Retromotorman
(Just another wreck in the car park of life!)
I have decided to make a diary from now on (11/01/10) as it is a new year and not a hell of allot has got done since the axle and rear arch that you have already seen. I very nearly succumbed to my continuing health problems by selling everything, as the cold weather is really playing havoc with my back! However I am on the mend and have installed a wood burner in the shed, donated, as usual by my life long friend and partner in crime Rob. I have known this guy for hell, ever, we were at school together from the age of 12 or so. I moved to live nearly Filey in North Yorkshire while Rob ended up in Warrington near Manchester. And yet we still seem to see and talk to each other regularly, and Rob is the man who gets me most things for my motors, if I want something, chances are he has one in the shed he's just that sort of Guy. Anyway, I have this burner that Rob made out of an old Callor Gas cylinder, that's right, and it is great! It will burn almost anything my son or I put in it and being very susceptible to the cold it has worked wonders for me. So today the 11th of Jan I got up surprisingly fit, and after a few chores went in the shed and lit the burner. I had made jet another panel for the passenger side sill were it meets the rear arch, it was giving me the pip as it had been sat there for a while and was the next job. I don't know why but I was not too happy about doing this job, it looked a bit of a bugger, however if I could get it done it would represent the half way mark for the back end work. Now as I have said I don't like spending money but a little while ago I did a rash thing and bought a spot welding kit for my stick welder. When it came I had my droughts as it looked a bit, well, crap! Well I had a go at attaching the plate I made and to my complete surprise the spot welder is the bees Knees! So there you are I know have the passenger side rear wheel well, arch, sill and chassis work done, just the same to do on the other side and were done! see you next year!
12/01/10
That was a quick bloody year! Well today we had visitors so not allot got done, I finished the rear drivers side inner wheel arch by seem welding the plate on. That leaves the wheel well in the boot and that is it for the rear at that side. I did have a chance to get to grips with the passenger side rear too, and while there is no chassis or boot work to be done the inner arch and inner wheel arch need some work. The wheel arch is non existent on the inside so that is a bit sickening and the rear of the sill an't great, but haho if I can do it once I can do it twice!
13/01/10
Not feeling too good today but managed to get the second inner arch trimmed to shape and the area cleaned up ready for welding.
04/02/10
Well as you can see by the dates thing have been a bit slow. I have had things to do and have not been too good, but hay ho, back on form again now. Well I have got all the driver side tin work cut to shape and tacked in to place, left the passenger side boot well for now as I am thinking of fitting some odds and end there.
06/02/10
Welded all the plates in solid today, seam sealed them and primed them too, bloody hell, looks like the axle next! Cleaned all the location fittings for the axle as well, ready for the part that I was beginning to think was never coming.
22/02/10
Well, as you of whom have children know it has been half term, and in the midst of this my back has been a right pain in..... well the back really! But today I have got the axle in, with allot of help from my son, I may add, but there she be all gleaming and boy dose this feel good! The fitting went like a charm, everything dropped in to place like clock work, just to bolt up tomorrow.
23/02/10
God I feel good today, partly helped by the missus around dinnertime, well I needed a bit of a break from the volv, and these days offers are few and far between what with kids and the eldest girl back from Auss and using the bedroom next to us. Anyway, the axle is now back in and tightened up, with it's new springs and shocks it looks great! I also fitted the alloys that I intend to use on the car, just to keep things safe while pushing it around on the jack. The wheels are off the old 940 SE that I scrapped and really look the part, think I might try some 205's on them just to fill the arches out to the full. I also started work on the boot today, ripped out the fuel tank as I want to fit a centre tank that I removed from the Lotus I scrapped. Got the thing sat in and it looks like it will be a tidy job with a bit of calafudging, and the filler neck slightly altered.
01/03/10
Well well, got the tank brackets an straps made up today out of some 2mm steel and use some of the ally my son acquired for the straps. Also made the tank filler spill trap out of ally too, wish I was not so hand fisted as ally dose not take allot of welly. So mounted the tank by welding some brackets to the inner wheel arch as it was in the Lotus, and via the two centre ally straps so that should have it!
02/03/10
Bit stiff today so was going to potter, "best laid plans of mice and men" Could not stand looking at the holes in the boot and floor so got to work with the the tin snips and the mig, lavly!
13/03.10
Had to give it a rest for a few days as the weldathon really was not a good idea, firing on all four now so started to prep the inside for a coat of pain before fitting the tank etc. Balls!!!!! Just when you think you may get to put the mig away, DISASTER! Well not quite, but for god sake, really thought the welding was coming to an end when I noticed an area on the passenger side foot well that looked like the seem sealer was bubbling. Gave it a prod with the screwy and ho no, the seem between the bulkhead and inner arch was found to be made, well of bog all really from top to bottom! Not just an inch or two, ho no, all the bloody way up, end of day!
20/03/10
Well been a bit side tracked for a while, bought another Capri, 2Ltr ghia actually, going up in the world! The car is totally creamcrackered but one of it's redeeming features is the Atlas axle in the back. So I now have the axle for the mk1 project, should I ever get to it, one day one day. So I have been busy stripping the car as wify is a little reluctant to let it stay too long, and I need to sell some bits to get some money back.
23/03/10
Got started on the front seem that needs plating, well at least it is good to get to, just that and the other small hole at the other side and dare I say it, were done!
26/03/10
You know that small hole that needed welding on the drivers side foot well? Well it wasn't that small, not as big as the passenger side but it might as well have been! Anyway got the passenger side finished and the driver's plated, well tacked.
