Andy's awful autos: Vanden-blah

[Andyrew]

Rad mount clashed with the slightly larger Jimny steering box so a big vise , and a BFH being walloped into another hammer made some clearance. 

Cleaned back, and painted black. 

Ed china even popped in to give his approval

Textured fo yo pleasure

 

Next up, the alternator

But first it's getting nippy in workshop so time for a warming coffee.  I like my coffee strong, Don't want people thinking I'm a big softie.  

The ALT seems to spin lovely but does appear to be covered in little corrosion so the pulley was whipped off, wire wheeled and given a quick coat of black and the ALT casing was wazzed over with the wire bush in the drill and blown out. Then a very light dusting of Matt lacquer to stop or slow the corosion from coming back too quickly

Found the correct size belt on another engine and shoved that on for now. 

[Andyrew]

With the bits done that are more accessible with the rad out the way. The rad went in and I looked at buttoning up some of the pipework. The heater valve on the bulkhead needed mounting. As the body tub was a LHD and is now a RHD the holes weren't there and I'd completely forgot about it before fitting the engine so getting the drill in place was a bit of a fight. Add to that I drilled it in the wrong place the first time aswell!.

 

[Andyrew]

38 minutes ago, Dan302 said:

I'm jealous of people with the skill to work on cars, I'm basically a halfwit ?

  Nothing to be jelouse of dude, Give me a car that needs a diagnostic tool to fix it and I'm bollocksed!

One of the reasons I love the Suzuki SJ is the fantastic simplicity of them. 

[Andyrew]

Few odd and ends done up the workshop and various shite tinkering

Samurai lwb got it's front clip cleaned up any surface rust ground out, painted with zinc 182 then a quick paint in 2 cans of truck bed liner 

Vitara PAS bracket modified, old holes plugged up, addition support welded on acts as  a space and another fixing point,  all bolted up and it Fits neatly, just ,More luck than anything. Expansion bottle bracket required a trim as it just touched the bonnet, it just caught the bonnet prop support aswell. This will be removed as the bonnet just leans back on the windscreen anyway.

 

[Andyrew]

Disco is due it's MOT, the boot floor is pretty crusty. I had already done one side months ago. So a fast and dirty weld up was required. Chopped a great big hole, weld a bigger plate in. Then a slap over with some bed liner paint. 

The yard at the workshop has been in darkness the past month or so. The farmer got some new LED lights,a friend and myself fitted them up, on a miserably drizzly night. 

 They are indeed bloody bright! 

[Andyrew]

Lwb samurai again. 

With the front end on loosely I decided to tackle the front bumper. The chassis had previously had the bumper mount tubes cut off to clear 31 inch tyres. I had a straight bumper to go on but the mounts had been previously repaired buy a Suzuki specialist concerningly. 

This was irrelevant really as I'd have to make new mounts anyway. So I welded two top plates in that pick up on the front clip mounts and then two lower mounts that bolt up to two holes I drilled and tapped on the chassis.

 

[Andyrew]

Deja vu. 

Using the Ecto4 today, whilst sitting in traffic I was greeted with sticky brakes. The car didn't seem to bog down at the rear so my suspicion was the front, maybe the N.S because that was the one that possibly got mighty hot the last time when a pad was wedged even tho it had appeared fine. I Pulled over and put my hand by the wheels and the heat was definitely more from the N.S,  knowing that the pads were new, and that everything had been cleaned and greased from the last time. 

So I messaged a mate at my work and he confirmed we had new calipers in stock and at £25 each I decided Id stick a pair on. 

Swapped the caliper over, brakes are so simple on these. Unfortunately upon stripping it down I was greeted with a pad with a crack down it, I don't think the pads got that hot so feel this is faulty part.

I may go for some better brand pads, or swap these under warranty as they seem to perform quite well. 

 

Below you can see the witness mark of the crack from the pad.

[Andyrew]

The kja, 

Another Suzuki, my first Suzuki. Purchase from a scrap yard for £180 about 12 years ago. Has spent many years now as a stripped down pile of bits.  When it first went back on the road it looked like this.

Revamped and reprayed it looked like this, with a small lift a perfect rust free front end and a stupidly heavy front bumper. 

 

Shortly after this it was my daily for a while and then one morning on sheet ice a car spun out in front of me , to avoid ploughing the nudge bar into the guys drivers door / face I managed to spin the sj aswell. A short sigh of relief was followed by a mk5 golf slamming into the front end then the back end as it hit me sideways before sliding into a ditch in front of me.  I moved my sj down the road and parked it up on the verge, got out and proceeded to slip over on the ice and went to check if the other driver was okay. 

After this the sj was beaten straight, it was mechanically okay just a bent rim and front clip shoved over to one side. The rear wheel arch was rusty so the accident finished it off. 

Wiring issues, brake problems and rust had it off the road and from there it was stripped down and I became distracted with other shit heaps.

So about 8 years on. How does it look now?

