Waaijenberg Canta LX

[grizz]

Excellent progress Glen. 
 

 

[egg]

On 24/03/2024 at 16:26, Jenson Velcro said:

I also thought a couple of the other road users were thinking of using you for target practice.

That Range Rover in particular....eek.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, GlenAnderson said:

And, optional “still to do” jobs include sorting a way of locking the doors, and deciding whether to convert the hand controls to conventional pedals or not. 

personally I would advise keeping the Hand controls as its part of its history,  its very likely that this was bought by an Ex Model 70 user, the Canta was put forward by the motability scheme as a bit of half arsed replacement for the Model 70, only 7 Canta's where officially imported into the UK before the whole thing died on its arse, but they did go so as far to adjust the law that people with a Model 70 could actually drive one of these on a provisional normal licence!

[GlenAnderson]

32 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

personally I would advise keeping the Hand controls as its part of its history,  

That is the way I am currently leaning. Mind you, it’s mainly because of it being less work than the historical issue. 🤣

 

Interesting info about the seven imports. I had been told that there was only three. Makes sense about them being a model 70 replacements, although they have nowhere near the same level of performance. 

[GlenAnderson]

Started looking at the wiper issue. 

Pulled the bonnet off for ease of access. Only two pins. 

 

With no wiring diagram anywhere I could find for the car I had no option but to work things out from first principles. 

Who puts shear bolts on an indicator/wiper/dipswitch?

Who relays a circuit where the switch they’re using is more than capable of carrying the necessary current, because it’s designed to run at a minimum of twice the load, and then buries said relay in the most awkward location possible in the engine bay, rather than somewhere accessible?

I managed to get the switch apart and trace the current paths through it. Why on earth they chose a combined indicator/wiper/washer/horn/dipswitch assembly with two speed+ intermittent settings, then only fitted a single speed wiper makes no sense either. 

I suspect that, maybe, a previous owner has replaced the wiper motor and not managed to get it working as I simply cannot see how what appears to be factory wiring could possibly work with the fitted motor. The motor is pretty conventional; it requires one permanent live for parking, one switched live for on/off and a switch to control it that allows the park switch to swap the live feed to the motor for parking to swap to a neutral to stop the motor dead at the end of its sweep. The column switch would do that, but instead the factory chose to use a relay. No idea why. Furthermore, that relay appears to be configured so that the plug to the motor contains one permanent live, one permanent neutral and two switched neutrals. I simply can’t see how the motor fitted would ever have worked with the wiring the way it was. 

Anyway. Some trial and error has resulted in a motor that works and parks, but I have to reconfigure the relay wiring to give me one permanent live, one switched live to turn the motor on/off and provide the necessary parking polarity changeover for parking. 

Anyway. Progress. 

No real pictures of these stages as I was just getting too cross. 

I managed to chisel/drift/screwdriver one shear bolt out, but had to resort to drilling the head off the second. Honestly, these things are even more aggro than locking wheel nuts, which up until today were top of my list of things that are meant to be “secure” but in actual fact they only ever inconvenience owners. 

Anyway, once I had finished sorting the wiper wiring. I moved on to the wiper itself. 

The pantograph arm I picked up had a tapered hole suitable for an M6 locknut, and the motor spindle is M8. 

By a handy coincidence, the tapered drill in my hugely expensive set of step drills from one of the German supermarkets has near enough exactly the right taper.

So, after some very careful opening out of the hole, we now have this.

I have set it to wipe almost all the way across to the driver’s side, minimising the triangle of doom. This does leave it a little bit further away from the passenger side edge of the screen than I’d like, but it’s well out of the driver’s eyeline, which is what matters. 

This view from inside shows the next little job on the list.

The interior mirror is kaput. I had a Land-Rover one languishing in the stores, so a quick 90° bracket from some ali angle and a squirt of paint gets us here.

Next job was to pull off the leaky exhaust. It was holed in the heat exchanger part and letting fumes into the cabin. Not ideal. 🤣

 

Pretty crusty outside too, so I gave it a bit of a talking to with the knotwheel of truth. 
 

 

No way I could get inside to weld it up without cutting it open.

 

Chopped out the rotten top plate, fabricated a replacement and welded it in. 
 

 

 

Then spent some considerable time welding it back together and patching all the various pinholes. 
 

Ran out of light, time and pictures at this point. Will be doing a bit more today with luck. 
 

Will also be putting it up for sale as it has achieved the desired effect of getting my lad through his silver D of E and I have other projects I want to concentrate on. If anyone is seriously interested, please drop me a message. 

[GlenAnderson]

On 24/03/2024 at 16:34, yes oui si said:

I want this so much ❤️

Now up for sale if you're still tempted...

[GlenAnderson]

On eBay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276749214846?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Il5byxsdROS&sssrc=2051273&ssuid=Il5byxsdROS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Stinkwheel]

On 15/11/2024 at 13:39, GlenAnderson said:

Hang On!! I see Bantams, tell us about the Bantams 😁

[GlenAnderson]

3 hours ago, Stinkwheel said:

Hang On!! I see Bantams, tell us about the Bantams 😁

Bantams? Yeah, I have a bit of a problem with Bantams.
 

We (currently) have three. At one point I had about ten, in various states of disrepair 🤣. Now I have a ’56 D3 swingarm project that is currently on the “maybe sell it” list. That came to me as an engine-less rolling chassis around 2016. I originally planned fitting a D14/4 engine I had bought for a totally different bike back in around 1988, but I have subsequently sold all my 4-speed Bantam stuff as they’re getting harder to find bits for and the racing and trials crowd are prepared to pay silly money for them. It’s now going to have a D7 engine instead. If I ever get around to it it’ll be an “oily rag” bike. 
 

