Posts on Exhaust

Things I learned about 1x10 conversions on old school MTBs

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 06:35:55 +0100

OK, one more bicycle post before I get back to that Rover P5.

So I built this.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2026-08-20-1x10-conversions-on-old-mtb/ridgeback-601gs-1991-restomod_hu_6d0dcb20a2943542.webp">

I briefly spoke about it before. It was a sad-looking Ridgeback 601GS from 1991. I rebuilt it into a bike for the road, with geometry and controls chosen to match the other Ridgeback as closely as possible, but with more pragmatic choices of parts.

Things I have been up to

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 21:59:26 +0100

This is the first thing I see when I wake up.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2026-06-10-things-i-am-up-to/good-morning-cat_hu_335f368f91e7d55b.webp">

I've been volunteering at a heritage railway as a track walker. That job is exactly what it sounds like. Every two weeks I walk a mile-and-a-half length of track and look for defects. It's nice to be outside and also it means I get the good views.

A tiny project to enable more tiny projects

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 23:13:12 +0100

I have a workshop. It's nice, and it's also fucking cold in the winter, and cold most of the year after the sun goes down too. Sometimes I want to stay inside in the warm, and I don't want to work on my desk because there's not much space left after a keyboard, mouse, two 27" monitors, a cat cushion, and a cat.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2026-04-02-tiny-project-bench/gertrude_hu_d452aead82f45ed0.webp">

A few more tiny projects

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 07:48:41 +0000

I found a Network SouthEast map from about 1991 on eBay. It's neither rare nor expensive, so I foam mounted it. I also clear-coated it with a rattle can of picture varnish to make it UV-proof and wipeable.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2026-03-18-more-tiny-projects/nse-map_hu_f6fa8f2cd3221f62.webp">

That looked nice enough that I did the same for a tube map from 1992.

A quick, cheap fix for a dead Clarke MIG welder

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 22:52:26 +0000

TL;DR: test your power selection switches.

This is my Clarke 151EN. I've written about it before.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-12-03-clarke-mig-welder-not-dead/clarke-151-en_hu_edf4eb1ffc3f4a1b.webp">

It's an upgraded hobby MIG that I've been using for a while. I doubt it was designed for the miles I've been putting on it, but I couldn't justify replacing it with one of the fancier machines because it does everything I need.

A couple of odds and ends for the Rover P5's rear-mounted radiator

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 06:14:35 +0000

So I mounted a radiator in the wrong end of a Rover P5. That left a couple of things to deal with before I got sidetracked onto mountain bikes for some months. Actually, there are at least six things to deal with, but a couple of them which I felt like dealing with at the time. I do things in the order I feel like doing them; that's what keeps the motivation high.

🎵 sail on my friend 🎵

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 21:54:15 +0000

Link to embedded video

Todd Daniel Snider - October 11, 1966 - November 14, 2025

Aimless, Inc. Headquarters is heartbroken to share that our Founder, our Folk Hero, our Poet of the World, our Vice President of the Abrupt Change Dept., the Storyteller, our beloved Todd Daniel Snider has departed this world. Where do we find the words for the one who always had the right words, who knew how to distill everything down to its essence with words and song while delivering the most devastating, hilarious, and impactful turn of phrases? Always creating rhyme and meter that immediately felt like an old friend or a favorite blanket. Someone who could almost always find the humor in this crazy ride on Planet Earth.

Two code snippets for making a Hugo site even faster

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 07:38:19 +0000

This site is pretty fast.

Obviously, this is mostly because I used a static site generator to build it. That static site generator is called Hugo, which I spoke about before. It is always going to be much faster to send an HTML file over a socket than it is to render an HTML file for each request based on some thing read from a database.

I built a Ridgeback 603GX because I have poor impulse control

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 14:04:02 +0000

OK, so I built my dream bike from back in the day. Building it was fun! I liked the fact that I completed - really completed - a project in a month, and it would have taken less than that if I wasn't waiting for various postal services. Riding it is fun too! I didn't plan on buying or building any more bikes, because I had the bike I always wanted, which I love.

Two tiny bicycle projects

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 19:04:27 +0100

I like projects. You may have noticed. After the Proflex 854 was done, I took on another 1990s bicycle project. More on that soon.

One of the most fun things in the Proflex project was taking sad-looking parts, and making them happy again. Sometimes that was just a quick de-grease and polish. Sometimes that was multiple evenings after work.

And so, here are some tatty DMR V12 pedals. I bought them from eBay for £22.

Proflex 854: the epilogue

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:43:36 +0100

Oh, you didn't think I'd stop there, did you?

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-10-12-proflex-epilogue/proflex-854-before_hu_f5d1376c36ae2d10.webp">

I know, it looks nice. But there were a few things bothering me.

Two of those things were the dust caps on the chainset. They might have been original, but I didn't like them. I replaced them with some new old stock genuine Sugino screw-in caps.

I bought a Proflex 854 for some reason

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 20:13:57 +0100

I usually say yes to stuff.

I haven't always been this way. Some part of me still says "absolutely not" immediately to anything new. These days I understand that these words mean there is a fear which is wearing some imagined matter of principle as a skinsuit, and that I should find that fear. And when I say "yes", I like to say "yes, let's set a date to do that thing right now", because if I push it into an indeterminate point in the future it's basically the same as saying "absolutely not" by stealth.

I modified another MIG welder, didn't die, didn't entirely succeed

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 01:03:13 +0100

Sometimes, my projects fail. Actually, they often fail, but usually in a recoverable way. This was not recoverable. Not because of the gasless-to-gas conversion (this worked fine), but because the welder I did the conversion on was fundamentally broken.

It turned out that "creates an arc and deposits material" is not the same thing as "actually has enough power to weld two bits of steel together". I checked the former to declare this welder "working" when I first acquired it, and I didn't check the latter. That one is entirely on me. It probably has a bad transformer, which would be an unreasonable amount of money to replace even if I could find one.

The desk chair post, part 3

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 05:20:02 +0100

This is the driver's seat from a 1985 Toyota Supra.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-08-10-supra-desk-chair/celica-supra-seat_hu_372cde9ce1143018.webp">

I acquired two of them in almost perfect condition apart from a layer of storage dust. They came out of my mum's Supra when it was stripped for parts in the late 1990s. The seats were saved for a project, but that project ended up using different seats. Then they did not go into my mum's SJ410 (they're too big and it got Smart Roadster seats instead), and in the meantime they were kept in warm dry storage.

I put the radiator in the wrong end of a Rover P5

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:09:13 +0100

You alright there? Me too. I've been busy.

Previously, I wrote:

and anyway nobody said that the radiator must be at the front of the car.

:)

My thoughts are like wild animals. Sometimes they're exciting, sometimes they're cute, and it's best not to leave two of them in a room with only each other to feed on.

For example, let's look at the boot of a tatty Rover P5.

A new axle for the Rover P5, part 2: the housing

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 20:14:05 +0000

I know what you're thinking. It's something like "Lewis, a Rover P5's prehistoric rear axle will explode if you put 350 horsepower through it". And you're right!

