Sold Stanky's Geep - fire sale

[danthecapriman]

We need a full report!

I'm sure Stanky will oblige...

 

One things for certain though, it's a fucking awesome little thing! Looks like a lot of effort went into it at one stage.

[Stanky]

Right, write up time!

 

At just gone midday on the day of our lord 9th December, 4 shiters did assemble in one place and lo, tea was drunk, biscuits were consumed and the lord did grin.

 

It was flipping cold, but sunny (to begin with) and off we went. Mercrocker, Danthecapriman, Mitsisigma and I strode out to the car, having loaded it up with all manner of equipment, batteries, pumps, beer and flowers. We drove round the corner and banged on the chap's front door. He answered. This was a good sign.

 

So, the Solent Shiters were introduced to my Jago Geep. the CPT was removed and comments were muttered about it being a lot better than expected. Next step was to see if it would actually move. We'd packed three towropes just in case, but the combined strength of the Solent shiters go the Geep moving no problem - even with tyres which probably had less air in them than the barometric pressure at the top of Everest. We pushed it down the drive, onto the road and then up onto the pavement so we weren't obstructing traffic (yet)

 

 

Next up we had to decide how to proceed from here. We reached the decision by committee (after a secret ballot and some lobbying) to pump up the tyres first. I deployed the foot pump, which Mercrocker did the intelligent thing and hooked up his magic box of jump-pack and 12v compressor to do the other side with substantially less effort. We put the tyres up to about 20psi and then had another look. During this time the 'seller' explained the various merits of the engine bay to DTCM and Mitsisigma.

 

 

Then Mitsisigma has a look

 

 

Next, we decided as we were all fit* and healthy* types we'd push it up the road to my house. Since it moved relatively easily off the drive how hard could it be?

 

yeah, umm well it started off well, but by the time we were halfway there, speed had decreased markedly and my legs were telling me this was a stupid bloody idea and why didn't we just tow it. Anyway, other than some miserable old twat in a Honda Jazz tutting as we tucked over and added about 5 nanoseconds to his journey (presumably to pick up the daily mail and moan about how you can't whistle along to modern music or some such tosh) we got back to my house in about 10 minutes. I was amazed how light the steering is, considering the tyres were still down on pressure and they are quite wide tyres.

 

I moved the Toyota off the drive and we got a run up and bumped it up onto the drive without a problem! Hooray, recovered!

 

Then we walked back to the seller house to pick up the boxes of assorted spares, hand over the beer and flowers, and pick up the 'spare' engine.

 

 

The chap we got it from and his wife seemed very pleased with the beer and flowers (thanks for the tip!) and we loaded the boxes in to the Saab. Next up was the engine. I reversed the Saab up the drive and squeezed out the door. The engine had been tipped over and was discharging what I assume is 12 years and about 1100cc worth of rainwater and rust. eventually it stopped and Mercrocker and DTCM dived in and dragged it nearer the Saab. Heads were scratched and the 'seller' offered to drive the engine back to my house in his rusty corsa B van. This was a realy sight to behold - white and rust 'camo' paintwork with at least one new sill. Billy would have been proud.

 

Mercrocker and DTCM again proved to be the powerhouse of the Solent Shiters by lumping the flipping heavy 1100cc engine into the back of the van while I placed the box of tat that was about 2/3rds full of rainwater in too. We then jumped back into the Saab in what I'd like to think looked like a cut-price bank job getaway and followed the Corsa van back to my house.

 

The 'seller' was wowed by our amazing mechanical expertise as Mitsisigma showed him that you can detach the check straps on the rear doors on the van and open them 180 degrees.

 

He reversed the van up to my garage, giving us minor clag poisoning in the process and we lumped the engine out the van into a milk bottle crate that I have on long-term loan* from the local dairy. I then actually helped by dragging the 'crated engine' into the garage and assisted lifting it onto one of the workbenches  I have. We then unloaded the other bits and the 'seller' chap made good his escape. Hopefully I have saved a marriage as well as gained a car made of rotten wood, plastic and escort bits.

 

Next up came the exciting bit! Would it turn over? Or even start?

 

 

Square cars are literally the future. put all the tools and stuff onto the wings and just get stuck in!

 

So, the battery looked peaky. I turned the key and nothing happened. OK, lets try the magic jump pack. This elicited an orange light on the dash and a click from the starter motor. Progress.

