Hello, just bought a '89 740 GL

[popuptoaster]

You can polish lights to get the shine back (and even remove the E marks and other codes) in the same way you'd cut back fresh paint, I have seen some terrible lenses brought back to life that way.

[Laird Scooby]

Looks a lot better Tony - brighter, clearer, more "cared for".

This large shipment arriving soon - is it a "late delivery" of stuff you "previously ordered" by any chance?

Popuptoaster - i don't think any amount of polishing would help my rear light cluster thanks to the fading. Besides, if there's any polishing to be done, i really think i should start with the bodywork! Suppose i should wash it sometime soon, fed up with people asking what shade of brown it's meant to be!

[popuptoaster]

Hehehee.

[ton246]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Looks a lot better Tony - brighter, clearer, more "cared for".

This large shipment arriving soon - is it a "late delivery" of stuff you "previously ordered" by any chance?

Popuptoaster - i don't think any amount of polishing would help my rear light cluster thanks to the fading. Besides, if there's any polishing to be done, i really think i should start with the bodywork! Suppose i should wash it sometime soon, fed up with people asking what shade of brown it's meant to be!

That's what i'm telling the wife, then i'm . Put a cheeky bid in for ?, which turned out to be the highest bid, sorted. Just need to get some tyres now......Doh.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by ton246

That's what i'm telling the wife, then i'm . Put a cheeky bid in for ?, which turned out to be the highest bid, sorted. Just need to get some tyres now......Doh.

Tyres eh? Dare i say it (is your missus out of cyber-ear shot?) i find ebay about the best. Usually i get part worns with 6-7mm of tread at the best price i can. Sometimes it's a Buy it Now, other times it's a bidding war but i use Auction Stealer to place my highest bid at the last moment to minimise the financial damage. I've managed to re-tyre 2 cars and a trailer (including spares) for under £250 with Pirelli P6000s, my rubber of choice, with all tyres being at least 6mm except the spares where i've dropped to 4mm minimum although in practice they ended up as 5mm tread.
Given that the minimum legal tread level is 1.6mm (lthough i work to 2.0mm as a minimum), that gives me at least 4mm of tread to use out of a possible 6.4mm (new tyres are 8mm usually) so about 60-70% of it's normal life for about a quarter of the cost (new P6000s are usually close to £100 each in places like Fik-Wit etc) of new tyres.

Most tyre shops will do a "change-over" for about a tenner (fit your "new" tyre, valve and balance) but i built my own bead-breaker, bought some tyre levers (and some plastic tubing to go over them to protect the alloys), a valve fitting tool and a manual balanciing machine (actually a xmas pressie from an ex g/f) and designed and built my own tracking gauge making me pretty much self-sufficient as far as tyres go.

That said, both the bead-breaker and tracking gauge are showing the signs now of being prototypes so will be rebuilt/improved in due course. Then again, the money they've saved me will more than pay for that.

If you don't fancy building your own tools, you can buy them on ebay but i daresay your other half would need some convincing that they would pay for themselves. That said, they are a one-off purchase and can be used for other vehicles in your fleet, saving you even more money............

[ton246]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Tyres eh? Dare i say it (is your missus out of cyber-ear shot?) i find ebay about the best. Usually i get part worns with 6-7mm of tread at the best price i can. Sometimes it's a Buy it Now, other times it's a bidding war but i use Auction Stealer to place my highest bid at the last moment to minimise the financial damage. I've managed to re-tyre 2 cars and a trailer (including spares) for under £250 with Pirelli P6000s, my rubber of choice, with all tyres being at least 6mm except the spares where i've dropped to 4mm minimum although in practice they ended up as 5mm tread.
Given that the minimum legal tread level is 1.6mm (lthough i work to 2.0mm as a minimum), that gives me at least 4mm of tread to use out of a possible 6.4mm (new tyres are 8mm usually) so about 60-70% of it's normal life for about a quarter of the cost (new P6000s are usually close to £100 each in places like Fik-Wit etc) of new tyres.

Most tyre shops will do a "change-over" for about a tenner (fit your "new" tyre, valve and balance) but i built my own bead-breaker, bought some tyre levers (and some plastic tubing to go over them to protect the alloys), a valve fitting tool and a manual balanciing machine (actually a xmas pressie from an ex g/f) and designed and built my own tracking gauge making me pretty much self-sufficient as far as tyres go.

That said, both the bead-breaker and tracking gauge are showing the signs now of being prototypes so will be rebuilt/improved in due course. Then again, the money they've saved me will more than pay for that.

If you don't fancy building your own tools, you can buy them on ebay but i daresay your other half would need some convincing that they would pay for themselves. That said, they are a one-off purchase and can be used for other vehicles in your fleet, saving you even more money............

I'm with you on the part worn tyres, there is a local part worn tyre garage that i often use, and have had some great bargains. Alloys will need a refurbish first, before I put the tyres on, as i'm going to paint them myself, I was toying with what colour to do them. because the car is such a sh*t colour i'm thinking maybe anthracite or something along that line ?

[Laird Scooby]

Something i forgot to say is experience has taught me that the 740 really does benefit from having the same tyres all round (same goes for many other cars i've owned too) which can sometimes limit you when tyre hunting.

You could of course go into competition with that local garage and save yourself the profit they're making!

Anthracite would be a very good colour choice for your wheels (Vauxhall used to do a colour called Anthracite, is that the one you mean?) and i think if you use a clear gloss lacquer over it would give them a nice shiny appearance.

Other colours that come to mind that would go with your colour car would be silver, gold (might look tacky if it's the wrong shade though, a very light gold should work though) and a sort of Air Force blue or even a pale beige. The last two suggestions would probably be more suited to a car from the 1950's/60s to be honest although i think the colour combination would still work.

Out of all those, i think your idea of Anthracite would work best with your colour. I've thought of painting my wheels too but can't settle on a colour that would work so for now they're staying silver.

[ton246]

Finally managed to fit the passenger side rear light last night ( in between the downpours ), this is what greeted me when I removed the light, not sure what all the connections are, probably the tow bar ?




And both fitted.....

[Laird Scooby]

Looks loads better!

Surprised they took the feed for the towbar from the rear light clusters, they should really be up in the dash to bypass the bulb failure relay else you can get false larms and potential failure of it.

[ton246]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Looks loads better!

Surprised they took the feed for the towbar from the rear light clusters, they should really be up in the dash to bypass the bulb failure relay else you can get false larms and potential failure of it.

According to the receipt, the tow bar was installed in 1992, not that should make any difference. I think when i've nothing else better to spend my money on, I was going to get the electrics rewired for the tow bar.