Tales of a new business, trials and endless uphill battles

[Matty]

On 28/05/2024 at 21:16, Jikovron said:

I pulled out the Sprint engine pistons and gave them a good clean and prised the rings out of them, it's already a +20 rebore and the cylinders aren't totalled so I'm just going to glaze bust it and stick new rings in, the head leaks on all of the valves too !

This needs some tricky roof drip rail welding so I've started taking out the windows and trim ready for it 

Localised to a panel so at least it's just weld in a single skin and joint on 

The mez is coming along, 9x3m just a stairwell to blast together 

the cromford canal runs up the back of the units also  so it was a good excuse on the bank holiday to have a ride out !

The proton water pump is now dead also, and its a timing belt driven one too !

 

Ooh, being a skim reader is the sprint valver going in the Ital?

[Jikovron]

4 minutes ago, Matty said:

Ooh, being a skim reader is the sprint valver going in the Ital?

It could go in with some sort of inner wing massaging and tunnel work for the bulk of the overdrive and gear selector but I suspect the reliability of a sprint unit would be ruinous haha.

[Matty]

20 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

It could go in with some sort of inner wing massaging and tunnel work for the bulk of the overdrive and gear selector but I suspect the reliability of a sprint unit would be ruinous haha.

Ah but what a thing!

[Jikovron]

So the headgasket theory is sort of debunked, the sheer amount of water sat in the head etc was ridiculous and the gasket didn't look at all bad tbf 

So that's gone back on with the new timing chain which is sort of the easy part in the face of 900 plugs and widgets to stick back on 

This I'm thinking is the prime suspect as iirc the housing has a o ring gasket seperating oil and water galleries.

[Jikovron]

So the mini has gone wrong spectacularly, I pressurised the cooling system via a bleed hose and immediately could hear muffled hissing which got louder with the oil cap off, so half expecting the core plug in the head to be rotted through, it was actually bubbling around a headbolt quite vigorously, so either there's a crack under the headbolt in the head or the block ,,,fuck sake

So stairs up to the mezzanine and temporary racking next, u was despondent but really wanting to make some sort of effective forward motion, a fb marketplace free add for some old decking came up trumps as did one for some 12 foot racking in Mexborough 

I picked up the timber including the crap bits but it was worth it as there was about 150 lengths of 7foot decking 

I made 4 seperate panels for the rack and treads for the stairs 

Stairs are my least favourite thing to design especially turning stairs,,urgh too much info to keep in mind

The thinking is nearly over at least which means this talbot camper can get a good mot looking over as there is a fair few snaggs to be getting through , bonnet doesn't open, headlight broken, only selects 3/4 5/R, air bags to fit to the back, slight water leak from the inlet manifold trapezium thing, lovely 😍 

 

 

[High Jetter]

Stairs look good, uplifting surely? 

[Jim Bell]

Great work man. Glad to see you've bounced back from Covid and are getting up to some epic work!

[dieselnutjob]

I just spent a day with Ron ( @Jikovron ) machining a bunch of parts for my Freelander project.  What a fantastic job.  Thanks Ron !

[Jikovron]

This was for a hatchback era subaru impreza of the 1.5 litre variety, the exhaust was falling to bits so i cut and shut it all back together properly, even adding a quick bolted flange at the back box joint!

We then had this 1974 1303 in for a brake checkover and engine service, so after taking off the 4 drums we only found alot of brake dust but otherwise not alot beyond the usual 'not driven hard enough' deterioration 

this is a cool project, a skoda fabia 1400 8v derived from the 1960s onwards skoda rwd engine I've machined to accept renault 5 liners , I modified the liners a smidge as the bottom skirt was too long, and the head gasket sealing face was larger, the block was bored out to 80.5mm from 80.

This 3 Phase tyre machine I converted to single phase, luckily the phase swapping switch was easily wired to the directional coil of the motor 

this was a cool scrap heap find as I was weighing in the scrap pictured its actually a 3.5 and a decent one at that for 190kg of ally/iron!

Mez is taking shape now, just need the diagonal box sections in to stiffen the floor up and chuck in some pillars

this is the hybrid rover 3500s gearbox adapted to fit a Terex 3 ton dumper truck, still loads to do but the 3500 input shaft is cut and shut with the dumper clutch spline, and the gearbox adapter plate for the bellhousing is complete, it was complicated by needing to house the layshaft and input shaft bearing so there's been some careful measurements required!! 

[Jikovron]

Yesterday's task was this transit, mot jobs were the snapped spring ,2 prop bearings, trackrod end , wipers and a loose drivers seat.

The prop was a major battle involving making some seperator yokes and some chisles as wedges, 2hr later its off and the rear section fell off of its own accord lol

I welded the hybrid input shaft and checked for run-out, nothing measurable so I count that as a win, also of note the weld quality with extinguisher Co² is fabulous, must be a better quality than pub gas !

 

[Matty]

As always, genuine wow. There literally isn't anything you won't take on !

[Jikovron]

This week so far  a strut swap on a transporter due to one of them leaking oil 

Made a start on some caliper brackets for a brake upgrade 

Track roller replacement on this 

Another bike pickup !

An absolutely rotten Fn2 civic, it looks horrific underneath and it's not like the plastics even held moisture in as they're well ventilated, just almost no paint coverage it looks like! 

Also of note, boron steel isn't really suitable to weld with the change in material properties however I feel in this case the choice is scrap the car or make it at least road worthy 

[Shandylegs]

Looks to be some good quality engineering/mechanical work which seems to be so hard to find these days. Good luck with the venture........

