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Picked up a Radio Flyer wagon as a new project. I still have my daughters hot rod but it has small and narrow wheels so car meets on grass are a no go. Still fits and I finally added the "lake pipes" Scored this on gumtree for a bargain and looking at some secondhand go kart wheel this Friday. Pulled it to bits Plan to copy this style chassis Hopefully end up with something like this

I will now rummage through all my fading memories the happenings of the last few weeks since the wagon became legal, weeks of holidays, drinks, sunshine, fettling of various old car things. Hopefully as I type it will become clearer.. Since getting the car back into life I have just kept using it for all sorts of trips and its been fun. I love the looks it gets. Often I get thumbs up, usually from young folk who might not even know what it is but certainly like the fact its shabby. Older people often smile too. Many comments But it was never 'right'. I felt it had better potential and didn't believe that the engine was knackered. It was not using much oil but enough to make me look further than just the patches it left here and there. Every time I drove it Id discover afterwards a new fresh coating of oil mist over everything. I checked the rocker cover and sure enough that was loose. But still the mystery mist kept appearing.. hmmmmm… Finally I worked out that it was spinning off from the front pulley. Luckily my stash of Viva spares had a new seal. I popped off the timing chain cover and swapped out the very very hard old seal. The nice soft new one stopped the mist. Yay. But that rough idle was annoying me. More so the engine shal=king about and making the exhaust knock the crossmember. This I had to fix. It was too close and sat quite low as well.. So I cut off the down pipe and while it was off I repaired my previous ‘repair’ to the manifold joining flange which had started to leak. Knock be gone but still the car idled rough. I checked the compressions and they were all good @ 150 psi each (which is way higher than the 130 Mr Haynes tells me to expect so I either have a gauge that lies or someone in the past has skimmed the head?) But still the car ran rough. I finally bought a new timing light. A self powered one. So good not having to plug in the battery leads! With my new light I was able to check the timing which turned out to be only about 5 degrees out. So I was happy that Id managed to get it so close just by ear but not happy that it was obviously not the cause of the poor idle. I checked the valve clearances. Now things got messy… the manuals all say check them hot and many sources out there say the best thing is to check them with the engine running….. NEVER AGAIN will I try using feeler gauges on a idling engine! What a kerfuffle and resulting mess! After I had spent many clean rags clearing up the oil from everywhere I set the clearances hot. They were all pretty good actually. I screwed the rocker cover down and started the engine. TINK TINK TINK TINK TINK…. WTF?!!! Where’s that coming from. Oh no.. have I dropped a valve? Sounds like piston slap or a broken piston top but higher pitched? Oh dear I thought. I popped the cover off and started the engine. Sound has gone! What? Looked at rocker cover and I could see marks underneath from where a rocker was just touching my altered breather gallery… Oh OK. So tightening the cover down further on a new hot cork gasket just pulled it down that bit more to touch. One swift smack with the hammer and the sound was gone So what is causing the rough running then. I had been pulling the plugs after every few runs to look at the condition. Always the front 1 and 2 plugs were clean and borderline lean. The rear 3 and 4 always a touch oily. Hmmmm. Then I looked at my servo and breather lines heading into my inlet manifold- remember back when I changed the positions?.. I popped off the servo one and sucked on it. Hang on… no resistance! What? Bugger me.. I have a split diaphragm in the servo causing an air leak. Which also explains the hefty brake pedal ( I’d just put that down to poor brakes bedding in or not being manly enough..) I plugged the tee on the manifold and started the car. Wow!! What a difference!!!! So smooth. I was able to lower the idle speed right down. Then double checked the timing, tweeked the carb jet a little and it was heaps better. Next drive was way smoother, engine had more pull and no lurching. Heaven. But I knew it could be even better. So I undid the breather pipe from the inlet and re-routed it down the back of the block, holding it in place by the bottom of the bell housing with a zip tie. I plugged the remaining takeoff on the tee and started the car… even better! Yes!! Having got rid of another ‘air leak’ helped no end plus was also explaining why the rear two plugs were constantly oily. I will source another HC servo and for now just put up with a harder pedal. The brakes work well but just need a shove. As for the inlet take off I will move the position to just after the carb in the middle so its even across all cylinders. The breather can remain to atmosphere. Now I knew the engine was actually OK I gave it an oil change. The old oil was not too dirty but it did smell. It burns a little oil at start up past the inlet valve stems. I have found out that this earlier engine doesn’t have stem seals but a friend who owns many Vivas said they used to slide an O-ring down the stem so most oil ran over the o-ring rather than down the guide. Nifty idea I might try if I do pop the head off. Im now a little reluctant to take the head off as its running well..but I am a little curious to see how carboned up it might be?. So my once rough running Viva is now a very smooth little car to drive. In fact its an utter joy to drive, allowing for a general lacking in power. My fears about driving up hills have been removed. Yeah it’s a bit slow but only on one very steep section do I need second gear, otherwise its third gear and cruise. Its ideal about town and fantastic for popping to the beach, a trip it has done many times now. I like it. I like it a lot. I just cruise. Windows down. Chilled out. Lifes a breeze. I love the way the car handles with the tiny engine up front. Steering is very light and it fun to flick around. Many more little things to tidy up now and make it a nicer place. Hannah’s mum is over from the UK on holiday so I made the most of her baggage and got her to bring over lots of stuff I got cheap on ebay Uk. See here… New dizzy cap, rotor, a full set of mint Vauxhall service manuals (only £1.50 ), full head gasket set (cheap), a few magazines, adjustable electric fan controller, a chrome air filter which doesn’t quite fit but I’ll sort that. So that’s where I’m at now. Just using it. Transporting mountain bikes (easy pesy).. Going to the beach.. Sitting pretty in the afternoon… Taking me down to my local village for moonlit strolls along the beach.. Just generally being a very good fun wee classic daily

