kws

Thanks guys, will give the suggestions a ring

Just remember HID and LED bulbs are a no go too.

So, my usual WOF place for my Vitesse has fallen through so I need somewhere else to get a WOF. Anyone got a recommendation in the Hutt Valley for a workshop that is a bit more friendly to old and loud-ish cars than VTNZ? I dont expect issues with a WOF, but I also dont want VTNZ making issues.

I've been kinda bad, and lazy. I haven't washed Tess since before I put her in storage when I moved, in April, and she is FILTHY. I'm a bit weird too, because I like seeing cars that are clearly used and dirty (not dirty from sitting neglected under a tree, but obvious signs of spirited use) so having mud all up the sides of Tess hasn't really been too much of an issue, but since working on her recently I ended up with clean patches and hand prints in places from brushing against the car. Not a great look Because she is finally holding her oil, and running well.... oh and because she is booked in for a Warrant inspection this week, I felt I needed to clean her and get her looking presentable again. I was going to polish and wax her but couldn't be bothered today, so I only gave her a good wash, and clay barred the bonnet. The reason for the clay bar there, was due to my stupidity when painting my calipers in my old garage, and not having enough room, so I ended up with a fine mist of red overspray on the bonnet. Most of it came off with a previous wash, but there has always been a slight pink haze to the bonnet when its clean, so I used a clay bar to remove it, which it did successfully. Unfortunately this has highlighted the fact that the rest of the car now needs another clay, as the paint isn't as smooth as it should be. On the flip side though, I forgot how much gloss her paint has when clean! After the photo I went over all the black trim with 303 Aerospace, which is a trim protectant (also happens to black and shine the trim too) and shined the tires. It's a shame there isn't a show, she looks amazing! At least with her own garage space I should be able to keep her cleaner easier, than living outside like she was. So with that clean done, I needed to quickly address an issue that presented itself recently. The windscreen wash button isn't working, so I have no washer jets. This is a Warrant of Fitness issue and would cause a failure. I know the motor is good, as is the jet, and since I was getting nothing from the system I knew it had to be the switch. The Rover way of firing the washer jets is to turn the whole end of the wiper stalk into a button, so when it's pressed toward the column it activates the washers. Lots of other British cars of the time use the same/similar stalks and have the same operation, including the Mini. To delve into why mine didn't work, I removed the column shrouds. Just a screw top and bottom, and the bottom drops off. The top needs the dimmer removed, which is done via pulling the knob off and removing the large hex nut on the outside of the shroud. A quick fiddle around and I found my culprit. I think this should be connected to something But where? With limited space on the column to get my noggin in for a look, I dug into my spares and found an old Series 1 switch. It works the same but is upside down due to S1 cars having the indicator and wiper stalks swapped to S2 (S2 has indicators on left). Someone has previously chopped the loom for this switch, so no idea if it was any good. Either way, it wasnt good for my car, so destructive investigation it was You can see the black wire on the left in the above photo. It disappears into the depths of the switch. With some uh, percussive persuasion (and a drill, since the housing is riveted together), I found where it goes. The wire is literally flattened out, and jammed between the stalk shaft and housing, to ground the switch when the button is pressed. Typical Lucas design. Now I had three options. Replace the stalk with another; extend the "wash" wires and use a random dodgy button to trigger them; or fix the switch. I checked my stocks, and the only switches I had were either wrong, or the one correct one I had actually had the same broken wire. So option 1 was out. I could easily extend the wires and put a random button somewhere, but that just isn't my style. Option 2 was out before it was even really considered. Option 3 was to fix what I had. Let's get 'er done. So now I knew what I was looking for, I removed the switch from the car. two 1/4" hex head screws, and a round clip thing with metal prongs. I used a small pick to lever up the prongs and slip the clip off The connector for the switch is buried way up under the dash on the RH side. You need the drivers glovebox out to get to it. Remove the switch from the column, and just jiggle the wires from it until you can feel where they go under the dash, and then unplug it. With the switch out, I knew I needed to remove the stalk from the body. First I marked the stalk position to the body, so I could align it easily. I carefully placed the stalk into soft jaws in my vice, and using some small taps from a dead blow hammer, out it popped This exposed the badly corroded remains of the wire. The wire on this is weird, it's a mesh instead of straight strands. Maybe Lucas knew it was going to move every time you moved the stalk, so thought it might last longer. I stripped the broken wire back There was corrosion inside the insulation on it, so I cleaned it as well as I could, and then fed it through the housing, smeared some copper grease on the wire and stalk splines, and pulled the stalk into the housing, making sure it jammed the wire into the splines and was lined up correctly. Obviously I couldn't just assemble it by hand, so it went back into the soft jaws, upside down now, and a couple of light taps on the back of the housing slid the stalk back into place. Next I plugged it back in under the dash, before reassembly, to make sure it worked. Sure enough, my freshly cleaned paint and windscreen got a blast of washer fluid It was just a matter of routing the wires again, reinstalling the stalk onto the column, reinstalling the column shrouds and away we go. Now we should be 100% ready for Wednesday. Hopefully she passes the WOF; she should, since she is significantly better than the last inspection.

