Gentlemen, thank you very much for your advice, knowledge and the pictures. So another school day then!!!
My apologies for the delayed response as I’ve been playing teacher most of the day then under the car. There’s yet another story there - but not PO related, more of that later ...
That final routing picture is very interesting as the clips are all in the right place for the routing on my car too. The hardlines have been deleted along with the rubber “bushes” in the clips. I did wonder why there was only a third of a one with the brake line. Now I know; it was cut to make room for a bodge with rubber lines!!!!!!!
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The fuel lines on my car are copper and run from just below the filter in the engine bay (on the chassis rail) to just before the ARB where they go into rubber. [emoji849]
I guess I now need to buy pipe, a straightener and take my time routing. Also will need to source the rubber bits for the holding clips.
What do you wise chaps recommend for the hard fuel lines (size and metal)?
Again, I am most grateful for all your inputs so far, many thanks! [emoji106][emoji106]
Today’s effort was taking off both sides to replace the shocks - having taken the drivers’ side off first I learned how heavy the whole assembly is. Note to self, undo the top nut on the shock shaft in situ rather than flailing about doing it off the car.
I found two loose bolts on the rear bushes (one each side) where they hadn’t been driven home properly (possibly forgotten for final torque?). Also discovered that the soft brake lines date back to 1999. They don’t show visible cracks but are very stiff old rubber. Thankfully I have new ones.
On the other side, learning had taken place ...
Taking the shock boots off, there was an inordinate amount of what at first I thought was purple mud but transpired to be dry grease and dirt. Particularly bad on the nearside and you can see why ...
The springs have a marking on that I was wondering if anyone recognises? Does anyone think these are the famous Mr F lowering springs? Looking at the bills the PO definitely kept the late Mr F well fed and I need to go back through over, no joke, 100+ receipts to see if they came from him.
Good progress was happening until I pulled the new shocks out of their boxes ....
I spoke with MSA and they were very sympathetic - so an email with detailed pictures will go to them tomorrow and we’ll see what they propose.
No in transit damage that I can see on the boxes matches the position of the dents. Both rears have dents -one near the top and one near the bottom.
The saving grace is when I looked closer, the dents are either above or below the normal operating range of the shocks. So unless you fully extend the shock the gubbins inside won’t reach the dent. On the other one, even if you compress fully, the gunbins won’t reach it. Much of the bottom of the damper is a spacer. So if I’m stuck with them, I feel relatively comfortable they won’t fail because of the dents. But equally I would prefer to have undamaged items when bought new.
So let’s stay positive and see what MSA do for me.
Here is a comparison of old and new ...
The brake lines also turned out to be copper, so more flaring and bending to come!!
On that note, the one at the front on the passenger side is still not fully sealing despite a second flaring. I am strongly suspecting the soft line as inside the box, it was not packaged the same as the other and not plated. I wonder if it was a QC failure item that made it through? RockAuto will not pay for returns if the price is over a certain amount so buyers, beware! I have torqued it further - let’s see if that helps.
On a happier note, my steering column arrived but I haven’t had a second to open the box yet!!
Strangely the parcel-force letter demanding VAT payment was for a shipment from Germany! So I guess USPS have a hub there.
And I agree Rob, unmolested cars are worth a lot more. I should have looked harder to find a better car for the money at the time, but it was a £10k heart over head decision. I absolutely love the car and strive to bring it up to scratch and have fun along the way. I do enjoy a bloody good tinker! The most boring car I ever owned was the brand new s2000 which I couldn’t do a thing to except polish, as it was perfect and under warranty. Somehow doing all this work makes it MY car and gives me supreme confidence driving it (although no more mechanically sympathetic when booting it!!) - does that make sense?