Tme to Own up

Hi folks
I have asked for assistance a couple of times and have much appreciated the help.
I now publicly confess that the 1997 P38 2.5 DSE Auto (143,000 miles)which I was asking about was in fact my son in laws whose mechanical abilities end at putting the key in the ignition. I have been carrying out the work under the guidance of your good selves. My abilities are limited but my enthusiasm and bloody mindedness are all that keep me going.
ADVICE 1. :
I am pleased to say that the vehicle is now mine. He has just gone and got himself a Porsche Boxster (2008). He managed to ding the drivers side wing and the bonnet of the P 38 last week. I am now about to remove and replace wing : will remove bonnet and send to local garage for straightening. Any advice appreciated.
I have RAVE, a decent garage and an amateur assortment of tools .
ADVICE 2. :
I am going to take the RR off road for a couple of months while I go round it tidying it up generally . Any advice on laying up appreciated.
ADVICE 3. It's clear from everything I read here that a fault reader will be necessary. Advice appreciated.

Now that I've admitted the above I feel that I can take my rightful place in this gathering of the bewildered.
TAKdriver

you will need the eka code or keep a constant low level cahrge into the battery!!! after a week or so the battery will be flat!!

if you can lay it up inside with doors open, also you might aswell sort out the coolant, put in a 50/50 mix of coolant/water.

windsceen weasher needs new liquid in!

mightaswell leave oil as there will be no use changing it then to change it again when yer ready to get it back on road.

you could do with jacking it up to take pressure off tyres.

you need something to keep damp out, if you have a dehumidifier just chuck that in there and run it every couple of days or mebbe 1nce a week.

give it a good valet, cover seats, cover carpets as you will end up chucking loads of crap in there as you fix bits and remove bits.

wash and polish outside wax it heavily then cover in placcy sheets, the see throuch stuff you get in b n q for dust sheets, tape it up where possible and dont forget to tape accross the sheets to add strength, leave access where needed. all black plastics and interior trim can be treated with baby oil to keep it all nice and clean, stops dust sticking if you apply then wipe off with a clean dry cloth!

lube the door hinges and a bit od wd40 in drivers lock and door latch areas wont hurt!

finally anything else that you see either needs lube or cleaning/protecting. dont forget to line the boot with plastic then old sheets, stops anything spilling into carpet. run fuel as low as poss so it doesnt freeze over winter or go off!

If your thinking of sorting out a bonnet, rather than go to the expense of a respray and getting new front decal, do what i did, buy a good second hand one, (obviously the same colour) and just swap it over, this is what i did and saved a lot on time and cash, the whole job took less than 20 mins, just be careful when you take the jet washers off from the pipes, there brittle and will brake easily, (don't ask how i know this :5bblush5: ) just the decal can cost over £60, i got the bonnet for £50 and it was almost in perfect condition

Thanks Dopey.
Are spare bonnets easily come by ? I haven't had occasion to explore the 2nd hand market. Any pointers gratefully received. Thanks for the advice.
TAKdriver

Thanks Gav. Exactly the kind of stuff I needed to be told.
I have the eka code :
2 questions : first might sound a bit daft but how do you jack it up ? I saw some stuff about jacking causing problems with height sensors etc. I have a trolley jack and axle stands : do I just let it sit on the stands ?
second : battery charger is handy for the engine compartment : can I just connect neg to a body earth, pos to battery-pos and let it trickle charge ? I expect to be putting a new battery in before I put it on the road in a few months time.
Thanks again.
TAKdriver

Jacking needs to be done on the axles, not body otherwise you could damage the air bags (as well as needing to lift it a long way), but it should be fine sitting on stands (again not on body). I'll defer to Gav on the virtues/pitfalls of leaving it permanently on trickle charge.

Nothing wrong with leaving the battery on trickle charge with it in situ as long as the charger is the auto cut out type which automatically switches on & off rather than the permanently on type.

Running the engine until the temperature is up to normal, say once every Month will do no harm, it will blow any condensation out of the engine & exhaust, plus get the oil around and leave a coating on the bearings and cylinders etc. Also run the aircon for a couple of minutes at the same time, this will ensure that the Compressor inners are lubricated, lot's of people overlook this in the Autumn/Winter.

Thanks Irish.
Any advice on how to get bottom end of front wing off : it seems to be locked into the continuous rubbing strip which runs the full length.
Re battery charge I've got one of the Halfords ones which has an led marked " monitoring" or something like that which I would imagine is a trickle maintenance after fully charged. Should it be OK to connect up direct to both terminals with the battery still connected to car ?
Thanks for your help.
TAKdriver

TAKdriver said:

Thanks Irish.
Any advice on how to get bottom end of front wing off : it seems to be locked into the continuous rubbing strip which runs the full length.
Re battery charge I've got one of the Halfords ones which has an led marked " monitoring" or something like that which I would imagine is a trickle maintenance after fully charged. Should it be OK to connect up direct to both terminals with the battery still connected to car ?
Thanks for your help.
TAKdriver

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do as gav and irish suggest,but in my opinion i would deffinatley change the engine oil before laying it up.old engine oil have got acids in it from being used,this acid can eat into the soft bearings in an engine.so for the sake of a few quid i would change the oil and filter then run the engine up to temp then lay it up,you will then have fresh clean oil on all bearing surfaces.

Thanks Gemsdad. I think I'll follow your advice re oil change. It hasn't had a change in some time and it can do no harm to get the old stuff out + fresh oil while it sits up.
Any comment re connecting the battery charger while battery is still connected ?

TAKdriver said:

Thanks Gemsdad. I think I'll follow your advice re oil change. It hasn't had a change in some time and it can do no harm to get the old stuff out + fresh oil while it sits up.
Any comment re connecting the battery charger while battery is still connected ?

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ok about the oil change,it is well worth it believe me.i had my BECM burnt out through using a starter/charger on my p38.it cost nearly 400 pounds to have it re-built,when i got it back the fitting instructions stated that the earth strap had to be connected first not the live as you would normally do.when you connect the earth first this allows any leccy spikes/surges to run to earth first not via a leccy component.

Hi gemsdad and thanks for your last message re order for charger. That's the kind of detail that a duffer like me wouldn't think about.
If your ever in Scotlandshire I owe you a pint.
Thanks also for taking the trouble to mention it on the other forum which I just joined last night ! Was surprised to get my first message so quickly.
I'm just pottering about trying to put the P38 into shape with v. limited knowledge but it's nice being able to do that without having to rely on it every day and it might just be that if I take my time and follow advice I might just emerge at the end of it with a decent machine.
Thanks again.
TAK

TAKdriver said:

Hi gemsdad and thanks for your last message re order for charger. That's the kind of detail that a duffer like me wouldn't think about.
If your ever in Scotlandshire I owe you a pint.
Thanks also for taking the trouble to mention it on the other forum which I just joined last night ! Was surprised to get my first message so quickly.
I'm just pottering about trying to put the P38 into shape with v. limited knowledge but it's nice being able to do that without having to rely on it every day and it might just be that if I take my time and follow advice I might just emerge at the end of it with a decent machine.
Thanks again.
TAK

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your welcome mate.