Classic Jalopy Blog

MB Spares and Service Clearance Sale 3

MB Spares and Service Clearance Sale

Today I traveled down to Canberra for the MB Spares and Service used parts clearance sale.   I managed to score a few bargains that will hopefully come in handy in years to come. MB Spares and Service closed down the spares side of their business a couple of years back to focus on the service and restoration.    The spares business catered for both...

2019 Linnwood House Car Show 1

2019 Linnwood House Car Show

Today I attended the Linnwood house car show.   In prior years, this was focused around the Rolls Royce display, but this year it was more of a general car show.   I like this car show as it is informal, no marshals, security guards or crowds.   Just rock up with your car and park in the vast grounds outside the historic house. This year the...

Citroen DS electric cooling fan 1

Citroen DS electric cooling fan

The Citroen DS cooling system is somewhat unique in that it relies almost exclusively on pulling air through ducting to cool the radiator.   Most cars have a grille where the faster the car moves, the more air is pushed over the radiator.   On modern cars this is the grille below the bumper.  It is only at idle they only rely on pulling air through...

Citroen DS Window rubbers and felts 0

Citroen DS Window rubbers and felts

After my Citroen DS was painted, there were a couple of cosmetic things wrong with the car that were far more noticeable.   One of them was the DS window rubbers and felts.    The previous owner had used generic units, and they didn’t fit all that well.   Proper reproduction units are available, which are the right size and use the standard mounting points. I...

Speedometer Ratio Box 0

Speedometer Ratio Box

I changed the differential ratio of my E-Type about two years ago.    My car was first delivered in the USA, so it came standard with  3.54 ratio.    Most of the 4.2 cars were standard with 3.07.    When the car was restored in the 90’s, it was converted to 3.07.   However, the previous owner converted it back to 3.54.   My conversion put...

Yet another way of attaching NSW Historic Plates 0

Yet another way of attaching NSW Historic Plates

After using blank plates as a way of attaching NSW Historic Plates on the 450SLC and the 560SEC, the adapter I fabricated for the 250SE was looking rather shoddy.   I made it myself out of aluminium.   I used thin aluminium to make it easier to cut.   The thin aluminium bent easily and now had creases. I liked how using the blank German plate filled...

450SLC Dragging rear brakes – part 1 2

450SLC Dragging rear brakes – part 1

For the last couple of years I have noticed a noise from the rear of the 450SLC while driving.   At first I thought it might be a wheel bearing or some kind of bushing.   I mentioned it to my mechanic and he took and look and it wasn’t any of those things. Last time I took the car on a longer drive, the noise...

MBCNSW Dyno Day 1

MBCNSW Dyno Day

The MBCNSW held a tech day at a dyno equipped performance shop today.   I was keen to attend as I wanted to understand how much power my ECE 560SEC is making.   Geting dyno time independently can be expensive, but through the club day it was very affordable.   The tech day was held at SR Performance at Wolli Creek. On the Dyno, the following cars...

BMW E39 Garage Chair 1

BMW E39 Garage Chair

I’ve had two BMW E39 front seats in the garage for a couple of years.   My brother wrote off his 1999 BMW 523i a couple of years back.   He was originally going to do something with the seats, but since moved interstate.     I’ve always thought that one of them would make a great garage chair.   The main downside is they are immensely heavy. ...

Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio update 6

Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio update

A couple of weeks ago I installed the Classic Auto Sound Becker Tribute Radio in my 250SE.   I’m really happy with it, it worked really well on my recent drive down to Canberra.   One of the only things I thought could have been improved on the radio was the buttons were unlabeled.   The real radios had LMKUU buttons.   Classic Auto Sound, who build these...

NSW Historic Plate Adapter 2

NSW Historic Plate Adapter

It was just announced that the NSW 60 day logbook ‘trial’ has been made permanent.   This is great news as its a really good system.  The two minor drawbacks – the amount of paperwork and the size of the plates.   The plates are tiny and really ugly.  They are so small that they don’t line up with the mounting holes of nearly any car. ...

Retrosound Model 2 Repair 2

Retrosound Model 2 Repair

The Retrosound Model 2 radio in my Citroen DS has been playing up.   It would randomly adjust the volume on its own, mostly down.   The practical effect of this was not being able to listen to the radio.   A while back I removed the face of the radio to take a look and the wire from the volume knob to the radio looked chafed. ...

2019 ACT German Car Show 2

2019 ACT German Car Show

This weekend I traveled to Canberra for 2019 ACT German Car Show.   I’ve been to this show a few times before (2013, 2015, 2017), but this is the first time I have formally entered a car.    In prior years I have driven down on the day and arrived around 11ish to see the show for an hour or so.   This year I decided...

2019 British Car Show, Sydney 2

2019 British Car Show, Sydney

Yesterday I attended the 2019 British Car Show at the Kings School.   This is still, in my opinion, the premier car show in Sydney each year.    It was a lovely day, with summer like weather and a big turn out of cars. I didn’t display a car this year.   Last year, I displayed my E-Type.   However,  the Jaguars now come in a different...

M117 lower oil pan replacement 4

M117 lower oil pan replacement

One of the things I noticed when I first changed the oil on my 560SEC was the dent in the lower oil pan.   Presumably it hit a curb or rock at some point.    It was also leaking.   the dent was likely too small to interfere with the oil pump, or oil pickup but I wanted to be sure.   The M117 lower oil pan...

Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio part 2 1

Classic Auto Sound Becker tribute radio part 2

Today I completed the install of the Classic Auto Sound Becker Tribute.   In the first part, I removed the old Clarion, and installed the the Retrosound wiring harness.   I also tested the radio and it was working fine.   The new radio looks great and is a huge improvement over the Clarion CD player. Installation Step 4:  Convert the Becker Tribute radio to DIN At...

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