Project Rusty Triumphs in Scotland - To gas or not to gas(less MIG) - 09/11/24

[vulgalour]

@GingerNuttz earned his chips on this one, for sure.  Looking forward to seeing you put it back together and the exciting diversions it has in store for you.

[captain_70s]

13 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I remember it sitting rusty and broken on that street,  wondering if that was the end.

Aye right. Fucking chancer hardly did owt...

[CaptainBoom]

Bloody excellent this! 

Is the ol' windbag still living nearby?  The one who griped about you using the basement area to store an engine and all that about two years ago.

If so, I definitely *don't recommend leaving this running while parked outside her front door occasionally blipping the throttle in celebration that this is back.

[High Jetter]

Great to see, well done. How's it going to end up?

[captain_70s]

1 hour ago, CaptainBoom said:

Bloody excellent this! 

Is the ol' windbag still living nearby?  The one who griped about you using the basement area to store an engine and all that about two years ago.

If so, I definitely *don't recommend leaving this running while parked outside her front door occasionally blipping the throttle in celebration that this is back.

Aye, ground floor. Immediately beside where the car is parked.

I actually have to be quite careful now as I have enough cars parked around the place that the council could probably force me to get rid of stuff. Even if you store cars on private property they can make you get rid of them if you make yourself too much of a nuisance.

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Great to see, well done. How's it going to end up?

Broken probably. That's how the fucking thing usually ends up. It already jammed it's bonnet closed this evening with the interior light stuck on so I couldn't get to the battery...

In all seriousness, this was the original plan from 2015ish when I'd not had the car very long:

Now mildly amended:

[captain_70s]

I'd been pondering the concept of taking the Dolly to @320touring's unit and getting the doors hung and other multi-person jobs out the way after work today. Arrived home and gave the car a once over and decided against it.

Too much stuff that might catch an observant copper's eye and bring problems...

Firstly the lights. The headlights weren't working at all, indicators wouldn't flash, braking turned one of the rear lights off rather than illuminate the second fillament.

Cleaning connectors, clamping loose spade connectors tight with a spanner and assaulting various earthing points with sandpaper yielded the following:

Sidelights aren't working, but they're on the same connector as the sidelights so either there are no bulbs in them, they're both blown or they're supposed to earth locally and aren't. All are equally as possible. Headlights come on in the sidelight position, the car has always done this, no idea why.
O/S headlight seems to be missing high beam, or is always on high beam, not sure which. Only the N/S works operating the "flash" function on the stalk, but I'm not sure if the flash illuminates the dipped or high beam! I'm guessing high beam, which would suggest the O/S bulb has blown it's high beam filament.

At the rear everything is now working except the reverse lights. The bulbs look ok so may be the switch itself. The rear light turning off under braking was because it was wired backwards.

I looked at rigging up a sole numberplate light temporarily until the bumper gets refitted but the socket was in such poor condition the bulb snapped in half before it came out. I managed to tug it loose with pliers in the end. I couldn't be arsed taking the other light out the bumper to salvage another bulb.

The bonnet jamming shut seems to be that the release cable sheathing has popped out of it's retainer. Having looked at a few pictures of how it's supposed to look I should be able to sort that out.

I also took the redundant exhaust hanger (or it's remains) off the end of the tailpipe.

Both my Dolomites featured these odd superfluous mounts hung off the bumper bolts. For the 1300 it kind of makes sense, as the rear of the exhaust is just some welded on pipe and is probably heavier than stock, but it's been perished to the point of uselessness for years, so away it went.

Then I threw some water at it, as it was dusty as fuck, and called it a day as it was getting dark.

I don't think it's too obvious these cars all belong to one household...

[chancer]

On 5/3/2022 at 10:19 PM, captain_70s said:

Aye right. Fucking chancer hardly did owt...

I can confirm.....i done fuck all

[hairnet]

trig 0 captain 1

youre not vinyl roofin it are you?

hot spitfire motah soon?

 

[captain_70s]

No vinyl roof, rust trap.

