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On 7/2/2022 at 1:46 PM, JeffR said:

A question for everyone, why does one always run out of welding gas at 1.30 on a Saturday afternoon

Because you do, and thats the way it is ! Then, after you have installed your nice replacement cylinder, got the items to be welded cleaned and set up, you find there is only three feet of wire left on the spool :angry2:

 

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Well all welding ground to a halt, literally.  Wire feed motor on a cheap inverter welder let all the electricity our  half way thro door bottoms. Oh well, looking forward to Tuesday as my lovely, charming, gorgeous missus bought me a new welder:

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Subtle hint that she wants the Mini back on the road, I think

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  • 2 weeks later...

Welder is a little cracker!!!

Nowt done on landrover as family car decided that  it doesn't need water to cool itself. one gallon of water every 2.4 miles..... head cracked, DMF not well and engine mounts turned to play doh. So as wife is having to use public transport (not a happy bunny) to get to work. Thought I'd do a quick and nasty job on front crank oil seal on passat, but that went mammaries up when I snapped the big bolt holding the timing sprocket in place (a three foot scaffolding pipe rather than a six foot one on the breaker bar, but man, that damn thing was tighter than a politicians wallet).....£39 for a bolt, £39!

So I now have two dead land rovers, a dead golf, a dead passat and a dead mini.

Anyone supply me with valium, vodka and a glue bag ?

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Special order from TPS..... Mate is gonna lend us his car, thats this weekends visit to daughter No1's to collect 4 baby rats up the proverbial creek. Joys of running vehicles with over 300k on the clock!

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  • 3 weeks later...

So finally got some time to get back onto 110, family car looks like this now:

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Resplendent with its new shocks (I suppose having oil in them will be  way better....), however I have a message for the person of doubtful parentage who tightened the rear sump bolts (m5 or m6 and impossible to get to) with a bloody 1 inch rattle gun and turned a hex head into a round head, however, the mods would take offence at the language.  So needs a sump (evidently household silicone sealer is not oil proof, who'd have thunk it) to cease and desist from doing an Exxon Valdiz.  What a new sump ? Well I could take the engine out (NOT, repeat NOT gonna happen) or smash a hole in it, carefully, to get to the offending two screws. So waiting for new sump while awaiting the urge to hunt them as did it last time down with a really big stick to dispel.

 

Anyway back to the 110.

Door repaired (ish), well good enough for now. Needs a new skin and the bottom section has a couple of extra drain/inspection holes in it, but overall not too bad.

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Of course I had to remove the door handles cos the snapped key that had rusted into the door lock (now I know why the spare key wouldn't work) was never gonna come out after a decade under very salty water (well how else did it get so rusty?):

Mr Haynes - " remove both screws and twist handle to remove from aperture"

Reality-  waste an hour or so of your life trying to remove corroded/ seized screws (well one has to try, miracles do happen) before resorting to percussive violence and angle grinders.  Waste another hour making the hole for the door handle flat again.

Open package that Royal Fail or Parcelfarce delivered 104 hrs late ( 48hrs tracked my hairy blonde posterior.... maybe if they fed their carrier pigeons more often the poor wee things wouldn't need to stop so often for a day or two to rest up, just a suggestion like) to find the dreaded Blue Box (actually they appear to have stopped using blue boxes, they're now just brown cardboard, but why spoil a good rant) products in all their glory, sans keys and lock barrels which appear to have buggered off on holiday now that Covid......

But never mind, faeces occur.

Went to fit said handle and grommety things:

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Err but they don't fit the handles, never mind, a wee while in boiling water will make em more pliable thinks I. 

ALL together in best pantomime tradition "OH NO IT WON'T" They appear to be made of the most rigid, inflexible material one has ever come across, a bloody hot air gun won't touch em, damn it a blow torch won't touch em. They're about 1.5mm too bloody short:

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I refuse to accept that £1.50's worth of carved ebony grommet is gonna beat me, not today marra, I'm a Geordie and have hand tools at my disposal .

Thats what God made needle files for, oh and elastoplasts when you use a modelling knife cos filing takes too long  and you stab yourself in the knuckle and swear, a lot. Note to oneself, chisel shaped knife blades are bloody (descriptive phraseology there) sharp. No more photos today, my hand hurts, but the f@£$%^g thing fits now. Tomorrow

I get to install the window channels and regulator.....

 

 

Edited by JeffR
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1 hour ago, Snagger said:

They’re either getting sneaky or are getting even cheaper…

The bloody latter for definite, when they make two parts, for the same vehicle, that are supposed to mesh together and they don't........Yes I accept that blue box (or brown box as they now are) do not cost a great deal, however, it would be nice if they actually fitted, even almost fitted would do!

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2 hours ago, western said:

Blame Britpart suppliers Britpart is just a wholesale warehouse to other retailers, AFAIK they don't actually make anything. 

