Dexter - '86 AeroDeck

[Monzta]

I know of 8 manual ones in the UK. The 3 that are on here now, the one from eBay, 1 in London, 2 in Scotland and 1 I saw on eBay about 6 months ago that I don't know the owner of.

It would be interesting to collate the AeroDecks together now there are so few left. A photo, reg number and where it currently is. Might be nice to keep a track of the last few.

[Monzta]

Ongoing story of Dexter ...

The first few days after buying Dexter I just tooled about in him getting a feel for what needed doing and just generally luxuriating in finally having an AeroDeck after all these years.

Job #1 for me has always is getting some sounds in. Dexter came with the original Honda radio/cassette but with the e/aerial stuck in a position of four inches extended I was struggling to pick up any decent signal. As for cassettes, the only one in the house was my wife's old reflexology tape. Very relaxing to listen to but it carried a very real risk of me being zonked out every time I stopped at traffic lights.

So out went the original HU and in went a Kenwood CD/tuner with USB port that I had hanging around in the garden shed. There was a bit of a faff regarding connecting the Kenwood into the existing loom that required buying an adapter but in no time I was listening to my favourite toons on my memory stick.

At 27 years old I was expecting the original paper cone speakers to be crumblier than the crumble on an apple crumble but surprisingly they were pretty damn good. A nice sound all round so long as it's not cranked up too high. It'll certainly do for now until more important things are attended to. Then maybe a nice set of components and a small amp will find their way in.




Job #2 was to sort out a tickover problem when hot. I noticed that the pipework that brings air into the engine bay all the way up the the airbox was missing. I guessed this was causing a heatsoak problem.



A request on here was answered and before I knew it I was at @NafemanNathan's house getting the one of his spares Deck. When I got home I found it didn't fit. It seems there are some small differences between early models like mine and later AeroDecks. Luckily enough an email to the guy I bought the car from had him rooting through his garage and he found the original pipe in a box of bits ... must've forgotten to refit it when he fitted the new air filter. He posted it to me and a few days later it was back under my bonnet where it should be. Engine still runs lumpy on tickover though so that's another job to deal with later.

While under the bonnet I decided to give it the mother of all clean ups. Years of grot was washed away and it actually scrubbed up very nicely. It'll need a few more goes though before I'm happy.

Future jobs to do:

• Sort lumpy idling.
  Bodywork scabby ... need to dig at it and see how bad. I see pound signs floating in front of my eyes.
  Clutch very high ... new clutch in due course.
  ALB light on most of the time.
  Slow puncture on one of the original 13" steel wheels ... need to source alloys.
  E/aerial seized.
  Slight clunk from front suspension.

I'm sure other stuff will appear to keep me busy and poor as time passes.

[becca]

I've had the ALB kick in in the Spare and it's.... urrrrr... different haha! It doesn't actually stop you skidding as such it just makes sure you skid in a perfectly straight line... And kind of feels like a learner driver has taken control and is bunny hopping about!

[NafemanNathan]

Quite happy mine never worked either then

[bb1boy]

I had ABS on my old Calibra, did an emergency stop, went over a drain cover, ABS fires up and drives me straight into a Fiesta! Without ABS I'd have stopped short.

[Monzta]

No chance of seeing if my ALB works properly. The abysmal set of YingYong Flipflop radials that came with my alloys are like driving on marbles at the best of times.

I need to get my ContiSport 2s on before the weather closes in.

[NafemanNathan]

Glenn, my Aerodeck still hasn't gone if you still wanted to pop over to rob it of it's sunroof slider.

[Monzta]

Glenn, my Aerodeck still hasn't gone if you still wanted to pop over to rob it of it's sunroof slider.

Yes please Nathan. I planned to do it last week then things went off the rails here and I lost my opportunity ... or so I thought.

I'll nip down in the morning sometime if that's OK. Will you be there or shall I just crack on and help myself?

[NafemanNathan]

Stace will be in, so I'll let her know, but just crack on. If the curtains are drawn it means she's not up

[Monzta]

I'll use my silenced screwdrivers just in case.