CarolsHusband

It's the home straight, bet you're all glad of that. Chopped the tow bar bracket down a bit, made up a plate out of 6 mm and drilled some studs into it, made a bit of a gusset while I was at it. Various bits.... Which I took to Steves and he made it into one bit. Lick o paint & all bolted up About to order a Yosemite Sam tyre cover because, err, why wouldn't I ? /I'm sure someone is about tell me why I wouldn't.

Another fine day on the West Side. Nearly done ! First job, cut off all the bits I don't need. Next, continue with my jammy luck in the parts hunting. I need a sturdy bracket approx 5" long with plates set at 90 degrees both ends, but with an angle so the tyre won't cover the rear lights. Oh, and it would be nice if the bolt holes were exactly right to fit the tyre mount. Rover P6 tow bar from a car I had 15 years ago ? That'll do nicely. I did have to paint it though. Shame. All I have to do is get some 6mm plate and make a plate for the wheel to bolt to. In the best tradition of gluing the wings on your Airfix Hurricane before the paint's dry, I mocked it up just coz I wanted to. And it still works with all that tyre on there. Hopefully get it finished tomorrow and then I can get on with the paint. Or at least the primer.

Spare tyres. Not the ones round your middle, the ones you need when you get a puncture. Mine wont fit it in the original spot, if you leave it chained in the bed it's a pain in the arse and if you bolt it to the side of the bed (as I did) it's in the way. Sooo...... Went and had a dive in the Landrover scrap bin and came up with this. A quick measure showed it was pretty close to a perfect fit, cleared the lights & the mounts were near places I could bolt to. Made a top mount out of some 3 x 3 angle and as luck would have it one of the winch bracket ends I chopped up would be perfect for a lower mount once bolted to the chassis, all I'd have to do is notch the valance a bit. Clamped it all up to see where stuff landed. All cut, shut, drilled, painted and bolted up. Pretty pleased with that, and not a single weld needed so far. Probably not going to be so lucky with the PCD change, but we'll see about that tomorrow.

All done, spare tyre carrier next.

Evening. Another lovely day in the old U of K. Skimmed and painted the B-pillar repair, needs a bit of stopper before paint but it's good enough for a country job. Even looks passable up close Push bar next, fabricated a jig for accurate cutting and aligning /screwed it roughly to a plank. Mocked up. Decided to lose the clamps in the end. "essential" trip to get it welded at Steves Then back home to paint it and nail it on. Yeah, right. Had to take the front everything off to fit it properly. Ran out of light and being bothered in the end. Not really a problem, I've got a few spare weeks....

Carol said she fancies black (like her men ?). Not smooth enough for that. The truck, not her. Or me. Or something. And a bit too BTTF n'all. Anyway... Yeah, I reckon 70's stripes. Now I've got the slot mags I'm starting to feel like a bit of brown metallic might be fun. But to refresh, something between this and this Gonna do some doodles and see where it goes

Hey gang. Faced with being allowed to do sweet FA until at least July, looks like the Hilux is going to get a bit of lovin'..... Time to get the roller and the house paint out. Although it looks as rough as a badgers arse, it's only got a few dings on it. Both doors, a few on the bonnet and that nasty old war wound on the drivers side B pillar. Bonnet first Did the doors too, only a couple of little dents. Next job is where I got hit by a bus about 20 years ago. It's never bothered me ( I got paid out & took some mates to the pub) but if I'm going to fancy it up it needs sorting. Borrowed a decent slide hammer and had at it... Pretty pleased with that, especially considering what a lazy cunt I am. First coat of filler and a bit of a sand, I'll skim and paint it manana So that was the easy bit, next up is wet sanding the whole flipping car. Woo.....Hoo. When I borrowed the slide hammer I blagged a few cutting discs so I hope to get the push bar cut to size tomorrow n'all. Then I'll have to make an essential trip to get it welded up, while maintaining 2 metres social distancing, having a shower when I get home & burning all my clothes.

S'true, and there's every possibility they'll get hit if I get a bit silly but as @kyteler said, they're out of the way for general use. I'll get some KC Daylighter covers, that'll keep 'em safe.

On we go...... First things first, chopped the ends of my winch bracket. That 1/4 plate doesn't half get through discs. Lick of paint... Next part of the plan, ruin a perfectly good bumper. Check. Bit more paint , bolt it on, starting to look like a thing. Next job, chop up a perfectly good valance. Check. Put the towing eye back in and trim valance to suit. ....And bolt on a pair of 7" spots. Nearly done. Next job is to cut down the Defender bar so it fits, it's going to look a bit like this... But it's going to need a little fettle to fit. More tomorrow, cold beer is calling.

Anyway, tyres for the slots has moved down the priority list, not least of all because the tyre bloke is a germy cunt at the best of times. The other day it made a funny noise, followed by a lot of funny noises and some shaking. Turns out the rear UJ was fucked. Original as far as I know, I've always greased it but it'd obviously had enough. Pulled the prop off and yes, the UJ was proper, 2 sets of needles gone, rusted to fuck, fucked. Braced myself for a day of swearing, bleeding and hitting things very hard. Ended up with about 2 hours of easy-peasy. All came apart fine, mating surfaces cleaned up fine and it fell back together Err, OK. Road test fine. "Essential" road test, obviously, Constable. Anyway, pics. Also, decided to use my old winch bracket as a more than ample push bar mount and light bracket. Got a Landy push bar so I'll chop it all up and see where we end up. /with a big pile of chopped up useless metal probably. No, the saw is for marking right angles. Before anybody fancies making a funny. More tomorrow. We may be in lock down but the sun's shining

It's nearly Spring..... No more water leak, been using it a bit between storms & floods an very nice it is too. Re-doing all the cracked rubber fuel hose tomorrow. Got round to painting the rear panel, pleased with it but will get some chrome trim to edge it. That's it for now /pic for Fred

Oooohhh......

