Tales of a new business, trials and endless uphill battles

[M'coli]

1 hour ago, DeanH said:

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

Didn't @Mr_Bo11ox do that on his Fiat 132/Argenta?

[cobblers]

It's just metal, it doesn't turn flammable because it's had fuel in it. I wouldn't hesitate to weld a fuel tank, I'd just make sure there was no fuel in it.

[DeanH]

27 minutes ago, cobblers said:

It's just metal, it doesn't turn flammable because it's had fuel in it. I wouldn't hesitate to weld a fuel tank, I'd just make sure there was no fuel in it.

Whilst I agree, I can't weld to a good standard so it's not something I can do myself. And people seem reluctant...

[M'coli]

IIRC the tank was purged by connecting it to an exhaust pipe and the engine was run until the tank was hot.

[Jikovron]

Thankyou.for the kind words, it's quite a pummelling experience keeping a business like this intact and forward marching but it's a positive thing to keep concentrating on moving forward

6 hours ago, DeanH said:

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

Yes I can weld a fuel tank by filling it full of water/co2 etc

[vaughant]

Absolutely loving this thread but having run my own small business, not nearly as skillfully or successfully as you are, I know how it takes up so much of your time/life. 

A thread update would be a great Xmas present for the forum 😜😜😜😜.

[robt100]

I can confirm he still exists, picked up my Jaaag from him the other week. Which I'm sure he will be happy about as it was a nightmare 🙈
So if anyone near Matlock wants to take pity and give him some easy jobs like starter motors and cambelts, feel free to do so😅

[Jikovron]

I haIt been ages since i updated this, blimey ill catch up in time!

The 107 i bought got a good weldathon 

Then i had a great older couple enquire if i did mot work etc on old cars given other garages had loads of bother with their ancient 03 rover 75, so i serviced it, swapped over a knackered suspension arm bush and welded the sill, they were so overjoyed that months forward i still get calls just checking in to see if im ok and whatnot!

the paint match was abit off but the main thing is that months later theres not a jot of rust through so mega happy about that

 

[Jikovron]

My 1500hl got pushed on a little bit welding wise then basically pushed to one side for the last 7months or so as everythong else took precedence 

Good riddance to this inkjet printer on wheels, sold most of it in bits and for some reason its like interest in these is dead completely as we can shift the last few parts at all 

This project is a half ton forklift i started ages ago so ive got a manual fork mast and ill convert that to run from a power steering pump and build a vehicle around this shortened minor axle , the idea is to have something really compact that can lift engines about and push cars etc but not be practically the size of a mini or whatever in the way all the time

[Matty]

I wish you were closer. Really hard these days to find anyone to take on stuff half as hard as you do. More power to your elbow kid 👍

[High Jetter]

Mad, but brilliant. More soon, please 

[robt100]

2 hours ago, Matty said:

I wish you were closer. Really hard these days to find anyone to take on stuff half as hard as you do. More power to your elbow kid 👍

tis a mere 90mins away, childs play that 😉

[auntiemaryscanary]

Good work @Jikovron. I'll be contacting you in the new year about the possibility of you doing some work on my Doblo.

[comfortablynumb]

Likewise, between me & the boys we've got some stuff that would probably make the trip worthwhile 😁

[Matty]

6 hours ago, robt100 said:

tis a mere 90mins away, childs play that 😉

Only if the machine in question currently functions 🤣

[Floatylight]

Just caught up on this amazing thread. Will contact after Christmas to see about booking our transit in for chassis rails to be sorted.

 

[Mally]

11 hours ago, Matty said:

I wish you were closer. Really hard these days to find anyone to take on stuff half as hard as you do. More power to your elbow kid 👍

Hes been in my garage, on his way back from Wales? or somewhere,

Its a mere cock stride. 

[robt100]

Another bonus is just 1 and a half miles away along the same road is the Great British Car Journey motor museum. So drop the car off in the morning, go round the museum for the day, drive it back later 😉

[busmansholiday]

On 29/12/2024 at 22:42, 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 !!

I had a Rapier and a Hunter back in the late 70's, early 80's with the twin 40 Webber's . If that's got the hollow push rods with pressed on cam followers and rocker buckets (rather than the one piece cast ones), before you put it back together it might be worth center punching these onto the tube as it stops the 'ticking' noise that takes effing ages to track down. Ask me how I know.

Fabulous thread, all the best for the future.

[Jikovron]

I had this transit in before for a clutch and as such it had gone again 2years later, with this being a smf conversion the disc and cover plate is not available on its own but nevertheless this time i elected to drop the subframe rather than take out the rack, i remember that job being so grotesque i still feel the pain months forward simply because the bolt was siezed in the suspension arm bush crush tube, the subframe crush tube and the captive nut in the chassis, i split open a 22mm socket, then snapped the head off, then had to cut the chassis wide open and alternate between drilling and pressimg the remains of the 160mm long m14 bolt out,,the bastard 

A third minor came along and was promtly stripped for parts which almost everything from it went quickly 

A disco 2 came along for swivel joints, and as typical the design of the castings are the same but different to the P38 so i had to modify the profile of the mandrels further, also of note the wheelbearing was shot so i got a britpart one which warned of abs faults if i didnt recant some sort of spell, sacrifice something or other wiring wise, so i pulled the sensor from the old hub and just fitted it in the britpart one which worked no bother!