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-04-15-p5-axle-housing/original-p5-axle_hu_f139d7e763fc8982.webp">

There are lots of ways I could build a rear end for the P5 capable of handling LS power. Probably the sensible thing to do would be to chuck a BMW E60 subframe under the back and call it solved. That'd be cheap, parts would be available long after I wrap the car around a tree, and the fabrication doesn't scare me too much. But while I'm hardly shooting for originality here, fully-independent rear suspension crosses a line for me where the car wouldn't really be a P5 anymore.

Remaking Rover P5 rear leaf spring perches

Sun, 30 Mar 2025 16:36:44 +0100

These are Rover P5 leaf spring perches, which aren't actually from my Rover P5.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-03-30-p5-leaf-spring-perches/p5-spring-perch_hu_873899e961116ff8.webp">

These weld to the axle and have the leaf spring clamped to the bottom of them. I needed some of these because I will be running standard rear suspension on my LS-engined P5, but I will be using a completely different axle housing, about which there will be more very soon. But what I didn't want to do, was chop up my old axle for these parts.

I made a cart for my free MIG welder

Sun, 23 Mar 2025 14:22:19 +0000

I built a welding cart. It was fun and it kept me out of trouble. It probably should have been my first project when I got the welder, and it wasn't. Maybe it could be yours though!

I built a welding cart because of this:

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-03-23-welding-cart/gas-demon-bottle_hu_2a0dc95f3e8b4d89.webp">

I modified my welder, didn't die

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 23:49:13 +0000

This is my MIG welder.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-03-07-modifying-the-welder/clarke-151-en_hu_eeb207ed9563279c.webp">

I wrote about it briefly when talking about the time I lost the plot.

It's a Clarke 151 EN, which was a cheap welder when it was new (about £200 in 2013). It is even cheaper for me, because I got it for free from my brother last year. He bought it and never used it much, and decided it needed a better home, so he gave it to me. As for you, you could probably pick up a similar machine for less than a hundred quid these days if you look around. If you find one it'll probably be in perfect condition, because people who use welders to the death tend to buy expensive professional machines, and people who buy hobby welders like this tend to use them very occasionally.

Another tiny weekend project

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 21:00:37 +0000

I like my workshop's speaker.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-02-16-speaker-shelf/bose-soundlink-mini-ii_hu_bc61a102ea49e197.webp">

It is a Bose SoundLink Mini II. It's small and it makes plenty enough noise to fill the three-by-six metre metal shed. It also isn't smartshit which requires an Internet connection for imaginary reasons; it plays the music I want it to play, and that's all.

Calibrating a no-name Amazon digital spirit level

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 20:04:22 +0000

If your digital level looks like this...

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-02-09-calibrating-amazon-digital-level/amazon-digital-level_hu_eaa89e1eb876aaf6.webp">

...then I can show you how to calibrate it. If it looks mostly like this but isn't covered in a thin film of angle grinder dust, I can also show you how to calibrate it, because it's the same thing. (Mine is pretty grim; this is after I cleaned it.)

DNSControl is good software

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 18:55:19 +0000

So like, Google Domains.

I liked Google Domains. I had a bunch of domains registered there. I registered them with Google Domains because whatever Google's faults, they have an outstanding record on security, because they hire some of the best people in the world. It was a very well-designed, easy-to-use service that did what I wanted it to and nothing more which is exactly the sort of thing Google likes shutting down.

I don't like working with 304 stainless

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 15:38:15 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-01-03-stainless/broken-tap-and-handle_hu_59b36a375ab2b51b.webp">

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2025-01-03-stainless/broken_die_hu_adfcc76acdcff7e9.webp">

Many tools died to bring you this information.

Everything that happened to the cheap Fiesta

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 13:00:43 +0000

Nearly four years ago, I bought a fifth-generation Ford Fiesta for £600. Since then, I mentioned that it passed an MOT, and then I didn't say much about it after that. Inexplicably, it is still alive and I still own it; it recently went through its fourth MOT with me.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-12-31-the-fiesta-continues/600-quid-fiesta_hu_f2b93cc49e4b5a32.webp">

I used to call it "the shed" or "the shit car", because it's basically the minimum viable car that I could own. I've stopped calling it that, because it has been a champion. Here is everything that has happened to it.

I migrated this site to Hugo

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 17:01:50 +0000

On and off over the last few weeks I have been migrating this site from a Django app written by me to a static site generator called Hugo. If you don't recognise at least one of the technical words in the previous sentence, then you won't find anything interesting to read here. But if you find anything that is broken on here, it's probably something I broke during the migration, and you might want to let me know.

A tiny Saturday project

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 18:45:15 +0000

I found myself at a rare loose end this weekend, fuelled by waiting for things to show up for the next stage of the Rover P5. And then I was gently reminded of something I put on the project pile.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-12-01-middleton-sign-tiny-project/middleton-towers-sign_hu_97281f4b909c67c7.webp">

Overkilling the Rover P5, part 2: the gearbox

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 06:31:23 +0000

I know what you're thinking. It's something like "Lewis, a Rover P5's prehistoric manual gearbox will explode if you put 350 horsepower through it". And you're right!

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-11-21-ls1-into-a-rover-p5-gearbox-edition/DSCF8894_hu_5bf2d2a6e7773096.webp">

Here was my gearbox. It's attached to my old engine here; I didn't separate them for the eBay auction because I couldn't be bothered. It was an ancient 4-speed manual. It is so old that it actually pre-dates the Rover P5; it's similar enough to the seventy-plus-year-old Rover P4's gearbox that most of the innards are allegedly interchangeable.

The one where Lewis totally, irreversibly loses the plot

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 06:16:38 +0000

This was my Rover P5's engine.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-10-10-lewis-loses-the-plot/IMG_20240803_155436_443_hu_2a80d5ab933be470.webp">

You'll notice that it's not in the Rover P5.

So, the workshop build was completed, giving me a much nicer space to work in. The Mazda 323 GTX was fully someone else's problem while the engine is (still) being rebuilt. And some time ago I made some major life changes to give me more time and motivation; it worked! Which meant I could finally get back to the Rover P5, for which there are thousands of pounds worth of parts in storage to fit, and a list of jobs that'll keep me out of trouble for the foreseeable future. And I found myself procrastinating, again. Why?

A fully-dressed Chevy LS1 engine weighs 215 kilograms, or 474lbs

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 16:50:37 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-07-08-an-ls1-weighs-215-kilograms/IMG_20240708_172715_434_hu_6187da67009092de.webp">

A fully-dressed LS1 V8 engine weighs exactly 215 kilos. That is 474 Freedoms if you are from the United States of America. I put it in the title of this post to save the world a click.

This includes everything, other than a transmission, which is normally directly attached to the engine - power steering & air con pump, alternator, inlet & exhaust manifolds, flex plate, engine mounts, fuel rail, engine side of the wiring loom, etc. There's plenty of numbers out there on the Internet that involve the words "about" and "I think", and I didn't like that, so I lifted one with a £35 crane scale from Amazon to find out for sure.