Already got a bored out small journal 1296 in it. If the engine lasts I'll look at better fuel/exhaust setup, I've got a twin carb manifold handy but twin SUs usually just guzzle fuel and deliver an extra 2hp...

[captain_70s]

Orl modernz is shit

Even the Dolly managed to limp itself off the motorway...

[Dick Cheeseburger]

13 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Orl modernz is shit

Even the Dolly managed to limp itself off the motorway...

Is that... rust? On a five year old van? 

[captain_70s]

3 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Is that... rust? On a five year old van? 

Crashed, badly repaired.

Out the house at 5:30am, was enroute to the office going along the M77 when it "binged" and said "engine fault" on the display coupled with immediately losing power. Managed to get it onto the hard shoulder and then up onto the grass with the starter motor. Phoned recovery at 14:00.

Sat at the side of the motorway through two bouts of rain, at one point I strung up a bit of tarp under some trees to shelter under.

Recovery arrived at 17:30ish. Took the van back to head office where a older, shittier van awaited me. Swapped all my stuff over, home for 19:30.

[captain_70s]

So.

The Dolly was back but really stripped to bare basics and stuffed full of unsorted parts, consumables and tools as well as 3 years of dirt and grinding/sanding dust.

I emptied it, sorted all the shit into boxes (Big car parts, small car parts, consumables, tools, nuts and bolts).

Then ran the thing down to the car vac at Morrisons and hoovered the interior until I broke the hoover...

@jaypee also swung by to lend a hand and we managed to fit a door handle and hang the driver's door so it'd actually open/close without having to lift it half an inch.

I also replaced the distributor which was fucked. @Jikovron spotted one on FB Marketplace from a 15,000 mile Reliant Robin and posted it up to me.

The old dizzy can be identified by the missing vac advance unit.

It also had various stripped fittings and the mechanism inside was held in place by a self tapping screw...

With the new one installed I set the timing by ear, although it could do with a bit of tweaking. The book figures are irrelevant with modern fuels. 

I then set about cleaning and polishing the stainless...

I also fitted new Tex stainless wiper arms and blades...

I have a stainless door mirror to go on as well...

All the lighting contacts were cleaned as well. Resulting in working headlights, tails, brakes, indicators, hazards and reverse lights. One headlight is either always on high or is missing high and is really out of alignment, one sidelight is also dead.

Anyway, that was all a week or so ago. Tonight I planned to take the car over to @320touring's unit. So headed out to the petrol station, inserted 20l of the finest unleaded and made it about a street and a half before it cut out.

Managed to coast it onto a dead end street that was pretty quiet. Indeed I got to bask in the shadow of Scotland's tallest listed building...

A couple of guys passing by stopped for a chat/admire and helped push the car off the double yellows. Quickly realised that it was a fuelling issue preventing it from running.

Assumed it was likely a blocked line, as we'd had that before and the tank isn't the easiest to clean out. Pulled the pipe off the pump and gave it a suck to be rewarded with a mouth full of petrol. Not that then.

After a bit of fucking about I deduced that the £12 unbranded electric fuel pump from eBay was making noises but not actually doing anything.

The mechanical pump was fitted but I couldn't remember if it was a working one as we'd ran three pumps at various points with varying degrees of success. Rigged it up and still got nothing. Highly confusing. Checked the pipe wasn't blocked again by drinking petrol again.

Then I messaged @GingerNuttz and he pointed out I had the pump plumbed in backwards.

Reversed the connections, tried again. Fuck all.

Checked the pipes for kinks, made sure there wasn't any obvious leakage points under the car, drank some more petrol. Gave all the clips another half turn, just in case.

Gave it another shot and success! Fuel. Car still wouldn't fire, rapidly traced to my having knocked a wire off the coil. With that it started first turn so I went the fuck home.