Then there’s the 1954 D3 plunger. That’s my son’s (or at least that was my excuse for buying it). Pretty much completely original. One owner from ‘62 to his death in the mid 90s, then his mate who simply parked it up, then us. Lots of history. Needs recommissioning. Came with the tank off, dented and in primer. I have been idly looking for a replacement tank in original paint rather than painting the original, but it looks like I’m going to have to just get on with it. I have a 125cc barrel for it, so the lad can ride it next year when he’s 17, so I have his birthday as a deadline for making it roadworthy. 
 

Finally there’s my ‘53 rigid D1. My old man bought it for me in 1978. One previous owner before me. It’s been the source of much fun and much frustration. Currently fitted with a slightly breathed on late set of D1 cases, D3 barrel and Todd head. It also been wearing a set of D3 forks since the late 80s and me bending the originals a second time, so it’s basically a rigid D3. It’s still mucking me around after a full rebuild a year ago. Doesn’t want to change up into top from 2nd on the road, although it will do it when stationary or with the engine not running. Needs to come apart again to work out what’s happening. Ultimately, I would like to have this one really tidy cosmetically, but it’s going to be a retirement project I suspect. 
 

 

 

[Stinkwheel]

13 minutes ago, GlenAnderson said:

Bantams? Yeah, I have a bit of a problem with Bantams.
 

We have three. I have a ’56 D3 swingarm project that is currently on the “maybe sell it” list. That came to me as an engine-less rolling chassis around 2016. I originally planned fitting a D14/4 engine I had bought for a totally different bike back in around 1988, but I have subsequently sold all my 4-speed Bantam stuff as they’re getting harder to find bits for and the racing and trials crowd are prepared to pay silly money for them. It’s now going to have a D7 engine instead. If I ever get around to it it’ll be an “oily rag” bike. 
 

Then there’s the 1954 D3 plunger. That’s my son’s (or at least that was my excuse for buying it). Pretty much completely original. One owner from ‘62 to his death in the mid 90s, then his mate who simply parked it up, then us. Lots of history. Needs recommissioning. Came with the tank off, dented and in primer. I have been idly looking for a replacement tank in original paint rather than painting the original, but it looks like I’m going to have to just get on with it. I have a 125cc barrel for it, so the lad can ride it next year when he’s 17, so I have his birthday as a deadline for making it roadworthy. 
 

Finally there’s my ‘53 rigid D1. My old man bought it for me in 1978. One previous owner before me. It’s been the source of much fun and much frustration. Currently fitted with a slightly breathed on late set of D1 cases, D3 barrel and Todd head. It also been wearing a set of D3 forks since the late 80s and me bending the originals a second time, so it’s basically a rigid D3. It’s still mucking me around after a full rebuild a year ago. Doesn’t want to change up into top from 2nd on the road, although it will do it when stationary or with the engine not running. Needs to come apart again to work out what’s happening. Ultimately, I would like to have this one really tidy cosmetically, but it’s going to be a retirement project I suspect. 
 

 

 

They are all brilliant.

My own bantam connection is messing about on them on waste ground when i was a young lad. And lots of stories from my dad about how he and his mates used to muck about on them. I probably know where to dredge in a canal local to where i grew up and find some remains from when one of dads mates tried to jump it from a home made ramp, there probably isn't much left now though as it was easily 60 years ago apparently. Bantam just wasn't quick enough to reach the terminal velocity needed 🤣

As with many things, i probably need another Bantam in my life sometime

[Verysleepyboy]

Another lurking Bantam fan here!!

Owned a 1958 D5 Bantam for a few years (the really rare 6 month production one).

Bought it as a complete* shed find with buff log book back in around 1994 only to get it home and find it wasn't as complete as described including the D3 engine with the snapped crankshaft, D7 tank and various other challenges.

Did find a D5 engine for it eventually that got rebuilt and most of the correct bits - managed to get the bike running but then in around 2001, life through me a curveball and I had to move it on into safe keeping rapidly to a mate in Gloucester.

No idea what happened to it (mate has since passed away) - hopefully it is safely tucked away with an enthusiast and brought out  on sunny days to be enjoyed though!

[GlenAnderson]

So, tonight the Canta went off on a new adventure. It’s been bought by a stunningly splendid Polish chap called Stan, who is going to finish the work needed to make it roadworthy and then it’s destined for a cosy indoor life in a microcar museum in Poland.

 

 

[plasticvandan]

My own Bantam contribution,like some of you,I've had many,favourite being a very late black D3 plunger.

[GlenAnderson]

7 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

My own Bantam contribution,like some of you,I've had many,favourite being a very late black D3 plunger.

Excellent. And in the back of a suitably eccentric little workhorse too. I like it. 

[warch]

The canta reminds me of the Ginkel from forgotten comedy series Hippies (1999)

 

[GlenAnderson]

It sounds stupid, given that I have just sold it, but I really would have liked to do more with it. It’s better that it’s gone though. 

[egg]

3 hours ago, GlenAnderson said:

It sounds stupid, given that I have just sold it, but I really would have liked to do more with it. It’s better that it’s gone though. 

We've all thought that about one vehicle or another - it will pass, and there will be something else!

[timolloyd]

12 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

My own Bantam contribution,like some of you,I've had many,favourite being a very late black D3 plunger.

 Calendar shot right there.