On 14/12/2025 at 18:56, busmansholiday said:

I had a Rapier and a Hunter back in the late 70's, early 80's with the twin 40 Webber's . If that's got the hollow push rods with pressed on cam followers and rocker buckets (rather than the one piece cast ones), before you put it back together it might be worth center punching these onto the tube as it stops the 'ticking' noise that takes effing ages to track down. Ask me how I know.

Fabulous thread, all the best for the future.

That is apreciated info !

[vaughant]

Cheers for the update and as always awesome work, some great machining skills as well, unreal in fact.

[cort1977]

Thanks for the update, a brilliant thread. Such a nice story about the old couple and their Rover no one else would help with.

[Jikovron]

Next up @robt100 jag arrived way back in april which a smallish list, this car showed up the weakness of my business layout in the sense that i bought loads of cars and stocked up on the wrong stock of parts such that the place is heaving, and in the midst of that i was just saying yes no bother to literally all jobs regardless so this car was a hungry wildly aggitated jaguar amongst tepid guinea pigs

 Exhaust leak and brakes bled, all sweet so far 

A mk2 mx5 sill required some basic repair work as they all seem to then a boxter wanted some bottom arms changing and of course theyre alloy which meant no hammers allowed

Then back to the jag which wanted a drivebelt fitted, unfortunately the thing is buried in a vault of awkwardness so in typical form i tried to get the belt offby struggling around all the crapola in the way once this scene was determined to be beyond sensible hope i took some bits off to find the next conundrum, the belt is captive behind the tensioner so that has to come off

Theres the bastard there with its 13mm way undersize bolt head and being steel on alloy the friction was almost like bonded fusion 

So it got cut off and removed for a replacement m10 bolt of sensible design go hold the fort

Then we bought this 71 2000 to replace the proton as a tow vehicle however its taken so long to get it to run right that the replacement process is on going, so far its had the head off, clearances done twice, valves seats messed about with, temporary fuel lines and tanks fitted,the carb looked at multiple times  exhaust fettled many many times and alot things that didnt work, vibrated and clonked sorted out which will become more apparent as i catch the thread back up, the current verdict of the p6 is that the steering box and the unrewarding when revved 4 cylinder engine is abit of a let down for otherwise a brilliant car, ive loved everything else about it, particularly the ride and broken surface cornering

[comfortablynumb]

That rover is great, be a brilliant advert for your business!

"You know, that bloke with the Rover P6...."👍

[robt100]

Glad to see the P6 is running again, rather than us juggling buckets of fuel underneath the car 🤣 Looking forward to hearing how you fixed it.

[Jikovron]

Then i bought a stinker of a 2.25 diesel engine

I failed to get this to run, compression was gone in cyl 2 and 3, and the fuel pump did nothing even after a good force bleed so i sold it straight away for a small profit

The old 4 door was weighed in and as usual for hindsight i didnt get enough off it now ive got a 4 door wanting fiddly bits

we then went to shrewsbury for this 2 door which despite apearances managed to run with abit of carefull fettling, it even had a rorty induction to it !

Moved this awkwardly small trident wheel piaggio for a pal, will end up being a mobile pizza oven no doubt eventually

[Jikovron]

This is about May so the start of summer, i made some basic start on welding the k10 , the sill wanted doing but the wing was annoying me way more so i made a template and bashed some metal roughly correct for it , the wheels got blasted and primed ready for some new uniroyals, ive since worm  out the fronts completely and worn the subsequent tyres out

A Pals skoda came in for a conversion to semi trailing suspension, a 5 speed gearbox which was abit like when a bag of pasta is unexpectly ripped open and all the esoteric minutea spills out into  every step , powder coating on faces that need friction/tolerances, missing narrow form washers, silent blocks squashed into forms that needed matched to position, a gearbox that had thicker webs so the K series adapter plate bolts all needed changing and heads clearanced for, floor needing a special extra plate to clear the 5 speed nose cone and on and on it went 

old swing axle and 4 speed coming out

Then after that the jag of many challenges went for an mot but choose that moment to rain coolant all over the ramp , the hoses had all taken on a charcoal like feel so after a short wait the pipes tipped up and 25% of the engine bay was evicted to get at the 'valley pipe' amongst the other 12 or so

This felt like difficulty was deigned into this by way of everything being massovely in everything elses way 

[robt100]

2 hours ago, Jikovron said:

 

This felt like difficulty was deigned into this by way of everything being massovely in everything elses way 

Fancy talking me through how to get that bumper off.....
...guess what I need to remove to change the bulbs, fix the earths, and the new bonnet release cable 😭

 

[Jikovron]

Prepare for alot of WTFs , alot of the 'captive' nuts siezed horribly so there is alot of bits where cable ties have substituted gaping holes left by spun out nuts, basically the top cover and grill come out via those plasic pop rivet things and snap apart clips, then there are some intact fasteners in the front arch to undo, cable ties might be able to be left in place at the bottom if only releasing the bumper top edge abit  , the joint at the wing requires a level of what feels like inapropriate violence to pull out from the snap clamp , then the headlights have a push down button to release the rest of the bumper hopefully to reveal whats required

[robt100]

Thanks @Jikovron will give it a go. Then I need to work out how to get out the headlight unit, hoping thats some simple bolts that arent seized🙈