Timex and friends

[Dollywobbler]

Even better if I could find my old Nissan Bluebird, C416 LGK... (was a bit odd selling one C... LGK and immediately buying another!)

[citsncycles]

Finally put some fuel in this morning, as I now had some money and the guage had stopped registering. The trip to the National and back, plus 10 miles of commuting over the mixed terrain round here has resulted in 51.2mpg! Although I don't make a habit of it, this fill also included 6lt of veg oil - well at a reduced price of £2 for 3ltrs at my corner shop last night I just had to!

[citsncycles]

If I've got it right, the subject is now Timex and friends, as my attention has been diverted by other vehicles in the collection lately!

As I had the Baby Vara booked on the ferry to Ireland, I thought I'd better sort out the fuel leak that had rendered it unuseable for much of the summer. It turned out that the replacement I'd bought was better than the original, but still weeped slightly - it's a crap design with the innerds held in with a plate that's rivetted in by squeezing 2 cast in pegs, which can then flex when the tap is operated. In the end I wrapped the joint of the original tap in fuel repair patch and that did the trick.

After getting the bike up and running again, the next job was renewing my CBT, which had run out during the bike's layup. This was done 2 days before the trip, leaving the following day to (among other things) fit the top box and mount that I'd bought several months earlier with the help of my mate John - I didn't have the money for the proper brackets, but we managed to make something up:



In return for this I helped him out with a few teething problems on his 2CV, which although restored several years earlier hadn't really been used:



For those who don't know this car, it's a 1956 Slough Built 2CV, which has been rebuilt to as close to as new as possible, including correct upholstry and hood custom made for it!

The following 8 days involved about 600 miles of riding, starting in Dursley, via Pembroke Dock and Rosslare to my parents place in Shinrone, Co Offaly, some local riding there and then back on the same ferry the following week, but on different roads - all on a 125 loaded with camping gear and without the use (even if I wanted to) of motorways!

This was a 19th century warning against drink driving I found:



And this is me camping motorbike style!

[citsncycles]

Much to the neighbours disappointment, Ripley is now gracing my drive:



This is because the space it was occupying in the local barn is now occupied by a certain BX 4x4 estate (pics to follow).

In the meantime I have decided to take the opportunity to tackle a couple of minor bodywork issues like this:



I've been collecting bits for Ripley for a while now, so I had a replacement panel sourced, so the next step was cutting out the old one:



This brought up a couple of interesting discoveries, the first of which was that the old bulkhead was pretty much brazed in, leading me to suspect that it wasn't the original anyway! there was also no paint whatsoever inside the lower box section:



It also gave me the opportunity to view one of several bodges that have been carried out on this car over the years - some I've decided to keep as they are part of its character, but this one will certainly be going!



The pedal guides on the new panel aren't very good, so I'll be replacing them with the guides from the old panel, as well as transferring across the return spring mounts:



The front edge of the RH sill is a bit manky, so I'm currently in the middle of repairing it:





Currently rain plus work has stopped play, but I have the final piece cut and everything painted in preparation for welding it in, before I remove the front axle assembly and lift the body a few inches in preparation for welding in the new bulkhead.

[MULLEY]

What year is Ripley?

[citsncycles]

Ripley's a 1959 AZLP, that according to the previous owner spent most of it's life in the Loire Valley. He bought it with a view to putting disk brakes, late suspension and a 652 Visa engine in it, but luckily didn't get round to it. It was 90% complete and original when I bought it, and I have since located most of what I need.

[Thread Bear]

Ah, memories of mine which was modified for Belgium/North France pave roads with extra dampers and had a Raoul boot. When I sold it no one was interested at £1,250 yet it was a damned fine example. I traded it for something in the end, I forget what, but it is not important other than it was of that order of value. How the world changes.
Good luck with that. A good looking project.

[citsncycles]

Managed to go a couple more jobs done before the rain started yesterday. First I finally finished the RH sill:



I then turned my attention to the drivers door, the hinge strip for which was only held on by a single locating rivet at the top:



If I was doing a full-on restoration I'd have removed the hinge, made up and fitted a new trailing edge to the door, and also made up and fitter a new rear lower corner to the door skin. Because I want to keep the 'barn find' look as much as possible, What I've done instead is weld the hinge back onto the door from behind, with a couple of splitting seams at each end seam welded in an effort to stop it breaking apart again:



This seems to have done the trick, although it needs a little more final fettling as it's stressing the hinge over the last couple of inches of closing. Unfortunately rain stopped play so I'll have to look at that bit another day.

