Tales of a new business, trials and endless uphill battles

[Jikovron]

2 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

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

Yes I'm very interested!

[somewhatfoolish]

It's a cheapnese one, don't be expecting a Hoffman or a Zeiss. I'll see about a picture after dinner.

[Jikovron]

I finished the sills and also rear chassis rails in the end, seam sealed and painted them

Contaminated discs where solved on this skoda rapid with a thorough degrease and scouring 

The garage had been paid to do this work, not actually done it and failed it on the mot for the front brakes barely working,,, anyhow the end result is that it's solid, has a steering rack on it with no play and the brakes pull it up well

These have been a point of contention, i went through 3 before the morris minor would select gears without dragging/screeching, i ended up searching about for a decent Torrington made bearing , worth taking note as I had the gearbox out 3 times!!!

We were commissioned to make this roof rack for a pod camper 8x4foot with integral mountings for a roof tent we added on mesh to the base and spent ages painting the thing satin black 

The minx went on the ramp and the first job was to cut the knackered roof skin off and tidy up the edges plus paint the inner structure ready for the new skin

then merely a case of cutting the structure out of the new roof and fettling it onto the car along with some rust repairs as needed, i left a small amount of the old roof along the gutter rail as I'll weld it to the new skin as there isn't the room in the gutter for puddle welding it on 

We've got some work on to rectify all this rubbish, its had some sheet roughly welded in and there's plenty of sills and valance work to do ahead 

[5speedracer]

Seeing the lack of brake work on that Skoda shows why plenty of people neglect their car for fear of being ripped off sadly.

[Jikovron]

We've got a rangerover p38 in for rear brakes and air suspension work and a hyundai i10 for bodge remediation, and fuck me sideways this one is a cataclysm !

So that's what I took exception to, that somebody was paid to do work like that,,beyond intolerable , but it didnt end there!

That was fairly obvious and done lazily because the cv was stuck to the driveshaft with a bound up circlip

So I cut it off, mainly because the abs ring fell to bits

Other than that I found the brake caliper carrier was left loose and the gearbox hadn't been filled back up with oil ,,beware everyone I'm seeing shit like this alot.

[2flags]

Some of those bodges I haven't seen since the 70's. When I was at college, we were told of chassis members and sills being filled with concrete!

[tooSavvy]

6 minutes ago, 2flags said:

Some of those bodges I haven't seen since the 70's. When I was at college, we were told of chassis members and sills being filled with concrete!

... though, to be fair, Skoda rally prep did REALLY shove a beam of wood through the sills!!! 🤣

🚙💨

[Jikovron]

Hyundai i10 part 2 , the heater matrix 

So on these the heater matrix could in theory just come out no bother at all by removal of one panel and it slides out,,,NO the fragile as hell pipes snake through the middle of the heaterbox between it and the blower housing which can't be separated as there's screws behind it against the bulkhead

So :

Steering column, dashboard,all the wiring loom and the heater box itself have to come out, and at the last minute we discovered it had a AC connection at the bulkhead FUCK!!!!! All was not lost as it was discovered via the fill valve that it was empty anyway so could be disconnected !

New matrix in and loads of messing about later replenishing missing fasteners and we have a heater and the LH suspension is no long dangerous !

[IronStar]

At this point I’m almost sure that most of the new-ish cars start their way down the production line by mounting heater matrix and aircon directional flaps, then assemble the rest of the car around them. 

[Sheefag]

I've just read the last four pages and I'm left with a burning question...

Have you no fear?!!?

[2flags]

5 hours ago, Jikovron said:

Hyundai i10 part 2 , the heater matrix 

So on these the heater matrix could in theory just come out no bother at all by removal of one panel and it slides out,,,NO the fragile as hell pipes snake through the middle of the heaterbox between it and the blower housing which can't be separated as there's screws behind it against the bulkhead

So :

Steering column, dashboard,all the wiring loom and the heater box itself have to come out, and at the last minute we discovered it had a AC connection at the bulkhead FUCK!!!!! All was not lost as it was discovered via the fill valve that it was empty anyway so could be disconnected !