 

Next up we tried my freecycled battery. This confirmed the battery was knackered and only fit for the dump. We mole-gripped the freecycle battery in case the fitted battery was borking things. it wasn't. Then Mitsisigma broke out his bad-ass 480CCA battery. We hooked it up to the existing battery  and this gained us a light, a click from the starter and at least 3/4 of a turn of the engine. We tried again. Same story.

 

Then, it didn't want to go any further.It was clearly turning over, no valves were stuck but there was some kind of issue. Mitsisigma offered to connect 12v from his namesake car to the positive terminal of the starter motor. This was a massive success - it churned over several times - not firing but turning over. This is brilliant!

 

We undid the spark plugs and I gave them a good clean with a wire brush. Other than being sooty they looked OK considering. We refitted them.

 

DTCM popped the king lead off and we poked a bit of a chain splitter in the end and put it near to the manifold while Mitsisigma re-attached the starter motor. No sparks were observed. Next we popped the dizzy cap off and checked to see if there was a spark at the points. This was also a big negatory, so we got some fine sandpaper and cleaned the contacts, still no good.

 

Next we resorted to scienceand deployed the multimeter. This showed there was no voltage across the coil which was fast becoming suspect #1 in the non-starting. To check this, we put 12v across the solenoid and this elicited another churn of the engine but no firing.

 

I think what we need next is a known-good coil for a 1600cc Ford Crossflow engine to try. This seems to be the current major obstacle for firing. Most other things seem to work - lights, brakes, gearshift are all OK.

 

At this point were were mostly blue with cold, our fingers weren't working properly and it was starting to get dark so we abandoned play for today. I'm going to look for a coil and we'll try again soon, hopefully when its warmer!

 

I tucked the Geep up on the drive under a CPT weighted down with car tyres and packed my toys away. DTCM and Mitsisigma headed off into the sunset and I went back inside to warm up.

 

Overall I'm very pleased - its not far off working I think, though needs some work which will keep me busy. Tomorrow I plan to fit the windscreen wipers (three wipers, ZOMG!) and unbox some of the other spares. the box that filled up with water is mostly ruined but the others seem OK. Just need to work out whats what in them and if its needed.

 

Thanks for reading, and massive thanks to Mercrocker, Danthecapriman and Mitsisigma for turning out in the freezing cold and getting this home for me. I really appreciate it! Sorry there weren't more pics but we spent a lot of time tinkering, pushing and poking, plus by 3pm my fingers weren't actually capable of fine movements!

[320touring]

Excellent stuff, sounds like quite the wheeze:)

[danthecapriman]

I'm more than a teensy bit jealous tbh, it's a hell of a find let alone for free! It really is a decent little thing in every way (apart the flintstones floor!). I can not believe the guy gave it away really, especially given the fact it's made up of old skool Ford bits that have a decent value.

It's clearly been loved and well built before it just seems to have gotten 'almost there' and stumbled to a standstill.

 

I had fun today anyway, good to get out and do something with some similarly minded nutters even if we couldn't make it fire. Still, I'm sure it won't be far off...

It was pretty cold too, I think my fingers were going numb towards the end!

[lisbon_road]

Great story.  I have a very ordinary 12 volt coil, actually off a Humber Sceptre, but if you want it, its yours.  I'd best check it actually works first though (it should be ok),

[Stanky]

Thanks lisbon_road - that'd be great if you don'd mind? the one on there is cylindrical, about 2" diameter and has 2 prongs plus the king lead socket. Does that sound like the one you have? Very similar if not identical to this

 

[anonymous user]

Hmm fitting the windscreen wipers first you say, isn't that how the lad started restoring Christine and we all know how that turned out

[mercrocker]

A good day out with like minded people!     It really is an excellent freebie - that gel coat is pristine and it is packed full of Escort Win.   Hope it works out for you Stanky, so much potential there - I can see you cruising the strand at Lee on the Solent next summer the envy of all who really know their GRP shite....

[mitsisigma01]

Action shots from the Geep collection !

The collection part of it was so uneventful 2 tyres being pumped was as good as it got . We should of at least pushed it to the nearest fuel station for a pretend first juicing but I think 800 metres was as far as we could of managed .

Is it compulsory to be unfit to be an Auto shiter !!!

