CarolsHusband

/gutless crawl. Thanks gang, I couldn't have done it without you

I should really.

Youtube for the win....

*Please see next post*

Nah, I like it though.

Nearly there. Drivers side window & mechanism back in and working, Seats in. Wiper mechanism greased and working. My "Illegal, not for road use, only for show purposes" front number plate has arrived. Nanny state gone crazy, etc. Bollocks to it, you'll never take me alive coppers. All electrics done except the brake lights. Fuck knows what their problem is, wankers. One for the morning I reckon. Once I've sussed that I'll book it in for a test. Mate wants it out of the workshop to move stuff around, it would be nice not to put it back in and take it home instead. We shall see how the morning goes. No relevant pics so have an ever so slightly rusty beetle wheel instead.

New alternator fitted & charging. This seems to have cured a few electrical gremlins as well. /Aliens. Drivers door back on. Soaked the seats with a load of anti bac Febreze, hopefully that'll ease the fruity funkiness. Steve wandered past the bench and saw the broken window mechanism sat there. " You still not found a new one of those ? Hang on, I'll fix it. Give me 5 minutes" And he did. Made up a bush and welded it in. No more clickety whirly window no go up & downy. And on his day off. He's a GC.

Damn, I like me an R30. You still got it ? Swaps for a Beetle ?

No turbo, no sticker. Or should I have a "Non Turbo" sticker ? I seem to remember @kyteler had a "SOHC 12valve" sticker on his R30. /or did I make that up ? Also.... Alternator turned up and had been dropped. Plug was smashed to fuck. New one on the way. Still no seats. Still no winder. Hey Ho.

We'll see. I'd consider stock Toyota stripes but the later tub might look a bit funny (funnier). If I do a custom job at least I can use it to hide the gross blobbiness. /yes, I really don't like that tub.

I know everyone's seen it but I'll put it here too. Maybe very similar to this or the racing paint job but in these colours. Not going to worry about it too much till the weather warms up.

I had to google that coz I know nothing. That's pretty mint but I've been beaten to it over here. /there can be only one. Fuck, I wish I'd kept what was left of my original tub.....

Door on, front shocks on, heater fan fixed, interior progressing, waiting for alternator, nearly run out of nuts and bolts. No seats or window mechanism yet gosh darn it, possum on a gum bush, etc. /pic

Got a few hours in today. Rad in, filled up and warmed up. All seems good, runs quiet aye. Fitted the rest of the front end up & sorted the electrics. Seems to be a bit of an issue at the rear, looks like water's got into the loom where it was cut for the tow socket. Starting to look like a Hilux again. Doors & sills painted black for the moment. Still no seats and someone's nicked my push bar (kairntz) but I've scored a Unimog bumper which will fit with a bit of fettling. Alternator got all excited by the activity and shat its guts. New one on the way. Thinking I might go for a colour like this in the end, probably with some orange & brown 70's graphics and West Coast mirrors. That's all I've got for today except for sore knees and a bit of a thirst on.

Things have been happening, just not really photo worthy, New stop solenoid wasn't broken, I'd caught the O-ring when I fitted it and jammed it open. The word "moran" springs to mind. All sorted now. Gave it a good rev and the cam belt stayed on the pulleys so I guess that's fine too. Radiator turned up. Looks good (bloody ought to for the price) so that'll be going back in tomorrow. I've just got to find the fan shroud from the last time I had the rad mended in 2001. I think it's in the roof of the garage. Maybe. Got to start the Skyline up and pull it out to get in the roof. Possible fiasco on the cards + some swearing. The winch is up there too so I'll be grabbing that n'all, and not dropping it on the Skyline in the process. I seem to be having a bit of a communication problem with the bloke who's selling me seats and a window mechanism. Gonna chase it up. Don't fancy sitting on those rat wee/poo seats again TBH. Steve did the repairs on the door skins yesterday, I primed them this afternoon and may just whack a bit of matt black on tomorrow. Talking of which, I'm now starting to think about colours. White would be the obvious choice coz it's half done already but I'd quite like to do it the original red (though I'm not sure about how it'd look on the new bed). Or maybe that Skoda colour that looks like grey primer. We shall see come the spring. For the moment it's just gonna stay rough. I've insured the truck, I'm genuinely hoping it'll be back on the road by the end of the week. I'll try my best to take some pics tomorrow. / one pic

