A new Vice- High class shed porn

This month I have been mainly ill – in-between passing stools like a veal calf for the last couple of weeks I spotted an advert in the local paper for “Engineers Vice for sale”  said vice turned out to be a beauty No 1 in size  with those lovely words cast on its body “Made in England”  £20 later it was in the boot of the car and I was in the shed re-cycling old pallets into a “New” bench hefty enough to take the beast – see pictures!

When I'm feeling a bit better work will recommence on the Slag with insertion of new floors as these might come in useful for the 2010 RBR I have entered the car for !

will this work?

Smoke me a kipper I will be back for breakfast”..10 CR and all that

 

Well it's been a long time since I've updated the blog most of that time was used up being Daddy to new baby No3 and getting the Taxi ready for the 10CR as well as starting a new job

The list of jobs getting the car ready went something like this-

Replace the diff oil seals –I pinched the stag diff (3.7:1) Not only to drop the ratios for the 10CR hills but to make life difficult for myself as a stud for the rear mount plate stripped, ah I thought no bother I will use the casing from the 3.45 unit I've just taken off the car-nope the casing is a different shape! Bollocks off down to Tipton Garage for the heli-coil treatment

I fitted the stag brakes –I got the discs skimmed prior to fitting and rebuilt the callipers and of course fitted new bearings

  

Original Mk 1 skinny "I've just had a moment" disc and Skimmed Stag disc/ calliper being fitted

Next job on the list was a carb re-build and rolling road session-It ran so much sweeter with new jets, spindles, throttle butterflies etc I set it up by ear then took it down to the rolling road where we soon discovered the foam air filters I had put on over the Calver tuning stub stacks where getting sucked into the carbs and cutting the power off at the top end –watch the dials in the vid clip RR017 the power drops off a cliff before the throttle is lifted that's the moment the filter gets sucked into the carb!

So with the filters removed and some richer needles fitted the old £50 second hand lump was knocking out 130 bhp, the only trouble being no air filters! Ho hum time to shed up another air box/cold air intake idea, which resulted in three holes cut into the front nose cone –more of that later as I had an M.O.T to get it through, which it did with reasonable ease, only a few advisories-headlight alignment, wheel bearing, and track rod ends all those jobs where sorted –the wheel bearing was brand new and I should have nipped it up a bit more when fitting

All this tinkering had to be done outside as the Slag had spread its self all over the garage floor-I found a £9.99 B+Q gazebo provided the best protection from the glorious British Summer we were having

(The best thing about this summer was we stuffed the Aussies at the cricket)

Anyway due to lots of grown up stuff getting in the way I didn't really get the chance to give the car a good 200 mile or so test run my fiendish idea of a "Breakfast Club" meet didn't happen due to lack of time –this is still a something I want to organise so those who were up for it the first time get in touch and we will get something sorted

Before I knew it homer was here and we were packing the car ready for the run the first thing that went wrong was on the Tuesday night on a 10pm run to 24hr Tesco's to get some bread and milk I had forgotten to buy earlier-the oil pressure gauge pipe came loose on the engine block T piece resulting in complete loss of oil and me begging a Tesco's night manager to open up the forecourt shop to sell me some cheap oil to get me home- which he did

We decided to drive to the London Wednesday evening for the Thursday morning start staying the night at the "hotel grot" at South Mimms services

The run went really well for the most part- our biggest problem came through the night on the way to the Condom halt –leaving the Motorway to find the halt tucked away behind a graveyard Ben applied the brakes only to find they were pulling really badly to the driver's side – my thoughts were full of leaking callipers but on investigation we found a leaky oil temperature probe housing had covered the passenger side hub, disc, calliper and wheel with oil

In my tired state I looped out the oil cooler and housing whilst Homer cleaned the disc and replaced the disc pads-what I should have done is simply taken out the temp probe housing as I had a section of pipe to do just that but my head was in a sleepless spin – not having the cooler working caused problems later on the oil pressure dropped off going up the Pyrenees and on the high speed blast to miss the Hotel junction at Beziers the pressure was only around 30 psi

After getting grumpy and kicking the car things improved we got a free upgrade at the hotel to a semi decent room and with a clear head in the morning oil cooler piped back up it improved the pressure –we now had a healthy 50 psi hot above 2,000 rpm, the crank made a few rattles but it was still working

I will write more about the rest of the run in my next post in the mean time have a look at this clip to give you a taste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XumwjjxB8IU

testing!

---

New! Receive and respond to mail from other email accounts from within Hotmail Find out how.