[Stanky]

Initial to-do list looks like this:

 

- New coil

- replacement scrapyard 037 battery

- fit wipers

- measure rear floor area

- remove seats and get them somewhere dry

- knot wheel front discs to see if they can be saved

- inflate tyres to ~30psi for good measure

- tidy garage enough to get Geep in

- stuff bag into fuel filler neck to prevent (more) rainwater getting in - phase 2 will be to buy a universal filler cap thing.

 

I'll update as I progress. I'll take more pics too.

[lisbon_road]

It is roughly like your picture.  I'd better meter the resistance to check that there is a decent chance of it working first.  You over this way sometime?

 

(By the way, I'm convinced that the Zafira fault is the AFM as I can't get it over 2.9 volts even at 5K rpm, so I have a new one to collect tomorrow, a proper one as everyone says you have to buy decent).

[mercrocker]

How much ball-ache would there be to get the body off the frame?   Four of us should have it to one side - you could then store that outdoors, cat-piss tarp style and work on the grubby bits completely unfettered.  It would also enable a proper re-bonding of some phenolic ply and the chassis rails could be filled with your favourite witches brew of anti-corrosion wax.  

 

Some of the more desirable but less necessary parts could be dobbed in for kerrrchhiiiing and substituted with cheaper but similarly effective alternatives.   A couple of non-OLLI jump seats would look good instead of the comfy but huge Ford ones - you aren't going to be driving it to the Algarve (are you?).  

 

Some scaled-up Tri-Ang decals would be extremely hard to resist as well..... 

 

Whatevers, good luck with it and always up for lending a hand.

 

You can tell I quite liked the thing!   

[Stanky]

I think that it should be relatively straghtforward to remove the body - it looks like the body is bonded to the plywood and then the ply is screwed to the chassis rails - I think that removing the 7/16ths bolts along the floor should allow the bodywork to lift off the chassis.

 

As I've got lots of enthusiasm for this currently I went out in the pissing rain and wind earlier this morning to extract the seats and move them somewhere dry. As you can see, there was quite a bit of rain last night, but at least all the holes let the worst of it drain out

 

 

I really need to get the whole thing into my mostly-dry garage but its full of workbenches, tools, bikes and lawnmowers currently so that'll have to wait for another day. I have several days off in the week so might do some re-organising then. Now onto the action

 

The brackets and runners are held in with really long threaded 7/16ths bolts through the floor into the chassis. The holes are threaded so no corroded bolts to worry about - in fact it all came out with almost no fuss at all.

 

 

This is after removing the passenger seat and part-way through removing the drivers one. The bolts undid with no problems, I packed the bolts into a tin, labelled it and put it with the seats. I moved them into the garage which is mostly dry, at least more dry than out the front of my house.

 

Now, it looks like a local cat may have discovered the Geep on the previous owner's drive, as both seats are COVERED in ginger fur. It might have been a fox, or some other nightmarish beast but they are distinctly fluffy

 

 

Wearing gloves, I scraped as much of this off as I could - I'll have another go as they dry out a bit then hit them with a wet n dry vacuum. Beko, you know I gave you that Renner sump key? Want to return the favour?

 

Apart from being wet, fluff-encrusted and slightly mossy, the seats are alright in a chunky kind of way. We'll see how they tidy up - I need a warm, dry, windy day or six and there is no chance of that this side of April.

 

With both seats out, I stuffed a plastic bag in the fuel filler neck to prevent any more water getting in and had a look through the rear floor at the fuel sender to see if I could get it undone and see what the tank contained.

 

 

More cars should have flipping massive holes in the boot floor for this sort of thing.

 

Anyway how is this meant to undo? I tried rotating it anticlockwise and there was no movement, then clockwise with the same result. Then I tried to see if it just popped up like a paint tin lid, also no good. I didn't want to b0rk it totally so left it alone. Any suggestions?

 

I measured up the radiator aperture and its 20" wide and about 14" deep though the depth is less important. Anyone got any suggestions for a new rad that will fit? My spare Almera one is about 28" wide so way too big annoyingly.

 

Finally, I dug out the TRIPLE WIPERS M8 from their box and fitted them to the arms. Check this out

 

 

to be honest the spring in the right-most one snapped so it hardly applies any pressure to the screen but the other two are fine. I just love having three wipers!

