MadaboutKitcars

After all of my frustrations with the brakes, at least they are functionally working and just need the cover modifying to fit over the new master cylinder!



The mods to the air-intake routing was just about done and just needed a 90degree pipe from the heat exchanger through the removable panel i put in place.

I never did get around to upgrading the boot to hydraulics, but at least it's there and works:

My favourite achievement on the car was the cooling system and i do like the alloy header tank i fitted!





How comes every new car i get i end up buying a new battery, although i think i may have to go some to top this monster!

Plus changing from rod gear linkage to cable shift was certainly an interesting task and yet another thing for me to add to my list of "thing's i don't like doing under a car"!



The wiring and plumbing tidy up was really coming on well but i'm sure the new owner will have their own opinions on where it needs to go!

Clarkson wasn't lying, you really can't see anything out of here!!

Indeed! But also somehow 'freeing' if that makes sense?

I spent 25+ years researching the Countach and buying and stockpiling parts waiting for the right one to come along and now I've had one and enjoyed owning, driving and tinkering with one. But i think it's time to move on before i start to see it as a _grind_ to work on and come to resent it.

I'm already finding myself spending less and less time just tinkering with it, so when the boot release lever backing shattered and i just couldn't work on it in the garage comfortably (i got cramp the one day i tried and just frustrated the other) I thought it was the right time to act!

Strangely this is now my favourite view of the car, as after all the work i did on it and all the jobs that constantly required me to have the engine cover open, or air boxes off, it's just comforting to see it all back together and looking how it should be!

Thanks Paul.

It's certainly brought home to me how much dedication the likes of you and Tony and others who are building outside put into your cars!

mumblemumblebloominclutchmumble.

While taking the car in/out of the garage for some additional photos that people requested i can tell that whatever is wrong with the clutch is getting worse as the noise is not right at all and i don't know if it was just me, but I'm sure there was an odd smell coming from it also.

As i _really_ don't have the space to change a clutch, inside, in-winter and as i'm an honest man (a bit too honest if anything!) i'm going to have to bite the bullet and simply drop the asking price to reflect that

And a happy new year to you Steve, and to everyone else as well!

The honest answer to what i'm going to do with the car is.... dunno.
I'm almost tempted that if it doesn't sell this time to keep it, garage it until the summer and then (funds allowing) finish all the little jobs and rather than mess around any more with the current engine/gearbox i'll talk nicely to some of my friends with more storage space than me and i'll look at fitting t a BMW V12 with the Audi 6 speed box

With 6hrs to run on the current auction it's got 145 watchers and has had 5882 page views! Which is more than anything I've ever listed before by a considerable margin.

But..... no bids.

As my father always used to say "something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it" and it never fails to amaze me that a modified MR2 with a Murcielago shell over it will sell quite happily for £35,000+ (not that i'm knocking them, as i nearly built one myself!) whereas a completed spaceframed Countach with a V6, V8 or V12 engine only seem to go in the £15,000-£25,000 range! It seems criminal to me, as all of the same original Lambo bits that go on a Murci (wheels, badges etc) are also on a Conutach, plus more!

Only goes to show, it's a funny old world!

Didn't sell.

hummm.... Not going to relist it immediately but will take stock.

Craigt, i like your thinking!

Sadly that's a step too far even for my wife to accept. and yes, i did mention it!

The situation atm is that the MasterCo is sold "subject to contract" and I'm just sorting out the details the with new owner. If they want to make themselves known on here then that is up to them, but that's as much as i will say on that.

Unfortunately the Wife's camper van is simply too big to fit in the garage so sadly this leaves me in an awkward position where i will have a garage all kitted out to tinker with cars and no car to tinker with.........

Can you see where this is going

ATM things are still "in progress" with the sale

All going well, I think next it's going to be a Miglia, as while it's similar (Let's just leave that point there shall we!!) it is sufficiently different enough to give me some new challenges and TBH i like the longer bonnet look and a number of the other differences that Mike has on his kit. (No offense to the Andy's BTW!)

That said.... i am really irked at how selling this car has gone as some people have really been taking the pish with their offers and comments and it's left a bitter taste in my mouth. The final price i settled on means that I'm already loosing a bit of money, which is bizarre, and anything less than what I've agreed i could get for parts if i just split it up!

So if the sale falls through this time I'm at the 'stuff em all' point where I'm tempted to just cover the car over, lock the garage, and forget about it for a few years!

BALLS TO EM ALL!!

Right... time to drop the gearbox and sort this clutch out.

mumblemumblebloomin-e-baymumble....

Cheers matey, i may hold you too that if too much swearing is involved

So after not really being run for a few months the car was what is technically known as "a bit of a bugger" to start as one of the carbs didn't want to play. One "Italian tuneup" later, and it's starting and running as sweet as when i parked it up!

After a bit of a redesign to my garage interior storage (i.e. a tidy up!) I've just played car-shuffling and turned the Big Red Car the other way around in the Garage as i think I've figured out how it can fit and be up on blocks to drop the gearbox and still be able to shut the garage door in between fits of swearing!

