New Series - RR Heavy

[Snagger]

14 hours ago, Shackleton said:

I'm going to pretend you didn't call the thing I put a huge effort into a gimmick   In it's defence the reason I chose to do time lapse [knowing it would add considerably to my workload] was because it's the best way to show full detail with no obstructions or distractions. Because I'm coming at everything as a novice I could see how someone who already knows all the work depicted would find it a gimmick or tedious, but many others don't and many consider it my USP. 

 

Hah!  At least you get the context it was meant in and didn't take offence - I can imagine the extra effort not just n editing, but in aligning and setting the parts, walking back and forth to take the photos time and time again.  I know what you mean about seeing things come apart without visual obstruction,  so maybe limiting its use to the small components or those in tight spaces where viewing is restricted would work, keeping a tie in to the established aesthetic, while the bigger, more visible stuff can be filmed normally, allowing you to get more done in the workshop and allow you more workshop time outright?  Should save some pennies on workshop rent, too, while allowing even more content/progress in each episode...  Just a thought.  As I said, though, I think the format and content are very good, striking a good balance between the different vehicles, interviews and wider interest.

[Anderzander]

I love the stop motion stuff ! And it is a USP ... 

[Bowie69]

I enjoy it too, more so when it has a purpose.

[Daan]

21 hours ago, Shackleton said:

I'm going to pretend you didn't call the thing I put a huge effort into a gimmick   In it's defence the reason I chose to do time lapse [knowing it would add considerably to my workload] was because it's the best way to show full detail with no obstructions or distractions. Because I'm coming at everything as a novice I could see how someone who already knows all the work depicted would find it a gimmick or tedious, but many others don't and many consider it my USP. 

Anyway that's a tangent - I meant to say that I was thinking of putting links in the description of the episodes that take you directly to each section. If I'm a realist not everyone watches all the way through and it may/may not be harm to have those links present.

the brain cell engagement thing makes me very happy mate, if only I were smarter I could force you to engage more of them 

I'd pull it off and do that mate, thanks a million. Ordinary high temp grease, or moly or copper what's best? [I only have those three]

I have to agree with the brain cell engagement, however, I tend to live in some kind of fast forward life where in between arrival from work, have dinner, take the kids to bath and bed, walk the dog, get my shirt ironed for the next day, make lunch for the next day, hopefully watch a bit of BBC news (which I record so I can fast forward the boring bits), I might have 10 minutes on Lr4x4 (i am a moderator after all). On a good day, There might be an instalment of your most excellent SOUP series. I suppose you have a feeling where this is going now....

One thing you could do as well, without compromising on content is to do more episodes with fewer topics. That would make it a more regular thing and more achievable to follow for many people. Definitely share it to death on Facebook, but I think I already mentioned that.

Regards, Daan

[Shackleton]

On 05/05/2018 at 10:52 AM, Snagger said:

...maybe limiting its use to the small components or those in tight spaces where viewing is restricted would work... allowing you to get more done in the workshop and allow you more workshop time outright?  

This has happened out of necessity, I've actively started cutting out large parts of the processes - some thing when some piece of work has to be repeated more than once for instance.

On 05/05/2018 at 5:11 PM, Bowie69 said:

I enjoy it too, more so when it has a purpose.

It's a fine balance I'm always trying to strike. The other piece of the picture is the time part of the time lapse. Watching someone doing DIY is frustrating if their hand or a tool is partially in the way, but it's also a let down when someone says "now I'm going to..." and then there's a cut and it's done. You get no sense of what it took to do it.

On 05/05/2018 at 6:15 PM, Daan said:

I tend to live in some kind of fast forward life where in between arrival from work... get my shirt ironed for the next day,

If it helps mate I'll do a lapse of some shirts being ironed  When I was nine to fiving I used to do my weeks shirts in a half hour on a Sat morn or Sunday.

Have to say I'm happy with a fortnightly instalments, no it's not easy but to shoot for more regular instalments would totally change the format, and it'd still make it more pressured. I've thought of splitting the interviews into their own stand alone videos but that's a completely different series and not what I intended. I think the DIY work pulls people into listening to people they wouldn't normally get to hear, or bother to listen to, and the interviews do the same [probably to a lesser extent] for the DIY. 

Have to say gent's it's a really interesting and insightful conversation. There's a depth of understanding here for the processes I go through. I've made a fairly big commitment in the last few weeks by bringing the two cars home to work in the open. No unit and no roof over my head but a small saving in both time and money. It was causing me some anxiousness but after the last few days I've a growing excitement for the newfound energy it's given me.

[miketomcat]

Have a look at party tents and marques they can be picked up cheap and give good work space now the weather is warmer. Even one that only covers one car could work.