Adequately British.

He'll yeah ill be there with the world hating on my beetle. It's going to be great. Can Not Wait

Thursday night was wagnats packing and jamming the CB radio and aerial on. The gas fridge took a lot of room in the back, and I contemplated putting the towbar on so I could take a trailer. Couldn't get the bolts to line up easily so I jacked that option in and just packed more carefully. My Mrs was coming camping too so that reduced the space available, and it was raining. Anyone with an old wagon knows about water leaks! Loaded for bear! Tagged onto the OS convoy in Te Horo and headed north. Prior to this I'd only driven the thing for about 5km in total. It went well though. Leaks as expected around the windscreen and rear side windows mostly. Some hesitation developed at higher throttle when getting near Hunterville. I suspected a blocked fuel filter due to the rusty tank, so picked up a new filter at the BP in Hunterville. Still got us to Vinegar Hill though. It's big enough for two to sleep in (so long as a few drinkies first) and did the job expected at Wagnats. I replaced the filter over the weekend and the old one (which was only little) was well clogged. Ran fine on the way home, even in the stop-go traffic coming in to Otaki. Might have been a bit smokey there, as reported on the CB. The cross-shaft in the gear linkage between the body and engine popped out when I was backing it into the garage so I lost gear selection. It was easy to lever back - looks like a new rubber bush is needed there. Still plenty to get done, but I'll leave the next steps until after British Car Day. ObPic of rusty metal removed:

If you need another shed south auckland ways, I got a doozy in Papatoetoe. ... PS - if included bring money for oldschool stuffs for sale (deceased estate...)

So, no actual physical progress but..... While i was in town today i thought i'd go and have an argument with someone at a wof / compliance place just for shits and giggles. Also so i could feel superior to the 'office' people by saying "YES there is such a thing as a Phillips Gadabout and YES they are eligible to be road legal. BUT, fu*k it all, things didn't go to plan. Lady behind the counter said 'Oh, maybe you should talk to ***** as he's our motorcycle guy'. So after chatting to him for 5 minutes and him checking the system and yelling across the waiting area to say "Yeah bro, our system has Phillips Gadabouts on it". He then produced a form which he half filled out and handed to me saying "when ya up and running bring it in so i can check frame and engine numbers match what you write on form and i'll sort ya plate and shit. Oh, and don't worry about lights and shit cos i won't be doing a 'safety check', besides it won't have a battery so it don't matter" If all goes to plan ***** will be getting very drunk courtesy of me the weekend following my bike receiving plates and reg' lol.

