Breakers, Diffs and boot floors

Forgot to upload these! Couple of weekends ago I popped over to see Marc Cheney to rob some bits of his breaker 2.5PI estate. Its been sitting for many many years now and its looking very sad. It did yield some useful bits of trim that I was missing. Got the stainless steel gutter trims (mine were bent), some salvaged trim clips, and some interior trim which was AWOL on mine.

 We were planning to have a go at starting it as its got a very special PI engine which is destined to go in Marc's MKI estate (when he gets round to it!) But, some missing components and a very wet garage which led to a very wet engine, we decided to give that a miss!

 Right, back up to date now! Dropped the diff off at Mick Papworth on Saturday. He popped the back off and declared it to be a very good useable 3.45:1 diff. Just what I was hoping to hear! As a precaution, due to 34 years standing he's going to strip it and replace all the bearings and seals for me. Then its just a coat of paint and it can go back in.

 Sunday I started cleaning off the underneath with a rotary wire brush. Its very nice under there, couple of patches of surface rust which needed killing off with my favorite Bilt Hamer products. Whilst that was drying between coats I decided to indulge myself and start putting some shiney bits on! New rivet clips for the tailgate and rear wings first. They all needed drilling out and then riveting in place. Simple job, still took an hour though!

 The rust cure needs to dry for 48 hours, but the boot floor was perfect. after a clean up and masking I shutzed the boot floor with my usual Waxoyl shutz.

 Looks pretty and will keep it nice and protected!

Late night stripping!

I don't usually do late night spannering (unless its pre-RBRR emergency!) but having the rear suspension on the floor was too much of a temptation. Spent a happy hour stripping it down so that it can be dropped off at to be shot blasted and powder coated on the way to work in the morning.
Took longer than expected! So many things to come off (brake pipe clips, rubber bungs, trailing arm bushes, exhaust mounts etc) but its all done and in the boot of the car now.

 Diff nosepiece is winging its way to Mr Witor to be......... ahem...... "Witorised" ! Blasted, strengthened, new bearings and seals and a Stag flange to be fitted. By the time that comes back the suspension should be back from the powder coaters. Diff needs to go next and driveshafts need to go to Earlparts for refurb.

Rear Suspension

Finally got some time today, so I started work on stripping the suspension off. Rear first I think. Got the back up in the air and started undoing things.

 Its all there, light coating of rust, primer and overspray!!.......... nice Spax rear shocks. shame they are knackered! Note the Stag rear brakes (wider drums)

 When I got the springs out, (standard PI estate rears I think) I found that it has some "home-made" spacers to lift the suspension up a bit. Look like a coil has been cut off the bottom of another set, hammered flat and then popped in the trailing arms. So, do I leave them in, go back to standard height or use Witor's Polybushes +7mm spacers?............ I think I'll use the original ones.

 After several hours of seized bolts the whole rear suspension was on the deck. So, trailing arms, box sections and back plate to be powder coated, diff off to be checked and worked on as needed, drums need painting and driveshafts to Earlparts to be recon'd.

 Underneath looks good. Needs a quick wirebrush and then shutzing.

Back home

Borrowed a Range Rover and a trailer and went to collect Libby from the paintshop. This was the first time I had seen the car since it was painted, only seen photos up to now. They don't do it justice, it is simply stunning!
Rangie made short work of towing it home, even managed to back it up my steep drive. Now safely tucked up in the garage. Next job, Dinitrol cavity wax and underbody shutzing.

Ready to collect

Despite the awful weather here in the Midlands, my team have really cracked on with the car, to the point where it is now ready to come home! Only problem is, until the 16 inches of snow melts....... it can't! We live in top of a hill, ontop of a hill with a sloping drive, so its got to stay where it is for the moment. Between Christmas and New Year hopefully we should get it home.
So, the car has been assembled, flatted, polished and mopped. The trimmer has been in and put on a new vinyl roof and a new headlining and the sunroof has been reassembled ready to drop back in.
Feast you eyes over this and drool.............. I know I am!!

A quick plug and a huge thank you to Brian Chrimes @ Just Classics, Lol (The Trimmer) and everyone else who has helped get her this far.................

Finally, its painted!

