing the motor from the regulator the motor was slow and useless. Speaking of, it shouldn't be easy to remove the motor as they are riveted onto the regulator. These rivets are slim and take up little room. The regulator I removed has been messed with before as the motor was fitted with nuts and bolts, and had clearly been swapped from a different regulator to make this one go again. The problem with nuts and bolts is they are quite thick, which means they have a high chance of fouling the inside of the door skin when fitted, which would explain the regulator being twisted when fitted.... Anyway, refitting is more or less the reverse of disassembly. Make sure the regulator is in the same position as the one you removed (use 12v to move the regulator, and keep your fingers clear) so you can align it with the rails. Before fitting, since you have the space, get in there and smother grease on all the rails, and spray the window run channels with silicone spray. During testing, the window now operates perfectly, smoothly, doesn't try to jump the rails and is super quick. A+ would trade again. Because that wasn't the only issue with the door, I did another job whilst the regulator was out, as there is no better time to do it. Door Handle Rebuild Yup, the door handle was also stuffed. The main issue was easy to fix; the handle needed a new gasket as it was missing, and the handle was all loose and floppy. Secondly, the lock barrel was stuffed as the key needed vigorous jiggling to operate. The handle is held in place with a pair of 7mm nuts, which with the regulator out, are very easy to access. They're shite to access with the reg still in place. There are two actuating rods attached to the handle, both need to be removed. They are secured in place with a metal locking clip that you have to unclip from the rod to remove. Its probably the hardest bit of the job. With the handle out, I compared it with the donor. I was going to swap the donor barrel into the original handle, but the donor handle was in much better condition, with less missing paint and scratches. Because the donor handle has a different key, I needed to rekey the barrel to match my existing key. The barrel is held in place with a big C clip on the back Once removed, the locking mech comes off. Take note there is a spring under it that returns the key to center. Insert a key (any key that fits) and pull the barrel out the front. The key is only there to stop all the wafers shooting across the room as you withdraw it. You could just hold you hand over it and catch the wafers, I guess. The donor doesn't matter which order the wafers are removed, but you want to keep the order that the wafers in the original barrel are in or it'll be trial and error to find the pattern again. I wont go into detail again of rekeying these as I have done it a couple of times now. This one was a little different as the wear on the key meant that even carrying over all the original wafers to the new barrel, the key wouldn't disengage all the wafers. I mixed and matched some from the donor barrel until I had a perfect set. I lubricated the barrel, inserted it into the donor handle and reassembled. The key works very smoothly now and doesn't need to be jiggled at all. The new handle gasket went on and the handle was refitted to the door. Tailgate Wrap Up A quick little side job was to finish the tailgate work. Once the glue on the trim was dry, I began reassembly. First was a number plate lamp refresh. These were filthy. Half cleaned. So much dirt. After a thorough cleaning, these got some warm white LEDs installed. I want to retain the more yellow light of standard bulbs, but have reduced consumption of the LED. Now the lights and trim were fitted to the tailgate with all new screws The tailgate light switch had blown to pieces at some point, so I quickly replaced that too A good used replacement was fitted That switch presses on a round plastic fitting (which IIRC is the same fitting as the glovebox strap holders) on the underside of the tailgate. Check this is fitted or the light won't turn off. The light itself was also packed with dirt (how is there so much dirt in this car?!) and the bulb was broken I have ordered an LED for this, but in the mean time I dug through my spares and found a good bulb. I gave the housing a good clean and fitted the bulb. And refitted to the car. Its not an overly effective light, but it'll do. LED should help. Rear Door Refresh Moving back to doors again, I moved to the LH Rear door, as this had been having issues opening and closing as the door card was catching on the seal. The door card came off easily enough. Two screws and a bunch of fragile clips. At least this door has a vapour barrier, even if the tape is barely holding on, and has had the addition of some brown packing tape to help secure it. There wasn't much to do in this door, except grease all the window rails, and fit a new handle gasket. The handle is easy to access on these. Oh, and fix the door card. Its very common on SD1s for the door card to distort and cause issues with the door seals. This usually happens when the door cards get wet. In this case the back edge had distorted, but the rest of the door card was in good shape. I had heard that you can try saturating the area in PVA glue whilst holding the rear edge in shape, and it dries and stays that way. This apparently works because the door card is made of some sort of compressed fibrous cardboard stuff, and the PVA soaks into it. With nothing to lose, I slathered glue on, and taped the edge into place. It does take a few days to dry though, so in the mean time I looked at why the rear window wasn't working. I had cleaned all the front door master switches, so I knew they worked fine, but still had no action from the rear windows (either of them). The rails were all completely dry with no traces of lubricant, so that was my first stop; grease the rails. No change. Using my jump pack and power probe I checked the motor would actually move. Initially it was a no, it was dead. I couple of percussive persuasions (hitting with a hammer) soon got it moving through, and after some more lube and a couple of runs up and down it was moving freely. I tried the switches again, and still nothing. Interestingly, there was no clicking of the relays either, which means there wasn't even power getting to the door. The relays should click whether the motor operates or not, as they are triggered by the switches directly. I dragged up the wiring diagram to investigate further. Its a rubbish diagram, even though it's from the official Rover manual (and no better in my printed hard copy either), but has the info I needed. Everything in the green box is the rear windows (except two of the 215 switches at the bottom as that's the master switches). To trigger the relays (the 364s, there are two relays per window; one up, one down), the switches send power to the relay coil. The switches get power from the E4 pick up (orange arrow) which is a feed from the battery. This is then split off to the switch circuits (blue circle). All of this power is broken by one of two things. First, the resettable overload circuit breaker (259 at the top of the diagram) and secondly the rear window isolation switch. The issue cant be the overload breaker as the front windows work, and that would kill power to all four windows; thus, my suspicions were on the isolation switch in the dash. This switch works by connecting power when the switch isn't pressed, and breaking the circuit when it is pressed. All this so your little gobblins in the back cant cut their sibblings fingers off by playing with the electric windows. So I removed the dash top, fished the isolation switch from the dash and had a look. To open this switch you need to remove the bottom cover. This is just clipped into place. It also holds the retaining clips, which is a pain during reassembly. Use a small pick or flat blade to pup the clips on each side. That little wire spring is what allows the switch to latch. If the retaining tab breaks and that wire comes adrift, the switch wont latch anymore. The insides of the switch will now slide out the front of the housing. Be aware there is a sliding contact plate, which has a spring behind it. Dont let the spring fire off into the distance. The contacts weren't too bad in the base of the switch but the sliding contact plate was looking very tired I guess with no use, there is nothing to wipe the corrosion off the contact and it just gets worse and worse. I used a fibreglass brush to clean the contacts in the body up And the contact plate got a good scrub Everything was coated in dielectric grease, and reassembled. I connected the switch up, and suddenly I had both back windows, on the switches. I still need to lube the RH rear window, but although slow it did work. I pressed the switch back into its place on the dash. Another switch that needed some work was the window switch. I have cleaned these before, and have been cleaning all of them as I take the door cards off. They are very easy to disassemble and clean, and are a very simple design. I start by wedging a pick down one side, to disengage one tab And then flip it over and use another pick or small flat blade to disengage the other and pull the front off. There is nothing to ping out when you take it apart. There is a spring loaded plastic button under the copper roller, so take note of that when you remove the roller for cleaning. I clean everything out with contact cleaner, and then polish the roller and contacts in the base with the fibreglass brush. Smother it in dielectric grease and clip it back together. Works well, and makes for a nice clicky switch that doesn't stick. The housing is keyed,so cannot be fitted upside down when putting it back in the door card. The door card was dry about now, as it had been a couple of days, so it