Project Bentley
- Thread starter JRS
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wow, that looks fantastic!
What is that, mechanical fuel injection?
Caporegime
Bosch K-Jetronic I believe. Motronic if you have a Turbo R, which would solve a few complications and add a few more with it!
Jez - the owner would ideally like to have the original plate back (an F-reg number, we've got the details in the file on the car I think). He doesn't have a problem showing the age of the car. But the current plate was on it when he bought it, and that's what is still on there.
I love that, something very "HMS Hood" about it!
Just been talking to my friend. He says that if it blows up like the Hood did, you can write his obituary!
As far as major jobs on the car go, we've only got a few left. After fixing the drivers door mirror the other day (we cut the connectors off and soldered new ones on in place), we're left with the following:
1) Seat memory buttons don't work
2) Rear window switch isolator switch needs replacing
3) Cosmetic stuff (like the rear bumper shown on a couple of the above photos)
1) and 2) require us to remove the centre console (or at least get it so it can be lifted up). This could be a nightmare, or it could be fairly straightforward. As soon as we get a break in the weather, we'll get after it.
Caporegime
Lovely!
Call me anal but the first thing you can do to improve its appearance is dead easy - re-mount the driver's side windscreen wiper so that it's nearer the bottom of the windscreen at rest!
Call me anal but the first thing you can do to improve its appearance is dead easy - re-mount the driver's side windscreen wiper so that it's nearer the bottom of the windscreen at rest!
Soldato
Is that steering wheel standard? It's awful!
Apart from that - looks great!
Apart from that - looks great!
Lovely!
Call me anal but the first thing you can do to improve its appearance is dead easy - re-mount the driver's side windscreen wiper so that it's nearer the bottom of the windscreen at rest!
Yeah, neither of them park exactly where they're designed to. Just one more on the list of jobs required to get the car back up to scratch. Speaking of the wipers, we really should see if we can get the intermittent setting working sometime....
Yes, it's standard. As for the looks - personally I prefer it to the later style, but it needs a bit of work to make it look as good as it would have done new. My mate's already done some repairs to it, since a new one costs a ******* fortune and the money is needed elsewhere rather more!
Robbie G - got a text message from the owner this morning to say he'd braved the elements and sorted that windscreen wiper 
Caporegime
Lol, cheap and easy, 100% improvement!
Despite me being a Bentley Tech in training, I have very little knowledge on prices, but... isn't £6,000 a bit rich for a Mulsanne with the length of issues it had/has?
It SOUNDS as if it wasn't too far away from ending up in a breakers' hands, and the wheeler dealer guys got their one from a dismantler for what? 3k?
It SOUNDS as if it wasn't too far away from ending up in a breakers' hands, and the wheeler dealer guys got their one from a dismantler for what? 3k?
Nah.
Rot-wise, there was a small patch on the right-hand sill. The engine was fine, aside from idle and mixture being completely on the ****. Yes, there were some electrical issues. Yes, there were some expensive bits to do - tie rod on one side, seat control unit, and the work on the body to get the sill and the major paint bits sorted (which could have been a lot more expensive) for example. But values for these cars fluctuate, and we seemed to catch this one at the lowest ebb a year ago. We couldn't get one now in that condition for the same price. This one will be worth far more than £6k by the time we're done.
My mate was still a bit peeved with this one though. Who the hell repairs a vacuum pipe with ******* electrical tape, then sets up the engine wrong in a half-arsed attempt to mask the fact? Who manages to wire up speakers wrongly (lets face it, you get a big connector and a little connector, it's pretty bloody hard to get them crossed!)? Who buggers up pieces of trim rather than refitting them properly, so it becomes nigh-on impossible to sort down the line? Apparently, this car was worked on by idiots. My mate and I have joked about the fact that we'd say a retarded 3-year old had worked on it, but it'd be unfair to retarded 3-year olds.
Rot-wise, there was a small patch on the right-hand sill. The engine was fine, aside from idle and mixture being completely on the ****. Yes, there were some electrical issues. Yes, there were some expensive bits to do - tie rod on one side, seat control unit, and the work on the body to get the sill and the major paint bits sorted (which could have been a lot more expensive) for example. But values for these cars fluctuate, and we seemed to catch this one at the lowest ebb a year ago. We couldn't get one now in that condition for the same price. This one will be worth far more than £6k by the time we're done.
My mate was still a bit peeved with this one though. Who the hell repairs a vacuum pipe with ******* electrical tape, then sets up the engine wrong in a half-arsed attempt to mask the fact? Who manages to wire up speakers wrongly (lets face it, you get a big connector and a little connector, it's pretty bloody hard to get them crossed!)? Who buggers up pieces of trim rather than refitting them properly, so it becomes nigh-on impossible to sort down the line? Apparently, this car was worked on by idiots. My mate and I have joked about the fact that we'd say a retarded 3-year old had worked on it, but it'd be unfair to retarded 3-year olds.
An update on the state of the car.
First off - the re-positioning of the wipers.
Looks a bit better. Though the pump for the screenwash took this opportunity to pack in - looks like a bad connection rather than a bad pump though.
And a new steering wheel.
The owner reckons it's made the car easier to drive as the rim of the wheel is thicker, gives him a bit more control. Guess I'll try it out at some point myself, but I never had much trouble with the old wheel. This one is in much better nick than the old one though!
Stuff to sort - screenwash pump, final tweak to drivers door mirror, rear window inhibit switch, seat memory controls, coolant level probe, few more paint blemishes, leather on the drivers seat. And I still want to find out for sure what's making the mysterious twittering sound from behind the dashboard occasionally.
First off - the re-positioning of the wipers.
Looks a bit better. Though the pump for the screenwash took this opportunity to pack in - looks like a bad connection rather than a bad pump though.
And a new steering wheel.
The owner reckons it's made the car easier to drive as the rim of the wheel is thicker, gives him a bit more control. Guess I'll try it out at some point myself, but I never had much trouble with the old wheel. This one is in much better nick than the old one though!
Stuff to sort - screenwash pump, final tweak to drivers door mirror, rear window inhibit switch, seat memory controls, coolant level probe, few more paint blemishes, leather on the drivers seat. And I still want to find out for sure what's making the mysterious twittering sound from behind the dashboard occasionally.
Caporegime
Its seems like Bentley can't make steeringwheels look nice!
For an expensive car they both lack any form of posh detail, shocking. Mind saying that the latest wheel looks better.
For an expensive car they both lack any form of posh detail, shocking. Mind saying that the latest wheel looks better.
Meh, the wheels aren't that bad. I honestly prefer the look of the old one, the owner doesn't IIRC. And since he feels more in control of the car with the new one, then mission accomplished.
Scratch coolant level probe off the list of jobs to do, been done. Two less loose wires in the engine bay! Hopefully I'll get a quick drive in at the weekend. Want to try out the new steering wheel after what the owner has told me.
Seriously impressive stuff taking on this sort of car.
I was intrigued from your original description as to what it would look like. Really didn't expect to see the car in those pictures!! Looks superb
Do you have any examples of the comedy Bentley parts pricing? I want to know quite how mad your friend is.
I was intrigued from your original description as to what it would look like. Really didn't expect to see the car in those pictures!! Looks superb
Do you have any examples of the comedy Bentley parts pricing? I want to know quite how mad your friend is
.
Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Jun 2004
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- 12,957
Looks quite tidy!