What no carpet?

That was to be the job for the weekend but alas, 2 problems: Firstly, my mental measurements were a little retarded and thus there was not enough carpet available after Dan's room was completed; Secondly, sticking proper carpet to sills appeared to be too much of an impossibility with the lone stick of UHU that I had lying around.

I tested Gary's carpet for size and all looked well - not at all bad quality for the cash. I will still have to come to a solution of sorts for the back panel thing. And I will also have to find another plastic centre console bit as the previous one sort of obliterated whilst trying to remove it!

Here's the latest interior pics. I have definitely decided that whilst it is in this state I shall remove the dashboard and have a mooch at the clocks and heater. That should be fun! Pip pip!

A Good Day

Some great Beast action this weekend - damned cold though! Lionel came over to assist as did Simon. When I say assist, I mean I made the coffee whilst they slowly took the car apart. I'd like to think that I am a sort of Project Manager, although if you ask either of them, I am sure that they would suggest that I simply get in the way.

Anyway, like I say, Saturday was a good day (except for the starting debacle). The headlights now pop up together. The little turning knob thing on the actuator had fallen off. We changed the Beast's actuator/arm set up with one from the Teabag. Part of the Teabag lives! Lionel also set to work on sorting out the electricity problems. Whilst changing the NS headlight, a clump of wire fell out from somewhere. It was noticed that with a waggle here and waggle there, the side light and indicator would/would not work. He found where it was shorting/earthing (or something like that) and all was well. Whatever he did also sorted out the hazard lights problem. Being the electric Guru that he is, he isn't happy with the wiring of the cruise lights or front fog lights and thus I have added these to the To Do List.

The other electric thing that he did was the main beam flash. The contacts in the the flasher switch/stork were corroded and needed sandpapering. The new revamped LH light is ace. The RH light sounds terrible and needs a greasing somewhere. This has also been To Do Listed.

The bolted in seat (Neil owned up to that one!) is now unbolted. I was right, NRDFCRT was never going to fit under there. The solution required a non-portly person. Thanks Line. (I jacked the car up, but i reckon he could have slipped under without it). The seats are now at 271 as mum has some sort of hoover thing that cleans things with water?

I also took out all of the rest of the interior, except for the plastic bit that goes around the handbrake. The bugger wont come off as the handbrake won't move high enough. I'll have to loosen it off first. I have also decided to change these bits for the ones out of the Teabag as they are in better condition.

By this time, it was dark thus the Hammerite was not applied. This will have to be done one night this week as I want to put the carpets in next weekend! I have now got a carpet - enough for Dan's bedroom and the Beast. Not bad I thought. Gary has kindly said that I can cut around his proper convertible carpet set so as to make fitting easier. Thanks Gary!

This weeks things to cross off the To Do List include: 08, 10, 12, 13. Hurrah!

Nuts

It was decided that the dashboard could wait a bit. Instead, I just thought I would prepare the interior for a bit of Hammerite before carpet installation. I also want to create a template of sorts for where the rear padding goes. So seats out then.

As you can see from the picture, there is a seat sat there all alone without his friend to keep him company. This one came out relatively easy - just 4 star shaped bolt things [whats the technical term?] and a little bit of NRDFCRT bending out of shape.

Three of the star shaped bolt things came out of the drivers side too. Alas there is one left. It keeps going round and round and not getting any looser. Wonder why? Bending NRDFCRT under the car to feel what was going on whilst trying to undo said bolt was not at all easy. It would appear that some kind soul decided to keep the bolt of evil in place with a nut. This nut is unfortunately not at all accessible.

Thus, this weekends fun and games will involve jacking up the beast to assess the nut further. One only hopes that the right hand side exhaust does not need to come off ...

PS The battery is flat again ... bet you can't guess why?!

The great starting debacle pt 4

Of course I have wired up the distributor cap properly. Do you think I am some sort of tit?! Ahem. So, it don't go round in order of 1 to 8 then?! 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 is it?

We'll test the fuel pump whilst we are here by disconnecting a hose and with the help of a milk bottle. Bugger all wrong with that then. Next!

With the cap connected up properly (I found out that there was a back and front as well!), work started on removing 8 spark plus. Lionel kindly soaked them in WD40 and set about cooking them with Simon's gas lamp gun thing. 8 plugs back in and the moment of truth ...

U-bloody-rika! The beast is alive - not happy but alive! And more importantly, I can cross a few things off the Winter To Do List too ...

gone is #06 as the current one appears to squirt fuel into milk bottles perfectly;
tick against #07 as you have already seen;
and another tick on #18 - no more Flintstone holes

All of the above was achieved with the help of a new beast friend - Ian the RAC man from the corner house. He has several V8 Land Rovers too! The Whos Who makes better reading by the day. Wonder if any of them know how to tune twin carbs?

Dashboard removal next. I may even be able to do that on my lonesome?! Watch this space!