jjbunn

Fine by me :-)

Kermit Green?

Thanks, Michael - yes, the interior is brown, but my front seats are shot, so I was going to replace them with some sort of racing seats, probably predominantly black, which would mean the rear seats would also need to be black. For some reason I am finding it hard to find anything online :-(

I'm looking for a cover to go over the rear seats in my '73 2002 - something "cheap and cheerful" to hide the awful appearance of the faded, ripped upholstery. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks!

From reading around a bit more, it seems that the canister is a fuel vapour catch, and the line running into the firewall from it returns gas to the fuel tank in the rear. On my car the canister is connected to what appears to be a pump, and the pump is connected to the windshield washer nozzles. Crazy!

I removed the VDO washer bottle before taking the photo below: The bottle wasn't connected to anything, and there is no pump attached to it. Instead, the line from the washer nozzles is attached to the black unit on the side wall (which I assume is a pump - there are wires attached to it, one is orange, with blue splices) and from that unit there is a tube to the round canister at the bottom left of the photo, then from there a tube runs along the side wall and disappears through the firewall. What the devil is that canister, and where is the water reservoir?! Also, in the same photo there is an open tube with a jubilee clip on it and some foil - the tube appears to connect to some sort of heat exchanger shroud over the exhaust manifold? What the devil is that?! Thanks for any wisdom :-)

Repairing this: Cut out the rusty metal shards: Shape a piece of fibreglass cloth, prime the area with POR15, then attach the cloth and soak with POR15: Wait a day for the POR15 to dry, then skim a layer of Bondo over the glass, and fill gap at leading edge of crossbar: Sand down hardened Bondo, smooth edges, and then coat with POR15 again: Ready for remounting the front wing/fender:

I'm not really at a point where I will be able to participate, even though the DMV didn't allow me to NoOp my '73 2002 when I registered it yesterday so I could in principle drive it. The main problem is: could you imagine sitting on this more than momentarily -

Danny's colour combination is an inspired choice. My wife suggested that it looked good because of the contrast, and that a yellow might also work, instead of the grey, against the red. I'm now wondering whether it would work as well with Malaga.

I'd like to know the answer to that question, too. If they serve no structural purpose, and are hidden from view with the fender attached, then why not just cut the rust away and call it a day? Happily, the frontmost bolt hole on my car is still sound and usable.

Do you have any other angle photos on that repair? Am I right in saying that the fender completely covers the area we see in your photo, when it is attached? I do but can't post the for some reason. Go to my project blog Project Trudy for more pictures, circa summer of 09 (06-07 2009). Found it ... Thanks - great pics.

Thanks guys!

I saved this photo a while back while Googling for Malaga cars, and have forgotten where it came from :-( The colour combination is great, and I'd like to do something similar with my car. Does anyone know whose car it is, or where to find more photos of it?

Do you have any other angle photos on that repair? Am I right in saying that the fender completely covers the area we see in your photo, when it is attached?

Perfect! Many thanks.

Thanks for the very useful suggestions! Here's a closer shot of the affected area. Before I start cutting away the rusted metal, it would be good to have an idea of what this area should look like - what would be the best place to find a photo of this area on another car?

Yeh, that lip is warped, rather than broken. I'll need to look for an original boot. Any idea what car the boot I have is from?

Here is the rubber shift boot that came with my car, alongside the console. The boot wasn't fitted when I got the car - is it wrong for this console? It looks too big ... Thanks!

Thanks! I haven't actually come very far at all - only got the car last week and just removed the fender yesterday :-) The car is barely more than a parts car itself, and since I don't weld I'm not going to the expense of sending it out for such a minor repair, which would involve removing the inner fender - surely an engine out job? I want a decent repair that I can do myself - I thought about using fibreglass or maybe pop-riveted metal sheet? Or, if I neutralise the rust, does it even need repair at all?

I've got some rust at the top front of where the left fender/wing attaches, near the headlight/grille. See photo below. This doesn't look very serious (am I right?) ... is there a decent way of dealing with it without welding? Should I just clean it up and POR15 it? Comments/advice sought! Thanks

First, easy step: placing the rubber seal around the edge of the glass. I have the glass sitting on top of a piece of sponge packing material - this avoids the seal slipping off as the glass is moved around. No lubrication used for this step. After fitting the seal, I inserted a length of thin rope in the seal, all the way around, and taped the rope ends to the inside of the glass. Then I offered up the seal+glass to the window opening, and after lining it up, just let it rest there. Getting inside the car, I had a young helper push gently on the outside of the glass, at the bottom middle, where the rope ends emerged on the other side of the glass. Detaching the tape, I pulled on one of the rope ends (gently, pulling towards the centre of the windshield) - this pulled up the edge of the seal as the rope came out, and the edge would then fall down on the near (car interior) side of the lip. This process was continued, with the helper pushing on the glass, and me pulling on the rope, until the rubber seal was over the lip all around. Here is the situation at this point: Next, the hard part: putting in the lockstrip, which looks like this. The lockstrip is a fairly rigid piece of chromed plastic, and needs to be inserted in the groove around the rubber seal on the outside of the car. Here are the tools I used: There is a container of dish detergent diluted 50:50 with water, used as a lubricant, a brush for painting the lubricant on the seal, a small nail-lifter used for teasing seal edges over the lockstrip (and used with extreme caution!), and the absolutely essential custom lockstrip tool without which the job would be almost impossible. In the above photo, the lockstrip is seen threaded through the tool's head, which is shaped so that it spreads the seal's lips apart. As the tool is moved along the groove, the lockstrip is threaded into position and the seal's lips fall on top of the lockstrip, so securing it. The more lubrication used, the better. At least, that's the theory. In practice it's quite hard to make this work well in the corners of the windshield, where the tool is being turned through an angle, and the seal tends to twist out of the correct orientation. If one edge of the lockstrip gets properly covered by the seal, then the other edge can be prised over it by careful use of the nail-lifter tool. I had to do this at each of the four corners, and it was quite time consuming. (On the MGB windshield I remember the locking strip was rubber, so much easier to manipulate.) Finally, after going around the whole windshield, the locking strip is in place: I will leave it untrimmed to the correct length until it has settled for a few days in the sun. Then it will be a matter of cutting it, inserting the end into the seal, and covering the join with a small piece of chrome trim for the purpose, which I have on hand (in the plastic bag shown above). The cat appears to think the job is satisfactory:

Certainly not mine, but give me a few months :-) (Spent this morning putting a new windshield in.)

Oh, good idea - I should pick up a used switch from somewhere.

LOL - yes, it is scheduled for the Simple Green and pressure wash treatment this weekend (I only received the car last Sunday, so haven't had a chance yet to wash the engine area as I've been sourcing a windshield -w hich it was missing - and prepping the surround). I'll add a hose temporarily.

So, a water choke is a good thing? (Not familiar with them.) I'd happily give the sponge back to Bob, if I knew who he is :-) If I do remove the sponge, then how should I connect the breather tube - to the air intake? Thanks!