[Jikovron]

The original plan was to machine up the track wheel for new bearings however the new part was only 240 quid so made no sense to try that!

Mk8 transit in for discs and pads all round, the rear axle is a 3/4 floating unit with a disc behind the hub which cannot be rotated and passed over the hub,,,because RUST

The fn2 civic is a generous producer of rust, the bacl axle was absolute toast, rotted right through the spring cups and cracked badly so that's waiting on some bits to come to populate the new axle 

So I miscalculated the gearbox, its a 71mm spacing now 72 like i thought,,,,so i had to bore out and correct the position, and make a press fit cup for the bearing to go back into !

the gearlinkage was a flipping pain to make as the gearbox is the wrong way round and the gearstick is meant to come up above the gearbox, not 18inchs behind it like in the p6 , I ended up using a scrap suspension strut for the linear bearing and a myriad of rose joints/steel plate to build it all up! Only now need to make a seal housing for the inside of the dumper bellhousing to work with the hybrid input shaft then I can fit the bugger!

 

[Jikovron]

The final piece of the puzzle is this seal housing which was fairly quick to make out of 15mm aluminium plate, next up ,,shorten the propshaft by 70mm !

Also unsure what this is ?

[Sigmund Fraud]

13 hours ago, Jikovron said:

Also unsure what this is ?

This is quite tricky ! It looks Korean, so I initially thought it's one of those ZAZ-built Daewoos, but it isn't.

[robt100]

14 hours ago, Jikovron said:

Also unsure what this is ?

90s Dacia perhaps? Looks like it would be an ealier iteration of whatever their family saloon/hatch thing was in the early 2010s (logan?)

[High Jetter]

Daewoo Espwro?

[robt100]

Think it may be the version before this. Roofline/doors/boot seem to match.

[IronStar]

On 28/07/2024 at 10:47, Jikovron said:

The final piece of the puzzle is this seal housing which was fairly quick to make out of 15mm aluminium plate, next up ,,shorten the propshaft by 70mm !

Also unsure what this is ?

Chery Cowin

 

10 hours ago, robt100 said:

Think it may be the version before this. Roofline/doors/boot seem to match.

Dacia Solenza / (Super)Nova looks much better than this, and better than Logan IMO.

[Jikovron]

This became another battle, the mount on the gearbox I had copied meticulously position wise was wrong, the mount actually originally went over the rubber bush not under it so there was a sudden need to reengineer the crossmember significantly rather than just bolt it back on 

I determined the 3500s gearbox to be 83mm longer than the dumper box so the propshaft was shortened accordingly

And obviously the floor plate was never going to fit again without more hassle,,,,done now amd it drives like a dumper, albeit with needless synchromesh now !

[yes oui si]

Can't believe I missed this thread. Fantastic stuff. Best of luck with it, seems like you're getting a steady stream of work already

Would your mill be big enough to redrill a set of 17x7.5 alloys? Overall dimensions being circa 18x8.5".

 

[Jikovron]

This fn2 civic,, oh my shitting hell was it rotten, so after all the tricky chassis rail, mounts and inner arch i poked a tiny bit of the hoot floor and it jist opened up another damn marathon ! So given the sheer amount of work to fabricated it all as new, I ended up have to seam overlapping bits on which I hate but in this case it was necessary to prevent the bill growing to sky high levels !, anyhow its moted and back on the road 

 

[Jikovron]

Thos 1964 minor came in with a randomly dragging clutch, so as the gearbox felt fine and the engine crank float was OK along with a good pedal I took out the gearbox

Not a minor engine and box however, 1.7 ital running gear in this !

Luckily the box was removable without too much messing around, everything was accessible 

The clutch was full of dust , but the missing spring was wedged in the clutch cover so it seemed the logical cause

[Jikovron]

Also got this dolomite sprint in for a clutch fork swap, valve clearances and carb tune

So we swapped the clutch fork, and I noted a missing dowel but as it was running fine with  no vibration issues i left it as is otherwise it.would have been sat in bits for ages

The clearances were all within a few thou of the recomended 18 except o e which was 23, now that one corresopended to a bucket which was rocking wildly in its bore which I feel will have chattered down the end of the valve 

Likely going to be a head swap for this as the inlet clearances can't be done without undoing half the head nuts !

[Jikovron]

This Skoda 130 is interesting in the sense that its a 1 owner from new car and remains in the stewardship of the late lady owners partner , this is an unfortunate story where every garage he's used has been a nightmare charging strong money for absolute dogshit work, fixing the sills with expanding foam and foil tape 😳 and creating a floating rear wheel arch is exasperating, I'm at the end of a frustrating chain so the spotlight is on the work being done which at least means the owner can see just how intensive the process is to structurally repair a car like this especially when reversing alot of work previously done , I'm halfway through the welding roughly, still the drivers sill and rear chassis rails to sort out both sides then hopefully it's a clean pass ahead!

[sierraman]

Nice welding. Find it strangely satisfying looking at good welding jobs. 

[somewhatfoolish]

That's some top notch bodging you're picking your way through, creative use of aerosol expanding foam.

[Jikovron]

On 31/07/2024 at 17:42, yes oui si said:

Can't believe I missed this thread. Fantastic stuff. Best of luck with it, seems like you're getting a steady stream of work already

Would your mill be big enough to redrill a set of 17x7.5 alloys? Overall dimensions being circa 18x8.5".

 

Apologies I missed this somehow, I will have that capacity in the near future as I need an Indexing table really 

[somewhatfoolish]

Do you want mine? It's too big for my mill. Smol ones are always £££, so I rashly bought a large one.