HEAVY BONDAGE

[michiel]

You sure win the award for Best/Worst First Car Ever. Good luck!

[michiel]

You sure win the award for Best/Worst First Car Ever. Good luck!

[garethj]

As the family are away, today was an excellent chance to help young Barrett with a few items on the Bond.

 

First thing was the lights, initially there was one (1) working main beam and one (9) working sidelight. And they weren't too bright either.

 

With a combination of a switched lead and a voltmeter, we traced all the faults at the front end. One sidelight needed a new earth connection which was done by a superb effort on the hand drill and a spare screw from the toolbox. This went to a new star connection for the front end earths, as all the bullet connectors were corroded to nothing. The inner two main beam lamps didn't work and Barrett needs to get a 6 way bullet housing and a 4 way bullet housing. This part of the project was spent as follows

 

with a little of this too, wiggling wires to see where they come out and to assess the previous (extensive) bodging that had been done

 

All lights working, even the indicator warning light, and we only had to take apart every single connection on almost every component and either connect it back up, fix it or replace it. The indicators are still a bit feeble so I think a new relay will help.

 

Flushed with the success we tried the horn. The only things wrong with the horn were the connections at both ends, the wires, where they connected to and how it was powered. It was a simple matter of many hours to diagnose all these faults and spot where the broken wires should go, here's the man himself easily disconnecting a wire that's been rusted in place for 40 years

 

Wipers were next, which really involves the ignition switch. Both of the switches came out and of course the ignition switch was wired differently to the car. Simply reconnecting the missing wires made some juicy sparks, and again the fault was down to the switch, it's connections, the power and the ground. For a laugh, the wiper motor was also poorly, even after cleaning up the connections, the commutator and the brushes. All that made fault-finding slow.

 

I don't know why he bothered with the lovely bucket seats, he's never in them

 

This was trying to get the broken wires in place for the brake lights, they had to go back on the ignition switch. Then the brake lights came on. All the time A bit of fiddling with the switch (also poorly but could be ok) had the brake lights working again.

 

More trying to trace wires, and this is about where we called it a day after about 9 hours. The wire that should run from the charge warning light didn't seem to be anywhere near the generator or control box

 

But it'll be a great car when it's finished and I think Barrett should take a vote on the best way to replace the rusty bits - swap the bulkhead or cut sections out. I had a fantastic day, it was just over 100 miles each way and the Peugeot sang its little heart out all the way, I think we can cross "give it an Italian tune-up" off the requirements now.

[vulgalour]

Good to see things progressing. In that first picture, Barrett looks like he has a mechanical hip of some description, took me ages to decypher just wtf was going on there.

[garethj]

That's an air filter in his pocket, he's not pleased to see you

[barrett]

Hi!

 

So, one of the great* extra features if this shitbox when I got it was a passenger footwell full of old gaskets. Obviously they had been sitting in rusty damp carpets for ages so most of them went in the bin, but I saved a few of the more usable looking ones. Of course I have no fuggin' clue what any of them are for, I'd like to think at least some of them are actually for this car and might see some use.

 

Anyone got any ideazz? 50p is just for scale, I may be totally clueless but I realise a small denomination coin can not be used as a gasket for any part of a Triumph Spitfire 1300 lump.

 

 

 

 

Some sort of proper update coming soon-ish, maybe. Not exactly much to report though. Cheers!

[meggersdog]

Top three are 1: exhaust manifold to downpipe gasket. 2: thermostat housing gasket 3: waterpump gasket

Now 4: could be the heater control valve gasket and 6: almost certain it's a fuel pump gasket.As for the rest...not a clue.

[M'coli]

The ones in the bottom image are all carburettor gaskets, the top two carb-to-fanimold, the bottom ones are for the inlet side of the carb.

[barrett]

Top work chaps!

 

I think #4 in the top photo is for the carb too, not sure if the blue one in the bottom photo the same shape is - it's at least 3 times thicker. They do appear to be for the correct carbs I have too, what joy!

[willswitchengage]

FINDAGE

 

P1040134 by willswitchengage, on Flickr

[barrett]

That looks mega depressing! Old cars with bags or whatever draped over them always look about 2 steps away from the knacker's yard.

