Tales of a new business, trials and endless uphill battles

[cort1977]

11 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

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!

Sounds like a good idea if you're interested. People seem willing to pay a fortune to keep LR products running.

[Jikovron]

Tow bar mounts are now fitted so hopefully with some paint on it the tank and towbar can go back on, let battle commence tomorrow 

[Jikovron]

Tank thrown back in, exhaust on and towbar booped in with  new m16 bolts

The bloody live pin for the lift pump had overheated and melted out of the socket so i removed it and fed some new wire through the hole and connected outside of the tank so it should be sweet now 

Then pulled the iveco back for its welding session

i measured and farted around making the chassis rail off the van and set about blasting it in place 

Just need a 100mm jub clip for the airbox and this one can go on its merry way 

[Jikovron]

I robbed the 3.5 of its carbs to test the 3.9, and yes as suspected its in perfect order, nice clean waterways amd just generally such a sweet engine!

Next up is this, we've done most of the mot work, a spring,bottom arm and on with the rear lights wiring in relays to make them function without dimming etc but the worst aspect about this is the horrible welding done by a bodyshop underneath which has made it difficult to weld this properly 

The new outer sill is barely attached to the rotten inner and floor via sparse and snotty welds 

This was covered over with black sealant, pulling it off has revealed loads of tricky areas to fix

On this side there is some floatimg welds and yet more rot all along the inner sill 

[Jikovron]

Today's work was fairly productive, I picked up this traveller which I think is likely too far gone in terms of welding and wood work issues, I'm still fairly keen to see if it can live again but will have to see regarding the frame costs

ended up with the daft buggy back again !

I painted the office walls lilac, the ceiling grey and the outside in our corporate blue, just need some shitey doors to fit and some cheap architrave 

[Matty]

Brilliant thread this. Have a good Christmas pal and I hope it goes from strength to strength next year 💪 

[Jikovron]

Cheers for the kind words as always

my better half found this in Coventry so we hot footed it down there to claim this relative rarity, a Hunter GT holbay engine, obviously siezed to buggery so we set about stripping it down!

We determined it had been rebuilt in the past with +20 pistons, +20 mains and +30 big ends, the crank will go again with minor work, but the pistons want some carefull removal so that I can reuse them with new rings, fingers crossed !!

[High Jetter]

51 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

Cheers for the kind words as always

my better half found this in Coventry so we hot footed it down there to claim this relative rarity, a Hunter GT holbay engine, obviously siezed to buggery so we set about stripping it down!

We determined it had been rebuilt in the past with +20 pistons, +20 mains and +30 big ends, the crank will go again with minor work, but the pistons want some carefull removal so that I can reuse them with new rings, fingers crossed !!

Rare find?

[Jikovron]

Overside 

So with the pistons siezed into this i left it full of alkaline degreaser, given the split skirt pistons the freeing up was a given really but i aimed to have them out without undue stress to them as being +20 means they will go again, one issue though since removing them is that 1 cylinder is bloody toast with a huge shallow pit of corrosion  so thats never going to work without something like a +60 over bore 

Option A is another block to bore put to +20 

Option B is to find the final Oversize pistons 

Option C the wildcard would be to turn down a liner and bore the block to accept it however the chances are that it would be mega hard to achieve a uniform interference fit 

I got some cheap pine doors and now have moved the daft rear corner tap to the outside have a stub in the kitchen ready to provide water to the sink

[somewhatfoolish]

A usable block shouldn't cost much, you may even be able to scrounge one.

[Jikovron]

Spent today on this as id cleared it out of shit from inside, underneath,around it and ontop, then set it at a nice working angle, the workshop was getting on my nerves due to having a big unit that I couldn't use and loosing everything instantly, so a big sort out has helped immeasurably!

I made up the inner sill castle section and rear box section, repaired the 2 crossmembers and blasted the mega zinc around it

this has been hanging around for ages now, the inner sill, so drilled 150 holes in it and roughed it up as the coating doesnt really stick well otherwise 

glad to have go this far as the saggy shell was just sat miserabley in the way as a kind of crappy impractical shelf 

also this figaro,,,for actual FS its going to be a battle getting this right ....

The floorpan is ribbed in all manner of directions, the rear suspension mount is hiding alot of rot with terrible access so I'm going to have to mess about piecemealing it all back together ,,hate doing it like that but don't want another 4 week marathon with a payment battle 

[captain_70s]

Figaro looks very Acclaim-esque underneath. You have my sympathies! 

[Jikovron]

Finally got the inner sill panel attached so it's hot at least rigidity to the structure now !

then we hot footed it to doncaster for this unit , a viva HB based kitcar !

