primerastw

[primerastw]

End of the road

The car has been sold about two weeks ago.

The main reasons for selling it were to do with the comfort of the ride. It's basically a sports car built for handling and nice roads.

The roads in the Czech Republic are not at all good with even modern cars struggling to keep the ride settled. With the Primera there was even less of a chance. I did contemplate going for the standard springs but I don't think it would have helped much.

The car has been replaced by a a 2003 VW Phaeton 3.2 VR6 which crucially comes with air suspension. It's also incredibly well made with a real feeling of quality to everything. I may start a blog on this later.

Another problem I had was not having anywhere to work on the car. I have a flat and the car is parked in a busy street. This means that even simple tasks, like cleaning up the steel wheels, means that I have to go a friend's place to do it. This kind of car needs constant attention.

Primera STW 90/200 has gone to a good home in Slovakia. She will be missed.

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I realised that I haven’t uploaded many pics of the outside of the car for a while.

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19th August 2017.Cleaned up my winter wheels today. Hard work but worth the effort! Hopefully, they will survive a couple of winters before needing to be done again. I used a rust resistant paint called Dupli Colour. I might give all the wheels an extra coat as the original paint is so thin that it rusts very easily.

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Strongflex Rear beam mount bushes. 281594B. Will get installed next week.

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New Lower Control Arms and air filter

11th August 2017

The  front of the car the feels really unsettled when driving over bumpy roads. The softer Eibach springs and  Bilstein dampers helped but it’s not quite right. The ball joint on the front right lower control arm was repaired in March 2016 but they somehow had to re-tap the threads and I’ve also had a problem where the front left driveshaft was coming loose and making a ticking noise. Worn bushes on the lower control arms can cause a very unsettled ride on anything other than smooth motorway roads. I will let you all know if there’s a big improvement next week. Update: The new control arms made a huge improvement to the ride quality! If only I'd known I would have changed them years ago. It no longer crashes over bumps and the ride is much smoother. Very pleased with the results.

I have also ordered some red Strongflex rear suspension bushes as there is a knocking noise from the back-right when I turn left over a bumpy road. The yellow ones are too hard and for track use only.

The air filter as you can see definitley needed replacing.

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Cleaned up the rear beam axle

6th August 2017

Cleaned up the rear beam axle. It’s not a perfect job but it will at least slow down the rust.

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Boot repaired again

24th June 2017

Boot has been repaired. That’s it been rear-ended twice now. Let’s hope there will be no more accidents for a while.The boot lid doesn’t quite sit flush but to do so it would have meant removing the damaged, welded section and inserting a new piece of metal along with a new rear bumper and this would have been much more expensive. I just hope that it doesn’t let water in as this can cause rust.

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Worn CV Joint

10th May 2017

There is an odd ticking noise coming from the front left of the car. It means that the CV joint needs replacing. I will probably need to replace the whole driveshaft, which includes the CV joint, because the driveshaft has the rubber weight on it that causes them to snap. I would also like to get the lower control arms replaced as well. Will see how far my money goes on the repairs to the boot.

Update: 24th June 2017

It turns out that the CV joint was actually OK.  The driveshaft was loose. Not sure how that happened but they say it’s been tightened and there is no more ticking noise.

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KV7 Contact

If you are looking for KV7 paint which is almost impossible to find these days, then I have been authorised to provide you with my contact’s email address:

Nas2000@gmx.de

He is based in Germany and is able to mix up new batches of quality KV7 paint himself at a competitive price.

Please, mention this blog when contacting him.

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Car Crash

April 14th 2017

So, this happened less than a month after all of the repairs. A woman driver crashed into the back of my car while I was waiting at a junction. Luckily, the insurance has paid out so I get it repaired. More KV7 paint has been ordered.

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Steering Wheel Reupholstered

February 26th 2017

The black bits are a smooth fine leather while the green bits are made of a coarser and grippier leather which is good for handling and corners.

I’m very pleased with the result. I was expecting them to just fix the worn out top bit but they went ahead and re-did the whole thing.

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KV7 Respray Work

February 2017 Before and after pics of some KV7 repairs. Resprayed rear bumper. Resprayed front bumper. Resprayed around rear lights + installed missing light seals Taped over side-skirt holes and sprayed. Reupholstered the steering wheel. Will add pictures soon. Time for repairs = 2 months. Well worth it :-)

Big thank you to the guys at http://www.autoservis-autosklo-liberec.cz/ who seem to specialise in veteran car repair. Initially, I asked them to just fix the rear-right light area and steering wheel but they went above and beyond the call of duty and carried out much more work (with my consent) than originally planned and somehow making only 1 litre of KV7 paint cover large areas of the car. The missing rear light rubber seals may be a clue as to how water was getting into the car. Will keep an eye on it. Very happy with the results and will be returning to them in the future. Only downside is that the rear-right brake caliper started to leak. Luckily, they managed to repair it but it may need replacing or reconditioning. I’ve also started driving like Miss Daisy although I’m sure that will pass.

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Body Repair

28th December 2016

Took the car to the body repair shop today. Agreed that they would repair the following: 1. Rear-right brake light area. Caused by some old accident. 2. Fill in all of the screw holes in the sills 3. Repair the leather on the steering wheel.

I should get the car back on the 14th January 2017.

So pleased that the body work is finally getting some love.

I hope they do a good job so that the other parts can be fixed up during the year.

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2016 End of year review

December 2016

2015 saw me change the timing chain to then have to change the whole lower engine.

2016 has been busy as well but at least the car hasn’t been out of action for long periods of time. Big items that were replaced: Clutch Dampers Springs Brake discs Brake lines Brake pads 1 litre of KV7 paint

Smaller items: Shorter wheel bolts Oil Battery Wipers Wheel bearing

Plans for 2017: The car is running pretty smoothly as it is, now I just need to focus on tidying it up a bit. AC radiator has a hole and needs replacing Rear window seal has a hole in it and this may be causing dampness under the rear seat. Front window has a chip in it. Once that is done I will take it to have the following fixed: Seal the holes around the bottom of the sills that were drilled for the side-skirts. Fix the boot and rear-light cluster area. Fix the leather seats and steering wheel. Find and eliminate any rust, starting with those rusty winter wheels.

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Brakes fitted

December 2016

Brakes have now been fitted. Still need to bed them in. According to the EBC website, after 160km they will behave like OEM brakes and then after 1600km they will start to behave like performance brakes.

So far, so good. I already feel an improvement in braking response. The selection of components seems to be good and there are no braking noises. Since all of the parts were fitted at once, it’s hard for me to tell if the HEL brake hoses made a difference or the Brembo discs, etc. Together they all seem to work well.

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New oil

November 2016

Checked the oil level and it was nearly at empty so decided to get some Magnatec 5w40. Left it at the car park for 1hr and then checked for drops on the floor, was clean so no major leak. It took 2 litres to top up. Oil purchased for a good price at:  www.olejeobchod.cz

Above: Almost no oil left!

Above, a much needed bottle of oil. This time 5W-40 C3 was recommended by the tool on the Castrol site.

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Brakes arrived

November 2016 Brakes have arrived, will get installed in December. 2x Brembo front discs 2x EBC Yellowstuff brake pads Standard rear discs + pads HEL steel braided brake lines DOT 5.1 brake fluid