The All New, New "What have you done to your Bay today" thread.

If this was 1970 I'd agree with you. Cant believe my son's 2007 Polo has a hand soldered external resistor on the hazard warning switch, so why this? Bloody south American Germans that's why.

I wonder if there's any WW2 booty in there?

 

Do you shout at young people in the street?

 

Of course !

 

Because it’s a cheep South American copy of a proper bay that they bodged to keep the old designed going.

 

A wire leaded component directly soldered between two tags is probably cheaper and quicker to fit and more reliable than routing through several connectors, cables and a PCB containing a surface mount resistor that gets hot and cracks off the board thanks to lead free solder...

Also VW probably still had millions of unused switches from older models in the 1990s they were still using up.

In the topsy turvy world of mass production it can be cheaper to order 1000 parts and bin 990 of them if you need 10. Even cheaper to use the other 990 in other products.

 

Went out , got home at 1400.
Went out to the bus. Knocked over and smashed a half cup of cold coffee over myself and yesterdays work.
Discovered while I was cleaning up that my plate under the seat belt mount was welded to a loose metal strip (the top of the slot that holds the rubber mat in place) on the door side .
Not to the wheel arch. I hit it with a hammer to level it and it spat coffee at me..
Trusted that a previous welding actually used solid material as a fixing point instead of rotted out steel I had removed.

Tomorrow I will hack it back and try again.

As consolation I smacked a rusty zit on the wheel tub with a hammer and ended up with a 6cm x 1cm plate being welded in.

By 1600 bad light stopped play.

 

Decided on an impromptu cheeky night away to check a few things out . First night camping since the end of October but the old dear started after a few spins and off I bimbled into the sunset...
Got to a site I knew would be open but they were firmly closed with a lake where the field is ... bugger !
I needed hook up to check battery charging and the heater so decided it wasn't to be and with no other sites open headed home .
Bit miffed but a lovely 120 miles driven , just great to be out

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

Took it for a run earlier - removed the magnetic covers I made for the air intakes and found that they've picked up drilling swarf off the floor of the van at some point - the swarf has ground against the intake grilles over Christmas so I now have rust spots on the paint around the intakes.......

 

Washed it in preparation for Brooklands New Year’s Day meet.

Also started her up, fired up after a couple of turns, not bad considering it’s been a month or so since I drove her last.

 

You always need to wipe swarf and magnetic grit off magnetic covers, use oxalic acid to remove rust stains.

 

Went to check all was well before using it tomorrow night on someones drive - full of mould and mildew

my sunroof has been leaking and soaked everything through ... lots of scrubbing and bleaching, washing and drying and all is good

 

Seven sisters

 

I’ve just ordered some oxalic acid mike - any pointers on dilution ? For instance for in a spray bottle to spray on rusty stains on paint?

 

I had something similar with the custom cushions that were made for me, must sort out some heating for the van to help dry any dampness

 

We’ve been threatening to replace all seat cushions / covers since we’ve had the camper —— think the time has come

 

You’re lucky to have a resistor. When I were a lad, we had to use small pieces of coal.

 

I would put on a pair of marigolds heavy rubber gloves to avoid poisoning, make a solution, reasonably strong and apply on a sponge.
I use the fibreglass cleaner gel which is fairly concentrated and it sticks without drying out until it has done its job. If its on a sponge, keep rubbing gently until the rust stain goes.

 

Hacked out the dodgy welding and welded on a 1cm wide by 15cm strip of metal to grab the wheel arch by the seatbelt mount..

Then I disded covered I had welded one runner on in the wrong place- about 2 inches too far forward.

So I drilled out the bad welds and discovered how really bad they were..

Moved it back and re- welded it.

On the longer runner, only one edge was really over the metal, so I didnt bother with all the holes and put welds along the edge. Then made little pieces of steel and welded the inside of the runner to the fillets and then to the tub.

Managed to bodge filler and paint on it.


And I got the seat to fit but I need to grind down some of the weld blobs as it hits them instead of the end stop.