Pop Mayday.

[Blackpopracing]

well after yesterdays day out it was maintainance time for mine. I only have 8 days to get it ready for the Hot rods n Hills weekend and I've not done anything on it for a very long time.

It's developed a really annoying squeak recently, and even more annoying I can't even trace where in the car its coming from. *I did find later the bootlid hinge has been chafing the ally panel so this 'might' be the squeak.

But also I needed to grease the rear suspension bushings and generally check it all over.



The urethane bushings were all slightly worn, so I put a new set in as I had a load of spare ones, I also replaced the steel sleeves with some stainless ones I had made years ago. With all of the bolts cleaned up and everything greased it got reassembled. The rear shocks came off and I cleaned up the ally and put them on the polishing mop to shine them up again and also the polishing wax protects them for a good while.




I spend a good amount of time washing the underside of the car, and touching in some little areas of rust where bits have got chipped. 12,000 miles has taken its toll ands it's not quite the mint condition of when it was built anymore.

Another job while the suspension arms were off was to torch the seized bolts in the wheelie bar mounts, I normally grease up all the bolts, I'm not sure if I forgot last time on these ones or whether they just got rusty anyway, but they had refused to budge with a 6ft pole on them and even a month of penetrating oil had no effect. 3 minutes with the propane torch had them free though I have to admire 2 pack paint, torching them did not seem to hurt the paint at all? (not that it was in great shape).

New mounts are starting to get made - basic plates cut so far (old ones in background) as the old ones were modified after one of them fractured and ended up busier than I had planned (they originally had the single plate holding the tube & I had to add the extra side plates after the middle 6mm plate fractured). The new ones will be smaller and stronger with the double 6mm side plates.

[kapri]

Thanks for the compliment Kev, appreciated. I just try to do the best job I can.

You haven't fallen victim to the Dunning-Kruger Effect as many do . Look it up, the rodhop involved definitely need to!

Essentially it is when people don't know enough to realise that they don't know enough ie over confidence . It doesn't help when on build threads people don't like to have questions asked as to 'why?' . If people who do have suprior knowledge are silenced by fan clubs then everybody loses. Snowflakes start to melt at the slightest criticism

Likewise just because someone has been doing something for 10 years or whatever doesn't mean they've even doing it right! LOL That is the huge benefit of forums over Facebook groups .

[Blackpopracing]

Big Rob had come round on Monday to take the gearshift away with vague guidance on what was required. He video phoned me tonight and he's already finished it!! top man!!

No photos yet as I'll pick it up on Thursday but it looks extremely nice - I'd be happy with it in my car.

The 8mm rod ends turned up today as well and I made the bell housing cover at work so it got drilled out and filed to shape and fitted.



Next was cutting the inner wing infill panels, my cheap air powered shears from Lidl actually worked pretty well! saved a lot of work & mess with the grinder and I just finished off with the snips.



With only 20 seconds of shaping over a bit of tube and it's nearly a perfect fit, result.



While I was making a mess I finished shaping the wheelie bar brackets for mine, a bit of prep work for welding and radiusing the edges and I can stick them together with a bit of electric glue

[BadAC]

Great work. Do you ever ��.

G

[Blackpopracing]

Do I ever what Gary?

[Blackpopracing]

Big Rob sent a couple of photos of the shifter knob to me, the button in the top is pressed to be able to move the selector.

[BadAC]

Sleep.
I must learn to type properly.

[Captain Scarlet]

Well done Big Rob with the Knob
(It's a good job I didn't get those words mixed up, anyway,we have the edit button back now)

[brading]

Nice work there by you and Rob.

[Blackpopracing]

Sleep.
I must learn to type properly.

Ah yes - 7 hours a night roughly, maybe a little less. I'm a night owl, so I work till 11pm in the garage most nights.

[jsf55]

Nice work Mark, hope it's nearing completion

[Blackpopracing]

The major work is done John, still a big list of smaller jobs to do. About 3 weeks of work left I think, but I'm away for a bit so may take a bit longer in real time.

progress tonight started with my wheelie bar mounts, got them all prepped for welding;



And all welded up, pretty pleased with those welds. (The tubes are welded on the other side)



Then it was on to welding the inner wing infill panels, started ok, but ran out of welding wire. That was a 15Kg roll as well. Luckily I have a spare roll of .6 wire, so after resetting the welding power & feed it actually was better for the ultra thin panels. A bit of a marathon welding session for this, but quite pleased with it - only had to chase a few holes.



And good penetration on the other side so I can grind that side smooth without weakening the weld.



Trial fitted back on the car, the wing is super rigid again now - I did not realise how floppy they were before. It needs a final trim around the suspension and a little bit of massaging back into shape, but I'm happy with that.

[West]

Nice work on those inner wings, much better..

Sent from my SM-S908B using NSRA mobile app

[Blackpopracing]

I take that as a big compliment from you as your metalwork skills are light years better than mine.

Shorter time in garage tonight so I only managed to cut the other inner wing panel out and tack it into the wing.

[Blackpopracing]

Not posted anything as I've been doing more work on mine - front suspension strip & rebuild to grease all of the rosejoints and bolts, squeak is now gone thank goodness! Oil change done and new plugs will get fitted later today. Should be ready for it's trip to the Lake District on Thursday then.

I have been working on Andy's pop as well though, but nothing too picture worthy. I made a MkII version of the shifter rod from 8mm threaded bar with 8mm rose joints on the ends and it all shifts nicely now. I'm not totally happy with it though, so Ive decided to move the shifter over as much as space allows (about 15mm) which will give a more direct line for the rod. Ths will give a more positive shift but also stop the bar from rubbing the gearbox casing.

It will eventually be made of 10mm tube with the threaded bar welded in each end for the rod ends to fix to and also giving adjustability to the length.

Modified tunnel mount here, it will need a new plate welded in to close off part of the hole.

[Blackpopracing]

Some reasonable progress this afternoon.I finished welding the other inner wing and also the plate for the shifter in the tunnel. As it was so warm it seemed an ideal time to get them all in primer.





And as that dried off so fast I got them coated in stonechip as well.





And then (hopefully) the engine went back in for the last time for good.



It's nice to fold up the engine hoist and pack it away, less things to trip over now.

[BadAC]

More quick quality work. I'm glad it's not just me that trips over things.

G

[tom.marg]

It’s going to be a better car!

[Happydaze]

You'll have it done by Sunday! Oh no you won't as you're skiving of the HRH's on Thursday!

Chris

Sent from my SM-T515 using NSRA mobile app

[Blackpopracing]

More quick quality work. I'm glad it's not just me that trips over things.

G

Yep, I went flying a few times yesterday over air lines, trolleys, engines etc!!!