Ha ha. "Test drive" my arse. (Not literally, thanks). Rad didn't turn up, excuse being " We are waiting for the correct core to be delivered" My guess that is reconditioner-speak for " We'd completely forgotten about your rad and someone is looking for it right now" Checked the fuel filter for post-plumbing debris, refilled & refitted. Primer packed up. Rigged up a hand primer and covered everything in diesel. Nice. Got it running again, sounds great. Also still sounded great when I switched it off. New solenoid is knackered already. 5th gear, foot on the brake, dump the clutch. Gave up and did a few jobs on Mrs Shuzz's car as she's off with the bin lids for a couple of days. Back on the Hilux tomorrow. /It's getting too cold for this bollocks. //pics if you're lucky.

New year sort of update. Been scratching away at it when I've had a minute. It's back on its wheels, brakes all done, fuel system all done. Cam/alt/steering belts changed, nice to see a slightly risky repair on the water pump 15 years ago is still 100% watertight. Running sweet, radiator due back tomorrow, doors will be welded Friday and then I'll finish fitting it up (hopefully with new seats by next week) and then take it for an MOT test. I'm sure it'll fail on something but you never know. Stranger things have happened. Mrs Shuzz came over to see how hard I was working and caught me chatting instead. And then took a picture. I'm the fat teapot on the left. To be fair, I had a lot of layers on due to the fuckity freezingness this morning. A few more pics because pics. Test drive tomorrow, with no doors obviously. I'm pretty sure the heater still works so that'll help.

Well, he did it again. To the other sill this time. Then started making up for it He's going to finish tomorrow, he told me. Says I don't owe him anything but I think I do. I pulled the tank out, it was a twat and I got an armpit full of stale diesel for my trouble. It was so f***ing cold I gave up at 3 and came home. Think it was a bit too cold to take pics n'all.

They're the one thing I still can buy here. Mine'll clean up ok though maybe /but thanks for looking.

To quote him " It'll all be worth it when I see it coming down the road " / good man.

A few more pics for the "My mate's a bit good at welding" thread. I did some stuff too, messed about with the rear axle, modified the wheel-cylinder mounting so you can actually tighten the things. Not photo worthy. My new stealth rock-sliders... Land Rover based body mount..... Got it to myself till the weekend so a couple of days off from the arc eye. Which is nice.

So while I've been pratting around with the rear brakes, like 2 hours to strip 'em, (really stupid wheel cylinder mounting design), Steve cracked on with the welding New inner wing/battery tray Little hole turned into big hole. Apparently I'm going to need a Land Rover body mount here.... Sills coming on a treat, he's going to roll an outer sill to make it look neat & seal at the door bottom. He reckons he'll be done by the end of tomorrow, I believe him.

I did some stuff. Hubs & brakes all back together and nothing even leaks Used a proper pipe bending thing for the first time instead of a broom handle/scaff bar/door jamb/my boot, etc. A+, will trade again. Got the new shocks on and fired it up to move it to the other workshop. It ran fine, it then wouldn't rev, then wouldn't idle & then died. First time in 22 years it's let me down. We're guessing the stop solenoid's had it. Going to investigate tomorrow once the new battery tray is in. My mate reckons it's like an old farm Collie, happy to be left outside for years but as soon as you bring it inside and give it some attention it can't handle it. Now in the resto shop with all the busted-ass Pommy stuff My mate Steve's cracking on with the rust I'm doing some bits and bobs like sorting the doors, electrics etc till he's out of the engine bay & then I'll pull things off the motor and swear at it until it runs again. New fuel tank coming tomorrow, that's gonna mean bed off so I might as well grind and paint the chassis too. More thrilling tales from darkest Wales tomorrow

Have a video until normal service resumes..

Wednesday morning of ironic failure. After the disc brake back-plate debacle, today I put the hubs back on and bolted the new calipers. They're the wrong, they're for the vented discs. Along with the back-plates. So if I'd known that I could have swapped the solid discs for vented ones before I gorilla'd them onto the hubs of reluctance . Then I'd have a "brake upgrade", as suggested by a few folk. So what I actually had was 2/3 of a unfitted brake upgrade for a bit, and what I have now is no brakes which I'm pretty sure in a step backwards. Hopefully new correct calipers arriving tomorrow. /no pics //threw my fone at the truck. Sigh.