Some angle grinder wall brackets

Wed, 01 May 2024 07:09:22 +0000

I now have a workshop.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-05-01-some-angle-grinder-wall-brackets-i-now-have-a-work/DSCF8871-1600_hu_d0c3c9843bae1586.webp">

Which is to say I've been busy.

Inside that workshop, lives the 2.5-metre-long home-made mother of all steel workbenches.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-05-01-some-angle-grinder-wall-brackets-i-now-have-a-work/i32WbQpo_hu_471f6ba684bcedb9.webp">

And on that 2.5-metre-long home-made mother of all steel workbenches that lives inside the workshop are these angle grinder brackets.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-05-01-some-angle-grinder-wall-brackets-i-now-have-a-work/IMG_20240419_161216_190_hu_96b8efd84c2ef3b0.webp">

I use angle grinders all the time, often enough that I always want one immediately to hand. But I don't like them being on workbenches permanently taking up space, because that space could be better used for things I am working on. What I really needed was some neat solution to hang them on a wall, or in this case the steel upstand of the 2.5-metre-long home-made mother of all steel workbenches.

Rationalising the 323 GTX, part 7: the rocker cover

Sun, 03 Mar 2024 16:05:26 +0000

This was my rocker cover.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-03-03-rationalising-the-323-gtx-part-7-the-rocker-cover/IMG_20231222_151245_hu_ee982a224118dbed.webp">

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-03-03-rationalising-the-323-gtx-part-7-the-rocker-cover/IMG_20231223_014644_hu_383f816e6328ae79.webp">

🎵 happy to be here 🎵

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 02:00:39 +0000

Link to embedded video

All of my neighbors are all up in arms
About something they saw on TV
Some politician got busted for something
That won't make much difference to me
Now I'm sure it's all true and I'm tired of this too
But I can't pray for some guy to fall
I say let all these people do what all these people do
I'm just happy to be here at all

Rationalising the 323 GTX, part 6: the turbo

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 22:55:18 +0000

This was my turbo.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2023-12-20-rationalising-the-323-gtx-part-6-the-turbo-ihi-vj9/IMG_20221106_142705_477_hu_140d8cf1148b8db6.webp">

It is an IHI VJ9, and it is also ancient worn-out junk that cannot be fixed.

The VJ9 is a tiny turbocharger built on the IHI RHB5 frame. Despite its size, it is ridiculously laggy compared to a modern turbo of the same size. I came to love that in the few months I had it on the road; a mildly-lively 16v engine that transforms violently into a howling turbocharged rally car engine at about 3500 RPM is hilarious.

Rationalising the 323 GTX, part 5: the heat shield

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:43:03 +0000

I originally planned to fold this into the upcoming "turbo" part of the rationalisation series, but there are parts of that which are still not complete, and are entirely out of my hands at the moment. Also, the heat shield turned into a multi-weekend mini-project in which I learned some things, so maybe you can too.

This was my heat shield.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2023-11-23-rationalising-the-323-gtx-part-5-the-heat-shield-i/Old_heatshield_hu_4f69771ba142f2e0.webp">

Rationalising the 323 GTX, part 4: making a hole in it

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 17:06:05 +0000

I had an overheating episode in 2020. It was not fun. It lacked so much fun that as part of the 323 GTX rationalisation subproject I wanted to give the 323 GTX some bonnet vents. Actually, I don't think bonnet vents would have saved me in that situation, because it dramatically overheated at low speed, but still, that scared me into doing as much as I could to keep it cool in every situation.

Rationalising the 323 GTX, part 3: pipe

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 21:00:03 +0000

In part 1, I spoke of things being either old or badly modified, and those things being targets of my 323 GTX "rationalisation" subproject. The hard pipe between the intercooler and intake manifold was both of those things, though the bad modifications offended me most. Because I am an idiot (also, because I didn't expect to be writing about any of this in detail), I didn't take a photograph of the pipe before I started work on it. I'm sure you can extrapolate what it looked like from the various pictures (those pictures being rather bad for someone who has a website about cameras because of my phone's pathological desire to focus on the wrong thing). So let's move on!

Rationalising the 323 GTX, part 2: the air filter

Tue, 11 Jul 2023 20:06:50 +0000

This was my air filter.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2023-07-11-rationalising-the-323-gtx-part-2-the-air-filter/Not_actual_MazdaSpeed_filter_2560_hu_2f38a42d340965d2.webp">

It has "Mazdaspeed" written on it. This would be kind of cool, but Mazdaspeed never made a generic 3 inch cone filter like this. There was, however, a company in the early 2000s taking generic 3 inch air filters and putting the names of manufacturers' performance divisions on them, along with fancy-sounding text like "EXS" and "EXCHANGEABLE FILTER SYSTEM". You could get one with NISMO written on it, if you wanted.

Rationalising the 323 GTX, part 1: the intercooler

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 17:27:36 +0000

This is my 323 GTX's new intercooler, next to its original one. The new one is a work of art with a 60mm core made by Pro Alloy. The original one is old, weird and inefficient.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2023-06-24-mazda-323-gtx-bf-intercooler/IMG_20230613_185300_hu_dd253947c6dafe7e.webp">

Onslow's Cortina, or, cars don't age like they used to

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 23:35:57 +0000

Cars age differently these days, and by "these days" I mean "the last two and a bit decades". Cars seem to transition to "old terrible car" much more slowly, and also go through the trough of no value to "classic" much more slowly too.

What brought this to my mind, and exhibit A in my study, is Onslow's Cortina in Keeping Up Appearances.

Via the Internet Movie Car Database

Cat, "it's that time of year" configuration

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 08:48:29 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-09-24-cat-its-that-time-of-year-configuration-image-redi/DSCF8711_2560_hu_b61d4d0293ff5005.webp">

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-09-24-cat-its-that-time-of-year-configuration-image-redi/DSCF8712_2560_hu_15c0bece3eda7486.webp">

Guard Cat loves sunshine. She spent about five months almost entirely outdoors, coming inside for the occasional treat. It is now that time of year where the weather is cooling and the darkness rolls in earlier every day. My least favourite part of that is that it becomes unreasonable to wear sunglasses when I leave work. My favourite part of that is the soft slightly-fluffy cat who will become a mostly-indoor cat for the next few months. :)

The desk chair post, part 2

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 08:30:17 +0000

This was my desk chair.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-08-29-the-desk-chair-post-part-2/DSCF8649_01_2560_hu_830cbe1cb37a9939.webp">

I wrote about it before.

When I wrote about it before, I mentioned my concern that the much sturdier castors I fitted might end up breaking the no-metal-in-particular that cheap desk chairs swivel bases are made from. It broke a few months later.

Rather than fish another desk chair from a skip, I bought an entire swivel base assembly from Amazon for about £80. It turns out that not just the castors, but these entire assemblies are largely interchangeable between desk chairs. This thought had not occurred to me before! So, I did not have to "un-weld" the baseplate from the subframe as I had every previous time a swivel base had exploded on me. Just plop the old base plate and subframe on top of this...

