ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
Looks good man!
Well no pictures from last night. I started reassembling the rear subframe but could not for the life of me get the bracket that holds the rear suspension arm back on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
Dec 15, 2015 13:40:02 GMT
|
Just out of shot on the first set of photos is a Toyota Camry, I think that the Camry has even less potential than the Carina... Toyota Camry by srblythe, on Flickr I always thought the Camry would suit this treatment.. Everyone forgets about Cragars...
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
Dec 15, 2015 13:25:11 GMT
|
More progress over the weekend. Bill the spark goblin was down progressing the loom so I contented myself with some welding. There was a small corrosion hole on the rear of the chassis, just above where the OSF subframe mount point attaches to the chassis. Obviously this needed sorted soon now that the subframe is nearing completion, so I attacked it with a wire wheel and appraised the extent of the damage. Here it is with the edges squared for welding... Hmm, yea... not such a small patch after all. Not to worry, the bigger the hole the easier it is to weld, right? As it was 2 parts of the skin that had gone, I tried to keep it as near to original a repair as possible, starting with the lower panel. Following some cardboard aided design I had the repair section ready to attach... Then following some splatter-up-the-sleeve action, it was on... All good in the hood! The final section was a doddle in comparison, and pre weld-tidy and paint looked a bit like this: Job jobbed, just needing a lick of paint!
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
Dec 11, 2015 11:52:14 GMT
|
Thats some amount of engineering to achieve lows.
Hat tipped accordingly.
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
Dec 10, 2015 11:48:10 GMT
|
Now this is a roadtrip write up. I did something very similar in 2006, including the Nurburgring to boot. Love the snaps.
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
I missed out several stories from the other part of the trip, like the deep conversation I had with Jurgen, the owner of a Militaria store just down the way from the hostel, about politics, gun control, medieval armoury, Irish hospitality (he'd been to Belfast and Dublin), or when we skilfully avoided the BBQ police by driving up a forest path which was actually someones drive and making dinner surrounded by pine trees and woodland silence. I would do Norway again, in a different way. I would not feel like I was missing something if I never went back to Gatebil though. Not intending to have a go (genuinely, I appreciate you taking the time to write it up) but a lot of it did come over like a moan, rather than focusing on the positive bits that as you have said... were missed out.
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
Keep the steels, band them, and throw the vanity trims back on.
Also, and I'm sure I am not alone here.. some 2 tone paint would help wonders. It is the 90's after all... Those bumper trims are a perfect swage marker.
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
Do you ever have small wins that feel so much more *satisfying* than big wins? For example, nabbing the last biscuit in the tin... clipping the apex perfectly in a 2 tonne Shogun doing 20mph with a trailer... catching that annoying snotter with the pinky on first try.... etc. Well, last night was a small win in the eyes of many a more competent builder of cars, but for me I took great satisfaction in nailing it perfectly. The win in question was the shaggered thread on the captive trunnion bolt on the otherwise perfect condition rear subframe. You see, the front trunnions have removable bolts that "capture" the bush and secure with a nut on the internal part of the subframe... see below for example: In this case, I have refitted the trunnion with the lovely new poly bushes, all ready for refitting. Well, on the rear end trunnions the nut is on the outside, with the shaft of the bolt captive and welded in the subframe itself. Much harder to sort without chopping it all out and welding in a replacement, and the thread as mentioned was totally stripped on the new one to the point where I had to spiral chop the nut off. So last night, I attacked the chewed out stump with emery paper for somewhere close to 40 minutes until it was perfectly smooth, not ovalled, and to-size to accept an M10 tap. Not since my apprenticeship have I had such a laborious and thankless task. All the same, I got it... BOOM! This is a lock nut, just to be clear. I didn't have any M10x1.25 nyloc nuts in stock, so it will be replaced once the order comes in. So much meagre win, but hey ho. Anyway, whilst Mitch was under the car napping and hammerite-coating the floorpans, I bust out the new paint to trial a part of the rear wing... honestly, just to see how good/bad/other the chosen paint looks on the car. Here's the result: Personally, I really like it. Very purposeful, and with the white roof and some chrome accents around the car, I think it will set the whole thing off very well. Here's a wee reflection shot to show how the light hits it: Not the greatest, but I love how you get that gradient grey to white reflection on satin black cars. Up next, Subframe rebuild and refit!