New matrix in and loads of messing about later replenishing missing fasteners and we have a heater and the LH suspension is no long dangerous !

Yes madam, we have found the annoying rattle. It was the marble that your son pushed into the heater vent! 🤣🤣

[Jikovron]

We stripped the diahatsu of usefull bits and the rest went over the bridge, 680kg it was without the engine and filled with some scrap 

then we brough the mini down to the unit which we need to get gone as i just cant he bothered with it tbf, the vanos has a problem 🤔 

And we picked up a 207 tu petrol with 40k miles on it, that had been stood for 4 years, with a jump it started perfectly and the handbrake released zero bother !

these airbags on P38s are not my idea of fun, the owner wants them individualized and sealed, so i battled on with re seating them and bags blowing off etc ,,,but won that war as they stay up now 

There's an easy job, a drag link swap

There's a horror job, swivel balljoints and shaft seals 

also had a quashqai in for rear brakes, handbrake and cv boot, luckily the cv popped off the shaft as it seemed bloody tight initially 

were rushing to get the dolomite on the road so my sister has wheels again, then the ital next as my daily, as noted the chassis rail has rotted , then been jacked up on!

This car is flipping excellent for a dolomite, apart from the need for welding nothing is bodged up or been messed with, its been kept perfectly well before its stint outside sat for years after the owner died 

Also got to resurect this 73 3500auto engine, it was siezed but I've managed to free it and should see it running moderately soon, this engine also has never been pissed about with, the heads came off for the first time and it's still on original bores , number 7 is abit rough but won't be a problem by the looks of it 

[Jikovron]

Mondeo 2.2 in for an exhaust repair upon  old repair that had cracked, we took the entire system off as it was way easier, sorted and now motable!

We pulled in this i10 with a buggered chain to fix and resell on, the parts for these are noticeably expensive so unsure if it will get another engine instead 

The 40k miles 207 got a set of matching winters on it, a new battery and a wheel cylinder, will probably do the cambelt and get it up for sale asap too 

A lad came in wanting some hubs stripped to the barebones so I commenced battle with those as the bearing circlips were well and truly siezed in !

double motorbike pickup achieved for the lad a few units down 

And finally a cheeky k10 came up locally so had to have a look, so its a deceased estate last on the road in 2017, I fitted a decent battery and it started straight up on its ancient half tank of petrol ! Just wants a abit of light welding and recommissioned for the road, only 33k on this little unit !

[motorpunk]

Great to see you doing such good things. Good luck! 😎

[Jikovron]

The 80s corner partially assembled

A stuck headbolt in the i10 caused mayhem, the engine is now out in its entirely because its just a twat, the chain was haanging limp and a leak down determined all the valves to be leaking however it wasn't due to bent valves so we lapped them back in to clean the seats such that we at least had a good cylinder head.

So the maths as I see it 

Second hand engine £475-850

Parts to fix the current one between £100 and £450 depending on the carnage level 

Using said maths above I opted to get the snapped m9 bolt out bearing in mind it was 20mm down the hole and had 30mm of siezed thread engagement , I drilled into the side of the block to get oil into the thread, welded nubs onto the bolt till it protruded enough stalagmite style for a nut welded on, then heated the area with oxy propane 

Using the snapped bolt could work out thread engagement easily enough 

Fucking victory ✌️ achieved after a fair battle, so now knowing the headand bottom end is good we can go ahead and buy the timing chain and head set !

Summary Kappa engines are basically  Korean Mini r56 prince engines.

[DeanH]

Impressive. I'd have scrapped it!

[tooSavvy]

WebbieLore *dictates Getz cam chain will be 'stretched' by 2nd rubber belt! 😮

BEYOND Excellent, sir 👍

🚙💨

[Dyslexic Viking]

I have some experience with 1 gen Yaris and on those the chain fails with lack of maintenance and I'm guessing it's the same on these.