how she looks now. Photo care of Steelies

It's that time again! Now we're back from Wagnats it's back to the regularly scheduled programming. Since it's still Summer (or sorta) the Beach meets continue! We'll be heading back to Plimmerton beach in the carpark area across the road from here: https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/62+Moana+Rd,+Plimmerton,+Porirua+5026/@-41.0731399,174.8555419,80m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x6d3f514cdc162d63:0xbcf7386dd17cb113!8m2!3d-41.0729852!4d174.8557369 For all you regulars, it's the same Plimmerton spot as the last few times we've been out there. Slightly earlier meet time of 6.30pm to make the most of the daylight hours for those who can make it out earlier. So, bring along some dinner and come have some yarns! Discussion

Only way to know is to try another guage

Did you see the glass HQ on TM? There is a silver one driving round Henderson to

Home at last : I dunno how many miles I clocked up! Should do Clac's shortly since last Friday 27th DVK>AKL>Leadfoot>Whitianga x3>Napier>DVK Feb 8th Here's my last pic from Leadfoot, note they updated the Mobil 'livery' Car never missed a beat, used no water or oil that I could tell & a few of the other volunteers there also "used to have an Avenger once" half a tank of gas / 20L from Taupo via Napier to Dannevirke aint too bad i reckon edit : 1000 Miles or 1654km's round trip

So Cert is booked for the 13th Feb and I've been busy working on getting everything finished, All the Airlines have been secured every 300mm or less, ive fixed the leaky exhaust, just have a tailpipe extension to weld on, the biggest thing ive had to do is make my front shock mounts, I had to get a spacer machined up to space out the bottom mount as it would've fouled on the brake line mount, and for the upper mounts i got a bit of 2x2 box section, cut it diagonally length ways, boxed the top, and welded them into the car, ended up having to trim the leading gusset as on full drop the top of the shock body fouled (Simon from Airride NZ said he uses right angle and now i can see why haha Car is booked in for a Wheel alignment on friday so i think we are as set to go as i can be, will see what Cletus finds, and fix that too haha

Despite a self-imposed ban on tutu-ing due to hectic schedule: New battery, fuel filter & fresh gas (reading through the history, the truck seems to have about 5 fuel blockages to the points failure, really needs a screen or sediment bowl that isn't in the fuel pump, of course its all hardline) replaced carby inlet seal washer, painted scuttle and inside of cab. Have been using it a bit to blow the cobwebs out, not going to win any races but runs really well. Slowly getting the hang of crashbox, in fact only time i seem to miss gears is in traffic when it actually matters To do: continue paintin' cab, underside etc Grease everything (the lube chart is like a star map) Check steering box oil New tyres & exhaust Figure out why wipers & roof lights not working (suspect bad earth?) both rear axles leak a bit, doesnt seem too bad i.e not all over the tyres so down the list with it There is a massive stash of s15 commer (different sheetmetal on the front and ohv motor) parts near htown on t.m, i'm a bit torn as to whether to get it or not as the dude wants it all gone as one lot, realistically i'd have to "take the best and scrap the rest" in total there is "2 side valve motors 3 ohv motors ,5 gear boxs 3 chassis 3 front axles 3 diffs radiators 1 cab with 2 doors 10 rims 8 tyres and more". Probably enough parts to keep the thing going another couple of centuries, but i'll be sleeping in the spare cab if I drag 3 old chassis home! Also am fickle with vehicles so a lot of effort to shift everything if I sell/garden ornamentise the Q. Also used it as mobile connect 4/stereo transporter for my wedding on sunday, was a great hit. (and then used it to drag a portaloo back to hirepool and dispose of 1,000,000 bottles)

Just put a few hundred miles on this car over waitangi weekend. My lil brother, dad and best mate all went for a good cruise around kapiti making noise and snapping necks while dad told tales of the hunter he used to own. Most fun I've had in ages. The next day I used it as my car for my wedding and the lads and I all turned up to our ceremony in it. And only the day after our wedding has it started being unreliable. Im happy it waited until the next day.

OK, so I got this done. - Fixed petrol tank and slapped some paint on it before putting it back again - Installed an electric windscreen washer setup (first bit of hack wiring on the car, amazingly) - Redid exhaust to manifold joint - Put washers on the tailgate - New bushes on the shackles. Tires were a bit of a run-around. Got some used 175's for the back as a temporary measure. New 165's for the front as I had no time for anything else. Also adjusted the column shift linkage (one rod was 5mm short) which made it heaps better to drive. Put various bits of the interior back in to make it 'comfy' I picked up the front wheels and new tires on Tuesday evening (the garage owner fitted them after hours) then took it back for a WOF recheck early Wednesday (6:45am). Mechanic was a bit grumpy but did the required paperwork and issued a sticker. I nearly drove it to town but decided I shouldn't temp fate/the popo so just bought the rego during the day.

