1997, white. Two donor cars in its history, a yellow one so probably a fun and a red one, which I think was a 4 door.

It's been sitting in an industrial unit for 12 year, one owner from new, some welding evident to rear turrets and 'most of the flatbed'

Needs welding on the front upper wing supports and to the windscreen frame. I'm wondering if the weld in panels from a mk1 caddy would be a close enough match because they can still be got.

 

 

 

The most exciting thing is that the windscreen is entirely absent, so a new one will need to be sourced, yay.

 

It's a 1.3MPI petrol, which we got running today after getting the plugs out and some oil down the bores, making sure it had fluids where they should be.

we bottle fed it for a bit down the throttle body hoping it would pull some fresh fuel from the tank.

It was only later one when we emptied the pickup bed to repack it (all the stripped parts of the interior from 3 cars was in there along with a set of wheels that we found the fuel pump was unplugged.

it struggled for a good while on gummy injectors, and we couldn't get it to fire, but we bottle fed it again till it cleared up.

no smoke, ~50K miles it's practically NEW.

The brake pedal was going to the floor but has firmed up since it's run so hopefully they're ok enough for yard driving, it's not charging to the alternator needs looked at.

 

The main showstopper right now is that it won't go into gear either running or when switched off, which is weird.

 

I cannot WAIT to get this thing sorted enough to get an MOT on it, but.... a bunch of work to do before that can happen

I spent all of last night hoovering all the mouse fun out of it, fully masked up and gloved. The car was owned by a smoker, so there's that to deal with as well.

It's clean of debris now, but it's due a healthy bath of disinfectant before we can really get into it.

 

It still can't select any gears, the lever moves left and right fine, but front to back is locked up, you can see the linkage at the gearbox end move a BIT when moving the selector back and forth but I don't know where it's bound up.

I got under the car and doused the selector joint under the car with penetrating oil just in case it's sticky in there somehow. I'm sure I'll get it figured out.

 

Till then, this can never be unseen

Good on you for taking this on. Have you got some more general photos you can share on here?

 

The mk1 Caddy has nothing in common with the mk2 Caddy / Felicia pick-up body-wise, so any similarity between the repair panels is going to be coincidental I suspect.

I'm an idiot and I like a challenge. Thanks for the tip about the platforms being different. The rail looks AWFUL but most of the structure is still there so at least I have decent references to work to.

I'm just going to patch in sections till it's all replaced, I think.

 

Welding is going to wait for the seats getting washed though, it's too gross and smelly to be near at the moment

1 hour ago, Bete Noir said:

Good on you for taking this on. Have you got some more general photos you can share on here?

 

+1 

 

1 hour ago, skoda_cat said:

I'm an idiot and I like a challenge.

 

You're in good company, and I'm along for the ride.  Best o'luck with it all 👍

 

With my last Del Sol, after I found the mouse nest I then stripped everything out that I could, but don't think I got every single dropping out (nor of course the little bits of tissue they wipe their bums with) as they can poo in extraordinary places🙄

 

Gaz

I popped the alternator out a day or so back, the diode checked out ok, so I got the brush unit out. There was a dab of rust on the bendy bit of metal that attaches to the 'something', and the pad that connects the brush unit to the bendy bit of metal.

 

I have a brass wire wheel for my dremel so I went at both surfaces with that, also the body of the alternator where the brush unit earths out on it.

 

My lovely neighbour lent me a battery and we started the car, it's showing 14.3 V on the battery now, No clue how many amps we're getting, but 14.3V seems a pretty healthy start to me.

 

I've also started 'cleaning' or at least trying to make the interior tolerable for more than a few seconds at a time. It's not going great, see if you can tell which is the before and after comparison in this photo

 

I don't know what that red stain is and although it's fading and lifting I don't think it's ever going to fully go away.

Not sure whether to engage a professional detailer or send the seats for recovering. They're fairly well used and as you can see, ripped.

