As you might be able to tell, I have a new camera lens. I've been using a Canon 50mm F1.8, one of the really cheap ones but it has served me well. Until dropped it. Again. This time it was terminal. And a replacement was required. I found cheap F1.4 50 on eBay. It just needed a quick clean as it has some dust in it...
IMG_8481 by
Chris Upton, on Flickr
Which is why most of the pics below have a really shallow depth of field - I was mostly shooting at f1.4, just to get a feel for the lens. They're not the best photos I've taken. The depth of field is difficult to manage at 1.4, mainly because I was shooting subjects up close.
Anyway. Back to the Maserfarti...
2 simple jobs. The air con was broken and the parking sensors weren't working properly.
I'll start with the air con. The problem with this was fairly obvious. The car's outside temp reading, which is displayed in the instrument cluster, was all over the place from -40 deg c to around +5 indicating a problem with the temp sender which is housed in the driver's door mirror.
IMG_3914 by
Zombie, on Flickr
Or course, removing the door mirror requires removing the door card. again. Frankly, I'm getting fed up with taking the door cards off cars at the moment.
IMG_3915 by
Zombie, on Flickr
IMG_3929 by
Zombie, on Flickr
Of course, with the mirror off, the simple job escalated. It turned out that the mechanic that adjusts the mirror angle (they're electrically adjustable, heated and folding) was broken.
IMG_3934 by
Zombie, on Flickr
You'll have to play spot the difference here. There's 2 motors with integrated reduction gearboxes that move the mirror glass in the X and Y planes:
IMG_3944 by
Zombie, on Flickr
They operate on racks with ball joints that snap into black donut that retains the glass. The ball joints had snapped off but the mirror would still move. Which is why I hadn't noticed there was a problem with it.
Broken mechanism;
IMG_3937 by
Zombie, on Flickr
IMG_3938 by
Zombie, on Flickr
And this is what it is supposed to look like:
IMG_3936 by
Zombie, on Flickr
Obviously we found a solution in that the door mirror is shared with an Alfa 166 but the electric folding mechanism is not common on 166s. In addition the wiring to the motors is not the same as the spare door mirrors we did have. So fixing this was quite involved. But it is fixed.
Replacing the temp sender was straight forward:
IMG_3950 by
Chris Upton, on Flickr
IMG_3946 by
Zombie, on Flickr
Obviously, all the bits removed were cleaned up before being refitted as well.
2nd Job. Parking sensors. We ken that one sensor wasn't working properly and that this wa causing the system to intermittently think there was an object within the minimum distance.
Therefore replacement required. Another simple task, except for the fact the rear bumper needs to come off. Which means dismantling the boot. Again.
IMG_3910 by
Zombie, on Flickr
IMG_3942 by
Zombie, on Flickr
IMG_3961 by
Zombie, on Flickr
predictable, it kept raining as soon as significant amount of parts accumulated on the drive necessitating everything to be gently placed back into the boot about 10 times over...
IMG_3953 by
Zombie, on Flickr
My Dad and I have had this job mapped out for some time. New parking sensor acquired. Painted. Wiring identified and accounted for.
Sensor changed... Bumper about to go back on, but not before a quick clean;
IMG_3958 by
Zombie, on Flickr
IMG_3957 by
Zombie, on Flickr