teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Aug 15, 2022 18:13:02 GMT
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Well it was an interesting weekend. I had to take the Lovely Doctor's Audi for the MOT on Saturday morning. We had been out in it the Wednesday before to the pub quiz, came second, or first of the losers.  Of course, the car ran perfectly. This is, obviously, leading to me telling you that it wouldn't start. The battery was dead. I jump started it and went fot the test. when they went to do the MOT it wouldn't start. They used a jump pack to get it going again. The first thing they checked was the screen washers and one of the wiper blades snapped off! Brilliant.  The afternoon was spent destroying the battery box etc as per the previous post. Sunday was just too hot to even consider welding or grinding under a car so I decided to tidy out my work shed. It was like being inside a microwave, I felt like Alec Guinness in Bridge On The River Kwai when they put him in that tin box!  Anyway, I did loads of cleaning sorting and chucking away. There's a load of stuff that needs to go from my work shed to the storage shed but, unfortunately, I will need to tidy the storage shed before I can get it moved over. This means that I still can't get into my work shed to do any work, which would have been handy tonight because of the tropical thunder storm which has saved itself up for when I got home from work... Oh, I've ordered number 3 off here.  I got a bit of discount but it was still almost a ton! I might go for a lie down. |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Aug 17, 2022 21:18:11 GMT
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Yesterday it was a warm day and I got finished at work at the normal time, for a change. I was driving home full of enthusiasm to get stuck in. The plan was to clean off all the sealer and undercoating to get at the spot welds so I can remove the bottom of the battery tray to fit this.  I thought that I'd have a quick cup of tea and then I'm on it. Whilst the kettle was boiling the clear blue sky went black and...  The lovely Doctor said, 'Don't worry it will pass soon'. Well, it didn't. It came down in biblical proportions. This was Market Rasen last night.  |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Aug 29, 2022 22:47:21 GMT
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Since my last report I have been to three weddings in the space of two weekends, I must be turning into Hugh Grant... Don't these people know that I have got a rusty old banger to fix up? Luckily we have a bank holiday but, being England, it was raining when I got up this morning. It eventually dried up in the early afternoon. I was going to replace the battery box and, to that end, I have drilled out most of the spot welds except the ones in the rear wheel well. To do those I need to remove the back wheel. Easy, just jack it up and put an axle stand under the rear jacking point you say... Well, BMW E46s have a lot of good points but they also have a few dodgy points as well. One of which is that the rear jacking points are under engineered and have a tendency to collapse upwards. The driver's side one on mine, despite not being really rusty, has started to distort.  It doesn't really show up on this picture but the outer edge has gone upwards about 10mm. This just won't do, so I cleaned it up to find the spot welds.  This allowed me to remove a section of the sill to get at the jacking point inside.  This is what it looks like.  The brown stains are, luckily, cavity wax and not rust. The next job is to get a slide hammer and bash the jack point back down to where it should be so I can then insert this stiffener.  I would have done that if my pal Bernard had remembered to bring me my slide hammer back. As I was in the mood for a bit of bashing, I thought I would have a go at sorting out the piece of sill I had removed.  That horizontal crease below the oval hole should not be there. The picture makes it look a lot better than it actually was but a bit of hammering soon sorted it out to something like. By this time the Lovely Doctor was calling me in for a Sunday dinner on a Monday, so I put a bit of that black stuff on the bare metal and called it a day.  Work in the morning, back to reality... |
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After 40 years of messing with cars I’m still amazed that BMW still did such silly things. See also plastic cooling systems. But they do drive well.
John
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thomfr
Part of things
Trying to assemble the Duett again..
