MOTOR CHAT

Good news! The Dacia Duster has come to the UK!





New car for wifie, one of the first off the boat. First impressions are excellent, can't argue with the value for money.

Yo, gang, been doing some work on the Gangster/Drug Dealer/CouncilEstateDon, pimp my ride

Rear shockers had been needing done for a while, passed the MOT ok but handling/riding over bumps was wierd, like the rear was moving in a circle if that makes sense :? , quite common on these as they get older apparently.

Driving down to Bristol at the end of the month so had to be done.

Of course crazy just replacing the shocks without renewing the springs and top mounts too so it's one of these jobs where the cost escalates :roll:

Just about the whole of the rear interior had to come out just to get to ................

The top shocker mounts :roll:

Which was actually the easy part, bottom mount needed an hour of violence with a grinder, blow torch, big hammers, verbal abuse etc.

Got there though, got the new shocks and top mounts waiting to go on, just waiting on the springs, should be hopefully be here during the week, and i'll get it built it back up next weekend.



Few weeks ago (when i was in nackered shocker denial ) i fitted some 15mm spacers on the rear so the wheels would fill the arches out (wheels are staggered, wider on the rear anyway).

Worked a treat i think , right rear tyre was scrubbing a bit going round left corners but after a slight adjustment to the return lip (with a fuggin big hammer *) it was fine, was'nt wanting the other arch to feel left out so i adjusted that too

Also, while in mincing about mode i tinted the main beams yellow, did the fogs a while ago, lends the car a French, Continental, sophisticated Gangster/Drug dealer look i think


*Rear arches have surface rust and need work anyway so not the slightest hesitation in giving them a good doing with a hammer

Thought i'd show the reason i've been quite on here lately , as some of you will know i have been considering a Land Rover for a while, realy wanted an Ex-Army light weight but those are hard to find and good ones go for strong money (5-6K, lot of dough for a toy realy), was considering a Series or later Defender, fataly a jacked up Disco apeared in my street parked outside my next door neighbours house, a casual enquiry to his dad if it was for sale, 10 minutes later the beast was in my drive



No doubt about it it's a rough old thing, used and abused, dented and scratched, has been on it's side at Drumclog, but, at least when i park it in the Supermarket people will be avoiding ME :twisted: , will need a new radiator, new tyres (going for bigger MUD terains), oil cooler pipes, brake discs and pads all round, a new exhaust (new full performance system already bought), will be replacing the lights on the roof with big round ones, a 2" body lift (already has a 2" suspension lift), the tubular front bumber is bent to hell so will need a new one.

Anyone who knows these wont be surprised to hear it's a bit rotten, these things rot like mad anyway but it does'nt help that it has been offroaded (up to it's door handles in mud and water), used for puting boats in water etc, has scary rot like this.............



But nothing beyond my capabilities , note anti roll bar, mounting brackets and rear step mount all gone for good (deleting the ARB is perfectly safe and legal, has just made the repairs simpler, as you can see in the pic they were bent anyway, like most things on this truck), all chassis repairs have to be done with 2mm plate and continuous welds.




Rear lower 1/4 were FUBAR so i chopped them off, rear bumper was bashed to hell so thats gone the same way, no need fo the rear step so thats history too.



Will also need a new rear body crossmember, boot floor is pretty rotten but hoping to just patch it up for now and cover it with alloy tread plate.

Car was originaly a 7 seater but will spend the rest of it's life as a two seater (rear seat belt mounts rotten, cut out and replaced wit plain steel repair sections), so will be like a van in the rear (with windows)

Nice one Jimi, my mate use to race a range rover V8 - near winchburgh I think - he eventually used the space in the back you have free'd up to mount the engine, made the jumps a bit more stable.

On a more positive note the Alfa is finally through it's MOT - a rather dodgy replumbing work on the window washers was my final fix. I'm also going to replace the other rear shock as I like to do things like that in pairs, doing the thermostat and there is still a rattle in the front suspension to locate, and a wee bit of paint for the rust at the bottom of the door. Also going to look at fitting a tow bar for the new bike trailer. Oh and I'm getting a quote for the timing belt at last

Guessing the timing belt (s) wont be cheap, but essential on those motors.

Forgot to mention, the big 7 was great on my trip to Bristol last week (to visit my brother), went through to Bath on the Wednesday, Weston Super Mare on the Thursday, a bit of running about in Bristol and an enthusiastic blast back up the road on Thursday night that saw us home in six hours used £210 in fuel which i did'nt think was too bad for a two ton barge (cost was split three ways though)

Nothing phases you does it Mark :shock:

I think I managed to cure the intermittent starting problem that my wee 205 had when I bought it. Replaced a vacuum seal in the carb and it seems to be starting up again OK. Total cost of car and repair still comes in at less than we pay every month for Mrs Rumble's Dacia! It's almost comical jumping from a tiny 23 year old basic car to a big shiny brand new one.

Good luck with the Dacia, i've heard a lot of grumbles concerning build quality and reliability of these Romanian built Renaults although the Dacia Duster of the 80's was stone age tech compared to the new ones.

No complaints in the the couple of thousand miles it's covered so far, the UK ones are actually built in India. It's more or less a Nissan chassis (same one as the Juke), Nissan 4x4 system and Renault engine and parts, so tried and tested tech. They've actually got a pretty decent rep on the continent where the Duster has been on sale for a couple of years.

Jeez - looked at the photo of the rear end and thought it was my old one for a moment! Good find - discos are cheap compared to olders LRs and a darn site more comfy/practical for daily use. Mind you - with what you have in mind...........

Brake disc replacement is uneccessarily time consuming on those though. Miss my V8 but not the fuel cost :xmas-big-grin:

jimihendrix":1mlnedm5 said:

Thought i'd show the reason i've been quite on here lately , as some of you will know i have been considering a Land Rover for a while, realy wanted an Ex-Army light weight but those are hard to find and good ones go for strong money (5-6K, lot of dough for a toy realy), was considering a Series or later Defender, fataly a jacked up Disco apeared in my street parked outside my next door neighbours house, a casual enquiry to his dad if it was for sale, 10 minutes later the beast was in my drive

Will also need a new rear body crossmember, boot floor is pretty rotten but hoping to just patch it up for now and cover it with alloy tread plate.

Car was originaly a 7 seater but will spend the rest of it's life as a two seater (rear seat belt mounts rotten, cut out and replaced wit plain steel repair sections), so will be like a van in the rear (with windows)

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