Does the vin come up in carjam at all? See the other thread for more info on registering,

If you refresh the page, are they still stretched? That happens when i first make the post, before i can repost the images without HTTPS.

It was finally time to reassemble the front end of the car, since I didn't need the under tray off anymore. To replace the sump gasket I needed to remove the under tray, which requires removal of a few different parts to get there. She doesn't look quite the same without it! Before refitting everything I chose to remove and relocate the air filter. Previously it was located up behind the front panel, in front of the radiator and required the front spoiler and under tray to be removed to change it. Since every time I take the fibreglass front spoiler off it risks more and more damage (its pretty fragile from all the hits it took when lowered), I want to limit how often it comes off. You can just spot the air filter on the right in this photo, with the zip ties supporting it Sadly it won't be getting as much fresh, cold air as it was, but I think I'll live with that just to help keep my spoiler in one piece. Previous testing with Effie shows that Intake Air Temps dont increase too much over ambient anyway. The front of the Vitesse needs some care taken during reassembly, as everything needs to go together in a very specific order. The bumper MUST go on before the under tray, as you cannot get to the rear, outer nuts of the bumper mounts with the under tray in place. Ask me how I know... >_< I had to loosen off each side so I could tighten the bumper bolts Using my [patent pending] "single-hand-bucket-support-o-matic" to hold the tray in place. It's a very awkward thing to lift by yourself BUT, before the bumper could go on I wanted to do a small mod to the front panel. The front deep chin spoiler is usually held on with self tapping screws. Unfortunately mine were all stuffed at some point, one side had no screw at the front, and the other side was this random coarse thread screw into a random hole. Due to it being such a coarse thread it never tightened properly. I had a bright idea the other day to get a Rivnut gun from Supercheap, and use a Rivnut on each side instead. A Rivnut (or Rivet Nut) is a metal insert that you use a tool to crush into place, that has an internal thread. This allows you to screw a bolt into thin metal without tapping it with a thread. This awesome GIF from Aliexpress, of all places, shows how they work First I drilled the hole out to the correct size (7mm in this case), wound the nut onto the tool, popped it into the hole and crushed it. The crushing, or squeezing action both holds it to the metal, and also because the insert is serrated, stops it rotating when the bolt is tightened. This one has an M5 thread, so I used an M5 bolt in it You can see a green o-ring behind the head of the bolt. This was a misguided attempt to create some padding against the fibreglass, but the o-ring just broke and fell out when tightened. I might try a fibre washer next time. Rinse and repeat for the other one There isn't a lot of space to tighten the bolt with the bumper and spoiler on, but a 1/4" extension and socket worked perfect. Bumper went on first, then the under tray and then front spoiler. She looks so much better all back together again. So pretty. As a quick follow-up on fixing the headlight; I checked the alignment and its the weirdest thing, despite being completely relocated, the alignment was perfect. It'll get tested shortly on a beam setter when I take her for a WOF. The WOF just expired, which highlights the fact that the car has now been back on the road for 6 months, in which time I covered 1000 Miles. Not many, but more than it had for the past few years combined. There have been some issues, but I'm quickly getting on top of them all. I think she has earned a clean and polish this week. I haven't washed any of the cars since moving here..... oops.

awesome looking car, well done! Also vids. It may be obvious, but what is the black thing sticking up to the left of the steering wheel?