Mike

[Bowie69]

If your feeling flash, ex army frame tents can be a longer term solution, though lighting it may be tricky, being drab

[Snagger]

Working outside on them?  That's bold with Irish weather, even in summer!  Could be worse - you could be dealing with Scottish weather!

I was able to work on all the sub-assemblies in a small garage and do the main assembly outdoors.  It does slow things down, and winter is a chore, but it is manageable.  The gazeebo suggestion is a good one, and some are very cheap.  A few sand bags would hold it down in windy conditions, but you'd still have to take it down for really bad winds, which would leave the innards of the cars very exposed.  You'll obviously need some tarpaulins and straps for those occasions.

[landroversforever]

Afraid I've not yet got round to watching your videos, but does sound right up my street. The techy details and what it takes effort-wise are what I love about the Roadkill/Engine Masters etc videos.

Reading above, you mention the time taken for the time lapse bits... are you shooting as individual pictures and then editing into a video? When I filmed the machining of my Mercedes adaptor, I used the time lapse fuction of the go-pro. Going that way might speed up the time. You can always then go back and delete the frames where you're in the way for example.

[Blanco]

Just realised my notifications don't seem to be working,..... just watched three in a row !!

[Shackleton]

Yep YT I feel are playing games. First there was a 'glitch' which meant notifications didn't go out for a few episodes and now they've changed the setting yet again so that it's not enough anymore that you've subscribed AND clicked the bell to select 'all notifications', now you have to click it a second time to make it 'ring'. It's hard to swallow. 

Anyway here's the latest, the RR is in reassembly!

 

[miketomcat]

Thats where faceache etc will come in as many will get the notification through them then go find it.

Mike

[Snagger]

I got the notification, but I only set up an account within the last few months, so perhaps the default settings were different.

Nice to see more good progress, even if things did go a bit awry with the Cortina and the sparks.  As for spreading yourself thin, the thought occurred when you showed the three projects in the first episode and it seemed a bit mad to me buying another old car as a runabout that seemed likely to become another project, but it all depends on your own available time and resources.  Two projects is more than enough for me, so I admire your boldness!

[Shackleton]

I didn't actually buy the Cortina, I made a trade with the owner for the use of it against the work done, and I did it to save what little money I had. In fact the money I was going to buy the car with before the deal, went straight to an expensive car camera mount system instead to keep the production quality on the up and up 😉

[Anderzander]

George - what frame rate do you use on your stop motion?

I’m about to rebuild a small motorcycle engine and am tempted to give it a go...

[Shackleton]

There's no constant fps formula for this kind of stuff, there are multiple factors that effect how many frames you take - like whether you have to move much to get out of frame, what the particular thing your animating is, how long it will take to achieve the work on that item, how important that work/thing is to the overall theme [as in how much screen time you actually want to give it]. I trigger each frame manually because setting an intervalometer to trigger the camera at a given duration between frames is counter productive. It'll either be too long a duration and you'll tire of waiting or something unexpected will happen and you'll be caught in the shot. 

Does that help?

[Anderzander]

I think so 😊

[daveturnbull]

George - just watched your latest CSI episode. I too have found that not rushing when you work is the No.1 top tip on how to prevent injury. That, and always wearing gloves. Chances are if your finger only needs a stitch or two, it would just be glued back together after the obligatory 4 hour wait it A&E. You can get medical superglue (**NOT loctite**) and do it yourself.

Anyway, welding. Watching your series, and the quality of welds that you were quite happy to show off is a large part of what spurred me on to get myself a MIG and have a go. And I had a lot of fab work coming up on my project and didn't want to keep pestering friends to do it for me. In 6 months on the few pieces I've done I can now manage a reasonable looking weld, and they seem to be nice and strong too.

From how you talk about what you are doing, I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of the technique required, but your welder is seriously letting down the end results. I went for a gas MIG, only a second hand Clarke one. I forget the model number but it's top end of the hobby range they do. It only cost me £100 so wasn't scary expensive. With very little technique it seems to lay down a decent looking weld, so I'm sure you could manage something that looks quite good.

Your comment about the smoke from the welder forming on work piece and blocking the path to earth - I get that too, but only when I finish a run. I find just a quick wipe with the glove clears it enough to get a connection again and the heat from the weld seems to burn it away allowing me to continue with no problems.

My point? Get searching for a decent 2nd hand gas MIG and make the investment. I know you are on a budget, but it's sooooo much more satisfying to be able to run a clean looking bead, rather than something that looks like it came out of a pigeon. You'll do less grinding afterwards too so it will save you money on discs :-)

[Snagger]

I think Dave is right.  You have learned a lot n welding, but I think that gasless mig is making trouble for you.  I'd wager that you'd get some really smart welds that'd make you feel much better about your skills with half the effort with a gas shielded mig.  You could ask on your next episode if anyone near you has a normal mig that you could try, even make part of the episode showing some basic welding technique; I'm sure you'll be swamped with volunteers and then you'd know whether it's worth the investment in normal wire and some gas.  I haven't tried mig welding yet, only the stick welder I was given decades ago by a friend.  It's a jump I need to make too if I'm ever going to weld up my RRC's shell.

