Xbolx tat blog, Jan 2016 'FLEET UPDATE'

[düdo]

That hunk of rust cunningly shaped like a Maserati is starting to look like a Maserati again. Good work!
I went back through your thread and saw that you collected the front end from Stuttgart ( you mad sod!) - just round the corner from me here.
You could get a nice finish on that thing with a bit of the Lime mortar you mention. I too use such stuff.

Keep up the good work.

[zimzimmer]

Mr boll,

I must say that this is impressive stuff. I'm not sure I would have taken the Jetta task on. I would have concentrated all my efforts on the Masser. Cant wait to see the lump removed to carry out all fixes required before FETT. I can's say I am impressed with whole fleet you own. There are definate cool cars in there (such as the Mazda 929 coupe and hardtop), but there are other cars which should simply be crushed to save people (public) from the misery of seeing them on this planet, let alone the roads.

Good examples of the crushable cars would be that ridiculous Polish car, all the estates and defintatly the Talbot. The Toyota Carina is cool. On the subject of owing estates, are you a dog handler or a police interceptor?

Keep up the good work on the Masser, I look forward to the Pass Off test and seeing the 80's beast eating up cars in the fast lane! God help the MOT tester who has to tap all the welds you've done. Good job MOT's are not priced by the hour.

[xbo11ox]

YO!

Time for a quick update, did a bit this week, staying down the garage till gone midnight on Wednesday! Brilliant innit.

Anyway, I started the evening with a helping of delicious fish and chips to give me the strength to go on.



Tonights job was to look at getting the engine out:



So that I could have a proper look down here at the chassis leg which has been patched up in the past:


Started with all the easy pipes and wires obv. Particularly enjoyed this one:

Radiator hose temperature sensor! Useful*. I have no idea what this does as it has two separate 'proper' sensors observing the water temp. I'll have to look it up in the wiring diagram I suppose.

Its a right old rats nest down the back of the engine, loads of waterpipes, both the turbos are water-cooled so theres plenty of pipes spaghetti-ing all over the shop.


To be honest it was pretty straightforward. already had the exhaust pipes off from welding up the floor, disconnected loads of pipes and wires and that and before you kew it the hoist was limbering up:


At the first attempt, i got it half-out then had to put it back as I had the angle of dangle all wrong:


Ah! Thats better:


Its a PROPER tight fit at the back, you have to get the engine at a mega steep angle to get it out, but then it barely squeezes between the steering rack and the bulkhead. I think to put it back i'll probably have to remove or at least loosen the steering rack:


Anyway out it came with pretty much no damage due to ham-fistedness:

PROPER BO!

This is the chassis leg in question:


To be fair it looks like a half-decent job in this pic and would probaby pass a test. But I know theres some fairly serious rot inside here and having spent so long on the rest of it I don't wanna leave it in there. SO, next job is to clean this up and investigate it properly. Also got to write a shopping list of bits to get from eurospares (cam cover and sump gaskets, timing belt, steering rack gaiters to start with) before I put it back together.



What about that then! Looks even further from hitting the road now! Will probably get a bit of time on it tomorrow though hopefully.

Finally if anyone is feeling inspired by this lot, I sugest you wazz right into my face by buying this cracking-looking 425 in the south of france, had loads of work done and very likely to be rot free (guy says its in its original slightly sun-bleached paint), for a grand. Depressing.


www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/383153874.htm?ca=15_s

L88RZ

[babyboomer]

I follow your thread with interest and never really have anything to say, preferring to sit in silent admiration. But this picture I just had to comment on:



That'd scare the bejebus out of most people. Most people...

[mirafioriman]

Looks like you've had a busy week

It's the only way to do it, get everything out the way

You could buy that blue one and make one good one out of the two and sell all the other bits

[Carsie]

Oct 27, 2012 20:10:21 GMT mirafioriman said:

Looks like you've had a busy week

It's the only way to do it, get everything out the way

You could buy that blue one and make one good one out of the two and sell all the other bits

Says the man who secured himself a really nice bodyshell and proceeded to cut it up into sections to weld onto his rusty shell ;D ;D ;D

How you getting on with it?

I love these Mafia staff cars You both amaze me with your dedication.

[keithyboy]

Jesus that looks like a lot of engine when you see it like that.

[mirafioriman]

Oct 27, 2012 20:29:23 GMT Carsie said:

Oct 27, 2012 20:10:21 GMT mirafioriman said:

Looks like you've had a busy week

It's the only way to do it, get everything out the way

You could buy that blue one and make one good one out of the two and sell all the other bits

Says the man who secured himself a really nice bodyshell and proceeded to cut it up into sections to weld onto his rusty shell ;D ;D ;D

How you getting on with it?

I love these Mafia staff cars You both amaze me with your dedication.

