Asimo

If you just buy £30 worth, it will cost the same as everywhere else.

And before anyone asks, no it’s not Back to the Fuchsia 

I don't wanna holiday in the sun
I wanna go to Preston
I wanna see some bodgery
'cause  now I've got a reasonable economy
 
Now I've gotta reason, now I've gotta reason
now I've gotta reason and I'm still waiting
now I've gotta reason
now I've gotta reason to be waiting
For the AA to call

There's sod all in the walls at all
while I was waiting for the cladder to call

I dared to asked for sun shine I got world of  wob 3
I'm looking at the tape and it looks fucked to me

Now I've gotta reason, now I've gotta reason
now I've gotta reason and I'm still waiting
now I've gotta reason
now I've gotta reason to be waiting
For the AA to call

The electrics are shite
there's nowt here anyway
The switches got no reason to be here at all
but now they've found a reason
and it's no real reason
to be glued to the fucking wall

I'm going send this over the weigh bridge scales
I don't understand this thing at all
I'm going to go over and over the weighbridge scales
I'm going to go over the weighbridge scales
I'm going to go over the weighbridge scales

Isoponophobia, there's too much filler here
there's too many bubbles oh when will it fall
and now I've gotta reason
it's no real reason, to be wobbing this door at all

It's gotta go over the bridge
I don't understand this thing at all
It's  like a third rate 'V-dub' horror show
I don't understand this bit at all

I'm gonna go over the bridge
I'm gonna go over the weigh bridge
I'm gonna go over the weighbridge y'all
fuck all before me over the weighbridge y'all
I don't understand this thing all
Please be Cartakebacking for me

1986 Bedford Midi Camper Campervan Classic Retro Project | eBay
 

Poor doggy. 


https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/813662443984098

Poor doggy. 


https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/813662443984098

Didn't those have some weird ABS system that only works on the back wheels?  Surprised the tester had never seen plastic leaf springs before though, several modern vans use them. 

Underside finished bar a coat of sprayable seam sealer.

Started stripping engine bay.

Primer applied.

Still plenty to be done.

Now begins the primer, rubbing, and dust phase.
 

I'm trying to figure out how to get this back from Thailand.
 

"Hi, where are your drills?"
"Aisle B, back". 

It's been relatively quiet with the fleet as of late. Everything is behaving itself. Even the 65 year old Cambridge!
I did however manage to fix the horns on said Cambridge. They were non-functional when I collected it and I imagine it was to do with the original wiring potentially being positive earth or the fact the cars been converted from a dynamo to an alternator at some point. Regardless the wiring to the horn was seeing a constant 12 V which dropped to zero when pressing the horn. As such I have done some light wiring work and used all red wires to wire the horns (via a fuse) directly to the battery. Then used the horn button as the earth. They are lovely sounding mechanical horns!

I also set about changing the fan belt but I have the wrong size ordered it seems. It's fitted with a 10x950 belt which means it's right at the max of it's tension and quite floppy. I bought the standard 10x900 but it doesn't fit. Because the new alternator hits the engine mount and can't be adjusted all the way back. Annoying really because it just about clears the steering box. Clearly someone else found this problem because the engine mount has been taken to with a hammer....
Regardless I managed to squeeze on a 10x925 belt which gives me plenty more life.

I'm also in the process of reinstating the missing heater. The matrix has been removed from the loop and the blower box removed. I bought a Smiths blower motor of the correct vintage but it was clocked the wrong way round so I've had to disassemble it and swap round the motor to the other side. It now fits but I can't find the wiring for it. I am also hoping the heater matrix isnt holed... Although having a blower is probably the biggest battle.

I've been taking it on regular trips to work regardless. I love how old and mechanical it is but it doesn't really fit in well in the car park!

I also replaced the wiper motor on the MGF which had been very loud and grumbly since I put it back on the road. I fitted a new/old rack and motor which I had to wire in as it had the wrong plug fitted. It's quieter, but still more noisy than I would like.

The Mini has not progressed. I'm starting to think with 52 days left that I'm probably not taking it to Germany. It's amazing how quickly you run out of time on projects! Luckily @sharley17194 has made good progress on his Mini so I think we'll be taking that instead.
Finally. I bought myself a new daily (probably wise as my newest car was 24 years old to this point). I'm over the moon about it as it's been on my radar for a long time. I've been saving relentlessly for some time to be able to get one and I couldn't be happier with it! For those that will ask it's a Cayman Gen2 2.9 PDK. It looks and drives great!

 

I will be literally dead before that happens to me.
Thankfully I can afford the £59 per month boot in the baws for the Saab and I like the car so I will keep paying it.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1948761935519012/

Alternator bracket broke.

So. Now that I have a welding machine, out it came.

Zort, crackle.

All back on.

In place and working again, with oil and grease done at the same time for good measure.
 
Phil

You clever bugger! Anyhow it's never a bodge if it works! Top job Pete 👍

Yesterday afternoon I tackled the Daimler's scuttle vent which is all but seized solid.  However then a friend called me as i had everything in bits, and asked I was going to drop in and see him before we went on to the Triumph Sports Six Club meeting at the Sorrel Horse.  Bottom line I didn't get that job done (i'll report on that anon). So today I was going to tackle that again.  The issue I'm facing is how to get to the hinges of that inner flap, And to get to those I fear I'll need to pull some of the dashboard out. 
.. And to pull part of the dashboard out means I've got to jump around inside the car on the driver's seat. 
.... But the driver's seat is sagging, and I fear my gymnastics would do more damage. 
....... So instead of getting on with the scuttle flap (which is the air intake for fresh air and for the heater) I decided instead to tackle the driver's seat. . .

^ the squabs just lift out. Dead easy.  Even just with a hand pressure you can see how giving the seat was. 
I guessed what was happening.. The leather seats are wire-coli sprung, and inbetween those springs and the leather is a diaphragm and then latex foam rubber.  When the diaphragm fails - the wire springs cut into the foam rubber and that's a costly and troublesome business to repair.   In short, the diaphragm needed replacing before I used the car any more, or even just jumped around inside it when pulling the dashboard out.
It's always better to avoid damage than having to fix it . . .
   
   
^ Inverted and looking from the back, the seat looked pretty good for 56 years old, but yes the diaphragm (which despite it being a Daimler is only sackcloth) had failed in many places. Just right of centre in the first photo you can just make out where the foam rubber was being cut into by the wire springs.  A couple of those springs were also broken.      ^^ I decided to tackle the diaphragm from the back and from the propshaft tunnel side (to the right in these photos), because I did not want to disturb the leather around the more visible front and outside faces of the seat.
There were three types of clip holding the springs, the fabric, and the torn sackcloth diaphragm to the wire frame. I guess I must have removed forty or fifty of them in total, as carefully as I could, so as to minimise damage to the fabric. 
   
^ Aside from wire staples, the diaphragm was also stitched to the wire springs.   It took an hour and half before I could get my hand inbetween them.    Again in the second photo you can see the torn sackcloth. In places, the wire springs had cut right through the foam to the cloth facing on its other side. Had that been cut through the underside of the leather would have been damaged.

^ the steel batten which follows around the back of the seat was snapped. It is there to stop the back edge of the squab from pushing down, away from the backrest, which it does ..resulting in a cold draught to the small of my back. 

^ this is a mat on the floor of the garage next to my car.    It's there to wipe my wet feet on.  However what is not so very clear to see is a replacement diaphragm about to happen !

^ that floor mat measured and cut in half has a hessian underside face to it (visually quite similar to sackcloth).  Rather* awkward to get it into place mind you, between the wire springs and the damaged sackcloth.

^ Even when there's little in the way of skill, I can always count on my stubbornness     1hr-7 minutes between these last two photographs !
That's the diaphragm replaced.
Next up is a little more padding, to compensate for the wire springs having cut through the original latex foam, and 56 years / 89,000 miles of 'settling'.
   
^ Always one to blow the budget to impress.  An old pillow with polyester filling, is no longer a pillow (..for under my head  )

^  polyester filling, slipped inbetween the old and the 'additional' diaphragm.
    
^ Far left of the photo, you can see I've wired the broken rear batten in place. That's because my welder is a 20-mile round trip away.  Wire springs being reconnected to it. And I've used a foam sponge as spring to help hold that batten up ..in place.  Crude, but it actually works. . .

^ job done.  I'm not claiming to have restored it ..it's just a fix to keep it going ..and as importantly to prevent further damage from those wire springs to the leather seat covers.  I must say though - the hessian backed rug does look the part.  I wonder if it will last another 56 years ? 
 

^ Feels much better, and doesn't look over stuffed. 
Of course the proof of the pudding lies in how one's bottom feels about it a day later ! 
Bidding you, one and all, a good evening,
Pete
 

Saturday and today's pottering . . .

