Nominal's Wooden (Wood knot) Cars

[Nominal]

Hard work getting a new page!

7:34pm on 29th Jan

 

 

Annnd 8:05pm!

 

[Nominal]

Took it for a WOF on Tuesday, was all good except for the brake lights not working. After a bit of a hunt I found the brake light switch tucked up above the engine crossmember and managed to get it out after a struggle.

Apart from replacing that I spent the next three days working on son's Pajero. Made some mounts to bolt onto the custom tent rack to hold the pull-out shelter thing, and knocked up some (slightly rough) drawers on roller skate bearings.

 

 

[Nominal]

Worth it to make Whagnats though, for both the Woodie and the Paj.

[Nominal]

So, after a damp Whagnats I was a disappointed to find some varnish issues.

This first patch was where it was damaged by falling over in the garage, so OK, but the water got a lot further under the finish than I liked.

This piece was not so good, where there was a pre-existing crack in the wood.

I sanded back the damaged areas where I could and re-coated, but I'm going to have to take the doors apart again soon and re-do them better.

 

I had a chat with my BiL who is a boat man and he recommended this book. Brightwork is what they call unpainted wood in the boat world.

It's helping me be more philosophical about dealing with wood.

 

[Nominal]

Next up was Gnats.

@piazzanoob couldn't get his ass on the ferry some came down with me for a ride.

We did get onto a ferry through all the disruption.

 

Had an extra day in Nelson so visited the classic car museum with some folks

Checked out my parents place which sold recently. Colour change is dramatic

Before:

After:

Saw a flathead at the collection

Visited a Hudson restorer

And a beach

 

Had a good time and trip back on a delayed ferry. Also an entertaining drive back up SH1 late at night with @UTERUS and @64valiant. Some nice straight flat roads up this way now.

 

Burnt a bunch of fuel but never calculated mpg.

[Nominal]

Traded the PP for a black one, much tidier

 

Rusty Woodie has been sitting outside for a few months while I've been working on other things, but a few pieces got put through the molasses bath and Durepox treatment this week.

Windscreen garnish moulding is pretty frilly but should be OK with some judicous filler or jbweld repairs. It's not a structural piece at all.

Other garnish mouldings from upper tailgate, some piece of the back seat and a couple of radiator top panels got done.

 

Window winder got Zinc-it instead.

It will get back inside soon, once the Mercury are brakes are fixed so I can shuffle cars again.

[Nominal]

Did some tiki-touring up Hawkes Bay area at Anzac weekend

Visited a winery or two

We stayed in the Ormondville Railway Station near Norsewood, made use of some of their luggage.

 

 

Plenty of quality reading for in front of the fire

[Nominal]

Things got a bit clunky out the back, might have been the extra wine?

When we got back I found that the rear exhaust mounts had sheared off on one side, and nearly on the other. The design wasn't too good as the mount was in shear (would be fitted vertically compared to this pic) and bound to fail again, even if I could find an exact replacement.

So I made a couple of different ones using these common hanging mounts - I think they are a Commodore part

 

Holds the weight vertically in tension so shouldn't be an issue again (I hope)

 

[Nominal]

Part of the reason for the banging is that it has always had a bit of a lean down on the drivers side.

A bit of measuring pointed the finger at the leaf springs. Also the WOF man had mentioned that the front spring mount pin looked a bit loosey goosey

 

So, got some new U-bolts made (the threaded part was quite bent from some sort of ground contact on one side), cost about $120 from Archers.

And some new pins/bushes from the USA. When they arrived though they were made in China and didn't look as good as the Ford ones, so that was money wasted.

 

[Nominal]

Took the spring apart (had 49 R stamped into the bottom leaf so I presume they are the original set), and gave the top 4 or so leaves a bit more of a bend. Unloaded they are about 25mm higher, so hopefully will work out at the 10mm I need.

 

Then reduced the size of the mount hole a bit

 

Back together, it looks better, will drive it a bit and re-check.

Still need to do remove and clean up the other spring and fettle its mount.

Main hassles were putting the spring back in back to front (I'd made a note but got it wrong), 'losing' one of the nolathane bushes that were already there, then after a search realising it was still in the rear shackle mount up on the chassis (duh)

Also stress tested the UE Boom as a jack stand - oops.

[Nominal]

Grumble

 

[Nominal]

Going

 

[Nominal]

Going

[Nominal]

Gone - hopefully to a better place?

I still have most of the expensive parts for it, I'll hang on to them in the short term and see what develops

 

[Nominal]

On with wood again. This area of damage was due to the stainless trim attached to the window surround rubbing on the lower door piece, so I'll have to be more careful about how it goes together.

 

Stripped the lower door frames down and heat-gunned the varnish off. Quicker and easier this time. 

Repaired a couple of small bits with some clear epoxy hardener. Didn't realise it wasn't cold-tolerant so I had to burn some diesel to keep it warm.

 

Then yet another sanding and bleaching session.

And some more epoxy sealer.

I've actually cleaned up this corner of the shed somewhat. Hmm, might need more kondo-ing

[Nominal]

Back in the varnish mines. 

Also found this potato photo I took at the 2011 (I think) Beach Hop. Never thought it would be in our ownership

[Nominal]

I need to give each coat a couple of days to dry now it is cooler.

So, attacked the other leaf spring pivot bolt tonight.

A bit loose in there, nearing Al's mum spec.

U-bolt might be hard to get off?

Nope.

The spring centre bolt had lost its nut somewhere along the way, so the lower leaves came apart.

This side is only getting a clean and re-paint, no re-arching.

[Nominal]

Assembled the lower door panels with only one major fuckup (will see how that crack in the outer ply skin goes in the future )

Going to do a bit differently and give it a couple or three coats of varnish assembled like this before they go back on the car.

 

Also welded up the loose hole (insert Al's mum joke here) and ground it round again ready to reassemble the suspension.

 

[Nominal]

Been varnishing doors

 

And a couple of extra coats on the back half.

Along with a bit of screwing around

And started reassembly.

[Nominal]

Back together - a few minor dramas with order-of-assembly errors.

WOF now due - I found one brake light not working in pre-check so will have a look at that.