Bill sodding gates

Just trying to work out how to add pictures to my blog using the microshite word template

“Smoke me a kipper I will be back for breakfast”..10 CR and all that

Well it's been a long time since I've updated the blog most of that time was used up being Daddy to new baby No3 and getting the Taxi ready for the 10CR as well as starting a new job

The list of jobs getting the car ready went something like this-

Replace the diff oil seals –I pinched the stag diff (3.7:1) Not only to drop the ratios for the 10CR hills but to make life difficult for myself as a stud for the rear mount plate stripped, ah I thought no bother I will use the casing from the 3.45 unit I've just taken off the car-nope the casing is a different shape! Bollocks off down to Tipton Garage for the heli-coil treatment

I fitted the stag brakes –I got the discs skimmed prior to fitting and rebuilt the callipers and of course fitted new bearings

 

Mk 1 skinny "I've just had a moment" disc and Stag disc and calliper being fitted

Next job on the list was a carb re-build and rolling road session-It ran so much sweeter with new jets, spindles, throttle butterflies etc I set it up by ear then took it down to the rolling road where we soon discovered the foam air filters I had put on over the Calver tuning stub stacks where getting sucked into the carbs and cutting the power off at the top end –watch the dials in the vid clip RR017 the power drops off a cliff before the throttle is lifted that's the moment the filter gets sucked into the carb!

 

So with the filters removed and some richer needles fitted the old £50 second hand lump was knocking out 130 bhp, the only trouble being no air filters! Ho hum time to shed up another air box/cold air intake idea, which resulted in three holes cut into the front nose cone –more of that later as I had an M.O.T to get it through, which it did with reasonable ease, only a few advisories-headlight alignment, wheel bearing, and track rod ends all those jobs where sorted –the wheel bearing was brand new and I should have nipped it up a bit more when fitting

All this tinkering had to be done outside as the Slag had spread its self all over the garage floor-I found a £9.99 B+Q gazebo provided the best protection from the glorious British Summer we were having

 

(The best thing about this summer was we stuffed the Aussies at the cricket)

Anyway due to lots of grown up stuff getting in the way I didn't really get the chance to give the car a good 200 mile or so test run my fiendish idea of a "Breakfast Club" meet didn't happen due to lack of time –this is still a something I want to organise so those who were up for it the first time get in touch and we will get something sorted

Before I knew it homer was here and we were packing the car ready for the run the first thing that went wrong was on the Tuesday night on a 10pm run to 24hr Tesco's to get some bread and milk I had forgotten to buy earlier-the oil pressure gauge pipe came loose on the engine block T piece resulting in complete loss of oil and me begging a Tesco's night manager to open up the forecourt shop to sell me some cheap oil to get me home- which he did

We decided to drive to the London Wednesday evening for the Thursday morning start staying the night at the "hotel grot" at South Mimms services

The run went really well for the most part- our biggest problem came through the night on the way to the Condom halt –leaving the Motorway to find the halt tucked away behind a graveyard Ben applied the brakes only to find they were pulling really badly to the driver's side – my thoughts were full of leaking callipers but on investigation we found a leaky oil temperature probe housing had covered the passenger side hub, disc, calliper and wheel with oil

In my tired state I looped out the oil cooler and housing whilst Homer cleaned the disc and replaced the disc pads-what I should have done is simply taken out the temp probe housing as I had a section of pipe to do just that but my head was in a sleepless spin – not having the cooler working caused problems later on the oil pressure dropped off going up the Pyrenees and on the high speed blast to miss the Hotel junction at Beziers the pressure was only around 30 psi

After getting grumpy and kicking the car things improved we got a free upgrade at the hotel to a semi decent room and with a clear head in the morning oil cooler piped back up it improved the pressure –we now had a healthy 50 psi hot above 2,000 rpm, the crank made a few rattles but it was still working

I will write more about the rest of the run in my next post in the mean time have a look at this clip to give you a taste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XumwjjxB8IU

I dont belive it!....

Well after hours and hours of cutting out rusty botches, getting covered in sparks from removing the remnants of old brazed sections-why is it the hottest sparks always land in your ears? -fabricating repair sections etc etc guess what!?.....the inner sill its tacked into position and to top it off the door still bloody fits! -so progress at last

Not quite so scary hole...

Photos show home made repair box section going in -it was lined up using my "sub frame jig",the welds need a clean up with the grinder and then its seam sealer,primer paint etc inside the box section

The inner sill clamps into position nicely,so next jobs are to clean up the A post area to allow the inner sill to be welded in, then the floors ,outriggers outer sill blah blah etc etc . It might just be ready for 2010 RBR!

Once I get the sill on I will be concentrating my time on preparing the "Taxi" for its 10CR trip

-this week I have mainly been in the shed after about 9.00pm for a couple of hours each evening,I have discovered a new trick if I make a couple of crash bangs in the shed around 9.50pm it sets off a neighbours dog barking for about an hour or so -which then gives me the ideal cover to carry on with noisy jobs!

