HubNut Blog

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Project Budget 4×4: In the rough stuff

I’ve spent many days this week writing a Blog all about our new lives, with an in-depth look into our escape from the rat race, changes in personal outlook and what it’s like to live with sod all income. Turns out I’m rubbish at it, but happily my wife isn’t so if you haven’t already, head to Growing Things and Making Things.

I may revisit my feeble attempts at telling our life story at some other point, but for now, it’s back to the cars.

Like an excited child awaiting Christmas, for some reason I was very, very excited about heading out to tackle the Byways of Nant-y-Moch in my budget 4×4. I was joining a trip organised by West Wales Laning, who quickly became essential buddies when I decided that I rather liked getting off the asphalt track. My group was led by a chap in a Land Rover Discovery – they’re very popular as they’re cheap and very capable – with me second and a Range Rover L322 bravely following, as well as a Land Rover Defender.

This is what it's all about. Off-the-tarmac fun!

I guess some of the excitement was sheer anxiety. I’d done my research, but would the Maverick actually be any good in off-road conditions? Not that it is technically off-road. These are public highways which just don’t have a surface. Ramblers please take note. We are good 4x4ers who stick to the routes we should do. We don’t just go tearing off where we like – though sadly some must always spoil it by doing whatever they want.

I quickly learnt that the Maverick really is very capable in the mucky stuff. The only real downside was a ride which was rather unyielding. By the end of the day, I’d had enough of being bounced around. I’m sure the Range Rover was easier on the spine. The Maverick coped with driving on three wheels at times, displayed impressive axle articulation, refused to conk out when subjected to bonnet-high waves of water and clambered over all obstacles, often with ease.

This is immensely pleasing. I wanted to prove that buying at the bottom of the market needn’t mean a compromise when it comes to green lane fun. Perhaps I have. After all, while the L322 Range Rover was mightily impressive, I bought my Maverick for the cost of a pair of second-hand Xenon headlamps for the Solihull luxury machine. It’s all clever stuff, and very effective, but buying cheap and keeping it simple worked just as well.

And the Maverick really is simple. The basic 4-wheel drive system – rear-wheel drive for most conditions, with selectable four-wheel drive via a high-low ratio transfer box – is similar to that used on Land Rovers for decades. Yes, the limited slip differential at the rear is quite fancy, but it compensates for less suspension travel than a Land Rover possesses. There is no centre differential, no traction control and certainly no Hill Descent Control.

That the Maverick is good off road really shouldn’t be a surprise. While Toyota’s Land Cruiser gets all the plaudits for toppling the once-mighty Land Rover, the oft-forgotten partner in crime was the Nissan Patrol – a car many Australians rate ahead of the Toyota. The Maverick is a Nissan in all but badge and the Blue Oval had very little to do with the design. As part of the first wave of ‘soft’ roaders, the Maverick actually isn’t very soft at all. Few compromises have been made on the off-road ability, even though the on-road performance is surprisingly strong.

The project looks to have been a success then. So far, the only fly in the ointment (other than brake issues…) is a slightly disappointing 22mpg. I look forward to seeing if I can top that figure, as in its off-road ability and in its everyday-practicality and ease-of-use, the Maverick has become a car I really quite like.

Project BX: Good and then bad

As you may recall from an earlier post, the BX had gamely struggled to Derbyshire and back to collect some seats and doors – none of which have got even close to being actually fitted to the car yet. That’s ok. I”ve been enjoying the fact that the BX works and have actually been using it for driving about. Well, I was…

Sitting pretty, but not actually working!

The first problem is water ingress. It’s absolutely pouring in somewhere in the back (well, the front too to a lesser extent) and is pooling in the rear footwell. Sadly I discovered this after the rear seat had been folded for several weeks – the rear seat base then acted like a sponge and soaked up the icky water. Mould is everywhere and I’m feeling a bit disheartened. I shall have to go leak checking and I urgently desire the return of my garage! (still full of building materials although much less so than it was).

