Cookeh goes shedding...

Cookeh said:
55mpg would more than halve my fuel costs (which sit at almost £4k pa at 16k mi), VED is £30 and insurance around £600 (the same as my T5...ha). So the potential to save £1300 or so. 55mpg should be achievable with a spot of hypermiling and crusing at 60mph or so. More than that deafens me anyway. I did consider it quite seriously before agreeing to take the heap on, plus I have a 3-6month placement which would add 8-16k to my yearly mileage and hence increase potential savings.

The colour is the only thing I like about it.
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Blow £300 (if that) of the savings you'll make and just get it plastidipped. It'll last up to 3 years cover all the **** paint and it's easily removable.

Then, take out the passenger seat, rear seat, parcel shelf etc (Spare wheel too if you like). Just leave what you need i to drive from a to b. That'll lighten it, increase mpg.

Then, run it into the ground.
 
Diddums said:
Still, a 24h race with 68bhp sounds amazing. I must do this. Will need a team.
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Diddums said:
That's not the purpose of the car. It's a cheap runabout for youngsters / those not that well off, and for that purpose it meets its expectations exceedingly well.

This attitude of "hurrr durrr crap car" because it's cheap is pretty poor tbh,
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Yeah, it does sound amazing. A number of the British Touring Car drivers have competed in it. If that's not a seal of approval for an honest basic little car I dunno what is.

The answer to every problem is not a BMW with 300bhp.
 
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AHarvey said:
Blow £300 (if that) of the savings you'll make and just get it plastidipped. It'll last up to 3 years cover all the **** paint and it's easily removable.

Then, take out the passenger seat, rear seat, parcel shelf etc (Spare wheel too if you like). Just leave what you need i to drive from a to b. That'll lighten it, increase mpg.

Then, run it into the ground.
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Rather not waste the money, can live with the tired paint. If I took the rear seats out I'd lose my mind as the lack of refinement would increase exponentially. Rear bench only weighs 5kg anyway, rear uprights another 8kg, so would only save about 2% weight but have a significant impact on the noise and vibrations. Definitely not worth it.

In other news, a sidelight bulb blew. Had to remove battery and ground strap to get access. Minor inconvenience, made up for given I had a spare of the bulb lying around at home - total cost 0p. Perfect.
 
I'm also "shedding" at the moment, for the first time in a long time, in a £300 2004 Fiesta TDCI

Cleanliness is the main thing for me - once I'd scrubbed the interior clean (she'd allegedly had it valeted :eek: ) it was absolutely fine.
Currently racking up 300 miles a week and returning 57mpg.
 
Lopéz said:
I'm also "shedding" at the moment, for the first time in a long time, in a £300 2004 Fiesta TDCI

Cleanliness is the main thing for me - once I'd scrubbed the interior clean (she'd allegedly had it valeted :eek: ) it was absolutely fine.
Currently racking up 300 miles a week and returning 57mpg.
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Would you believe my sister also paid for a valet no more than 3 weeks ago? I have no idea what on earth she paid for, but whatever it was it clearly wasn't up to much! That's the same sort of mileage I'm doing in this thing, though no idea of mpg yet as I haven't had to top up yet. Hopefully it will be something similar. At least the Fiesta has some sort of refinement, and the diesel means it will at least have some torque to help pull it along - definitely a more sensible choice.
 
Cookeh said:
Would you believe my sister also paid for a valet no more than 3 weeks ago? I have no idea what on earth she paid for, but whatever it was it clearly wasn't up to much! That's the same sort of mileage I'm doing in this thing, though no idea of mpg yet as I haven't had to top up yet. Hopefully it will be something similar. At least the Fiesta has some sort of refinement, and the diesel means it will at least have some torque to help pull it along - definitely a more sensible choice.
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I'd much rather have the £300 Fiesta too. I guess that makes us elitists hey, @Diddums
 
Gaygle said:
Cookeh goes shedding...

...

Still ends up with less of a wreck than a normal Acme purchase.
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Daym
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Howard said:
They are truly diabolical, hateful, nasty little cars aren't they? I occasionally see people describe them as "fun" and "not bad for what they are" and similar, on Pistonheads. I have to wonder what these people are comparing them to. A horse and cart, perhaps? In my opinion they don't have a single redeeming feature aside from keeping you dry when it rains.
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I'm sure many people run them for years without even thinking anything negative of them at all. It's hardly aimed as a motorway cruiser is it?

We used to have one at work available for odd errands as it was so cheap to lease and just leave sat in the car park, I drove it a fair bit one summer for a project where I was between two sites that were only 2-3 miles apart and it served its purpose perfectly, the alternative was to use my own car and faff around claiming mileage for it constantly. I'd go as far as to say it was fun to drive just because it was so basic, in the cabin it sounded funny for a tiny gutless engine and you could throw it around like a toy with its skinny tires without risking stacking it into a wall as you're only doing 25 mph...
 
Illusion said:
I'm sure many people run them for years without even thinking anything negative of them at all. It's hardly aimed as a motorway cruiser is it?

