Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Just come across your Gemini saga, very interesting. I'm amazed at how much work you get through. I built my Gemini 10 years ago and covered over 25000 miles. It's a 1720 crossflow with bike carbs and type 9 'box. It's got the galv chassis and a Wilwood brake and hub setup on the front. A few pics for you.(the first is from Loton) If I am correct you used to be up local to Shropshire but moved South West - Fellow SHACC member but I am not as active as you are - Seldom have cars running. Hopefully when I get Gem 2 back on the road we may find the opportunity to meet up.
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That powerball is funny, guy must have been an oil additive junky too.
The street view looks like the street I lived in until I was 4/5! Uncanny, wasn’t kent was it?
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 12, 2020 14:44:27 GMT
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That powerball is funny, guy must have been an oil additive junky too. The street view looks like the street I lived in until I was 4/5! Uncanny, wasn’t kent was it? Not appearing to be one to squander his wealth I would think that after shelling out for the Powerplus he would have thought the additive requirement covered. I reacal the address being more toward the South West than the South East. Should really see if runs and drives some time soon - bought and never actually driven that one - or the Red one for that matter !
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Mar 12, 2020 20:03:43 GMT
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Yes, it's Emlyn, ShACC member. I'm over in Aberystwyth now. Come over to Shrewsbury occasionally to visit family. I hope to get over Chetwynd Deer park for a show in April and also Stoneleigh. Good luck with the builds and hope to meet up in the future.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 12, 2020 20:47:54 GMT
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Yes, it's Emlyn, ShACC member. I'm over in Aberystwyth now. Come over to Shrewsbury occasionally to visit family. I hope to get over Chetwynd Deer park for a show in April and also Stoneleigh. Good luck with the builds and hope to meet up in the future. No Idea where I got it my head that you had gone to the South West - Aber' - practically still local - some wonderful riding/driving roads from here to there. Indeed it would be very nice to meet up. As I think we are about a week or so away from a gatherings ban for good few months due to the Covid-19 pandemic I am not making any plans for any Spring/early Summer shows taking place. I will PM my contact details if you find yourself over this way.
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Mar 13, 2020 22:48:23 GMT
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That's great. Had a G15 many moons ago, like to see yours.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 13, 2020 23:08:02 GMT
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That's great. Had a G15 many moons ago, like to see yours. Cool - interesting coincidence. I should be getting my(lads)G15 back here shortly when the G21 goes up to Cheshire for some works - There will then be 2 G15's kicking about the place for a short while with the 3 Gemini's !
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 14, 2020 20:49:26 GMT
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Gemini for most of the day today - Just a bit on the Stratos to finish the sump baffle. Removed the engine mounts and gave both mounts and caliper halves a rub over with a scuff pad and then a coat of Black epoxy. used up the rest of what I mixed up on some of the unpainted new chassis tubes Fitted the headlight bowl - wrong head lamp its a CIBIE that is destined for my (lads) G15 as the Gemini needs an in lamp side light which these do not have. Sorted out the harness mounts and will weld those in tomorrow, and started giving the wheels a once over ready for the new tyres that should arrive early next week. Caliper will be rebuilt tomorrow providing the paint has hardened sufficiently. Started to remove the Mini heater now I have a close look at how to get it out - The paneling and the body were built around it so its not such an easy task. Then its onto the dash.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 15, 2020 18:40:36 GMT
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Nothing totally completed from the list today but quite a bit of progress nonetheless. As the tyres should be arriving this week I thought I would get a start on cleaning up the wheels, a couple of which were really dirty. Not from me I may add these are as I bought them years ago. I cannot imagine what was leaking so bad as to leave that amount of curse word coating the inside of the wheel. Lots of cleaning later. Good enough. I then went searching the shed for a suitable fan to use on the rad - found a Spal fan that fitted like it was designed for the rad. Just need to power it up and determine if its a pusher or a puller - looking at the blade I expect it to be a puller which is what I would prefer. I then got aggressive with that blasted Mini heater unit - That's 7KG of utter removed. If I feel the need for a some heat in the future I will make something that just recirculates air around a drafty Kokpit and not draw oily smelly air from the under-bonnet. And that also resulted in me ripping out the Ford Escort MK2 wiring loom. End of March may now be optimistic However - Jobs completed Prep for the harness mounts done so just welding required. The engine mounts and the caliper halves still seemed a bit tacky this morning so they went into the post heat treat low temp oven. After an hour or so in there and when cool enough to handle as they got pretty hot the engine mounts were refitted and the caliper halves were fully prepared ready for re-assembly. Plan for the wiring is to move it from the engine bay which does it no good at all and relocate it into the car adding a few extra fuses and relays - there are also a good few wires I can remove completely and make far shorter to get it tidier and lighter. Good thing about wiring is that it can be done in the warm and dry of the dining room. Really must get that rad mounting sorted.
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Last Edit: Mar 15, 2020 20:02:44 GMT by Darkspeed
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 21, 2020 19:00:11 GMT
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So - a few jobs done this week, not as much as I would have wanted but with all the chaos going on at the moment I suffered a lack of motivation and spent my time cutting grass, weeding, cleaning windows and then vegging out infront of the TV on box sets.