We all know that, but they should, as wholesaler and contract maker, be ensuring the quality of the carp they sell.  It is as much their responsibility as the subcontractor manufacturers.

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......it's by no means just the formerly blue box outlet . I had cause to order an underseat fill series tank recently and the first one from another longstanding wholesaler accepted the filler extension but the cap was a clip on fit then did not pull down and seal but just rotated all the way round loose and was a struggle to remove. 

The second attempt was from the formerly blue box supplier's sister company and the cap fit was the same ( dangerous and not fit for purpose ) but the filler extension would not go into the neck at all .  

I'm about to cut the top out of the original tank and weld into a civvy style tank , bloody awful QC at all stages which is disappointing as the general fab. quality of both was good - lovely fusion welds around the edges and flat panels .

Anyhoo - Jeff , good to see you progressing regardless of setbacks 

Steve

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7 hours ago, steve b said:

......it's by no means just the formerly blue box outlet . I had cause to order an underseat fill series tank recently and the first one from another longstanding wholesaler accepted the filler extension but the cap was a clip on fit then did not pull down and seal but just rotated all the way round loose and was a struggle to remove. 

The second attempt was from the formerly blue box supplier's sister company and the cap fit was the same ( dangerous and not fit for purpose ) but the filler extension would not go into the neck at all .  

I'm about to cut the top out of the original tank and weld into a civvy style tank , bloody awful QC at all stages which is disappointing as the general fab. quality of both was good - lovely fusion welds around the edges and flat panels .

Anyhoo - Jeff , good to see you progressing regardless of setbacks 

Steve

Have a look at the tanks from Design and Development.  They are making all sorts of things for Series vehicles and they look really well engineered.  Amongst them are extended front tanks that make use of the space under the foot wells and use the tub and bulkhead cross members, so are easy to fit, especially for those installing an extra tank where there was none before (and so the front of tank outrigger is absent).  I think they are stainless steel, so you’d never have to replace it again.

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On 8/13/2022 at 11:27 AM, JeffR said:

Im about to do that little job soon, will take pics and post, basically I'm welding in new metal, but its very very thin stuff , under a millimetre, so should be fun

Yeah my thoughts too. Mines in worse state than yours.

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  • 1 month later...

So the great reassemble has begun, slight break whilst fighting with the family cars that have decided to expire and fail MOTs..... Passat finally got through an MOT, then wife hot a chunk of organic debris (read that as a very ex-Roe buck) on the A69 and cracked the already leaking sump ......

Useless bit of info for folks, nerve conductivity tests are not a great deal of fun. If one wants to recreate the effect, grab an HT lead and get someone to crank the engine. At least I now know that the nerves within my arm are fine, the collapsed and bulging disc in my neck, not so fine, but I digress. Been a long couple of months.

So the four disastrous words (while I'm in there) kicked in, big time. As the cab is empty and theres no dash I thought I'd do a bit of waterproofing and leak curing. New door seals were perfect, but still had puddles on floor. Adjusted door tops using a combination of shims and violence. When bending adjusting door top make sure windows are wound fully DOWN, or buy a decent hoover, will be finding bits of glass for the rest of time..........

Never mind, faeces occur. Sprays side of vehicle with hose pipe , no water ingress, job done. 

Rains overnight , puddles return...................... Then I remember that the vent panels don't have the seals (sitting on my desk, unopened), fitted. Fits seals and temporarily fits relevant bit of dash that has  lever thingies to close said panels.  Struggle greatly to get little M5 screws to start.

Two hours and an Olympic class tool throwing hissy fit later remove said vent panel for an intimate inspection.  There's no effing captive nut/rivnut in either of the bloody holes (genuine parts vent panels..........) Just install some M5 rivnuts thinks I.  Ain't got none. got shed loads of M4,6,8,10 and 12, countersunk, stainless, mild steel and aluminium and hex bodied, but not a single bloody M5.  Gets on evil bay, orders some and awaiting arrival.

Jams vents closed with wedges to "set" seals. Has a break and a Kitkat (sod the diabetes).

Next day (That would be last Thursday) it kinda urinated down in this part of Northumberland. Guess what, floor pan is now a paddling pool.

Spends a very boring rainy Friday sat in cab looking for dribbles. Found em, lots of em. The persons of doubtful parentage who did a lot of the chassis swap a few years ago had removed the roof and windscreen frame. Then put it back. They hadn't replaced either of the two seals that are there to  prevent water ingress though. 

Now folks may ask why I never noticed this before, well it sat around with no floor pans or trans covers in place so water had an easy exit, also explains why old dash turned to iron oxides.

Now waiting for new seals to arrive and looking forward to taking the roof off, not.

I guess the moral is, if you have any work done on your vehicle, check, check and double check its quality.

 

Edited by JeffR
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no need to remove the roof to change screen seals just unbolt from top of screen, the lower hinges or brackets inside & outside, unbolt roof above B post & push roof up so screen can be lifted up  & out, there are 2 spikes on top of dash the screen locates on.

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