A Highland Z3 1.9 roadster

[Pls]

@Pls Weather was horrid over the weekend. Unhappy zedding and steamy windows. Need some guttering on my Z to get rid off all the water. Winter prep in August.

I know, much of the barley crop in the field next to us has been flattened by the rain, even though it's a short stem hardy variety chosen for the Highlands. Last week the old garage roof leaked in a new place - over the car So now there's a plastic Roses chocolate box sitting on a polishing cloth on the bonnet with tissues in it to prevent splashes! Fortunately it's not over the hood.

Seems like summer is in short supply all round Paul.

Tony.

Indeed. Mind you, we manage to get out with the hood down most days, you know, when we run out of milk, or need to buy a paintbrush, or a pot of jam, or some stamps ...... there's always something one has to go and get!

Cheers

Paul

 

[t-tony]

Agreed mate, it's amazing how many times a week there are emergencies that require the Zed to come out of the garage. It'll only be a couple of months and I'll be thinking about putting winter wheels and tyres back on before they start using salt .

Tony.

 

[Pls]

You never know, we might get an Indian summer!

 

[t-tony]

I'm all for that mate, starting beginning of September would suit me down to the ground

Tony.

 

[Pls]

That'd be good for the Scottish Run !

 

[t-tony]

It would mate, and for our little meet and cruise on Sept. 08th. too.

Tony.

 

[Pls]

Only teasing, I knew that's what you meant!

 

[t-tony]

We got one of yous guys from North of the Border coming down. One day we're going to get up to Scotland and enjoy your lovely countryside mate.

Tony.

ps. My wife is on "a few" Orlando forums and one of her mates surprised us by turning up at out place in Kissimmee this spring and Shirl is dying to return the favour (shock) as he answers his front door.

 

[Pls]

If you do come up this way, make sure to let us know and we can Zed around some glens!

 

[t-tony]

I'm sure it will happen mate, and, yes, I'll let you know.

Tony.

 

[Pls]

More progress on the polishing and road testing fronts today. I gave the car a wash with some Simoniz shampoo and wax I've had a while, and some Autoglym Super Resin Polish that I've had even longer. When they're used up, I'll decide what products to go for. Anyway, we then went out for a run (we needed some sugar soap for decorating).



First stop was a place we'd read about and wanted to see for ourselves - the new development on the Earl of Moray's estate, at Tornagrain. Ben Pentreath is the architect of this new town between Inverness and Nairn, planned to provide 5000 new homes over the next 40-50 years, complete with high street, shops, parks and so on, in the old fashioned urban way, and all using traditional Scottish architecture and materials but in a modern context.



The whole town is being built from scratch, all the buildings are new.



The three storey buildings are flats, starting at £k137 for a 2 bedroom one.
With the car running like a bird, we then stopped off for a coffee at Cawdor village, near the castle.



After which we did our shopping in Inverness, where some essentials were also collected for dealing with one or two rather ratty little corners on some body panels.



Just until I've saved up for some pristine replacement panels. One day ...

And some nice stickers arrived today from @BMBabe, so they'll need to go on too.

Cheers

Paul

 

[BMBabe]

Oh wow that town looks amazing
New builds built to look old stunning

 

[Pls]

Yes it's really something special. It will be interesting to see how it develops over the years.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Paul H]

Beautiful part of the world where you are, I was married in wester ross, I still make it back every Easter.

Your really putting a shift in bringing this car back to life, great thread.

 

[Pls]

Thanks @Paul H. We love the area - Sara's Dad grew up in Avoch, we got married a couple of miles away, and we've bought our lair close by in a medieval churchyard! And my car is certainly providing plenty of enjoyment!

Today I went over to our Z3 shed, where Ray had sprayed his bonnet and front bumper, ending up with a coat of two pack lacquer.



Some more work will be required, but it's coming along, and will improve the look of the damaged paintwork.





Ray's car will be in for it's MOT shortly, getting it back on the road after more than a year and enabling a bit of joint zedding.