30/03/10
Yes!!!!!! The bloody welding is finished!!!........ I think. So today I celebrated by preping and masking the interior ready for paint. I also preped the tank too before wifey, children and half term stopped play
09/04/10
Well painted the int today and as I have not touched a paint gun in over 10 years made a complete cock up! Never mind, let it go tacky and had another bash, yippee, that looks better and got the tank done too! Nice pressy came through the post yesterday, an quite a few the day before as I turned 49, you would think that I would have grown out of tossing about with cars by now but afraid not. Anyway the pressy yesterday was a master cylinder for the hydraulic handbrake, best I could find was £35, but everything comes to the man who waits, and a new one was purchased for the sum of £15, yes! I also managed to win a remote servo for £2.46, post was £10, but still cheap for me, not that it has come yet!
15/04/10
Sat the seats in today, well had a look, but I really need to fish out the power steering unit I got for the car and see how it fits up. The thing about old motors is that some of them have steering boxes and not rack & pinion steering, if your reading this and but a pup you won't have a clue what I am on about. Anyway, mi ol Volv as a box (no sniggering please) and I have seen people try to alter these in all sorts of ways usually ending with a full transformation to Mcpherson struts complete with space framed front end, no thank you! I like simple things with simple solutions I can't hack geometry and such, so I got an electric p/steering unit, made for a Mk2 escort but the cheapest I had seen. So I thought I would give it a go and after some head scratching and making of brackets the thing was mounted and when attached to power it seemed to work, wonderful!
22/04/10
I want a hydraulic handbrake! But at over £100, ouch! Hmmm, I fished an old Capri handbrake out of my parts box and studied it for a while, now I have looked around and know that master cylinders are £35-40 so when some Landrover cylinders came up for £15 I thought yabbascubi! So now I have a vertical H/handbrake and new cylinder for about £20, that will do. Ho and the servo came too!
25/04/10
Now that I have the steering sorted I have offered the seats up to see were they want to be and they didn't seem far out so I made up the front brackets and a rear seat rail and bolted then in, Ooooo! While I was at it I mounted the hand brake, now the great thing about mi Volv is that the original handbrake is on the right hand side of the drivers seat so the H/handbrake has plenty of room in the middle.
01/05/10
Right, I need inspiration! I know things have happened but nothing looks any different, things must change, so I thought the rear firewall needs to be fitted! Trouble is that this means sealing off the rear bulkhead so power and fuel lines need fitting first. So off we go to the shops for the copper, and back home to fit it, I have the idea that the power and fuel line should run through the chassis as the heating ventilation did originally. So now we have the lines in place and shortly the firewall will be in too. I am making the wall out of ally, very lucky really, my son got the sheet from a mate he was helping move house and when the lad said he could not take it with him our lad gave him a tenner for it, and there aint just a bit.
06/05/10
Well the ally's in and don't it look smart! I have to make a confession here, you remember the lines I fitted, well, I have decided to fit or rather make a roll cage and guess what, the bloody lines are right in the bloody way! Ho well, ripped the nice ally plate out and welded the 4mm plate in place that will take the cage foot.
09/05/10
The cage steel came today, don't want to talk about it know. (what a cock up!!!!!)
11/05/10
Cracked on with the braking system today as I have no intention of pratting on with the cage for a while, well not until I can get thicker walled tube anyway. So I looked at the servo and master cylinder and wondered what to do about it. The servo and cyl sit right behind the driver's headlamp, on a long stalk from the bulkhead, some one was having a laugh here! Well I wanted a single line brake system with an in line servo and a hyd handbrake, so the original system had to go. I removed the witches broom and cut off the end nearest the bulkhead, welded a flange on it and mounted a master cylinder, easy peasy, all it has to do now is work!
12/05/10
Mounted the servo on the other bulkhead today and although it was off an old sunbeam sports jobby it fitted straight to the passenger bulkhead with out a prob! Also fitted the new brake fluid res for the brakes too.
25/05/10
Disaster! On the 19/05/10, right on my son's birthday my back went big style and it aint great now, but I have to try to bend the tube while no one is around so I can concentrate. Well there is one thing, I now know that tube with a 2mm wall is not bendable! However tube with a 3mm wall does, and it looks rather good if I say so myself! Going to leave the volv for a while as the back is not going to last if I keep going.
03/06/10
I have been on my back now for eight days and things are not, or do not seem to be getting any better, this happened while I was turning on the bath taps and I have not been able to walk since shit! I can not even go to the bogg without my wonderful wife helping me to walk the 3 mtrs to get there, on the up side it also means she has to bath me too. WATCH THIS SPACE
16/11/10
Well hallo, if anyone is or has ever been reading this diary, well thing's sill an't good I'm on morphine 24/7 and opium based pain killers on top through the day, just so I can get up and shuffle around. After much tooing and frowing between hospital and specialist the out come is not good, basicly my back has had it! They won't operate as to do one part of the total would cost £50,000 with no real gain so it's pain managment for me, which is all very well but one still has to function if one wants to stay alive in some fashon or other. Help has come in the shape o my son who has done some work for me, and so the volv has now got a 6 point cage (yippee!!) all we need to do is paint it and reit it to the car and the cabin is nearly there. I have had to say good bye to the Capri as there was no way that I could finish the restoration on it, a guy from up north has bought it and my mate Rob has swaped me his 1983 Vauxhall Chevette (with only 30,000 on the clock) for all the Lotus bit I had stored for the Capri project. I am going to have a bit of a clearout when I am able so whatch the unwanted page, see you soon.
car projects.....wanted....unwanted..... Diary