Now for some sweet sweet tsutsutsutsu

Cool car. LHD is a bit random, but its not like 924s are normal anyway. Sweet plate, bet some 924 foamer out there would spend bucks on that if you didnt want it.

With the major source of oil leaks under the car sorted, I needed to repair some collateral damage from the previous leaks. The transmission mounts had turned to jello and weren't doing a lot. Now, first point I will say is don't try to be cheap and buy transmission mounts from random suppliers on eBay. Even though they were listed specifically for an SD1, and have "Rover SD1" on the packaging, they didn't fit without modification. The design of them means they might start to come apart quicker too, but hopefully the center poly bush will slow that down. They were about half the cost of Rimmers, but it wasn't worth it. Just buy them from a reputable supplier like Rimmers and just deal with the cost. This is what I have though. Two main spool mounts, and this little poly bush for the center bolt Whats a sure-fire sign your transmission mounts are poked? When you go over a bump and the transmission tries to launch its self into space through the shifter hole! Every time I would take a large bump in Tess the whole shifter (and thus the transmission) would jump up a good couple of inches. Not really a good thing. Since I had a serious leak under the car it has been coating everything in oil for a long time. Rubber doesn't like oil; or well, it might like it too much. It soaks the oil up and softens the rubber to the point that is has the consistency of jello. Its soft, squishy and doesn't support a large lump of metal too well. The other issue was that the bolt on the far right in the above photo has a bush on it, which I suspect limits any vertical movement of the transmission. This bush had also suffered from the oil contamination. There wasn't much bush left To replace the bushes you must remove the crossmember the bushes are on. First crack off the 1/2" nuts on the bushes (it's easier when the crossmember isn't flopping around) and remove the center large bolt. Be aware there should be a washer that sits between the trans and the nut and will drop off freely. Don't lose it. Then support the transmission on a jack. I purchased a bottle jack for this job, as its compact, can take a lot of weight and has a good height. This was much easier than trying to get my trolley jack in there. I took the weight off the mounts, and then undid the two bolts on either side of the mount. One bolt on each side was already loose too. They are 1/2" but a 13mm ratchet spanner is a life saver here. Completely remove the nuts from the two mounts. One mount of mine actually unscrewed from the transmission instead of the nut coming off. This is fine, just remove it with the crossmember. The other mount was well stuck on the transmission. Don't bother trying to grip it to twist it out, that aint going to work. Get a hammer and chisel, scrape some rubber away until you get a clean shot at the steel disc that is screwed into the transmission, and use the chisel to tap it around until it comes free. Then you can spin the mount out by hand. Old mount vs new. The old ones are seriously swollen This is the one that came out with the crossmember. The crossmember is absolutely thick in grease, dirt and pine needles. The layers of the mount rubber werent attached anymore. It was just a lump of soft jello This is the remains of the center bushing Its meant to look like this I gave the crossmember and bolts a thorough degrease and clean And then you screw the new rubber spool mounts into the transmission. I smothered the stud in copper grease, as well as the mating face, so that it wouldn't corrode to the transmission. Now this is where it went a bit wrong. I needed to chop the stud on these down, or they just wouldn't screw in fully. I think they were bottoming out. I don't think this should be needed on proper mounts. I gave the area of the trans around the mounts a quick clean, and then refit the mounts. The two spool mounts screw into the transmission first, as tight as by hand can be, and then the crossmember goes on. Due to the added height of the new mounts vs the old ones, you may need to raise the transmission a little higher to get the crossmember bolts into place. Remember the plate on each side the bolts go through, and refit them. Once again, the 13mm ratchet spanner was the tool of choice here. The exhaust blocked a ratchet from getting in there. Now, that center bolt. I couldn't quite work how what the deal was until now. Remove the jack from the transmission first. Fit it like this from the underside of crossmember; Bolt - large washer - bushing (large section under crossmember) - nut ~ insert through crossmember but don't screw in. Now slip the other washer on top of the nut, wind the nut down to the bush and screw the bolt into the transmission. I wasn't sure how tight to do this bolt, so I tightened it until there was compression on the bush, pulling the trans down towards the crossmember, and then wound the nut up and tightening it against the transmission. The results are impressive to say the least. On a quick test drive I took it over a large bump in the road that I knew would usually cause a huge jump in the transmission, and this time it stayed solid as a rock. The shifter is even more direct; obviously moving the shifter was moving the whole rear of the transmission too. Huge improvement. I do wish there was an off the shelf poly version of the two spool mounts, but in my travels I never found one. Not even for a TVR, which uses the same transmission. I ended that batch of work by degreasing and water blasting the underside of the car. It's not perfect under there, but its a lot better. I also "accidentally" blasted a lot of the yellow paint off the swaybar and crossmember... leaving a white instead. not sure which is worse tbh. Parts Used CRC454A – Gearbox Mounting Rubber x2 CRC581A - Rubber Buffer, Center of Rear Bracket (this is standard rubber, uprated poly version available via eBay) Please note these parts are specific to my car and may vary. Please check before ordering.

