My new (1984) car

[njpumphrey]

Hi All,

It's that time of month again when I change my car. I had been saving up for a post 1989 300TE, but I have only seen two for sale locally in the past month, and neither suited. I sold my dog-eared 240TD on friday morning and needed a car for the weekend, and could only hire a hateful Vauxhall Corsa at the last moment. However, there was a rather nice 230TE for sale not far from me so I went for a look...

It was damn good, really, with none of the usual faults (rusting jacking points, leaking vacuum) and it had a CD player, new tyres, exhaust, mats 'n' flaps and overhauled brakes. Interior was near perfect, and for the mileage (193k) it looked better than any of my other cars generally.

It does have a couple of minor problems though. The paintwork looks tatty because the laquer is peeling. Underneath the paint is so matt and dull that 5 goes of T-cutting and a waxing barely brings a shine. Is there anything I can do about this, without spending a fortune on a respray?

The other thing may not be worth worrying about but I just don't know what it can be. When decelerating from motorway speeds there is a soft and fairly quiet repetitive knocking sound from the back, not dissimilar to a worn/sticky patch on a rear brake disk. However, it can't be the disks because it doesn't stop when I brake, and it does stop when I start to accelerate again. Any thoughts??

The last thing is the seatbelts for the mini seats in the boot. The way they are attatched seems rather lame. There is a long 4mm bolt with 5mm Allen head going through the centre of a big bolt and holding it to the roof. The big bolt is not screwed into anything though - it relys on the puny 4mm bolt, which I found sheared quite easily when I tried to tighten it. Is this normal?

Cheers,

 

[MotardMan]

Hi All,

<Snip>

It does have a couple of minor problems though. The paintwork looks tatty because the laquer is peeling. Underneath the paint is so matt and dull that 5 goes of T-cutting and a waxing barely brings a shine. Is there anything I can do about this, without spending a fortune on a respray?

<snip>,

You do not merntion if the car is a flat or metallic colour. If metallic, then you need the clear coat over the colour to give the shine. The colour coat is the substrate for the particles that give the paint its metallic look. This makes the base, or colour coat, look matt as the surface is rough, and unable to reflect the light in the same way that a solid colour can.

It can be remewdied, but I would be wary of repairing a large area. It would be much better to have whole panel refinished, but this would depend on how much you have to spend on the car.

If the laquer or clear coat is peeling, you have a problem that will keep coming back to haunt you.

HTH,

Jim

 

[MotardMan]

Hi All,

The other thing may not be worth worrying about but I just don't know what it can be. When decelerating from motorway speeds there is a soft and fairly quiet repetitive knocking sound from the back, not dissimilar to a worn/sticky patch on a rear brake disk. However, it can't be the disks because it doesn't stop when I brake, and it does stop when I start to accelerate again. Any thoughts??

Cheers,

I would suspect the prop shaft or universal joint on the prop. It sounds like when you are loading the shaft one way, i.e. under acceleration, the noise goes away. As the car decelerates, it has to load the prop in the opposite way, and the noise is apparent. Try lubing the UJ, or asking our resident guru Andy......

Best,

Jim

 

[njpumphrey]

Thanks for the help Jim. The colour is a metallic pale green. Luckily, being pale you don't notice the peeling laquer from more than a few feet away, but I suspect it will be one of those things that I will periodically try to remedy. From previous experience restoring bikes, spraying laquer from a can is much easier than paint, and you can get away with making a few mistakes. It is not something I will rush into though.

I agree the noise might be from the drive shaft. The garage I bought it from have offered to have a look for free, so I am letting them have a go. Despite my insistence it isn't the brakes they stripped them anyway, so I am not holding out much hope of them finding the real fault. I will keep you updated, but if there are any other thoughts out there please let me know.