Today I finished the main bogging and sealed her up. Photos on this side are a bit ham cause it's a lot darker.

Gather round children I'll tell you a tale... I'll try updating this thread as I go both for your own interest and my sake to document the build. Ive been crazy about diggers and trucks since before I could walk, and back when I was about 10 years old my dad took me up from New Plymouth to the Field days in Hamilton for my birthday. As we went through the gate one of the first machines I saw was what I later learned to be the Kaiser X4 Turbo walking Excavator. This thing was mind blowing back then, in fact I was so enamored I returned home and built one out of Lego which won me second prize in a contest at Toyworld (prize was a technic Helicopter which I believe I still have at the olds place). Anyway fast forward 20 years and through some searching I became friends with the man who back then owned my dream machine, since then hes owned several other versions. He sold it to a lovely guy up past Opotiki, so with some rough directions and a lot of hope I set off on an adventure with my poor girlfriend to find it. I knew it was up east cape way, past a school, over a bridge and up to the right "you can see the beach from the machine"... cant be that hard right?? First trip we drove right up the coast from Whakatane to a little past Waihau Bay, and up every road on the right that looked hopeful but with no luck. It later turned out we drove straight past it (behind a row of trees), and were intently looking at a shed full of things on the opposite side of the road!! Upon returning home I quizzed the old owner again, and he told me you could see it on Google maps Two more trips up there id not only found it, but found the owner and struck a deal. Yesterday myself, the missus and my mate set off to retrieve it.. How shes sat for 10 years:

WARNING SHARN AHEAD Rather than posting it in spam I might as well start a thread as it's going to be somewhat of a project, just not the normal slammed out OS project lol So I've started a lawn mowing/property maintenance/handy man type shit business And as sticking the weed eater out the rear window of my Altezza doesn't convey the most professional look I decided I needed a van/ute/wagon to haul my gear around. Test drove a couple Previa turds, yuck. Couldn't scrape up enough $$ for the HiAce I was offered, almost brought a Nissan C22 Vanette, but the seller sold it even though I told him I'd take it pending J5 or VG having a look. Probably a good thing though as the mighty A15 probably wouldn't have liked being loaded up with gear and towing a trailer full of greenwaste for long! Also came damn close to picking up a fairly tidy 2002 VX Commodore wagon for $1500 from a dealer, would have been good to put a couple hundred $ into then flicked off for a tidy profit, but I thought about it too long (over night) and it was snapped up by someone else. Anyway a garage around the corner from home often sells cheap vehicles on the side of the road (kinda almost cooked an Estima there trying to sell on one of my test drives) and a couple weeks back this Delica popped up out the front of the garage and it was almost in my budget range of $0-fuck all. Took it for a test drive, straight away I used the fucked clutch and oil leak to my advantage and got a good chunk of $$ off the price and it became my van with a nice new "clean sheet" WOF from the same garage on the screen... Pulled the very rear seat out and lined the floor, I can fit 2 mowers and all my gear in the back and still have a 5 seater wagon. A few minutes after this photo was taken I learned that it has an open diff and that the torsion bars have sagged/been wound down. Went to go straight out the driveway and the front bullbars bottomed out hard on the road and left me stranded with one rear wheel spinning on the grassy gravel drive As said the clutch was well rooted, slipping like anything, but since a full kit is under $150 trade at BNT with a free flywheel grind I wasn't too phased! Blasted the engine/box with 4 big cans of degreaser and went to town on it. Typical early 90's Mitsi, the clear coat is fucked! Easiest clutch change I've ever done, under 45 minutes from driving into my workshop to having the box on the floor, wasn't too much longer to get it back in. Found it's got a new/recon starter, it was the pretty much the only thing that wasn't buried in congealed oil, nice shiny new looking fuel pump too! Was a decent rivet groove in the flywheel too, but didn't think to get a pic of that before dropping it off at BNT. Shiny box haha, my boy spent ages with a scraper then diesel and a dish brush on it. "Regularly serviced" "Clean sheet WOF" That's fail crayon from the main WOF centre in town... Found the dizzy when turned to max advance was timed to TDC, it was also 180° + 1 tooth out! Reinstalled the dizzy correctly and set it to 7.5°, it now revs over 4000rpm haha. "new rocker cover gaskets last week" translates to a touch of orange poo smeared on rock solid stock gasket and half round block, changed to new ones and it doesn't seem to be leaking any more/still a possible front crank seal dribble though. Was backfiring a LOT between gears and has been using an absolute shit load of gas, I'm putting that down to the rather messed with Mikuni Solex "electro jet" carb. I've changed most of the vac lines as several were leaking, set the choke and idle up RPM, changed the thermostat so it actually gets warm enough for the choke to turn off and cleaned out everything I can get to, found a tiny adjuster behind the carb that sets the idle adjustment range too (think it's the fast idle control), when I got it I couldn't get it to idle under 1100rpm, now it holds 750 smoothly. Today I discovered that the accelerator pump was set to the max, 2 pumps of gas was enough to flood the engine and the pump arm was over-travelling so far that it was squirting a little blast of fuel in when I lifted off the gas, could explain the back firing and the super rich smoke clouds when the choke was on?! lol Backed the pump linkage off a lot and in the 15 minutes I've driven it since there's been no backfiring, so fingers crossed it will also stop drinking so much gas, 1/4 tank for 18k is just nuts! Don't think the vac secondary are opening either, but that's a mission for another day. When I've got some more money I'll likely be changing to an Aisan carb from an L300 or something and doing away with all the vacuum and emissions shit!! So yeah I know it seems like a total POS, but at this point I've got less than $2k in it and other than the fuel usage and the torsions needing to wound way back up it drives really well. Engine is smooth, not smoky once warm and makes no bad noises, found a warranty void melt tab on the frost plug behind the flywheel which leads me to think it has had an engine rebuild at some point in it's history too. Can't find ANY rust beyond a hole in one of the sliding window frames, only 210k on the clock and since the speedo is rather optimistic* it may be lower still. *Wondered why I kept getting tail gated so checked the speedo against GPS, 60k on the dash is really 50, 85 is 70, 100 is 80, 135 is 100! Future plans inc properly decking out the back for my gear and I'd like some Valiant steel wheels. TL;DR? I brought a shit van that I'm trying to make less shit and make a living from.