We used to have one at work available for odd errands as it was so cheap to lease and just leave sat in the car park, I drove it a fair bit one summer for a project where I was between two sites that were only 2-3 miles apart and it served its purpose perfectly, the alternative was to use my own car and faff around claiming mileage for it constantly. I'd go as far as to say it was fun to drive just because it was so basic, in the cabin it sounded funny for a tiny gutless engine and you could throw it around like a toy with its skinny tires without risking stacking it into a wall as you're only doing 25 mph...
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It doesn't sound fun, it sounds like a misfiring 1990s diesel Transit. Awful noise. You can't throw it around either, the steering is so over-assisted that you have no idea what the front wheels are doing; the damn thing has so much body roll that cornering at anything above 20mph makes it feel like it's going to tip. Complete lack of any support means you you will slide out of your seat if you don't tip. You can hit potholes, speed bumps, your neighbours dog, a corpse, whatever, you wont feel it through the steering. Will shatter your spine as the car has rubbish ride, but you wont feel anything through the wheel. For a car designed for use in the city, full of potholes and speed bumps the ride is atrocious.

Anyway, it took a while - between waiting for the sealant to cure and for a long enough gap in the weather - but I'm pleased to announce the crapbox finally has a clean exterior(ish!).

Still lots to do, especially with regards to some weird contaminants (more on that shortly) and the many paint defects. Could do with a proper LSP too, only got CarPlans No1 Super Gloss on it at the minute; though I have been very impressed with its performance over winter on both my 850 and the fiances Rolla.

The car was filthy, so I jumped straight into pre-cleaning with Power Maxed TFR at 10%. There was no protection on this car so I was far from worried about stripping LSP at this conc. I am, as I always am, impressed by just how effective TFR is. Some before and afters of various parts pre- and post-TFR:

ns by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
NS after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

nsr by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Rear after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Arches on these were properly minging. Still are to be honest, really need a good scrub and some tar remover - never seen so much tar! That will have to wait for another day, however. Not least because I'm fresh out of tar remover after using what little I had on the bodywork.

Rear arch preclean by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
OSR after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Front arch preclean by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
NSF after TFR by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

Petrol cap preclean by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Petrol cap cleaned by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

With that done I applied a coat of snowfoam - Auto Finesse's Avalanche to be precise - so that I could get into the gutters, around the lights and panel gaps in greater detail. If I'm honest I don't like Avalanche. I don't find it has much cleaning power and its cling time isn't particularly impressive (possibly because unless I double up the concentration its pretty thin).

Obligatory foamed picture:
Snowfoamed by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

and then the cleaned gutters. Could do with tar remover here of all places too to get them perfect.
Gutters cleaned by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

After that it was on to a contact wash. I actually didn't use 2BM on this occasion, opting for a single bucket with a couple of mitts (one for top half, one for bottom) and rinsing the mitt as I went along. I figured that after TFR and a snowfoam there wouldn't be much left to do any damage, as inspired by the Forensic Detailing Channel. What was left, however, was an awful lot of contamination:

Contaminants by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

There was also this weird contaminant pictured below. I tried clay, tar remover (what little I had!), and a glue/sap remover. None of them touched it. Any ideas what it is or how to remove it? Its all over the front bumper.

Weird bumper residue by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

To tackle the contaminants I used the tiny bit of tar remover I had left, as well as a fallout remover, then clay. Here's some bleeding shots:

Bonnet fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
OSR door fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
NSR quarter fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

For a bit of a giggle I also applied it to one of the corroded wheels:
wheel fallout by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

After all that, drying, and using the aforementioned sealant, I was left with something sort of respectable.

Cleaned and fallout wheels by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Post spray sealant by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr

The paint on this thing is dreadful. Just the quality from the factory for a start, colour match between bumpers and door is shocking; the bonnet and wings are different shades, despite both being factory and original; the paint all round is oxidising and fading to a pretty high degree, which is not at all commensurate with a car this young - heck my 850 (twice the age!) still has no issues with either of those! Once cleaned I could also properly see all the damage inflicted to it. Guess I need to invest in some sick-up coloured touch-up paint...

NSR arch dmg by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
IMG_20190311_151413 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
IMG_20190311_151436 by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Untitled by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
OSF scuff by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Wing mirror scuff by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
Wing stonechip by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
There are 4 of these stonechips that are starting to rust quite badly. Must do something about those at some point, as cheaply as possible of course!

I also saw this bit of contamination on the roof, again I cant figure out what it is and nothing I have touched it. Any ideas? It's textured, sits up over the surface so isn't clearcoat damage I don't think?

Weird roof residue by alistair.hurrell, on Flickr
 
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Not the light, as mentioned in the post. The hugely different ones are light, however. Almost every panel is a different colour and has been as long as I remember. Think it was one of the first things I questioned when my sister bought it 8 years ago.
 
Django x2 said:
You'll find this actually less economical than the Volvo because you'll have to work it harder
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I get 28.4mpg from the Volvo on commutes. On the motorway, at 70mph the Volvo will get 34mpg; 38mpg at 60mph. If it wasn't for the 9 miles each way of city driving on my commute I would stay in the Volvo, but given I get about 23mpg in those 9 miles it really hurts the overall mpg and fuel costs. This heap is currently doing 58.1mpg, and I'm not exactly driving it gently at the minute. I hate it, but it does have impressive fuel returns.
 
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