We’ll Call Him Doug.

The Scuderia has gained a new member this week. Not only do we have five cars and a camper van, we now have a Micro-Digger!

I’ve long hankered after a mini digger and Jules was happy to let me buy one at first.  Foolishly I mentioned that they were designed to fit through internal doors and knowing me too well she surmised that I would sit on it in the living room to watch TV and that every cup of tea she passed me thereafter would have to be placed in the extended bucket for me to “boom in”.  So that plan was vetoed.

Fast forward to about now and we have some compelling reasons to rethink our position.  Our new home and garden needs some work and much of it will involve digging.  I’ve suffered from chronic back pain for the last 25 years and I really don’t want to aggravate that.  So we considered mini-digger hire. It’s really not cheap for long periods of time, so I looked at some used ones.

Our new garden leads down to a river bank which is being washed away by the flow and I was quite keen to dig out the bank, sure it up with gabions, then put the soil and turf back over the top so you could never tell I was there.  Mini diggers weigh something like two tons…on a crumbling river bank…we can see where this is going to end and it’s in the river!

That’s when I saw “La Sauterelle”.  A Micro-Digger that weighs less than a Formula 1 car!  It will fit in the back of a combi van.  Obviously it’s not going to have the same capacity as it’s bigger cousin but I’m not going to use it commercially and it was the same price new as a used and abused mini digger.  Some rough calculations tell me that if I can get 50 days work out of it, it’s cost neutral against hiring one.  Then I can either sell it or sit on it in the living room whilst watching TV.

I ordered it on the Monday and it was assembled and dispatched in time for me to dig up a couple of quite sizeable tree stumps on the Saturday.  I can see Doug and I are going to be good mates!

Everything And The Kitchen Sink

I’m about 2/3rds of the way through making a new petrol tank for the camper.  I’ll post details about that when it’s finished but I’ve been comprehensively diverted from tin bashing projects by some home improvements.

We’ve just had an extension built that will be our new utility room and I’ve been painting and decorating and building a cabinet for the butlers sink to stand on.  I quite enjoy woodworking, the only trouble with wood is that it’s made out of wood.  It would be much better if they made wood out of steel.  If you cut wood in the wrong place you can’t weld it back on again!

The new work surfaces arrive next week, so hopefully after next weekend I can get back to bashing stuff. Of course, I’ll still have the kitchen to refit…….

The Hoarding Invades

A few weeks ago the persistently appalling weather set in motion a series of events that may rumble on for months.   Unable to work outside I resolved to <dramatic music> clear some space in my workshop!

My property is quite modest in size even by British standards.  When I had my garage built the best I could do was a single car garage big enough to work around a Lancia Delta with all 5 doors open.  It would work too, except I haven’t got one car in it.  I’ve got one car and enough bits to build 3 more!  Plus an ever increasing number of tools.  And a load of reclaimed timber (because I’ve been known to butcher some wood too, occasionally). So I took the bull by the balls and started to go through the proceeds of the last 20 years hoarding.

I’ve given away a Ford x-flow to a friend with a Westfield. Sold a couple of Lancia gearboxes on eBay, found some Twin Cams I’d forgotten I’d got.  Found four oxy-acetylene welding torches and two cutting torches – not bad going for someone who can’t get his bottles filled any more!

I found a 1950’s Ford valve radio, which I’ve subsequently ID’d as the type fitted to the 1956 model Zodiac, Zephyr and Consul!  Seriously! How can I be hoarding stuff that’s over a decade older than me!

Made by E.K. Cole Ltd, the ENFO branded radio must have been a serious piece of bling in ‘56.  The £28. 8s. 11d price tag is equivalent of £1659 comparative income today! Hopefully I’ll be able to reunite the thing with an appropriate dashboard, I know if I owned a classic Z car I’d love to have the original radio.  If you know anyone who’s interested, you know where I am.

Absence Makes The Fart Go Honda

I’ve been AWOL for a few weeks now for various reasons; work commitments, family commitments, appalling weather and illness resulting from a self inflicted injury sustained whilst kart racing on a stag do! Will I ever learn?

Things are beginning to return to normal, with glorious weather at the weekend my nephew brought his wife’s Honda CRV Diesel round for a service.  Using one of his “Free Service Coupons” as he puts it, cheeky bugger!  Not content with that he returned later with his Vivaro van.  Getting through those coupons at quite a rate .

The van was an outstanding job from a few weeks back when the weather was rather inclement.  I spent a day in the pouring rain freeing off seized brake callipers but it was clear whilst I effected a temporary repair, that a refurb was necessary.

Callipers tend to be sold as service exchange these days. Even my long standing and trusted local factors Allwoods Automotive are reluctant to chase a service kit any more.  Fortunately there is a good online supplier, BrakeParts International who still seem to be able to get a good selection of parts.  So I ordered a pair of seal kits and a piston for the Van.  While I was paying for shipping I figured I’d get a couple of sets for my fleet at the same time.

