Andy's awful autos: vegetarian able vehicle incoming (not mine honest!)

[SiC]

I always say welding is the easy bit as it's just following a process, but metal bashing is the real art. This lucky little car really has gone off to the best owner it needed.

[Andyrew]

Today i decided to start the final and harder part. Access is a pain and i ended up using a die grinder with a stone in it to wittle back the spot welds the drill couldnt get too. 

Here you can see i cut out a part of the front section, corrosion had caused swelling between the spot welds. Once that was removed i cut away the larger return, made a new one slightly oversized, zapped in with a few welds.  then thankfully i could clean up the outter part and zap that back in. Handy as i dont have any large sheet that thickness!

Not the neatest but its contaminated and i had the welder cranked up. 

While that was out i had also choosen to take advantage and remove the rusted section i need to remake. I ran a few welds over the back of the joints from the other side. 

Hopefully have the new part finished and welded in tomorrow, getting there slowly. 

[Andyrew]

A bit bracing! 

Quickly knocked back the welds on the front panel. Just back till smooth ish, no point going back any further as its not seen and will have stonechip over it anyways. 

Finished off final tweaking and getting the panel i started yesterday ready to be fitted. 

And welded in, ran out of gas half way but had another bottle ready. 

Final step is to repair the bit in between, below the displacer. The sides have gone and i kept it in for reference for the bits mounting to it. Going to be a fiddle but that will be the final panel to make then its done. 

[Andyrew]

Weld-done, just needs dressing back and some holes drilling in, then its time for some rust converter and paint.  Im fairly happy with the results. 

[Andyrew]

All of the paint. Slapped on fast and dirty. Shoved in front of the heater to cook. 

[Andyrew]

Found the previous weld patches done by charles & wonders welding ltd

Ill drop the subframe off and correct this sometime in the future. Its wrong, ugly and plated over grot but its solid and isnt going anywhere for now. Im not worried as i want to drop the hydro lines off sometime in the future and either rust treat them or get new ones made up. 

[Andyrew]

Today i also managed to un seize the unioin on the nearside and clean up both so then can now spin freely. 

[2flags]

You are doing a fantastic job on this.

[Andyrew]

stuffed right up its chuff.  Some bolt issues to rectify, short a few that had snapped, some wrong length. Plan was to get new but the local supplier i used to use closed and and one that another option is a let down. Will rummage through and sort but for now things can still progress. Will fit the brakes tonight to bleed tomorrow. 

[Andyrew]

Brakes and drums back on, Brake lines and hand brake cables ran. Touched up any damaged bits on the paint. Dug out enough bolts so everything all nipped up and done. 

Brake bleeding tomorrow, fuel tank with new soft and hard lines from front to back. Sundays plan is pump up suspension and fit exhaust. Then it can get the fuck off the lift!

[Andyrew]

Fuel tank back in, brakes bleed up kinda, suspension pumped back up.  Almost there! 

Exhaust to fit later on and button a few wee things up. 

[Tickman]

Some brilliant work going on there getting this back together properly 

[Andyrew]

Long life oil

With the VP1300 all back together it was shoved outside with the punto while some stuff got sorted in the workshop. Workbench modfications and if you have looked in the for sale section ive been having a big life sort out so lots of stuff is to get to fuck.  

Cracked on with another car thats been untouched for far too long. Had a good few days on it. Had a day planned out then got a phone call from a friend about his partners car having an oil leak, big time. His suggestion that its not to be driven was ignored untill the car pinged up an oil pressure warning and he recieved a phone call to tell him it sounded a bit "rattley".

Handily the car was not far from the workshop and my mate swang by and grabbed an old bottle of oil that was close enough spec and off to go find the car.  Half hour later the car arrives at the workshop leaving a  trail of oil.  Didnt sound fucked now it has oil so hopefully its survived.

After a quick chat about servicing and Guessing the car hadnt been serviced in a long time my prediction of a rotten oil filter being the problem was spot on.