I’m sort of used to leaky vehicles though. The Mini and 2CV are both as water-tight as a tea bag. Thing is, it’s easy to remove the carpet/mat in that pair so the water isn’t held against the floor. Not so the BX, though the carpet is so full of holes that it ideally needs replacing anyway.

The second and rather more serious issue is that the BX isn’t currently working at all. For some time I’ve felt that there’s probably an air leak in the fuel system as it feels down on power. Now though, it’s so bad that there’s no chance of starting it unless you do a LOT of priming beforehand. After a struggle lasting the best part of an hour, I eventually got it to run the other day. Most people would consider this less than ideal.

I need to rig up some fuel pipe to allow me to gradually bypass different bits of the fuel system. I’ve been meaning to do it for ages, but I guess my hand has been forced now. Thankfully my back injury is easing after wrenching it while fixing the Maverick’s brakes. It’s a good job that my flexible working hours allow plenty of tinkering time and hopefully I’ll get the garage back soon, so I can tinker whatever the weather.

Project Budget 4×4: Off the tarmac at last!

I didn’t actually set off from home with the intention of tackling some local byways, but found myself in Nant-y-Moch. I’d gone for a drive primarily to get some new photos of the Maverick and also to help the new brake pads and discs bed in. The Nant-y-Moch area has many byways, though still some idiots insist on heading off-piste. I always stick to the routes signposted by Tread Lightly as I consider myself a responsible 4×4 owner.

On the drive over there, while I checked that my injured back was up to it, I began to compare the Maverick to the Range Rover I owned last year. The Range Rover was the first European 4×4 that made any attempt to behave like a car. It was quick, comfortable and handled well. That was by the standards of 1970 though, and by 2011, my 20 year old Rangie felt far too much like a wallowy barge.

The Maverick behaves much more neatly, with controlled bodyroll and a surprisingly comfortable ride for such a short 4×4 – though it can’t match the Rangie for sheer comfort. It beats it hands down for handling though, with a delightfully sharp turn in. You do have to be careful though. It’s rear wheel drive only on the road, with a limited slip differential and the short-wheelbase combining to make a spin an easy possibility if you aren’t careful. I am careful, but I do bear it in mind.

After a pause for photos, I decided to tackle one of the Nant-y-Moch lanes. I know it pretty well, so I knew that there shouldn’t be anything too challenging. Heading away from tarmac on your own is always a risk though, especially in a new vehicle.

The Maverick tackles a Nant-y-Moch byway

Once on to the rock and gravel track, I dropped it into 4-wheel drive and the low ratio gearbox. That gives greater control and as this lane is mainly rocky, and I was not wanting to damage my back, I would be travelling slowly. Initial impressions were good. While the ride was firmer, I wasn’t in any pain and a few tricky sections were tackled without a lack of traction.

Pictured is a sinuous, rocky climb up a very narrow passage. The Maverick seemed to be handling this fine, and while the petrol engine lacked the lugging torque of the Range Rover’s diesel, it was making light work of this. All good.

Then I got stuck. One very rocky section required maximum flex from the suspension. I hadn’t considered that it would struggle here as the Range Rover just plodded through here using its massive axle articulation to keep all wheels on the ground. The Maverick came to a wheel-spinning halt. I tried a bigger dose of power, but it was no good. No traction here, despite that limited-slip rear diff.

The only option was to reverse. This is the good thing about getting stuck on an incline. It’s usually quite easy to get yourself moving again. I then tackled the section with more momentum, in low second. This time – and no doubt with at least one wheel waving in the air – it cleared the obstacle. Phew!

For a modern 4×4, the Maverick actually has pretty decent axle articulation, but chatting with friends on the Nissan 4×4 Owners Club, it seems likely that the rear anti-roll bar is hampering flexibility. The advice is to remove it, but I shall consider this decision for a little longer yet.

There then followed some icy fording sections, reminding me that it had been very cold out this way recently. Thankfully the depths were not an issue and I was soon able to return to the beaten track once more.