It drove out and back into the garage fine, although the reverse hill start in the dark was a unique experience although the sit-on-the-sill trick really does work wonders for reversing confidence as you can see absolutely SFA out of the rear window in the dark!!

There was a bit of smoke from the engine bay on the minor hill start back into the garage so something is certainly amiss but it should hopefully be straight fwd enough to get to now. So we shall see what we shall see.

Here we go again

Cheers guys.. The change in weather along with that debacle trying to sell it seems to have re-found my enthusiasm, so we shall see what we shall see

ok... so here we go.. a pic so that i know where all the bits go back together:



Wires go this way around (yes the speedo cable is already unplugged!):



And there is considerably more room to work under the rear of the car than i'd expected, even when it's not on ramps!

You know when you get an idea in your head that something is going to be tricky. and lots of time pases. and you wind yourself up about it and then it turns out to be REALLY easy.

Well I've just had one of those moments!


All the rear bits-n-bobs removed in order to make things a bit easier to jiggle about:



Then undid the 4 big bolts on the bell housing, put a trolley jack under the rear of the gearbox, remove the 2 bolts connecting the back of the gearbox to the chassis and it all slid back remarkably easily!



Although i am having a bit of a premonition that it may be what is technically known as "a bit of a bugger" to reassemble on my own! So i may have to use some beer-tokens to bribe some friends for assistance with the refit


Then as i've not done a clutch before it was time to go back to the classics:


Which basically said...

• mark the cover & flywheel
• undo the 9 bolts
• don't drop anything!

and it all came off in minutes



And i know that this is my first clutch removal/refit, but i think i may have spotted the problem already. I'm _sure_ this pad is meant to be connected to the clutch!!


So i shall doing some ringing around next week to see what i can get, but as this is the only marking on there I'm hoping that it's enough to identify if it's Rover, or Renault, or, or, or...




So all in all a very good day

Cheers for the support guys it really is much appreciated!


One little thing that needed addressing has been the boot and engine cover release handles. When the old ones exploded on me it was the "Straw that broke the camels back" and the last thing that happened before i locked the garage for a few months and then tried to sell the car.

But now i'm back to positive thinking again it's time to address it!

So....

You can see in this pic what happened when the cable snapped and took the fragile plastic back with it!



Luckily i already had another complete unit squirreled away from when i tried to do the MR2 based Countach a few years back.
So that, plus a £2.99 brake cable from Halfrauds and 1/2 an hr of swearing and it's all sorted!



I know it's got a small chip out of the top corner, but you'd be amazed at the state of some of these I've seen (although given their age i shouldn't be surprised!), so that should be a relatively easy fix at some point in the future when everything is mechanically sound and i start prettifying things

While tidying the garage the other night i came across a pile of business cards that i've picked up from various shows over the years "just in case" and one of them was for...

Precision Clutch Components Ltd!

Who it turns out are only 15mins down the road from my best mate in S.Somerset...

So i've just given them a ring and while they can't give me a firm quote on repairing my clutch until we figure out exactly what clutch it is, they did give me a rough idea of costs if they were to repair it and they were _very_ reasonable!!

They will also try and identify exactly what it is and see if it's cheaper to do a complete replace.

RESULT!


I'm popping down to see them on Saturday morning, so if anyone has any tips/suggestions/gotchas that i need to be aware of before then, please let me know...

Well a big thumbs up for Precision Clutch Components!

I got there for just after 9 this morning, before i even mentioned what the clutch was off of he said "oh, old Renault" which boded well! 15mins later and he'd relined it while i waited and all for the princely sum of...... £25!!!!

Obviously for that price it was just a reline (and degrease!) and not a full rebuild and clean etc. but.... blimey! Highly recommended from me!

Although i did get a bit narked that when i was trying to sell the car a fews ago, i'd dropped my asking price by £1,500 due to the clutch issue and some people still tried to barter me down more!! mumblemumblemumblemumblemumble


So when i got back i was allowed an afternoon-pass to "go and play in the garage" and here's the new clutch:



Although the first attempt at fitting it sheered one of the bolts in the flywheel

But, with my new mood of optimisim, i whipped the flywheel off:



And dug out a set of stud extractors that i bought years ago and had never tried.
One small pilot hole and out itcame at treat!


Then i remembered that when i bought SWMBO her campervan in the box of bits that came with it was....

Clutch alignment tool! It's not the exact one, but worked as well as a bit of broom handle and meant that i didn't need to saw the end off of one and have to explain myself later

So a few hrs later and the flywheel and clutch is all back on and ready for the gearbox


But that can wait as I've got a copy of 'Planes' recorded and two small children literally bouncing off the walls in anticipation

Quick update as I'm knackered.

Gearbox is back on.
Driveshafts attached.
Exhaust surround repainted (Satin Black! )

Hopefully, all going well, i can have all the rest of the rear end reassembled tomorrow night.

There a small bit of water in the valley on the V8, but i expect this is either one of the 2 pipes to the water pump or the thermostat housing gasket. Should be easy to sort. (famous last words?)

If i can get it drivable by the weekend and finish bleeding the new braking system then possibly.... just possibly... i can get it booked in for an MOT in a week or so and you never know, i may just make Stoneleigh!!


What's that..... a deadline.... oh dear