Sunbeam

So what I actually did because I’m impatient, is mixed up some paint and brushed it on. It’s covered by the brake booster/mc bracket and it actually didn’t come out that gross. My attention now turns to the engine. I pulled the alternator off and then I wanted to pull the fan clutch off. Unfortunately, only half of it let go. Side A: Side B: I have another moderately annoying problem. The water pump pulley is bent AND it’s half a pulley width out of alignment with the crank and alternator pulleys. More will be revealed when I get the rest of that fan clutch off, I suppose. Anyway, the brake booster et al is ready to go back on the firewall when the time comes.

Scenario: Ham-fisted amateur wants a paint gun to do touch ups and occasionally paint a panel. Said amateur is a tight git. What to buy? (Asking for a friend…)

Not an expert sorry, but I harbour secret thoughts of electrifying my Land Rover one day… I’m not into electric conversions for their own sake, but let’s face it, some cars aren’t about the engine so electricity can make them better. (Don’t hurt me please)

The thrust rods and swaybar are now refitted to the vehicle. The swaybar saddle bracket things are very annoying but we got there in the end. Today it was blowing a gale so I retreated to the shed, which was very loudly groaning and popping in the wind. I popped the clutch cable out. The pedal end is almost inaccessible for my sausage fingers, but I got it unhooked by pushing hard on the firewall side. I decided then that the brake booster bracket looked too crusty so I unbolted that and chucked it in the blast cabinet. Primed painted The removal of said bracket revealed a little rust bubble on the firewall. Luckily it wasn’t deep. I gave the area a scotch brite, and prepsol. then hit it with some primer Then I pulled the shield off the booster and gave that a blast and a prime. Then I gave the booster a good scrub and bolted the new master cylinder on. I have some colour matched 2k paint the panel beater gave me, but no way of spraying it, so I may have to splash out on a touch up gun.

Will do

Yep. One of these have filled with 10/50. Still baffled by the treacle that came out. It’s almost tacky like chain oil.

Both 220 turbo coupes. He hasn’t decided the fate of the other one yet, but it looks far too tidy to wreck

Changing the oil in my compressor today. I got the manual out and it says use 5w50 synthetic engine oil. The factory oil I drained was the colour and consistency of cold golden syrup. I haven’t seen any compressor oil that looks like that, but not an expert etc… No 5w50 in stock but I have 10w50. Good enough. Wot you reckon?

Mean. Old mate in north Taranaki bought two of these in the last couple of months. One is destined at this stage to be a Nazcar/lemons racer.

I took a break from the landscaping chores (lockdown =no decking timber) and the wood splitting (drizzle and cold = no thanks) and set to continuing with some front suspension (in)action. All round good citizen @azzurro dropped by recently on his way home from Auckland to give me some rusted junk treasure from his hoard. A couple of (chuckle) thrust rods - as the book calls them. One was straight with a nick in the thread, the other had decent thread but was a bit bent. I chose the latter. One fat bloke and sturdy vice later it’s more or less straight and then into the blast cabinet, prime and paint. Bet you can’t tell which is the good original and which was the bent rusty one. I’m annoyed at my new swaybar bushes now. The new ones are taller than the old ones and no amount of crushing and cursing will make them fit in the brackets. They assemble like so: When installed, the metal brackets are sandwiched tight. Look at the difference between old and new, allowing for oldness and squashedness: I think I might have to cut most of the chamfered raised portion off. Anyway, I’m grumpy now and I’m going to light the fire and have a Sunbeam’s famous turbocharged hot chocolate. Good evening.

Chur

On with more serious work. Today I removed the castor rods (“thrust rods” in the manual). The nuts were no match for my new toy. The bushes are well past their prime: Then it was off to the vice to strip them. The spacer tubes came off far more easily than their crusty appearance suggested they would. Then it was time to remove the inner nut. Before attempting to wind them off, I employed my newest power tool to clean the threads. Say hello to my new friend. 8 inch bench grinder. My first mod was to buy a wire wheel for it. It’s great, but it makes it shake like MAD. I have stuff walking all over the bench whenever it’s running. Anyway, clean threads or not, the nuts wouldn’t budge. So, I cut a starter slit in the side of the nut And then finish the job with the nut splitter. My heart sank when I wound the nut off the right hand rod. The thread is absolutely stuffed. @azzurro, from all the 125s you harvested bits from, did you happen to keep any of these? Moving on, the swaybar is very easy to remove from the vehicle. I found the clamps on the inner (chassis) bushes very hard to split, but I got there in the end. It needed a beating with a sacrificial narrow flat bladed screwdriver. Now I’m looking forward to using my other new friend to clean up all the brackets and bits

