Amazon: New (to me) 1963 Volvo 122

[Othen]

Originally Posted by packers1712

Alan,

You certainly can cut them down we do it regularly at work sometimes its quite tricky calculating how much to trim off, I guess the easiest way is to thread the switch into the helicoil and mark it assuming the thread doesn't protrude below the casing its to be mounted in!

Good luck!

Doug.

Many thanks Doug, that is exactly what I needed to know.

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

... The tyres cost me £130/set delivered, similar ones from F1 would have been about £260 fitted; the tyre changer was £58 and the balancer £79 - so the new tools have almost paid for themselves already - I'm just £7 down, throw in a few valves and weights and I'm only a tenner in the red. The good bit is I can fit more tyres at minimal cost, like this set of 205/55R16 winter tyres I bought for only £110/set to replace the Skoda's winter boots:

:-)

Alan

Carrying on from my tyre changer/wheel balancer post...

Today was a second wasted day waiting for Amazon (the Prime sort, not the Volvo) to deliver a new cell phone. I waited in all day yesterday (it has to be signed for) but I'm pretty sure it was pilfered. Amazon says it is still on its way today, but I think the only place it is on its way to is being sold in the pub. Ho hum, anyway, I thought I might as well do something useful, so I have changed the Skoda's winter tyres for new ones.

I bought the old (Yokahama) winter tyres with a set of steel wheels for just £50, I only really wanted the steel wheels but the tyres were okay and I have got two winters use out of them. They are 10 years old now, two have been repaired and they are starting to crack a little - time to change them thought I (but I certainly got my money's worth out of them!).

This set of tyres took me less than half as long to change as did the ones on GAM. Partly this was due to the 6.5J wheels being much easier to work with than the skinny rims on GAM, but mostly it was down to me mastering taking off and fitting tyres.



The tyre changer really does make things easy. The old tyres were off in perhaps half an hour, then I gave the outside of the rims of lick of black Hamerite paint (brushed) and left them to dry on Dan's trampoline whilst Bob and I went for a walk.

The new winter tyres were easy: new valves, tyres fitted and inflated took perhaps 15 minutes each. The tyre balancer only takes a few minutes per wheel once it is set up:



I perhaps missed a trick in that I put half the weights on the outside of the rim and half on the inside - as I had to with GAM's small wheels. On the much wider 6.5J wheels there would have been plenty of room to put them all in the middle, out of sight.



I'm really happy with the outcome: the new tyres for the Skoda were only £110/set, and they are proper directional winter tyres. That is about the same as I pay to have one of the Skoda's Continental summer tyres supplied and fitted. Apart from about a fiver for some valves and weights that was the entire cost of a new set of winter tyres. I reckon my tyre changing machine and balancer have paid for themselves already.

:-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

PS. A small issue I have is the spare wheel still has a 165/80 tyre. It would be fine as a get you home repair, although the steering might be a bit wayward with a 1" larger tyre in one corner!

One issue with the 175 section tyres is that they are just (by millimetres) too wide for the spare wheel well. As a compromise I've bought a 165/60 tyre (same brand and type as the 175 section tyres) for the spare. It will end up being a 'space saver' but only 6mm less radius than the others, so almost indistinguishable I think.

:-)