Let's play: "remove suspension bushes", on easy mode

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 19:12:24 +0000

This is a top link from the front suspension of a Rover P5.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-04-29-remove-suspension-bushes-easy-mode/DSC_0538_2560_hu_fcab1951d2726b4b.webp">

This is part of the "rebuild the entire front end" subproject of my Rover P5 project. Among other things, I am replacing every suspension bush. That requires removing perished six-thousand-year-old rubber suspension bushes. This is nobody's favourite job, for any person that is lacking (say) a 12-ton hydraulic press.

The desk chair post

Sun, 30 Jan 2022 18:00:00 +0000

This is my desk chair.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-01-30-the-desk-chair-post/DSCF8649_01_2560_hu_830cbe1cb37a9939.webp">

It is a front seat from a 1990 Vauxhall Astra GTE, bolted to a subframe made from steel box section scavenged from some industrial shelving, welded to a swivel-chair base that I found in a skip. I've had some variant of it for over a decade, but I had cause to re-engineer it recently, so I am posting about it now. It's extremely comfortable! It is more supportive than any other chair I have used, including chairs that look like car seats, and including chairs that cost upwards of a grand.

Cat, box-optimised configuration

Fri, 21 Jan 2022 12:02:54 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-01-21-if-it-fits-i-sits/DSCF8642-2560_hu_604a6c06061ab691.webp">

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-01-21-if-it-fits-i-sits/DSCF8645-2560_hu_e121f8fce67acd3d.webp">

Cracks

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 21:00:54 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-01-13-cracks/image20220112_105512961_hu_29547b59aaa04bc9.webp">

The easy, snarky post would be "it's the current year and there are still systems out there that can't handle non-ASCII characters", on Twitter. Snark is boring! Pretending to be offended is sad!

Years ago, there was a blog (whose name I forgot) that documented cracks in the system like this; tiny reminders that systems that we take for granted, that we have little cause to give thought to, are oft computer systems written by humans, and humans make mistakes. I enjoy these reminders.

Assorted things that happened to Lewis

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 19:11:39 +0000

Here are some things that happened in my life recently, none of which really merit their own post.

The Shed passed an MOT.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-01-07-assorted-things/DSCF8544_03_hu_c1a112d273f93c85.webp">

Who's a good little sheddy-weddy? You are!

It actually failed an MOT, then passed an MOT, after £164.78 of parts and labour from a local garage. It's work I could have done myself, on some theoretical level. If I had resolved to do it myself it'd have ended up in the project queue behind a bunch of other things that want my time, and I would own three cars that don't work.

Cat, winking configuration

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 15:40:39 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2022-01-02-cat-if-you-know-what-i-mean-configuration/DSCF8609_smaller_hu_1d3c60525bdd43b0.webp">

"Ain't that some bullshit", 365-to-Migadu-migration edition

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 03:09:34 +0000

TL;DR: Use imapsync with DavMail.

So my subscription for Office 365 (or whatever it's called these days) was due for renewal in January. I only ever used it for email on my domain. Given how increasingly hateful the Outlook web client has been in recent years (worst among them was when it randomly disabled the ability to send plain-text email for some time), and my general desire to move as much of my life away from software I have no control over, I decided to migrate my shit to Migadu. Partly because Migadu is kinda cheap, partly because of a good recommendation, but mostly because I really like their beautifully simple and functional website. I'm shallow!

Rail Alphabet survivors at March station

Sat, 20 Nov 2021 15:50:52 +0000

Rail Alphabet is beautiful. It was everywhere on the railway network for decades; for people over a certain age, it is a typeface that says "railway" almost as surely as a double-arrow symbol does, and as surely as "Transport" says "road". It was so ubiquitous that one could associate that typeface with railways even if you do not know it is a distinct, single-purpose typeface - a fact I only learned in recent years thanks to Nick Job's beautiful digitisation of the British Rail Corporate Identity Manual.

Cat, official royal portrait configuration

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 22:27:11 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-11-16-cat-royal-portrait/image12_hu_f1b321d665da1c1c.webp">

By Jessica.

Experiments within a project within a project

Sun, 26 Sep 2021 22:08:38 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-09-26-projects-within-projects/image20210918_115430295_hu_16b0c7951366cd6f.webp">

This is my brake servo.

I removed it from the car as part of the "refurbish the brakes" subproject of the "financially ruinous Rover P5" project. It's a separate unit from the pedal-activated cylinder unlike it is on almost any other car, because Rover loved overcomplicating things back then.

The vacuum chamber (the large cylinder on the right) was half-full with brake fluid. As the name "vacuum" implies, there is not meant to be any fluid in there at all. That was quite the surprise when I took it apart, and also a surprise which caused me to lose a full set of clothing. There was little way the servo could have been functioning, and I suspect that aeration of the brake fluid would have caused the braking system to be minimally-functional even without the servo's assistance.

goodnight sweet prince

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 17:31:05 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-09-04-goodnight-sweet-prince/image20210904_163107691_bants_hu_646623e93313cd46.webp">

rip small hammer always in are hearts xxx

🎵 I never really trusted folks who have to talk so loud 🎵

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 21:28:45 +0000

Link to embedded video

🎵
Well I don't need more guilt here in my life
How the hell is that supposed to help me find the light?
And I don't need you preaching at me day and night
About the way I look, the way I walk
The way I dress and the way I talk
There's something that you think you see like you've ever looked at me

You say you've got it figured out
And you seem so damn proud about it
I never really trusted folks who have to talk so loud

That ain't to say you never looked me in the eye
But lookin' isn't seein' when you just can't spare the time
Besides you're selling things I just don't feel like buying
Like guilt and pain
Fear and shame
Who to thank, and who to blame
A set of rules that's bound to keep the living out of life
Who to love and who to hate
What's too soon and what's too late
There's some test you have to pass before you feel the love of God

Well I don't need some fear of afterlife
How the hell is that supposed to help me find the light?
And I don't need you preaching at me day and night
About the things I do and the things I don't
What I will and what I won't
There's fire in your eyes sir, and it chills me to the bone

You say you've got it figured out
And you seem so damn proud about it
I never really trusted folks who have to talk so loud

So thanks a lot man, but I'll be moving on
Yours is a hateful sermon, and it takes too goddamned long
See, life is short and I'm gonna find mine searching for the light

🎵

A visit to the body filler mines of Norfolk

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 19:53:43 +0000

Video contains strong language.

And that, kids, is where your Isopon P38 comes from!

This was not an act of wanton destruction and savagery. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, but it was necessary, because my brother's 1963 Land Rover had, as my brother sagely observed, a lot of filler.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-08-31-a-visit-to-the-filler-mines-of-norfolk/image20210829_183856492_hu_da953302bc2a0d54.webp">

Pictured: A lot of filler.

The little things

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 20:42:57 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-06-25-the-little-things/DSC_0511_hu_870811daa7ec1dba.webp">

I love good documentation.

