The Wife's Roomster (Fintin)

This is a long one, so pop the kettle on and grab the bickys.

Fintin is my wife's Roomster, a nippy 2013 1.2 TDI Scout. Now for someone who says they love their car, you'd think they take better care of it. My wife treats Fintin like he's some sort of rally car.

The car was grand mechanically and visually up until a Van drove up the backside of it last year. The driver accepted responsibility and said they'd get it fixed but handed it back with problems that were none existent before.

Now, yes she could have listened to me and gone through the Insurance, car would've be written off and she'd be driving a different Skoda based car or gone back to the chaps who "fixed" it or even gone to a different mechanic and billed the Van Courier Company Owner but that would intail actually listening to her Husband.

So here's were I get to step in, an amateur mechanic at best, I know only what I need to know to get by and save myself a few shillings.

She starts by telling me the coolant and oil in the car are low and that Google says it's because of the hot weather......, I'm thinking head gaskets done but there was hope, no milk in the engine or expansion tank, maybe a cracked hose somewhere but no leakage found. I check the dipstick, it's clean, not even a mm of the black stuff, I grab a litre of oil from the local garage and pop it in, 20mins later i do a dipstick test again, it's above the max, now im scratching my head becauseit has a 4.3ltr oil capacity not a 1tr capacity.

I do an oil change along with the oil filter and top up the coolant. I'll check it again in a few days.

Next, the rear arch trim is hanging off, whatever adhesive that was used (after the crash) to glue it to the car has quit. Most likely the wrong adhesive mixed with the shape of the arch being off after a bad panel beating.

I realise in order to fix it, I need to remove the inner wheel arch liner, tyre off, what do I see, she has worn the brake pads down to the bare metal....., I ask her does she hear the brakes squealing at all and she says 'sure i play the radio when im driving'..... new pads and discs ordered (Saturday job). I remove the old adhesive, grind the backside of the trim to fit the shape of the fender/arch, grab a tough outdoor adhesive, a C clamp and bingo bongo (left overnight) it's fixed to the car.

Next up, the rear door that was replaced and resprayed the wrong colour, appears to be from a 2007 model along with the rear bumper, paint ordered for respray but not before it's all sanded (don't know when I'll get round to that).

Wiper arm and nozzle replaced because she wanted them replaced and had ordered them from Shein, she can now use the rear spray. Rear door rattles, no bump stop on right side, currently searching online for replacement, skoda fabia has similar ones.

Next, before the crash, the car had 4 black painted OEM alloys, when the car was returned, 3 alloys are silver and one is black. She wants them all black again, i spray paint the black one silver 😆 job done.

Next, I noticed the plasti dip job she asked for on the exterior trim 3yrs ago is peeling, so I remove one side, easy enough, with a bit of white spirit, I go to the other side of the car, it does nothing, im confused and ask her if she did anything, yes, she saw it peeling and spray painted it black.... 3hrs later, high as a kite on paint stripper, job done, 2 days later, I still have paint embedded in my hands.

Another job for later is to fill in the deep scratches in the front bumper and respray to a colour matched perfection.

Well thats my rant over, im not one for taking pics of before and afters so yas will just have to use your imaginations.