So, there we have it. My first off-road spell and I’m pretty impressed. It struggled with axle articulation, as I suspected it might do, but I did not get irretrievably stuck and it felt very capable. A longer, more challenging route will be attempted as part of a group this coming weekend. I shall report back.

Project BX: Roadtrip 2

Enough with all this 4×4 talk. It has distracted me from the shed of dread. The BX hasn’t had an awful lot of use over the winter. It started running really badly, and the power steering became all intermittent with its assisting. Believe me, this makes cornering far more interesting than it should be!

The running issues seem to have resolved themselves, though she’s still down on power. The power steering seems to have been remedied by changing the LHM and cleaning the filters. This is the lifeblood of the BX, so this is rather like refreshing the blood and clearing out the arteries. Seems to have done the trick, though some minor hydraulic issues remain.

The shambolic BX visits the car that donated its doors

I needed to get to Derbyshire to collect some replacement doors and seats for the BX. I was worried about how I’d get there, but a long run the weekend before departure renewed my faith in the BX. Yes, it has its issues, but surely it wouldn’t let me down?

Come the morning of departure and she let me down. The driver’s door latch froze open, so I couldn’t close the door. I didn’t really fancy trying to strip the mechanism down if it was cold enough to do that, so I decided to take my Ford Maverick. Mistake. While this at least got me off the driveway, after a few miles, it began misfiring and the brakes started making horrible noises. Back home I went.

By now, the BX lock had unfrozen, so I decided to go in this after all, albeit now 2hrs later than planned. That was largely due to the need to de-ice the inside. Once free of ice, I was away. The power thing isn’t too much of a problem. Sure, acceleration is laughably slow, but then even a healthy 1.9 diesel BX can be embarrassed by modern turbo diesels. It didn’t want to pull beyond 3000rpm really, but that’s ok, as there’s a good spread of torque beneath this. Progress was still swift (or as swift as it can be on truck and tractor-heavy trunk roads in Wales) and when we eventually reached Shrewsbury and the novelty of dual carriageway, the BX just about managed to clock 70mph.

I was bloody freezing though and a quick under-bonnet inspection revealed a top hose that was very much not warm. Looks like a new thermostat is needed then. At least the big climb out of Shrewsbury on the A5 got some heat into the engine – and the interior! My chilly state was not aided by door and window seals which are absolutely knackered. Ventilation was not an issue.

Yet despite being far from healthy, the BX plodded on. The ride was still comfortable, the handling still excellent and the brakes absolutely superb. Few things stop like a hydraulic Citroen. Sadly, the impressive brakes were also creating a rather irritating chirrup at speed. I suspect one of the front calipers is binding, just enough to cause a squeak, but happily not enough to cause massive heat build up. Seized calipers can be dangerous.

I arrived in Derbyshire at 2pm, five hours after I first attempted to leave the house. The capacious rear of the BX easily swallowed up a rear seat, two front seats and three doors gifted by a kindly fellow BX Club member. He’ll be putting better doors on his own Mk1 project. After (non)quality nosh from a greasy spoon (which was perfect to be honest!) I set off homeward at about half-past four. The next three hours were pretty tedious, and dark. The only dashboard illumination that actually works on the BX is, usefully, the speedometer – a rotating drum that makes me smile every time I look at it. How Citroen to have the numbers move! The main beam is operated by clicking the left-hand ‘pod’ at the side of the steering wheel. Seems odd, but works very well.

So, the shambolic BX managed another 260 miles and now has more parts to help further its own revival. There’s talk of a trip to Cornwall at some point in the next few months. Wonder if the BX will be the tool for the job…

Project: Budget 4×4. Hiccups

There is always a danger when you buy at the bottom of the market, especially when you do so sight unseen!

