Clearing some space..................

I just noticed how long it was since I last updated my blog!!! Sorry about that, been busy...........!

So, first off........ its official. I have the BEST wife in the world!! She took me Christmas shopping a few weeks ago and bought me my present!!

How about this then? Top wife!! Nice big tool cabinet. Spent a very pleasant few hours polishing all my spanners and finding places for things!

So, to making space. Some of you will know why and what I am making space for!! Those of you who don't yet know....... watch this space and all will be revealed in about 2 weeks!

"Eric", the Scottish PI has gone to a new home. It needed an MOT first. Nothing major, headlight aim, handbrake and front flexihoses........... simple really! Bradley (featured on here quite a bit!) took an immediate liking to Eric and pestered me ever since then to sell him Eric........... so I did!

The more observant of you will have noticed that Eric is the car I am entered into the 2010 RBRR in, but being as Bradley is my co-pilot it really doesn't matter who owns the car (this was Bradley's argument for buying it when I protested it was by Round Britain Car!!) Anyway, we are hoping to change our RBRR entry to a different car..... again, more in about 2 weeks!!

So, MOT and sold. Bradley was overjoyed at having another 2500, he took it home and polished it! (I think he may have been hanging around me too often).... anyway, I have to say, being as I never even washed it, never mind polished it, in the time I owned it.... it came up really well!

So, bit more space needed........ time for Sam's Moggy to go...........................

Yeah, right!!! Sam would get rid of me before she got rid of her Moggy. She has owned "Madison" since she was 18, so its safe to say its not going anywhere!

It did go to Lichfield today, to spend the winter at my Mum's house. My Mum has a big double garage and we usually keep the Moggy in her garage for the winter, as we usually have more cars than garages! So, little trip this morning. I took it for an MOT on Wednesday, and was horrified to find it had done 107 miles since its last MOT............ 70 of those were the trip to and from my Mum's last year!!

Still needed a bit more room......... caravan to go now!! Back to my Mum's!!! She has a proper caravan "pad" down the side of her house, tucked away nice and safe so our caravan usually spends the winter there too!!
First time I had towed with the new Audi and I was very surprised how good it was. Nice and stable, plenty of power and very relaxing............. fantastic!!

So, that's it for now............ more updates just before Christmas when I will introduce the latest project......!

Oot 'n' Aboot

Like the title? Say it with a Scottish Brogue and you get the idea!.. having a McTriumph is starting to get to me I think!

Poking around Eric the other day I discovered why it handles so well........ its got Spax allround and the front end is Polybushed! The trailing arms could do with polybushing and the driveshafts are a bit sticky....... normal big 6 twitchy back end! The more I find on this car, the bigger bargain it becomes!



I did a photoshoot with Practical Classics last week, and one of the other guys who was there emailed me this photo.................... can anyone work out what we were trying to do?? Answers, well..... look on the front cover of the October 2009 issue of Practical Classics and you'll find out (due out mid Sept!)

Last night is was our local classic car meet. Hundreds and hundreds of classics of all shapes and sizes for an informal evening meet........ 2nd Tuesday at Becketts Farm (A435 on the B'ham side of the M42 if anyone fancies popping down one evening!) Sam decided she would come and bring the Moggy...... thats TWICE in one week its been out!! I took Eric along............




Malcolm was there in his MKI that I was working on last Sunday. the non running turned out to be a dodgy set of points...... so we replaced them with a luminition kit he had bought... job done! Also met up with Tony Edgeworth, another of our 2000 owning friends......... and Sam's parents were there. Her Mum took her Stag and her Dad bought his PI estate........... see, I married good stock!

Tinkering.........

So, MOT time for the Red PI.............. ummmmmm, oh yeah........ got 2 Red PI's now!! (I mean the nice one, not Eric the McTriumph!!)

Sailed through, advisory on one rear wheel bearing which has some play in it.............. time to do both driveshafts then I think!

Nice piccie of both of them on the drive. (note, one is clean and polished, one is not!)

So today tinkered with Eric. Popped over to see Craig and blagged a servo from him and changed the servo........... wahay! We have brakes that work now! Abley assisted by my nephew Adam (working weekends at Sam's hotel as a waiter and spends moost Friday nights/Saturday mornings with us now) and Bradley................. in this shot Adam is taking off the air filter housing (he's gotta learn spannering sometime!) and Bradley, nicely displaying his "Car tinkerer's Arse" just finishing connecting up the servo.

Next the column bush. There is a large grommet type bush that holds the column steady as it passes through the bulkhead. When this is worn, the column moves around............ remains of the old one next to the new polybush one and you can clearly see why the steering column was wobbling about!!

