qwakers

good shout, ill look into it.

black is a good shout and i might do that, but im going to let it weather for a bit first, see what it looks like in a few weeks...

that's not painted, they were originally anodised and i cant decide what do do. they've so far just been flap wheeled smooth and then run over with a wire wheel to smooth them off.

see, much better

i would like to show you a example of how NOT to tig weld. in my defence its impossible to clean up the cavity and its less than 1mm thick.... got the job done and it will clean up ok, but pretty it aint!

its a bit nuts here on emissions too. the rules changed last year, on all lorries since 2007 ish the manufacturers plate shows the intended max particulate output WHEN IT WAS NEW! the rules now say IF it has such a spec on the plate, the lorry must be tested to that value, if the plate is missing, the limits are the default of 3.0 m1 .. my lorrys sticker says 0.56 m1, which is nuts. it doesnt even have a dpf! so, my lorry no longer has that sticker. problem solved

the rx8 is now sitting there in the way, but all the work i've planned to do on it is done. i picked up a couple of brand new, in date sabelt 6 point harnesses for £60. for that price i couldn't say no! only issue is, now i need a roll cage so that's on the list for the end of next year. for now, the harness can go back in their box. they also don't need to be in date, so no worries there. i spent part of yesterday fiddling about with stuff on the lorry that should'nt cost me anything. first off was the side guard. the bodgit and scarper repair job i did on it still works, but id like to do a better job, so i got the tig out and tacked it up. i've run out of alu tig rods, so that will have to wait to be finished. then there's the exhaust brake. it is seized solid, no amount of persuasion will move it, add to that the flap has broken from the shaft, and closes every time i put my foot down (no boost leak then :D) i decided to take it off and repair it. problem number 1, the seals in the cylinder have failed. . after lots of oxy acetylene exposure, it still wouldn't budge, so i got it cherry red and dumped it in a bucked of diesel to soak for 30 or so hours... then re applied heat, dunked it again, got it cherry again and stuck a pole through it to try, one last time, to get it to move.. yeah, that ended well.... be needing a new one of those then. off goes a email to the B.O.M boys..... they might not be needing theirs! edit. they replied, they do need theirs. bummer!

all iveco commercials have that feature, its officially a clutch saver, stops gorillas tearing the middle of the clutch out on a hill start. handy though

mot time had to have the tacho calibrated this year too. which means i get to stick my lorry on a dyno all passed no real issues. the emissions, i think i have a boost leak, haven't had a chance to look at that. plus, if i 'deface' the plating cert it defaults to 2.5m2 from 0.56.... the kingpin play goes away if i grease it. the sideguard i just undid the bolt. would have been very annoying to fail the mot for that! especially as it was there last year and he didnt say a word....

nothing you stopping you adding a door swich. simple and cheap.

christ, that takes me back to the 90’s befroe these https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/264/category/53 where fitted to every car as standard.

haha im not that nuts! have being considering getting it mapped though. my new issue was similar to my old issue. i miscalculated when i did the beavertail and ended up cutting too much out, so the angle (of about 5*!) is still too much for the near zero groundclearence my racecar has. this wasn't particularly surprising, and it was always on the cars that this could happen. i got the tape measure out and discovered all my work making the folding sections of the ramp where pointless. there is near zero rampover angle without them, so they have been retired. they have instead been repurposed and now look like this to be honest i always expected to have to do this. the professionals always have the ramp heading uphill to just behind the cab. whilst this was a option, it would have meant 20x the work, and this works fine. these are a 30second removal deal, so when (if) theyre in the way they can easily be pulled out. NOW its finished!

dont worry, im not done yet.... it turns out i have a new (sorta) problem....

yus, cut and rewelded the hinge..

todays job was to unload and sort through this lot... took a while