Brake issues strike the Budget 4x4

The Maverick has a brake issue, that wasn’t revealed until long after I’d paid my money and got home. In fact, the problems started when I went and bought some new tyres. Two of the wheelnuts on one rear wheel were missing! I opted to take the spare wheel off the rear door and stash it inside so I could safely make it home. The owner of our local hotel has a Terrano that’s going to be scrapped, so I was able to pinch the nuts. Thanks to the Hafod Hotel! This hotel is also responsible for supplying our wood burning stove. Lovely people. They also have beds and a bar, providing rather more traditional hotel services!

I decided that the poor handbrake needed attention on the Maverick, as it resolutely refused to hold the car on the slope our driveway has as it joins the road. I’m a fully signed up member of the Nissan Owners Club – remember that my Ford is entirely Nissan beyond the badge – and downloaded a useful guide on how to adjust your handbrake. This was delightfully simple to do. You remove the centre console, which is held by four screws (you can leave in situ and get under it, but it’s easier with it out of the way). This enables you to slacken the handbrake cable, so you can easily remove the rear drums. These are self-adjusting (ha!) but the trick is to tweak them up until you can just get the shoes on. All well and good. Pump the footbrake a few times, then check they aren’t binding. While the back end of the truck was safely and securely raised, I decided it’d be fun to put it in gear and really get the rear axle spinning. It’s a good way of checking the brakes work! Sure enough, a slight tug on the handbrake and it stalled. Excellent. the footbrake however did absolutely nothing at all. Hmmm. That’s not right. I repeated my adjustment procedure to make sure I hadn’t got something badly wrong. Nope. Handbrake was working fine and a test drive revealed that it (just about) held it on the steep slope.

So it seems the rear brakes are not working at all when operated by the footbrake. This is a dual circuit system (front/rear) so suspicion is focusing on the master cylinder at the moment, though the clearly-very-seized bleed screw on the top of the rear load compensating valve is a cause for concern. The rear pipes have all been removed, but if there’s air trapped here, the brakes will not work.

Investigations are continuing. Incidentally, the new tyres cost £150 fully inclusive, with another £60 (!) spent on the necessary fluids for a service – including 3-litres of Limited Slip Differential oil for the back axle. Another £15 has been spent on other service items – plugs and filters – bringing total expenditure so far up to £725. Still some room for whatever brake parts are necessary within my £800 budget.

I’m not too disheartened at this stage. Without a rolling road, it’s nigh on impossible to check whether the rear brakes are working on a car as the fronts do most of the stopping. When you buy cheap, you always run the risk of there being issues – there almost always are. I’ve spent a lot of time crawling around beneath my new purchase and I’m pleased to note that it is very solid. I may need to buy some anti-corrosion products to make sure it stays that way…

Project: Budget 4×4

After the massive enjoyment factor delivered by my Range Rover last year, I decided I just had to get another 4×4. You may recall that the Rangie had to go due to a heater problem and the onset of winter. I’m still not sure it was the right decision, but too late now…

After anxiously enjoying a mild winter, that has generally failed to deliver OMG SNO KAOS thus far, I felt it was time to get another 4×4. A sensible person would wait until March, because 4×4 prices tend to slump as the weather gets milder. Not me though. I reckoned that if I was lucky, I’d grab a bargain despite the season. I was helped by mild conditions that have left people less desperate to get a 4×4 themselves.

Ebay is just one tool for finding a car. I’d also gone along to a Brightwells 4×4 auction for a magazine feature (to be featured later in the year in 4×4 Magazine – another reason to get a 4×4 again!), and watched the bidding with interest. Very little was coming into my meagre budget in either avenue, though perusing many classifieds sites left me in hope that I could achieve a purchase. The question was what do I go for?

I decided I didn’t much care as long as it was within budget, and this technique can be useful. I still drew up a short list. I decided I wanted reliability, solidity, a low-range gearbox and something that wouldn’t be horrific on the road. Mitsubishi Pajeros were an early contender, but they’re not as reliable as you may think. Both 2.5 (head gaskets) and 2.8 (cracked heads) have their issues, and they’re a bit blingy. Vauxhall Fronteras looked to fit the bill, but they’ve always been a bit agricultural, and they’ve had some poor engines fitted over the years.