Hey fullahs. MOT'd and all legal-beagle for another 12 months. I've had nearly 7000 mostly trouble free miles since I got it back on the road a year ago and it's still not using any oil. It's still gutless, which is nice. Before the test the rear brakes needed stripping, cleaning & greasing as the handbrake was awol. Bust a shock mount off getting a bit gnarly down on my dads place but Steve did a bang-up job of over engineering a new mount. Couldn't tell it had fallen off driving it though, just noticed it hanging there when I did the brakes. I've decided not to give it a fancy paint job but instead I'm going to try and make the tub look as old as the rest of the truck. I'm really not a big fan of fake patina but I think it'll look ok if I take my time and do go too silly. Or maybe it'll look shit. Had a little practice on the valance, quite pleased with it.

Oh, ok, that's good too. They are bloody noisy, are they any better with stock exhausts and interiors ?

It's going to be a Brubaker Box, is it ? Go on, put a Brubaker Box there.

Yeah there's a little bit of that, I get the impression it's mostly blokes my age who missed out on the car thing because they were career building or pushing the edge of the glass ceiling up an envelope or whatever. Once they've got a bit of spare cash they decide to be 18 all of a sudden. Hako's seem to be a special case though. Our cousins on the other side of the pond have jacked the prices by paying silly money for rust buckets because all C10's are rotted to hell, apparently. Japan realised this and now you cant get much for less than 28 UK grand. Madness, I tells thee. They haven't really taken off in the UK. Why would you pay Lotus Cortina or AVO Escort money for an old Datsun that looks like a Triumph ? I know people who hesitated and now they probably won't get a Hako, I was bloody lucky with mine but it wasn't even half the price of an average new family car, or even a couple of decent mountain bikes. Classic cars have always been seen as an investment since the 80's and that's knackered it for a lot of genuine car people. Here endeth, etc.....

It says "Freshly Imported" but it's been for sale for at least a year, maybe more. It was up for 19 grand a while back in the same town. That's some kind of business model, up the price until sells.... wat.

Well, I got away with that then. The mounting bolts were fucked and rusted in but some heat, patience, a 1mm cutting disc & a drift and I managed to save the load valve without having to mess about with brake fluid. I think it must have been flailing around for a while before it fell off as the brakes feel really good now. And yes, I know this is boring as fuck but it's gonna keep my truck legal for another year and in deepest winter any outdoor car time is a bonus and to have mended it without butchering the car or my fingers is always good. Happy New Year

Thought I should put this here, not about my car but worth posting none the less.... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nissan-Skyline-Hakosuka-GC10-2000GT-Saloon-1972-manual-V5-MOT-JDM-classic/174141942069?hash=item288bab2935%3Ag%3A0N8AAOSwM0VdkyXY It looks pretty ropey in places and that interior colour is, umm, interesting, but it's still pretty pricey. Wonder what mine would fetch.....

Sounds pretty sweet, but could use less silencer. My windscreen's better than his though. /And my wheel/tyre combo TBH IRL

Thanks @Yowzertruck. I'm still in two minds about about reducing it gutless quotient. Had an cheap offer of a 3.9 RV8 + bellhousing kit the other day and gave it a miss, so.... If I do go Toyota Bigger I may well be giving your inbox a hammering, so to speak. Really hoping to get some paint on it this spring, we'll see which way the wind's blowing after that. /back to brakes now, not raining yet....

Hako's being doing daily duties as the Hilux is busted. Normally there'd be no way I'd drive a car as nice as the Skyline around at the end of December but the weathers warm (10 degrees, fucken Bahamas aye) and dry and they've not salted the roads for a while. Also the Hilux is busted, I may have mentioned that. The VW has no heater tubes connected and has started shitting out once it's warm so Skyline it is. It's been great, I forget how much of good o'l car it is. Been having chats and pics taken and friendly waves. I'm such a tart. I'm not really, I find it a bit embarrassing TBH but it's pretty cool that folks dig it. Temperature gauge pegged 130 earlier. Oops. Couple of cracks in the radiator tubes, looks like it'll need a re core. Topped it up and it's fine now. Sorry no pics, but I'm pretty sure there are some out in internet land. Chur.

It's been nearly a year since I got the Hilux back on the road so MOT time is looming. You're allowed to take it for a test a month early in case you need to get stuff fixed but if it passes you basically are legal for 13 months. I've done nearly 6000 miles in that time so had started doing a few little jobs ahead of time. The other day this happened... Fully floating load sensing valves can be a bit hairy, especially under heavy braking. Cable tied it to the chassis but thought it might be frowned upon during the test. Weather is very nice for the time of year so as usual I set up my al fresco workshop. Yep, that's fucked, And I managed to snap two bolts as they're blind captive nuts in the chassis. Not sure if you can tell the new bracket from the old, the picture's a bit dark. A bit of careful drilling ( I went and splurged on a set of decent hss drill bits, what a difference) it's ready for some paint. Now all I've got to do is get the mounting bolts out of the valve. 90 quid for a new one so it's got to be worth a couple of hours work before I splash out. More later in the week

Hey Burt. Thanks for your kind offer, you're very generous. Turns out that blower is toast due to what looks like ingress of gravel but it doesn't really matter as the plan that it was part of is no longer a plan. Or at least not a plan that involves the Hilux. Or a blower.