Just make sure its not fake knockoff Chinese shit being sold as real R9 hose. I got caught out a while back buying from a "proper" supplier in the UK, https://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/2017/09/psa-low-quality-sae-j30-r9-fuel-hose/ Problem with braided hoses is that you cant see what is happening to the rubber hose under the braiding. If its braided, make sure its a proper high quality brand. I wouldn't go there personally; if it needed extra protection i would use a good quality rubber hose with a removable fireproof/abrasion proof sleeve. This guy had braided hoses, he suspects from where the fire started that it was the pressurised hose before or after the fuel filter that failed. The hoses looked fine a couple of days before. On that same note, with any older car it is important to check fuel hoses. Even on a carb it doesnt take long to spray a decent mist of fuel around out of a pin hole in a hose. I have replaced the fuel hoses on my old SD1 due to cracks and leaking fuel (thankfully it was leaking after the fuel pressure regulator so was low pressure), and the current SD1 has had the hoses done. My Mini also had cracking fuel hoses in the engine bay, so those got replaced. Hard lines are worth checking at bends or where it could rub. If the car is lowered check that the pipes cant scrape the ground going over curbs, angles etc and wear through.

I actually came here to ask about this. Has anyone used the Supercheap Lyndar paint matching thing? Keen to get a couple of spray cans of matched paint for the Mini, but its not your usual paint colour.