 

Thats all for today, even though its a lot warmer here today, the wind and rain is a pain and I CBA with any more fiddling. If it cheers up I might go out and measure the rear floor up, but I think that Mercrocker's idea to lift the body off the chassis will be the best way forward at the moment. Certainly it will allow me to make up a new floor template easily and the CPT can be securely a lot more tightly around the rolling chassis than the awkward body.

 

[mitsisigma01]

 

Or a lump hammer and a chunk of metal . Strike anti clockwise on the inner ring if I remembers right

[mk2_craig]

Those seats, which are almost certainly out of a later mk2 XR2, are probably worth a handsome amount even in that condition. Amazing considering how many of the bastards were around at one point and you couldn't give em away.

[Stanky]

51yUiZ2GxCL._SY400_.jpg

Or a lump hammer and a chunk of metal . Strike anti clockwise on the inner ring if I remembers right

 

Ah, thanks - yes there are 4 cutouts at 90 degrees to each over - so it does unscrew but needs some effort to do so?

 

Has anyone local-ish got the right tool, or I'll revert to percussive maintenance with a bit of wooden dowel.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Loving this. You are luckiest man of ever and the people of autoshite should be deeply proud of their community ethic.

 

Numbers 1-59 in the roffle once you've cleaned the seats please

[danthecapriman]

Ah, thanks - yes there are 4 cutouts at 90 degrees to each over - so it does unscrew but needs some effort to do so?

 

Has anyone local-ish got the right tool, or I'll revert to percussive maintenance with a bit of wooden dowel.

My Capri tank has the same fitting, it's unbelievably tight to undo. I just use a hammer and a blunt metal punch to tap it around to undo it.

[Sigmund Fraud]

I measured up the radiator aperture and its 20" wide and about 14" deep though the depth is less important. Anyone got any suggestions for a new rad that will fit? My spare Almera one is about 28" wide so way too big annoyingly.

 

A Polo 6N radiator would fit, and is a favourite of kitcar builders world-wide. Around £35 to buy a new one.

[lisbon_road]

I suggest pressure washing the seats.  Come up fine with a bit of luck. 

[320touring]

Assuming you can get the level sender/pump wiring out the way, you can use 2 crossed screwdrivers to lever the fuel fitting out

[mitsisigma01]

Can the seat covers be unclipped, jet washing might disintegrate the foam

[Stanky]

They might unzip - I'll check in the week. It'll help no end if they do as they will dry out a load better with the fabric removed.

[Stanky]

Another potential bonus, my father-in-law's Mk1 focus is being dragged away for scrap at some point soon, I should be able to swap the kippered Bosch battery onto it and nick whatever (functioning) battery it has on it currently as an emergency spare.

 

its not a 037 one but if it'll hold charge I can at least turn this engine over by careful application of 12v to the starter motor when we have a coil to try.

[mitsisigma01]

If I remember rightly the terminals or fuel pipes come out of the middle of the sender unit and the crossed screwdriver trick might break something if it slips . I used to use a socket extension bar and lump hammer , a couple of good whacks o each of the lugs should do it . They don't have to move far .

[Mally]

Tap the petrol gauge ring with a screwdriver anti clockwise, Am sure there are 3 lugs, do each in turn.

It's not an actual screw thread, there are sort of tapers that lock it up.

 

It is possible to remove the body with 4 men, but unless you need to paint the chassis I wouldn't bother.

Things like steering, wiring, tank filler hose, hand brake, master cylinder etc would need disconecting.

[mitsisigma01]

Keep the old batteries, minimum worth £5 a piece usually at the scrap metal merchants or save them up for me !

[Mally]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MGB-Roadster-amp-MGBGT-1966-on-Fuel-Gauge-Sender-Unit-TWIST-RING-amp-SEAL-/332451976571?

 

That's a similar ring. Tap anti clockwise lightly on the  tabs.

Be careful with the tank they are almost unobtainium.

[AMC Rebel]

That looks bloody marvellous. 3 wipers ftw just like an e-type (only better)

[eddyramrod]

If that Focus is only going to scrap, see if you can grab the seats out of it!  And anything else that might be useful

 

Radiator-wise, I would imagine it was laid out for an Escort rad, which will be arranged with the header tank at the top, rather than down one side as they tend to be now.  What you might get a top-tank rad off I have no idea, bur maybe Escort rads are still available?

 

And please tell me Huggy will be able to meet this in April when we come down?