A forgotten vehicle is the Ford Maverick, also known as the Nissan Terrano II. In fact, Ford’s input was a heap of cash and a box of blue oval badges, so the design is 100% Nissan, down to the engines and the factory they were built in – Nissan’s Spanish one. I’d never driven one, but they were well regarded when new for good road manners and decent off-road behaviour – the latter due to low ratio gears, a separate chassis, good ground clearance and a limited slip rear differential. I began to cast around for an example and had a look on Ebay. I was surprised to find one up for auction in Swansea. It had two minutes to go but hadn’t managed to attract an opening bid of £500. This despite MOT and Tax. Sure, the pictures weren’t brilliant and the text ran to an entire 74 words, but surely this was a bargain? I clicked ‘bid’ and began to very much hope so!

I didn’t have long to wait to see if anyone else would bid. No-one did. I was the winner! Now the anxiety really began to kick in. I’d not bought a car blind since our Mini in 2006. It’s generally a bad idea I think, but 2 minutes didn’t give me time to drive to Swansea and back. I had to be brave.

New purchase seems actually quite good...

I also had to plan how I’d get there. Public transport in Wales is very hit and miss and Arriva didn’t really help by refusing to indicate what their bus fares were. Happily, a friend of a friend offered me a lift for fuel money. A lot easier, even if it was in a Vauxhall Tigra (not a bad little car really, bar the horrific ride). There were issues getting hold of my money (thanks to banks) but eventually the amount of £500 was acquired and I could go buy a car.

On arrival, it certainly looked good. There was a dent (as shown on Ebay) below the left-hand rear side window, and a few scratches, but otherwise all was well. It started first turn of the key, ran smoothly and a quick test drive failed to reveal anything suspicious. Cash was handed over, the V5 was signed and we were on our way. After a cup of tea… (some sellers are very nice!)

I really wanted a Maverick or Terrano with the excellent 2.7 Turbo Diesel engine, but this £500 Maverick had to make do with the Nissan 2.4-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine. That means torque is not exactly prodigious, but it’s possible to make good progress without having to wring its neck. In fact, my pal in the Tigra was surprised at how quick it could be – though that’s often said of people trying to keep up with me in the 2CV as well. It’s not what you’ve got…

Not that I was hurtling into bends with reckless abandon. You can’t help feeling that it’s going to fall over if you really push it, though I’m sure it’s more stable than it appears. Certainly, I was able to push on a bit later in the journey, encouraged by accurate steering and reassuring grip.

The ride was a touch bouncy, but not as bad as I expected. Sure, it’s some way short of Range Rover composure, but then it handles far less like a wallowy barge. One real surprise is how tight the turning circle it is, especially after a day behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Delica L400! (see separate Blog once I’ve written it…). The gearchange is as I like it. Very tight but quite clunky, as if you can feel the cogs merging when you change.

In fact, the only downside was very squeaky windscreen wipers. They were horrific! Happily I cured them with some spray grease when I got home.

There are some other minor grumbles, but way fewer than you might expect of a cheap ‘banger’ such as this. Some interior trim is broken and the electric windows are both slow. More grease should help here. I’m also slightly concerned at the lack of a ‘following’ for these vehicles. Forum help and advice is never in short supply if you own a Range Rover or Pajero.

I reckon it might just be the perfect car for me at the moment though. I look forward to putting it through its paces off-road!

Is it too much to ask?

For some years now, I’ve revelled in the world of bangernomics. Sure, I’ve had moments of grimness. A Volvo 740 that had a knackered idle control valve and occasionally dumped loads of rainwater on my other half’s pretty and also quite angry head, an Austin Metro that dropped a valve and a Citroen BX 16 valve that managed to be as quick as it was awful – and it was very quick. However, my rule has been to make sure that I have plenty of motors about the place. That way, I’m sure to get to where I want to be.

Below is a typical shot of how the fleet looked a few years ago.

Rather too many cars (two are not visible in this shot!)

