Mat's BX Blog

[Mickey taker]

Oh dear, at least I know what to get you for Christmas.







A MR Bump tshirt

[Wooscary]

But how is the sawbench?

[mat_fenwick]

Sawbench is fine thanks, it's VERY solid! Unfortunately.

After a few weeks driving around in the Focus I've done 1200 miles with no problems, although a good check-over it found that one of the front wheel bearings should have had at least an advisory on the MOT. There's no way it could have had zero play only a couple of hundred miles previously! So that's a fairly urgent job to do soon, as well as change the front brake pads.

But priorities first - making it more like the BX! I needed another power outlet, so I've put in a DIN 4165 socket on the centre console.



I'm very impressed with our dog's ear for engines, as she was able to tell the difference between an XUD engine, and the Ford direct injection unit in the Focus - not all people would be able to do that! Apparently for the first few days of me coming home in it, instead of wagging her tail at the sound of the BX she would bark constantly until I actually came to the door. I'm guessing she thought I was a potential intruder...

[Vanny]

I think the new Range Rover is all aluminium though, as they've cut the weight by about 500kg. About £79,000 too expensive though

It is (nearly) all aluminium. Given that it goes and handles like a top end sports car, its probably worth the cash. I'm looking forward to owning one in 25 to 30 years time!

[mat_fenwick]

I'd just settle to be able to drive one. Even better if it was somewhere hot. And to make it perfect I'd even get paid for doing so...

[mat_fenwick]

Finally finished the welding on the Discovery now, at least in this area. I've been painting the last couple of nights, and now it looks like this!



I think I will take off the sill covers on the other side, as although I know the top end of the wheel arch is fine, there may (will?) be rust behind the plastic. Hopefully if it's not yet thin or holed I can get away with removing the rust and protecting the good metal.

[Defender110]

Nicely done mate.

[Dollywobbler]

Aye. Looks very nice.

[mat_fenwick]

Cheers. I'll probably be taking off the sill covers on the other side tonight - see what awaits me there!

Had a great weekend at the show, although very crowded and a little bit rushed given we only arrived at lunchtime on Saturday.Hopefully I'll be able to persuade Lana along to other events, as she enjoyed herself too. After getting back late that night it was an early start the next morning, to take advantage of the sunny but cold weather and do a spot of climbing.





The only thing that spoilt the weekend was discovering that Lana's Dad had been burgled - not much stolen of value but they did take an aluminium box which had been made by his Dad, 60 years ago. He saw them driving off as he came back, and is pretty sure who did it so hopefully it can be recovered. The suspect's (surprisingly open) Facebook page makes depressing reading!

We had some strange going on last night at our place too - we live part way up a forest track, with a locked gate which we share with the Forestry on our boundary. I was out walking the dog, when I saw lights at the gate. It turned out to be two men sat in a car, smoking, and just parked outside the gate. After watching them for a while it looked as if they were just waiting there (for what!?) so after literally putting them in the spotlight ( ) they decided to leave.

[toddao]

Sounds as though you need to get 'tooled up' Mat - that Cato character looks like a right psycho. Does that general store near you stock these? :

[MULLEY]

They were probably smoking something that they shouldn't have been. That guy looks like a right muppet, even if it wasn't him he looks as though he deserves a punch for having one of those faces, haha...

Climbing, even i can spot the dodgy camera angle that made it look vertical V-diff?

[Philip Chidlow]

Todd, IMO that looks suspiciously like an Airsoft minigun... wouldn't do any real 'justice'. What would be handy would be one of these blighters... could stop a car with it too...



In all seriousness the guy looks like a nutjob who should really be put down. Take care.

[Mickey taker]

terrains a bit rough where Mat lives to carry heavy weapons about
what you want is

[Dollywobbler]

I had three of those fly across in front of my bus a few weeks ago. Maybe Mat's already got his order in...

[mat_fenwick]

Climbing, even i can spot the dodgy camera angle that made it look vertical V-diff?

Any dodgy camera angle wasn't intentional, but you're right, it wasn't hard. I don't know what the official grade would be but I reckon it would be a V. Easy I'd have happily free climbed it anyway.

Last night I took the sill trim off the Discovery, to check for rust. At the front I found this:



Not bad at all...but then at the rear there was this:



So that all had to be cut away:



That's how I've left it now, with a coating of rust remover on the areas I couldn't get a grinder to. Tonight's task was to change a front wheel bearing on the Focus. I'd bought a new hub with a month old bearing in it, for the grand sum of £15. Unfortunately I fell at the first hurdle - getting the hub nut undone

The first casualty was my trusty breaker bar:



Working it out with hindsight, I was using a tube approximately a metre long on the end of it. Standing on it with my body weight (80 kg) would be approximately 800 Nm, which had no effect. I can extent slightly more force by heaving on it than jumping on it, but it would seem that the breaker bar wasn't up to the task

Then I remembered I had a 4:1 torque multiplier. Tried that - still no joy. Using a metre extra leverage on that I estimate I put 3000+ Nm through it, and still didn't budge. Fearful of breaking it (there was a LOT of stored energy in it!) or me - I was straining quite a bit - I've called it a day for now, and will try getting a garage to loosen it tomorrow. Hopefully they've got some 1" drive sockets, and can safely exert more force.