Powered by a C20NE auto so ive took that out as its not my cup of tea, the axles will go also and ill find a cheap ass donor to repopulate it with suspension and a power plant , just not sure what !

also had an S4 2.7 v6 in for diff mounts and front trackrod ends, I forgot to picture those bits but rubber bonded damped trackrod threads seem abit mental!

[Jikovron]

I trimmed down the c20se loom to something less chaotic by trimming out the useless stuff like the washer motor and engine bay faff but there's a few bits of the injection loom that have been messed about with oddly so I need to find a relevant wiring diagram for bosch motoronic 4.5 to make sense of it to run

Next up this has been in for the exhaust patched up and recently he had bother with the handbrake not releasing properly, I swapped the shoes as they were ruined by the action of driving with the handbrake half on and the OS cable as it wasn't letting the arm return back, of course the cable went behind loads of things which were all held on by rotten snapping bolts, and the exhaust!

Next up I got a wacker plate dropped off with a blown up gx200, easy I thought untill I swapped the engine over and discovered the wacker clutch uses a 20mm shaft rather than a 3/4" one so I had to swap cranks over to the replacement engine!

next up 2x 1.8 BMC diesel engines, i love messing about with proper old mechanical none turbo diesels so getting these to run will be brill, 

Note a cheeky toledo 1300 engine in the mix too 

Next along came a 74 1303 in as a none runner and 20year old tyres so we swapped those and refreshed the ignition as it was on leads from the 70s by the looks of it, carb had blocked partially too so all that restored the running, I'll have to revisit it again as the manifold ices up 

I had to pull the timing cover off the 3.9 for a stuck stud in the block and I bastard cracked the cover with the slide hammer in a threaded boss, so I got it off and a better welder than I got it fixed for not alot 

Sometimes I wonder with tools, mild steel 🤔

i10 wing got swapped so that's now up for sale too 

Finally got the figaro sorted both sides, what a tricky bugger it was and tbf it really won't be a long term car unless it's rust proofed to oblivion 

The unit kitchen is taking a level of shape now but feels like an endless list of shit to buy 

I managed to get a standard bore 1725 so I can get it bored 20 over for the gt build, the bonus is that it has a new oil pump and the crank is decent 

the mini is breaking up well, still got loads of decent bits on it however 

[DVee8]

It's a cracking thread, Somehow I have only just come across it.

It's a shame I'm far away my Daimler could use a check-over.

 

 

[DSdriver]

Its  lot closer than Poland where my DS  went to be sorted 😆

[Jikovron]

 

Minor is away on Saturday going to Halifax hopefully to be fixed up 

Smoking waffles prime bit of berlingo is down for some mot based work, of which a new backbox, wheelbearing and a bulb should see it right 

An Ifor williams trailer needed some studs as the threads had pulled out of the drum so drilled them out to 15.3 and banged in some transit ones

p38 and disco 2 share this stupid rubish where a buggered swivel balljoint boot means a physically demanding strip down for abit of rubber, now as it basically means removal of the hub and half shaft I figured it's daft not to swap the £7 joints!

I made the tool out of impact sockets bored to suite the balljoints and some 40mm steel plate, it was more of a struggle to lift it in place than use it !

 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I believe that red kit car is an 'MC Acer' and is meant to look a bit like a 50s ford special called a 'Turner.

[Jikovron]

On 30/01/2025 at 21:32, Mr_Bo11ox said:

I believe that red kit car is an 'MC Acer' and is meant to look a bit like a 50s ford special called a 'Turner.

I thought midget/alpine styling cues but defo got everything from that era mixed together, I want to fit a v8 or a stinking B series 

[Jikovron]

The figaro has become a ball and chain, so long story condensed, it failed the first Mot back in November due to welding , lights, trackrod ends etc, I welded it to the letter of the mot fail and booked it into the same garage as I prefer to use the same tester, anyhow I phoned up asking to drop it off overnight for a morning slot, they were fine with that, except when I went to pick it up they couldn't find an mot booking for it,,,bloody ell I'd mistakenly booked in somewhere else and I couldn't work out where !

So, it went into another mot place short notice where it failed even worse than it did previously on different things, more welding that I'd missed through not actually looking too hard at the restorers body filler and fibre glass shoddiness and the new rear brakes were said to fail due to not locking up.

the absolute state of that shit, 5x100 flat bar pushed into the inner sill and pigeon shitted in place!!