 

The bag is necessary as I still haven't made any effort to sort this out

 

I have been collecting various 'bits' for it...

 

Most of which are just as rusty as the old bits (but in different ways, man). Here's a bit of my 'new' floor after a quick clean up

 

And here's the a-pillar/ door shut bit, that's gonna be a really easy* repair I reckon

 

Interior is now totally stripped

 

revealing yet more rot...

 

After a quick wazz with the knotwheel

 

Bumhats. Plastic cars best for rusting

[barrett]

OMG CAMBER

 

Much better! What rust?

[Danblez]

Been following this over on MS. Looking forward to you picking up the MIG.

 

I love the way you have thrown all sensible advice like "Always start with the best base car possible" straight out of the window and are carrying on regardless. It is horrific, GOOD WORK!

[RedSparrow]

Woah! Your feats of bravery continue!

Respect man.

[trigger]

Your a braver man then me! At least your cracking on with it still, will you be learning to weld on this yourself or will you be farming it out for the work?

[michael1703]

Start saving thin cardboard for templates, cereal boxes and el paso fahita boxes are the best

[Six-cylinder]

When you have finished yours, can you do my wife's one please!

 

Chris

 

KIF_0850 by the_cvsmith, on Flickr

[Six-cylinder]

Oh, and when you have done that can you do her other one!

 

Chris

 

ARN 176B broad 15x200 by the_cvsmith, on Flickr

[barrett]

Woah! Your feats of bravery continue!.

Nowt brave about poking holes in things, gawd knows how it's all gonna come together though.

 

will you be learning to weld on this yourself or will you be farming it out for the work?

I should be borrowing a Mig off a local 'Shiter and someone else has offered to give me a crash course in using the thing. I'd like to be making a start before Christmas but we'll see. I don't really want to pay anyone else to do anything to it, all I'll be learning from doing that is how to give people money (that I don't have) which I already know how to do quite well. There's a bit of work here but when it's all done I reckon I'll be pretty bloody good at fixing old cars, which is the whole point of the exercise! Luckily none of the welding is gonna be visible so it doesn't have to be TonyBMW-style invisible repairs, just strong and ugly (like myself)

 

When you have finished yours, can you do my wife please

It's possible...

 

Seriously though, if I had some more space I would love ACK888B to come and live with me, it looks great, and a little bit lonely and sad (like myself) which is the sort of thing that makes me instantly fall in love with a car. When this one is done I am obviously going to buy another one straight away though because I need* multiple Equipes in my life. I would like a GT 2+2 preferably though.... You missus seems like a good lass though, anyone with two horrible old plastic shitters is alright with me for sure. Got any more pics of these two?

[Six-cylinder]

Glory Days!

Opening M6 origeinal 01 broad by the_cvsmith, on Flickr

 

Advert ACK 888B is this the prettiest car in Britian broad by the_cvsmith, on Flickr

[HillmanImp]

WOWZERS

 

 

They are actually your cars!

 

The only famous car I ever owned was a Ford Fiesta that was recovered in Hull about 2 weeks after being stolen. I have no idea what it was famous for but guess it must have been for a gun crime of sorts as when we got it back from the police after they had gone over it 'with a fine toothcomb to find out who was responsible for the theft', we found several spent bullet casings in the glove compartment and the ashtray.

 

Hope it goes well Barrett. I would like to add, welding is a piece of pish to do okay-ish. Even I can do it to an okay level which is always 89.6% better than if you take it to a garage for some MOT work.

[garethj]

I’ve found that the secret to good welding is preparation of the metal. Getting it clean with a wire brush on a grinder is alright, but if the surface looks poc marked up close then you need to give the bit your welding to a tickle with the grinding disc. Then it’s really clean and good for welding. Obviously do this with both bits of metal you’re welding together.

 

I’m also anal about making good ground contact with the earth wire of the MIG welder, get it as close to the weld as you can. Also give the area it clamps to a tickle with the grinding disc so the metal is perfectly clean. I’m not prepared to say this out loud, but I also run a jump lead from the earth clamp onto the other piece of metal. I’ve no idea if it’s needed but my welds have plenty of penetration, snigger.