Its finally painted! Been waiting ages for a slot at the paintshop, but now its finally done. Enjoy!

Put the doors, bonnet and tailgate on, then the trimmer is doing the vinyl roof (hence why no paint on the roof!), the black headlining and the sunroof, then it should be coming home. Weather depending, hopefully around the new year!

RBRR, and post RBRR repairs!

So, the RBRR is over......... and what an epic trip that was! I seem to have missed off the last minute repairs so I thought I'd do a quick one about the whole thing!

I still wasn't happy with the front brakes, the discs were shot.... but new front 2000 discs are really expensive. A quick negotiate with my favorite Stag supplier (EJ Wards of Leicester) and some agreement from Craig saw new Stag discs, pads and good used Stag calipers on the car. What a difference! Anyone who has standard 2000 front brakes, do this upgrade. Discs are £30 each, the pads are the same and you can pick up good used calipers for about £20 each. You need to cut down the bolts which hold the hub to the disc by about 10mm, as the stag disc is not quite as deep in the mounting holes, and you must have 14" or bigger wheels, but what an improvement!

So, the RBRR. Bradley and I met up with Team Marshall/Bennett and trundled down to Enfield in convoy (not before I managed to get a speeding ticket 4 miles from home!!?!), had a leisurely dinner at the Plough and set off about 6.45pm at the back of the pack (that'll teach us to get there nice and early, parked right at the back!!) No major drama apart from the obvious high oil consumption. Noting how much we used to get to London I was already worried and reinforcements came from all over the country. Huge thank you to Amanda Johnson, Lord Sorbington and RoyBoy who very graciously met me at various parts of the country to top me up with 20/50 oil!

Early hours of Saturday morning saw us at Edinburgh Airport (1 gallon of oil down already!!)

Seaview Hotel @ John O'Goats........ what a lovely sight it was!

As usual, their breakfast was a work of art, excellent service, dodgy sausages though!

By now we had also teamed up with Team Radford. Colin, Bill and young Master Callum who was along for the ride in Amanda's lovely 2500 S Estate, fresh from the bodyshop with some new metal where before there was air and filler!

Bradley enjoyed it though!

Lovely scenery!

By early hours of Sunday morning, the exhaust sounded like it had fallen off. Some quick repairs soon saw it even worse, which was when we discovered a flippin' big hole in the pipe just before the silencer. Oh well, next 1000 miles of deafness then!

Lands End, Sunday morning

Teams Torrey Canyon (!) and Radford at Lands End, before a wonderful breakfast and back to London via the southern counties.

So, final analysis. Fuel gauge stopped working at first fill up, speedo cable snapped at Corbridge, Exhaust fell off at Lancaster, car filled with water all the time, U/J in driveshaft clicking, overdrive intermittently not working and worst of all, 9 gallons of oil in 2300 miles!! The good news was that we did it, made it all the way round, got all the signatures we needed and managed to get 27mpg, which it of a manual PI being driven like it was on fire.............. ain't all that bad!

In the car park after the run, I offered to pay Dave Marshall £100 towards his charity if he shaved his head. The next day he came to see me and accepted!! So, Saturday 30th October 2010, Dave will be shaved to raise more money for MIND. So far, we have over £200 in pledges.............. any more gratefully received please! Go to http://www.justgiving.com/dave-marshall2

Wednesday saw me at Brians workshop, borrowing the truck ramp out side to take off the horrible exhaust...... look, huge hole!!

the top mouunt was clearly too tight, the rear mount had snapped and pulled this one out of the pipe.

Quick bit of stainless migging and it was back on................ how quiet is it now?!?! (well, its still noisy as its a sports system, but compared to before............... phew!)

Whilst we were there, popped round the corner to the paintshop to have a look at Libby. Almost ready for primer and looking very sharp and straight!! I can't wait to get her back and put her together!!

On the way home, popped into the "other" paintshop to have a sneaky peak at Mike Weavers car. I am totally stunned as its been a long time since I saw this one. Be in paint in 2 weeks, then due on the 2000 Register stand at the NEC in November. Come and look at this, its awesome!!

As for Alfie and Smartie, 2 weeks together and already they're the best of friends!!