I did however get the caliper rebuild done - that's all buttoned up and ready to be mounted on the axle.
Tyres are not now arriving this week - looks like mid April will be the earliest I will be seeing those - A little annoying but hey it happens and if I give it a positive spin it does allow me to spend a bit more time cleaning and polishing the wheels.
Plan is to get the harness mounts done tomorrow but its a little weather dependent so we will see.
Grabbed a short crossflow intake manifold off of Farcebook marketplace but that's for future plans
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 22, 2020 19:57:02 GMT
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Ticked a few jobs off the list. That rebuilt caliper. Welding in of the extra harness mounts - A bit of etch primer on the face alloy face And in they went. Not the easiest of welding upside down in a very small boot above the fuel tank ! Just need a bit of paint to complete the task. Attention was then turned to the radiator fan - It is a puller so that's good - sorted out some M6 x 50 Allen set screws and made up some foam backed large washers. The Spal fan is nice and lightweight and the mounting is really secure. Also slim enough to drop in through the opening and down onto the lower mounts. I have decided on the upper mounting method so will get on with the design of that this week. Threw the hoses in so that I could remind myself what I needed to do regarding connectors etc. Started on the wiring with stripping back the harness tape and removing many wires that I knew would no longer be required - Hazards/Side repeaters/heater/reverse lights/brake level warning/ etc. etc. As I need to get the wiring box out of the shed which is sitting on top of the brake box - I will get the new brake line made up one evening this week and see what components I have in the box for making up a set of braided brake flexibles.
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mk2cossie
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,038
Club RR Member Number: 77
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Mar 22, 2020 20:21:21 GMT
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Very nice indeed! lovely looking welds on the seat belts mount reinforcements considering the awkwardness of getting to them. Does the alloy panel need to come out for anything? Or will that be left alone til it needs to be removed/replaced? Also, forgive my ignorance, but why are the hazard warning lights being removed?
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 22, 2020 21:06:22 GMT
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Very nice indeed! lovely looking welds on the seat belts mount reinforcements considering the awkwardness of getting to them. Does the alloy panel need to come out for anything? Or will that be left alone til it needs to be removed/replaced? Also, forgive my ignorance, but why are the hazard warning lights being removed? The alloy panel is the complete rear bulkhead and once in they never get removed so should be good for the duration - just needs a clean up and a spray with ACF 50 or similar. Hazards etc. old car and not really required - saves on switches, relays, lamps, wiring etc. and the benefit is that the less wiring that you have the less there is to go wrong - keep it all to the bare minimum. Typically on all my cars if its not a mandatory requirement it gets removed. Unless its really useful.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 26, 2020 16:56:47 GMT
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More tyres have arrived - I have quite enough to be getting on with now - the downside is that my friendly tyre fitter is now on furlough so I will either A - have to wait or B - have to wait as I really cannot be bothered about building a fitting stand myself. To make room for them I extracted the wiring and braking component boxes from the shed along with the coolant pipe bead roller. My old box of clocks and dials also came out of storage for consideration along with a few other parts Not that's its going to get the chance to be going anywhere any time soon though
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 28, 2020 14:11:37 GMT
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A bit more wheel cleaning today - One bucket of hot water with some washing up liquid, a Green abrasive pad and a scraper for thicker sections. The two previously cleaned wheels had a nasty oily greasy covering and these two had a crusty dry dirty build up. Before After Three wheels have a pretty faded patina but there is an odd one out that appears to have a far fresher finish - shame as I would have liked to keep the "stonewashed" appearance but if I want that finished it looks like I will be stripping all the paint off and then repaint attempting to recreate the tired look. Stripping back the wiring is also on going - must be getting old as I had to look out a magnifying glass to assist with looking at the cable colour letters on the wiring diagram in the Haynes Manual - Not that they were of much use and most of it did not match up.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 28, 2020 20:26:45 GMT
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Thought I should add that letting the wheels get into that condition was not anything to do with me but I do have to own up as being the lazy SOB that had left them like that since buying them probably 15 years ago. I have been thinking about why I like the faded out appearance so much I do have the occasional lapse and think about having the centres Black or Dark Grey but I keep coming back to that faint Gold and I think that it's mainly down to a subliminal effect of watching TLBT a few too many times. On the rad mounting front I spent more time today just staring at the bloody thing as when I think I have settled on the design and then I change my mind again. The design has now be settled on - two tabs and couple of straps - just need to settle on the form of the straps - getting there though. Tomorrow is brake line day - get that one off the list, and a good look at the rocker cover fitting.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,094
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Mar 28, 2020 20:31:22 GMT
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I really don’t like dark colours for wheels because it hides the design completely.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 28, 2020 20:46:42 GMT
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I really don’t like dark colours for wheels because it hides the design completely. Good point - A very good point in fact. Stonewashed Gold it is - settled.
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,849
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Mar 28, 2020 20:53:27 GMT
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They lose a great deal when painted Black The SG is just right for them.
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Mar 28, 2020 21:02:43 GMT
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I'm sure a man of your talents could replicate the time-worn finish on the fresher paint. i would think a very very light waft with a sand blaster would do the trick?
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating '80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip '97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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