project Fumbler's Gone To America - Ford F*cking Biohazard

[coalnotdole]

On 8/16/2020 at 11:49 PM, Fumbler said:

Shame that, as it has an expiry of 2022 and was around £2.00. Didn't even specify on Toolstation that it was a 1mm disc so that's annoying. Oh well, when I get back from Wales I'll break it in half and toss it into the bin as its replacements are arriving while I'm away.

I've used far worse - just run them against a sharp edge of 6mm plate very carefully to true it up again !

Then again I regulary misuse 0.8mm discs for grinding out stop-start weld defects which probably isn't recommended either...

[Fumbler]

14 minutes ago, coalnotdole said:

I've used far worse - just run them against a sharp edge of 6mm plate very carefully to true it up again !

Then again I regulary misuse 0.8mm discs for grinding out stop-start weld defects which probably isn't recommended either...

It's definitely not the worst of chips but I somehow think that it'll either wear down super quickly or fly apart if I continue using it, even if it's just for cutting! In a fit of madness I've bought another 6mm grinding disc at a local tool merchant so I have two replacements for the defective disc now. This time I think I'll toss it in the bin.

[Fumbler]

Found a slightly grotty Sherpa while out walking

Owned by an old guy who was working on the multitude of fibreglass boats in the yard to the left. Never seen one before!

[Noel Tidybeard]

given that it says 115 x 1,9mm i would say it isn't a 1mm disc anyway!

[Fumbler]

2 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

given that it says 115 x 1,9mm i would say it isn't a 1mm disc anyway!

You're right, it isn't 1mm after all! Idiot me.

 

The replacements definitely aren't 1 or 1.9 mm either; they're 3.4210526315789473684210526315789 times thicker.

[Fumbler]

Decided now was the best* time to fix the crossmember. It went well*

After some hard whacking with a long toffee hammer I opened up another hole (left) and made the one I discovered over half a year ago a but bigger. What's weird is that in this spot there's no direct spot for noisture to enter and the main structural steel inside is fine: The thinner outer skin has corroded away. The only way I can think of it rotting out like that is through waterpooling up and seeping in the open seam where the holes are. Weird.

Some cutting turned this...
Into this!


This newly formed drain hole was cut square and will serve a useful purpose later on.

Some wirewheeling and Cardboard Aided Design had us make some repair sections which overlap the cleaned steel. Time to break out the welder.

 

Tacked into place, shaped and then fully welded. Looks horrible, I know. Had to cut bits of bumper out to get access but it turned out good enough, plus I gave both patches a damn good thrashing with the panel hammer and they didn't budge or cave in. Happy times.

 

Some zinc primer

And a colour to blend it in really well with the rest of the metal! I'll go back tomorrow to close off the square hole with some metal and self tappers as it's really good for a wax injection lance to reach in and spray far and wide. Tomorrow morning I'll brush on some warm and runny wax undercoat which should conceal everything from view, while protecting it.

 

Things learned:
Accessibility: bastard
Definitely a bumper-off job next time I do it which'll be soon-ish
Welding upside down is the worst thing ever
Next time, do welded repairs before undercoating as it gets everywhere when the metal gets hot.
 

 

[theshadow]

posh zinc primer....

[Fumbler]

8 hours ago, theshadow said:

posh zinc primer....

Only primer I have at the moment. Thought I might as well give it a fighting chance!

[Fumbler]

Today was MoT day! First order of business: finish the work I left off last night. This involved, firstly, some Jamie Oliver style cooking:

Followed by adding too much thinner and having to wait for the Dynax UB wax to harden up a bit more.

 

Two coats applied, 15 minutes apart, while warm, which should help it seep into the (many) welding pores. Paint had dried nicely in the warm garage which was a plus. I'll overcoat again tomorrow as per instruction.

 

Then it was time to put it in for its MoT, which it duly passed

Although it seems I'll need to take apart the NSR drum apart to give it a clean. Tester blames it on the lack of use it's had meaning it's probably seized or binding up. For reference, the OSR drum gave 100KG effort, the NSR gave 60-75KG which was apparently "just passable."

 

For those wondering about my welds of dubious integrity, be rest assured that they are only temporary until I can find an indoor area where I can take the bumper off, jack the car up, and have all the required access for a grinder and all those necessary items. Full-on replacement of the crossmember is on the cards but this'll hopefully slow the eventuality of that happening too soon.

[Ghosty]

4 hours ago, Fumbler said:

be rest assured

Stop playing prang. 

[Fumbler]

3 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

Stop playing prang. 

Immediately I have received your request i will forward to my colleagues.

[Shirley Knott]

Just spent half an hour catching up on things here, halcyon days eh?

Top work on the welding, might not be the prettiest but if it was good enough for the tester then that's what matters!