In my defence, it was LHD (my car is original uk RHD) and was an Italian import with no documents. Also it did have rust even though it was a much better shell than mine

[reallyloud]

Just spent much of my Sunday going through this thread. A+

[Clement]

Can't wait to see the engine rebuild! The 425 in the south has suffered some hail damage hence the low price, you can actually see it on the bonnet in this pic:




In France there's this guy who's done excellent more on a Maser as well:
www.forum-auto.com/forum2.php?config=automobiles-mythiques-exception.inc&cat=5&post=378252&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=1&trash=0&trash_post=&print=0&numreponse=0"e_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

He's done with the first one, so now he's planning on building a track-only Biturbo. Hell yeah...



Please, please keep on. I love these Maseratis and yours will be litterally better than new

[jonw]

Oct 27, 2012 16:12:58 GMT @babyboomer said:

I follow your thread with interest and never really have anything to say, preferring to sit in silent admiration. But this picture I just had to comment on:



That'd scare the bejebus out of most people. Most people...

As above.... I just read and admire usually..... but that picture..... fook me thats a big lump to get out!

[barrett]

It's been nearly three weeks, where are the updates ya lazy bum?

[xbo11ox]

I've done almost nowt lately due to a lack of mojo, i can feel it coming back a bit though so will hopefully get on it this weekend! The only things i have done lately have been a bit of welding and fresh ticket on the Argenta:




And snagging this v6 automatic beauty off eBay for 400 notes, to replace my now embarrassingly scruffy Rover

[jrevillug]

Blimey that's a tidy Mondeo.

I hope the Rover's not going elsewhere and is being tidied up instead?

[babyboomer]

Nov 16, 2012 12:26:57 GMT jrevillug said:

Blimey that's a tidy Mondeo.

I hope the Rover's not going elsewhere and is being tidied up instead?

+1

[jonw]

That's a lot of car for £400!

Great stuff. Please keep the updates coming!!!

[Mark]

+1 for the Mondeo, great buy!

I'm surprised you haven't been tempted by a Rover 75 tbh.

[Deleted]

Maserati: total admiration, inspiring stuff.

Argenta: hard to express in reasonable terms why I want that classic three-box saloon so much, but I really do! An ambition not helped by catching occasional glimpses of an immaculate Mirafiori in daily use in Bournemouth.

[Deleted]

Is that engine anything like as heavy as it looks???
Cos it looks feckin heavy. Nice Mondeo

[xbo11ox]

EVENIN'

Been doing a bit on the Maser this weekend after several weeks of being distinctly un-ar$ed about the hopeless old crock. TBH I must not have had my mind fully on the job as i made some right schoolboy errors. Anyway I have made a decent bit of progress so on with the GROT PWNAGE!



This is the rust that needs sorting. Someone has glued a patch on the chassis leg here, and painted over it with the old black gloop. The rot has spread right through the strut tower thing and into the inner wing. Anyway first job is to get that patch off.


Cleaning up to find the welds


Started to remove the patches:


Here you can see where its all gone manky underneath.


The patch was hardly welded on at all at the bulkhead end, I just prised it off with a crowbar and it popped right off. GOOD! You can see theres several layers going on here.




Nice eh!!! I think i neet to get that strut tower thing out of the way so I can replace the steel that is the actual inner wing panel, thsts the sort of 'core' of all these layers thats rotted out.


Heres the view from the other side:


Took the strut off for a proper look. Whoever welded it up last time did not bother to put any paint or anthing on their welds on this side. Nice work!


Heres the bottom of the strut tower thing, bubbling up nicely:



choppy choppy!


Close up of the opened-up chassis leg.


welded back on the supa thick reinforcing plate and sprayed on the weld-thru.



Started to make a piece to form the inner wing skin.


Eventually got that trimmed up and stitched in:


Sixing up to refit the bottom of the strut tower pressing. It got a bit battered in the removal!


Welded in:


After a bit of arsing about it looked like this on the inside:


Next I started to make a patch for the inside. Like an idiot I made it too short so seeing as it would have a join I ended up chopping it in half just to make it a bit easier to fit.


Starting to weld it in. You can see along the top edge I had not made any plug welding holes! just forgot didnt I, probably thinking about something else. So, I had to chop off the tack welds to fix that. But of course I could not get the grinder in there, so I took the guard off the angle grinder to get right in the corner. Took all of about 2 mins before i sliced my finger:


Brilliant innit.

Anyway, no serious damage done amazingly so on with the welding. Lashed a bit of WELD-THRU in the box section and weled my patch back on.
Immediately there was a massive 'FOOM' noise as the aerosol vapour inside the chassis leg exploded. FFS get a grip bo11ox man.




Extended the other half of my original patch and welded it in. Spent ages arsing around filing it and that to get a neat fit. Welded a little 'handle' on it so I could hold it in the right place.


Looked like that when I was done.



After a clean-up and grind-up I lashed on the seam sealer:

Hurrah!!! That is the last SERIOUS bit of welding this car needs (I think). Now i can actually start putting some bits back on! Next job is to clean up and paint the bits of the engine bay that have been welded, so that the engine can go back in!!! AWESOME.