The Rover P5's workshop manual - the original one written by the engineers at Rover - is the best manual I have ever used. I especially enjoy that the manual sets out exactly what tools you will need including the sizes of spanners in the preface. This is the only workshop manual I have seen that does this, and it makes every job a tiny bit faster and a tiny bit more fun.

🎵 and all that is left, is snow on the pines 🎵

Thu, 20 May 2021 17:43:46 +0000

Link to embedded video

Cat, "I'm gonna stand here being cute until food appears" configuration

Sun, 16 May 2021 18:31:00 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-05-16-feed-me/DSCF8370_hu_7ea4c94c43729fa5.webp">

Cat, "I brought you a present" configuration

Mon, 03 May 2021 22:51:18 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-05-03-cat-brought-you-a-present/DSC_0503_hu_838118930e2d917a.webp">

Can't hate her for it. Mice love eating upholstery and wiring looms; maybe she's as critical to a car build as cats were in our ancient history when they enabled us to develop agriculture. So thanks Cat, but maybe don't bring that inside...

Visiting some remnants of the Lynn & Wisbech railway at Magdalen, part 2

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:11:14 +0000

Previously, I had visited the remnants of bridge MMR/2333 in Magdalen to document them, as their demolition seemed to be imminent. On my day off today, I revisited them.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-04-19-lynn-wisbech-railway-magdalen-bridges-2/DSCF8347_01_hu_49402df177658e5.webp">

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-04-19-lynn-wisbech-railway-magdalen-bridges-2/DSCF8348_01_hu_289b7d2b3783fe10.webp">

In which I make an uncharacteristically sensible decision

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 16:06:29 +0000

The weekend before last, Mazda Amy started making a scary knocking noise at about 2000 RPM upwards when the engine was warm. By "knocking" I do not mean pinking; I mean that scary kind of knocking that hints at a piston being prepared for a journey into earth orbit, and hinting at a full engine rebuild about 300 miles since the last one. Yay, time to throw some more time and money at a 34 year old hatchback.

Fitting a Chinese-made F10A engine to a Suzuki SJ 410: what you need to know

Sun, 04 Apr 2021 18:26:53 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-04-04-chinese-f10a-suzuki-sj-410/Rocker_cover_writing_hu_e59e0a457347f402.webp">

25,000 mile update (December 2025): four and a half years later, this engine is still working perfectly. I suppose there's not much to go wrong.

TL;DR: This requires some amateur machining skills. This also requires the SJ410's sump, oil pickup, and dipstick. It also requires either the SJ410's camshaft or a distributor from a late Vietnamese- or Myanmarese-market Suzuki Carry.

Did you know that the ancient Suzuki F10A engine is still produced today in China? As I write this, they are, because they are still used in brand new vehicles sold in Myanmar and Vietnam. And here's something somewhat more interesting than that: Manufacturers of these engines will sell them directly to customers in the West, even in single-engine quantities. Which is to say: if you need a new F10A engine, you can get in touch with one of their distributors, and have a brand new engine on your doorstep in a few weeks.

A timeless response to current events

Sun, 28 Mar 2021 01:00:46 +0000

Link to embedded video

🎵 Ain't that some bullshit? 🎵

"When all you have is a hammer", label printer edition

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 16:17:47 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-03-27-when-all-you-have-is-a-label-printer/DSCF8327_hu_1426e27cc73871aa.webp">

In which I explore just how bad a decision this P5 was

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 22:10:51 +0000

On the weekend that has most recently passed, my mission was to find out exactly how bad or good Penny the P5 is. The good news is that everything is very good and really solid, despite the scruffy appearance. South Africa was very kind to Penny. There's only one little bit that looks a bit sketchy on one of the front inner wings and where it joins to the sill.

🎵 if faith moves mountains, what's it take to leave em alone? 🎵

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 23:08:44 +0000

Link to embedded video

Introducing Project Penny

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 19:12:24 +0000

I've been thinking about a backup car for Amy, my Mazda 323 GTX, for quite a while now. Not because I don't like her. She rules. She also doesn't work all the time. I've been wanting to take her off the road and get her indoors for a while now. I'd like to modernise & rationalise the turbo setup and the engine management. I'd also like to get her bodywork sorted once and for all, rather than the remedial work that I am doing now.

Cat, "your taste in books bores me to sleep" configuration

Sun, 14 Mar 2021 18:00:14 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-03-14-cat-doesnt-like-my-/DSCF8315_hu_21a9732d78bcba5a.webp">

Cat, "please turn the light off" configuration

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 18:28:46 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-03-11-cat-turn-the-light-off/DSC_0467_hu_a7da5f52a1ca8180.webp">

Strange things happen when you put your stuff on Wikimedia Commons

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 19:49:37 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-02-28-wikimedia-commons-is-strange/66206_at_Downham_Market_hu_4cff1f2d9f3f711f.webp">

You just saw a photograph of a freight train. It is not very interesting to almost anyone. But maybe a story about it would be!

A few years ago I was at Downham Market station. I don't recall why I was there. It might have been because I was broke at the time and had nothing better to do; most likely I had enough money to pay for a train ticket and doing nothing in particular in Downham was more fun than doing nothing in particular where I was. And I had an Olympus Trip 35 film camera loaded with Ilford XP2 black-and-white film in a pocket. A freight train passed through the station. I thought it was interesting and the light felt nice, and so I took a bad photo of a freight train heading through Downham Market, and later uploaded it to a site called the Wikimedia Commons.

Self-archaeology and the Internet Movie Car Database

Wed, 17 Feb 2021 19:26:28 +0000

This was my mum's Mercedes 220. It was glorious.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-02-17-weird-self-archaeology/Mercedes_Benz_220_W115_hu_80dc1c1809b8aca8.webp">

She bought LRO 468L for £500 in either 1989 or 1990, because back then it was merely an old car (though cars aged much quicker 30 years ago). It was beautiful, silent, luxurious, and very wafty. I loved it, and everyone else did. She sold it a few months later for slightly more than she paid for it, because it needed welding work on the floorpan. A very young Me did not talk to her for a day after that.

One more job from the giant pile of necessary jobs

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 21:07:25 +0000

Mazda Amy has a new windscreen. This could have happened several months earlier. More about that in a moment.

My windscreen was not broken. It was, however, severely fogged in the corners, where water had made its way into the laminates and had started to separate them.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-02-16-new-windscreen/DSCF8309_small_hu_6b8bf94dfdb74718.webp">

This is not an MOT failure right now, though it may have become one in the future as the fogging spreaded. It may have weakened the glass in the corners, though for many other reasons I'd be so completely doomed in an accident with the modern ~~artillery tractors~~ 4x4s half the country drives these days that I don't think it'd make any practical difference in an accident. I was not convinced that it was watertight. It definitely looked terrible, and was for some time on my list of things to fix.

Wordoid is crack cocaine for word nerds

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 14:01:34 +0000

Link.

I don't think I will sleep until I get my score into four digits.