[Fumbler]

Apprenticeship date is coming quickly so I pressed on with a few bits. Firstly, finished the crossmsmber for now by screwing on the drain access panel I made by welding some broken Meccano together fabricated. Looks utter shit but, fortunately, the area it's on is fairly non-structural-

Coated in grease inside and out juuuuust in case tinworm tries sets in. I don't want to cover it in undercoat because I want it to remain visible enough that I know where to look should I need to go in the crossmember ever again.

Then looked at the NSR brake assembly. Looks rather clean after a scrub with cleaner!

MoT said the effort it produces was sub par so some stamping on the brakes by Father Fumbler and observation by me revealed that the cylinder is seized on one side. A quick look on Carparts4Less gives me a new one for just over £11.00 so that's been bought. 

Also got some new tyres fitted. Went with these lovely Nokian all-season tyres and they're lovely to drive on. If @HarmonicCheeseburger is still on the lookout for tyres, these were £42 a corner on Openio. Have a picture or 3:

Nice deep treads. The difference is phenominal- no more wheel wobble (bad balancing and a flat spot or two), road noise has gone down, the ride is tons more comfortable and it's definitely a lot grippier. Manages potholes with ease now! Really happy with this Swedish rubber.


Attached the NSR wheel to the drum while it was still in the air after some adjustment. It's alright, but the stop time for this side is something like 4 seconds, whereas the OSR is 1.5, both going the same speed. It'll do for now until the new parts arrive tomorrow... hopefully!

[Fumbler]

Kind of an impulse thing, but some Bilt Hamber aerosol arrived in the post earlier this afternoon so I had at it and filled up every cavity and void I could think of with copious amounts of runny, sticky, greasy wax. As a direct result, the car has marked its territory!

 

When I shut the boot, wax pissed everywhere:

So I've left it open till sundown. That should* do the trick.

 

The main aim was to get the crossmember flooded with the stuff so that was duly done.

Went all the way up, down, across, sideways, diagonally and as far as possible with the improved injection wand. It's still dripping now and the areas I had repaired were filled up a good inch of the runny stuff. It's seeped into every seam, crack and cavity now, unlike last time. Also proves how open the seams in the crossmember are. Every gap was dripping by the time I had emptied the can.


There's going to be a rather conspicuous outline when I drive again tomorrow. I hope the parents don't mind too much... I can imagine the same will happen on a hot day too.

[Fumbler]

Brake job. Took but an hour or two all in all. One ugga dugga later and the wheel was off revealing crustiness.

Mmm... shiny new tools.


Old one out. Quite crusty.

New one in. Nice and clean.
 

Brakes bled, no more skidding and the wheels stop well now.  Job jobbed.

[Fumbler]

So the Micra -very noisily- buzzed me up to Bridgwater on what has, quite possibly, been the longest journey it's ever done in its life. Things I've noticed:

• Overtaking a lorry on the A303 is the scariest experience ever.
• Driving in the autumn on the A303 is brilliant apart from driving head-on into a a thundery shower and having to do a lot of steering.
• 70MPH makes the engine sound like a very angry bee.

Overall experience: never a dull moment, which is nice. My black box wasn't complaining either! Win.

As nothing (apart from the small issue of vandalism) has happened, have a picture of it in Steart.

The door handle has been glued back together now and a replacement is waiting at home (bit more work required for the bonnet though). You can just make out HPC in the distance. Very nice, if narrow, roads to trundle along. I highly recommend Stockton Bristol- it's a very lovely village to drive through.

 

[Shirley Knott]

Looking good!

My nostalgia for these is strong. When I was 17/18 pretty much all of my mates had these as their first cars... Meanwhile I had a Subaru Justy 4WD (Which only worked in 2WD) closely followed by a Ford Ka.  

I'm almost embarrassed to admit it now, but at the time I was ashamed of the Justy and only had it for a few weeks before inheriting the 'Ka'. I would have much preferred a Micra.

[Fumbler]

On my final journey before returning home on Friday, this happened:-

That makes 4001 miles done in my ownership. Wonderful little car! just under 800 miles to go and it'll receive a waterpump belt and fuel filter.

 

In other news, I fixed the doorhandle that was broken off 6 weeks ago:-

Prise off doorcard, Admire all the wax that's coated everything, peel back the polythene sheet and you have two 10mm bolts staring at you

The rod to the right was one hateful bastard to refit. Much swearing and finger twiddling was made to get it to fit. All it does is rest on this stamped plate which opens the door when the handle is pulled up. Simple enough.

Bonus wax footage of the inside. I need to flood whis one a bit more with the spraygun I think. Most of it has filled the seams though so it is doing the job.

 

Next up will be welding in a patch on the sill and washing the underside. Generally giving it some love, as well as correcting the damage done to it by drunk numbskulls.
 

[volvoman]

Once again, great to catch up on your Micra moments, keep up the good work, an keep putting those miles on it.

