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Aug 13, 2016 17:17:12 GMT
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Aug 13, 2016 17:25:27 GMT
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Another small 'side project' of mine... A V8 coffee table! I bought the non-running & very manky engine on eBay very cheaply a few years ago. Stripped it right down & got it vapour cleaned:  Got a cheap coffee table from Tesco online - just to use the glass top - but by complete luck, once it arrived, it turned out the tube of the single 'leg' fits nicely through the camshaft apertures so, with a slight extension, the block could just slide down over the leg of the table so it sits 'on end'. Its in my shed & I need to decide whether to do the above or make it in the 'common' design! |
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Last Edit: Aug 13, 2016 17:25:50 GMT by brickie501
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Aug 24, 2016 19:23:47 GMT
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Its quiet at work at the moment so I took a day off to have a potter around doing stuff at home.
As the sun has been beating down, I was diving in & out of the shade; unfortunately I'm not really enjoying the heat wave, given my fair skin & minimalist 'hairstyle'!
So an ideal job was tidying up yet another thing that's dropped in my lap as a possible project - a camping trailer chassis.
I got it a couple of months back. Nearly every wooden part of it was absolutely rotten & there was a bit of a rodent infestation! As the metal content is pretty light, scrappies apparently won't take caravans etc so if I took it away, it was mine 
I ripped off the body (I literally did pull it apart by hand) outside my lockup, burnt everything vaguely combustible & the metal fittings / ali cladding etc all went in my scrap pile. All it's cost me is the price of two part-worn tyres so I could drag it home - & I think I made most of that back when I weighed-in the scrap last week
Today's job was to remove the last few defunct, but stubborn, brackets & fittings. So I broke out the angle grinder - some rusty self-tappers plus the bolts that once held the ply floor, a wooden floor support & the water supply/waste brackets were quickly dispatched.
This is what I'm left with:
The mechanicals could do with a service I'm sure & the hitch needs some TLC but its already started earning its keep; I was able to lash an eBay purchase Range Rover chassis on top to bring that home a few weeks ago. But what to do with it?
While its already stripped down, I'm thinking of unbolting all the various beams & cross-members & getting everything galvanised... that would be 'again' in the case of the large lengths (most have suffered from proximity to rat curse word soaked ply / rusted parts) but the brackets that hold them all together were uncoated at manufacture?!
Other than that, I have wild ideas of using it as the basis of a Tear Drop caravan but perhaps I should be more realistic & just make a (slightly larger than my current Halfords style one) 'utility' trailer - its more likely to be used that way.
Maybe I could come up with a flat bed design that I could later add a (demountable) Tear Drop upper to?
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Last Edit: Aug 24, 2016 19:25:50 GMT by brickie501
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Apr 17, 2017 18:45:36 GMT
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Life has been seriously getting in the way of Retro projects - in particular project 'House Move' has been keeping me heavily occupied!
The daily has also needed attention.
WARNING non-RR content:
A while back, it started overcharging - boiling my best battery in the process 
That pointed towards the alternator regulator having packed in, I'd tried replacing one before (that time it wasn't charging & I got unlucky in that a new regulator didn't cure the problem) so knew it was a job I could have done without.
My Freelander got pressed into service for the commute for a while until I got round to the automotive equivalent of keyhole surgery that is messing with an MG ZT diesel's alternator ...
I had to break up the old regulator due to a chewed-up screw & digging out the regulator I'd bought previously, revealed that the brushes were damaged - probably as a result of my heavy-handed fitting due to poor access 
Ever the penny pincher, I didn't want to buy another when I had one with pretty much zero miles on it. Luckily, eBay came to the rescue with somebody seller replacement brushes for £2.99 delivered
Long story short, I took the brushes & new/old regulator into work for some soldering action, then managed to replace the pack with the aid of an extra pair of hands (SWMBO), a torch & my toddlers play mirror! The task was actually made harder because I tied the brushes back against their springs, hoping to prevent further damage, & had to snip the cord once everything was in place!
As it took all the hands we had just to fit the regulator, I don't have pictures but here is a partial 'before & after':
(L to R): Broken up overcharging regulator; an unknown regulator showing yet more broken brushes; box - imagine a shinier version of the middle regulator here, complete with freshly soldered new brushes!
And the end result - running again at last 
Finally, another non-RR project keeping away from this topic is trying to fix up this ZT Tourer to take over from the saloon as my daily. Progress has been made - it now has a working clutch  
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Aug 21, 2018 21:48:17 GMT
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Long overdue 'update' as life (ongoing 'project small child' in particular) continues to get in the way... But I've not been entirely inactive on the car front! As may be deduced from elsewhere on RR, I continue to gather stuff I'll be needing (honest!); buying & selling a few bits on the side to fund my 'habit'! Also, one of my project 2-door Range Rovers (actually only bought as a donor, but proved to be too good to break up!) has been sold on & I am preparing for chassis repairs to the other:  Just looking for a suitable rear 'quarter chassis' at the moment... I also seem to be accumulating trailer projects (cut & paste from " Trailers made from Cars" thread)! ... I can see where Curtis & niterida are coming from... The rules I would give myself for building a trailer are as follows: 1) No roof, either an open bed from a truck or convertible (except where practicality/load space is compromised) 2) Must match tow car in appearance, not necessarily the exact car, but very similar, e36 cabrio modified the same as the coupe tow car for example 3) All original tail lights to be used matching tow car 4) No welding sheet metal, the worst sin with half car trailers is the huge slab at the leading end, related to point 1. (exceptions only when no practical alternative is possible, or the leading edge is smaller than the rearmost point of the tow car or slab has been broken up with swage lines or other details.) 5) Same height as tow car. Related to point 2, though many people achieve that but fail to take into account the considerably reduced weight on the trailers springs, resulting in a comically high height. {snip} My conclusion after reading this thread is that trailers made from normal cars and station wagons look like curse word. Trailers made from vans look awesome Trailers made from sports cars look good Trailers made from quirky cars also look good However trailers made from anything and then just chopped at the front and replaced with a big piece of flat steel look like curse word. Trailers made with the wheels at the wrong spot, generally at the back, also look like curse word. My favourites would have to be the Kombi vans I think - especially the ones that have gone to the bother of putting the wheels in the centre and finishing the front to match the overall look. {snip}… but I've still gone & become the proud (?) owner of this:   … which breaks a number of these 'rules' - so I want to correct this!!! Somebody else has been more successful (IMO) with a Matra Rancho-based trailer; a bit 'blunt' still but I could just try to replicate this:  But this 'swan neck' design does appeal … & the Rancho might be tall enough to pull it off (if I ignore the 'must be same as tow vehicle' rule! Here´s a few more .....good bad & ugly ;D {snip} {snip}Hopefully, at some point, something on here will progress sufficiently to be worthy of spinning off into its own thread  |
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Aug 17, 2019 14:01:42 GMT
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Long time, no post!!! Very limited & slow progress on a number of fronts but it has seen me temporarily create the World's first Volvo 940 Estate Cabriolet I'll just leave these here:    |
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Last Edit: Aug 17, 2019 14:14:29 GMT by brickie501
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