PollyMobiles Rebuild

[pollyp]

welded up the last rust hole

grinded the welded arch lip smooth

for the hard to access rust holes at the top of the LH wheel arch I simply covered them in gasket sealant

undersealed and fitted the fuel filler pipe. not gonna bother with the silly plastic cover cos it just traps in alot of mud around the filler pipe.

I think the breather hose is too short and was an utter PITA to install

restored axle is assembled. it weighs at least 24.5kg here

fitted

slapped some bodyflller onto the arches so I can sand em tomorrow

rear suspension all assembled

and now sitting on all fours

 

[John_D]

If anybody else owned that car Paul, it would have been dead years ago! You are to be commended on the work you constantly do to keep it alive and road worthy.

 

[plmval]

The man-hours you spend on this appears like a life’s body of professional work and the blog book could be a door opener CV into lucrative work creating and adding real value restoring prestige classics? Good luck.

 

[Mrthc]

Great / wonderfull job Master Polly as usual.
Tank you for sharing.
Ale.

Inviato dal mio SM-J500FN utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[pollyp]

If anybody else owned that car Paul, it would have been dead years ago! You are to be commended on the work you constantly do to keep it alive and road worthy.

oh yeah many times over. it's a deep passion that keeps me going.

I put soo much of my ideas, my investment, my heart & soul, my curiousity into her, to keep her maintained tip top and in return she keeps running reliably, even at times when I myself don't, and provides a very satisfying engaging & thrilling drive on/off track and just looks awesome it always makes me smile to see her.

you know that recent car throttle youtube video about Why we love cars? pretty much that

 

[pollyp]

The man-hours you spend on this appears like a life’s body of professional work and the blog book could be a door opener CV into lucrative work creating and adding real value restoring prestige classics? Good luck.

thanks m8, it's certainly been a long journey for me. one day I'll need to reorganise all this info into a portfolio website. ooh if only I was able to restore & develop cars like I've been developing kasandra, that'd be awwesome. just hope I make the right choices in life

 

[pollyp]

Great / wonderfull job Master Polly as usual.
Tank you for sharing.
Ale.

Inviato dal mio SM-J500FN utilizzando Tapatalk

thank you for the appreciation, glad u enjoy it

 

[pollyp]

painting is sooo labourious, my least fav car job.

quickly sanded, masked, primed & painted the left side. looks really rough with score marks and fish eyes but meh

did the same with the right side but this one had really bad fish eyes where I didn't sand down the waxy original paint

really annoying. tried sanding with 1200 and respray again. fish eyes still obvious but least it's mostly grey. getting her running tomorrow is more important than looking good tbh

 

[plmval]

thanks m8, it's certainly been a long journey for me. one day I'll need to reorganise all this info into a portfolio website. ooh if only I was able to restore & develop cars like I've been developing kasandra, that'd be awwesome. just hope I make the right choices in life

When we have the options it can be best to do what we find most for filling & doing & writing about a hobby interest to turn it into an income may be a way to go forward to the next level? Pull it all together & additionaly proposition lobby the car mags/web sites to generate interest. Go for it!

 

[plmval]

painting is sooo labourious, my least fav car job.

quickly sanded, masked, primed & painted the left side. looks really rough with score marks and fish eyes but meh

View attachment 55830 View attachment 55827 View attachment 55824 View attachment 55825

did the same with the right side but this one had really bad fish eyes where I didn't sand down the waxy original paint

View attachment 55826 View attachment 55829 View attachment 55828 View attachment 55831

really annoying. tried sanding with 1200 and respray again. fish eyes still obvious but least it's mostly grey. getting her running tomorrow is more important than looking good tbh

View attachment 55832

Enoughs a enough & in this case paint looks good enough? Get it running out & about & enjoy the fruits of your many many hours work. Jobs a goodun!

 

[pollyp]

woke up early to apply & allow the laquer to dry in time. cured surprisingly quickly as I painted it 9am and fully dry by 10am

everything checked & tight

overall after removing the masking and assembled, it doesn't look too bad. the satin finish needs a ton of machine polishing

washed her clean & went for a test drive. steering is straight, no rattles in the back, boosts fine, oh my I miss driving her
ready for tomorrows trip

 

[John_D]

Where are you off to tomorrow Paul?

