It was all done in a bit of hurry as it was my 40th birthday at the start of July and we wanted to sit 45 people sit down to supper on the drive which meant we had to move Big Blue, which we did. It was great to see it rolling with the body work on and we rolled it into a nearby car park for the party, and then rolled it back the next day.
July and August means lots of parties and holidays, plus Beth suffers dreadfully when the pollen's about and so as a result we didn't do much over the summer.
They also then revealed that they were stopping doing this kit ... which doesn't bode well if we have problems with it later.
- Spring 2001
As summer turned to autumn and on into winter and we didn't really get much done. Beth struggled with the petrol tank, and a bracket for the alternator, and with the exhaust, and I redesigned the radiator bracket to hold the oil cooler and beat one wing into submission but it really wasn't until a year later, in July 2001 that we really got going again.
Meanwhile, on Big Blue we got a fuel pump and filter from Bearmach and I've found a good place to mount the pump, on the rear of the cross member which secures the A frame. Rather than drilling any more holes in the chassis I used one of the bolts from the A frame mounting and built a bracket out of a bit of angle iron which will be held on by the bolt.
The really good news was the rear prop shaft. The old 109 prop shaft was way too short and we expected to have to make one up so we asked Bearmach for the longest 110 prop shaft they had as a starting point. When I offered it up on Sunday afternoon ... it was a perfect fit. Actually, it may be marginally too long, but it's easy(ish) to shorten a prop shaft so if we do decide to later it won't be too much of a pain.
|
Paul: We've been discussing for a while whether to build a car port as it's frustrating to either get rained on or, as has happened lately, for it to be too hot to work in the sun. However it would be difficult to put in a car port and it would need planning permission (as the house has already been extended (the "East Wing", an extra bedroom and shower room built on the back of the kitchen). Inpiration: why not buy an "Ezee-Up" type canopy. A look through the Northern Tools catalogue revealed this 10'x20' canopy. We bought (just under £200 including carriage) and erected it in the back garden to measure it as we knew we would have to reduce it in size to fit the drive (a little under 9' wide). |
Sitting under it in the back garden we were struck by how well it fitted, covering the patio perfectly and we speculated about bringing Big Blue around the back ... but it would take up most of the garden. And then real inspiration struck and we tried it between the workshop and the East Wing, where we've got concrete hard standing. It fitted beautifully.
So this weekend we demolished part of the fence at the bottom of the garden and pushed Big Blue around and through the fence into the garden. The only tricky part was getting it into the garden itself (there's a bit of a slope there) with only the two of us. But we solved this by driving Rudolf in first and then towing Big Blue very, very slowly (no brakes yet!) into the garden. So now it's under cover. No rain, no sun, and right next to the workshop. And the drive has lots of room on it too. Hurrah.
Beth also made progress with the clutch and built a bracket to take the remote oil filter housing, although the consequence is that she's decided we need a different housing.
Paul: The fuel plumbing at the back is now complete, with the fuel fill
gaiter and return pipe in place (the latter a pig to get on). I've even wired
in the fuel sender wires and the inspection hatches in the rear floor are
screwed down - which makes me feel as I've moved forward.
Meanwhile Beth got the clutch plumbing sorted out yesterday and we now have a working clutch - although it took some re-engineering at the slave end and a new master cylinder (from the aforementioned Marshalls) to make it happen. Beth's also finished fettling the steering. All that's left to do on that now is to plumb in the power steering.
I've also been pondering what to do with the electrics and we've decided I'll replace the whole front loom and re-wire it to our spec, with the centre of the wiring being the fuse box (position to be decided, but probably either in the centre console or on the internal bulkhead rather than behind the dash, which is always a nightmare to maintain on Series land rovers).
The primary battery will be under the driver's seat (which will need to boxing in). That puts it on the same side as the alternator and starter motor. The auxiliary battery will either be in the same box or under the seat box on that side.
Also made a bracket from a bit of architectural iron (bends easily!) to hold the PAS reservoir. But thats not fitted or painted yet as I need some bar material to make another bracket.
At some point recently I managed to take a day off work mid-week. So I took the opportunity to go down to CFE with the clutch unions and a rough idea of how much distance I wanted to put between them. They supplied me with some very nice overbraided small bore hose and suitable connections. So after some fun with the slave cylinder where I had to make a clutch pushrod extension, we now have a working clutch. There is still some air in the system, probably the master cylinder, but it seems to be coming out gradually and the pedal 'feel' is improving.
I did, eventually, get Troc's head stripped down and sorted out the blown head gasket. And so on into 2002, which was going to bring some unpleasant surprises but much progress.