We stripped the ailing callipers and found that on the whole they weren’t in bad shape.  The problem was caused by rough treatment in the past, with the dust seals being shredded, probably while squeezing the pistons back.  Following a clean-up the new parts were duly fitted and everything slipped back together a treat.

Damaged Seals

Stripped Out

Reassembled

At a later date I’ll document the refurbishment of the callipers on the Spider and Integrale.  Watch this space if you are interested…

I have an additional project to work into my schedule. My wife is a historian and keen cook. She has started producing a blog to document a lifestyle experiment we are undertaking and my services and my camera are required, so I’ll be learning “Food Photography” techniques….. Have a look, you might find it interesting.

Ration Book Cookery

Rationing was introduced on the 08th January 1940 and ended on 04th July 1954.  Despite the hardships and privations of this period, the British people had never been so fit and well nourished as they were by the end of rationing.  Since then we have become one of the unhealthiest and fattest nations in Europe – not to mention the massive and unsustainable debts we have accumulated.

If you want to take up arms in your own personal war against dimishing health and wealth, then why not join me in some common sense Home Front wisdom!  I realise that starting this ‘battle’ two weeks before Christmas is probably not the most sensible thing I have ever done but I do not want to start 2013 fatter and further in debt than I am today.  I have all the necessary books, leaflets and knowledge so now it is time to put my theories to the test.

Along the…

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Business As Usual

Things have been uncharacteristically quiet around The Scuderia recently.  I’ve had a few distractions that derailed my plans for a while.

I spent a few weeks chasing a new property with great workshop facilities but that came to nought.  So after much grumbling and feeling sorry for myself I’m resigned to soldiering on where I am.  It’s far from ideal but at least it won’t put me in the Workhouse.

After pulling myself together but before I could get back to work, I succumbed to the dreaded Fresher’s Flu.  One of the pitfalls of working at a University is that every year thousands of new students arrive from all over the world to pour all their varied and assorted strains of “The Dreaded Lurgy” into a melting pot, to be liberally distributed amongst people who have not yet had opportunity to build immunity to their particular brand of unclean.  The fever has subsided but the cough and runny nose persists but onward I must go.

I have a lot to get on with too.  I’ve got some woodworking to do to help a friend out.  There are five cars outside that all need a service.  I’ve got plenty of work to do on my project cars.  And I’ve decided to make some panels to sell too.

Watch this space!

Lazy Days & Rowing Boats

I’ve had a few lazy days recently. Partly to give the neighbours a break but also to have a rest myself.  Work has been hectic and with all my extra curricular activities I’m about fried.

At times like this a friend in need is, as the old saying goes, a bloody nuisance.  Except this friend was Will and he did come to my rescue when I needed an old road spring to make the MKI Lipper.  What goes around comes around, so I was more than happy to have a bash at the job he brought me the other day.

Will is in to rowing and had a problem with one of the rowing clubs boats.  The oar supports had broken.  I can hear you shouting “ROLLOCKS!”, but really they were broken.

I’ve got an AC TIG welder but I’ve never used it in anger on aluminium, so I was keen to try it out.  It was an interesting exercise through which I learned a lot.

I had to grind a deep groove along the crack and build it back up with filler rod.  It took a lot more heat than I was expecting too!  I’ve done a little gas welding on thin aluminium, so fortunately I was expecting the point between “weld pool” and “puddle on the floor” to be a close one. So it wasn’t as pretty as I hoped but at least I didn’t bugger it completely.

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Once I ground it all back to shape I re-drilled the holes with a washer to keep them on centre and overall it looked pretty convincing.  So…lightweight E-Type next then?

Unpicking Stitches

Dismantling corroded parts without causing utter devastation is one of the most frustrating parts of restoration work and I’ve been doing a lot just recently.  The rear wheel tubs on the Spider are pretty complex shapes and if I hope to reproduce them then I need to salvage the existing parts long enough to take patterns off them.  So I’ve been diligently drilling spot welds.

The inner arch has a large and robust strengthening gusset on it which I intend to refit after a clean up so it had to come off in tact.  Behind it the tin weevil has been running amok.

On the outer tub there is a strengthening plate which I had to reproduce before removal.  A bit of “battle repair” aluminium tape recreates the shape before the ubiquitous FSP appears again.

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2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 22 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Another Hero Gone

One of the saddest things about a passion for anything old is the inevitable loss of your hero’s.  Visiting an event like the Goodwood Revival every year is quite sobering in this respect, as the legendary figures of the past become thinner on the ground each year.

So the news today of the passing of Sergio Scaglietti has left me feeling heavy of heart.  I’ll quietly raise a glass tonight and dream of a 250 GTO.

R.I.P.

Driven to Distraction.

I’ve been a little distracted for the last few days and not done a lot of tin bashing.

I’ve seriously neglected one of my other hobbies just recently and thought I’d better remedy that.  So I’ve been uploading a few photo’s to one of my stock photo libraries.
Stock photography by Stuart Hickling at Alamy