The Honda Civic cost me £195, the Volvo £150 and in the garage is a ‘free’ Dyane, while a ‘free’ and also dead Metro lurks out of shot behind the 2CV. Seven vehicles, five of which were running. If I needed to get somewhere, I knew I could. In fact, the little Honda was a superb car which, if it was not horribly rotten, I would probably have owned a lot longer.

I seem to have got something horribly wrong at the moment though. I’m down to four cars, and only two of them are behaving, one of which is a Mini that I don’t like driving and therefore doesn’t really count (well, it is my wife’s car really). The Peugeot 309 is proving to be a poor buying decision. I was meant to be replacing the complexity of the Rover 75 with the joyful simplicity of the almost-Talbot. Yet instead, I’ve just replaced one problem with another – albeit scoring a decent hit of cash in the exchange.

The BX is just not usable at the moment. That’s fair enough. I have to keep reminding myself that I got it road legal to make it easier to get work carried out on it. Much easier if you can drive the car to the various places it needs to be for work to be carried out. It’s a long term project. Fair enough.

The Peugeot is the problem. It should be the load bearer, eating up the miles and saving me from having to service the 2CV every five minutes (grease every 1000 miles, service with oil change every 3000). It should also be the dependable motor that I can use when there’s crap weather and lots of salt about. It has pretty much categorically failed and after refusing to start this morning, left me with no option but to use the 2CV for a quick 130 mile round trip. It’s very frustrating because once started, it does a reasonable job of doing what I need of it. But starting it is the problem! I simply cannot find the right spot for the choke to be at. Too much and it won’t fire at all. Not enough and it’ll splutter and that’ll be it. Anywhere in the middle can give either result! It’s ridiculous. The 2Cv and Mini have a manual choke and behave themselves entirely. How can it be so wrong on a car dating from 1991?! Especially as the carburettor is new and also fitted with anti-tamper screws to stop anyone mucking it up. Perhaps that’s the problem. Perhaps the anti-tamper stuff needs tampering with?

Whatever. I’m now lumbered with recalcitrant Peugeot (which wasn’t even built in Coventry, it’s French!) and selling it is not going to be very easy. I understand the going rate for scrap is quite good at the moment though. Do you think the bloke in charge of the big claw will let me use it?

Living with a car nut (sorry dear wife!)

The best thing about being me is that I don’t have to be married to me. It can’t be easy and I’m very grateful that my lovely wife of 5-and-a-half years (ooh, hope I’ve got that right!) still considers me a decent bet.

I was very honest in describing myself when we first met. I did mention that I quite liked cars. At first, Rachel worried that I might be one of those boy racer types – I had short hair and a trendy appearance (it was only an appearance) at the time. However, she then discovered that my dearest little car was a 2CV, and she thought this was ok. The 2CV was less gracious and spat her doorhandle out when her and Rachel met for the first time. Cars eh?

Sadly though, my obsession with cars does not stop with quirky little French peasant wagons. If it’s got wheels, I want to know more about it and, preferably, drive it too. Or maybe own it. A quick tot-up reveals that I’ve bought 32 cars since our relationship began in 2003. That’s 3.8 a year, or one every three-and-a-bit months. While I don’t pretend to be anywhere near as bad as some (I’m nowhere near 100 cars owned in my lifetime yet, but probably well over 50) it’s a few more than most sensible people get through.

"Gawd. How am I going to explain this latest wreck?"

The thrill of purchasing and experiencing a new car is a massive buzz, whether it’s a few grand’s worth of nearly-new Peugeot (I’m glad those hideously expensive days are gone!) or a couple of hundred quid banger. The problem is, within weeks – or even sometimes days – of buying a car, the thrill has worn off and I’m back on Ebay and http://www.carandclassic.co.uk trying to find the holy grail once more. This can make me a real pain in the arse to live with, especially as I’ll get really excited about stuff that’s entirely unsuitable. Just before Christmas, I was more excited than most Santa-expecting kiddies because I’d decided that I NEEDED to buy a 2cv-based Manx kit car. Well, it seemed a bargain at £400. My wife patiently pointed out that buying a non-running car with a knackered wiring loom and, given that we live in Wales, a car that seemed to have neither roof nor doors was perhaps not the best idea. She was right. I went looking for a Vauxhall Frontera instead (mark my words, I will own one soon) which I still can’t afford.

