Xbolx tat blog, Jan 2016 'FLEET UPDATE'

[tonybmw]

Great work XBoll, i've done the same with the good side bad side thing, your right once you've spent so long on it, you can't just leave it,

I'm normally spurred on when my wife says, "I told you it was a scrapper and you shouldn't have bought it", so then I carry on just to prove her wrong ;D ;D ;D

[Deleted]

My Dad would love you for doing this, love you and think you were mad. That Maserati is one of his favs because it looks so unassuming (or did, when he was planning on buying one way back when).

[xbo11ox]

Got a bit of an update here, although its the sort of update where no work gets done at all.

So last time I mentioned that i had bought a sawn-off.... Maserati front end off german ebay. It was located just outside Stuttgart, and after some umming and ahhing I bought it, for 100 or 120€ or something. I figured it would provide all the metal I needed to do any repairs necessary on the front end of mine, in addition to the obvious repairs to the front edge of the wings. MrJ off here picked it up for me and stored it while i worked out how to shift it back to blighty.

I put it up on Shiply, and on the R-R pony express, but there was not a lot happening and eventually I decided that i would go and fetch it myself, and make a long weekend of it visiting my mate Alan who lives there. I booked a ferry ticket and a couple of days off work, and set off last Thursday night in the ROVER. Here;s the route:



About 700 miles or so, passing through France, belgium, Luxembourg and into Germany. I splashed £110 on a pair of new firestones for the front of the Rover before setting off as the old tyres, while UK legal, would not have impressed a german copper. Otherwise it seemed to be going great guns so i just topped up the screenwash and set off.

I'm always a big fan of the empty french motorways:



Stayed in a formule1 overnight and carried on down to Stuttgart the next day. Took a few wrong turnings as I had not bothered to bring a map, never mind a fuggin satnav, just a poxy printout off Google Maps! Will try a bit harder next time. Arrived in Feuerbach the following afternoon:


I love going to Germany, despite the environmental restrictions there seems to be no shortage of the sort of old motorised toilet that I love to see:

Only a German would accept that 'motif' on the bonnet of their Transit camper.








Pretty astonishing looking thing this Aventador, never seen one of those before, looks spectacular in the matt black with a healthy coating of DIRT.

Anyway, back to reality and on Saturday afternoon we wombled over to MrJ's den

Its the house with all the old tat outside

;D




Get a load of that treasure.

It was too big to go in the back of the car in one piece, fortunately MrJ had the technology to circumnavigate that stumbling block.


Displaying a healthy disregard for H+S legislation, MrJ struggled to find any safety geps in his workshop so I waded on in without gloves or glasses. don't try this at home kids! Etc.

'Fortunately' for me I was wearing my £150 Ted Baker wool coat, probably the nicest bit of clothing I own, so was well protected against flying sparks


In she goes. At this point I took a moment to observe the chopped-up piece of scrap tin in the back of my car and ask myself if it really justified driving 1500 miles, taking 2 days off work (unpaid), spending money on hotels etc etc, and if perhaps I ought to just seek some psychological help or counselling or whatever.

Fortunatley, MrJ, without provocation, made some encouraging noises about it being healthy to enjoy ones hobby purely for fun and not get too hung up about the economics of it all, which I agree with, at the end of the day keeping old motors alive is as worthwhile activity as anything else, and I was having an adventure as well, so fugg it! its all for fun at the end of the day innit.

Dossed around on the sunday looking at stuff and watching the film 'Senna' which was fantastic, then headed back on the Monday:


The snow on the Belgial motorways was pretty bad, I was glad of those new tyres, even if they weren't winter tyres. It would have been bloody awful ploughing on on those old ones.


Made it back to Derby in one shot, with no problems whatsoever. the Rover averaged 41mpg over the trip and cruised happily at 75-80 for hours on end, it was a total pleasure to drive throughout, (apart from one buzzy speaker on the radio that drives me mental).

Now I've just got to get the hours in with the grinder and Mig! More soon hopefully.

To finish heres a shot of Alan's cat making good use of Ted Baker's handiwork.


L8RZ

[bstardchild]

Eexcellent - just excellent

Shame about the coat

[trigger]

Disappointing, very disappointing Mr. B....

I would have expected you to be at least wearing a donkey jacket

Great write up yet again, this Masser had better be worth it!

[Lopez]

Feb 4, 2012 11:26:44 GMT xbo11ox said:

Displaying a healthy disregard for H+S legislation, MrJ struggled to find any safety geps in his workshop so I waded on in without gloves or glasses. don't try this at home kids! Etc.


L8RZ

Cheered me right up that post has, especially the pic above! All you need is a tab hanging out the corner of your mouth to complete the look.