[citsncycles]

Time for another update:

Started stripping the front axle out of Ripley and discovered this big washer on the hub with the wrong driveshaft in. The nut is also really loose (just held by the split pin), so hopefully the wheel bearing hasn't been totally destroyed



Removed the 'bolt instead of a knife edge' bodge to find it had destroyed the holes, effectilvely scrapping the axle arm



The bottom plate of the chassis is rusty, so will need cutting out, plus possible repairs to the inner structure:



The front floor outriggers (part of the chassis on these early cars) also need repair



The bottom of the sills have also gone just behind the front jacking point on each side:



The bolts holding the axle tube to the chassis came out surprisingly easily, although this bolt (and strangely only this one) was badly corroded so will be replaced:



Track rod end covers are shot:



The front axle basically needs a full rebuild, as both the centre rack and the kingpins also have play in them.

I then removed the nasty pedal guides from the new bulkhead prior to fitting it:



Positioning the new bulkhead turned out to be more involved than I hoped, with my having to remove all the mounting bolts in the floors so that I could lift the front of the shell off the body - luckily all but 3 undid with the minimum of fuss:

[citsncycles]

When I hit payday I could pay some of the rent, so while doing so maneged to take some pics of the car you've all been waiting for - the 4x4! Sorry for the quality, but it was getting dark, and the flash on the camera isn't the best:

















All in all, pretty damn good! very little rot, needs some minor panel work and a few bits of trim and paint on the outside, and the electrical repairs completing before the inside is scrubbed and reassembled. I've not tried starting it yet as god knows how old the cam belt is, but hopefully the mechanics just need a major service.

The ring on the fuel filler has gone, but hopefully without taking the wing with it, and I'll have to sort an exhaust out for it. Mat reckons he has some chevrons somewhere for the bonnet, and Adrian has dug out 3 TZ spec wheel trims for me out of his spares stock.

The plan is to keep this for shows and rallies, although as you may have spotted elsewhere I'm giving serious consideration to getting LPG fitted so that I can afford to take it on the Channge in 2015.

[citsncycles]

Ripley's front bulkhead welded in, after a slight delay caused by the death of my 17 year old Clarke 100EN welder . Can't complain too much I suppose - I reckon that welder's been used on a sizeable percentage of the cars run by members of the local 2CV group over the years, and has probably melted at least 7 or 8 kilos of welding wire!



The bulkhead was located by the simple means of bolting the car and bulkhead back to the chassis and lining up the top edge. There were a couple of repairs needed to the joint across the front of the bulkhead, which aren't as tidy as I'd like (getting used to the new welder, and that's the excuse I'm sticking to! ), but it's still better than the large plates tack brazed on from behind that were there before.



As can be seen from the line of weld here, the new panel is a slightly different shape to the original - I believe a lot of these panels used to be sources from Argentina, and the quality can be variable. I've used some that have gone straight in wit no trouble, while others (I still have nightmares about the last Ami floor I fitted for somebody) almost needed completely remaking. There's a Polish outfit started making all sorts of repair panels now, and while not cheap I've been told they are much better quality.



It does look al lot better from inside now. I've left the bottom edge and arounf the inner sills for now because seeing this in place has made me decide to replace the largely sound, but flat floors that are currently fitted. This will not happen just yet, as I plan to rebuild and reassemble everything in front of the bulkhead first, then move backwards through the car, but I'll probably make my own floors using the ones in my mate John's Slough as a pattern, as I have the steel and the correct size rollers for the swager will cost less than 1 floor!

[Mickey taker]

almost a private plate for you on the 4X4 MKE

[citsncycles]

Yep. been trying to come up with a name for this one and the best anyone's come up with so far is Mike, which although is a little confusing is going to stick I think.

[Thread Bear]

Knott. Owned MKE making heavy vehicle, trailer and agricultural parts and an investor in the Messerschmitt for which they made the suspension, brakes and other steel components.

[citsncycles]

The Bear's suggestion got me thinking, so I did a quick Google on MKE and came up with another possibility - Mitch, as Mitchell International Airport's code is MKE. Still considering.

Meanwhile, someone told the Varadero I'd booked it's MOT because the rear suspension almost immediately started sounding like a BX with rear arm bearing trouble! Investigation was needed, so with a little help from my hoist I removed the rear shock assembly:



Investigation of the lower shock mounting bearing showed it to be slightly corroded:



The inner bush it runs against also had some indents in it. To be honest I'm surprised it hadn't shown up any issues before.



As it was Sunday afternoon, I couldn't get a replacement, but I have ordered a new bearing and seal kit on line, which should be here in a day or 2. In the meantime I managed to grip the central bush tight enough in the vice to get it to turn 90 degrees before filling the bearing with some REALLY thick grease and bressing it all back together. From the ride in this morning I can say it's all quiet again, although obviously this is just temporary.

I then turned to a couple of other little jobs - headlamp adjustment was easy - dip looked like main beam from the angle, and main beam was in danger of directing in aircraft! I then shortened the tube on the Loobman oiler in an effort to improve it's flow to the rear sprocket - it used to flow so far and stop, until I got off the bike at the end of the ride and it proceeded to empty onto the sprocket and drip onto the road.



I'll know if that one worked when I finish work tonight.