Lotus Elan, range rover, TR7, Streetka, mx5, minor,

I had a new 'lucas' Alternator in mine 2000 miles?. Was taking someone out for a test drive with a view to selling when we got the old burny wire insulation smell.
Similar issue, cheap far east parts failed. Luckily mine died completely before it could do any proper damage and we got home on battery power alone.
Needless to say, I didn't make the sale.

As I was selling mine I did the cheap and easy repair too, think in my case the regulator went and fortunately blew the rectifier a couple of mins later which saved my wiring, it's quite telling that there are so many reg / recs for sale, must be a fair demand.
If I ever build anything else or have a bit more time on my hands to fab some brackets it would be a Denso alternator all the way. Some of the little ones fitted to Kubota engines and such are impressive bits of kit.

Went away for the weekend in the mx5, which performed perfectly as usual, only thing that is a pain is the sweathy leather seats, I'd like to get hold of a scrap seat and have a go at making new covers with Alcantara centres.
Today I got the street ka on the 4 poster at lunchtime for a service and pre MOT, only thing I can really see is one rear damper is leaking so I figured I'd change both and the springs which are also a bit rusty.
What a palaver finding parts for modern cars is, hundreds of people advertising OEM quality "shock absorbers" (pet hate of this grumpy old man, they don't absorb shocks the springs to that!) from some make I have never heard of which apparently fit every variety of Ka, including vans, and some even fiestas (I'm pretty sure OEM Ford ones didn't do that!). Eventually settled on boge/sachs dampers and Napa springs listed as specific to the street ka at a total of £130.

Didn't get a chance to jack the front up and check the ball joints (all fairly new but modern pattern parts so probably made of cheese), did notice one ball joint boot has a nick but it doesn't go all the way through and leak so should be OK.

Hopefully get a chance to go through and check the electrics all work this evening.

pulled the seat out at lunchtime and lifted the carpet.




then cut pieces out of the crossmember and seat bracket to give this.




cut all the rust out to give this.



also found another bit of rot further forward, so I cut that out too.



This evening  formed a repair panel and cleaned/ primed all the hidden surfaces. hopefully I'll get a chance to weld it in over the weekend.

Painted Today.




spray some wax around tomorrow then the carpet and seat can go back in.

Nice work there and loving the "air fed" mask,
Be interested to hear how it works when you spray the bonnet,
Nigel

The right Streetka dampers turned up today, hopefully get them fitted tomorrow. The seller said he didn't want the yaris ones back, anyone want a pair of sachs touring dampers for a yaris?








Otherwise been busy round the in-laws, tiled the new shower room and this weekend I'm replacing the soil stacks, I've spent so much at Screwfix lately they have given me a trade account!

Apparantly this isn't how their tradesmen usually collect the bulky stuff.

while the weather is warm I set to the bonnet on the mx5, after going over it with 400 grit I realised there were loads of pock marks, not it has been painted before and it seems there was poor prep, the paint was adehered fine so I brushed epoxy primer into each one.




Then flatted it all back again, most of the pits ended up as no more than a pin head of epoxy and it felt perfect.

so on with the top coat, I'm painting in a dusty garage so wasn't expecting much.





difficult to photograph because of the reflections but all in all in it came out pretty well, a few bit of dust on the surface and a bit of orange peel on the back edge but I'm sure virtually all of that will go with a flat and polish.


only problem was the washer jets broke (mainly because the previous paint seems to have been over them)26 quids worth of new ones ordered.

while I'm waiting for them and its on the ramp I'll give it a service and see If I can fix the leak in the AC.

on the others been using the Range rover but it seems to be getting a bit hot with the AC on stuck in traffic, the electric fans are working but I wonder if the viscous clutch has packed up, should have jumped out and see if it was locked when I got home but had to rush off.

mazda has been on the 4 post in the roof of the garage all weekend, it hit mid 40's up there so it should be well baked to flat back tomorrow, I'll also change the oil and fuel filters.

took a look at the Range Rover engine driven fan when the temp gauge approached 3/4, feels just the same as is does cold, I am pretty sure it should be locked solid at that temperature, not urgent as the electric fans keep it cool enough if you turn the A/C off so it looks like over the winter it will be a new fan hub, belts (at limit of adjustment, crank seal(leaks oil) and water pump(leaked once but hasn't for 2 years now, might make a call on this depending on how the bearing feels, I have a history of the bolts which go into the water jacket snapping on RV8's)


This weekend though has been replacing all the external drainage at the outlaws, just plumbing in the toilet feed, sink shower and raditors to go. next step after that is removing the old asbestos and weeping poo pipe, I won't be doing that though.

at the moment car jobs are what I can squeeze in in the week during lunch hours or the evenings.