It ain't me

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 22:50:28 +0000

Link to embedded video

Visiting some remnants of the Lynn & Wisbech railway at Magdalen

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 15:21:52 +0000

Word came my way (via notable railway explorer Paul Whitewick) that The Highways Agency's Historical Railway Estate were looking to demolish a bunch of former railway structures. One of those structures is very close to me - close enough to make a rather nice early morning walk. So, not very long ago, I wandered down to visit a pair of bridge abutments in Wiggenhall St. Mary Magdalen that are at risk of demolition in the very near future, to photograph them for posterity (all these pictures have a long-term home on Wikimedia Commons, in full resolution).

And that, is the end of that

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 20:46:38 +0000

What my credit card looks like, as of a few days ago:

I won't even tell you what it was a year or so ago. All I will say is that the interest payments alone at one point were pushing £250 a month, which is a non-trivial amount of money for anyone that isn't Scrooge McDuck swimming in piles of cash.

This is absolutely not some woe-is-me story, because obviously, I was a fucking idiot who made some very poor financial decisions (see also: cash furnace of a car) and I don't blame anyone but myself.

Gratuitous car post

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 22:40:25 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2021-01-04-gratuitous-car-post/DSCF8289_hu_ce3b531aad5758fd.webp">

Yeah, I know she's an old shit car, that she has her scars, and that she's probably not pretty to anyone but me. But I do love seeing this little thing, ready to go and ready to make tiny turbo noises.

That's all. 💕

In which I get a little boost to my faith in humanity

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 21:57:11 +0000

Today, I lost my wallet. This has a happy ending...

After topping up Mazda Amy with oil this afternoon (she's basically a Diesel at this point, in that she burns nearly as much oil as she does petrol), I went to the shop for supplies and then went for a hoon on the backroads (and by the way, that never stops being fun). When I got home, I realised I did not have my wallet anymore.

Cat (circular configuration)

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 09:36:42 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-12-28-cat-circular-configuration/DSCF8279_hu_44a2d8dc183bc805.webp">

Fuji X100: reloaded

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 20:42:49 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-12-22-fuji-x100-reloaded/DSC_0462_hu_dacecce7bfc0efa2.webp">

I now have a Fuji X100. Early Christmas present to myself!

I actually had a Fuji X100 many years ago, I loved it, and I wrote about it in some length. I ragequit it a few months later when it repeatedly misfocused while photographing the winners of an event at a tiny track in the middle of nowhere because I can be a little capricious. I sold it to a guy I met on a train for about £250, taking about a £100 hit for what I paid for it, because I wanted it gone as fast as possible and did I mention I can be a little capricious.

The Suspension: the final episode

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 21:04:52 +0000

Today, I decided to take a look at the Gaz rear suspension that I removed a few days shy of two months ago.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-12-12-the-suspension-the-final-episode-today-i-decided-t/DSC_04581_hu_49fb5c401f4f1edb.webp">

I know, it looks like shitty old suspension and maybe that's because it is. But this was a nice and rather expensive bit of kit in its day. Back in 2007, when my brother owned the car and had some intention to get it back on the road after a failed MOT, he replaced the rear shocks with two of the custom-made Gaz shocks seen here. These cost £250 for each shock absorber back then (about £300 inflation-adjusted).

Backroads are fun

Sun, 29 Nov 2020 22:48:06 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-11-29-backroad-fun/DSC_0115_hu_d0e8b39b401b02ae.webp">

The backroads were rather fun this weekend. For whatever reason the tractors around here have been busy this weekend, and deposited a ton of mud onto the wiggly roads around here. Which is fine, because that's where our food comes from and all. The tiny 4wd Mazda was bothered by it even less than I was. I'm amazed at how well she handles on greasy roads!

A cheap Ubuntu-friendly drawing tablet recommendation: XP-Pen Star G640

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 17:11:29 +0000

This is a quick recommendation for the XP-Pen G640 drawing tablet, for those fellow Linux users who like to do a bit of a scribble. It costs a penny shy of £40 as I write this, and it works flawlessly out of the box on Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 with no drivers or any other fiddling required. Just plug it in and go.

This is a great little tablet for doodling, whiteboarding in the working-at-home era, pwning noobs on Skribblio and generally messing about. For all I know someone might even buy one of these, download Super Street's car colouring pages^[1], fire up MyPaint and burn a few hours in the evening when lockdown gives them nothing better to do.

Coming soon: Banging choons

Mon, 23 Nov 2020 21:31:34 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-11-23-coming-soon-banging-choons/DSC_0456_hu_f66ded5e431abeb2.webp">

Edit (March 2021): Change of plan. I decided against having any kind of stereo in my car. Without cutting up any panels, I would never had a stereo that sounded really good, and also because hearing the engine is far too important to me. The latter isn't just because I like the noise, though I do; it's because I need that feedback to instantly know when something is not right with is. This head unit has been sold and was posted off for its Forever Home in a Porsche 928.

Sitting pretty

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 20:17:24 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-11-22-sitting-pretty/DSC_0454_hu_49bffb4fe6c26730.webp">

So the alignment is done, and the figures in the photo showed that I didn't do a terribly bad job with my bottle-jack alignment. But, lacking a level surface, let alone all the tooling and knowing what the fuck they're doing that a real garage has, I took my car to Autoleys in King's Lynn.

Priorities

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 19:22:07 +0000

This week's problem: extremely low engine idle speed. It wants to sit at about 200-300 RPM, which is so low that it stalls or near-stalls the engine. This happened out of nowhere yesterday. This, only takes a few minutes to fix with a screwdriver.

So, instead of solving that problem I got a Bad Obsession Motorsport sticker for my horn push! And doesn't it look good.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-11-03-priorities/DSC_0095_hu_72408a3591394ce8.webp">

In which I spend a weekend on my car and don't make it worse

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 16:41:27 +0000

The title understates the success of my weekend. I actually improved it!

You may remember from the last episode:

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-10-25-not-making-it-worse/DSC_0089_hu_421b7469fb3af746.webp">

Actually, that's a different photo; I used my trusty, battle-scarred SLR to take a photo today in the hope I'd get a better photo of the same thing, and still managed to get a bad photo. Maybe I'm just doomed if I try to take photos of anything but BMWs driving sideways past me at 50 miles per hour.

Rest in peace, Jerry Jeff Walker ❤️

Sat, 24 Oct 2020 15:28:59 +0000

Link to embedded video

Fitting the K-Sport coilovers, episode "the rear"

Sat, 17 Oct 2020 17:54:53 +0000

So I joked at the start of the previous episode about things going smoothly and as expected until they do not go as expected, but the rears really did go as expected. There's no follow-up joke about this not going as expected this time! And not even the smallest hint of a bracket on this one.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-10-17-fitting-k-sport-coilovers-rear/DSC_0438_hu_cbf0a69bb3dee803.webp">

Fitting the K-Sport coilovers, episode "the front"

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 18:01:27 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-10-12-k-sport-coilover-brake-brackets/DSC_0407_hu_f5f68eee9733f269.webp">

Fitting new coilovers (to old cars, at least) is dead easy; this job was four bolts on each shock, everything comes undone easily enough, everything fits perfectly and just works and ha ha just kidding you know that wasn't going to happen on this car.