was time to take the tape off and refit it. But first, retaping the vapour barrier. I gave the door and the barrier a good clean so tape would stick, and then used some duct tape to carefully seal the edges. A couple of clips were broken or missing on the door card, so they got replaced with new ones I sourced from Bresco in the UK. The door card was then fitted and clipped into place. The back edge was spot on. It didn't overhang anymore, and no longer caught the seal when opening the door. Center Console and Dash Moving back to the center console. The glue had dried, so the heater control unit was refitted, as was the center console. While the console was out I sourced a good used radio surround so I could correctly mount the radio, instead of it sitting there with bits of foam floor mat jammed around it I fitted the cage to the surround and inserted it into the dash The radio was then plugged in and slotted into place And of course it works. I love the period correct look, so it'll stay for now. I will have to dig my tape adaptor out so I can plug my phone into it and bring it into last century. I didn't notice until it was mounted that it appears only one side of the illumination is working, so I may have to remove it again at some point and fix that. It's small touches like mounting the radio correctly that make the most difference. I don't know who thought stuffing floor mats into the gap was acceptable. Yes, I also dug through my spares and found a heater control knob that still had a white arrow on it and swapped it over later. The last two pieces for the center console are the ash tray, which I'm working on, and the trip computer. Unfortunately the ash tray didn't survive disassembly as a previous owner had pulled the top off it and glued it back together with the nastiest glue possible. I tried to reglue it and made it worse. I have a replacement, which is also in bits, but no one has tried to "fix" it before, so I can make it work. The trip computer is a pain. I have a few spare bits for these, and almost built a complete unit in good condition, but fell short of one button. I am replacing the main unit, as my original had a faded LED Whilst the replacement had much better LEDS The faceplate needed a good clean, and a couple of buttons were replaced with better ones (CLEAR and STP START), but although I know I have one, I seem to be missing the TIME button. I'll find it soon, and then will be able to reassemble and install it again. As a small side note, when disassembling a trip computer, this is the "ping-fuxk-it" spring that people refer to. It resides in the back of the slider switch. Something else that's been bothering me, which I had to fix when I had the dash cover off earlier, was to find out why my Speedo was being held in by a piece of folded up paper. Yes, paper. Thats it there with the green arrow. The whole gauge cluster was pushed back slightly by this. Looking through the windscreen with the cover removed, and it was obvious why. There were no screws holding it in. Those two white U shaped tabs should have screws in them. There is another one off to the right that was also missing a screw. I grabbed some suitable screws from my collection, and worked out how the heck to get a screwdriver in there. Its hard against the windscreen, so no room for a proper screwdriver, and its too deep down behind the cluster for a stubby driver. In the end I used a 1/4" ratchet with a screwdriver bit on an extension. I used a small dab of superglue in the head of the screw to stick it to the screwdriver bit (so it wouldn't drop into the dash), lined it up through the windscreen and then sat in the car to screw it in. Worked a treat. No more paper, and no more oddly aligned gauges. Success. Front Doors Im going to lump these two doors together since its most of the same work. With the window regulator in the drivers door, it was time to finish reassembly and button the door up once and for all. I cleaned all the door switches, greased all the rails, and then sealed the speaker. Someone has replaced the speakers with some quite nice Pioneer TS-1911s in the back, and some smaller, unlabelled speakers in the front. The rear ones seem to be well installed, but the fronts are literally thrown in place and jammed in with a couple of screws against the frame. Not how I would do it, but it works for now. The only issue is that there is no sealing around the speaker, so water could potentially enter around it. I ran a bead of non-setting butyl rope around the hole And then stuck the speaker to it. That should slow any water ingress from there down. The next step to stop water ingress is to actually fit a vapour barrier. I had some thin plastic sheeting left over from another project, so cut that to shape and taped it into place. All other unused holes (other than the clip holes) were taped over too. I'll tell you what, the black may look good, but it does increase the difficulty level since you can't see the screw holes behind so that you can poke holes in the sheet for them. It's better than nothing though. The drivers door card got the PVA treatment too, but that didn't take quite as well as the edge of the card is quite badly damaged from years of catching the seal. It also got new clips as most were missing, having been replaced with either incorrect clips that didn't work, or a row of 4 screws driven through the door card into the door shell As part of my revamp I am trying to replace as many bulbs as possible with LEDS, so I tried one in the door warning light. It's a bit uneven, but should be fine. I'm mainly trying to reduce load/consumption. You can see the sad state of the door card here too. Finally, the waist moulding seal was replaced. I did these on Effie and it's quite a nice upgrade for minimal work. Pull the stainless trim off, starting at the back of the door, pull the old seal out and press the new seal in. The old seal was hard as plastic, and missing big chunks. Not good for weather tightness. Use lots of silicone spray in the channel and press the seal in bit by bit. Don't be tempted to pull the seal into the channel as you will just stretch it, and may cause it to shrink later. I ended up just going around and doing all the windows. A couple of them were quite bad, like the RH rear, which was all wavy Yes, I cocked up and forgot I needed a tail to go over that little triangle bit on the pillar. Oh well. The LH front door was much of the same, except I knew the window worked on this one. Vapour barrier was present, but the tape was all hanging off. More of that damn brown tape. There was plenty of evidence that water had been making its way past the vapour barrier. You can see streaks in the dirt at the bottom of the door. No wonder I was having issues with water entering the car over top of the door seal. I greased the rails, lubricated the channels, fitted the handle seal, and then went to seal the speaker. Looks like this door had a bit of a water issue. I cleaned the terminals up, but sadly this is the only speaker not working. I don't think it's this wiring, so will need to dig deeper. I used more butyl rope to seal this one too. Before fitting the vapour barrier again I wanted to look into an issue I have had with this door for a while; it's really hard to close. You need to slam it like it owes you money, or it'll just bounce on the first catch. I thought it was the door card, but the issue was still present with the card removed. I then removed the door latch to inspect it. I found the roll pin in the middle was falling out, and had actually gouged into the door panel I hammered this back in, lubricated the latch and refitted it. The issue remained. Digging through my spares again, I found a spare latch. I cleaned, lubricated that and fitted it. The issue still remained. Then it dawned on me, could the striker be out of alignment? I loosened it off and moved it outboard slightly. I'll be, the issue was better. A few more tweaks and the door shuts first time every time now. It turns out someone had fitted the striker as far inboard as it could go, so the door could barely reach the second catch. Much to the enjoyment (I'm sure) of my wife upstairs, more door slamming ensued as I went around the car and adjusted all the other strikers so the doors were aligned nicely and latched first time. The rears needed to be pulled in slightly so the doors would shut tighter, but otherwise they weren't too bad. The last thing on the front door is the door card. This also suffered the distortion to the rear edge, and you can see that it's flat, instead of being at a right angle to the main card Lots of glue Pulling it up to the correct angle. Unfortunately one of the clip mounts was torn almost off the card, so that needed to be glued back on too. I used a clamp to hold it while the glue dries. I will leave it a couple of days to dry, and then it should be ready to refit. In the meantime I had cleaned the door and barrier, and retaped it, making sure it was well sealed. I did find something interesting on the vapour barrier. On the LH side of it, there is a piece of masking tape that I have left in place. The reason for this is there is something written on it. I can't quite make it out, but it belongs with the car. Lights As a final task, I upgraded a couple of other lights. The interior courtesy lights got upgraded to warm white LEDs While the taillights got the Narva Halogen upgrade. The old bulbs, like everything, were covered in dirt The new halogen bulbs are a straight swap It's hard to photograph, but they put out noticeably more light than the standard bulbs. Halogen on the left, standard on the right. And both halogen, featuring the warm white number plate lights also. And that's about it. I'm waiting on the door card to dry, and then I still need to do the RH rear door, but that can happen any time. Phew that was a lot of work.