The reasoning behind running the Chinesium pump was we'd had issues with the carb overfilling and thought the mechanical pumps were over-pressurising somehow. So the emergency backup pump was rigged up for testing and was still installed when the problem was solved. It seems the actual issue was the needle/seat for the float on the "new" carb wasn't sealing, as now the old carb's float is fitted the problem has ceased and the mechanical pump seems to work fine. Either way the 'leccy unit had a lifespan of about 45 miles, so I'd suggest not relying on literally the cheapest fuel pump money can buy...

 

Oh. The Volvo still fills with water and the Acclaim has either shat it's water pump or the engine is cunted. A NOS pump is enroute.

[High Jetter]

Sounds like a triumphant few days!

[davidfowler2000]

Old cars m9. Who'd have them? Piles ae scrap.

[captain_70s]

18 hours ago, davidfowler2000 said:

Old cars m9. Who'd have them? Piles ae scrap.

You think the motors are bad? Wait till you meet the owners.

[Back_For_More]

5 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

You think the motors are bad? Wait till you meet the owners.

We've never met - but you are probably correct......

Tough luck with the shenanigans - but the fleet is shaping up well. Nicely done - excellent work from you and teh G Nutz fella.

[davidfowler2000]

17 hours ago, captain_70s said:

You think the motors are bad? Wait till you meet the owners.

Tell me about it. Even the scrappers have run out of my type knees. It's beginning to look like I'm going to have to do a conversion job to Fiat Marea trunions.

[captain_70s]

Another day another breakdown.

Made it slightly further, namely all the way to my Post Office collection point 2 miles away. Upon collecting my parcel I started the car and immediately smelt petrol.

Pissing petrol out the top of the float bowl, handily positioned above the exhaust manifold for maximum explosion potential.

Took the top off the float bowl and started the car with the float held closed. No fuel coming through. Reassembled and it worked fine, so I drove home.

Presumably the needle/seat at the top of the float bowl got something stuck in it causing it to just constantly fill. This is the second float bowl top that has done this now. Currently running the "new" carb and the top from the original carb as the new carb's just wouldn't seal at all for whatever reason.

It is also pissing oil out of everywhere it can. Probably as so many bits have been fitted several times since it was initially built the gaskets are probably fairly shagged.

The NOS Acclaim water pump is now here though, so can fling that at the Tronda and hopefully the horrible noise goes away...

 

[SiC]

Presumably you've put in a new needle valve and seat? I do find the genuine SU stuff to be of decent quality, unlikely a lot of modern repro stuff. Older needle valves I believe don't like modern fuels and especially the higher ethanol content. 

The Moggie turned out to be the pin that the float pivots on. Worn down enough that it caused the float to jam up/snag.

At least only one carb to worry about on this. 

[captain_70s]

25 minutes ago, SiC said:

Presumably you've put in a new needle valve and seat? 

Pft. Please. The old (working when last driven @138k on the clock) carb top was thrown on and then the car was fucked off down the road. 😂

Every bit of SU stuff I need seems to be constantly out of stock on their website, looks like ANG are selling the stuff on eBay though. For £20 I'll throw one on. It's 30 seconds to take it apart and I'm replacing all the fuel lines anyway as the current set up is very much thrown together.

[Yoss]

Any breakdown that can be fixed by the side of the road isn't a breakdown, it's just a slight delay. That's what I keep trying to tell Mrs Yoss anyway. 

[captain_70s]

A quick look at the Acclaim on Fri eve.

Firstly an attempt to to make it less horrible to work on and to make it easier to ID the myriad of oil leaks.

it seems the death rattle was just the timing cover rubbing against the water pump pulley due to a missing bolt.

The rhythmic pattern was due to it not running very smoothly. I had suspicions as to why that might be given the car's prior problems.

At TDC those two lines on the cam pulley should be parallel to the head. So it's a tooth out and the belt is slack.

Either the belt has stretched massively or the tensioner is gubbed. Getting at the tensioner requires removing a wheel and taking the crank pulley off with an ugga dugga through a hole in the inner wheel arch.

So I did the right thing and flung it back together and declared it to be fine for light use. Non-interferance engines, what a god send.

Dolly continues blighting the local area with it's total loss oil system due to a wrecked rocker cover gasket.