  

The whole underside of the car was dripping, even the back axle was coated. The car was purchased used at 8k miles and wouldnt have been due its first service then and hasnt been touched since. So that oil and filter had done 67k miles since 2017 when the car was new.

With no parts to hand the car was left on the lift for the night ready for parts the next day. New filter and fresh oil chucked in with the plan to change again in 1k miles ish. Sounded fine but i advised that fucking it off sooner rather than later wouldnt be a bad idea as id say thats shortened its life span by a few years. 

 

[r.welfare]

People are mad aren’t they?  Spending all that money on a newish car then nothing on maintenance.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Andyrew said:

Long life oil

Any reference to the oil sold by Longlife Accessories?

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, Andyrew said:

So that oil and filter had done 67k miles since 2017 when the car was new.

its a shame it all leaked out, out of morbid curiosity, I would of loved to have seen what it looked like, and similarly would of been fun to have it sent to have it tested to see whats floating around in it etc, like how that chap who runs the Project Farm youtube channel has motor oil tested...

 

[barefoot]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I would of loved to have seen what it looked like, and similarly would of been fun to have it sent to have it tested to see whats floating around in it etc, like how that chap who runs the Project Farm youtube channel has motor oil tested...

 

I've got some really crappy old oil if you'd like me post it to you?

[Andyrew]

Little n large

This weeks workshop tinkering has seen something thats been here for too long finally finished. The VP1500 that belongs to @Mrs6C  The welding needed was far more that we expected but its finally done. today while i had some old waxoyl to hand that wanted using up i wire brushed off some rust on the front chassis leg area. Which reavealed 3 holes  , the cars already had a patch or two put in years ago so i added 2 more,  I cleaned this back and put two  MOT style patches on both side. This week the interior went back in, fuel tank and exhaust back on, wheels given a light spruce and new tyres,  suspension pumped up and welding finished then painted. Its now ready to finally leave. 

I was asked by a friend about repairing a van for his friend thats a new soon to be camper project. It was a write off after clobbering something that wasnt going to move and purchase cheap. Ouch

I chopped out most of the main panel and with a come along winch hooked to the astra towbar as a ghetto puller i got some of the inner arch to come out. It was completely crushed flat in a z shape. Decided to drill out the spotwelds as it was thick metal and no way was i getting that back in situ.  

Inner panel lower part removed and lip dressed slightly. Its mildly kinked so needs straighten out more. 

Today with multiple hammers and a little heat ive got this plate back to roughly how it should look, will repair the torn out corner when i know its near the  final fettle

More tomorrow.

 

 

 

[Marshall2810]

Great work fella and nice VP1500 @Mrs6C

[Noel Tidybeard]

polo not too far over then as 20k oil services on them 🙄

[Andyrew]

Tin bashing

Today i set about trying to make the inner wheel arch tub back into some sort of shap. Its torn in one area and was kinked upwards

It comes down the has a curve forward to meet the lower panel i straightened out (wrong) yesterday. A nosey and a measure of the otherside revealed i needed a much larger radius for the lower panel. Then i worked the upper panel to suit using torn out spotwelds id say its close enough. 

After that was done a Friend popped down  for me to do an oil and filter on a freelander 2,  Such a wank location. Once that was done i worked on the replacement panels. The owner it seems could only get a rear panel for a different wheel base so i had to remove 8 or so inches, fold a return then use the shrinker to get the flange curved to the same radius as the mid panel.

Happy with that, will weld these together off the van

 

[Andyrew]

3 out 1 in

The big van No photos sadly as I'll be honest, I just wanted it done and gone. Chap doing the bodywork was more than happy with it. Me not so much but that how I always feel about these things. 

Claires VP1500 left a few days later

And the Safrane left the next day, it left here running and driving (ish) with brakes and not leaving a trail of power steering fluid but it's still a lot of work. Honestly one of the most unrewarding cars to work on. 

Anyways, when the VP1500 left my old tin top samurai returned and lets just say its not looking great having sat in a field for years. It didn't look great after it left here to go to the field. It was previously rotten and mildly vandalised when it left and any modifications were just chucked on so they weren't on shelves or the floor. No time to address the rot at the moment but let's just get it running and driving so it's not another immobile pain in the arse.