Maybe leaving a 38 year old car outside in some of the heaviest rain we have had wasn't such a good idea. I knew from a previous day of leaving it out in the rain that it would leak, but I originally thought it was through the old door seals and rear side window seals. Apparently I was a little wrong. Bringing Snicket in from the rain, the interior smelt like wet dog. Not pleasant, and I could see the front carpets were soaked. I had jiggled the rear side windows to make them seal a bit better last time, and it looks like that helped a bit, but the seals are beyond stuffed. The door seals weren't the cause of the issue though, the real issue was that the rain was entering the door and leaking out from behind the door card and over the door seal into the car. I needed to pull the door card off to see where the water was coming from. The door cards are easy to remove. Unscrew the door handle, opening lever and window winder. Then there are a series of clips around the bottom and sides of the door card. With the door card off, there was a lot of moisture behind it This was after a couple of days with a dehumidifier in the car too. My doors have plastic membranes behind the door card. Designed to stop moisture coming through, but in this case they were actually trapping moisture against the door card. There were massive holes in the door panel, by design. The water is meant to go out the three drain holes in the bottom of the door, but obviously its finding the easiest way out, through the gaping holes I removed the membrane, and had a nosy at the door. The inside of the door is in reasonable shape, with minimal rust. There was some surface rust in places. The drain holes, as you can see in the photos are clear. I vacuumed out the inside of the doors to remove the dead spiders and dirt Whilst in the door I wanted to check the window mechanism as they just weren't operating as smooth as I would hope (and the drivers side makes a horrible noise when lowered). Lowering the window right down I could see why. Completely dry rails The rollers were a bit out of round, but after a thorough smearing of grease the window rolls up and down a lot smoother. It's hard to get along the whole rail, but I greased as much as possible and just wound the window up and down to even it out along the rail The other thing I needed to do with the door was to treat the surface rust. I basically covered the whole inside lower quarter of the door with rust converter, until it was running out the drain holes and then left it to cure. And then I sealed up the holes in the door with duct tape And then back on the membrane went. I reused the existing butyl sealant on the door, and some more duct tape to help secure it in place I repeated the work on the driver's side door too, with similar results. I left the door cards off for a couple of days so they could dry out, but they aren't in good shape and will need replacing at some point. In the mean time I removed the soggy carpet and underlay to expose a soggy and ugly sound deadening. This whole lot stank, so its out of the car airing out, but the sound deadening was glued to the bulkhead and was trapping water. I used some brute force and ripped it all out, and into the bin it went. The carpet is well stuffed and the underlay isn't much better, but both will be reused in the mean time as I cant afford a new set The floor had some surface rust, so I ground it back and used rust converter to kill it. No serious rust though, just solid metal. So I had basically stopped water getting through the door, but now how do I stop water getting into the door in the first place? Well, there is a rubber seal that pushes against the window. This was brittle and broken on my Mini, with large sections missing, so I ordered a pair of replacements and clips Unlike the SD1 where you replace just the rubber section, the whole rubber and chrome comes together. Removal isn't hard, with some gentle levering at the back of the door to pop it up far enough that you can just grab it and pull it free. You slip the new clips into place first. I purchased mine as a kit, which comes with the "recommended" 4 clips per side, but my old trim had 5 clips per side. Not sure if they had been refitted at some point with an extra clip. I went with the four, evenly spaced new clips rather than re-use an old clip. The flat side goes on the outside of the door. And the grippy, spiky bits on the inside The new trim just pushes onto the clips I am a little annoyed though, as I went with the newer plastic capped chrome strip from the later cars (as that's what was available at the time), and it seems it's slightly shorter than the old chrome ended strip. Doesn't look or fit require as nicely at the front. The rear of the trim is OK You can see the rubber pushes up against the glass nicely with the window closed. This should make a difference in how much water actually gets into the door in the first place The next task to stop water ingress was to replace the horribly buggered rear side window seals. These were literally falling apart, with the seal section coming free from the U channel section in multiple places The seal appears to have also shrunk and has been "fixed" with a glob of sealant None of this was good and the windows bucketed water in unless you carefully placed the seal whilst shutting the window. To remove the seal you need to remove the window. This is held in place with two screws on the catch, and two screws at the front on the "hinges" It's a solid bit of glass, so take care not to drop it. The seal then just pulls off the body and goes into the bin Someone had used what I presume was butyl sealant around the seal. This wasn't stuck to the seal at all, but was a pain to remove from the body. I ended up using a plastic scraper, and then brake clean to wipe it away This did reveal two things. One, someone has previously used a sharp knife around the whole of the window, leaving cut marks in the paint. Two, there was rust under the "glob" of sealant at the bottom, and on the B pillar This rust was the same on both sides, so I wire brushed it back, and treated it. The car will eventually need paint, so I'm not too worried as long as the rust wont get worse. It was mainly surface with some minor pitting. No deep rust or holes. Refitting the seals was a crappy job because of the way the seals are folded for packaging. They are twisted so they can be easily folded to halve their size in the bag, but because of this they don't want to easily untwist to how you need them to. With some gentle persuasion, I managed it though. I used a rubber mallet to help gently tap the seal into place. I did not use any sealant under the seal, as the design of the seal is such that it should keep water out of the join. As a side note, having the windows out gives really good access to clean and inspect your companion boxes. Mine had some rubbish in them, lots of dirt, but only surface rust. Phew. This is after a good vacuum Refitting the window is really a two person job, just so you don't drop it, but It can be done alone. I used Gummi Pflege to treat the seal, and once that was absorbed I used some silicone spray on the front quarter of the seal (where the hinges are) to help the window slip over the seal into place. I sat on the back seat, fed the window out of the car through the hole, and fitted the hinges and lined it up that way. Once the hinges are over the seal you can hold the catch to support the glass. It'll take some wiggling and jiggling to get the hinge holes to line up nicely But the new seal butts up nicely against the window all around With those seals replaced, hopefully now I will have sorted 90% of my water leaks into the car. I'm suspicious of the front windscreen seal, but haven't actually seen any water come in around that. The door seals are stuffed too, and will need replacing, but I think they will hold out water well enough for now. A the moment I'm waiting for some bits from Minispares, such as front subframe shims (none were fitted when the subframe was refitted, so the front valance has been pulled in), and clips for the four seam trims, so I can fit them. I purchased new seam trims locally, which I'll need to paint soon to match the car, but was a bit disappointed to find the rear "primed" trims I got were completely bare metal inside, no coating. I quickly gave them a coating of Zinc paint on the inside, so that should protect them for a bit. The front trims were primed inside and out. I also sorted the Statutory Declaration I needed to get signed by a Justice of the Peace to say that I'm the legal, entitled owner of the car, so now I have all the paperwork ready to go and get the car re-registered. Just need to find some time and money to actually the inspection done. Parts Used MSSK2103 - Mini 1980 on. Window weather seals set & clips. (www.classiccarparts.co.nz) EAM7724 - Mini seal for opening 1/4 window. x2 Please note these parts are specific to my car and may vary. Please check before ordering.