I also rejigged the fuel line so the filter now sits before the pump and the line isn't routed straight over the engine.

[GregZX]

On 5/19/2022 at 1:14 AM, captain_70s said:

So.

The Dolly was back but really stripped to bare basics and stuffed full of unsorted parts, consumables and tools as well as 3 years of dirt and grinding/sanding dust.

I emptied it, sorted all the shit into boxes (Big car parts, small car parts, consumables, tools, nuts and bolts).

Then ran the thing down to the car vac at Morrisons and hoovered the interior until I broke the hoover...

@jaypee also swung by to lend a hand and we managed to fit a door handle and hang the driver's door so it'd actually open/close without having to lift it half an inch.

I also replaced the distributor which was fucked. @Jikovron spotted one on FB Marketplace from a 15,000 mile Reliant Robin and posted it up to me.

The old dizzy can be identified by the missing vac advance unit.

It also had various stripped fittings and the mechanism inside was held in place by a self tapping screw...

With the new one installed I set the timing by ear, although it could do with a bit of tweaking. The book figures are irrelevant with modern fuels. 

I then set about cleaning and polishing the stainless...

I also fitted new Tex stainless wiper arms and blades...

I have a stainless door mirror to go on as well...

All the lighting contacts were cleaned as well. Resulting in working headlights, tails, brakes, indicators, hazards and reverse lights. One headlight is either always on high or is missing high and is really out of alignment, one sidelight is also dead.

Anyway, that was all a week or so ago. Tonight I planned to take the car over to @320touring's unit. So headed out to the petrol station, inserted 20l of the finest unleaded and made it about a street and a half before it cut out.

Managed to coast it onto a dead end street that was pretty quiet. Indeed I got to bask in the shadow of Scotland's tallest listed building...

A couple of guys passing by stopped for a chat/admire and helped push the car off the double yellows. Quickly realised that it was a fuelling issue preventing it from running.

Assumed it was likely a blocked line, as we'd had that before and the tank isn't the easiest to clean out. Pulled the pipe off the pump and gave it a suck to be rewarded with a mouth full of petrol. Not that then.

After a bit of fucking about I deduced that the £12 unbranded electric fuel pump from eBay was making noises but not actually doing anything.

The mechanical pump was fitted but I couldn't remember if it was a working one as we'd ran three pumps at various points with varying degrees of success. Rigged it up and still got nothing. Highly confusing. Checked the pipe wasn't blocked again by drinking petrol again.

Then I messaged @GingerNuttz and he pointed out I had the pump plumbed in backwards.

Reversed the connections, tried again. Fuck all.

Checked the pipes for kinks, made sure there wasn't any obvious leakage points under the car, drank some more petrol. Gave all the clips another half turn, just in case.

Gave it another shot and success! Fuel. Car still wouldn't fire, rapidly traced to my having knocked a wire off the coil. With that it started first turn so I went the fuck home.

The reasoning behind running the Chinesium pump was we'd had issues with the carb overfilling and thought the mechanical pumps were over-pressurising somehow. So the emergency backup pump was rigged up for testing and was still installed when the problem was solved. It seems the actual issue was the needle/seat for the float on the "new" carb wasn't sealing, as now the old carb's float is fitted the problem has ceased and the mechanical pump seems to work fine. Either way the 'leccy unit had a lifespan of about 45 miles, so I'd suggest not relying on literally the cheapest fuel pump money can buy...

 

Oh. The Volvo still fills with water and the Acclaim has either shat it's water pump or the engine is cunted. A NOS pump is enroute.

I take it you’re in Glasgow. I shall keep my eyes peeled for your awesome vehicles on my travels around the city. (Whilst driving my own similarly *awesome vehicle).

[big_al_granvia]

got a mains ugga if you want a shot, will be up in bearsden for new specs in the next couple o weeks, not much hassle to go via the sally and west end

[captain_70s]

Had a week off work, due to quitting. Spent it doing car shit.

Firstly wrestling with these horrible door seals.