 

[Andyrew]

Isn't nature amazing 

[Cookiesouwest]

9 minutes ago, Andyrew said:

Isn't nature amazing 

That's patina and adds value.

 

[Andyrew]

Bring the thunder

A friend joined me at the workshop and we decided to see if the old shed would fire up. Plugs out and a we bit of wd40 down just to be nice, turned freely by hand. Plugs back in, booster pack and some easy start and fired straight up. Starter made some awful noises but it was running nicely. These g13s are impressively quiet running. 

Jerry can rigged up and some other make do fixes and with the idle getting stuck at 2500 rpm, and no foot or handbrake we limped it into the workshop. 

Thankfully this has a modified crawler or 'rocklobster'  transfer box made for a sj413 and sj410 case combined. so low range is properly low rather than the normal ratio so it can creep in and up things slowly. 

what is it then?

i picked this up for £150 15 years ago with a dead clutch.  Daily driver for about 5 years. Green laning and a few pay and play sites. It used to look nice but was getting frilly. Converted to 1.6 8v briefly until that lost oil pressure and died. Its now back to a 1.3 and I think the lump has 54k on it. The car it's self I think was somewhere around 140k miles. 

I'd picked up modifications over the years for another samurai but sold that on and decided the mods will go on this. So will it looks like a turd it's got some tasty bits hidden under it. 

Full float rear axle and ARB airlocker, disc conversion rear, 6mm thick transfer cradle with spine brace fitted to a rocklobster box. Trail tough jeep yj conversion running Yj springs all round and a 4xs Heavy duty fuel tank guard. 

The plan is to just quickly get the brakes all hooked up and other running gear sorted so that when the time comes the body can be plucked off and welded up.  

 

[Andyrew]

Needed a little mojo booster so dug out the wheels that have been sitting in the workshop for years waiting for its return. 

Tyres are too large for the size, these are 32 x 11s. I'd like to go 31 x 10.5  run or smaller but if I can make these clear the arches (just) and sills then there will be pleanty enough for smaller sized wheels.

[Andyrew]

My friend suggested that tyres should be inside the arch, I told him that they should be OK, up to an inch of poke is okay and mine measure just shy of that. See its fine . . 

Maybe i need to get a BOM one just to check

 

[Six-cylinder]

Remember when we moved the SJ in Sep 2020 you added a grill mounted fuel tank and drove it onto the trailer.

[Andyrew]

Merc manhandling 

With the Sami off the lift, it stops starts and drives (mostly in a straight line) I turned my attention to my friends partners SLK.  This time it was more corrosion giving concern. The brake lines were looking pretty frail. These are one whole line from each caliper to near the bulkhead. Dropping the subframe or making new lines with in line joints would had them looking neat. But it was decided to just get it done and I fought the up and over. Some swearing may have been used. 

The picture above you can see the cracking on the flexi too, this retaining clip and union and to be carefully sliced with the grinder which just squeezed in the gap between shock absorber and floor pan. 

below: the Calipers and hardware are heavily corroded but thankfully the pistons moved freely. 

Caliper off, needle scaler gunned to hell, some wire wheel action had the casting better. heat and impact gun got the bleed nipples freed off too.  Found an old tin of direct to rust black paint and left some bits soaking in Evaporust overnight. Discs had a small lip so this was nipped off too, and deglazed with some 80 grit on the DA sander.  

New copper lines stuffed in, 

New hoses, mounting bracket and retaining clip cleaned up and painted. 

All that left is a bit of bleeding and it's good to go until the next thing we tackle on it. 

[Andyrew]

With the merc off the lift, I quickly lobbed the Astra up to have a quick nosey before it going for its MOT Monday. As expected I couldn't see anything of concern. I quick top up of oil and screenwash and I deemed that good enough. See what the tester thinks. 

With that off I fired up the VP1300 and stuck it up there for some tinkering, It has a bit of a long trip to do in 2 weeks so needs lots of little jobs addressing.