ha – just over a year on since my last post, how time flies. And on the surface it might seem like little to no progress, but from other angles it might be massive progress.
My best friend got sick last year and died early this year and honestly I’ve been kind-of a mess ever since..which sorta explains where I’ve been the last 18mo. That was till about a month ago, where I seem to have turned a corner and since which time I’ve been hustling hard with work and pushing myself to get stuff done with the bikes + syncro.
The audi is now gone, breaks my heart to sell it for peanuts after the thousands I sank into it but thus endeth my most expensive vehicle lesson to date, and I’m trying to focus on the future.
Whilst going to pick up my latest bike purchase I realised that I really only have a very limited amount enthusiasm and resources for cars (vs bikes) so what I do have needs to stay 100% focussed on the syncro, which means realistically there’s no room for the audi. The audi was sold a few days later.
It’s not that I don’t like cars anymore – I absolutely do, but realistically the space, time, physical effort and cost involved with restoring and tuning cars is way more than I can really get into in my current circumstances, state of health and available time, which have just not really measured up to give me the sort of results I was hoping for, resulting in disappointment.
I got into working on cars because of rude golfs, big turbos and shiny exhausts etc but it’s taken all my effort and resources to just keep on top of the basic stuff – so it’s mostly been replacing broken clutches, restoring engine bays (idk how many I’ve done now) and replacing rusty sills. With the bike/s – they use less space, the engines are smaller and simpler and cost less, and as a result it’s meant I’ve actually been able to get stuck into more advanced tuning stuff which has been really rewarding and suits my budget and circumstances much better. They’re easier to transport and I can fit way more of them on the drive before my partner complains 😉 also – however fun I thought sliding around in cars was.. well somehow that’s actually even more fun (also terrifying) on a bike, albeit somewhat more perilous lol. I’d never trusted myself on a bike (with good reason) but for better or worse a couple of years ago that genie got let out of the bottle somehow and I’ve been on 2 wheels ever since.
The syncro is the one exception. My teacher, my tormentor, my heaven and my hell..I don’t plan on buying another car than the syncro, and whilst I’m happy on 2 wheels, I do still want to finish what I started with the syncro. Plus it’ll let me move bikes more easily on the trailer 😉
The money from the audi has funded building a front to my car port to turn it into the beginnings of a sort of workshop, which should hopefully mean I can get things like the tig welder set up more permanently. that should allow me to do more work with stainless, which is something I’ve always wanted to do, and possibly also give me a better space to potentially work on tuning other people’s bikes, which is something which has cropped up a few times recently and is a road I would really like to follow.
As it happens the workshop/tig thing also fits quite well with the syncro situation – because with now having the space to focus on it, I washed it at the weekend and realised that the downpipe does indeed still seem to be leaking (arg!), which means I’m going to have to either stick some gunk over the leak and hope the mot man doesn’t look too closely (this has already not worked once), or (more likely) go the turbo manifold route i.e. turbo manifold + weld together some bends with v-bands = nice downpipe which I can route exactly where I like.
I don’t really see a way of making the existing downpipe design much better (whilst mating to the original manifold) in the space available with the equipment/skills I have and whilst the turbo manifold solution wouldn’t be ideal from a gas flow/primaries-length pov, it should work reliably, plus it sorta paves the way for perhaps putting a turbo on it at a later date. I have a couple of turbos sat here and most of the other bits for a conversion so that’s not outside the real of possibility – and it would potentially simplify the exhaust pipework even further (e.g. side/bonnet exit).
At the moment the syncro is also a patchwork of colours – and whilst it’s not intended as a permanent solution I’m probably just going to fill and smooth and fill it as best I can and then spray it matt black (prob with cans even). It’ll be kinda crappy but still better than being 30 different colours, and I was sorta wondering about a post-apocalyptic vibe for it anyway (see pic). Once it’s got an mot then I can worry about making the paint nice if I feel like I want to go that way.
I have got 2k paints and the equipment & skills to spray them, and have done so several times in the past with a pretty decent level of success (in a makeshift booth on the driveway), but my partner is ill and part of that is a crazy hypersensitivity to solvents and smells, so 2k is probably out of the question for that reason if nothing else.
Priority needs to be on getting the syncro road legal and matt black from rattle cans will work just fine for that. I can rent a booth or whatever as needed if I feel the urge later.
er… that’s about it – I guess let’s see what happens next. I’m very happy with the current fleet, not looking to add any more currently, just focus on working on and improving what I have. Hopefully that works out somewhat…
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My website | My Youtube channel (both mostly bike related)