Posts: 695
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After 40 years of messing with cars I’m still amazed that BMW still did such silly things. See also plastic cooling systems. But they do drive well. John Even at BMW they have the wrong ratio of accountants vs engineers.. I always thought that only Italians changed a decent design to something unbeleavable bad which was not even cheaper to produce. but agree the plastic cooling system stuff is their nr. 1 f&ck up. Thom |
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73' Alfa Giulia Super
64' Volvo Duett
65' Volvo Duett
67' Volvo Amazon 123GT
09' Ford Focus 1.8
20' VW ID4
71' Benelli Motorella
65' Cyrus Speciaal
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys
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After 40 years of messing with cars I’m still amazed that BMW still did such silly things. See also plastic cooling systems. But they do drive well. John Even at BMW they have the wrong ratio of accountants vs engineers.. I always thought that only Italians changed a decent design to something unbeleavable bad which was not even cheaper to produce. but agree the plastic cooling system stuff is their nr. 1 f&ck up. Thom BMW were among the first at it with inappropriate materials, my 1978 635Csi B9 had a plastic header tank which split at an early age, and my 1981 735i took it a stage further with a largely plastic radiator, which shed the top hose stub most inconveniently in France, ultimately causing head gasket failure; its only two disgraces in almost 400,000 miles. |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Aug 30, 2022 22:54:55 GMT
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Earlier this evening I Spent some considerable time and effort to compose replies to jjeffries , thomfr and etypephil that were both witty and apposite. The whole thing has vanished into the ether and I have neither the mental capacity nor the enthusiasm to start all over again, sorry chaps. The report of what I did tonight is similarly truncated and for the same reasons. Got the slide hammer from Bernard and pulled the bent thing back down.  Made a new perspex lid for my blast cabinet and tidied up the jack point stiffeners.  Painted some weld through primer on them.  Went inside and tidied up after my daughter who is home from university. That's it, thanks for looking and goodnight. |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Aug 31, 2022 19:43:45 GMT
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Another absolute grueller at work today and another late finish so I didn't feel like doing much when I got home. As I touched upon last time, my blast cabinet is getting a bit of love and the postie had delivered a new lighting kit so I thought I would fit that. It's got to be better than shining a torch through an opaque lid and trying to blast by sense of smell!    Just waiting for a new seal for the lid and I need to sort out a new air filter arrangement as the one in it seems to be impossible to find. That's all folks. Edit; forgot to say, I fitted some new gloves too, ones without holes in the fingers. |
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Last Edit: Aug 31, 2022 19:45:29 GMT by teaboy
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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I thought I'd have a trial fit of the reinforcement bit tonight. It was a right faff to get it in there.  I had to cut out the rear stiffening indent to allow it in but it does give me a nice hole to weld through. It goes right up inside the sill.  I'll whip it back out and finish cleaning up and get some weld through primer in there before I fit it permanently. That's all I had time for because the lovely Doctor and I went to take Alan the dog for a walk through the woods before it went dark. I let her pick up the poop. |
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Last Edit: Sept 3, 2022 0:17:09 GMT by teaboy
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16grit
Part of things
Posts: 215
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Sept 3, 2022 14:48:50 GMT
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Exemplary work as ever
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Sept 5, 2022 21:37:45 GMT
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Cheers dude. Did I get much done at the weekend? Well, yes but no. I did plenty of stuff but the vast majority of it was not car related. A bit of gardening, and a bit of work on the patio remodeling for the lovely Doctor didn't leave me with much car time.  That used to be a full height wall and, annoyingly, the sun shines on the back of it in the afternoon so the doctor wants it removing and the area opening up more. I'm not breaking into the next door neighbour's back garden by the way. After I'd had enough of that I managed to get a bit of weld through primer on the inside of the sill.  
I also got a bit on the piece that needs to go back on too.  I stuck the stiffener back in place, despite having already done that once it was still like the Krypton Factor getting in. I was going to weld it back together but the weather started to feel a lot like a thunderstorm was going to start and I didn't want to be stuck outside with the welder if the rain did come. I decided to cut open the other side instead, then once everything is prepared and the weather is cooperating, I can weld them both up at the same time The passenger side has distorted much less but it does have a bit more corrosion.  The removed section has a bit of grot on the flange, which will need to be cut off and replaced.  That will have to wait for another day though, because I ran out of time. Nothing done tonight though because, despite being absolutely red hot all day whilst I was at work, it started to rain as soon asI got home. |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Sept 14, 2022 21:07:57 GMT