[mirafioriman]

Sometimes these things have to be done. Of course now a rust free front end will turn up just down the road for £20

[MK2VR6]

Epic. Also a great advert for
A. The reliabilty of old Rovers
B. Petrol engines - My TDi Audi daily only averages low 40's mpg, and I pay a billionty more $$$ per litre over petrol. Hmm, rethink needed?

[ianfearn]

This is a chuffin awesome blog! Keep it going....

[75nut]

Epic lol! And I was debating a 200 mile journey in UK to get a car!

[tonybmw]

If ever there is an award for most travelled RR'r, you must surely be up there near the top

Mr J is absolutely right, might as well spend your cash on something you enjoy.

Epic thread and as entertaining as ever

[barrett]

I hope there is going to be an award for 'Best dressed man in a workshop environment' at the 2012 RR awards.

Excellent stuff as usual Mr.Nads (The hat isn't fooling anyone though)

[Mark]

Awesome. Just awesome.

[djefk]

41 mpg is most impressive Bol, what speed do you punt along at to get that?

I've been doing some experimenting with driving tips for improving mpg - Can't decide if starting a thread in the 'Useful' section is going to go down well with everyone or whether secretly folks will be all over it like flies round excrement in these days of £6 gallons :-)

[Seth]

The footwear is ruining the look. Disappointing.

[will]

This


Is freakin GR888, I sincerely hope the interior smells of mouldy damp, wet dog and stale snout. Quality tat.

The Masa will be well worth any cost, pain and slightly singed Sunday best. Agree with Seth about the creeps though ;D

[xbo11ox]

What-ho gang, heres a crummy little update!

1) the CROMA. I taxed the Croma at the beginning of february and racked up 600 miles in a week. I stuck it up for sale on a few forums on the Tuesday and by wednesday night had taken a deposit on it!!!

the lad who bought it was a HARDCORE fiat/lancia lover, owning a couple of Gamma berlinas amongst other pasta-powered old cronk. He was a mega sound chap and drove it away that weekend. Mega painless!! heres the croma about to drive out of my life:



See ya!



Considering the amount of botha I had just to get that car started and in and out of the garage, it just slipped into 'daily driver' duties without any bothat at all and performed faultlessly. Thus vindicating 'Bickle's theory of Italian Malevolance' once and for all.

Now then, the Mas. I've been on at the outer sill this time..., drilled out the spot welds and chopped out the sill:



I didnt want to take the door off or get involved in the a-pillar/wing bits so I carefully chopped round that lot:



All very neat!



Heres that unfortunate sill which I ran over earlier. Luckily the bit I wanted to use of it, was not the wrinkly bit.


Had to make a 'lip' for the top of the front of the sill as my new sill didnt have one...


At this stage I learned from the master and gave everything a good dousing in weld-through zinc primer. Lovely!


I cut a suitable 'repair section' from the new sill. Unfortunately, there was a bit more subtlety to the shape than i had realised, meaning it was not a great fit. First off the door step did not fit properly, so I chopped it off and made my own in the metal folder. Then, theres a very gentle front-to-back taper to the bottom of the sill, so it did not fit very well at the bottom either:



I chopped it to try and widen that flat bit at the bottom. I put about a 12" slot in, should have done a longer one really:



Then I nicked another of TonyBMW's ideas and used a piece of copper to cover up the gap!




Welded up the gap with the above result. To be honest I should have made a much longer cut and widened it a lot more, but i moved the job in the right direction at least.




Then i got carried away and welded it on without taking any pics.


Got on it with the grinder and flapwheel etc


This bit didnt turn out very well, got a bit of a step there despite trying to be careful!! Will have to try and lose that with a bit of WOB.



Looks OK at the front end, although I walloped it with a hammer and put a dent in it. Had to weld a bit of metal on that I could get hold of and tug it out.


Cant get in here with the grinder unfortunately, bit of a problem that. Maybe the door will have to come off after all. I need to grind these welds down a bit or the stainless trims that live here will not sit properly.


Heres where i'm up to now, need to make a new piece for the bottom of the wing next:


Check out all that new metal!

[teaboy]

Feb 17, 2012 23:29:04 GMT xbo11ox said:

Cant get in here with the grinder unfortunately

Get yourself one of these.

[tonybmw]

Good progress Xboll, looking good and solid now, those joins on the sill are always difficult, nothing wrong with a bit of filler to smooth things out,

Its better to leave it like that than to compromise the strength of the weld by grinding it too much

[xbo11ox]

Done a bit more today believe it or not!


made a patch for the corner of the front wing:


boshed it in


welded it up


Trowelled on the wag. Lovely!