Jikovron

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

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

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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

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

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.

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.

Proton OTR
So the Proton became a full blown proper load of excessive work and I trapped myself into a cycle of obsession with battling against severe fatigue to get it done whilst everything hangs in the balance,,for all those who are healthy and procrastinating,,life's bloody unpredictable and short! , there is a level of reward reaped in that despite now slowly recovering some semblance of function again,,ie walking more than 10m at a time the thing has come back onto the road and the entire family love the thing including me inexplicably, it drives like an 80s mitsubishi with competent smoothness and the typical feather weight precise controls these cars have, the engine is ultra smooth and the response is very lively with the 140bhp unit, even the homebrew driveshafts are happy conduits of torque.
Ultimately it has to stay.

Genuine clean pass, no advisories as I went through the entire car!

This took an inordinate amount of time as I would make up a patch meticulously fit it till it was butted flush and carefully weld it,,then just snooze on the mat for abit. And to think it looked OK initially

Sump was loose,,easy fix there really,,just clean it and use sump sealant

As the sun sets here,,it could well be the last hurrah,,,but also there may be a recovery too so one way or the other really!

As the buggy is basically unsaleable and worthless I thought I might aswell tinker on with it as and when, the steering was thought to be a massively faff but actually the saxo rack and quadrants etc all play nicely with each other. The quadrant is a brake pedal as it has a nice pivot point.

the rack mount was welded to the chassis rails to initially position the rack with a view that the drag link follows the average arc of the suspension links.
Steering column is the saxo up joint, a piece of lawnmower and a m12 bolt with a flange welded on.
The steering quadrant pivot got a decent beef up as I predict the thing is likely to be getting its face smashed in rather than a quiet bimble although thinking further a bump stop would be helpful as bottoming the dampers would strain the arms a fair bit.
I knocked up a front bumper as it wants a decent location for some D shackles, basically because why not!
So as the HDPE 1000litre containers worked out so well previously I picked up 2 inner bottles locally for a tenner, as can be seen when you saw them into a net they are a good 7m² of decent 3mm sheet which cut and shape very easily, I would have used then on a shed roof zero bother! 
With the front getting resolved I wanted to sort the unfinished rear so back out with the pipe bender and bandsaw to make a bumper and wheel slider rails.

Next up will be a roll over cage! 

I pulled the hulk into the work arena and was straight away distracted by picking off the vinyl roof and rubbing shitty old glue off the pillars etc, ideally it wants a roof skin but it looks like the one it had will do for now.

The car is the wrong way round really as the front is looking terrible compared to the back so ideally hiding that would have been preferable

So with this I want to fly through the core of the shell before dealing with the usual accessible outer rot so the interior was first to be evicted.
along with the soaking wet sound mat and bitumen coating.

The floor is finally dried out and I'm leaving the sill repair till after the floor is sorted as they do retain a decent level of strength till I mercilessly chop them off!

Next up, to remove the axle I removed the brake line, anti roll bar, dampers and undid the 8 bolts and nuts holding it in.

Was 17mm, now rusted down to a perfect 16mm 

I forgot the steering column so tried to spread the splined clamp and heat it up but it wasn't having any of it.

So it just had to thread through the bulkhead with a level of ignorance and lacking in grace. 
Getting the axle off allowed the water pipes to drop off also improving access to the metal work.
Next up welding prep!

Aye i can't go anywhere now there are facebook groups for old car spotting,  i get alot of screen shots sent to me after every trip further afield!
First task today was to joint the crossbar sections properly, 2 M8 studs into 20mm bar and really thick washers did the  trick although as seen I didn't line up the side hole properly on the first go, middled it on the second though , the gap is there purely as the timber wants that angle and even 1600kg of M8 compression won't persuade it! 

I felt the need to run the router around to give a slither of sophistication and class to go with the sort of motor that will be caressed beneath it.
So now that the tedious shit is out of the way i can think about what roof material to try and get for pittance and how to sort the 'work/terrace' area