After that I straightened up the steering wheel (3 splines out......... I HATE not having a straight wheel!) and then sorted the stereo out so that it feeds from an ignitioned live rather than direct off the battery.

Then Sam announced that she was going to use the Moggy to take Adam to work........... I nearly fell off my perch.......... she was actually going to DRIVE it!!!!!............... so out it came from the garage and off she went......... nice trial run for the new rear shocks.

Handles much better now, but the exhaust is clonking on the new rear crossmember, needs some slight adjustment but apart from that, its great!

Tomorrow, off into Birmingham to help and old longstanding 2000 Register member, Malcolm Hadley. His MKI is playing up and he can't get it to start............... he's getting frustrated with it so I offered to go across and have a look. It'll be something simple (I hope!)...........

Busy Busy.............!

Very busy and hectic few weeks! Apologies for the lack of updates, but this is the first time I've had chance to sit down and plug my camera into the PC!



So, few weekends ago, I went to the Doncaster Rotary Club Show in....... um, well,... Doncaster. (where did you think it would be?.... Croydon?!?!) Dave Marshall brought his Saffron 2000, I took the Yellow Estate and we met up with Colin and Amanda Radford in their Carmine S Estate.



Another reason for going was to deliver the Yellow Estate to Tim and Shirley Pickett, who live quite near........ they are now the proud owners of Yellow, and here they are at the start of what I hope will be a long and happy relationship!



The sun was out and Dave decided it was time for his 2000's annual clean. He was even spotted with a bottle of Autoglym........... see proof below............. another Polisher!!! Seriously, it did look quite good when he'd finished.......... but then I had to say that as he was giving me a lift home! Shame he spoilt the day by setting fire to it at the end of his road!!!





After that, it was time for a camping weekend to try out the new Caravan. I am soooooooo in love with this, its fantastic! Esepcially love the fact that it has a separate bedroom with a fixed double bed in it!! No more scabbling around at Drunk o'clock trying to assemble a bed! Anyway, camping weekend in Oxford with Brian and Jenny, Andy and Maggie.





If you look in the background (left) you can see our new van (skylight open with silver vectra estate across the front............... foreground (right) is Andy and Maggie in our old caravan! They bought it off us and they were having a shake down weekend in their new van too!! Now look foreground (left) and you will see Brian and Jenny in our old old caravan which they bought of us about 3 years ago!!! All 3 generations of our caravans all parked together.............. very weird!!



The same weekend it was Sam's Birthday! Happy ummmmmmm,......... well,....... over 21 again birthday Sam!! When we go away as a group, Sam always bakes a cake (I love being married to a chef!!) but being was it was her birthday, I decided it would be wrong for her to have to make her own, so I MADE A CAKE!!!!!! All on my own!!! Tasted pretty good and doesn't look too bad for a first ever attempt at baking a cake!!





So, to more recent events. Flew to Edinburgh yesterday to collect the latest Ebay purchase. Bit of an impulse purchase.... my excuse being that I needed a car for the RBRR, and the Lines V8 Estate project is going to take longer than anticipated now that I have decided to find and restore an original car rather than building a replica.



So, Bradley and I flew to Edinburgh and had a very pleasant trip back. Few issues with the car sort out. The gearbox mount is shot, the wheels haven't been balanced, the overdrive did work but packed up at Carlisle and the steering feels vague and notchy. But apart from that, its a corker!!



As recompense for having a day away, I promised to do some work to Sam's Morris Minor Traveller today...............



I realise that although Sam has had this car since she was 18....... I have yet to introduce you all to it as it has been "forgotten" about whilst being parked in my Mum's garage! So, a little later than anticipated, here is "Madison"....... a 1970 Moggy Traveller, and its Sam's pride and joy!

Over the years we have slowly been improving it. The wood has all been replaced, couple of new panels, painting. Last year I re build all the front suspension and brakes all round. Next to do was the rear suspension. I bought Sam an upgrade kit to convert the bouncy back end from lever arm dampers to telescopic shocks............ and today it finally got fitted!


I was most impressed with the quality of the kit. All parts were Zinc plated, every nut and bolt in the right place and even the shocks were GAZ units! Consists of a long bar to bolt to the underside of the car, drop plates and various shackles. Being as each Moggy is slightly different you do need to modify the kit to suit. I had to shorten the bar, and re-drill a few holes that were out slightly.
But there it is! Have't had the chance to take it for a ride yet....... but a quick bounce shows a much improved rear end!! Axles needs a coat of paint and the leaf springs need a grease. Then its a quick service, grease the nipples, fit a new set of modern inertia reel seat belts and then the front seats are going to the trim shop for some new covers.............. then all Sam has to do is DRIVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, after playing with the moggy, had a couple of hours free to have a look at the Scottish PI.... now called Eric............!