Snapped up this garage ornament. It’s a 1608cc 125 engine. Cams have rust on the lobes, so it’s definitely been sitting a while. Came with a carb (another Solex...) part of a starter motor, and a flywheel (which upon closer inspection has “Holden” cast into it) I’ll tuck it away and give it a good inspection in the future. The vendor alleges it “has good bores”. We shall see.

I like the ratty bumper. Also dents suit these imo. Not to take away from your un denting skills though.

2c +GST so we’re clear.

That bill is taking the piss. My 2c

Cracked into the suspension bushings today, starting with the track rod bushes. The left one loosened off well. So I had a go at cracking the right. This one is putting up a real fight-one that I am losing. I’m stuck here now and it won’t move in any direction anymore. I think I need to borrow Dad’s die grinder and cut it and split it off before I do any more damage to myself or the car.

That’s a nice, straight looking car. Think it should have its own thread. Nudge. Personally I prefer the look of the 13 inch CD66, but certainly you have given me an alternative to consider if I can’t make em fit. +1 on those rotas too. Lovely.

Thanks for chipping in @epoxy124! I have seen the 15 inch versions are available in different offset. Can we see some more pics of the car please. I’d like to see a shot of the whole car, you don’t see many fiats with 15 inch rims. I think a fat 13 suits the car, but I’d like to see yours! ps. Are you running with or without the factory “spacers”

This has to be one of my favourite things-a shipment of new parts arriving!

I’m liking the wheels. Really suit the car!

Recovery mission today. Left home at 7, good driving conditions. I did have a small drama, I noticed that the image in the drivers door mirror was wobbling. I pulled over to investigate, rolled down the window and poked the glass to see what’s up, and it fell into my hand! The glue had failed, and I’m very lucky I noticed before it ended up on the road in 1,000,000,000 pieces. The hardware shop in Amberley didn’t have any double sided tape so I carried on. It quickly became clear that the lack of a mirror is not fun, especially when towing a 2.5 metre wide trailer. A shout out to the staff at Arthur Burke’s workshop in Waikari who hooked me up with some tape and didn’t want anything for it. The Lewis pass was very icy, I could feel the car squirm from time to time so I took it real slow. Stunning day, but freezing cold and the heater in the car has a blocked core so the only thing keeping me alive was the heated seat. I duly arrived to a beautiful west coast day. Too cold for sandflies, yay! Top of the Lewis, I was keen to see some temperatures, so I had the OBD dongle hooked up I don’t even know if thats average or what, since I have never had this data at my fingertips before. On the flat oil sits at around 112, atf 80, and coolant 88-90 St James carpark: Aaand back in the mank cave. 440km, 8 hours total and a remarkable 10.6 litres/100km average. Now waiting on a parcel so I can start putting stuff back in/on.

Ooooooh, page 3! Except for pic no.3 all the internet pics I found of 125s with CD66s ride as high as 4x4s. The smaller tyre diameter exacerbating the arch gap..It looks dark green one has had work done on the arches? I can’t wait to get my car back so I can have another measure. I found some scribbled notes in the shed from when I was checking clearances previously and I had calculated that a 7 inch rim would need a 20 offset to fit. I’m all for laying down some $ on sweet rims but I need to satisfy myself that they will 100% fit.

I was wrong. I had a measure up in the shed of the spare wheel. The offset is actually 29. Therefore the CD66 at 7 inches wide with a 10 offset are going to sit 45mm wider. Now I’m not so sure they’ll fit.

Last two bolts on the rear bumper brackets would not budge, so drastic action was needed. masked around the vicinity VERY carefully ground the head down, and then whacked it through with a punch. The remains pulled out easily with pliers. Now I have to find some more bumper bolts. One of the brackets is very bent also: