Paul the '73 tintop!

nah not yet
replaced the leads, (thanks again Para!), dizzy cap and rotor arm yesterday i have some new points aswell, but i forgot that fact yesterday..
after putting some new fuel in, it made a very strange noise a couple of times when i turned it over, but the battery is pretty flat now,
so im going to see if i can pick up a charger this evening..
going up to compression test it/change the points/check the tappet gaps again in a minute. will maybe get some luck there.
but Baysearcher is coming over tomorrow morning to give me a hand with it, see if he can spot something i have missed..

 

Nice one on doug coming to give you a hand
Ill keep my fingers crossed for you dude

 

thanks para!!
yeah man its gunna be awesome to have another set of hands! especially for things like the compression testing..
i was working through what i had tried already, and i realized i hadnt given a thought to whether the carb settings were anywhere close..
pre-owned carb, so thought i would check it and the big screw was wound as close as dammit to all the way in..
i imagine that changing that will have made a difference, and if i can start it i will be able to fiddle it so its a bit better as i have done quite a lot with carbs before.
but unfortunately my battery has decided it doesnt want to be charged anymore so i couldnt try and start it.. booo
but all will come to light soon, and after tomorrow morning i think il really know where i stand.

on another note, split the crankcase on my old engine today, so i could learn by doing and i plan to rebuild it really slowly with the help of books and whatnot until i really know what im doing in the process of doing so i found that it wasnt just that one piston that was in half!! it was 2 that were completely in half, and a 3rd had bad cracks in the same places!! and on the 4th it was pretty badly damaged, was dented and the inside.. ive been working on engines for longer than i can remember, and i have never seen one that bad! let alone one that was that bad and actually RAN when it was taken out!! crazy talk..

so to be honest, im pretty sure that none of those internals are going to be any good whatsoever, but i have another complete crank (with rods on that dont need the big ends doing), so i will be using that one in the rebuild, and as there is no way i will be able to afford anything that isnt 1000% necessary any time soon, i have the time to pick up the new bits for it. maybe if i can find a damn job any time soon, i can rebuild it with nice things like a scat crank and make it go all fast an ting!!
but im not holding out much hope on that one... haha! one day....

 

WELL ITS OFFICIAL!! I AM THE WORLDS BIGGEST BELLEND!!!

the fuel lines were on the pump the wrong way round, so it was trying to pump it out of the carb and back into the tank.....

*prepares for endless barrage of well deserved mockery...*

also, a big thanks to Doug for coming over this morning, and for lending me his battery charger!!
such a crap time for it to die! but battery is on charge, so hopefully i will find out if it starts tomorrow...

 

cheers man its much easier to work out if something isnt right when you have an engine that works sat in front of you for reference!

 

I did that once - pipes on the wrong way round. They'd be neater our way round.

 

none of that seems to matter though, still wont run, although now makes a horrible grinding noise when i turn it over (its not the starter, checked that)
and also, i no longer have a spark, although the only thing ive done in there since i did have a spark is swap the fuel lines into the pump over and actually charge the battery..
all ive learnt recently is my compression tester doesnt work...

and as cash has all but completely dried up, so does progress im sad to say, as ive reached my knowledge limit regarding aircooled mechanics..

will hopefully be cracking on with the bodywork in the meantime though, as have picked up a few decent panels on ebay.. mainly cuts and not this repro crap, which is nice.
still in desperate need of a NS front arch though, as mine is made out of MUCH more filler than originally thought.. as i found when i slammed the door recently..

 

some presents for paul turned up today

my passenger side cab floor panel, has a bit of surface rust on it which rubs off with no effort at all, which was awesome for just over a tenner
got a starter bolt courtesy of skirk (thanks for that!)
a new accelerator pedal hinge/pin/spring for when i make up the other side of the floor if i cant pick a repair panel up cheap,
and some purple kick panels off ebay, but they arent very flexible, so im not sure if they will go in properly.. but il have a play later.

will get some pics of my fun and games in a bit

 

spent quite a while under Paul today, mainly trying to work out what weird wires did what again...
once again not a lot of progress, so i decided to try something taking a break from the brain damage inducing task that is my wiring,
and ended up here...



a very simple job, that has made quite a dramatic difference to Pauls face, i wasnt sure at first, but its grown on me a lot in the past few hours!!
not entirely sure what MOT man will have to say, but if he only comments on the colour of the headlights, i think my victory dance will definitely be one to watch...

got the surface rust off the cab floor panel today, realised it was from an early and im going to have to make a cut out for the step, but thats a small price to pay to get a repair panel for a tenner.. especially as im going to be fabbing up the arch step piece anyway, doesnt make much difference.

tried what you all suggested on here about my starting issues..
ran a wire from + terminal to + on coil, no difference..
ran a jump lead from - terminal to case (and 'box), no difference again.
am getting juice at the coil without the added wire now though.
its peculiar.

