Not on the road yet

OK, so it's nearly June and the Beast is still under covers. The excuses are three fold...

. Decorating the back room has taken ages and cost too much;
. Holidays. I have an enormous caravan and I like to use it!,
. The To Do List. It's massive. I don't really know where to start and I don't really know how to do it and I stutter at the likely cost.

But a start has finally been made with the carpet and the seats. Still to do: gearbox, clutch master cylinder, tune engine, weld the little hole (more later), unrust and paint the sills which is getting a bit crucial now ...

Blue or green?

Hello! Long time and all that! So here's the first of several ...

Good news is that the black/green check door cards from the Teabag fit the Beast. That's good news as the car is green and the carpet will be black! And more good news is that the two black/green check seats from the Teabag that are in the roof will also fit. I reckon that it will look damned good! So that all means that I can tick off clean the seats (20) and replace headrest (19) from the To Do List. A good deal of the plastic bits I have in black somewhere thanks to the Teabag again! Here is a crap picture of what is going and what is coming back ...

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!

Winter To Do List

I got it back home - smoking and spluttering and smelling of fuel - and then started a to do list. And there would appear to be a lot to do! Some things are more nice than vital ie interior trimmings. Some are desperate ie another tune up and probably the clunking. Anyway, here be the list:

BODY
01 trailing arm bushes
02 differential gearing problem?
03 half shaft problem?
04 underseal

ENGINE
05 balance carbs again
06 change / move fuel pump DONE!
07 change distributor cap? DONE!
22 after #21 competed, rehose the heater

ELECTRICS
08 fix LH indicator DONE!
09 refit front fogs
10 fix hazard lights DONE!11 fan on a switch?
12 fix LH pop up light DONE!
13 fix flash / main beam DONE!
23 refit cruise lights
24 grease RH headlight
25 change the +ve & -ve leads and battery terminals DONE!
26 Fix the wires that Freddy ate
BRAKES
14 change front pads NO NEED, PLENTY OF LIFE LEFT!
15 change rear shoes NO NEED!, PLENTY OF LIFE LEFT!

INTERIOR
16 fit carpets
17 fit rear padding
18 fit x4 floor blanking plates DONE!
19 change the old headrest DONE!
20 clean the seats DONE!
21 remove dash and fix heater matrix