Has anyone had a lorry transported? Is it hi - NOW BODGE 50 HORSEBO11OX THREAD (Now with added turtles)

[Spottedlaurel]

30 minutes ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Yeah The Conversation was on telly the other night so I watched it. I had not realised just what a fantastic film that is. Very quiet, tense; a simple story with not many characters in it. But really atmospheric, really gripping throughout. Just a total treat from start to finish. A few good shite cars in it briefly too. 11/10

Thanks Mark Kermode. Will watch out for that one.

Great progress on the Dodge, but what of the terrapins? The family enjoyed hearing about them the other night and would like to know more.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Well the turtle news is that Maude has been up and down to the new beach area quite a few times now, practising her digging, but I don't think she's laid any eggs yet. She's got a good digging technique - uses her back legs swapping side to side after each 'sweep', its quite funny to watch. Today she dug right down to the bottom of the box, I hope she's not going to start moaning on that its not deep enough.

 

I think it can cause bad health problems if they don't get their eggs laid when they're ready but I don't know what else I can do to encourage her. Also I think I read that the first time they lay some eggs, its a bit of a drawn-out affair anyway. Hopefully she feels relaxed enough in the beach area that she's just working up to it.

[barrett]

The Conversation is fantastic. Much more difficult to find, but I urge you to check out 'Scarecrow' from 1973 for another amazing Hackman performance. 

#thoughtsandprayers to Maud at this difficult time 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Managed to get maybe an hour and a half in on this today. No more welding to be done on the passenger side so time to start stripping out the drivers side.

That didnt take long. Here's some of the bits I removed - pedal box, brake servo, wiring loom.... The loom has 4 big plugs at the bulkhead, you can unplug these and remove the interior wiring harness complete. 

Heres the brake master cylinder, I didnt want to disturb this, I find old hydraulic systems often start playing up when you try and bleed them thorough after a 'major disturbance' like this. The seal kits are expensive and if you need a rebuild (no new ones exist) its a £170 touch at past parts. I will clean this up a bit but I hope I don't end up needing to open it up!!

 

Even the flippin pedal box needs some welding

Anyway with that lot out I could have a proper look at the crustacea:

Hmm, looks pretty chronic but I don't think its any worse than the passenger side really. Basically just got to repeat what I've already done on the pass side. Must remember not to blast the neighbour's window with angle grinder sparks BTW

The drivers footwell isn't great. Al Bundy patched this up  in 2018 and i think he did what he could with the access he had (very limited) but now the dash and pedal box is out, this area really looks like it could do with some more in-depth sorting out. I might find it hard to look past this lot if I have invested loads of time sorting out the rotten bulkhead. At least this area is mainly constructed from fairly straightforward flat bits. Think I will order up some extra Zintec! Le sigh......

 

[Zelandeth]

Would it be worth keeping the master cylinder immersed in fresh brake fluid?  Figure it might help prevent the seals drying out?  No idea if it would help, just a thought that popped into my head.

I actually saw one of these trucks today, a matt black recovery flatbed apparently lacking any exhaust based on how loud it was from the opposote side of the dual carriageway, roaring off down the A5 sounding like a bloody Spitfire as I turned off into MK.  Can't remember last time I saw one.

[paulplom]

I'm looking forward to this being fettled and on the road. What are your plans for it when it's all done?

[loserone]

A neighbour's kitchen window holiday, I expect

[BeEP]

Love how the fence deviates to accommodate opening the driver's door!

[Angrydicky]

Past Parts sell master cylinder kits which aren’t too expensive, about £30 I think. There is an exchange master cylinder on the shelf or was the last time I was there, but it carries a mega surcharge so best to send your one in first if you need one!

The clutch hydraulics can fail as well, again we’ve got all the kits on the shelf and can rebuild. Got all the flexis as well iirc. We get shitloads of enquiries for Dodge 50/RB44 brake/clutch cylinders of all types, yours is a posh one with front discs! As an aside, those discs are fashioned of purest unobtanium, same with the trackrod ends, kingpins, etc.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Cheers AD!! I am pretty certain I'll be drafting in PP at some stage, I am envisaging pulling the rear wheel cylinders off and sending them in for a refurb when the time comes to bleed the brakes through after reassembling this lot. I'm hoping the master cyl will survive the ordeal, but we'll see. The clutch master and slave are visibly pretty new-looking amazingly, so hopefully they will be OK, plus I have not broken into the system there.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Actually @Angrydicky do you know if the lid on the brake master cylinder  is a standard part? Both terminals for the fluid level sensor ore busted off on mine so if I found a cheap new lid I would probably buy it!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I think its one of these actually:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-AP-Mini-Austin-Rover-Metro-100-Brake-Reservoir-Cap-SJL10001EVA-GREY-GTI/143584138824

Mine's white. Bet its common to loads of old british heaps.

[cobblers]

I'm glad it's not just me who always seems to end up having to put a new master cylinder on every time I need to bleed the brakes on any car. Presumably (Angrydicky can probably clarify?) it's because the bore of the MC is corroded/clarted up outside of it's normal "throw" so pumping the pedal down the the floor to shift the fluid knackers the O rings?

 

[colnerov]

1 hour ago, cobblers said:

I'm glad it's not just me who always seems to end up having to put a new master cylinder on every time I need to bleed the brakes on any car. Presumably (Angrydicky can probably clarify?) it's because the bore of the MC is corroded/clarted up outside of it's normal "throw" so pumping the pedal down the the floor to shift the fluid knackers the O rings?

 

 

 Hi, Yes it knackers the seals by making them roll over as they pass the wear/dirty ridge and they don't function as they should. Pressure bleeding with out moving the pedal can over come that problem.