The low mileage V70 was a bargain too!.........I always used to say(even before i got a Micra) that Micra headlights are probably better than the factory pre 2000 Volvo V70/S70 headlights(which are utter shite) when they start to wear/dull down.

[Fumbler]

Decided today I wouldn't weld the sill. The grotty circle there has got bigger and more oval though...

Autoglym super resin polish isn't enough. Have some certified Shine Juice (Derek Approval pending):

It's a weird runny liquid ceramic-like coating. Apply after going over your car with SRP and it makes it look very glossy... even if it's shit silver paint! Observe:

Much glass very shine

Just got these 3 deep scratches to touch up. Once these are gone, all visible evidence that someone walked on the thing is gone, which is good.

Washer nozzles are also very glossy!

In other news, the welded repairs are still intact

That "access panel/drain thing" made up of welded Meccano and screwed into place looks very neat* but this Dynax S50 stuff has seeped literally everywhere, completely filling the gaps between the plate and the crossmember. Seen inside it's doing the job thus far which makes me happy I'll get some more time before I have to chop the thing out and replace it entirely.

Typically, the heavens opened on the way home. Ho hum. Nice water beading though.

[Fumbler]

Predictably, nothing much has happened. Reliable car is still continuing to be reliable, it's surpassed 20K miles and managed to buzz me back in the direction of Bridgwater earlier in the month. I felt bad for not washing it at all for most of the winter so I gave it a good scrubbing on top and sluiced out the underside to keep that as fresh as possible.

At some point I'll need to replace the rear silencer, because it currently looks like this:

So I bought a replacement for when the inner skin finally crumbles to pieces. The black paint that's on it is literally just to tart it up a bit, no doubt it'll all fall off on the return journey home. This has basically become a shits and giggles exercise, I've no doubt the tester's eyebrows will rise when he comes to prod this mess.

The dealer-sprayed wheels are beginning to look rather sad and scabby so I'll whip them off this summer, strip them back and make them look a lot better.

In the meantime, I went out walking and decided some photography was in order.

Moody shots with moody clouds...

 

Finally, have some XTREAM WATER BEADING shots as it's been raining pretty hard and I polished and sealed the car before I left


 

----

As mentioned in News24, the Micra will soon be accompanied by a friend. Consequently, the dash has started rattling. At least I have some motorway entertainment.

[stuboy]

11 hours ago, Fumbler said:

walking

stuff that

[JMotor]

We have a saying where I live. 

The repair on the exhaust would be known as "You'll dae!". 

If it doesn't blow and passes an inspection of any sort. Then it will do. 

Also I like that little car. It's doing you a grand service and so unusual to see one like that now. 

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, stuboy said:

stuff that

I thought the same when the wind picked up and the heavens opened.

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, JMotor said:

We have a saying where I live. 

The repair on the exhaust would be known as "You'll dae!". 

If it doesn't blow and passes an inspection of any sort. Then it will do. 

Also I like that little car. It's doing you a grand service and so unusual to see one like that now. 

Indeed, we shall see what happens. Glad you like the car! Over the last couple years I've noticed a few more ones like it back at home, which is nice.

[Stanky]

On the Dynax S50 front, how far does it go? e.g. for a Micra-sized car how many 750ml aerosols did you use, or did you use a 5l container and and compressed air sprayer?

The Daihatsu really wants thoroughly rustproofing once the welding has been sorted and this stuff seems to be the best you can buy.

[Fumbler]

9 minutes ago, Stanky said:

On the Dynax S50 front, how far does it go? e.g. for a Micra-sized car how many 750ml aerosols did you use, or did you use a 5l container and and compressed air sprayer?

The Daihatsu really wants thoroughly rustproofing once the welding has been sorted and this stuff seems to be the best you can buy.

I've got a compressor and siphon-feed gun and I use 5L cans if I'm going full bore in places such as areas above arch liners or splashguards, inner wings etc.

Realistically, 4 cans should do. Two cans for the boot and doors, two for the sills and crossmember, and perhaps one extra for any other voids you may find. The advantage of having a constantly flowing and creeping rust preventative is the big appeal to me. After flooding the crossmember in September, the final hot weather made the drips already forming at the seams even bigger, and any seam in the doors and boot went brown with wax. It really does flow when the car warms up. Naturally hydrophobic, too.

[Fumbler]

New (old) car is arriving early afternoon. I R EXCITE

[Amishtat]

Any clues? (Presuming you haven't posted any elsewhere and I'm too lazy to bother looking..) 

[Fumbler]

19 minutes ago, Amishtat said:

Any clues? (Presuming you haven't posted any elsewhere and I'm too lazy to bother looking..) 

About a month ago, when I bought it, I said that it was the obvious* choice for an 18 year-old and was made by an automaker who is world renowned for superior reliability. So far the guesses have been that it's Japanese.