 

[andy]

to buy a 3d printer from aldi

 

[pollyp]

Where are you off to tomorrow Paul?

meeting up with afew local m8s to go for a sunday cruise and some food

 

[pollyp]

to buy a 3d printer from aldi

haha I saw that article bout aldi selling printers. design is alright but for a non-heated bed that'll only print low temp plastics, £300 is slightly expensive imo.

 

[andy]

meeting up with afew local m8s to go for a sunday cruise and some food

ya wanna go to the mermaid in marske, if ya this way paul, very cheap and very good meals, plus plenty of parking

 

[pollyp]

ya wanna go to the mermaid in marske, if ya this way paul, very cheap and very good meals, plus plenty of parking

ooh noted, cheers andy

 

[pollyp]

Had an awesome cruise tday with a few friends going through the penines on a sunny clear but freezing day

going through some really exciting, scenic, fast sweeping b-roads with scary cliff drops but kasandra just stuck like glue
and then we stopped at a cafe in the icy top hills for some brekky

blasting through the gorgeous lake districts

return back home via the sweeping hilly penines again but in the dark which gets the heart going

a fabulous day out

 

[John_D]

Those 'Triumphs' are MGB's Paul, hope the owners didn't hear you refer to them as Triumphs (be like someone saying your Micra was a Honda or Toyota )

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

be like someone saying your Micra was a Honda or Toyota 

Or a Renault...
Triumph did eventually get absorbed into bmc / British leyland didn't they?

 

[John_D]

Or a Renault...
Triumph did eventually get absorbed into bmc / British leyland didn't they?

Yes in the 1960's though there was no connection between MG and Triumph till the inferior 1500 Triumph engine was fitted into the MG Midget in 1974, replacing the 'A Series' 1275 (along with the hated rubber bumpers), to appease the American export market health and safety controls.......
My 1972 Midget here:- (absolutely NO Triumph content)

 

[fuzzy-hair-man]

Nice, Still fancy a mg midget but they're relatively expensive. Never knew they got a 1500 though.
Learn something new everyday...

 

[pollyp]

Those 'Triumphs' are MGB's Paul, hope the owners didn't hear you refer to them as Triumphs (be like someone saying your Micra was a Honda or Toyota )

Oops okay

 

[John_D]

Nice, Still fancy a mg midget but they're relatively expensive. Never knew they got a 1500 though.
Learn something new everyday...

Bought mine in 1999 for £3K, (fully restored in 1994) drove it as my every day car for around five years and put 34k miles on it, rolled it into the garage and covered it up about 12 years ago (in the condition shown in the picture), with a leaking rear brake cylinder and not touched it since. Should really do something about it.......

 

[plmval]

Yes in the 1960's though there was no connection between MG and Triumph till the inferior 1500 Triumph engine was fitted into the MG Midget in 1974, replacing the 'A Series' 1275 (along with the hated rubber bumpers), to appease the American export market health and safety controls.......
My 1972 Midget here:- (absolutely NO Triumph content)

Wow!

Your MG Midget looks better finished then when they were new with wire wheels to suit. Certainly not a BL Red Robby Friday finish? More pictures please?

 

[pollyp]

the fuel cap release cable has stopped working cos it's buckling sideways under the strain

the old cable was also very sticky which doesn't help, so I removed and reoiled the cable to reduce friction

can see where the alloy T-end has broken and unable to hold the cable straight under compression

so I machined this adapter

to keep the cable straight

 

[pollyp]

the 3d printed holder was simply too weak flimsy for the strain so I welded this steel cable holder on the end.

when I push the lever to open the fuel cap, the adapter end was swinging upwards and still kinking the cable so I welded this guidance pin above it to keep it straight whenever I compress the cable

and now it works perfectly

 