This was one of the biggest things that I changed quickly when welding the Marina. I started doing the smallest areas i could, using multiple small patches. In the end i just cut the whole floor pan out and welded a new one in using only a couple of large patches. It makes for a far cleaner repair and easier to do in the long term.

It'll be of no surprise to anyone that I have just dug deep and cracked on with this. With no choice in the matter, I had to fix it. I want my garage back for the daily. Before going too much further, I started with finishing the fuel tank work. I bought some 1/2" Gates fuel hose to replace the perished breather (this is surprisingly hard to find; I ended up locating it tucked away down the back of a local Repco storeroom) And then rolled under the car and used an underbody sealer to coat the areas I had cleaned back and sealed. There were no signs of moisture around the repairs, so hopefully they have sealed properly. The repairs arent as invisible as I would have liked, but it is what it is. As long as it keeps the fuel in the tank, I'm happy. Now, with that done and the car back on the ground, it was time to strip the front interior out and see what I was dealing with. The driver's seat was already out, so I popped that onto the back seat and moved onto the center console. This is held in with a few screws in various places. There are two inside the cassette holder at the rear Two at the front edges, one on either side And finally, the most annoying two; the two behind the trip computer control panel. Rover could have made this so the faceplate remained attached during removal, but they didn't. When you pull on the front it will come away from the main unit, and allow all the buttons and slider to fly freely away, so keep tabs on them. With the faceplate off, the main unit can be levered out and unplugged I don't know if you need to, but I removed the radio and the two screws on either side of it The wiring for the radio is both amazing and annoying. It's amazing because someone has gone to the effort of wiring it up with what appears to be a parallel connector But annoying because they have removed the standard plugs. I will keep this radio because it is awesome and period correct. Now pull up on the shifter surround and remove it, along with the cigar lighter and fader Now the center console should lift up and away. There will still be wiring to the rear cigar lighter, so unplug that too The heater control is in dire need of a clean. I need to work out how to remove this so I can glue the radio surround section back on Now I could remove the passengers seat and start work on removing the carpet. Each side, on the tunnel, has a bracket off the rear of the seat rail mount. This needs to be removed Don't forget to remove the two screws from the bottom of the B pillar trim, and remove the inner rear door scuff plates too Now with lots of tugging and yanking, the carpet should come out. Be careful if it's stuck to the various bits of sound deadening, you don't want to rip the carpet. I removed the underlay mats from both sides too. The drivers' side was still soaking wet near the tunnel; it's crazy. Now, a closer look at the floor. It's not that much worse than what I had expected. it's pretty well localised to the outside of the floor pan, which is good. It did look a bit worse once I took a wire wheel to it though... Which ended up with me using my new toy and cutting some great big holes in the floor I like the air body saw. It's not as quick as a grinder, but it produces minimal heat and zero sparks, which is what I wanted. It does confirm though, that I can't draw or cut a straight line if my life depended on it. Some cutting, bashing and hole punching resulted in the first patch I chose to lap weld these patches in. It's not as seamless as a nice butt weld, but it takes a lot less work to do. Second patch in, lightly tickled with a grinder and given a coat of primer And finally, I seam sealed both sides of the repair Tomorrow, once the sealer is dry, I will give it a good couple of coats of paint and underseal, and then its job done. It's not in the photos, but I have treated the surface rust at the front of the footwell too, so the whole lot will get painted. I won't lie, I know it's not the best welding or the cleanest repair, but I'm just thankful to have the skills to even do the repair. If I had come across this rust a year or two ago, before I had done any welding on the Marina, I would have really struggled. My karma and conscience wouldn't let me just cover the rust up, so I probably would have had to have it taken to a workshop and fixed at great expense. With any luck, once the interior is back together, and some fuel is in the tank, I might be able to take it for a WOF check and see what it fails on... Stay tuned.