Ok, so have finally been able to get to the JP to sign the declaration. She was happy with what I had on it, so that should be the paperwork side done. Now to actually get the car to VTNZ. I will be taking with me, The signed Statutory Declaration Printed email from NZTA regarding reusing my black plates The generic Sale & Purchase agreement the seller signed when i purchased the car A Printout of the Trademe listing A Printout of Carjam showing it as NOT stolen (and also showing Rego and chassis numbers) Hopefully that should suffice. I have attached a template made from the Stat Declaration that I used. I cant be certain this will be suitable for everyone, but should give an idea of what could be on it. The JP was happy, but yet to see if VTNZ will be happy with it. Use at own risk. Also note that for some reason when opened in Chrome all the spaces in the text are missing. Seems to work fine when downloaded on my Mac. It is an editable PDF. https://www.tasteslikepetrol.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Statutory-declaration-final-1.pdf

Gosh i kinda want. My bloody deeply rooted CHCH bogan showing through Should also try swapping distributor rotor as they can do weird shit when failing. You sure its not just running out of fuel? Filter/tank sock blockage?

Taking it easy doesn't mean not playing with cars, so since Tess was up on jacks I wanted to remove the front bumper and headlight to fix it. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the RH side headlight lens has only been held on by hopes and dreams for a while (completely loose at the bottom, flapping about, and barely stuck at the top), and since it's in good shape and not stone chipped, I'd hate for it to drop off and smash one day. Another reason was that the RH headlight, for some reason, was sitting very low and was recessed. It should sit more of less flush with the corner light and bonnet, but this was way out, with gaps around it. It's always bothered me when looking at the front of the car, like a lazy eye, and I shuddered to know what horrors were causing it. Rust? Crash Damage? Bodges?! Removal of the front bumper is easy, as long as the front spoiler is already off. If it isn't, the spoiler needs to come off first. You don't need to remove the under tray. The bumper is secured with four bolts, two on either side which can be accessed from the underside. They are a 17mm nut/bolt through the front panel. The two longer ones go through the jacking point on each side, as per the right hole below. If you had headlight washers that were connected too, you would have to unhook the hose for that, but since I do not, it wasn't an issue. With the bolts all removed, the bumper is still held in with sliders on the sides. These, like the rear bumper, just slide out when gently pulled. Be aware the bumper isn't that light, and will try to spin upside down when removed. You also need to remove the "grille" trim that runs the width of the front. There are four screws along its length, and then it just comes free. With the bumper off, you can see the other reason I wanted to remove it. I haven't removed it since I got the car, and I knew that since it spent some extra time in its life over in the land of rust, and I had previously had to grind back surface rust and treat/paint it lower on the front panel, there would be rust here too. I was right. Thankfully its all just ugly flakey surface rust, nothing serious, but still needs to be dealt with. You can also see the notorious headlight brackets below the lights. These were barely coated by BL when fitted new, and rusted straight off the assembly line. Removal of a headlight is a bit of a faff, but not too hard. Mainly a pain because you have to keep moving/opening/closing the bonnet to workaround the front hinging design. The two nuts under the headlight need to come off (be VERY careful as these are known to seize and break off if looked at wrong), and there are two long studs that go through the panel behind the light; the nut also needs to come off them Unplug the headlight cables, and the light can be withdrawn. This leaves me with just the bracket to remove, which is held in with four screws This bracket is actually in very good shape, with only surface rust. I wire brushed it down and coated it in rust converter. Once dry, I covered in Zinc paint. Looks much better. I should have masked up the studs, but oh well. With that sorted it was time to look at the headlight. I completely removed the lens, and cleaned the dirt out that had built up in the housing. There are two types of housing, one where the lens is just stuck on, and the other that uses clips to hold the lens on and keep it sealed. My