Dave popped round this morning with a gearbox mount for me, so I popped that in. I have never seen a mounting that has actually come apart............. old one and new one side by side!!

Great improvement but still feels a little grumbly. I'm thinking about using an original metalastic second hand bush to see if it helps. Spent a short time setting the engine up.... it just didn't feel right yesterday. Timing was set about 10 degress AFTER TDC, point gap was out, and the carbs were totally out of balance and the throttles set up wrong. Bit of tinkering and it feels much better!

That's all for now.......... more later!

Fixing Studs and other stuff.......

Finally got round to sorting out the stripped thread in the trailing arm of the yellow estate (got to get it done, the new owner is picking her up on Saturday!

So, popped the driveshaft out and inspected the hole.......... no thread at all!

Carefully cut the new thread with the cutting tool, and inserted a 5/16 UNF Helicoil......... carefully as it had to be done perfectly straight otherwise the hub would not have fitted back on.... but, it did....... all done!

On Sunday Sam and I took the Red PI out to the Club Triumph National day at the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu....... fantastic day, lovely weather and a really interesting place to look round. Handed my trophy back in (Car of the Show 2008) and then promptly saw it handed over to a very stunning TR3.........
I was experimenting with the settings on the metering unit, so I filled it to the brim and then set off heading for Beaulieu, planning for a refill on the way back......... sitting at a steady 70mph (most of the way!) I was stunned to see home get closer and closer with the fuel gauge still not registering empty!
By the time we got him, this is what it looked like........ 289 miles... filled it back up and it took 10.83 gallons...... working out to 27mpg (not bad for an AUTO PI!) Strangely the fuel light was on all the time, but if the tank holds 14.5 gallons, I still had 3 gallons left, enough to do another 75 miles. I'll try that agin and then empty the tank, add a gallon back in and bend the fuel sender unit to read empty.

The day before (Saturday) was fun! We took delivery of our new caravan in the morning, and for a few hours we had the old one (background) and the new one together on the drive. One of our neighbours suggested that if we actually started talking to each other, perhaps we could have just one van, rather than one each........!!

Anyway, emptied all the stuff from the old to the new, then I took the old one to deliver it to its new owners in Reading...... even got fed some home made Rhubarb Crumble for my efforts .................. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Busted studs.....

Last time I used the yellow estate (and its been a while!!) I was getting a ticking noise coming from the rear offside wheel..... must look at that, I though.

Well, finally I have a date to have the broken windscreen replaced, Saturday............ and then Sam reminded me that I still had the noise to look at first.

So, this afternoon I jacked the car up, popped the wheel and drum off to have a look and discovered the remains of a stud in the bottom of the drum assembly........


Closer inspection revealed one stud missing which holds the hub/backplate assembly to the trailing arm..... whoops!! Slightly important stud then!

I tried to put a new stud in, but as I suspected the thread has gone in the trailing arm. The proper fix would be to strip it down and helicoil the trailing arm.......... but I just don't have time to do that before Saturday morning when its got to be at the windscreen place in Worcester by 9am................. I found a long bolt the right size and it was just long enough to catch the remains of the thread at the end............ then I checked the other 5 and they are all still tight, so that'll do for the moment!

Quick shot of the cracked windscreen........ hopefully on Saturday I can post one of an uncracked windscreen!

Finished!!!!

So, the brakes were still a bit juddery......... I concluded the discs were shot......... on closer inspection............ they were!!

Luckliy, I had a new set of discs in stock.........so on they went.

Brakes now transformed. Smooth, progressive and no wobbles!

I then had to fit a towbar to it....... part of the agreement with the new owner. Got one from Canley's, rub down and 2 coats of black smoothrite......... one fitted towbar!

Bradley managed to keep himslef occupied by cleaning the interior........ he really has turned into a polisher!

We then went out for a spin, and then remembered I hadn't checked the oil level in the diff. Stopped at the local garage, bought some EP90, and chucked it in........... thanks to Dave for volunteering to crawl underneath and top it up!Then we took the car back to the original owners....... Roy and Edith. They were amazed at how good it looked and how quickly we had got it done. I took them out for a little ride in it...... Roy was close to tears............... but, he was glad he had seen it finished, and that it is back on the road.

However, on the way home the fuel blockage reappeared again. On closer inspection, the tank was full of debris again!!

Tank out again, this time I pressure washer washed it and then left it cooking on the lawn overnight with a mixture of Caustic Soda and water. Good swill out and the inside of the tank is now clean and shiney....... rather than black and gloopy!

Popped the tank back in this afternoon............ took it for a run...... all good.

Taking it out again tonight to put a few more miles on it and then its going to its new home on Saturday................ providing the test drive turns out ok!!!