 

Well... Appears I havent updated this since August.. Someone needs to give me a damn good slap for that one!

But, on a plus note... PROGRESS!

Turns out the rust inside my roof is 99% surface, and has just come straight off with the wire wheel
So chucked some rust treating stuff on it just to be sure and chucked a coat of paint over it. Job done!

Got my rear bumper off, which had been welded on but so badly that it fell off when I stood on it to have a look at the roof... But on the plus side of that, the welding was so bloody poor that it had barely penetrated the irons at all, so will take very little amount of work before they can be painted up nice. Doesnt sound like much, but this morning I thought I was gunna have to chop them off and buy new ones, so its a big turn up for me

Had a look at the truly shocking work by PO of re-attaching the rear valance, and looks like I'll be able to just poke a few tacks and get it off, which means I'll be able to weld and prep it up inside before working out if Im going to make a way of making it easily removable in future (without it looking like an abortion).

And took the wire wheel to my N/S front arch tub, just to see the extent of what needs doing in there before getting a new arch on it.. turns out its just as awful as expected, but I was prepared for that, so its not too much of an issue, as I havent managed to buy a front arch yet anyway.

Apologies for lack of pics, I'll see if this computer can hack me uploading some later without exploding (doubtful..)

I know I'm only poking molehills compared to the mountains that need doing, but thats okay because things have actually started happening again, and I had to start somewhere...

 

Thanks man buzzing on the fact things are happening again after so long so I'm off to get on with it again.

hmmm.... what next...

 

Bet you're glad you can get on now!

 

Yeah for sure Charlie! And I'd love too doug...

tasks for now are buy a sodding battery charger...

Oh, and I got the rear valance off which took minimum effort, as expected, but Im not sure if its worth trying to save..
The rear chassis it normally attaches to is fully rotten from where it had the big gaps each end, so I will be referring to Mr Weedings step by step pictures from when he did that bit of para's (Very useful pics, so thanks for that Paul!)

And with the valance off getting the engine out will be a piece of cake (although my bus turned up missing the trolley jack, so christ knows where that went )

 

Well my rear valance turns out to be made of at least 12 bits of metal and some of the worst welding I've ever seen, and I cant afford over a hundred quid just for a repro inner panel, I've decided to chop as much of the sh*t out as I can and make it myself. At least I know there is no way I can make it any worse!!! So spent today making up a new N/S inner panel, and will do the other side tomorrow Have been taking pics but just cant upload them just yet, so I will be inundating this thread with loads of them asap!

Long and short of the matter though, is that rust is going away! Might not be much, but it is still depleting, so once again, I am a happy chappy
Work got cut short going and seeing some nice old dubs at the pub with the BorderDubbers lot, but thats possibly the only excuse that is allowed.
And another plus, is that I got one of those plastic under dash storage jobbies from @brucieboy today, and many thanks to you for that!!

Looking forward to cracking on with it tomorrow!

 

Nice one. It's good to get the enthusiasm to get going and as the weather improves too you'll be flying

 

Yeah, I found my motivation from cleaning up an painting the smallest bit of tinware I found in my box before the bus got here and now I'm on a roll! Making progress feels great

 

Taking a little surface rust off my rear arch turned into some exploring with the wire wheel that I certainly wish I hadnt started... theres quite a few more holes than there was before. Turns out the offside sill is non existent, as is my nearside front jacking point, bottom half of the O/S 'A' piller.. the list goes on.
Luckily I have been browsing a few of Diddymens how to's on making some very convenient (given my needs) panels, I got given a middle and outer sill by someone very lovely on here, so that solves that problem too

On the plus side, I'm pretty sure I can save the rear arch panels, the inner repair panel on the sliding door is re-usable, my heat exchangers have been bare metalled and repainted, my front grille cleaned up perfect and is now in primer, my rear tinware is about as good as I think its ever going to get, and I have finally got round to ordering a big tin of filler and a battery charger, so should have engine and bodywork progress as soon as they get here...

Now I just need to find somewhere indoors to weld and I will be sorted...