Some assembly required then. . .

 

[Andyrew]

The kja chassis is a lwb but unlike the other lwb I have the wheel base is the same but the chassis design is different. 

Sjs/samurais are well know for rust but the chassis never suffer. The are very well made.  Except for kja's for some reason they rust and have been known to crack or dissolve.  Mine is a good example compare to most as it had a very easy life before I bought it. The P.O was a plasterer. 

The chassis was blasted years ago and I had started some repairs but I had no welding skills and the welder was crap aswell. Many years later and more welding experience it's time to 're do some bits and fix others.

The bed mount posts rot badly. Years ago I made some new ones but they was to wide and I actually put them in the wrong place and there was some pitting that at the time I didn't repair. So time to rectify that.

Crappy post removed to expose heavy pitting. Chop /cut/weld.

Posts are easy. Just some 75x50mm box section. The top mount is a tad more complicated. Plus there's 8 of them to make. Urgh. 

 

 

[Andyrew]

Ecto4 got yet another set of Discs and pads! the brakefit cracked ones were swapped under warranty, so tonight I shoved them on and took the lanes back home to bed them in a bit. 

In other news the discovery has now lapsed it's MOT. I didnt bother to go for the test due to the severe oil leak from the oil cooler pipes and crank oil seal leak topped with a coolant leak from the infamous P gasket. Topped off with some very knackered suspension bits aswell.  

Leak wise, 

Not many photos unfortunately, but Sunday my good friend Gary popped over to lend a hand sorting the leaks, much easier with a like minded helping hand.  The timing belt was covered in oil and had somehow gained a fair sized chunk out of it! Tensioners had seen better days so the  spare engine was robbed of its almost new timing kit I'd previously fitted. 

At this point @Six-cylinder  arrived , so we checked out his new toy and collected the VP starter.

New shitpart oil cooler lines fitted, I may regret this as the crank seal was a recently fitted britpart item, although my friend picked up that the modified crank sprocket/pulley was rather poorly machined on the sealing face which possibly knackered the seal anyway.

The sprocket was taken off, and carefully* mounted in the pillar drill to try and polish up the sealing surface. A better quality corteco crank seal was used this time. Fingers crossed. 

 

[lexi]

Excellent blog of spannering and welding Andrew.

[Twiggy]

A fascinating thread - thank you Andrew, and you`re a magnificent welder too.

[Andyrew]

[Andyrew]

Long time no update, lack of photos as I've been working on the discovery and it's just been a complete arse fighting me ever step of the way and not been overly enjoyable. 

The Astra however ,now somewhere over the 153k mark and doing a sterling job at being a car, makes the decision to drive miles away for something so easy, before the cost and comfort of taking the disco would change the decision as it thirsty/expensive also fairly slow and noisey on motorways. 

Since owning the Astra it's taken myself and others from the festering hole that is Dunstable to 

Edinburgh, Cornwall, Eastbourne, Oxford,  Cotswolds, swadlincote, Essex, Peak district, lake district, Bournemouth to name but a few.  With a few long journeys planned this year I feel it's already earned it's expense  and will hopefully survive another few years with me.  

A truly spot on motor in my mind. 

[Andyrew]

The disco however has been a month or more of this.  Rust, rusted bolts, rounded off bolts, rusted in bushes bolts, failing seam sealer, oil leaks and F**KING FLAKING SCHUTZ! 

just don't put this stuff on a car, especially not spraying the whole underside and mechanicals like the person did on this disco. the amount  of rust that's built up behind dried out failed or cracked bits is just everywhere.  I've needle scaler /wire wheeled so much of this crap off.  The only bit that had done it's job is the bit soaked in oil that's leaked out the engine. If it was regularly cleaned up and coated in light oil or waxoil it was probably be fine but however many years down the line it dried out and does more harm than good.  

 

 

[Andyrew]

Happy radius arms, had to nab a replacement from a fellow landy botherer after the large retaining nut must have picked up in the thread as it chewed it's self up. 

You can see on that the paint is scratched off. This was me testing the paint with my fingernail. 48hrs drying aswell. 

The name of the paint?

Err yeah, not convinced m8.

 

[Andyrew]

Swivel housings absolutely shafted. They are bloody expensive new tho (around £150+ per pair)  and difficult to find decent used. So going to take them off, degrease them and as I have a tin of chemical metal kicking about and going to try smooth them out and see. 

For a couple of quid I'll give it a bash, 

[Andyrew]

Rust rust Rust, 

Discoverys love it, the C post/rear wheel arch is a common place. My disco had been patched and welded here many moons before me and now the rot had crept through the patch. The issue is the rot comes up the C post and is very inaccessible so I opted to go full chop. The wheel arch tub goes aswell so I opted to use a repair patch panel to fix the wheel tub.  