As part of my continuous programme to improve Lucas, I wanted to get the tailgate lock working. The latch and release worked, but the key wouldn't turn. I don't know if the central locking worked on the tailgate yet, I tend to lock the car after the battery is disconnected and it's not a major for me if it isn't working (for now at least), but since I park the car nose down in my driveway, it'd be nice to have the peace of mind that someone can't just open the tailgate up. The key goes into the lock fine but doesn't turn in either direction and makes no attempt to lock. Looking at the lock, I suspect someone has tried to screwdriver it open at some point. Dicks. With the car in the garage for other work, it was the perfect time to strip the end off the tailgate and investigate the issue. First the outer trim has to be removed, this is held in place with about 6 screws, two of which are under the number plate lamp lenses. The parcel shelf makes an excellent workbench. With the plastic trim off you have access to the lock assembly Found some surface rust, which I later treated The handle assembly is secured to the lid with two nyloc nuts and washers recessed into the inside of the lid With those two removed, the whole lock assembly can be pulled free of the tailgate. If you have central locking, you will need to disconnect the actuator rod, which is a bit of a pain, but release the metal clip and wiggle and jiggle until the lever twists free. A tip for refitting is to slip the locking tab onto the rod at the same time as you slide it through the hole on the handle, It's no real surprise the locking mechanism doesn't work, the whole thing is gummed up with dirt The lock doesn't look so great After a quick clean with just some household cleaner and water Interestingly, after a clean, the lock started to work, albeit it was really stiff and hard to operate. The act of turning the key in the barrel moves this C shaped tab left or right to lock and unlock It's quite interesting (to me) how the lock disables the handle. The yellow/white plastic in the photo above is the cam that uses the curved edge to press against a lever on the catch to release it (the cam would rotate downwards in that photo when the handle is pulled). Turning the key in the lock physically moves part of the mechanism (orange arrow) so that the exterior handle is disengaged from the rest of the mechanism. The C shape tab on the end of the barrel pushes and pulls the plate attached to it, sliding the mechanism across. The central locking would have been simpler in its operation if it had just acted on the same mechanism as the key, but no, that would've been too easy. Instead, the central locking actuator pulls on the rod on the other end of the handle assembly, in the opposite direction to the key mech Pulling on that rod disengages the handle from the mechanism, by moving another part of it away from the actuating cam (orange arrow again). Annoyingly I never tested what happens if you lock or unlock with the other means (ie. lock with key, unlock with central locking); I might have to see if I have a spare to play with. Anyway, with everything working as it should, I wanted to refurbish the lock barrel. I sourced a better condition barrel from a local SD1 supplier and planned to rekey this to suit my keys. The barrel is held in place by one small screw on the rear Do take care when you remove it as there is a ball bearing and spring under the actuating plate The barrel can then be removed The donor barrel was in good, used, condition Whilst my original one was covered in old grease which resembled a grinding paste with all the dirt in it This isn't my first rodeo with rekeying a barrel; I did the same job with Project Rolla, where the ignition barrel had been damaged. I carefully removed all the wafers and springs from the donor lock I cleaned the inside of the lock barrel up, and refit the cleaned springs The old lock was pretty grim. The wafers were sticky and the first one is completely jammed down. You can see how bad the face was damaged I removed, cleaned and transferred all the wafers over from the old lock to the replacement, one by one. I tried all of the wafers from the donor lock in the number one spot to see if I could replace the one that is jammed in the original lock, but none of them were quite right. You can see the number one wafer is sticking out on the underside, all of them stuck out to some degree, which would stop the lock from operating. It also sits low on the top side too. They should all sit flush I could have filed one of the wafers down to make it work, but in the end, I removed the number one wafer and just left it. There are still 5 more, and it's probably easier to break a window than to try and pick it (please don't). A light coating of white lithium grease will keep the barrel lubricated, whilst all the other moving parts got lubricated too. Now everything works very smoothly indeed. Before reassembly, I also removed and cleaned the catch. It was disgustingly filthy A quick clean-up and grease and it was ready to be refitted I'm yet to refit the tailgate trim, but the catch and lock mech have been reinstalled and work perfectly. I wanted to treat the tailgate surface rust before refitting the trim, so I have done that and it's currently curing. That's one more thing fixed on Lucas, and I'll be glad to finally lock the tailgate.

Love these things, one of the best understated fast wagons. I was always impressed that they pumped the guards out so much

My life improved a lot once I got the proper hose clamp tool for these. Locks and cant slip off the tangs. So good.

I believe they also have the added benefit of keeping a nice constant tension over a wide range of temps and pressures, instead of cutting into the hose as it expands. Just because they're cheap, quick and factory, doesn't mean they're shit.