thinking about adding a water and amps underneath might just fit in.

Probably just low oil pressure knowing A series. Don't worry about it until the light comes on / take the bulb out. Do try another one though to be sure.

As long as the needle moves a fraction off the stop your good to go Is it a Trisco gauge? there mechanical oil gauges are ok but the temp gauges are crappy

does it leak?

so tonight I decided ill have a beer after work and hack into the dash my surprise it was tin hahaha thought it was gonna be different, not sure if I'm gonna regret hacking into my dash but meh

And have series Holden's probably aren't the strongest in side impacts anyway

Not any different to the many glass body rods that are kicking round.

Such a rad wagon dude ! Enjoyed looking at it for 5 days. Rad hanging out too bro !

Yeah looking good man, rims are sweet

be pretty sketchy to have them on a road car you would loose alot of protection from memory even race cars to run composite doors had to have a cage with side protection.

Apparently Vantages are old school.

I'm pretty sure you don't have to touch the jets..

What is the story with fiberglass doors on a vehicle like the HQ? Do you have to frame out the guts? (Simple bar work between hinges and door latch? What's the minimum requirements?)

New page brings new energy into building this tho there wont be many photos to post up as my 15yo digi camera is takestoo good of photos to upload on Os have to slave through photopucket adds insteed

this happened!! pretty gutting as i can't find the same tyre anywhere so i am waiting on a pair of tyres with (hopefully) a similar thickness whitewall. o well at least the spare will now be a near new tread tyre. the tapped thermostat housing was a fail the temp sender just fouled the thermostat so brought a junction to go in radiator hose instead. has been pretty good being daily driven goes really well for what it is, the speedo cable has decided to play up unsure whats going on with it might just try another if i can find one

Back to fixing the lower cab corner rust. Look at that nice 1950's welding!

Got any tech questions? Spam thread is that way ->

make sure it doesnt touch it, including the dust cover when the suspension is compressed can you tweak them a bit away from the shock?

