miketomcat

We need pictures or it didn't happen. Mike

I've also had the other end punch through to. Mike

All I'll say is read this. a perfect example of why you have a standard truck or standard parts on it for overlanding. Currently my ibex has just water in it and a temporary bolt in the inlet manifold......nuff said. Mike

I've had it twice I've also had the pin shear off to. Mike

This can happen to. Mike

I did notice straight away and was going to comment....until I realised I'm very late to the party. Mike

I would be very careful removing the bulkhead from a body already off a chassis as it will have very little structural integrity. Mike

It is for sale in the us Just to give this some perspective $475k doesn't buy you much more than a 60 foot yacht second hand and that will cost you another $20k in mooring fees and essential maintenance each year. Before you go anywhere and put fuel in it. Suddenly it doesn't look so bad . However it does still look like a grey fire engine . Mike

I was only making the point that you've already allowed for with your lowered bump stops.

No but they could split and move aside......just saying. Mike

Like anderzander says clear boundary's mine was change the chassis, C pillars and front section of the rear floor. In the quickest time possible I had all the parts ready to go and ignored anything that wasn't safety critical or I'd be stupid not to. As for bushes if you have a press go gen if not polybush or superpro don't buy cheap bushes! Mike

As retro quite rightly points out taking it apart will allow you to do it properly and fix any little niggles. I had two weeks to do ours as it's my wife's daily. The evenings of the first week I let everything go. Fridge came to help me with the lift and swap over a bank holiday weekend. By Sunday night the engine, axles were swapped and bolted down and the body was back on. The evenings of the second week I lined the body up and shimmed were required. Sorted wiring etc and got it running. Once it was all sat correctly I removed the rear second row floor replaced the C pillars and part of the sill. Then fitted a replacement under seat panel. I had limited time and a very limited budget, the bulkhead could do with replacing or quite a lot of welding now but left that at the time. I did mine in spring 2020 outside between full lock downs so there wasn't a lot else to do at the time. Mike

Yes I did lift the body off in one on my front garden. I did a chassis swap with the help of fridgefreezer over a long weekend then spent the following week welding up sills and C posts, plus all the bolts not done when we dumped the body back on the new chassis. I lifted it using and engine crane through the back door picking up on the rear seat belt mounts and two hi lifts either side of the bulkhead. Mike

On that occasion yes I was, I had plenty where I wasn't so lucky however I had bungs in the floor pan to assist drainage. Interestingly on several occasions I had water over the bonnet but due to the trough behind the bow wave I didn't get wet. The freestyle on the other hand got very wet and cold regularly, but I used to drive it wearing a one piece waterproof insulated bike suit and crash helmet. But it was lovely in this weather. Mike

Are you referring to this one: Or This one. Both were daily drivers (with a girlfriend living 30+ miles away) for several years and they were both my only car at the time. Mike

And valves. It doesn't need much water to hydraulic so there shouldn't be much in there. If you also turn it back the wrong way the valve is open befor tdc. A combination of all three cleared enough to get it to start which was all I needed. The push rods were fine. Mike

The wife is better at taking pictures than me. Mike

I quite like that, be interested to see one finished. Mike

I would dearly love to meet and spend some time with a fair few on here but unfortunately life always seems to get in the way. Mike

I think I had less go wrong on Ladoga. Mike

It won't be this year. Fuel prices made a significant impact on this trip. We are also re-thinking our camping arrangements. The tipi and caranex worked fantastically well, the stood up to the wind very well. The downside is the tipi is designed for cold weather and when the sun did come out it became quite warm, don't get me wrong it has very good ventilation and it wasn't any worse than any other tent. The caranex and trailer worked really well for storage and toilet tent. However on a normal campsite you would get charged for two tents and it took far to long to set up (2hrs) and pack away (3hrs) especially when you need to do it in a hurry to catch a ferry that didn't run. Again it could be simplified with less kit and a bigger trailer. Mike

Not from a cost point of view and I'm short on time. I have considered this. Anyway as I have a caravan thread probably should get back on topic. Mike

I keep meaning to but going up it's normally the small hours when we pass your direction. As for coming back this time well we're a day later than planned and I've got work in the morning.... That not going to go well is it. 😴

Wednesday I stripped the head off to make sure it was only the head gasket. Thursday parts arrive so I put it all back together and get it running again. Not bad for field mechanics really. We spent a few days enjoying the beaches and living off grid completely in our tipi with wood burner for cooking on. Now because our holidays are never dull and we purposely intended to do very little this year. Someone had other ideas.... We end up stubbling across an RTC which left a pick up on its roof in a ditch. It happened moments before we arrived and we were first on the scene. Suffice to say no one was injured, we checked on everyone then directed traffic till the police arrived. (We met the couple in the pick later in the week and they confirmed they'd got off very lightly with just bruises and stiffness). Obviously with a holiday going this well getting home wasn't going to be boring. We learned there was a problem with the ferry and it had been taken out of service. But that's alright because they're putting on a replacement boat on the Friday we're due to leave. Trouble is there's three days worth of cars trying to get home and we now find out they are only running one trip. We get packed up the night before we planned and crashed on the mother-in-laws floor so we can get down to the port to see what can be done. We end up in the stand by lane with little chance of leaving the islands that day. We didn't get on and are told to leave the truck in the stand by lane but with even less chance of getting on the next day. Long story short we finally manage to get booked on a ferry from Stornoway late Saturday night. The up side is I'd always wanted to see Lewis and Harris. However it ment a 5am start to get the ferry across to Harris. The ullapool boat didn't get in till 2am Sunday morning and we've just driven around 700 miles in 14.5hrs back to Southampton after precious little sleep in the preceding 48 hrs. I'm home now knackered and ready for bed but I doubt we'll forget this trip in a hurry. Mike P.S. I know want to go back and do Lewis and Harris properly.......

My mother-in-law lives on the outer Hebrides, North Uist to be precise. Obviously with COVID etc we haven't seen her in a while. At Christmas plans were made to go up there this summer holidays, the ferry got booked along with time off work. All loaded up ready to go, I'll just check the water.....hmm that's suspiciously low. Well nothing for it top it up and keep an eye on it. We fill up on Skye and as we pull away there's a load of white smoke....well that answers where the water went and it also explains the lock up whilst doing the stem seals a couple of weeks ago. The head gasket has blown I'm sure of it. Well can't do anything about it now, must get to the ferry and I'll order one to be delivered to mother-in-laws. We made it across on the ferry but not without it hydraulicing on start up (needed to rotate it buy hand to clear it and then start it quick) then getting a bit warm on the other side due to water lose. We made it to mother-in-laws field to set up camp in the rain. The first week was mostly spent walking the beaches whilst waiting for the head gasket set and bolt to turn up. Nice spot.