[Andyrew]

 

 

[Andyrew]

I had already fitted the a new wheel arch panel but didn't have photos. After doing some previous MOT style patches to the lock area I then found the rot had set in further back and it was right upside in the wheel arch, I hate welding upside down and figured I could do a nicer repair from inside. So 

Chop chop 

 

 

 

[Andyrew]

This video shows the rust that would be almost impossible to repair, unless the quarter panel was removed and I wasn't up for that, I chopped out the two sections and repaired them off the car then fettled them untill they fitted nicely with the new arch and tub panels. Everything was cleaned back and upol zinc primed. 

 

[Andyrew]

With the lower half latch panel bit tediously repaired (loads of bends and angles ) it was  welded both side so i could grind it back smooth on the external face. Few plug welds and a couple of additional stitch welds. After This it was ground back, etch primed the n painted black .This took alot longer than it should have. Only the other side to do now. Urgh. 

[Minimad5]

Spot on work.

Fancy sorting my Disco out ?

[Andyrew]

7 hours ago, Minimad5 said:

Fancy sorting my Disco out ?

Ha!

Ive got a queue of rusty shite after this one.  This has dragged on for two months already the ungrateful bastard thing.

[Andyrew]

Stretching it's legs, 

With me having a few days off to fettle the dyane I offered @Six-cylinder that i could give the 735i a bit of a run to get some air round the car as it was getting a bit damp on the inside so left him and @Mrs6C with a scruffy discovery on the driveway. 

With anything that hasn't moved much we've had a few niggles.  Bit of brake judder here and there but that seems to have cleared up.

One rear light refused to work, then the other decided to join it, borrowed a more electrically minded friend and his volt meter, no power to the rear tailight. Then we had none, wiggled some bits and checked the fuses under the bonnet found nothing. The car decided to close it's Bootlid and bonnet on my mates head, 

We Decided it was to dark and cold and we gave up. On my way home they both came on and have worked ever since? 

At the same time we had checked the brake lights as the dash had told me of a brake bulb fault. It seems These had become intermittent but pumping the pedal a bit got the switch to function and it was put down as lack of use.

A friend was free today so he popped over and we gave the old motor a scrub, a clay and a coat of wax, trims dressed and glass buffed. Thats alot of car to clean. 

Thankful for its spa morning, as we left to go get lunch at the super sausage cafe the bmw rewarded us with no brake lights. Bit of pedal pumping didn't fix it this time, turn around and back to the workshop. Some trim out and some fiddling with the sticky switch was required. I added a cable tie around the pin on the switch. This stops the pin going back to the sticky point but doesnt prevent it from breaking contact. So far so good. Let's get some grub.  We've still got time. 

Wait. What's that big puddle under the car?

That would be PSF. It seems the steering fluid is also used for the abs unit and I assume cruise control system, pumping the pedal it would appear causes the level to rise and if theres too much fluid in there it can leakout the lid?. A clean up of the tank a top up and level check and we are back to normal.  It looks to have leaked from here in the past so maybe the level was a bit high? 

Morrison's cafe lunch was consumed. 

There was a pretty loud knocking / rattle from the rear of the vehicle. I assumed  a top mount had gone, after watching the @dollywobbler video on the car it seems he noticed it too and suspected the same. 

The noise on the way home had gone. Whilst giving it a clean Id pulled up the rear window shade, with this up no more rattle. 

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

I guess it has not been used since Dollywobbler had it, sorry you have fallen into the problems.

Before Dollywobbler took it to Wales I had a local garage MOT and service it and asked them to look for the  rattle and they said nothing was wrong with it!

[Six-cylinder]

Mrs6C did ask me who's the Discovery was!

[Andyrew]

Only little niggles. It's a lovely place to be, wafts along with enough poke there if it's needed. 

It's received a vacuum out, a bit of a carpet scrub and a spray  or two of some chemical guys "stripper scent , the smell of success" air freshner for that classy 80s executive experience.  

[Six-cylinder]

It was pretty smart when we got it but that was 12 years ago when our local BMW club leader indoctrinated me to want an E32.

Valentines day 2008 we put a bid on it and when we came back from dinner we had won it!

[Andyrew]

Got a little bit of Astra tinkering in today.  Nothing much just an hour before the rain started pelting down. 

There seemed to be a bit too much play in take up when giving it a bit of welly on a slip road or out of a junction,  shifting gears was also a bit notchy. The rear engine mount and the torque mount had been changed when the subframe was swapped which made little difference. 

Tonight I swapped the gearbox mount out for a new febi unit.  

Didn't seem that bad but it's made a nice difference to gear selection so I'm calling that a win. I've got the other mount for the timing side,That one also looks okay but a new one was cheap enough that I'll put it on anyway. 

Also made a quick fix to the battery tray. Whilst it was out  . These are prone to spinning the insert for the clamp bolt within the plastic. Pulled the old bolt out, cone cutter down the hole to give a bit of a taper,  wacked a flange nut in upside down and used a long bolt all the way through to act as a stud. 

Sorted.