original lights don't have the clips, so I pinched a couple of clips from a spare light. Even the early lights like these have the areas for the clips to be fitted (three along the top, one on each side and three along the bottom), guess it was just cost cutting that meant they weren't fitted Now, this is where it gets weird. This is the bracket under the light that bolts to the bracket that I painted above. First, the black bracket has had the holes either badly slotted or rusted out. This allows for rearwards "adjustment" of the light. And between the bracket riveted to the bottom of the light, and that above black bracket... was a stack of washers So that pushes the light back even further. But WHY?! I replaced the black bracket and fit to the light sans washers. I fit the light back to the car and already the fitment was better. You can also see I brushed back, treated and painted the surface rust on the front panel. It does need adjustment though. I aimed to have it similar to the other light, which had the bottom front edge of the lens in line with the lower chrome of the side light, and the front of the lens level with the front of the side light. To adjust the light there are four adjustment points. To adjust the vertical alignment, there are two nuts under the light. The bracket is slotted Once you have that aligned, the two nuts on the back of the light that were removed to take the light out, are actually on the rear adjusters. These two studs also have a nut on the light side of the front panel, so the inside and outside nuts sandwich the panel between them. The outer nut is just a lock nut, the nut closest to the light is the adjustment. Wind it back or forward to set the forward distance of the top of the light. The bottom distance is already fixed in place by the lower bracket. Be aware these are NOT the light output adjusters to adjust the beam, they are the black knobs on the back of the light. It took a bit of fiddling about to get those adjustments right, but so far I'm happy with how it's sitting. It's MUCH better than it was. It now sits flush with the corner light, and has minimal gaps. The bonnet isn't fully shut in the photos Refit the grille strip, and then that bumper and away you go. The only reason I can think of why the light was bodged like that was maybe the internal adjuster didn't work so they were just bodged into place to get it to line up. I inspected the adjusters when the light was off and they looked OK. One of the pivots was a bit loose so I tightened it up with a zip tie, but no obvious failures there (I have a spare where all the adjusters have been broken off and stuck together with blu-tack). I'll need to try aligning the beam soon, as with the light so drastically re-aligned, the beam is likely to be way out now.

Thats cool. Love that hitch mounted engine crane too. Brilliant.

The same happens with the Vitesse. Almost everything dwarfs it but it's meant to be a "large" car. They just don't make cars like they used to, with all their fancy life saving rubbish now.

2 parts spirit, one ATF.

BTW a good and fairly cheap cleaning solution for manual boxes is a 2:1 ratio of white spirit and ATF. Used it in my Vitesse gearbox and the amount of crap that came out was horrific. Fill it up, start it up on stands and run through the gears a few times. Let it idle in gear for 5 mins. Drain, and refill with more of the fresh mixture, and let it idle in gear for 10 mins. Drain and refill with oil of your choice (unless second drain was also horrific, in which case do it a 3rd time)

I feel you on the facelift, but the back looks so much more swish than the pre-facelift. Shame there isnt a crossover with FL exterior and PFL interior For something so "RARE!" there are a heck of a lot of manual ones on TM at the moment. All of them crazy money though. I do want this one, but there is no way its worth that much. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/jaguar/auction-1706246079.htm?rsqid=63692acff9274d92b20f725eb42e1cce

I still pine for a facelift V12 or manual I6 one, to go with the Vitesse. Super cool cars.

Interesting. Maybe theyre busy or something? I still havent got around to taking the Mini in. Main problem is getting to a JP to sign the declaration thing, and actually booking the car in. Apparently despite it basically being a WOF, they want the car for the day, and that means getting it to lower hutt, from upper hutt, and leaving it there. Fark you upper hutt vtnz for not doing it.

Its not much more to get a brand new QuickJack. https://mytools.co.nz/products/quickjack-2-268kg-capacity-quickjack-longer-model-bl5000slx I love my quickjack. Also good for dropping gearbag or diff