[Jikovron]

I filled the v8 with oil which mostly came out the bottom, so slide hammer pulled the base flat and welded on a patch, then gave it some blats where the weld hadn't quite sealed 

My sister has excellent skill in the field of valve collets, fitting them and also finding ones that have pinged away.

This is from the last garage that was here, either wants to go into a waste oil heater or be gone!

[MrBig]

Great stuff. Will make a note of your details for when I inevitably fuck something up royally in the future!

[Jikovron]

After a morning swapping a mini cooper strut out on site i came back and did abit more on the dolomite, inner sill, floor and outer are basically done, just need to make a chassis rail and tie it all in, then once I got jaded with that we headed out on a collection mission, this time a garlic baguette tin box on penny wheels,,,,the 205 1.8d !

I've no idea about it's history except it runs great and has no locks at all so need at least those repatriated and a battery 

Really need to get some cars on the road, we now have loads of them 🤔 but at least they all run and drive !

[Jikovron]

I pressed on  a smidge with this but got interrupted by the arrival of vehicles for welding so I had to stick it back together an move it outside 

A nice unmolested discovery 2 came in first with rear chassis rot so ive took the liberty of dropping the fuel tank and cutting 2 decent chunks off the chassis, they're clearly designed to fail, 1.8mm chassis pressing halfs with some 4mm angle iron spot welded into the corners and to finish them off, basically bare steel inside, I'll sort it out with some 3mm sheet and repatriate the tie down hooks and towbar mounts

this ole unit is now a runner after all that messing about, worth it for the open pipe noises 

also this stinker! A 1200cc B series the weird genesis of both A and B units to my mind it's a B series head on a strange A series bottom end, could love to see what bits were carried over  , runs so smoothly despite being sat for years  and hopefully sold shortly .

 

 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Jikovron said:

A 1200cc B series

WTF is that from? Narrowboat?

[Jikovron]

38 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

WTF is that from? Narrowboat?

Austin a40 Somerset, Devon ect before the A and B properly got under way, 65 x 89mm bore and stroke! 

[High Jetter]

2 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

Austin a40 Somerset, Devon ect before the A and B properly got under way, 65 x 89mm bore and stroke! 

Before my time! 😃

[Jikovron]

So the i10 was a reluctant patient to say the least, the engine ran great but it leaked from the thermostat housing, now on these it's a plastic housing with a steel pipe jammed in the back and my thinking is that the movement of the pipe through heat cycles cracks the plastic housing as I've noted a few failures , now you'd think that this would be a nice easy service part to swap out however it's vastly shitty job involving removal of the top rad hose , inlet manifold and starter motor as those parts all box it in place, also as discovered the uprated alloy version has a differently angled radiator hose connection but your forced to use it because the original wouldn't fit due to a small but disastrous stud spacing change,,,,fuck sake anyway the bstard is done I hope.

I welded on the first half of the chassis, I'm going to semi replicate the design with a stepped middle so I can joint to the existing chassis without stepping, it's taking forever currently because its bloody 3mm sheet and it welds slow and cuts similarly slowly 🐌 

hoping to get this welded quick too as its right im the way !!

[DodgeRover]

You can you buy a rear half chassis for the disco 2....

[Jikovron]

On 12/12/2024 at 19:47, DodgeRover said:

You can you buy a rear half chassis for the disco 2....

For £850 odd? We discounted it for the moment as the repair should see it good for a few years at least for a few hundred quid

[Jikovron]

only got the towbar mounts left to add but ive ran out of CO2 fire extinguishers so I'm buying a proper bottle tomorrow 

[DodgeRover]

2 hours ago, Jikovron said:

For £850 odd? We discounted it for the moment as the repair should see it good for a few years at least for a few hundred quid

Ah, that is a bit more than I was expecting! I suspect if you made templates.you could probably get repair sections plasma cut ready for fitment that you could keep in stock, I expect once word spreads amongst the Disco community that you aren't afraid to tackle them there will be a steady amount making their way to your door!