Forkliftfred's Quarantine garage. Cleaning, painting etc

Nice repairs to the lower wings, the matt is a neat idea to blend in too.

I never even noticed it was on a Beetle chassis!

I’d be looking for a roof cut, but I appreciate they’re not exactly growing on trees.

Yeah it's a shame we missed each other. Another time maybe?

So, last Friday i'm sitting in the traffic on the way home when the car next to me attracts my attention and tells me there is fuel leaking from the back of my car. I managed to get home, jacked the drivers rear, took the wheel off and found this.



This wasn't the cause of the leak though. It seemed to be coming from between the tank and chassis. With not very much room to see, I had to drop the tank slightly. It would have been easier if my 120 litre tank wasn't 85% full!



I eventually traced it to this chaffed pipe from the fuel pump.



After some Googling it seems that this is a common problem. They even had a recall when they were new to resolve it. Mine must have been missed. £54 for a new one. While the car was off the road, I thought it a good idea to change the leaking rear hub. However, I dropped my daughter at nursery the following morning and thought I could smell gear oil. Some investigation and....





It seems I didn't notice the new hub didn't come with an O ring. Luckily the one from the original hub was in good condition so I fitted that and cleaned up the mess and two days later, all seems good.

The center caps for the wheels on the Caddy arrived so I fitted them with a little adhesive to keep them in place.





I likes them so they stays.

I ran the engine for a little while and noticed a fuel leak! Why are all my vehicles leaking?? It turns out to be a hairline crack in the fuel rail. So if anyone has a fuel rail for a 1.8 8 valve PB engine from a Mk2 Golf Gti, let me know.

I'm guessing the delightful Southampton?

My travel buddy and I booked a weekend trip to Hamburg a while ago just to go visit this place.



I can't recommend it enough. We spent 5 hrs there and still didn't see it all. Have some pics.









While we were there we popped into a prototype car museum. I didn't really understand the theme as most of the cars in there seemed like production models but a lovely place anyway. Have a four door Beetle.

I love miniatures and model trains, and really wanted to visit this place when I was in Europe. Sadly I didn't make it, so I will have to live vicariously through others videos.

Apologies for the woeful lack of updates. I'm not very good at keeping this thread up to date.

I turned 40 in May so I treated the CarBQ to a wash and wax and took it for a test drive in preparation for the family descending. I am the eldest of 5. I have 4 sisters who all have husbands and kids so much food was cooked and eaten.




I got a shot of the solar powered LED lights later that evening.



The stress of my 4th decade on this planet along with the family invasion was obviously taking it's toll so a blood vessel decided to burst in my eye.



I've had this vice for many years and it's been well abused and painted so I decided it could use a little spruce up.



So I stripped it naked



I've got this pillar drill that I inherited from my Grand Father (it's strange the things you have an emotional attachment to) so it got some of the same treatment too.



I'm a fan of Pintrest. It has loads of little ideas like this for garage storage and organising. I made a couple of power tool holders from some leftover soil vent pipe.





I made up a dedicated charger shelf from a kitchen off cut at the same time.



The workbench was now letting down the freshly painted drill and vice so it got some of the same treatment too along with the bench grinder.





I plan on painting the welding cart and my toolboxes in the same colour. It's starting to get a little addictive!

The Quarantine garage is at the bottom of the garden at Forkliftfred HQ and is accessed by a private road. I happen to be the end of the terrace so I have the luxury of not having to worry about blocking anyone in when I park round the back. The turning circle on the Caddy is surprisingly big. It has a wheelbase of 2625mm so some shunting to squeeze out of the garage without hitting the door frame is neccessary. I have a standard single up and over door which measured around 7ft wide. So I started looking for a wider door. Fitment of a wider door is reasonably simple as the Quarantine garage is pre cast concrete panels, so all I need to do is unbolt one panel and scew in a new wider door. I found a roller shutter door up near Cambridge, just the other side of Duxford museum.I decided to leave work early to collect it. It also happened to be the day of the D Day memorial fly past which took off and landed at Duxford airfield so the traffic was heavy. Got to the house, inspected the door, deal done and managed to squeeze an 8ft roller shutter door inside a Discovery Td5! So the weekend arrived and installation began by clearing the wall of shelves and general garage stuff.



Panel removed and two 4x4 pressure treated posts are screwed to the wall to hang the new door on and also support the roof truss.



After a few hours we had the door mounted and the runners screwed to the posts and more 4x4 posts added to fill in the gap. You can see how much width i've gained by the paint on the floor. I've got about 13" extra.



I added a shelf across the full span of the door which I plan to fill with 'mantiques' and stuff. I hid the shelf edge with some of my old number plates and gave "The Stig" pride of place. Door control module mounted and door limit switches set up. Couple of signs and the "Lin Bin" rack back up too.



The old door is now on evilbay to help recoup some costs. The door cost me £150, three 2.4M 4x4 posts were £38. All the screws and fixings I had kicking around. Bacon sandwich and tea for mate Adam as payment for his help so total cost is around £200. Not bad at all. I put a new battery in the remote fob and it was working for a while but now I can't hear the relay clicking so it may need replacing too. The button on the control box works fine for now.I can pull in and out in one sweep without shunting plus it let's in more day light when opened, mission accomplished. I just need to extend the access ramp and fit some draft excluder brushes along the top of the door.

Saw this as I was coming out of Dunton boot sale. Anyone know what it is?