Scary hole

Progress has been plodding along in the shed I have moved on from "gunk" flavoured Rizla cigarette papers to a new blend of "tint of Jizer" degreasant following MoleValleys latest reduction in cost on a gallon of the stuff,I feel it gives a more upmarket and rounded taste to the pallet only fitting when you have cars of the class of a Stag in the shed.Tinkering on the 1967 2000 (Known as the "Cairo Taxi") has also got under way in preparation for this years 10CR with the fitting of a working rev counter different steering wheel and replacement of a dodgy overdrive inhibitor switch ,other jobs on the list for the Taxi Replace diff oil seals Fit stag front brakes-After refurbishing calipers,discs and replacing hub bearings Replace carb (HS6) butterfly's and throttle spindles Refurbish brake and clutch master cylinders Fit recliner drivers seat

The discs will live to fight another day just a light skim is needed to get them usable -looking back through the cars history they were replaced in 2000 and done all of 3,000 miles! The calipers gave up their rusty pistons after a two day battle- which I won ,then the sodding boy racer fairy broke into the shed and covered them in "fire red" paint-least he made a good job of it and all I need do is fit the new seal kit and replacement pistons The history file made interesting reading I noted the diff was replaced in 1996 and has only covered 20,000 miles so that will be the one going into the "Taxi" (with new oil seals) this will offset the 14" wheels and give it a bit of help up the steep alpine passes Ellis has planned for us on the 10CR - the higher ratio 2.5 (3.45:1) diff will find its way into the stag to keep the cruising revs down on its RV8 engine coupled to LT77 box

In between those tinkerings I have been setting fire to my overalls and getting on with the welding repairs to the Stag -I note from the cars history- 2003 MOT failure sheet "excess corrosion " N/S rear suspension I wonder if this is when the botcher did his worst and used the paint tin lid for the rear spring locator ..twat!

Anyway you can see some progress below in repairing the body-long way to go yet but I hope to have the repair sections in by the end of the week and the inner sill on,I'm looking forward to my two weeks paternity leave to get the floors in!

This gives me some decent metal to weld the homemade repair sections to

This is the homemade section in position,the sub frame mount strengthener came from a complete inner and outer sill section bought second hand which all though I haven't used for the sills it has given up valuable guidance as to how originals were meant to fit-(original patterns etc had be lost under two and sometimes three layers of botched repairs)- it will also provide sections that can be used for repairing the bottom of the A and B posts if needed

Above homemade repair section for the rear sub frame mount using metal of a suitable thickness as apposed to the previous "repair" covered in my other posts

Repair sections going in

Scary hole exposed !

Jiggy Jiggy ....

Jiggy Jiggy-Jig made by lining up lengths of straight bar on the assembled sub frame and diff (off the car) welding to form a triangle with holes located to line up with the diff mounts at the rear and the sub frame mounts at the front...oh you know what I mean look at the picture speaks for its self!

This one speaks for its self in fact it shouts - a great shot of what I am up against -these are previous repairs made to the box section-theory not bad but execution bollocks look how skinny the metal is that's been used and they couldn't be arsed even to paint it afterwards let alone cut all the rust out

Above the jig in action helping me locate where the sub frame mount should be

Also can I say Bastard M5 and Bastard billsoddinggatesvista operating system -If it wasn't for those two I might have got more done this week instead of sitting on the M5 then having to waste an evening reformatting my lap top (I had everything backed up this time!)

Believe it or not I am not feeling so grumpy about the Stag

I have conceded that it wont be ready for the 10CR,and it will be a rewarding challenge just to get it back on the road ,grumpy that I let my heart rule my head when I bought it and grumpy that I let it get in the way of sorting the estate but never mind I will get there in the end

I'm looking forward to tinkering with the Taxi getting it ready for the 10cr,Its going to borrow the Stags front brakes for the run

A botch too far...

The Taxi above will now be the chosen one for Homers and mine third 10 CR in Sept Repairs to N/S box section / sub frame mounts are under way above-The plan (apart from being a slow one! ) is now I am happy with the location of the inner sill fix it in position with a few small welds along with the two cross members that span from sill to center chassis / tunnel -this will allow a fit check of the floor pans and door opening Then finish off the repairs to the box section / sub frame mount which thanks to the mother of all previous botches will be no short job - the O/S needs the same amount of work, so with other commitments pressing I have decided to use the Taxi for the 10cr and do a "propar jarb" on the Stag and it will be ready when its ready! This is the botch I am on about - the lower section of metal was part of the old box section the sub frame is mounted to-look how thin the metal is compared to an original section above-someone has repaired the end 6"of N/S and O/S box section using this paperpissthin metal and the same standard of repair was applied to the ends of now removed inner and outer sills,its left me pissing in the wind a bit as the original pattern for repair sections and dimensions has been lost,so I shall make a jig (to nights job) the same dimensions of the sub frame diff assembly bolt it to the car to help me locate the new sub frame mount and new box section -which I am making using the correct thickness of metal-Roll on 2010 round Britain run -that's when I reckon the car will be finished! Taken from inside the car this is my new repair section to the top of the box section -note new inner sill in background- also note the old rusty failed botched repair has been completely cut out the repair section HASN'T been braised and it is of metal of the correct gauge! something of a new experience for this car!