[Blanco]

Just found episode 28, so the renewed YT notifications are good for zip....... just recovered my FB account to follow it with that, see if that works better. 

Got  a few remodelled fingers myself George, hope yours is soon on the mend! Good work though, I didn't detect which car 'bit' you.

Enjoyed it,........  must get back to do a bit on my lot.

Will you be able to get some paint or wax under the repairs on that windscreen surround?

[FridgeFreezer]

Just started watching these over t'weekend and I have to say so far they're cracking, top job.

If nothing else it's a welcome change from Car SOS's painful mugging-about-for-the-telly, internet hipsters with no substance, forced/false TV jeopardy, or the American "everyone-must-have-a-shouting-match-before-every-commercial-break" formula.

[Shackleton]

Lads I'm not getting notifications even though all my settings seem to be in order. Sorry for not having been on sooner.

On 7/30/2018 at 3:47 PM, FridgeFreezer said:

...it's a welcome change from Car SOS's painful mugging-about-for-the-telly, internet hipsters with no substance, forced/false TV jeopardy, or the American "everyone-must-have-a-shouting-match-before-every-commercial-break" formula.

👆There's a formula for success on YT just the same as TV and if you follow it you're almost a dead cert, but it means dumbing stuff down, being cool for the sake of being cool and hyping everything. Much as it'd make my life so much easier [I can't understate that] I can't bring myself to do it. And I'm struggling as a result. 

The welder debacle. I told myself when I started that reward for everything, my own quiet measure of success would be treating myself to a dream welder. It sounds silly now that I've not admitted defeat and bought a €3/400 welder [I'd have to get very lucky here to achieve a Dave's Clarke for €100, it's not quite the same as the UK, and don't talk to me about Greece]. The budget is tight sure, and I've prioritised tech stuff on the production side, but I'll start looking for something because I can tell you this... that flux core plant isn't getting anywhere near the two door - the car this whole deal is about in the first place. It'd be exciting to think that I might be an ok welder once the carp shack that is my plant is out of the equation.

@daveturnbull - I'm stoked you're doing your own welding, it's the most satisfying thing isn't it! A whole world opens up. The other thing I've realised is that for years I listened to people going on about clean welds and good looking welds, and you couldn't be blamed for thinking that's how they have to be. Well like you say - a weld can be strong and look like carp. Nice fab work btw!

@Snagger - There's a lot to be said for a stick welder from what I've seen. They're a great thing in the right application. I've seen outer arches being put on a classic VW bus with a stick welder though! The guy wasn't even wearing a mask too, so he was lining up and then looking away 😆It was a much better result than it sounds but I wouldn't want it on my car. I'll get on the welder case, it's high time.  

@Blanco - you aren't working on a Land Cruiser are you? I lost a guy who messaged me with photos of his project and I'm trying to find him! It was the Cortina that took a nip at me, it's just about healed but still very tight across the knuckle. Gave me a fight because it bled like crazy. I'm going to hopefully get in under the scuttle through the wiper holes, haven't quite got there yet 😅. I've actually built a custom 5ft lance for the range rover sills too! just need a compressor now ha. Oh and hey I presume you've checked the YT notification settings but in case you don't know, it's a three click deal now. Click to subscribe, click [the little bell beside subscribe] to get notifications, then click [in the subsequent pop up] to tell YT what kind of notifications you want.

@FridgeFreezer - having the respect of the fellows here is a big deal for me. Being an LR guy is being honest, practical people who get things done. If I was going the hype route I never would have posted a single episode on here.  

Edited August 3, 2018 by Shackleton

[Blanco]

Regret no Land Cruiser yet, I have four 'rolling' projects, ( three Landrovers and a sawmill), plus the wife's Polo needs some TLC, maybe after that! ...... have to be vintage though, bl**dy road tax over here.

Think the yt thing works now, just enjoyed 29..... I suppose 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly' would have been too corny? Just to re-ask something from fb how old was the pic of the huge truck and the 3dr? I suppose what I am really asking is how long ago was the 3 dr last on the road?

[Shackleton]

The pic is from summer '08 but it was last on the road in '12 which was it's 6th year as my sole daily. You can tell in the pic that it was really clean, maybe six months later I was invited on a club offroad day and that was the beginning of the decline. Within about 2 hours I'd damaged every panel.

[qwakers]

hey shackelton..

ive got a compressor you can have for nowt, and a welder that im sure i can get you VERY cheap. problem is im in cornwall, which is a PITA to get to from ireland.

 

pm me if youre interested.