The Battleship,Williams, sentenced to death!

[magnumpi]

If anyone was wondering, following the correct prop fitting procedure the job was as easy as pie. I refitted it last weekend and it's been back on the road since then with no problems so far.

Just need to get myself a spare prop now, so if anyone localish has got one, give me a shout please

[volvosneverdie]

If anyone was wondering, following the correct prop fitting procedure the job was as easy as pie. I refitted it last weekend and it's been back on the road since then with no problems so far.

Just need to get myself a spare prop now, so if anyone localish has got one, give me a shout please

Good news dude!

I know its not ideal, but if I come across one on my dailly 300 internests sweeps, you can have 1st shout.

[foggyjames]

I have one or two kicking about, and will be passing by on the M25 on Saturday if that helps at all..? I'll have a trailer on the back, though, so I'd appreciate you coming to meet me, rather than the other way around!

cheers

James

[magnumpi]

Cheers Foggy that sounds quite do-able . Pm me where abouts you will be and i can meet you.

[theo2468]

hows this doing?

[magnumpi]

Funny you should ask

Currently i'm in a panick about getting the ripped open cill sorted out before the iminent MoT on the 9th. I could possibly* do it myself but i've made arangements with a local RR'er about him doing the welding for me.

Other than that it's soldiering on being used and abused on an almost daily basis (i use a van for work) , but it is getting to the point where it needs some tinkering. Mainly in the form of all the bushes need replacing as they have done for ages i just don't get round to doing stuff. Er what else, i think the clutch is on it's way out, or it could be the iffy engine mounts as the revs seem a bit dodgy when giving it beans over non smooth surfaces

So it's all up and running and still holding in there aswell as it ever has!



* I've possibly got the ability, but i definately don't have the inclination to lay on my back for a few hours on a wet driveway doing it

[magnumpi]

Long overdue update time.
Well it turned out i had longer than expected left on my MoT but as i was thinking about it i decided to try again to find a bodyshop that was happy to do the cill/knackered jacking point repair (see page 15). With a little shout out on RR i managed to find a nice backstreet type of garage happy to do the work, plus he was an OSF lover and had a beautifully turned out rally prepped Mk2 Escort with suspension turrets, raised floor and pretty much every mod going. So i knew my little hole in the cill wouldn't cause them any bother.

I've been working away continually for about 3months so i'm only about at weekends, with this in mind i left the car at the garage on Monday, expecting to pick it up all sorted and Mot'd on the Friday.

Friday rolled around so i rang them. Sorry we can't do your retest as the exhaust is blowing and we can't find the correct size flexi pipe. Bugger thinks i. Anyway i comandeered the car and took it to my mate who welds exhausts for a living, sorted and for £0.

Back to the testers on Monday, i went off to work again, and returned Friday, this time picking up my freshly Mot'd wagon for another year.

Lot's of silly jobs it failed on, see here:




Both front brake pipes bulging under presure doesn't sound too clever though!

I also got an Advisory "Near and Offside front strut modified but not seriously weakened", i can only presume this is because i've drilled a whole in the cup to put a nut and bolt through to hold the spring in place, tester said it wasn't an issue but had to be mentioned.


Here's a few pics of the cill after prodding with a thumb nail . Yeah it looked a little crusty to me but don't touch it and it's fine is my theory.







After repair it looks more like this:








Well thats it of recent goings on but i've had these for ages and never posted about them. I think it was Liam who said how good Fli speakers were for replacing the stock fronts so an Ebay purchase was made.

To fit them i roughly marked out the shape of the tweeter onto the old speaker grill.
Then i attacked it with a mini angle gringer thing on a Dremmel and i ended up with this:






I also noticed the speakers fouling on the original housing so again with a Dremmel and file i adjusted these to suit:






I then went to a local fabric place and purchased some black material in the hope it would look like speaker covering. I used the grill as a template and marked around the cloth with a marker, leaving a half inch over hang.
Out came the contact adhesive, which was liberally sprayed onto the grill and the cloth cover. I placed the fabric on a flat surface and put the grill onto that, then folded the other hang round the back of the grill like so:





From the front:





Then placed the whole lot together, managing to force the cloth into the original speaker housing grooves and voila' semi stealthy uprated speakers:






I've also got some Knock Off Nigel Vibe 6x9's on the back shelf from Ebay, yes they were half the price of the others, probably coz they are fakes, anyway theu sound alright, but no pics of any of that.

Cheers for reading

[magnumpi]

Stupid speed bumps!
I went for a drive on Friday night, but annoyingly most roads round my area have speed bumps in of some description. Well as per usual i was going slow over them as if i don't the exhaust scrapes, well it still does slowly, just takes less of a battering. Anyway i went over one of the square ones, you know the annoying type they always put next to an island to make them unavoidable .

Basically as i pulled away from it, i heard a noise and then the sound of me driving over something plastic. I looked in the mirror didn't think much of it and carried on my merry way. Saturday morning and i open the door to be greeted by a big hole where my grill used to be that would be the plastic thing i run over then!

So i went out on the hunt for it and found leaning up on a fence at the side of the road, luckily just about still in one piece. Once i'd got out the car and taken a better look although in one piece it's scratched to sh*t and the corner of the trim surround is cracked, it's also missing all the mounting tags from the back. Oh well, another thing that need replacing.

If you've got a spare grill hola at me please


Unintentional tramp drift look:











Close up of the damage:

[Chris_C]

I've a GLT one or two down here bud, give me a shout next time you are nearby.

[magnumpi]

Nice one Chris, i will do

[Speedy88]

Excuse to get a mesh grille like mine

[magnumpi]

Little update, nowt exciting really.

I've felt that the front end is a bit worn when going down rough roads (see 99% of uk roads) with clonks and bangs coming from the suspension so thought i'd get under there and try and sort it.

It also has always pulled to the left a bit even with new tyres fitted and the tracking apparently being correct?

Anyway i bought some replacements for these off of Dai when i bought my lowering bits. I somehow missplaced them though, but they were unearthed a few weeks ago, hiding in the last place i'd ever look. In the bottom of our vegetable store





I also replaced the trackrods while i was there, however i haven't got any after pics of either, only before






Now here's the thing. I was hoping to change them and all would be well/better. Sadly that wasn't to be. It still pulls and if anything the front end feels even looser and vague. Yes i did do everything up tight after and has since been checked.

So my next port of call is wheel bearings as they are grumbling like an angry bear. What after that, i've got a feeling the steering rack is on it's way out. It also groans when on full lock while parking and the like.

* the drop link and wishbone bushes have yet to be replaced, could they cause the issues?

[Chris_C]

Steering rack if there is play in the ball joints (grab the rack and the tie rods...pull ) but definitely the wishbone bushes, they make a huge difference. It pulled my wishbones up square again when I did mine.

ARB droplinks don't affect the straightness, just whether the ARB does anything useful or snaps into action halfway through the problem

[magnumpi]

Good advice as always Chris, cheers.

I'll give that a go then and see what i find. Looks like i'll be ordering some more bushes off Dai then. That said i think i've got the wishbone ones but guessed it's a pig of a job so have put it off so far.

[Chris_C]

It's not as hard as it sounds dude, but get a bit of a tool made up.

Penny washers, threaded bar, small and big socket..



Theres some more piccy's in my sig link from when I did it.