It's been an afternoon of working on Lucas today, with the intention of sorting the fuel tank once and for all but ending in a bad discovery. I noticed when the car was still on the transporter for delivery that the fuel tank wasn't looking too hot, and sure enough a quick peek under the car shows there is a fairly significant dent in the rear of the tank, denting it upwards. Worse than that, was that there seemed to be a lot of moisture/melting paint in a couple of spots on the underside. Yay. Tanks for the EFI cars are borderline unobtainable, and no one is reproducing them, so my only real option was to work with what I had, or try a source another good used one, which was fruitless. I've been putting this off for a bit because I haven't had the motivation to roll around under the car on the cold garage floor, but today was the day I couldn't put it off any longer. I got the car in the air, and sure enough, the back of the tank has a nice dent. It's hard to tell in the photo but the whole back of the tank is pushed up a CM or two with some rippling and creasing along the back edge. You can see the dark damp spot on the inner edge, along with the one in the middle of the tank I lowered the rear seat, lifted the carpet and exposed the fuel sender I wanted to see what the inside of the tank looked like (if it's rusty, it's trash) and see if the dent could be pushed out, so using a hammer and flat blade I removed the locking ring and removed the sender. The sender had some surface corrosion on it, but nothing major. The inside of the tank was a massive relief though; the tank is shiny and silver, no obvious rust. The exception is some flakes on the bottom of the tank, and the pickup swirl pot has a covering of rust flakes on the bottom (the strainer was still in place on the outlet). The tank will need to come out for a proper cleanout and fix, but that is a future issue. So the good news is the tank is worth persisting with and I'm not chasing rust holes. With the sender out the dent was right there, below the hole. I tried to use an old Toyota suspension arm to hammer the dent out a bit, but it kept slipping. I would've liked to use something like a broom handle or other length of wood, but didn't have anything on hand. I'm not sure I made any difference. I cleaned the areas in question with brake cleaner and a rag before giving it all a sand with a coarse grit paper You can actually see the two pin holes that are leaking; immediately after cleaning the area, these two spots would have a growing ring of dampness around them. The tank is super low on fuel, it ran out of fuel on the drive when I got the car, and I have put about 8L into the tank since. I've kept it low waiting for this repair, as this allowed me to raise the rear of the car and slosh all the fuel to the front of the tank, away from the damaged area. I started with the weird leak in the middle. This looked like someone had driven a screw into the tank and then soldered around it. I cleaned it up, sanded it and then scuffed it with a file before mixing some steel reinforced epoxy putty up and squishing it into place This stuff is meant to bond to steel and is impervious to fuel, so should seal the leaks, in theory. Next, I did the same to the pin holes and sealed them with the putty too I had to redo the one on the right as it wasn't bonding to the tank too well and had a growing ring of dampness around it. I chipped it off, scuffed the area with the file again, and then using force, smeared some of the putty hard into the area. Once this was slightly cured, I then used more of the putty over top of it. This seems to have worked. The putty is currently curing, and I will lower the car down tomorrow and see if there is any further fuel seeping around the repairs. If not, The area will get some paint and that's the job done. The other issue with the tank was that the breather hose in the rear wheel well had done its dash Strangely I don't have any 12-13mm-1/2" fuel hose on hand, so I'll pick some up on my way home from work tomorrow. It's no wonder the tank was dry, it just either leaked out or evaporated away. Before working on the tank I checked the fuel pressure, just as a matter of course. It's all within spec, 36psi with the engine off, and 30psi at cold idle. No issues there. It was a bit slow to build pressure when cranking, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was due to the low fuel level. The last job I did in the engine bay was to look at the coolant leaks I found last time. I tweaked the hose clamp on the waterpump hose and found the radiator top hose wasn't fully on the radiator fitting, so loosened that and pushed it further on. A pressure test now results in no coolant on the ground, which is a major achievement for one of my cars. The hoses still need to be replaced, but that should keep it happy for now. Now for the bad news. I poked the orange scab on the floor. I knew the driver's side of the floor wasn't in as good shape as the passengers' side, mainly because I could see the "paint tin lid" trying to make a break for it on the underside of the floor. By the way, the reason they are called "paint tin lids"? Because they literally are, people have often used the lids from 1L tins and found them to be the same as what Rover supplies. They are bonded into a recessed hole in the floor and are a massive trap for water. After the success of the passengers side last time, I was hoping for something similar, but with having to replace the tin lid. Sadly that was not to be. I removed the driver's seat, as I needed to lift the carpet further. To do this you remove the two nuts from the front of the rails, these go onto studs And then slide the seat all the way forward and look inside the rails for the four torx T40 bolts (two per side) that have square washers Undo those and the seat will just lift out of place. I tipped it over and into the back seat, but if you wanted to completely remove the seat you would also need to disconnect the seatbelt from the seat. With the seat out of the way I lifted the carpet further and found despite the car being in the garage with the carpet partially lifted for a week, the underlay was still sopping wet in the footwell. I also started poking around at the cracked underseal and orange scabs, and ended up with this under the car Some stabbing with a screwdriver and scrubbing with a wire brush and I revealed this Damn. The hole for the lid has become somewhat overside, with some thin metal towards the inner sill, and another hole formed near the inner sill toward the front of the car. I'm pissed off it's that rusty and the seller swore the car was rust-free, but I'm not too daunted by it (I'd be crying in a corner if I discovered this a couple of years ago). I have a plan of how to fix it already, which will get rid of the paint tin lid completely and restore good metal to the area, but that'll take some time to do since I will need to strip a bunch of the interior out to make it safe to weld. So that's where we are for now. I'm still trying to dry it all out, but I'm tempted to just bin that underlay and use some of the jute underlay I have to make a removable mat for under the carpet, so if it gets wet again I can just pull that out and dry it out. Foam is never a good idea where it might get wet. This whole car has been one step forward and three steps backwards. It'll be a great car once I'm done with it though, I'm sure.

