PollyMobiles Rebuild

[pollyp]

2023-09-02 Welding Peugeots sills

I was about to try replace the old daily Peugeots rear suspension bush but after hearing the sills crumble on the axle stands, I soon found the sills are rotten & needs welding first

Chopped & welded the left sill

and the drivers side too

now I can remove the plastic undertray for better access (old fasteners obviously snapped off)

These are the bushes I'm gonna replace soon. The chassis is pretty crusty underneath so that'll need repainting too

 

[pollyp]

2023-09-09 Print Adjustable Bends for Planning Exhaust Manifold

In order to better visualise & plan my equal length manifold, I designed some simple 22.5deg bends
(same radius as the U-bends I prev brought) which can each be swivelled and the groove markings show the relative angles

Took over 18hrs to print all 32 sections, enough to cover the 4-branches

Interesting to play with and make various shapes 😁

made these inserts to anchor into the manifold plate

And it's worked. I'm able to adjust each bend to get all 4 equal lengths to join up and then use the info to make the real manifold

 

[pollyp]

2023-09-10 Velvet Roof Lining

On a quiet warm weekend I'm finally able to finish covering up the bare metal roof.

I only have a limited amount of this velvet cloth which a car m8 donated to me, so I measured & planned the cuts

Doing this sort of upholstery with spray adhesive for first time, it took lots of planning and was very tricky & messy to do 🙈

That's the top & front covered

Finished the sides & rear

It now looks soo much better & plush inside compared to the bare old finish
👌

 

[pollyp]

A better look at the velvet roof in daytime

printed this 45deg collector to complete the exhaust manifold mockup

brought more oil off ebay 🙈

 

[pollyp]

2023-09-17 Gizfab BBQ Meet

Eden was putting on the annual BBQ meet at Gizfab so I popped down on the weekend.
It was a big turn out, great weather, great builds and met few familiar m8s like Andy, Dawn, Jack, Eden & Andrew

 

[pollyp]

2023-09-30
Trying to locate an annoying rattle around the drivers A-pillar, I noticed the drivers door frame always sat further inwards than the passenger (maybe it's been bent before) so I tried slamming the door with few rags at the top to bend the frame back out to sit better & stop rubbing

 

[pollyp]

2023-10-01 Replace Electric Window Mechanism

Another rattle source are the old drivers power window mechanism, which I used every day and is worn loose & cracked.

Jack gave me a spare set of manual window mechs, which looks kinda similar and hopefully I can swap the motor over with little mod

grinded the manual handle spindle off

curious how the only thing holding the handle & glass position steady is the friction of this coil spring within the casing

drilled out the rivets holding the electric motor

new holes needed to be accurately drilled onto the manual mech bracket to fit the motor

one of the bolt heads also needed machining slim to clear the geared swing arm

bolted together & working. slightly slower cos there's a little misalignment & friction but moves

doesn't rattle anymore

 

[pollyp]

2023-10-03 Socket Set Holder

Finding a loose socket in my messy toolbox is like a needle in hay sack, so I printed this to hold em all together

 

[Twincam-Alex]

2023-09-17 Gizfab BBQ Meet

Eden was putting on the annual BBQ meet at Gizfab so I popped down on the weekend.
It was a big turn out, great weather, great builds and met few familiar m8s like Andy, Dawn, Jack, Eden & Andrew

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Looks a great meet up. Pity it's 150 miles away for me.

 

[pollyp]

2023-10-05 TIG Torch SuperFlex Hose

A feature I hate about my R-tech TIG welder, which hinders my comfort & learning, is just how rigid & stiff the rubber hose is on the small WP9 torch. This makes it difficult to hold it steady while trying to twist against the heavy hose.

So I need a more flexible lighter hose & heard of ppl using a red Superflex hose.
My WP9 uses a 3/8 hose fitting.

A proper CK9 Superflex torch & hose in R-tech website costs well over £200 and didn't say it fits my machine, so I blindly brought just the £55 hose hoping the fittings match.
Unfortunately it had completely different fittings so I returned it

alternative option was to buy this 3/8 superflex TIG hose with included connector/gas line on ebay for £40 from china

but turns out the connector was way too small 😤

plus the connector is crimped solid to the hose whereas the R-tech hose is screwed to an adapter 🤨

Definately not gonna send this wayy back to china 🙄
since the gas port is correct, I just need to somehow electrically attach the bigger R-tech adapter onto this smaller chinese connector

so I simply machined & threaded both parts to screw together

and now I have a working WP9 torch with a much lighter flexible hose and it is sooo much better & comfy to weld with.
still need a ton of practice TIG welding though 😅

 

[pollyp]

2023-10-07 Replace Peugeot Rear Suspension Bushing

For many yrs the rear bushing on the old daily Peugeot was perished and needs replacing, plus the chassis underneath is all rusty & needs repainting.
After gathering tools/parts & dry weather, I began removing the rear axle which was a real PITA

the brake hose nut was seized on and uses an odd 10.5mm hex, so not worth attempting that imo, so I'm just gonna let the axle hang down

rubber bush no longer attached

cutting it out with a reciprocating saw was easy enough

thought the new bush I got off ebay was correct but disaster, the original bush is 69mm dia whereas the new bush is 72mm! 😰

failure to fix this ain't an option cos the car is currently sitting on axle stands blocking the back alley.
was slightly stressed & frustrated with this french car cos rain is forcasted to come soon.
but thankfully I was able to machine it down to 69mm on my mini lathe 👍

slips on like a glove 😎

reassembled fast as I could before the rain is due. test drove as all seems good, tight & straight.
gonna deal with the rusty chassis another day 😒

 

[Seb_]

Another great design by french designers 🤦‍♂️
Btw, I Sent you a PM Paul!

