This is probably a wee bit OT but Today I will be mostly driving a....

Great doing something new for the first time, even if it is doing oil and filter, praying you don't have anything seized tight, or a coolant swap, hoping that you don't get and airlock.

Changed a brake servo over the weekend. That went OK, although I havesome side issues involving vacuum hoses, after disturbing the great mash and mess that is the inside of the dashboard.

Coo, well done that man, especially the fettling the autobox part.

great car m8, now go buy the 24v Gsi

Heh, I'd bloody kill myself if I did that. (c: This one's plenty fast enough for me, perhaps in 6 months time eh?

Douglas

hehe, better be quick, nice ones are getting rarer

Doesn't that rather bear out the view that people kill themselves in GSis? Could start looking out for (and saving up for) a Lotus Carlton.

Well done - impressed by changing an autobox, that must've been tricky for a DIY mechanic - car sounds lovely to :)

Nice one! Great feeling when you dont really know what you're doing, but you manage to pull it off anyway. I was beaming when i decided to do the clutch on my car last year without any help from Dad, and then did it in one afternoon! Also helps with your knowledge having everything in pieces and then figuring out how it all goes back together!!!

Enjoy the car!

We changed the disks and pads on my mates Nova (Astra GTE brakes), we also fitted sideskirts, changed the distributor thingy, and did some other random things :) Was a good day - even tho we were working on a Nova.

heh, last time i worked on my mates Nova (well he was on our driveway, i was watching), he jacked up the back and one of the rear springs fell out. tee he he, bloody rust buckets!

so true, I lost my brother early this year and with him went an immaculate example...

I found it a big step ripping my own car apart, other peoples cars are OK (c: But I figured for the money I payed for the car and gearbox I didn't have all that much to lose.

When I got back from the first test drive to find that everything was working I could have genuinely given the first person I saw a big slobbery kiss (glad I didn't, she was mingin').

I changed the gearbox over about 6 days, all my neighbours were rooting for me, it was quite funny, they all wanted a progress report whenever they walked past to their cars or walking their dogs. All these people had memories (some fond and some not I'm sure) of my dad doing stuff like that to his X1/9's, midget, golf GTi and elderly range rover amongst others when I were a nipper.

First truly satisfying thing I've done since I left high school... all of 4 years ago. (c:

The autobox on the carlton is actually pretty self contained, it has oil cooler in, oil cooler out, breather hose, selector linkage and about 5 electrical connector plugs. After that it's 3 nuts on the propshaft and 6 at the front. Piece of piss. Haynes only lied to me 2 or 3 times in about

I also learned how painful it is to have your hand dropped on by a gearbox from about 18inches. Well not so much the pain as how scary it is to be lying on your back under something that weighs more than 1400kg, pinned to the ground by your right hand.

I've done a few other things on mates cars like changing starter motors and disk/pads when my mates have had a better idea of what they are doing. I just pass/hold tools/hit stubborn things with hammers when said mate isnt looking usually.

I'm now a member of the haynes "4 spanner elite". Hurrah!

Douglas

I was in the situation where my clutch had gone, had no money to pay a garage and dint wanna go home with my tail between my legs to get dad to help!

Cool, at least you've got decent neighbours then. Last year we had evil ones that hated us and our cars (mind you there was normally at least one written off/broken car on the driveway, plus 4 or 5 working ones).

RWD cars are quite easy for that sort of stuff. Helped a mate change his Capri's gearbox - couldnt believe how easy it was compared to my FWD 205.

Welcome! But you still have much to learn... ;)