Actually, part of that was true; the old coilovers came off with only minor hammer persuasion, and the new coilovers themselves fitted fine. But on the front coilovers, there should be some brackets to hold the brake pipe in place, to prevent it from hitting the wheel or the tyre when it flaps about. The brackets supplied with the suspension were wholly inappropriate. One of them was purportedly intended to wrap around the body of the shock absorber, but did not have the diameter to do this successfully. One of them was a long rectangular steel band, which was flimsy (and also too thin, which I will get to).

They're here

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 17:13:09 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-10-01-theyre-here/DSC_0400_hu_c04408e5a90436a0.webp">

The "ouch, that's money I didn't really have" K-Sport suspension is, finally, here. I expected it to take a while; these are made to order in Taiwan, and then are shipped to the UK on an actual ship, and I am okay with that.

First impression: Crikey, these things are heavy.

Second impression, after getting them out of the box: Crikey, these things are actually really heavy. The size of these things!!

Today I found: Bastard Tetris

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 21:17:57 +0000

This, known as bastet to its friends, has been around since at least 2005. I heard of it today. It's a variety of Tetris, but one that will always queue up the optimally worst next piece. ("So kinda like normal Tetris then", I thought.) And there's a devilish mode in which it will not tell you what piece is up next either. That one was too hardcore even for me.

A parcel shelf!

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 18:26:54 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-09-21-323-gtx-parcel-shelf/DSC_0396_hu_ce11ef27fac322ae.webp">

It took me five years to find one of these in usable condition. And even then I could not find one! Instead, my brother did, because he has a weird skill of finding parts that don't exist. Back when he owned it, he somehow managed to source rear seats for it (the owner before him removed them and binned them, because racecar), and what might have been the last three 323 GTX rear arch repair panels in the country. And Alex delivers again! He managed to find a parcel shelf in the United States, priced at $100 (plus the usual horrific shipping costs).

TIL: those Werther's Original adverts, and the power of marketing

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 18:42:23 +0000

So everyone from Britain of a certain age will remember a particular advert for Werther's Originals:

Link to embedded video

It's calming. Sepia-toned. Traditional. But did you know there was a parallel, almost word-for-word and shot-for-shot identical advert in the United States? (For my friends in the United States, just read this blog post backwards and it'll make more sense.)

Link to embedded video

I didn't!

Amy goes to her first car meet!

Sun, 13 Sep 2020 20:51:46 +0000

The only positive side effect of my Facebook account reactivating itself (it is now scheduled for permanent deletion, since Facebook won't play nice) is that I got to find out about a car meet on Saturday with Only Fools & Motors over at the Coach & Horses at Tilney All Saints on Saturday. It seems that this would be the last event of the year, and not just because of that thing that is going to forbid gatherings of more than six people. And so everyone's (my) favourite sleeper Mazda 323 got to have her first outing!

Your deactivated Facebook account really is reactivating itself

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:08:27 +0000

There are a lot of posts & questions & other things in various places online wherein people are complaining about this happening to them. Usually there's someone to tell them that nope, it's something you did. I can guarantee that it is not, in fact, necessarily something you have done. Because it happened to me (which totally changed my opinion about Facebook being an awful company), and I went to specific lengths to ensure that Facebook would not reactivate my account when I deactivated it. Specifically:

Not saying I don't totally trust this car, but...

Sun, 06 Sep 2020 15:22:43 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-09-06-fire-extinguisher/DSC_0388_hu_ac893386fd767b7e.webp">

...this seems like a good idea. This was just shy of £25 on Amazon, and while I doubt I will need to use it ~~because I totally trust this car to not set on fire~~, there's no reason I should not have one handy. £25 and a tiny bit less boot space is a small sacrifice for not losing four years of work.

Oh no not again

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 19:03:57 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-09-02-oh-no-not-again/DSC_0385_hu_417f186169351e4c.webp">

Surprise, she's off the road again due to another issue that surfaced yesterday. More on this soon.

Yesterday, I did not like cars. Then I get a delivery from Driftworks and they put a sweet into my package, and now I like cars again.

These are 5mm wheel spacers. I'm hoping they will make the car sit a little nicer once the new suspension is fitted.

In lieu of being productive

Mon, 31 Aug 2020 19:27:06 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-31-being-unproductive/DSC_0036_hu_227927f1c6b76c33.webp">

My brother Alex came over in his E30 to make my driveway look much cooler. 80s car friends, yay! 💕 We've been meaning to get a photo of them together, when they are both working, so we did!

Actually, the goal today was not to add even more obnoxiously loud colours to my driveway, but to get Alex's clutch working on his 1963 Land Rover, not pictured (yet). That did not work, because of a lack of parts. We thought the clutch slave cylinder was dead, because Alex had installed it upside down (which means bleeding it will not work as as it should). With the slave cylinder installed the right way up and with the system bled appropriately, the clutch still didn't work, which means the master cylinder is probably dead in some way. We didn't have a master cylinder, so that should have been the end of the day.

One last teething problem and then it'll never go wrong again (unless it does)

Sun, 30 Aug 2020 14:29:19 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-30-one-last-teething-problem/DSC_0375_hu_a2c5fb002e93deb2.webp">

Small victory: Mazda Amy has a working clutch! (Again.)

Obviously, I had a working clutch at certain times when she returned to the road. Not long ago, though, I had an hilarious (by hilarious I mean terrifying) incident while parking, in which my clutch pedal went straight to the floor with no resistance and the car kept moving and...no, that was not nice. That's definitely not something your driving lessons prepare you for, since driving instructors own modern cars that work, rather than old shit that works when it's in the right mood.

TIL: old logs can take up a nontrivial amount of disk space on Ubuntu

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 15:02:01 +0000

I know, it is the Current Year, you don't need to worry about disk space. Until you do! Via a comment on this article I found this to purge a bunch of old log entries (on my personal machines I don't care about anything more than a day old, tweak according to your situation):

$ sudo journalctl --vacuum-time=1d
[literally six million lines of text]
Vacuuming done, freed 616.1M of archived journals from /var/log/journal/8ab90b50ecb94b5ba09cacf15a486a8e

Yay!

Biting the bullet

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 19:18:54 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-28-biting-the-bullet/Screenshot_2020-08-28_Checkout_-_K-Sport_Racing_UK_hu_73c54da1cd28f65b.webp">

So, that was expensive, but what can you do. (Other than not owning old shit that is nigh-on impossible to get parts for. I should have thought about that five years ago!)

My car is running a fairly horrible mongrel suspension setup. Shortly after she came off the road in 2007, she gained some custom-made rear shocks from Gaz, as part of my brother's work to get her road-legal after her last MOT failure. These were, and still are, very nice; as good as you would expect from tailor-made stuff by Gaz. They're still on springs of unknown provenance and unknown age, which I intended to replace at some point.

