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Offensive Wreck


KruJoe

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Thanks for the comments guys.

The boss has been insured on the Rover for on-the-road practice, and a few proper lessons too. She's doing well.

 

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This was the only bent bit that mattered.

 

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It straightened up ok with some gentle persuasion.

 

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Wire brushed off, lashed with phosphoric acid...

 

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...and left to go crusty...

 

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...then plastered with underseal.

 

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Still mobile and useful!

The bloody thing has never failed to start, it goes and stops well despite the bollocksed discs. It looks like crap but doesn't want to die.

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I've been playing* with phosphoric acid a little bit on this project. (More later on that.) It converts rust into a crusty, inert, blue-black protective layer, which can be undersealed over, or washed (or wire-brushed) off, and re-painted properly.

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What's the process for removing the front bumper on these and are they in two pieces (upper and a lower)? The bottom half of my front one is fecked and it's hanging at a jaunty angle. Thankfully though mine seems to have escaped the tinworm, the only rust I know of is a miniscule bit on the ends of the sills where they meet the wheel arch and a tiny bit along that seam on the bulkhead.

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It's fairly easy to separate the two parts once the bumper's off. The top part may be screwed to the slam panel, but the main fixings are the nuts (12mm/14mm?) on the captive studs which point backwards from the steel bumper re-reinforcer. The studs poke through the holes in the rectangular plated on the end of the chassis legs, two each side.

 

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The wheel-arch liners may be screwed on too.

The bumper should just slide forward. Once off, the top bit should simply pull off the lower part. If your car is a face-lifted one, it may have a couple screws as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Behold: The Kru-Joe Mingebag Steel Wheel Refurbishment Tutorial

 

I have 12 of these wheels knocking about, mostly in this sort of state:

 

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Five of them didn't hold air, so I wrestled the tyres off, and started with this:

 

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Not fun.

So all four corners off the ground, second gear ticking over...

 

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(That looks faster than is was due to slow shutter speed.)

I held an old file to the rims as they turned.

Five minutes later:

 

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WARNING: Bucket shot.

 

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I brushed on the Phosphoric, at about 50% concentration, and left to dry.

 

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This is what it does:

 

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Due to the crustiness, they needed brushing off again, but it was much easier than getting rid of scaly brown rust.

 

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I didn't go hard down to shiny metal again, I left the grey staining on - apparently it inhibits the grot.

 

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I hate spraying. It's wasteful, and I dislike runs in the paint and the over-spray.

 

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I use sections of old sponge scourers, laundered, cut to size, folded and stapled to make a nice shape.

 

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I like the control of my technique, I can do it in a draughty shed on the bonnet of a Lada Niva, and it's cheap!

 

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The finish of one or two coats of this Hammerite smooth silver from a one litre tin is quite acceptable.

 

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I painted front and back, and all around the beads where the tyres sit, just to keep an air-tight seal. Left for a few days in the sun(!), the surface can harden a bit.

The phat rimz are off my MR2, I did those at the same time.

 

The money shot:

 

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Four brand spanking Marangoni 4-Winter tyres at £31 each plus £5 fitted, re-valved and balanced.

 

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The white one was an experiment with an old tin of Dulux, which had an inch of gloop in the bottom. That has the best of the old tyres on, and will be the spare.

 

JOB'S A GOOD'UN!

 

NB: Don't touch your alloys with phosphoric acid, they'll melt!

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Thanks chaps. I am pleased with how they look just now. They're still stacked in our "tyre shed" waiting for MOT day. I find myself wandering in there aimlessly, gazing at them and caressing the deep, bobbly tread. Sad bastard.

 

Time will tell how well the paint holds up, though I'm sure it's more robust than the standard finish on silver wheels from Japan in the 80's and 90's. It was the law back then for them to go scabby within 12 months.

 

As you may have seen, the calipers have been on and off the hubs a few times. Finally, this happened:

 

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I did try to revive the discs, using my mingebag flapper-wheel method, but they wouldn't stay nice. So £32.66 bought me new ones with pads thrown in. I then found that these Justys came with (at least) two types of calipers... my green breaker has some jap branded ones, and this wreck has Bosch stoppers. Predictably, the pads for the Japanese calipers arrived. Normally I would have swapped the brakes over to match, but the green car has been sat in the weeds for years, and I know the silver car's ones still work well, so I sent the pads back to exchange. The right ones came by return, and were a doddle to fit.

The car now stops really sharply - it's almost like a modern!

 

Also, £11.98 won me a pair of (Suzuki Baleno) track rod ends, which sorted out the rattle. I'll have it tracked up properly on the way to see Jack_the_Test, so I can save the nice new boots :)

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The Marangonis 4-Winters seemed to get positive reviews when I was researching a few months back, and the noise/water-clearing ratings looked comparable to good summer tyres, so look suitable for this little shit-box to wear all year 'round. Again, time will tell.

