Jikovron

Thankyou all, very kind uplifting words So today's work has been in 2 stages This crafter is in for a mystery engine problem, it was bought by the owner stripped like it is with the engine unable to start, when attempted it basically just made like a knock sound every crank rotation and would just fire, so checking it manually I found all 4 cylinders felt like they had compression 1 maybe less than the others and the timing marks all made sense, so I kept persevering to which it did fire up and run on 3 seemingly Next up today this bad lad, 2.0 petrol freight rover in the exact spec i wanted for a recovery truck, decent underneath too ! The convoy doors offend me greatly it had to be saidbso I'll have to swap those for some earlier jobs Chassis is all sweet so that's getting painted up ASAP and the cab will go BL blue I think Here's a wierd thing, the pistons stop short by 8mm which to me seems mad, its a 2.0 O series so has the 89mm stroke rather than the 75mm of the 1.7, the engine itself seems to have been bored out 20 over and maybe overheated a few times as the radiator is new as is a few ignition bits, it running terribly prompted me to take off the head as the carb settings and ignition timing seemed to make no difference to running at all !,,I might end up building a new 2.0 out of a 1.7 and reusing the oversize pistons !

Thankyou all for your kind words there's no doubt its going to be a stress fest but I'm relishing the challenge my sister has been the star really as I've basically thrown her right into the deep end with welding/fabricating and quite intense mechanical work without any sign of flagging so far, not bad for a former office based employee! We're based at Derwent foundry, Whatstandwell DE4 5HG 01629 818296 RRM Ltd facebook RRM Ltd website

For aslong as I can remember I've wanted to be directing my own path in business but never had the actual confidence to overcome huge self doubt and fears of failure, in 2021 when I nearly met with my mortality thanks to covid I remember hating that I'd played things safe as houses like a boring nobody and literally despite continued health maladies I feel that I've got a second run up at life , so I'm starting from nothing at 35 and want to get pushing forward with what is abit of a dream for me . So basically my sister and I have teamed up to create a new garage/engineering works of which provides the usual bread and butter garage services and also more specialised work less commonly found like large manual machining capability and welding. We're looking to stock up on a range of common classic parts too so that we can take on most project work without waiting on parts turning up in ebay etc albeit limited space prevents stocking a vast amount. So far over the last 8 months ! Obligatory huge lathe brought back somewhat inappropriately Company car brought down , inappropriately Lathe electrical rebuild done because it was dangerous as hell, 415 through the soaked push buttons etc ,,horrible ! Once cleaned and generally setup it's been put to work straight away! this s100 k series swap was quite aquite to drive, getting one to fit the earlier car isn't bolt in like with the estelle and rapid ! Cambelt snappage job on an iveco 2.3, lots of new valves and lapping required! loads of work done, and loads more hopefully to come !

The only estate I've ever had so far, hoping to get it sorted for the road and tidy up old welding work, its my favourite spec for one of these : blue, late and 1700 flavour

LOADS of time later The skoda has been worked on at the new unit This shell was a floppy mess, it sagged on the trailer bringing it down , so had to manipulate it back into shape ive always wanted to stiffen up the sill and A pillar to do away with the weak horrible standard solution where the front doors are endlessly sagging the B pillar got its own pedestal to tie onto and its still got enough flex to work perfectly fine and then spend hours tieing abit of B pillar to the A pillar as its the same hinge pattern but thicker metal rotten tunnel was next up, a local place folded up this for £35 which was an epic bargain, saved loads of time messing about but still had to cut out and weld in all the threaded plates for various things on the tunnel Hours later its all welded in, mega strong now as I specified 1.5mm steel

I had the exact same thing happen to mine , an lt77s which had the r380 gears with the intermediate type synchro rings, the oil ran low over a few months and it gradually got noisier The Input shaft had the same blue tinge so I binned it all as I didn't want a potential tooth weakness just waiting to show up catastrophically , not only did they get mega hot but also the casing had a blue haze around the bearing! , ended up fitting an sd1 2.4 diesel gearbox in its place which also leaked oil so investigating transit 2.4 gearboxes currently as they have normal ratios compared to the 2.5 Di