No promises

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 12:38:05 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-27-no-promises/DSC_0371_hu_43dc4157153c7e58.webp">

Another eBay find

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 22:10:31 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-24-another-ebay-find-323-manual/DSC_0369_hu_1d56698f4779a10c.webp">

So I found an original owner's manual for the BF-generation Mazda 323 on eBay! £5.48 with shipping. I'm quite happy with that.

I bought it because ~~of poor impulse control~~ I wanted to find out what one of my warning lights meant; it's the light that looks like a headlight, but it has the word "STOP" written underneath it. Turns out that the manual doesn't explain that. Oh well, this is a nice addition to the glovebox anyway. I do like its minimalist cover design very much. :)

An eBay find

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 18:32:23 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-18-an-ebay-find/DSC_0366_hu_3c8b09123cc0fa45.webp">

It was only £7.50 on eBay. It'd be rude not to.

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-18-an-ebay-find/ff82101f-7595-42e9-927f-1f787e7fa56e_hu_363ac31e7f97cc47.webp">

I do believe I need a "grips like a limpet" sticker now.

"consciousness causes collapse"

Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:03:29 +0000

From HN wag __s:

[T]his is why quantum computers have to be kept at very low temperatures as opposed to asking everyone to look away from the computer while it operates

She's alive, and teething problems

Sat, 15 Aug 2020 14:37:34 +0000

Milestone: actual working car that is taxed and MOTed and insured!

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-08-15-it-lives/d8a773d3-eee2-43f2-8e7a-58b92b04a51e_hu_9179672328d2d2e7.webp">

She's back. She actually arrived home on the first Saturday of the month, but I did not get to drive her properly until Sunday, because I spent so much time on Saturday working on Alex's old shit rather than driving my old shit. So it goes. I did take her for a little 20mph run down my road to ensure nothing exploded, and Alex (who formerly owned this car) did a little completely-legal short drive ~~with a cheeky four-wheel-drift~~ for old times' sake. Nothing exploded. Lack of explosions please me.

Towards something that almost looks like a blog

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 22:41:01 +0000

I withdrew from social media at the start of that whole global pandemic thing. Initially it was to bring my anxiety under control, and turned out to be the best possible thing I could have done for my well-being.

On the other hand, I came to miss having a place to dump things that may or may not be of value to someone somewhere. That's what this is!

I also wanted a little place that was mine -- hosted on servers I pay for, with software I control. The current wave of deplatforming should terrify anyone that has content hosted by someone else. I like cars, cats, and writing Python code. It's unlikely I'll ever become a target for any of that, but that's probably what all those people thought who were posting nudity on that site that was 95% nudity, and we all know how that one worked out.

Lazy reviews (part 1?)

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 00:55:37 +0000

Perhaps this might become a series: lazy one-or-two sentence reviews of things from the Internet's reduced-to-clear aisle that I've watched in the last month. Or it might not! Ratings are out of seven:

The Hunt (2020): somehow all the conservatives who got angry about this film last year didn't notice that the "deplorables" in this film are the good guys. The whole film is basically just Betty Gilpin being a badass, and that's good enough for me ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you drive really fast in reverse for a year...

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 19:28:40 +0000

I bought Mazda Amy without caring about the mileage. I mean, there's a pretty low overlap between people who care about how many miles a car has done and people who buy completely rotten cars from 1987. But while cleaning the interior, after five years of owning this car I checked it on a whim. Just under 63,000 miles! That seemed remarkably low for a 33-year-old car, even if it did spent 13 of those off the road.

BRB, MOT

Mon, 22 Jun 2020 21:23:47 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-06-22-mazda-brb/DSC_0343_hu_54e46277c7fe438b.webp">

Off for final MOT prep at Setch MOT centre. She'll be back soon!

Some people feel like they're giving up by giving their project to someone else to finish - that it's less authentically "theirs" if they haven't done every bit of the work. I don't feel this way at all. This is this car's fifth year of being a project. It's come an awful long way, but seeing that interior looking as beautiful as it does made me want a working car this year, and hopefully this summer. That simply isn't going to happen if I only do this on my free time.

Towards an interior less terrible

Sat, 13 Jun 2020 15:18:11 +0000

I'd paid almost no attention to the interior of Mazda Amy so far, because there seemed like little point in doing so while I might still be in and out of there with tools and boots. And of course I left a ton of crap in there because just in case I need it for a future job on the car.

That left me with an interior looking like this:

No more ditchfinders

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 01:49:42 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-06-10-toyo-tr1/DSC_0327_hu_7da53e27827d115e.webp">

Mazda Amy may not be the most powerful car in the world, or even more than slightly quick by modern standards. Even so, it seems a waste to have a four-wheel-drive performance car, with an awful lot of grip and go-cart handling, running on the nastiest no-name ditchfinders (it's a terrible idea for any car - don't cheap out on tyres if you don't have to).

Short shifter!

Mon, 08 Jun 2020 20:09:35 +0000

On my brief test movements with Mazda Amy, it always struck me that her gear change was always awfully vague. And not just "old car" kind of vague, but Land Rover "there's a gear around here somewhere" vague, with no clear stops on the X axis, and an enormous throw on both axes. That's one of those things I was prepared to live with as part of the "drives old shit" package, though I did have my mind on getting someone to do a short-shifter mod for me at some point.

Gtechniq C4 is magic

Sat, 04 Apr 2020 14:59:09 +0000

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-04-04-gtechniq-c4-short-review/DSC_0296_hu_d3c4ca29a2925cb3.webp">

Bumper restoration with Gtechniq C4. Before is on the right, after is on the left. The picture speaks for itself.

My original bumpers & sideskirts are from 1987. They are not body-coloured, they were faded and looked awful, and I wasn't sure what to do with them. This being one of the rarest cars in the UK (5 on the road as of time of writing, the bumpers & sideskirts being specific to a subset of this particular generation of 323), I could not risk doing anything irreversible to them, and I wasn't willing to try anything that hasn't been proven to work.

The one where I didn't do the things I was going to do

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 17:58:55 +0000

Lockdown is awful, but on the upside, it is giving me a chance to do all those jobs I haven't had time to do otherwise. Several of those jobs are to sort out all the minor electrical problems, figuring out the intermittent starting fault, sorting out the horn, fixing the sticky centre-diff lock switch. Let's get started!

Just kidding, I didn't get any of those done today. But I did buy a cool steering wheel! 🎉

pumped up kicks

Mon, 23 Mar 2020 21:47:49 +0000

Sometimes, when I show things to not-car people, I often comfort them with "nah, it's just surface rust", because rust isn't actually all that scary (for someone that mostly works on old shit cars). On the other hand, sometimes it really is as manky, bad and dead as it looks:

= 601px)" type="image/webp" srcset="https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2020-03-23-pumped-up-kicks/0c3d9dd8-4f1a-4a3e-83ca-489e1af5eb55_hu_d89e6ae2ad227b76.webp">

That is my former fuel pump. It is dead. I think it is dead because the filter fell off. Most likely, something nasty got sucked into the pump, and that killed the pump. Probably some of this stuff that we scraped off the bottom of the tank: