Mrs6C

From the registration number, this is a Gary Gorton-built tug boat. I'd guess it has been modified since new with the lower superstructure on the front, as the tug style features a short full-height cabin and a long front deck. Registered with Canal & River Trust number 52991 as a Powered Motor Boat. Length : 8.24 metres ( 27 feet ) Beam : 2.09 metres ( 6 feet 10 inches ) Power of 18 HP Previous names have been Leal Lucy (2005) and Dharma (2008).

Except when they're mine...

It may be the technique that is being taught here rather than the actual topic... to hone analytical skills and take a systematic approach to solving problems... At Uni. I learned how to model glaciers with blancmange. It remains a good laugh for parties, but I think the purpose of learning how to do it was more about the principles of modelling reality using a variety of media, rather than making edible scientific experiments...

Teal has a lot in common with her FoD companion, Dolly the Model 70... Both: 1. Have GRP bodies when most other models of their general types had steel bodies 2. Are, equally unusually, steered via a steering wheel, which was a rare option for their respective models 3. Are models that also had tiller steering options! 4. Were available new in 1978 - the last year of manufacture for one and the first year of manufacture for the other 5. Have twin cylinder engines 6. Have one forward and one reverse gear 7. Do not require any kind of driving licence to operate them legally on their usual transport network 8. Have a single seat for the driver and no passenger seat 9. Get blown about by high winds! 10. Have a 'niche' following! 11. Used to be painted blue. over their original GRP colour... Teal has been repainted since... 12. Arrived at the FoD on the back of another wheeled conveyance I dare say both bob about in the water quite well, although only one of them is supposed to be there! There are probably other similarities too...

You did! We had some heavy rain, followed by a warm day and I remembered what you said, so kept an eye on it...

You may be able to extract it with one of those three pronged flexible grabs through the sparkplug hole.

Does your insurance company provide a recovery service as part of their policy? Many do these days, also sometimes credit card companies. If not, then if you have to pay for AA membership now, it will be worth for the next time you or a companion in a vehicle has another FTP. In the meantime, hope you can get yourself and the car to a place of safety and either resolve the issue or get recovered home.

Another tip is to use breakfast cereal boxes for the cardboard to make up your templates for cutting and bending metal. They have decent lengths of folded edges in straight lines and some of these are already at 90 degrees to each other. These are handy for example in creating a cardboard prototype of a patch repair for the end of a sill, which may have a lower lip going in one direction and an end lip going in the other. Also, I'd suggest modelling your new panel repairs in cardboard first and trying them up on the car to make sure everything fits. Use a permanent marker to trace round them if needed. Your little'un can help here by insisting you buy his favourite cereals in large size boxes!

Yep! It's lovely! They are more interesting and certainly more rare than their high spec. siblings. One of our Visas doesn't even get a clock! It is interesting to see what people were content to have, thirty-odd years ago...

Has the original comment been misinterpreted? I'm guessing it was about using an overlap joint, but the words could be read also also as suggesting a new panel be welded in place over the top of the old one, rather like a 'cover sill' in the old days! I'd agree that these would be best avoided.

^^^ all excellent advice. A good weld looks a bit like a fat earthworm sunk into the metal you are welding. If it resembles a skinny centipede instead, turn up the amps a bit and try it again... Also, not sure if you are aware of this already, you push the torch forwards and away from you as you weld, rather than pulling it towards you or moving it sideways. The pushing away movement helps to retain the shielding gas cloud around the welding wire. IIRC the gas excludes oxidising air from around the weld and also helps it cool, both of which help to give a better quality result.

Home-made special using the side glass and rear screen from a Broadspeed GT? See the rear screen and sliding windows of the Mini parked next to it... Could also be a clever bit of Photoshop!

Things I have found useful when welding, especially outside: 1. Pure wool blankets make good protectors against sparks landing where they shouldn't and starting fires. Wool doesn't catch fire. You should be able to find them secondhand in charity shops still or online. Just check them first with a smouldering match, to make sure they haven't been coated in something flammable!!! Otherwise buy yourself a fire blanket and use that. You can get them at Screwfix, on the internet etc. 2. Wear ear muffs. Weld spatter down the ears isn't fun. 3. A long sleeved, biker-style leather jacket and welding gauntlets are good protection for your upper body. Another wool blanket draped over your lower body will protect your legs. Wear jeans and leather workboots and make sure your jeans go over the tops of your boots... wear pure wool socks as well. 4. Keep a squeezy bottle of water around to squirt on any small flames that appear anywhere, a bucket of water to throw over anything medium and a fire extinguisher for anything worse. A mobile 'phone to hand for a 999 call if it all goes horribly wrong is a good idea too. 5. Old commercial carpet tiles, like the kind that go into computer server rooms, are fire-resistent. Carpet-side in, they are great for forming enclosures around things (use duct tape to join them together on their outside edges) to stop air draughts blowing the gas shield away from the weld and catch weld spatter. You can bend or fold them and wedge them into spaces to stop stray sparks getting past and of course they can be used again and again. 6. Get the metal as clean and shiny as possible. The cleaner the metal, the easier and better the weld. 7. If you are joining one panel directly on top of another, clamp the two bits together as tight as you can. Leave no gap or your weld will blow through and not fuse teh metal. 8. Rest your trigger hand on a block of wood of the right thickness to keep the torch tip at the right distance from the metal and slide the block along the work piece as you go. You can focus on operating the torch instead of trying to keep the distance constant. You could use a dowel or broom handle too, like a painter's mahl stick and slide your hand along it. 9. Get the earth clamp as close to the metal you are welding as possible and make sure it is atttached firmly to good metal. 10. Welding in short bursts with time in between helps to keep things cool and minimise distortion. Tack metal together with even spacing and fill up the spaces, going round each one a bit at a time in turn, until all are done. It is possible to work with really thin metal this way. 11. Clean off your welds with a wire brush afterwards to get them clean and free of soot. Dress them with an angle grinder and/or file as needed. 12. Paint the welds on both sides (if you can get at both sides!) with a rust-inhibiting primer such as Finnegan's No. 1 as soon as the welds are clean and dressed to the point you are happy. They will start to rust very quickly otherwise, especially as we are getting into the cooler weather. Good luck! The car is lovely, so well done for taking it on. I hope the above tips will be useful for you.

Huzzah!!!

Pop it to one side for the winter months and then crack on again in the spring?