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
A weekend in, and some significant progress made... Bill the spark-goblin was present as ever, pushing forward the loom. We are now at a stage where the wiring is getting stripped further and further back, and more issues are being found to warrant it. On the plus side, the horrid 90's alarm has been removed... On the bodywork front, I had a good few whole days to punch off some tedious prep work, so the entire subframe aperture in the rear was addressed... ...with some healthy coats of black Hammerite. As I was under there, the coating spread... ...down the sills... ..and into the wheel arches... By this point the car had to be left to dry as almost every corner of it had some wet paint to consider, so we fired up the stove to cut down on the drying time.. Whilst that wait was on, it was time to content with another small task... These are the pedestals that mount the sub frame to the chassis. Top is untouched, bottom is buffed back... ...and here they are painted... ...and getting nuked next to the glowing stove. Really cuts down on drying time! Happily, we have new poly bushes to go in them to stiffen the rear end up a bit. Why am I going to such lengths with a seemingly small part of the car? Well... ...because the new subframe is here! As you can see, it is considerably better than the old one. I'd like to point out here that a good few coats of the black stuff have gone on to it by this point too, and sadly the remedial work isn't finished there. the rear-most pedestal mount had a rounded thread on the nut (the part it is hung from). I have had to chop it off and have luckily saved the "bolt" part, which is integral to the subframe as far as I can make out, but the thread itself is long gone. Suggestions for a simple solution to this on a postcard please...
|
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
christmas-run-up-ask-santa-for-it bump
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
Ah, i see the errors of my pronounsciations now...
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
Tuesday night passed, so another boys night on the Mini was had... Covering my progress first, a shipment from Minispares had arrived, including A pillar seam covers. This part of the car has been bugging me the most so I relished knocking it on the head. Following some grinding of previous welds and a bid of prep work on the panel joins, the seam covers themselves chapped on pretty well.. Barring the fact that they don't really hit the bottom of the wing (a fact that will not be of major consequence given the fact that arches will be on it) they were a fairly good fit. Tack welded, it was job done for me. Mitch himself pushed forward a lot of the bodywork prep... Surface rust on the sills rectified... Window lips dressed back and primed... ...and the last of the ganky old rotten filler flattened back... A joint effort was made following another parcel from Minispares: Split Steering gaiters no more! ..old ones off and new ones on... I'll fully fit them once I pump some fresh grease into the rack. Bill the electrics goblin has been progressing the loom as OCD as ever, in fairness he has found so many split and cracked wires that we are hardly surprised the job has grown arms, legs and tentacles. Here is some of his work so far... ...these are the indicators. I think they will last a damn sight longer than the stock stuff... Up next, a subframe should hopefully arrive soon, and the project will gain some real momentum then!
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
nope, I know what it is though, but I'll let Bruce post. Looks like a dropsnoot to me...
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
What will this forum become in 5 years, and how are you going to take it there?
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
I keep entertaining the idea of bringing back the Newsletter... Maybe a thread of the week, readers ride of the week + occasional bits from other areas of the forum in each weekly newsletter. This idea rocks. I think highlighting diverse threads many wouldn't normally find throughout the year would work wonders for the nominations.
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
Is that a drop snoot?
|
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
|
My thoughts on this are that as mentioned, there are a vast quantity of things on here I have no idea about. Readers other mods for one is a forum that I couldnt begin to throw a nomination forward for, and I have voted where possible.
Something I would suggest, based on the fact that everyone seems to be nominating the same threads (its a nomination here, not a vote!) is the option to nominate your own threads based on the above point. My only reservation is the slightly narcissistic Facebook-esque feel to that, but its the only way I can think to broaden the nominations for those who haven't the time to browse to the extent some of the hardcore users do.
At the end of the day, a self nominated thread would only win if everyone voted for it, so there would be little harm in doing so if it increased diversity in the nominations...
|
|
|
|
ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,117
Club RR Member Number: 134
|
|
Nov 30, 2015 11:17:45 GMT
|
Bump
|
|
|
|