Then there’s the state of the house. Bits of car manage to get in all sorts of places. My attempts to hide a Citroen BX estate tailgate in the conservatory didn’t entirely succeed and every one of our store rooms has lumps of car in them that cause much frustration. However, Rachel puts up with all this and even recycles some bits cleverly. The Range Rover headlining card proved ideal for cutting into strips to hold up insulation…

There is also the ongoing problem of car logistics. “Um, I’ve bought a Range Rover. Can you drive me down to Carmarthenshire to collect it?” Or I’ll need taking to a garage to pick-up a car that’s had work carried out. Or I’ll need someone to wait in for a package of yet more car bits. Or “I know stuff needs planting in the garden, but can you just help me get this bolt into this hole?”

Rachel has also suffered me selling her car (a truly shambolic Citroen AX) on Ebay. I replaced it with a rather lovely Rover 400, but Rachel didn’t like the size. Or the power steering. Or the electrically operated stuff. Or the heavy clutch. But mainly the size (she would be trying to park at a crowded station or even the streets of Oxford at the time). I managed to reclaim some Brownie points by flogging the Rover for a profit and then finding a nice little Mini, which did a rather better job of things and is still on the fleet today. Clearly this all went well as Rachel then married me. Sod a wedding ring. Buy a Mini instead!

That’s another thing. Holidays. It’s hard to have one that doesn’t have car involvement. In 2010, we took the 2CV to Switzerland. In 2009, we took the 2CV to Switzerland. In 2008, we took the 2CV all around the UK (3500 miles). In 2007, we didn’t take the 2CV anywhere. No, we took a Citroen H van to Sweden (3100 miles). That was our delayed honeymoon because in 2006 when we actually got married, we took the 2CV to Cornwall…

My wife wonders why she married a car nut... especially one who gets stuck so often!

Then there’s silly antics. I have truly lost count of the amount of times I’ve gone off-roading in the 2CV and needed a push from a frankly unamused wife. I’ve learnt my lesson. I now go off-roading in the 2CV on my own as I’d rather face a walk to find a friendly farmer than risk causing more marital strife.

Thankfully, I do have interests other than cars, and these lie along similar lines to Rachel. I’d hate you to think we have nothing in common and that absolutely everything we do is car related. It’s not. Quite… I just don’t write about the other interests in this car blog as it seems a bit daft. Therefore, please don’t start writing me angry letters about how I mistreat my poor good lady. It’s her fault for once saying I could own as many cars as I like as long as it doesn’t involve borrowing money. Frankly, that’s a very tempting challenge…

It’s all good though. Our mutual love of simple, basic cars has had a profound effect on our lives. We now have a simple, basic life and despite owning 2Cvs since I was 18, I’ve never been closer to being a proper hippy.

See? She's as bad as me really! (um, well, er, a bit)

Maintaining momentum

The trickiest thing with any project is maintaining momentum. How often do you see the immortal words “unfinished restoration” accompanying a classified advert? Keeping a positive frame of mind can be very difficult, especially when tackling bodywork. What seemed achievable when the car was complete may seem horrifically daunting once you start digging into the structure and discovering just how rampant the rot is.

BX is coming along, but a long way from finished

Mechanical overhauls can be a challenge too. You fix one thing and immediately, something else goes wrong.

I thought that tackling my Citroen BX Mk1 project as a rolling restoration was the way to go. I therefore focussed on getting it back on the road as a first step. It didn’t have significant corrosion in key areas and seemed mechanically able. It was still pleasing that it did get an MOT pass. Hoorah! However, I now wonder whether I’ve shot the gun so to speak. Yes, it may be on the road but it has so many minor issues that perhaps it shouldn’t be. Would it not have been better to work through some more of these problems first?