The rubbers slot into a channel on the door frame. You can slide the rubbers on along the top and inside edge and then the rest has to be poked into place with a blunt screwdriver a few mm at a time. Both systems of installation are tedious to the extreme and by the end of door one the act of sliding the seal into place had torn the edge of my nail off my thumb. The blood wasn't even good lubricant. Repo seals aren't shaped to the door like the originals and are just cut from a roll, reputedly they're even shitter to fit, hence my reusing the originals.

With rubbers installed I got the doors more or less lined up and adjusted the door latches appropriately. I then spent an age fitting the door handles. The rear examples aren't too bad, the fronts require child hands which bend backwards in order to get at the required linkages. It'd be much easier if I was to removed the window mech, which wasn't going to happen.

O/S/F needs to come up at the front a bit, O/S/R needs a bit of tweaking but it's passable and crucially all the doors now open and close without having to lift them into position.

I briefly considered replacing all the door membranes and then couldn't be arsed and taped the old ones back on.

I then swapped out the rocker cover gasket and set the tappets. Also removed the temporary fuel pipe installation draped over the rocker cover and replaced it with a slightly less temporary length of hose running along the bulkhead.

I then went for a run out to @320touring's unit one eve, about 40 miles away. Firstly the engine was pinging like crazy under throttle so I pulled over and retarded the ignition timing. Then it bogged like fuck under throttle. So I pulled over and advanced the ignition timing. It then ran pretty well for a few miles until I gave it some boot and it went "pop" and died. That was due to the coil earth cable coming adrift somehow. Don't have a timing mark on the pulley, being from a fwd engine, so it'll be a case of tweaking it until its as advanced as it can go without pinging. The book figures are largely redundant when running modern fuels anyway.

The the unit @320touring and @blackboilersuit couldn't be held back and some fixing occured. The rocker cover was loose as one nut was completely jammed onto a bent stud, this stud was flipped upside down and some rubber grommets were fashioned up to go around the nuts as oil was pissing out. A breather system was also rigged up, namely a length of fuel hose leading to a Coke bottle, to check that wasn't spewing oil. Originally that pipe would go to the carb, but this carb doesn't have a point for the hose to go to.

Anyway. The journey home was completed with no real issues. Our fixes were highly successful*.

Still pissing out the rocker cover, and I think the fuel pump gasket. I swapped the oil cap for one with a better seal as that was leaking as well. The dash also fell off when I hit a pothole.

Apparently a bolt fell out, almost like 2 hand tight bolts out of 4 aren't enough for rigidity or some shit.

Then @davidfowler2000 and @Inspector Morose popped over for dinner one evening and aided in fitting the front bumper.

We couldn't get the rear one on due to lack of long enough bolts.

Then I saw the car in proper sunny weather for the first time.

I also took it for another local run to take me and Girlfriend_70s over to Mugdock Park.

It drives pretty well and can now be fine tuned with road use. Can get a bit grumpy and develop a miss when sitting hot in traffic. Usually I'd say that's fuel starvation but it starts first turn of the key if it cuts out rather than needing to be cranked so it could be toasty ignition components. With the choke disconnected the easiest way to cold start it is to jam the choke open with a screwdriver for min or so until there is a bit of temp in the engine, then wind the idle speed up a bit until it's properly warmed up.

I also pulled more bits of Volvo off.

Having pulled all that shit off, prodded out drains, scooped out moss and dirt and pulled off/re-seated grommets... It still leaked.

By the method of pouring water on the car from a bucket and then watching it from the inside I found it was running into the footwell down the A pillar under the rubber seal for the door. It is actually coming in somewhere near the middle of the windscreen and running along the plastic trim which leads the headliner like a gutter to whichever end is lowest. At least I now know which location to fuck more sealant into, all other more minor leaks seem to have been sorted...

However I started my new job today, so progress may slow a bit.

[Split_Pin]

Good luck with the new job chap,  the old one sounded a pile of arse.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 5/18/2022 at 11:14 PM, captain_70s said:

So.