I used the Daimler on Thursday evening (70 mile round trip) ..oddly enough to go to a TR Register club night at Eight Ash Green, Colchester.  The reason being is that although I've now repaired Katie's (my TR4) backlight frame ..that being the rear window frame for its Surrey top (above), I need to order a length of glazing-rubber chrome-insert, as that fitted has always been the wrong size.   Bottom line being that I didn't want to take Katie out, with the rear window uncertainty (possibility of it falling out) at night.   As it happens Thursday afternoon it pee'd with rain, and I really find the TR too low to be driven along motorways in the rain at night. Too much road spray seriously diminishes this aged-driver's visibility. Whereas the Daimler saloon (although still diminutive by today's standards) is a foot higher. 
Anyway, because the Daimler got mud splattered, I wanted first to give her a Saturday afternoon car wash.  That done I spent an hour or two a day doing jobs ..which on the whole are minor but useful improvements.  Doing a couple of hours a day should see them all done ..in let's say five hundred years !
First up, was reversing the driver's-side wiper blade. For whatever reason the rubber has pimples on one side of it, and so the blade only wipes on the other side.  One way wiper blades I've not come across before, but with it reversed it wiped the windscreen 50 times better than it was.
Next up..

^ alongside the driver's seat you'll see a keeper plate whose trim is shredded. That's happened because the outside edge of the seat squab was sitting over that plate and so the driver's seat wobbled. Not seriously but a little uneasy.
You'll also note the position of the handbrake, low down beside / below the seat, on the floor and down the narrow gap between the door trim panel and the seat..  Honestly that would not be the most convenient position for it, especially when some plonker decides to position an arm rest directly above it on the door trim pad.   In my humble opinion this was not only dumb, but also because of the brake being difficult to reach easily - dangerous. 
So . . .
      
^ work  in process ; the arm-rest being removed.  You can see the brighter area of the door trim pad, indicating where it was, and can possibly relate that arm-rest protrusion to the handbrake when the door is shut.  As seen in the second photo, the gap down the side of the seat still isn't much, but now at least I can get my arm more or less straight down to reach the handbrake (only just visible).    As I say - minor jobs but useful.
 
^ On the passenger side .. the inertia reel of the seat belt was falling off.  Aside from it being insecure, the angle it tilted to meant that the passenger couldn't pull the belt out.   I might only guess it had been like this for years, but of course the car has rarely been used for the past four decades, and I'm sure very much less with a passenger.  It was an awkward sod to tighten up., as that bolt was to a ball joint which allows the inertia reel to be adjusted upright. And like many ball joints they turn when you try and do the nut up.   Never-the-less another little job done.
While trying to get to this, I realised the passenger seat wasn't adjusting fully.  Simply because its sliders were crudded up.  When cleaned and lubricated the seat now adjusts as it should ..Amazing !  
Another job I discovered needing doing on Thursday evening, was that the screen wash didn't work.
I looked into this, just before I was due to come home for the evening, and noted when the (electric) pump was switched - nothing happened (no sound either) but there was a slight draw of power registering on the ammeter.  This indicated that the power to the switch was fine, and that the switch was operating. So the likelihood was either the wiring connectors to the washer pumps were poor or more likely (because of the registered power draw) the pump itself wasn't working.  A quick visual check suggested the wiring was serviceable, and so I deduced it was the pump.  
This (Sunday) afternoon's task then was to look into that. . .
   
^ the washer motor pump. Seized ..until man handled (turning that spindle you see projecting from the underside).  Not familiar with these, but if I took it apart - what could possibly go wrong ?

^ interesting. I'd never seen an electric motor like this one before.   First impressions was that the windings looked okay, but the armature contacts and brushes were filthy. The spindle though the bottom cover plate was overly tight, but overall - there was only the lightest of corrosion. 
    
^ After cleaning and a little lubrication, I reassembled it.  Albeit weird, it's a neat little motor.   While at it I cleaned up the top of the washer bottle, onto which the motor is screwed. In my fingers is the blade to blade adapter.  The first blade being on the bottom of the motor (see photo above ..before I cleaned it) and the second blade is on the end of the spindle which disappears into the plastic leg. At the bottom end of the leg is a gauze filter, behind which I might only assume is a centrifugal pump.
   
^ all back together and ..it works.  
The windscreen washer's jet on the passenger side took three or four attempts to clean out, but we got there in the end.  Both jets were then adjusted to wash the screen rather than splash off the wiper arm.   Success.   I'm pleased with that as I'd much prefer original parts to after-market ones.        
So windscreen washers as well as wipers..  Is it the 21st century already ! ?
To close off, I adjusted the car's headlamps as well.  They were busily trying to illuminate down drain gratings at the side of the road.  Now perhaps they'll illuminate the road in front of me.    Will Daimler wonders never cease ?
Bidding you a happy Easter,
Pete 
 

Some of you may recall my thoughts that ..on the slim line bumper model of these cars, I prefer the Jaguar grille to the (imo) over-adorned-with-chrome flutted Daimler grille. 
So this afternoon, just in pottering around, I made moves to further that. . .