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I was going to repair that piece of sill in the previous post but I found some m6 stainless screws which I had a plan for. The missing heat shield on the exhaust.   I was part way through the job when a friend of mine turned up so tea was consumed instead of work being done. I did get it on but because I was short of time I didn't take any pictures.  Ignore the nyloc nuts, I'll be swapping them for something that won't melt but they were the first m6 nuts I found and I wanted to test it. Faffing about with the exhaust is not going to repair that piece of sill so I thought I'd better get on with it.  That bit was quite wiggly.  But not too bad to do.    The bit to the right of the new piece was also quite pitted so...   It was soon in and ready for trimming back  With it tidied up I used the old pieces to mark out where to drill the holes for plug welding.  After I drilled the holes I gave it a bit of a sand up and I discovered some more pitting on the left side, around the hole.  I didn't want to leave that so I cut it off. It was just a flat piece this time.  I'm struggling to see what I'm welding so I think a trip to specsavers is overdue.  Luckily the power file can remove a multitude of sins. Just a quick trim up left.  With the old bits  Right, I'm going to call this bit mended.  I'm going for a cuppa now. |
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Darkspeed
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,883
Club RR Member Number: 39
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Sept 14, 2022 22:44:57 GMT
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I'm thinking the tea work ratio is about optimum - keep it up.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Sept 15, 2022 21:14:39 GMT
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I've done a fair bit of messing around with stuff but I realised that I have yet to actually weld anything to the car. I thought I'd better pluck up the courage to have a go. The jack point stiffener is the first place to start. I clamped it together with a 2" G clamp to hold the two bits together then ran down the side. I forgot to take a picture of the clamp, you'll just have to believe me, ok?  Plug welded the two holes underneath.  Along the outer edge the two skins are held together by just a measly couple of spot welds so I went along the bottom edge then cut a slot through the top skin above it and welded them back together,  I had a go at going up the back bit inside the sill, there's not much room to get the torch in and to still see what you are doing.  Overall, it is looking like this.  I had to file the two plug welds down underneath because the outer skin butts up flush against it.  I think that deserves a cuppa and a jammy doughnut, possibly two.  Cheers! |
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Sept 15, 2022 21:29:17 GMT
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I'm sure I'm supposed to say something complementary about your work (which is excellent so keep posting) but... Hmmm. Soft and Fruity. Mrs Sweetpea often never says exactly that about me. |
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Sept 16, 2022 4:02:29 GMT
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Above and beyond your always excellent prose, very nice work here. Neat welding.
In regards to your Carrera, do you have a summary of where it stands … what lies between here and it being road ready? Did the oil tank get resolved? I’m interested, liked the other mods you’d performed and not wishing to instigate any stress by mentioning it. Maybe I need to look over on the John Glynn website.
Best, John
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Sept 16, 2022 7:12:27 GMT
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Nice work Teaboy.
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Sept 16, 2022 19:51:25 GMT
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Hmmm. Soft and Fruity. Mrs Sweetpea often never says exactly that about me. I still think you are lovely, Sweetie. Above and beyond your always excellent prose, very nice work here. Neat welding. In regards to your Carrera, do you have a summary of where it stands … what lies between here and it being road ready? Did the oil tank get resolved? I’m interested, liked the other mods you’d performed and not wishing to instigate any stress by mentioning it. Maybe I need to look over on the John Glynn website. Best, John Thanks John. WRT the 911, it is a long way from the road... The other thing You can substitute the word 'war' for oil tank, as in, 'don't mention the ...' Cheers Dude, I suspect your escort will have been finished, raced and rallied and be ready for its next rebuild before I'm done with this thing. Looking for something steady to do after work today there was my new battery box. It had two holes in the bottom for grommets and, as it was said grommet holes which killed the original one I decide that they needed removing. is 'removing' a hole actually a thing? I'm not sure but, nevertheless, I shall attempt it. First cut a couple of discs.  Then weld them in quite badly, did I mention that I can't see what I'm doing?  Tidy it up a bit, it doesn't have to be mint because it will be covered in Raptor or some-such.  There are some brackets on the side of it which are terrible rust traps. These.  They must be for some other model of E46 but are not used on the M3 so I carefully removed them. Careful with the battery tray that is, the brackets got chopped up.  Now that's better.  Sadly no Jammy doughnuts left, I had to make do with digestives.  Cheers. |
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teaboy
Posted a lot
Make tea, not war.
Posts: 2,126
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Sept 19, 2022 21:57:37 GMT
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As is often the case with things I do, this little repair job has started to run on. With that in mind coupled with the fact that it is outside and the summer is disappearing in the rear view mirror I have taken the decision to initiate operation cover up. For this I need one of these.  I collected that on Saturday, on Sunday I went to visit my daughter so that left today. This morning I watched some of the era ending events on TV so it was early afternoon before I had a look at it.  There are lots of bits but the instruction booklet assured me that two people should be able to assemble it in around two hours. It didn't indicate how long it would take one person to build it around a car that is raised up in the air.  I was being very careful not to drop anything on the roof of the car and the whole job took far longer than I expected. With my reputation for speed, or lack thereof, I should really have been prepared to have been working well beyond sunset.  However, I'm calling operation cover up complete.  Due to the aforementioned events causing all the shops to be closed I found myself with a lack of treats to reward myself with. In the end I went with a bowl of custard. I like custard.  Cheers. |
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Sept 20, 2022 0:35:21 GMT
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Mmmmmmm custard.
John
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