The chassis rail and all that was sorted with some 1.6mm steel, I hate cars that have been bodged this badly by so called professionals, disgusting 

All sorted but not the best with all the rubbish that remains inside the sills and chassis rails, it should have been either welded properly before painting or weighed in 

In an effort to get the back brakes to bite better , I've had the drums shot blasted to deglaze the inside as it was producing figures but aparently not enough, my feeling is the modern car brakes factor is playing havoc with the testers opinion maybe

 I've had the materials for this hanging about for ages so decided to consolidate it into a useful bench rather than stuff to move around all the time!

Then installed the cable run in some mdpe pipe to power the mezzanine floor 

these seats are rough but will clean up no doubt for the 205 which i hope to mot asap !

 

[captain_70s]

Has the Fig already had sills fitted over top the originals or are they supposed to be double skinned?

[Jikovron]

10 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Has the Fig already had sills fitted over top the originals or are they supposed to be double 

Oversills have been badly tacked on leaving the original rotten one inside, and the floor/inner sill and inner arches were freshened up with filler, fibreglass and black sealant to conceal the work that should have been done before painting the car

[captain_70s]

37 minutes ago, Jikovron said:

Oversills have been badly tacked on leaving the original rotten one inside, and the floor/inner sill and inner arches were freshened up with filler, fibreglass and black sealant to conceal the work that should have been done before painting the car

A classic "professional restoration". 

Gives me the fear, Girlfriend_70's likes Figaros. 😬

[Jikovron]

I dropped this in for the retest and it failed on rear brakes, so I asked about figures and it was doing about 60 kgf on the service brake, similar ish on the handbrake, so when I got back I ragged it down the lane we have to see how it behaved, I could fairly easily lock the wheels on the handbrake, not so much on the footbrake, I'll stick some wheel cylinders and flexis in to see it it will improve matters, I kind of think the tester wasn't pressing the pedal hard enough as everything else they were testing was current upmarket luxury cars 

^^^ this is making me look like an absolute idiot 

[Essex V6]

That Proton is earning its corn!

[Jikovron]

Jobs update:

Focus mk2 and abit steering rack leak from the 'o ring'

I got the specific o ring to fit from ford but it made it worse, a second hand rack likely would be similar and a recon was mad money, so I tapped it for a 1/4 bsp nipple and had the line joined to a cone seat swivel

The figaro passed the mot after abit of research the brake test is just usually testers discretion on pedal application so I tried it out to see what the brakes were doing under proper load 

All locked up so I asked the tester to press on decently to negate the effect of testing modernity 

Cvt oil and filter swap, easy ish task if a smidge messy tbf 

This is in hoping to get it in the workshop ASAP to sort the manifold leak, it's very pronounced on one bank and sounds like either a crack or a blown out gasket, TBC

We had our favourite i10 back, the one which had the suspension mullered by a hack, as the gearbox was leaking to the extent is was running dry on oil, the customer elected to have a different gearbox fitted entirely so I got a decent used one which was dry thankfully, and set to swap it over, no dramas, nice job for a change !

This absolute machine of a cat was a highlight of the week, lovely bugger 

got the chassis rail cut out and hammered into shape, the area it was going onto prepped and it got carefully welded in, the rail was painted internally and will all get the wax blasted in to try and keep it all sweet

none rusty 205 was actually rusty, so this is awaiting welding work and reassembly for an mot

Ultra rotten minor came in, engine immediately sold as it ran well and it got stripped quickly for parts 

^^^^this was not a shame, leaf springs through the floor, sill rotted off the A pillar entirely 

Roof is amazing though, apertures are all perfect, drip rails etc and straight so is available for £100 

Bought a C1 to get an mot on, snapped the clutch cable and so rust at the rear inner sill to deal with

The selector cable had broken out of the bracket and as this was also bracing the bracket against twisting the clutch cable had bent it out of line which had then buggered the cable itself over time.

With the bracket straightened and the cable spot welded back on the clutch was fixed and the gearchange improved in feel, just the welding, a wheelbearing and handbrake to sort out next.

 

[M'coli]

This is an excellent thread, thanks for sharing it.

[motorpunk]

2 hours ago, M'coli said:

This is an excellent thread, thanks for sharing it.

Came here to say the same.

 

OP - where are you? What’s the garage name? Give us an advert 👍🏼

[M'coli]

7 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

Came here to say the same.

 

OP - where are you? What’s the garage name? Give us an advert 👍🏼

A bit of Googling comes up with this:

https://www.rrmotorworks.co.uk/

Derwent Foundry, Whatstandwell, Matlock, Derbyshire, DE4 5HG

[DeanH]

@Jikovron do you know anyone mad enough to weld a fuel tank? Or indeed are you mad enough yourself?