After another rub-down, we shot another layer of sunrise red in the bay. Now there are only a few patches where you can see the sanding marks therefore yet another rub down will be needed. The colour really deepened after the second coat and should be looking bang on after another couple. Somehow I have lost 1L of clear in my shed somewhere….FML. The FXGT brakes/s2 RX7 discs are all fitted to the dummy diff and this all should be ready to bosch together this weekend. The discs were opened up on the lathe so that they fit over the ‘snout’ of the hub extensions which allows me to run my RX2 wheel centres. Hoping that this weekend I can have the rear end rolling and the bay painted. 6 mates pooled in $80 each and we got ourselves a tyre changing machine and balancer off trademe - this is living in a mates shed and will give us free tyre changes for life.

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So yeah. Thought I would make attempt to drive this to work from my lock up to see how my rebuilt motor might hold up etc. Got to petrol station fine. Then just cruising along a very straight road it just cut out. After finding an off street to coaster into checked some shit. Seemed I had lost all spark. ... again. As this same thing happened when I had it running up in the lock up just a few days ago, which I had put down to accuspark dissy conversions being average. So I had replaced the dizzy with an injected m one, and fit a factory ignitor pack to match. Which got it running and I was happy. But yeah today after goat came oit and gave me a tow back to the lock up ( joe I love you! ) I swapped out the ignitior pack to another one I had and it started straight away. But what does it all mean? Is it coincidence? Is it just old parts being old? Or do I have something going on burning out these electronic components. As joe suggested and that I had already considered was maybe alternator is over charging. But would appear that's not the case. Only other thing I can think of is that I have used the ignition feed on top of the ballast to run power to the auto choke and cut off solenoid. I wonder if there is to much draw from these causing high resistance. Will try find another ignition feed from somewhere (pretty sure when I wired it like that it was because I had no luck finding something better) but yeah. A tad gay. Want to get a spare points dissy in case this happens again. Atleast then I can road side swap and not get stranded somewhere. Points get you home.

Some more rust, this time the cowl vent. The channel where the rubber seal sits needs to be completely replaced. The other piece that is spot welded underneath just needs a few small holes patched up. Attempted to use a shrinker/stretcher to make up individual pieces but it wouldn't stretch enough for the tight radius. So then I thought about other ways and decided to try and form it out of one piece. Drew up some cad drawings and got them laser cut. After one hour of smacking it with a hammer. Came out way better than expected. Just needed to fold the inside up now. The inner corners required heating as they needed some decent stretching. The shape and fitment turned out as good as my measuring and cad drawing skills.

So today, 5 years later, this happened //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/46798-hkm400s-1969-lotus-7-series-3/

Finally made a change from making the car further away from being on the road, to doing something that is a step in the right direction, Put my first coat of POR15 down: Came up fantastic, I was told by the panel beater we use at work to seam seal it once it gets to the point my finger leaves a finger print but the paint doesn't stick to my finger, so while I was waiting for that I etch primed the underneath of the floor pans, I then checked and it was ready for Seam sealing. Ran a thin bead first and worked it into the Seam with a paint brush, then ran over it again with a thick bead and gently spread it over the whole Seam. Very happy with the outcome. Finally I leave you with a picture that I've been using for inspiration, if I can get my car looking half as good as the one in the following photo I'll be happy (plus the Fred needs photos and the one I posted is potatoe spec/boring)

Friday took the day off and painted it... prob should have posted this before the last post but meh!

Drive to work day

Hako makes it's first official public outing. I was asked by one of the organisers of a car show if I could bring the Skyline out to have on a Nissan stand. So I agreed. It's crazy to see the size difference between old and new.. everything has just become so much bigger.

Sill ready for paint, going to spray it at a mates new shop (silverstream panel) going to talk to him about OS hookup/ deals for OS guys... my mate Shaun and his brother Scott bought it around a year ago , was a failing business and is cranking again... he is being a GC and letting me use his booth and gear for me to spray it... Also lately ive rebuilt brake callipers and have a pedal again , if its not raining this evening ill get my first drive in on new wheels its a good day!!!

Extreme happyness , got the sill tact in last night!

With the tank i've had success doing this. Put a whole heap of small nuts & bolts, ball bearings and other small things in it, wrap well with a duvet or thick blanket then put in the clothes drier on 'cool' cycle for half hour or so. You'll be surprised how clean it gets the inside. (DO NOT do this when the missus is home tho')