 

I bought them from here:

http://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/marangoni/4-winter/165-70-r13-83t-59047?gclid=CjwKEAjwzeihBRCQ84bhxrz_0w8SJAAohyh11jSnvqD4-KaoGYvh9yw9gCX9GGl6zanE_Hx2zJcycBoCQxfw_wcB

 

They have everything in every size. I bought a set of 18 inch(!) Dunlops for my mother's car in the same week.

I searched quite a few sites for the best prices, and across the board they were cheapest, despite them coming from Germany. Free 48hr delivery too.

"Top seller, would use again A+++"

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Thanks chaps. I am pleased with how they look just now. They're still stacked in our "tyre shed" waiting for MOT day. I find myself wandering in there aimlessly, gazing at them and caressing the deep, bobbly tread. Sad bastard.

 

 

Once again autoshite proves I am not that weird, I also love a rub of a new bobbly tyre.

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I wonder what Marangoni winter tyres are like, I've had cars with Marangoni summer tyres and they could barely stick to dry roads.

 

I used to run Marangoni Meteos on my Yeti and found them very good - no noticeable difference to the Conti WinterContacts that replaced them, apart from a bit more road noise.  In fact, one year I never got around to changing them back to summers, which is why they eventually wore out.

 

 

(Before the annual winter tyre row kicks off, I drive in Germany in the winter where they're compulsory.)

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With the front end off, this job should have been a doddle.

 

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A bit of a fighter this bugger, but I won in the end.

 

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It wasn't quite as stuck as the one on my old Panda 4x4 - that had rusted through and was pissing oil out, it just crumbled and came off in bits.

They always succumb when you stab them through the heart with a screwdriver and turn them with the handle. But once you've gone in, you're committed!

 

 

Why could it be that the last four motors I've bought have been missing their battery clamps?

 

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This bodge (bent tent pegs and a rubber thingy) was put in place for first "testing". Then I found the right bits from the green bogie:

 

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I ought to paint that really. Which reminds me, I need to put the batt on charge, so it may get tidied up after all.

 

There's more important things to attend to now though. Like de-face-lifting its arse.

 

Remember this?

 

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HowTF is that an improvement? It would be rude not to rectify the situation as I have all the bits.

 

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Those were easy to get off. But this...

 

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Was a complete twat. I didn't want to wreck the newer lights just to get them off. I tried the impact driver, which turned it, but bust the welds off the captive nut on the inside.

 

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I tried to drill the head off, but it spun and melted the hole a bit bigger. I don't mind, because I could replace it with a washer if I needed to. (That looks like a masonry bit - it ain't - it's one of them Bosch all purpose efforts.)

I ground the head off, and the rest fell inside. I'll need to weld in a new nut for that light.

 

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Behind the lights of the silver car, I found these.

 

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They looked a bit odd to me.

 

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I came in for a brew, and remembering an item on Radio 4, I did some googleing.

 

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They're Harlequin Ladybirds, and bad news.

 

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An invasive species from Bongo-Bongo Land.

 

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They come in several patterns.

 

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I went on a website and reported them, because they've never been seen around these parts (until I transported them from Wetherby).

 

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Hopefully they won't survive the harsher climate up here. Keep your eyes peeled folks!

I bet you didn't expect to read about them today, did you?

 

Oh, the bumpers came off too. The ironmongery behind both is poor, the green one so much so that the only way to get it off the car was to writhe it off.

 

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The plastic is stronger than any of the steel, so it's all good.

I will weld up the silver car's bumper backer to go in the green bumper.

 

Welding. Yes, I've been putting off the welding. Can you tell?

There's plenty of that to come. Yes indeed.

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  • 2 months later...

They always succumb when you stab them through the heart with a screwdriver and turn them with the handle.

 

You say that...I would agree with you, apart from one time on a neglected 106. I stabbed it and hammered it round with the screwdriver. I thought it was turning, but all I was doing was tearing the hole in the side of the filter until the screwdriver had cut the end off! Bother and blast said I, or words to that effect. Ended up with a hammer and chisel on the filter base to get the sodding thing off.

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You say that...I would agree with you, apart from one time on a neglected 106. I stabbed it and hammered it round with the screwdriver. I thought it was turning, but all I was doing was tearing the hole in the side of the filter until the screwdriver had cut the end off! Bother and blast said I, or words to that effect. Ended up with a hammer and chisel on the filter base to get the sodding thing off.

+1 except that it was a Mini van (the one with the pressed steel grille you can't remove). Also, once I'd got the thing off I nipped indoors to dress my (numerous) wounds and some passing urchin kicked the tray of oil everywhere. Ah, street mechanicking, thems were the days.

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