That’s how it feels at the moment as while I can drive the car, I get little pleasure from doing so. The engine is down on power, the hydraulics are not working entirely as they should, the windscreen wiper mechanism is so worn that the bodywork gets wiped/thumped, the front passenger door doesn’t really want to open, the heater doesn’t work apart from on its fastest setting, the indicator relay is a bit slow and ideally needs replacing, the rear wiper/HRW are not connected up and three of the tyres have slow punctures. I could go on but I won’t for fear of putting myself into a depression.

The problem is, I love driving and a properly sorted BX – even a 1.9 non-turbo diesel – is a joy to drive. Mine just isn’t and getting the problems sorted seems at this stage both difficult and expensive.

This is when project motivation can begin to stall. The end cannot be seen and it all starts to feel rather futile. With this one, there’s the added element of rarity. Sometimes that’s a pressure I don’t enjoy at all.

Oddly, I always seem to feel low just after a major milestone has been achieved. Perhaps that’s because while there’s celebration for one small task completed, there are so many more that need sorting!

Winter Blunderland

I must admit that winter is not my favourite season. Yes, occasionally it gets livened up by having to remember how to drive in ice and snow, but generally, it’s cold, miserable and a dreadful time to be working on the car. Especially when you’ve lost the use of your garage due to an ongoing heating project on your home. We should have got that finished BEFORE winter really, but we didn’t. Bother.

Cars don’t enjoy winter either. They don’t seem quite so keen to fire into life, leak water everywhere (yes, every single one of our cars is as watertight as a paper teapot) and the regular attention that they generally like to receive doesn’t happen because frankly the idea of working on cars at this time of year, when it’s dark and damp and miserable is not really what I’d call appealing.

Mix in those big yellow trucks that throw rot-causing salt at them and you can see why cars would rather snuggle up in a nice, warm garage. In fact, last winter I semi-stripped a 2CV engine and fitted to Elly my 2CV. Yes, I was cold at times but working in the garage was absolute bliss.

Not as dodgy as it looks. Working in a warm(ish) garage

This winter, the jobs have just ended up getting ignored. The 2CV really needs a service. The Mini really needs a service. The BX has a To Do list as long as several arms. The Peugeot needs a degree of fettling. Yet, having been treated to a garage, now it’s out of use I find myself not doing very many of the jobs at all. I just about forced myself to grease up the 2CV’s suspension the other day, and I encouraged myself to tackle a problem with the Peugeot’s exhaust – largely because it had fallen off and I really had to. It’s not good enough really. The 2CV has a very lumpy idle at the moment, caused most likely the exceedingly old spark plugs that are currently fitted. I’ve a feeling that one of them came with a cylinder head I fitted, so gawd knows how old that is.

What makes winter even more unbearable is that driving is no frequently not at all fun. First, you need to try and demist the thing – this winter has boasted some of that super-steam up effect that makes it look like your car has been parked in a stream for several days. The BX and Peugeot have typical French, asthmatic heater blowers. The Mini has a heater blower that just makes more noise than not having it switched on and the 2CV’s heater blower is the engine fan, so revs are needed to clear the screen. Then there’s the aforementioned leakage issue. The Mini and BX have soaking carpets. The 2CV leaks water straight into my shoes. The Peugeot prefers to dump it straight onto your head.

The roads aren’t fun either, being coated in greasy mud and horrible salt. It’s dark too much of the time as well. In short, I’m fed up and enjoying the fact that very slightly, the days are once more getting longer. With winter banished – and I’m very aware that we’ve got a good couple of months to go – I can start getting on top of the fleet once more AND start enjoying time at the wheel again.

Next winter, I just plan to hibernate from about mid-November. The big bonus there is that it’s a good way of avoiding bloody Christmas songs.

Happy New Year. Sort of.

HubNut – celebrating the average!