 

 

So now it runs, and it charges, and I can NEARLY stand to be near it.  What on EARTH could be causing the total inability to select any gear... *scratches head*

Got it up on axle stands, wheels off, starter out, speedo drive disconnected and the drive gear fished out of the goop.

I found the hall effect sensor in the end, on the top of the unit hiding under the coolant pipes, heh, but I've not got that out yet.

Disconnected the shift switch and some other sensor on the front of the bell housing that I can't work out what it's for; when removed no oil fell out and it has a clean metal face with a hole in the centre. Pressure switch? I dunno.

Got the small cover off which is between the bell housing and the sump which is a pain in the hole when the drive shafts are still in, and after that I gave up for the day. We're doing this on a drive way and the weather is very.

We tried taking out the bung on the bottom of the transmission which has the hex drive in it thinking it was the oil drain, but it doesn't seem to be... What on earth is that and what did we break? I wonder where the oil drain IS.

 

I've been under the thing and tried to make sure that all the linkages are right, and tbh I can't see anything wrong, all the joints are working, the steady bar is present and everything. I think I need to get that disconnected and see if the box can shift by hand. However apparently one of my neighbours apparently knows about these things and has mentioned a 'common fault' which mucks these gearboxes up. I can't find a trace of that with a search on this forum, I've gone so far as to pay up and ask in the secret forum but no information is forthcoming, so as time and rain allows the box is still due to come out and get LOOKED at.

1 hour ago, skoda_cat said:

one of my neighbours apparently knows about these things and has mentioned a 'common fault' which mucks these gearboxes up.

If you have a 5-speed box, there is apparently a nut on the 5th gear layshaft which can come undone and drop into he gearbox...

1 hour ago, Paws4Thot said:

If you have a 5-speed box, there is apparently a nut on the 5th gear layshaft which can come undone and drop into he gearbox...

Right, that would defo be box out though? Or can you get just the end off to fix that?

hahah, my pal from three doors down who reckoned he knew a thing or three about skoda gearboxes came over, discovered he didn't know anything about this gearbox arrangement, but using the mechanical sympathy he has developed from a career working on industrial hydraulic equipment he leaned on it, then leaned on it some more, and gradually eased it into doing some shifting.

We drenched EVERYTHING we could reach with posh oils and wiggled it and wiggled it some more.

Tomorrow I'm going to put it back together and slap some wheels on and see if i can drive it up my driveway a bit. woooo

It's been a three day marathon, I'm knackered.

I got the starter back on, clutch inspection plate back on, clutch hooked up and the electrics hooked back up. Started it up, chucked it in gear and one shaft rotates, obviously we don't have an LSD in these things 😛

(is an LSD an option?)

 

Anyhoo I dropped it off the stands back on to its feet and drove it up the drive and back. yay.

 

Spent the rest of the weekend cleaning the filth of a chain smoker and a decade parked in a disgusting shed off the interior parts which were all in the bed. I seem to have about 99% of the interior present which is great news.

 

just stuff like turning

into

 

A pal took me to pick up a sheet of steel for fixing up the rusty bits and i've ordered new wings for it which might turn up on Tuesday.

 

I will need to find out what the clip things are which go into the body into which the wing's bolt into are called and where I can buy some.

 

One thing the interior IS lacking is almost all of the screws and bolts.

 

It's still a little smelly but it's bearable, and time is on my side.

4 hours ago, skoda_cat said:

time is on my side.

Indeed, when God made time, he was sure and made plenty of it.

Mig welder ordered, this will be back on the road in weeks, I reckon... oh wait I need to get a windscreen, scratch that timeline, hahahaha

Edited 3 September, 20243 Sep by skoda_cat
spanish?

oh my days those new wings are GORGEOUS.

Two things:

 

Anyone know what search term to use for the clips that go into the car body that the wings screw into? i dunno what i need to buy and i don't want to slam tech screws in like i don't care.

 

Also, anyone recognise these bits? Maybe they're not even off this car?