It's no surprise that Lucas wasn't in the best shape when he arrived, so I have been doing small jobs here and there to try and fix some of the more annoying issues he's had. This post will be a bit of a mess; I have been pottering away on and off with this car for a while now but have not really had enough to bother making a post. Stick with me though, as we adventure through Rover SD1 ownership after someone has bodged a bunch of stuff. The first job on the list was to try and seal the windscreen trim. I had a leak when it rained, and it was coming from high enough up that it was getting water into the relays under the dash (halfway up the bulkhead), so the logical choice was to try sealing the windscreen first (after checking the sunroof drains, of course). Windscreens are common to leak on SD1s, as the original sealant perishes over time. The best option is to remove the windscreen and seal it properly, but since that's not really a DIY option, the other recommended option to try is to seal the gap between the stainless trim and the glass, so water can't get under the trim. First I had to clean out the gap and dry it out. There was a ton of water and mud trapped in here even though the car had been dry for a day or two. I used an air gun on my compressor, a toothbrush and lots of rags to clean and dry it out. Once it was clean and dry, I used windscreen sealant to carefully run a bead around the gap It took a ton of cleaning after that to get any excess sealant off the trim and glass, but the overall result looks good. Thankfully it has worked too, even though I still have water ingress, it's not coming from high up anymore. If I still had ingress up high I could also try sealing the other side of the trim, between the trim and the body. Next was to investigate an annoying and potentially risky issue; the fuel pump running whenever the ignition was switched to ON. The fuel pump is triggered by a switch inside the airflow meter (AFM) so that the pump is only running if there is air passing through the airflow meter and opening the "flap", so if the engine stops, the fuel pump stops. I have a spare AFM, so I connected that and sure enough, the fuel pump only ran when the flap in the airflow meter was opened, indicating the issue lay within the AFM. I removed the AFM and took it to the bench to inspect. Of course, the black plastic cover on the top that protects all the precious internal gubbins had been sealed on with clear bathroom sealant... not even BL was that shite, so someone had been here before. The top cover basically fell off The fuel pump switch is here, on the left It's quite a simple little switch. When the contacts (cyan arrow) are closed, like they are in the photo, the fuel pump circuit will be connected and the pump will run. The thin metal strip on the left side of the switch (orange arrow) is flexible, and is meant to be pushed away from the other contact by the big grey lever at the top of the switch (pink arrow) which swings to the right the moment the flap opens even a crack. As a bonus in the above photo, the green arrow points to the pair of wipers that run on the carbon track, which is what the ECU is reading data from as the AFM opens and closes with airflow. Basically, someone has straightened the flexible strip (orange arrow) so that the contacts are always touching, instead of being bent to the right at the top, allowing the lever to push the contacts apart. I could have just bent the strip again but I wasn't sure if someone had messed with the calibration of the AFM (which can be done in the same general area), so I opted to install the spare AFM instead. It's a bodge; Someone trying to mask another issue by just running the pump constantly. What would the issue be, I hear you ask? Well, cold start was the obvious one. Without the pump running constantly it was suddenly hard to start and real temperamental when it did. That's an issue for future me though. For now, more poking and prodding. With the AFM off it was easy to remove the air filter housing and check the air filter. I'm glad I did, as someone had once again fit the wrong filter. NP70, my first SD1, had the same issue. From my investigation, I suspect this filter is suitable for a carb SD1, but keeps getting sold for the EFI SD1 which had a very different intake setup. The photo above is the intake side of the air box, so the only space the air has to get into the engine is the TINY gap between the outside of the rubber seal on the filter, and the metal filter housing. Such a small gap two leaves and a ciggie butt couldn't even get through. I don't have a spare filter, and I'm not sure if there are even any suppliers other than Rimmers, so in the meantime I have fitted a manky old pod filter I had on hand. It's nosy as hell and whistles (so did the ones on both NP70 and Effie), but it has to breathe better. I noticed a huge increase in power and response when I swapped out NP70s restrictive filter. Whilst in the general area I had a quick look at the ignition coil and noticed it was an aftermarket Bosch GT40R coil. Now, there are two issues with this. First, you aren't mean to use the GT40 coils with electronic ignition (which the EFI SD1 has standard). Second, the R means it's suitable for a 6v ballast resistor ignition system, where the voltage is stepped down so the coil runs at 6v (and may see switched 12v for a boost on start up). The EFI SD1 doesn't use a ballast system and powers the coil with 12v-14v all the time. Not ideal. Luckily, I pulled a 12v GT40 from the TVR when I fitted the Lucas coil, so had it sitting around. No, still not ideal as it isn't meant for electronic ignition, but until the car is on the road and driving, it will do and is better than running a 6v coil at twice the rated voltage. I don't know how that coil was still working. I will swap it with the correct coil later on. Next was a bit of a luxury item, but for me it is one of the little touches that bothers me when it's not there. The washer bottle strap. When I got the car the washer bottle was held in place with hopes and dreams, holding on for dear life so it wouldn't drop down straight onto the exhaust manifold. I quickly wrapped some zipties around it so that didn't happen (as the bottles are EFI specific and unobtainium). For Effie, I contacted the SD1 club in the UK and purchased a reproduction fabric strap which was very well made and clipped in place with the built-in snaps. I contacted them again and purchased one of the last ones available for Lucas. The nice new strap shows up how stained the bottle is, but oh well. Along with the missing strap, was also a missing cap, so a replacement was purchased for that too (the same as a standard carb SD1 bottle cap). It's funny, I have photos of this car from back in 2015 when it was for sale then, and sure enough, the correct cap was missing then, and some weird clip-on cap had been bodged into place. The bottle was also held in place with a ziptie. See glorious cap and strap (along with the new long breather hose, which I also fitted as the old one was hard as a rock and cracked) In my quest to find out why it runs a bit like a bag of rubbish, especially when cold, I dug into the engine systems a bit more. The worst issues were cold starting (lots and lots of cranking before it reluctantly stumbles into life) and then having to wait for it to warm up a bit before even thinking of touching the throttle or the revs would die out. Really made backing the car up the drive a pain in the backside. I started with the ECU, mostly because there had been water ingress in that area and I wanted to check the ECU had not suffered any water damage since they aren't sealed. The ECU is an odd one. I removed it, and it looks nice and clean. Good start, no corrosion or moisture in the pins. It doesn't have the usual Lucas sticker on the cover though (it did have screws, including undamaged anti-tamper screws, I have removed them). Yes, my work bench is a 31A Rover V8 Block. It does have this sticker on the side, which seems to indicate it is the correct 83986 model, but had maybe been replaced in 1992? Regardless, I whipped off the covers and had a look. Nice and clean. Unfortunately no microscope this time, but I had to make do with a torch, a good squint and the zoom on my phone camera. Nothing sticks out, but I have ordered a USB microscope and will have another look when that arrives. I will probably resolder the voltage regulators anyway, along with the circuit that runs the enrichment. The main reason I pulled this to bits was to see if there was any obvious reason why I have no acceleration or full throttle enrichment. When the key is turned to ON, if you open the throttle quickly or to wide open throttle, you should hear all eight of the injectors fire in one big CLICK. I have nothing. The throttle pot is set correctly (or so I thought), and even a test throttle pot from Effie made no difference. I even went so far as to connect my spare ECU, but that made no difference. So either there is a wiring issue (I have checked and all pins at the ECU have the correct readings), both ECUs have the same fault, or Lucas is living up to its name. Since the ECU was out, it was the perfect opportunity to have a play with a toy I purchased a while ago, before I had an SD1 again. The Austin Rover Fast Check unit for the EFI Rover V8. This thing is cool. It plugs into the engine harness instead of the ECU and can test various sensors and see if they are operating correctly. You can also use the dial and push button to fire individual injectors. The little booklet with it gives you a step-by-step test procedure, including a guide on what to check if things don't go right. I plugged it in, turned the key and the lights lit up Unfortunately, as you might be able to see in the picture behind the unit, there should be LEDs lit for the AIR FLOW, IGN, COIL, and TWO for the THROTTLE POT. One of my throttle pot lights wasn't lit. The diagnostic procedure advised to check the calibration of the sensor, so out with a screwdriver, and a little tweaking later we had both lights. The other tests all did as expected, so by all accounts, the injection system is electrically working as it should. Still no enrichment though... Moving along, since the enrichment wasn't playing ball, I set off to do something about the horrible state of the pipes around the inlet plenum. The first issue was the hose clamp on the throttlebody end of the main intake hose from the AFM was loose, to the point the hose was just sitting in place. The clamp wouldn't tighten either, so a quick trip to the vice, and some swift reshaping with a hammer later, and the clamp was now tight. Next, the hoses from the over-run valve and the the throttle body to extra air pipe were both secured with zip ties and basically fell off when touched (hoses at top of the photo below) I didn't have the right size clamps for these but made do with some slightly bigger ones in the meantime. These are tight now. Basically, anything that can allow unmetered air (air that hasn't entered via the AFM and been measured) is the enemy. Unmetered air will cause the engine to have more air in the engine than the ECU knows of, so the air-fuel ratio will be on the piss. What's the result of this then? Well, this is how it starts now, stone cold, with no throttle or constantly running fuel pump I blip the throttle a couple of times there too, which is something I would never dream of doing before this work, it would have stumbled and probably cut out. Now it's sharp and crisp to respond. When warm, the engine is running very sweet indeed. It's idling well and responds to throttle quickly and smoothly. I'm not saying it's perfect, it's not, but it's running a damn sight better than it has since I got it. It also seems to be running a bit quieter, but I won't know how the lifters are doing until I take it on the road again. Fingers crossed its a bit less clattery than it was. To celebrate a job well done, I decided to pressure test the cooling system and find out where the green excitement juice on the garage floor came from. Sure enough, two leaks. One is easy, it's leaking from the top hose where it meets the radiator The other is a bit harder; it's leaking from the small bypass hose behind the water pump. I will try to tweak the hose clamp, but ultimately I will replace this when I do the thermostat as it should give me better access then. That's not too bad; I had expected to see coolant pouring out from under the inlet manifold since no doubt the under intake heater pipe will be on its last legs (they all are). For the last two jobs, I did a couple of small things that should make life better. First, I replaced the tailgate struts with new ones. I used similar to the ones on Tess; Ford Falcon BA/BF (02-10) WAGON tailgate struts. They're a smidge longer than the standard ones so the tailgate opens a bit further, which can chip the paint on the top edge if you aren't careful, but they're cheap, available, strong and work perfectly for opening and closing. This means I can finally get rid of the garden stake that I have been using Finally, I sorted some rust on the passengers floor where water had been collecting. I had to remove al the drain plugs and drill a couple of extra drainage holes since it was filling up each time it rained, but after a couple of fixes it's now drier than it was, but it means the surface rust was starting to take hold. I wire brushed the area, rust treated it, and then gave it a coat of black zinc. Finally, once the zinc was dry, I used a can of Mercedes metallic paint I have had for a decade or so to give it a nice protective coating of actual paint. It's not a terrible match either. The steel is a little frilly around the square drain plug, but that's not major. Otherwise, it's solid, thankfully. The drivers' side needs the same work, but I'm struggling with the carpet on that side, so once it's dry I will attack that too. I know on that side it needs at least a new "paint can lid", but they are just stuck down with seam sealer, so I might just chop some plate up into a circle and glue it down after treating everything. I'm finally making some headway with Lucas. It's not huge, but after having so many setbacks it's nice to be moving forward.