 Colin

[Andyrew]

I normally shove a bit of wood or something under the pedal to prevent it going past it's normal travel point just in case.  

[Zelandeth]

I reckon the tendency for any debris that has settled in the bottom of the reservoir when the fluid level drains out probably doesn't help either.

[dollywobbler]

Yo Bollox, any progress on this MoFo? Also, any eggs yet? WE NEED TO KNOW.

[binhoker668]

Wow.  Have just done a mega catch-up on this.  Have always loved Dodge 50s, but with the lack of skills and the state of them all these days, your thread is as close as I'll ever get!  Massive respect boyo.  What a legendary job!  

I also hear from Volksy that Fotorabia is sniffing around these parts again?  

Excellent.  I've been on autoshite-hiatus for a while, but THIS is the good shit!

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

OK let me give you an update on BOJACK_HORSEBOX

So last time I was getting ready to weld up the drivers side. Hopefully it would not be any worse than the passenger side, but at least I now knew how to go about grafting the new bits in.

Started by slicing out the worst of it, on the same lines I'd used on the pass side

Although the scuttle is even more rotten on this side, the inner cab side panel is not quite so bad and i didnt need to remake the top of that. Does need a clean-up and some Jenolite though!!

Heres what I chopped out. Seriously about 70% of the metal has rusted away!!!!

The view from inside

Next job was to trim this up and add the extension bit on the end

Still a few pinholes in this flippin thing. I am not going to go to town on those as theyre not really doing any harm. Will just clean up and paint the metalwork and leave them be.

Old and new scuttle panels

Starting to stitch it in

Went in surprisingly well actually!!! Joined up with a neat butt weld to the other side.

Had to make a new bit to close off the panel on the inside (well 2 bits actually)

I was going to refit the part i'd cut out, as I did on the pass side, but in the end I decided to make a new one

That'll do, looks a bit of a patch fest but it will tidy up with a going-over from the wire brush and flapwheel

Thats it!!! So now the scuttle has been completely replaced from left to right. Now I need to clean up/seam-seal/paint all this lot before I can start refitting stuff. The external scuttle panel (between the bonnet and windscreen) needs cleaning up and welding back on, but I shall paint everything before fitting it cos once its on, a lot of this new metalwork becomes inaccessible. Annoyingly the weather forecast is for rain now every day for the foreseeable so not sure when I will be able to get my paint brushes out.

Anyway its quite satisfying to  think that this rotten bulkhead is now sorted, if it wasn't for the lockdown i am not sure how I'd have done this and it was a serious hurdle to making anything useful of this old shonker. Can't got spending a load on the box if the cab is toast can you. And i couldn't chuck it away either after spending my wad on getting Al Bundy to do the inner and outer arches. Anyway I don't have to ponder that stuff any more as its flipping DONE. Yo!

For the turtle lovers, heres Maude, completely not giving a shit about the lorry

And here she is on one of her many daily trips to the beach to dig holes. She's up and down to the beach area several times a day which is quite pleasing to see, she's well got the hang of it. Still no sign of these flippin eggs though. She has transferred quite a lot of the sand from the beach are to the bottom of the tank so I will have to top up the sand soon.

Finally here's little Harold wishing he could go up to the beach area. Sadly for him its ladies only, so he he will have to make do with the 1st floor basking zone. 

I don't go ratching about in the sand so as to not spook Maude, so if she does bury an egg I'll only know anything about it if she stops digging the beach up.

Anyway, will update on both turtle and lorry news as stuff develops. L8rz!!!

[Skizzer]

Loving this, Horsebollox and turtles both. Brilliant stuff.

That’s a shitload of metalwork you’ve done there.

[wuvvum]

What Skizzer is actually trying to say is "Do you fancy coming to Wales and welding up my Rancho?"

[phil_lihp]

Thoroughly enjoying this thread, congrats on rediscovering the mojo!

Also +10 points for 'Bojack Horsebox'.

[Datsuncog]

Impressive work, cap'n. There's something immensely satisfying about seeing jagged bits of metal come together again to form a whole. Kinda like repairing an eggshell or something.

Really, really looking forward to seeing this all back together again and (hopefully) mobile before too long.

Onwards to victory!

[Skizzer]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

What Skizzer is actually trying to say is "Do you fancy coming to Wales and welding up my Rancho?"

Feckin right.

Rancho scuttle:

[binhoker668]

Epic.  Really getting towards the 'fun' bits now huh?

 

[wuvvum]

5 hours ago, Skizzer said:

Feckin right.

Rancho scuttle:

On the bright side, the wiper motor looks rot free...

[Craig the Princess]

That's a work of art Mr Bollox, this is a great thread.

[philibusmo]

Great work there Reginald_Testicles, both on tickling the Horsebollox and the hot terrapin action.

I had a proper chuckle at BoJack Horsebox too. I'd highly recommend the similarly named show.

Your welding has kept my mojo up on welding my Mk1 Fiesta while the weather has been nice, so thanks for that too!

 

[binhoker668]

Actually, I take it all back.  You only achieve true* shiter status if you...........DO IT ALL AGAIN.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/horsebox-renault-dodge-50-series/254566579385?hash=item3b4559bcb9:g:3okAAOSwhtNej2yk

"STARTS PERFECT"

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

They all 'Start perfect'!!! (Well, the Phaser engined ones do anyway)

Mine fired straight up first click after being left untouched for about 8 months!!!

They're a thing of wonder these Perkins engines. Happy to go at full chat all day, dragging a plough up and down a field or whatever. Theyre not a cheap item.... seems strange to me that they would end up in these trucks which are one big exercise in cooking something up on a shoestring. Same with the 5-speed ZF transmission, Fancy!!!