The Dolly was back but really stripped to bare basics and stuffed full of unsorted parts, consumables and tools as well as 3 years of dirt and grinding/sanding dust.

I emptied it, sorted all the shit into boxes (Big car parts, small car parts, consumables, tools, nuts and bolts).

Then ran the thing down to the car vac at Morrisons and hoovered the interior until I broke the hoover...

@jaypee also swung by to lend a hand and we managed to fit a door handle and hang the driver's door so it'd actually open/close without having to lift it half an inch.

I also replaced the distributor which was fucked. @Jikovron spotted one on FB Marketplace from a 15,000 mile Reliant Robin and posted it up to me.

The old dizzy can be identified by the missing vac advance unit.

It also had various stripped fittings and the mechanism inside was held in place by a self tapping screw...

With the new one installed I set the timing by ear, although it could do with a bit of tweaking. The book figures are irrelevant with modern fuels. 

I then set about cleaning and polishing the stainless...

I also fitted new Tex stainless wiper arms and blades...

I have a stainless door mirror to go on as well...

All the lighting contacts were cleaned as well. Resulting in working headlights, tails, brakes, indicators, hazards and reverse lights. One headlight is either always on high or is missing high and is really out of alignment, one sidelight is also dead.

Anyway, that was all a week or so ago. Tonight I planned to take the car over to @320touring's unit. So headed out to the petrol station, inserted 20l of the finest unleaded and made it about a street and a half before it cut out.

Managed to coast it onto a dead end street that was pretty quiet. Indeed I got to bask in the shadow of Scotland's tallest listed building...

A couple of guys passing by stopped for a chat/admire and helped push the car off the double yellows. Quickly realised that it was a fuelling issue preventing it from running.

Assumed it was likely a blocked line, as we'd had that before and the tank isn't the easiest to clean out. Pulled the pipe off the pump and gave it a suck to be rewarded with a mouth full of petrol. Not that then.

After a bit of fucking about I deduced that the £12 unbranded electric fuel pump from eBay was making noises but not actually doing anything.

The mechanical pump was fitted but I couldn't remember if it was a working one as we'd ran three pumps at various points with varying degrees of success. Rigged it up and still got nothing. Highly confusing. Checked the pipe wasn't blocked again by drinking petrol again.

Then I messaged @GingerNuttz and he pointed out I had the pump plumbed in backwards.

Reversed the connections, tried again. Fuck all.

Checked the pipes for kinks, made sure there wasn't any obvious leakage points under the car, drank some more petrol. Gave all the clips another half turn, just in case.

Gave it another shot and success! Fuel. Car still wouldn't fire, rapidly traced to my having knocked a wire off the coil. With that it started first turn so I went the fuck home.

The reasoning behind running the Chinesium pump was we'd had issues with the carb overfilling and thought the mechanical pumps were over-pressurising somehow. So the emergency backup pump was rigged up for testing and was still installed when the problem was solved. It seems the actual issue was the needle/seat for the float on the "new" carb wasn't sealing, as now the old carb's float is fitted the problem has ceased and the mechanical pump seems to work fine. Either way the 'leccy unit had a lifespan of about 45 miles, so I'd suggest not relying on literally the cheapest fuel pump money can buy...

 

Oh. The Volvo still fills with water and the Acclaim has either shat it's water pump or the engine is cunted. A NOS pump is enroute.

Result with the Dolomite behaving better now.

I had a brief play with the shot of the car after throwing its toys out of the pram. It's definitely got a slightly menacing air about it.

 

[captain_70s]

13 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Good luck with the new job chap,  the old one sounded a pile of arse.

New van is fucking huge. I don't even entertain the idea of parking it on my street, it lives round the corner...

New job seems less inclined toward keeping me out for 12hrs a day, so may actually be able to fix cars during the week again!

[Split_Pin]

My neighbour has the electric version of that van and I can confirm it is huge. I let my trees grow tall enough at the front so I no longer had to look at it parked out the front of my house and I now need a ladder to go up and prune them.