The brake disks were cleaned of rust by bolting them on to the rear axle back to front, and spinning them with the engine, the car up on stands, and applying scraping tools. Next up will be draining and refilling the diff and gearbox.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Recently, after getting confused over which way to turn the key in the boot lock, it no longer locks with the central locking any more. Then yesterday I was getting to know the boot interior, and poking the non-working lamp therein, and next time I opened it, the lamp worked. So, loom of doom, I surmised, and read up on the subject.



So, I shan't touch it until I've decided whether to cut back, solder, heat shrink and en-tube the existing wires at zero cost, or purcase the Vemo repair item on eBay:
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/132103355649
at a cost of £37.99. Probably the former.

Anyway, today had to drive up to Brora in Sutherland - we needed a loaf of bread. And the sun was shining. We also wanted to check on the state of the heather too.



We came back through Strath Brora, and stopped for a cuppa.



There were a good number of deer to be seen in the glen, and we watched a golden eagle flying up and down Loch Brora in front of us.

Having stopped off near the Glenmorangie distillery at Tain for the shopping, we came home, having now clocked up 2,000 miles since getting the car two months ago. In the previous ten years it had only covered 16,000 miles in total, out of it's 143,000. But it seems to be relishing its new lease of life.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

So, I had a go at the boot loom today. Having cut away the perishing rubberised canvas covering, all the wires inside around the plastic clip area seemed fine. But as I investigated a bit further along towards the boot lid grommet, two wires showed damage, with their insulation split exposing the wire within. Two of these breaks were right next to each other.



The white one had some strands broken, so I cut it and soldered the ends together having remembered to slip a bit of heat shrink on. The blue one had two bare bits, but none of the strands within were broken, so I just slit a piece of heat shrink and slipped it over for support and covered it with insulating tape (brown, as I have a big roll of it!) I haven't investigated what these two wires are attached to yet, but it all seems to work fine now, and I shan't be worried about a wiring fire, at least in this bit!



Not very elegant, but sturdy! Then, binding the length with tape, I played around with placement until it didn't foul anything when closing, and didn't get a kink in it either.




I'll cover it with some black tube in due course. So, a grateful thanks to all those who have posted their accounts on the subject, without which I wouldn't have had the confidence to attack it. While I was in the boot, I checked the spot welds in the floor, which look fine.



So, now it's off to Avoch for a fish supper by the harbour.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

Yesterday we paid a visit to the Aunt and Uncle who had moved down to Inverness. He used to drive petrol tankers from the '60s on, and has many car stories to tell.



Needless to say, he admired the Z3.

This week has also been MOT time, not for the Z3 but for the old Volvo V70 which failed on Monday. This is relevant because it has provided some good practice for working on the Z3, as the rear brake setup is very similar. So it needed new disks and pads, as well as parking brake shoes.



One of the handbrake cables needed freeing off as well. Having watched various YouTube videos of the jobs, all went well although the Volvo brake shoe retaining springs aren't as well designed as the BMW ones and were extremely fiddly to remove and caused much aggravation! So, it went back in for a retest this afternoon and all is well for another year; so I shan't have to transport bags of cement in the Z3 boot!

Even better, the parts were £115, compared with the garage quote of £310 for the work. That'll pay for Zedding on the Scottish run next month And I now feel more confident of doing the same jobs on the Z3 when it needs doing.

Cheers

Paul

 

[Pls]

More zedding this week, although the weather hasn't been cooperating all the time.



But the contents of my ten year old bottle of Autoglym super resin polish seems to be doing a good job.

One maintenance point I have learnt this week: I snapped a 3/4" to 1/2" drive step down socket adapter trying to get the wheel studs on the Volvo undone by standing on my breaker bar, so I intend on the Z3 to always tighten them correctly with a torque wrench, and to include checking them regularly along with fluid levels etc.

Cheers

Paul

 

[t-tony]

The main thing to keep an eye on Paul is if you have tyres fitted make extra sure that the fitter tightens your wheel bolts correctly as this is the most likely point that they get grossly overtightened.

Tony.