Engine hours make a big difference, as does transmission wear in start stop traffic. I wish ODB2 had an engine running timer, i'd love to see how many hours some of the low KM imports actually have.

It depends on the exact model, and im not an expert because eww autos, but i believe NZDM cars are normals autos and the JDM imports are CVT. The CVT are reputed to be terribly unreliable, but i dont know what the failure mode is other than it requires a replacement or rebuild.

Check the transmission has been regularly serviced, i seem to see a few people on Facebook popping up with failed autos on those.

What a save. Shame they dereg it, but its worth getting back on the road. Cool little car

Yeah Minis had the same thing in their bellhousing. Really liking the look of this, with the grey paint and wide flared arches. Its different. The collapsed seat, is it just the support diaphragm on the underside that has split? Can probably replace it with one from a Mini

I've done option A before. If you use long bolts you can replicate that spring setup again, just with bolts instead of studs. I think you need those springs as that's a kind of flexi joint.

Since the VIN brings the car up in carjam they should be covered for that as it will say if there is a police interest or not. A print out of carjam was enough for VTNZ when i did it. The issue is when its not in carjam and then its a feck around as you say.

If you havent already, try checking the ABS codes and see what comes up https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/ae111_forum/abs-diagnostics-t6366.html

It's a 90s(?) Carib, surely it'd only have rudimentary abs and nothing fancy?