Farkin ell all I have to do is blink and the content sweeps into the thread, that padsaw is absolutely at home in Wallsend

Not surprised the powertrain mounts are crying now you've got that straight though box on it, Just an SU carb to fit next eh

Have you got a dyno print for that M8

Winning at life as always, the only way this could have been better is if it was an old imp alt found under the floorboards cobbled on with chopped angle iron and imperial fasteners,

This was a tangential diversion similarly at the time of my covid strike down and probably the precursor to the council getting vexed off their boxes This car arrived at the same time as the Skoda in March of 21 with a loose plan that it would divulge parts or be a swap for something else So the car was a total mess, the A pillars were completely gone and the chassis rails had detached from the inner wings such that the front was mainly held on by the gearbox crossmember! just to reduce the aesthetic harm I propped it up and popped the roof skin out. First task was to get into the engine, free off a couple of valves, rebuild the carbs and clean it up. it amazingly ran very nicely, no smoke and sounded smooth Carefully picked it apart and everything apart from the front half of the shell found a new home one way or the other The engine amongst other bits went to Texas in a mere 300kg all up crate, what I didn't realise however was that international shipping calls for special treated timber/plywood not old pallets like the first box I crafted!! Damn things

Ive got OM numbers engine horn , literally the best engine for all vehicles

The piston bore of these calipers never need sleeved as the piston and square O ring are the sole elements of sealing contact, as long as the seal groove is in decent shape the bore only has to be cleared of corrosion and general dirt and any burs to allow free and fairly loose passage of the piston when dropped in without a seal fitted In the past I've taken to heating them and using 2 flat screwdrivers to gently pry up via the piston dust shield lip to gradually start exercising the piston back and forth, it's usually either corrosion formation on the upper bore above the main seal but sometimes the seal bonds to the piston which can involve such joy as welding a nut to the piston to draw it out with a threaded bar etc.

Should have lit up those landsails down to the canvas like a well skidded grifter and driven in ATS with the tread flapping like nothing happened 😄

Keep the original registration number Your vehicle must have 8 or more points from the table below if you want to keep the original registration number. 5 of these points must come from having the original or new and unmodified chassis, monocoque bodyshell or frame. Part Points Chassis, monocoque bodyshell (body and chassis as one unit) or frame - original or new and unmodified (direct from manufacturer) 5 Suspension (front and back) - original 2 Axles (both) - original 2 Transmission - original 2 Steering assembly - original 2 Engine - original 1 Source the mot exemption is lost alot easier than the historic identity if the car, just an engine swap could do that What is unclear though is if you change a lower spec part for a standard one off a higher spec car , like a 2300 magnum axle in place of a 1256 one,,hard to judge if they're both 'standard' parts

Its rust prevention capability seems to be amazing , I painted some rusty sheet in the garden and nothing is coming through with just one badly applied coat months later The downside though seems to be that it doesn't adhere very well so the metal has to be really rough before application to key it on otherwise it behaves like a scratch card It does seem to be overpaintable but is said to not be a primer or a paint so I think the primary application is touch up of static galvanized framework in the main The main benefit is that it's got an unlimited shelf life !

So the Skoda has been a slow burner but again this has been spread over the whole year roughly As can be noted the front end was a total mess, it just fell to bits without any disassembly , a few kicks saw it all fall out. And indeed the metal just kept being cut away till it was looking completely bollocked the donor floor needed some work after it was blasted The boot floor and rails fitted OK due to coming from a similar year car, the press tools where changed a fair bit as the steel thickness and pressings were continuously updated through the estelle production run particularly the mk1 and super estelles surprisingly that was a straight forward task and getting it in wasn't all that bad By this stage the technique was in place, yes there's no ribs but no shits were given due to cost considerations , flat sheet is cheap! I used a copious amount of Zinga zinc coating , bloody expensive given it was 53quid for 750ml All that rammel needs copied/repaired and fitted back in, but need to build up enthusiasm again really the questionable 80s bumper was in bits so I thought I'd see if fibre glass was a worthy option and it is , if you buy the correct resin for the catalyst, I had to redo the whole deal but got there the 2nd time! So that's roughly up to date, 12months condensed down as per the proton

