FE54 - making her mine. - Page 9

talkingcars · 21-09-13, 09:46 AM

Talk about frustrating.

Thought I'd sort out the headlight bulbs now the nights are drawing in.
N/S headlight was brighter than the O/S.
O/S full beam wasn't working.
Wanted to fir my LED side light bulbs.

Changed the O/S bulbs with no problem.
Couldn't find my spare LED 501's so the sidelight didn't get changed.

Started on the N/S full beam, couldn't get the clip to go back until eventually it fell out, no problem, my long reach magnet on a stick got it out of the bowl but there's not enough room to get it back in without taking the battery out.

So I thought I'd leave that and just do the headlight, darn clip falls out!

OK then, as the battery has to come out I may as well finish moving it to the boot, turns out that due to the rear end repairs I can't get the tray as far back as I did in GV51 so the box I had built does not fit over the battery!

peterzs · 21-09-13, 10:14 AM

Apart from that, it all went smoothly!!!!

Is a pain when it all goes tits up, but nowadays I start on a job expecting it to all go wrong.

End up, doing it up and taking it to my friendly garage.

talkingcars · 30-09-13, 04:45 AM

welshone · 30-09-13, 05:51 AM

Very tidy, i like

petet16 · 30-09-13, 07:28 AM

Looking good.

DuckFeet · 30-09-13, 12:00 PM

How are you finding the difference in the two with the manifolds on the MK2? You just need some nice lightweight wheels now, perhaps in grey :carrrot:? And more pics of the car required, two mentions of washing her with no picture of the result - tut.

talkingcars · 15-12-13, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckFeet

How are you finding the difference in the two with the manifolds on the MK2? You just need some nice lightweight wheels now, perhaps in grey :carrrot:? And more pics of the car required, two mentions of washing her with no picture of the result - tut.

I don't think the mk2 has manifolds, the mk1 doesn't.

Not changing the exterior of the car, I've got the Maestro for that, this is meant to be an enhanced version of the standard car and it is my daily driver after all.

The quality of the fittings on the mk1 are defiantly better than the mk2, well they were until I swapped them, I still need to add the second horn, I still hesitate to use it for fear of ridicule.

I have washed it again, did the ZS, ZR and F, washed and dried in under an hour but no photos as it was dark.

More importantly - I now have power in the shed -

talkingcars · 15-12-13, 05:07 PM

Just reading back - I didn't update after earlier posts.

I managed to get all the bulbs in after much fiddling, only to find that the full beams were pointing to the trees, nobody had told me that the bulbs are the other way up to the dipped beams.

With that sorted and blue tungsten side light bulbs I am now happy, the colour of the Philips Blue Lighters is much better than O/E bulbs and the extra wattage makes a lot of difference.

I've not got the battery in the boot to work properly yet, I suspect the battery I've fitted isn't quite up to the job and due to the Clifford I daren't take the front one out until the back one is working properly.

I haven't devoted much time to the car as TBH I'm not in a car frame of mind at the moment - I need to be, MOT is due in a month, there is a knocking on part load at part power from the front, the disks are shot, I've only just started wiring up the heated screen, she hit 90k yesterday so the belts are on borrowed distance as well as borrowed time now........................

petet16 · 15-12-13, 05:22 PM

What are the issues with the battery to boot James ?, when I did mine I eventually ended up with a diesel battery and higher output alternator.

talkingcars · 15-12-13, 05:53 PM

When I did GV51 I stuck a brand new battery in the boot, disconnected the old one and she was fine until the battery was about 4 years old and stopped holding charge overnight.

With FE54 I followed the same fitting pattern except I made my one power cable rather than one out of a M3 that needed extending. I then took the 6 month old battery (the replacement for the first battery) out of GV51 and stuck it in the boot of FE54 and connected it. I then disconnected the front battery.

There wasn't enough power from the rear battery to start her so I temporally connected the front one to start her. Then disconnected it so the rear one would charge. I tried this several times and then got bored.

I should really bring the rear battery in and do a recondition charge - Mrs TC will be pleased as I can now do this in my workshop.