Thanks. They're huge fun and great value for money. Mine is still in regular use, not needing much more than keeping the tank full of 98. The new clutch has been bed in for a while now and is lovely to use. I toyed with modifying the intake, and my previous one had a Suzuki Sport intake/pod filter on it and sounded great. On this one I decided to keep the costs down and just whacked a K&N panel filter in it when one was on sale. No change in noise, but im thinking of removing the intake resonator and seeing it if makes a difference. The airbox has little to no restriction, so im happy to keep it in terms of performance. Aftermarket parts pop up on facebook from time to time, but you need to be quick as the demand is high.

I'd just get the stat dec signed by a JP anyway. Its easy enough to do and less of a ballache than having to go away and do it later when they suddenly decide they need it. The declaration is to confirm you are the legal owner of the vehicle.

I believe on post 1990 cars the inspection is the same as a fresh import compliance inspection. Pre 1990 is just a wof done slower than usual (which for vtnz takes days).

Its been months of struggling with little to no motivation, but the welding on the floor is finally done. Still need to tidy up under the car and then seam seal it, but that can happen another day. Once thats done I can turn the car around, and start work on the B pillar and outer sill. Then that will be the worst of the rust sorted (and the rust that could cause WOF issues).

Nothing off the shelf, but no doubt you could easily adapt something to work. These hinges had lasted almost 50 years as it was, so I can't see them wearing out again in my lifetime.

Oh hello again, it's been a while. No one likes sagging, so let's fix it. No, it's not work that anyone would have expected as my first update in months, but it's something I needed to do, especially whilst the car is in this orientation and I have good access (the car will soon be turned around to do the sill). Since I got the car it has suffered from the very common saggy door issue, where the hinge pins wear out and cause excessive movement. This mainly shows itself as a door that is hard to open or close, and thumps up and down when lifted. This will not pass a WOF. The easiest way to fix this is to find a good pair of hinges without wear and swap them in, and stick to regularly lubricating them. This will last a good while but it's getting harder to find good hinges as it was such a common issue. Fixing the issue in the first place is the better option, and in this instance, I've done it to one hinge, out of necessity rather than choice. There are two ways to fix it. One, is to get a steel tube that has a slightly larger internal diameter than the outside diameter of the pin and weld it between the two ears on the bracket, like so, I didn't have a tube handy, so went with the other, easier option; weld two nuts to the ears. Thanks to the relevant Marina Club members for the above photos, and the inspiration to fix instead of bin. Before I could get onto the welding bit, I had to get the hinges off the car, which meant removing the door. Thankfully it's on the side that has no door card, so that was easy. Three nuts to remove on each hinge (as well as a washer on each stud and a spreader plate), and the door shell can be removed. I used a jack to support the back of the door until all the nuts were removed. Much room for activities. Yes, there is still a hole in the floor; I'll get to that at some point. Hopefully during the next burst of motivation. The bottom hinge was easy to remove from the A pillar, as all three nuts are visible, so off that came. The upper hinge was proving to be a real pain though. I couldn't see it until I removed it, but the studs were slightly longer which meant my socket was blocked from completely sliding on the nuts, thus they were rounding when I tried to remove them. In the end, I grabbed a drill and drilled the heads off the studs and used a punch to push them into the car, nuts and all. Thankfully the forward nut came off easily, so I only had to do the rearward two. To get a clear shot at those I disassembled the hinge on the car, by hammering the pin out The top hinge was the worst one as this takes most of the weight of the door, and clearly had not been lubricated since it left the factory. The pin should be a snug fit in the hole And that's before you even get to the wear on the actual pin Thankfully I had sourced a good top hinge, in the correct colour, so all I needed to do, after freeing the seized hinge, was to thoroughly lubricate it and fit it. The lower hinge wasn't so lucky. I did get a replacement but for some reason, it's completely different (two bolts instead of three and a completely different design). This forced my hand into fixing the hinge I had. I knocked out the pin to separate the halves There is some wear on the pin, but it's minor The holes were slightly slogged out. This was nowhere near as bad as the upper hinge, but still had enough play that I couldn't just refit it. I found a couple of nuts that were just slightly too small to fit over the pin and drilled the hole out a little bigger, until they slipped on the pin with minimal play. I cleaned the surface up with a flap disc on the grinder and then zapped the nuts into place with the welder turned to 11. It's not pretty, but it ain't going anywhere A quick coat of black zinc should protect it for a while Once mostly dry, the nuts were packed with grease and reassembled. The pin was rotated backwards to how it was previously fitted, so the wear was on the opposite side of the pin. The nuts have two functions here. First, they support the pin along a larger surface area, instead of just the small area that wears away, which should hopefully mean the pin lasts longer and the current wear no longer matters. Secondly, it centers the pin again and stops it from moving in the worn-out holes. The tube would do the same thing, just along a longer surface. This fix works for both hinges as they are of similar construction, the only difference is that the upper hinge has the detent roller and spring to get in the way. With the hinge reassembled it was time to refit the hinges. They were easy enough to refit, trying to line them up with the existing dirt/witness marks. Interestingly, there are no gaskets to stop water from coming in behind the hinges, just hopes and dreams. If the doors come off again in the future I will make some gaskets, but in the meantime, I used heavy grease behind the hinges as a water repellent (and to reduce the chances of rust buildup behind the hinges; it was clean behind them with minor surface rust, but little to no paint). Refitting the door was about as hard as removing it, just remembering to support the back end of the door with the jack and wiggling it onto the hinges far enough to get the spreader plates on and start a couple of nuts. Aligning the door took a few tries, and it's probably still not perfect, but it is a BL product after all... The difference with the new hinges was obvious immediately. The door swings so much easier now, and the detent works correctly; it previously sagged so much that the detent roller didn't touch the spring. The door also opens and closes easier now too. It doesn't need a slam to close and doesn't thump into place before catching. There is zero play in the hinges. It's not amazing progress; it's still not finishing the rust work that I keep putting off, but it's progress nonetheless. Hopefully another burst of motivation will hit me soon and more will happen.