Thanks option 2 it is!

Replaced broken speakers today overall much better and cleaner as expected

Last boost in quality will come from new head unit

With the speakers sorted this car only has 2 issues left


1. Ac leak - braze weld repair awaits

2. Map lights on ride side have a ground issue and do not illuminate when pressed both front and rear so they must share a common point I will likely ignore this hope to rectify it by accident somehow doing somthing else at some point


Girly touch is settled i could not find pink valve necks

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

The dreaded ac pipe repair

This car has 4 way ac so this pipe splits up in the bulkhead

One junction was completely inaccessible despite scratching my head for an hour with a borescope. The only access would be from below after removing downpipes.....

Nah eff that, inspired from another fullfat member i decided to cut a section away and pull the offending peice from the cut to condenser.

Having stared at the pipe the holes were too big to reliably try a brazing rod

I then spent the best part of the morning bending 10mm copper pipe with a old brake pipe bender that accepts 10mm

End results as follows oem bends and fitting bar the copper and compression joints

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

That will do the job nicely 👌 it's how I fix all of mine. It took 2 attemps to fill with gas only because the valve in the ac pump was stuck due to it being out of service for so long. Vacced out the 1st attempt via the machine yhen on yhe end attempt refilled in minutes.
Still ice cold

Thanks Dave you are now my Ac repair hero!

The love continues

Full drivers side and bootlid paint corrected and sealed

Fitted some chinese led replacements for the xenon and hi beam

This brand has been tested by some Russian engineer on youtube and it outputs much more light consistently

The paint came out amazing for some shed man elbow grease only one side to go and whole car is done bar the roof but not polishing or correcting that

I have to wait till tomorrow to test the new lights which im bizzarely excited about

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Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

They're the bulbs I've used, brilliant!! Drives:
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue - Stornoway Grey
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue SE - Zermatt Silver
1998 BMW E36 M3 GTII

Fantastic

Did you find them noticably brighter in use?

Yes, very!! And, if anything, the beam pattern is sharper. Drives:
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue - Stornoway Grey
2010 FFRR TdV8 Vogue SE - Zermatt Silver
1998 BMW E36 M3 GTII

Yes, best upgrade I've done to my car. Incredible difference.

Thanks guys

Having had a little drive last light

Low beams are noticeably brighter
The highbeams which work in tandem with low beam bi xenon setting is stupid bright!

Went to try get ac filled today

Car wouldn't maintain enough vaccum pressure

I think its meant to reach around negative 2 bar mine plataued at 0.87 for about 9 mins so i guess i try nip up all joints a bit more bought a 17mm stubby for this job alone or maybe i need higher quality joints 😔

Click image to enlarge

If you have a small air tank/compressor you can track down leaks using compressed air in the system. I made a small attachment up so i could fill the ac with good old air which helped me find my leak.

You may also need to nip up those compression fittings, did you use any jointy compound on those olives ? When you fitted them.

I have a fair sized air compressor i couldnt think of relevent fittings to adapt to test the line myself like this

No jointy compound as i cant imagine jointy compound resisting ac line high pressure like 200 psi as water pressure would be much lower

Maybe somthing like this to air quick connects?

https://amzn.eu/d/eLnjT1F

I always use fernox hawk white in my fittings it's rated for 5 bar for gas and 7 bar for water the actual fittings are rated at over 200 psi from memory and 10mm copper pipe over 1000 psi so either the fittings are not nipped up enuff or there is another leak.

You could use those and modify it to run low pressure air into the ac system you don't need a lot of pressure to fault find. I had a fuel pressure testing kit sitting on the shelf I used a fitting from that a bit of rubber hose and hey presto.