The Jaguar grille I'd bought was damaged. insomuch as the round-holed badge surround of its centre vane had been dented and was oval (left).  Typically the e-bay seller hadn't declared this ..but that's part n' parcel of the price of buying over the internet, sight unseen  ..Every third person is a liar.  
The replacement vane I'd bought (above right) looked nice usable condition, and was bought from a museum, again via e-bay. That seller didn't declare that it was a repro part.  I can only hope it fits and looks okay when on the car. 
  
^  The horn-push badge I bought was also via ebay ..and was as described. . .
I think it reasonable that a horn push from a Daimler 2-1/2 isn't going to be a straight fit into a radiator grille from a Jaguar Mk2  ..but I'd estimated its size would be about right. 
   
^ first cuts were to shape the horn push around the badge holder's screw bosses. 

^ The objective of course was to get the badge a secure fit in its surround, and for the badge face to end up evenly flush with the chrome rim.   Not like this !
Sometimes taking heart-in-hand you just needed to get on and take bigger cuts . . .
  
^ to cut a 4-hour story short ; I used junior hacksaw, angle grinder, cordless drill with router bit, and a hand file to reshape around the horn push badge.
Naturally, there's no 'undo' button if one cuts too far, or wrongly positions those cuts whereby the badge would end up lop-sided or twisted in its surround.  It was therefore a time consuming business.. akin to whittling.
A difficulty was seeing what was stopping it from sitting in place.  Imagine trying to see where a piece of translucent plastic is being held away from sitting down into a tapered chrome surround is a sort of paradox.  Even cutting it is interesting because you don't want to scratch its face with marked-out-geometry nor paint it.  Marker pens didn't work very well, against its black background.  So it was all done by eye. 
. . .
. .
.
    
^ It's not too shabby for it being home made.
The Jaguar grille I have for the car is over the hill and in the barn, so my trying it on the Daimler will have to wait.,  but just holding it in rough place over the Daimler grille does give an impression.  I think I'm going to like having the Daimler scrolled 'D' badge on the front of my car.  

Bidding you a good Easter weekend.
Pete
 

Need to tow a car trailer but don’t have a pickup or SUV?
Don’t worry, a 50 year old bmw is all you need 

These were in the cock museum in Istanbul 
 
 

These all turned up near where I work 
I’d love to know the story behind the Miami Dolphins Pontiac

Suppose I should start this again.
These were at the filming location for the Tetris movie 

 

ok followed everyone's advice and cut the clutch slave cylinder out of the gearbox casing with a hacksaw, which actually went quite smoothly


'New' part arrived but the rubber dust cap was cracked, so am waiting on a replacement for that now
Serves me right for buying stuff that's likely as old as the car is, just becasue it's cheap...

 
In the meantime sanded back the OS rear floor and painted just to protect it for now.

There are of course a few small holes which I'll sort out later,

And some pretty big ones as well:

 
More fussy shit to waste my time, unbolted the seatbelt, cleaned up and painted the bracket:


As you can see I've upgraded from wheelie bin workbench to wobbly mouldy old bathroom cabinet.
Seatbelt mech is jammed (of course) - looks like it was soaked in rat piss - but I don't have a 3-point screwdriver bit to get it apart, so will have to find one of those.
 
At least I got some of my money back, 22p

 
Then to investigate the rust in what's referenced to in the workshop manual as the 'buttress'



suitably unpleasant.
But removing all the mangled rubbish out of the way reveals it's not too bad underneath

Top piece has a return just under the lip where the bulkhead is, so doesn't go under the floor.
 
Might be interesting trying to support the car by the front subframe whilst cutting chunks out of a structural member...
Thought about moving the axle stands to behind the rusty bit,  but the workshop manual is pretty explicit about not doing this:

Tried it anyway because I'm stupid but it started making some pretty ugly noises so I stopped.
 
Anyway looks like the engine's gotta come out since I can't squeeze my hands and a welding torch down there
Think there's enough space to position an engine crane down the side of the car, not sure how I'll actually fit past it but we'll cross that bridge whenever.

Unfortunately can't put the crane at the front of the car as there'd be no way of closing the garage doors, and it'd probably just roll down the drive and away down the street....
 
Finally my excuse this time for slow progress is that I was putting up 50-year old wallpaper in a stanky bathroom:
 
Not sure if it actually looks much better, but definitely feels less grim