So a year or so passes by and plenty has gone on for better and worse. Proton: 10,000 miles this year! The driveshaft seemed to be out of balance so I added some jubilee weights ,,however since balancing the wheels there is some residual minor vibration at 70 odd mph (knackered cv boot noted) I made a cheeky towbar of which I should have just bought one than mess about adapting one that looked about right Bonnet catch failed at high enough speed to snap one hinge and wrap the bonnet around the passenger A pillar,,all OK except the windscreen which was subsequently replaced The engine was feeling abit off so I found the engine light feed and wired it into the dash , but that was revealing nowt! I reckoned the fuel pump was struggling to feed the bigger engine, so swapped that for the gti unit however that didn't help either, and similarly the fuel regulator was passing at expected pressure so by then I was abit stumped So checked the cam timing which revealed almost a tooth out, but oddly not a whole tooth. So a loose crank bolt allowed the keyway to fret away the key, ended up welding it and filing it back into shape, fixed! next up was the rather long ignored cv and rack boot, only took about 20mins or so for a change brake pipes were looking incredibly poor so they got replaced, it involved a whole host of tools, strong language and a 3m length of 5mm bore clear poly pipe. I noticed instantly when this blew out all its oil as the car felt skittish when cornering to the right, so I phoned about for new ones but most places claimed their suppliers didn't have them, yet one tried KYB directly who had stock of them, so swapped both sides as the better of the 2 dampers was in poor condition also the window wouldn't wind on either side due to the tabs rotting off the glass grab thing so just tacked them back together , makes a big difference being able to open windows without them falling out of the runners The next engine,,at some stage anon, plenty to plan to get that in given its a VW engine That's a sort of abridged year behind d the wheel of that car, it's basically been a decent all round thing, enjoyable and easy to drive with reasonable reliability all in.

Yeah there's been a fair bit over the last year but it's all been complicated by health maladies so I didn't really post much, but I'll do a summary shortly !

Imagine the carpark look back factor when those placca lights are white sand exotic beach water clear ,,,phwoar!

It seems I should have left the smokey but reliable s100 engine in it rather than gamble on a random 130 engine known for being extra fragile hgf wise, fucking things! Bleeding these simply entails parking front end down topping up the header tank and opening the bleed valve till runs out and tbh even if you fail to bleed it properly it just puts the heater out of action. All the skoda engines are tricky as the alloy block inevitably stretches up around the hot thermostat end leaving the liners 3 and 4 flush with the block deck, if the issue isn't massively bad it is possible just shim them up over so that the liners are protruding by the right 0.14ish mm amount relative to the deck but stepping up ~ 0.05mm relative to each other towards the rear of the flywheel end. Another way to rectify the issue is either deck the block to 95mm above the liner seats or fit a K series which ironically are bang on reliable in these

It was a 1275 marina powered creation with Viva HC front and rear axles it was very unusual to say the least!

Once you get that safari rack on anything goes, telegraph poles and 4m insulated roof sheets on top, a pallet of cement in the back and 2t of ballast on the triple axle etc

If the wiring diagram above is correct then i get the following conclusion re the ignition switch: T: 12V- power always present regardless of switch status L: Switched 12v - power feed to side lights and dash light switch H headlight 12V- power feed to main beam/dipped via footswitch. Going via the diagram it's unclear what A3 and A actually do, of the top of head thinking is that A3 is a 12v- feed from the switch to energize the dynamo regulator and put on the ignition warning light A being possibly a means to earth the circuit upon shutdown to stop the engine running on the dynamo in the absence of a diode. The other function diagrams contradict the main car diagram however.

The flatbed has been very useful