 

[pollyp]

Another great design by french designers 🤦‍♂️
Btw, I Sent you a PM Paul!

yeah soo many annoying obsticles working on this french turd lol
sorry I havent been on here for awhile, replied

 

[pollyp]

2023-10-09 Lower Bonnet Latch Bracket

The bonnet latch was sitting too high & forward, even at the lowest available position

So decided to chop this section out to refabricate a new bracket

new bracket welded on

now I can sit the mechanism lower & further back on the bonnet latch

 

[pollyp]

2023-10-11 New Horn

The old original horn was getting all rusty and sounded like an asthmatic goat lol
so ordered a cheap dual horn off ebay

old micra horn vs bigger new horn

added a grounding lead

not as deep note as original but does the job

 

[pollyp]

Personal Update:

So since July I've joined a fitness program & Gym with the aim to improve my health, my body fitness, my mindset, my confidence & self esteem, escape this **** delivery job & restart my design/engineering career.

And that's exactly whats happened, I changed into a healthy diet, worked out 4x a week, got fitter, burning my fat away to reveal a beefy muscley body
This of course boosted my confidence.

Throughout October I overcame many obsticles, each accomplishment boosting confidence including:
- requesting a 1 week holiday off at end of the month,
- resolving my complicated british gas accounts,
- cancelling my broadband & seriously complaining to evil Vodafone bout their dirty renewal tactics, 😤
- through some miracle I managed to connect with a brilliant new gf via my fitness program 😇 this boosted confidence 10x,
- eventually I managed to gather enough balls to request my 2wk notice to leave my job 😎

I timed it so it'd be 1 final week of work,
then 1 holiday wk for a long overdue roadtrip (where I plan to meet my gf along the way) 😎

 

[pollyp]

2023-10-29 Roadtrip To Bolton & Car Crash!

My roadtrip started off with a wet morning

plan was to head towards Bolton (where I first studied car design at Uni and haven't been for 20yrs) to meet up with my new gf.
the weather soon turned nice 😎

next morning I cleaned the car to resume entering Bolton

but DISASTER!
soon as I entered bolton following behind this blue Tucson, I saw a lorry was about to join from the left, so I indicated to switch to right lane, the Tucson suddenly went to the middle of the road & emergency stopped for no reason and no traffic ahead 😨

it was too late, I was startled, slammed & locked the brakes on this damp morning, slowly smashed into the back of him with a bang!
ah fck my poor baby, WTF the eejit stopped for!?

checked the guy & passenger are alright, he said sorry his tucson tends to jump outa gear for no reason (🤔 later discovered it was an automatic?) and he said don't worry he won't claim cos theres very little damage to his plastic bumper and was gonna leave, whereas my poor front corner was caved...

woah woah fella, I was stressed & confused of the correct procedure during my first crash involving another car but I at least remember to photograph the scene, I had GoPro footage of the thing, I noted the guys details & mobile number, calling him to verify it's authentic too incase its a scam.

still shaken up, I pulled over to the side to call & inform insurance with the details. since I have £300 excess, I could either fix it myself under £300 without claiming or increasing premium,
or claim if it's over £300 to repair but affects premium etc

well she still drives fine, just cosmetic and there's 4hrs of daylight left, I decided to nurse her home to mend.

soon after, this asian recovery dude came past offering to recover her to a local shop to mend with courtesy car etc for a good price, erm thx but nope. I'm set to fix it myself at home.

at this point I'm aware of the old Crash-for-cash scheme and was completely paranoid of everyone trying to scam me 😨
my anxiety in survival mode just wanted to get home ASAP

I thought this was game over for kassandra & my chances of meeting up with my gf, I felt devastated 😭

along the way home I decided to stop by Jack near home for some spares & mend her

with his help, it wasn't too bad, just needed some gentle taps to straighten things up 😅

that'll do for now

back at home & finished hammering the panels straight and realigning the headlights

she's back to her original battle-scared wonky look but good enough to resume my roadtrip

 

[pollyp]

2023-11-01 Roadtrip Part 2

After repairing the crash damage I resume the roadtrip, heading straight back into Bolton haha 😅

this time I went via another way & was fine

the plan was to meet up with my gf when she gets the train from down south,
unfortunately there was a big storm warning down south potentially disrupting trains and she was really stressed bout travelling by herself for 1st time.

so instead I decided to drive 6hrs through the early morning down to london to pick her up & bring her along her 1st roadtrip 😎

we had a nice 1st date. I went to get kassandra a much needed handwash at tesco 😁

we drove up to Kendal at the Lakes

found this nice underground parking, of course I had to take a photo

drove 7hrs to drop her off back home but due to expensive hotels down south I had to drive a further 3hrs through foggy b-roads to a hotel in cambridge, exhausted 😴

next morning was a nice sunny drive home 😎