 

If the clips are a spring steel type to that slots over a larger punched hole then they are known as "Spire Clips", a google image search will tell you if they are.

 

Whether VAG call them that is another question.

hmm, I *think* they're the plastic wedge type ones. The rail on the car has rectangular holes punched in it. I expect the wedge is square and gets wider when a screw goes in like a rawl plug, to give front to back adjustment for the panel alignment and then a firm grip when clamped. but I could be wrong.

https://vehicleclips.co.uk/products/plastic-expanding-nut-screw-grommet-with-rubber-seal-skoda-n10621301

 

maybe?

might just be captive nuts like 19" rack mount gear but how you get em in from underneath i dunno. lad on youtube just welded in captive nuts to his repair, fair play i guess.

12 hours ago, skoda_cat said:

hmm, I *think* they're the plastic wedge type ones. The rail on the car has rectangular holes punched in it. I expect the wedge is square and gets wider when a screw goes in like a rawl plug, to give front to back adjustment for the panel alignment and then a firm grip when clamped. but I could be wrong.

 

I can visualise exactly the ones you mean now, the square section is split in one axis and is tapered with a location step on the end, they push in and snap into position and yes the securing screw further expands them, they are very good and its worth spending the time to find them rather than using anything metallic.

 

The company of the link above probably lists them elsewhere, they are a standard fastener.

 

I just found a couple of variants in my box of Trim Clips I bought from Ali-Express, another good source for the search

Whilst waiting for my mig welder to show up I've been fiddling with car audio...
I'm still planning to drop car play into this mess, but I wanted to check the amp and sub would work so I lashed it it up with a lovely classic alpine unit on a bench.

It's a TINY bit underwhelming, but you can't expect terribly much from an 8" speaker and once a windscreen goes in it's a VERY small cab space so I think this will be fine.

 

it squeezes in here, obviously.

 

I may actually mount it a bit higher so the top is flush with the body ridge to get a bit more seat clearance. I'm not short. This will require cutting off the studs that used to hold the weird bucket thing. I can stash them though and weld them back on if i ever need to.

the welder is in the country, i picked up welding gas, we're running out of ways to avoid welding this crap together

current tasks:

learning to mig, here is my first go:

front:

back kind of crap penetration:

flap disced to death

 

I need to do a lot more practise i think before i touch the car, lol.

 

Also, working out if the engine coolant drain plug is in this picture, because i can't find the one in the photo in the haynes book, I'll be off to search the forum, heh. I've got the radiator drain in the black hose, but there's apparently two because these engines are wild.

 

I'm trying to do a full coolant flush having got the heater working, so we can get on and do an oil service and whatnot. I won't post pictures of what came OUT of the expansion tank

25 minutes ago, skoda_cat said:

I won't post pictures of what came OUT of the expansion tank

I can imagine <shudder>. I'd suggest taking the thermostat off the block and opening the lower hose at the radiator, then flushing reverse flushing the radiator and flushing the block with a hose until the water runs clear. 

I've been busy and then I was sick for a bit, but today I got myself together enough and picked up 7L of coolant for the thing.

I got the thermostat housing and lower hose off and pushed as much water as I could up the hose and out of the top.

I got all the rust out of the jubilee clip on the lower hose, packed it with grease and rammed it back in.

I got water and a bottle of coolant flush into the system and ran it up to temperature, no fan. Urk.

I messed about with the radiator sensor connection for a bit, cleaned some green gunk out of the sockets, fiddled with the radiator connector.

read the Haynes book a bit and finally found the missing fuse 17, shoved one in and now the fan kicks on and I can't make the thing boil over any more.

 

In other news, I got a dash cluster with a rev counter which works which is EPIC, I can move my speedo with correct mileage into it, but the only glitch is that it expects airbags, which my truck doesn't have. I could just put tape over the warning light, but is there way to make the cluster happ... oh I can just take the bulb out can't I. ffs.