1974 Daimler Double-Six VDP (higher axle stands)

No that's very helpful. I actually only made 2 teeth with the weld approach but good to know about the slow approach. Strangely enough when I first did this with teeth just cut in a mild steel tube I got down about 1cm before it all ground to a halt. Made less progress with the proper tool

It would be interesting to see what happens temperature wise over time if just rigging up the 12V circuit with a 30 amp fuse on it and leaving it connected for a few hours. You would only need a 10Ah battery to sink a couple of hours of 4A load into the stud - If you are down there working doing other things some 100Amp+ rated cable with a 30 amp fuse connected to the stud and just leave it whilst doing other things. It should still have the capacity with the factor of time to get some heat into things and should the the resistance reduce the fuse will prevent things getting out of hand.

Just a few more pics of the container....

Also, about the leaks. I have put various bowls and tubs underneath them so it dries out while I wait on a day or two to finish the welding. Good to see them filling up lol instead of it being all over the floor. Have also been to dump with 5 large sacks full of utter curse word and got another 4 to go. All the family's dishes and crockery which was in there has been put outside like some weird art installation. I did ask the Mum to come in and see if there was anything she wanted to keep but she didn't.

Anything made of wood has been added to their woodpile and all metal is in his trailer to go to scrapman.


roof shot shows just how long this thing is




before de-cluttering started



almost cleared


wooden panel knocked up quickly to fill hole where door was




selection of bowls etc after one day's rainfall

Thanks homersimpson

I've wanted to pull the engine for years but with 3 cars and 7 motorbikes in my barn there's just no room so my plan was to finish a couple of the bikes and move them on to make room for the operation.

Now I don't need to do that. Can get stuck in. Am looking fwd to it. I'm going to move all the bikes and one car into the container. Stick the IRS back on the VDP and hire a van to bring my crane down. That's in a lock-up about 4 miles from the barn.

I've got nearly a Grand in my wallet (been workin my ass off recently) so van hire and time off will be no probs

I've no idea which piston(s) are seized homersimpson but the engine used to turn over by hand no problem then one day it didn't.

I don't think it'll be seized badly. It's not like it's been left outside with the heads off. Fingers crossed anyway

Am on the home-straight with the roof repairs.

The worst bit (in middle of container) was only really rusty/holed on one side and the patch I put on yesterday was nearly long enough to cover my welded repairs but it made sense to continue the sheeting across the whole width as there would be no way to stop water collecting in the channel running under the shorter patch and onto the bad areas.

A bit more rivetting and cutting involved but worth it I reckon. I've left one side loose so I can lift it slightly to cut off the excess width without cutting the container too



offcut secured almost long enough to cover bad bit




next piece cut to length with snips but cba cutting width by hand today



edge left loose to enable cutting before rivetting

No pics today as I was pretty scunnered with whole thing as the rain was pouring down and I spent the day dragging curse word out the container - which I imagined was empty!

That's the bench out, the huge wooden box and the Welsh Dresser thing. Lots of small stuff all over the shop that was living on the bench now but nothing that will stop me getting the car in.

I did make inroads on moving the Polo but two flats tires and general filth after hunting for ages for the big barn-door keys put me off it till next day.

Also had scaffolding to move for a job tomorrow. My first solo scaffold job. Been moving it in bits on roof-bars of my Mondeo.

I'll pron not get back to this till Saturday as need to get back to work but it'll be great to get back to work on the VDP. 1st job will be to put the IRS back in so I can move it about 15 feet backwards. This will be fun as the Metalastick mounts are a real pain to align

Sorry if you're expecting pics of a V12 engine but we have more pics of containers etc

Why?

Well it's all small steps towards the goal. And I need to keep reminding myself of the goal as I'm now getting sidelined into making my premises pretty. It's not completely pointless tho as I know from experience that a grotty environment is no good for the mojo, especially in curse word weather.

So yesterday I did a bit (more) painting of the container. Not sure if I mentioned this but when the Gaffer bought it the company said he could only have it under the understanding he'd cover their 'trademark' livery. I think that's flaking orange paint and unreadable stickers with a Dobermann mascot. Anyway there's 5 big tins of Pronto quick-dry paint in there that were never opened. The brand doesn't seem to be around anymore so I hope we don't run out but it's a really darkish green sort of satin finish and it does dry pretty quick for a solvent-based finish.

I started on the doors and did test-patches with/without primer and found that it turned out good by just scraping the flaky stuff off, sanding it to give a key then putting two coats on. Parts of the doors are in a terrible state so it was a bit disheartening but I've now moved to the side of the container and there is no rust there so it'll look great. Also seems that one coat may be enough. Could be that the paint is now properly mixed together as the tins have been standing so long the components had perhaps separated.

The sanding takes longest as I'm doing it by hand but if I can get 5-10 verticals done a day it will soon be done.

I mentioned before about grim surroundings. Well the big cart-door to my barn is a bit I hardly ever venture to (there is an normal door which is more practical to use) and despite me doing a lot of work there the basic problem is the floor is lower than the ground and water runs in and gathers there making a muddy mess.

This is where the Polo lived and now that I have a big space there I set about painting the floor with a huge tin of red floor paint I found in the container. Was quite chuffed with the bit I did last night.

Today I went back planning to do more on the container and finish the floor but it was pishing down and the floor was covered in water so I ended up moving more stuff into barn, scraping a channel in the mud outside, to divert the water, and moving all the scaffolding at the side of container to a less visible part of the grounds. The Gaffer wanted that done and is really happy with the painting on the container. I don't think he'll accept any rent money for the container actually.


container changing from flaky orange to satin green and scaffolding moved elsewhere



flaky to scraped then painted (sanded not shown)



Polo used to live here. floor being painted to boost mojo

Good to see you still have the Daimler and plan to finish it. Would be a shame to just give up, despite the seized engine