[pollyp]

as I arrived home from work, my neighbour said I could have these new boost gauges free cos it was leftover from an auction car, nice of him

this reads psi

the other reads bars

will I be using em? probably not cos it's too in-ur-face bright and mostly cos they're inaccurate, the sprung needle doesn't zero.
maybe I could remove the crimped casing and adjust the needle inside but tbh it's not worth the hassle and should just sell em on.

whilst cleaning up the garage, I figure I'll overhaul the new wilko tools cos I thought the bearings sounded abit dry.
found the pinion gear was running pretty dry and the grease used was insanely thick like glue ain't good for reliability.

unhooked the motor brushes

removed the shaft assembly. the bearings were abit sticky so I lubed with wd40 and repacked the pinion with CV grease so now it all spins freely & smoothly

did the same with the hand drill

should help things last abit longer

 

[pollyp]

fixed Corey's K11 stuttering issue this morning by cleaning the dizzy cap.

and cleaned kasandra ready for tomorrows StaticRoyals Scarborough car meet

 

[pollyp]

was curious to know what's inside my old broken Bosch LSU 4.2 wideband O2 sensor which kept getting "E8 heater warmup" errors

the outer shell provides a cavity for gases to flow down into these side vents. this cavity was just clogged full of soot/burnt oil

inside is just a simple white ceramic wand.

at the other end is a sprung connector

5 connectors to the central white ceramic wand

inside looks like a heater or insulation stack surrounding the wand

this is where the magic happens, looks like a pregnancy test stick lol

 

[pollyp]

arrived in scarborough at 4pm for the StaticRoyals car meet, parked near the sea front.
the sea looked real rough and as i was talking to a m8 Suddenly this huge wave smashes into the sea front, woosh up over 10m and completely drenched everyone arhhhhhh!

shoes & legs are soaken. thankfully it didn't reach my car so we all parked on the other side of the road. more ppl arrived at the official 6pm start time and parked all along that sea front, only to see all the cars & bystanders get absolutely rinsed with sea water haha

 

[pollyp]

Over the years I have over 4 boxes of old blunt/burnt drill bits and whenever I tried to sharpen em by freehand on the grinder I simply made em worse.
Just couldn't grind em evenly, accurately or consistantly.

so watching afew guides, I decided to make this jig to keep the angles consistant

so here's an old ruined bit, too pointy, lip clearance is wonky and blunt

I grinded the cutting edge till it's a 130deg point, equal lip length

finished off the lip clearance angle manually. tested it and wow it cuts soo much nicer now
I luv this new skill, now I'll be sharpening em all

 

[pollyp]

the old bucket seat subframe with the sliding rails has alot of sloppiness and cos it only has the locking adjuster on one side it would flex alot under the strain of the heavy clutch pedal and squeak. this huge movement would always make the clutch bite point feel very inconsistant, especially when I'm holding the clutch during traffic jams.

had enough of this minor issue so I removed the old rails to make a new solid frame.

drilled & mounted the tube onto the seat

welded a cross beam to keep the frame & bolt holes rigid.

welded some front mounts

for the rear mounts, there's an awquid gap & angle difference

so I leveled the frame & measured the angle

finished the rear mounts

weld it all up

fit onto the seat

and fit it back in the car.

wow it sits approx 5cm lower, I feel more connected to the car, I'm shaking around less and now with zero flexing, the clutch bite point feels absolutely consistant, even in traffic, and inspires more confidence
I should've done this yrs ago.

 

[micra_uniraid]

Great work polly, brilliant fabrication work. I'm going to try the drill bit sharpening jig as we've got loads of blunt bits lying around.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[pollyp]

Great work polly, brilliant fabrication work. I'm going to try the drill bit sharpening jig as we've got loads of blunt bits lying around.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

thanks v much.
yeah I went on a sharpening spree the last few days doing all the drill bits in the house, took awhile churning through em but it's good to know that I'll have plenty of sharp tools for the drill press & lathe

 

[pollyp]

trimmed off the sharp corners and covered up the holes

neatened the front end

check the frame still fits

primed & painted

finally fitted I should make one for the passenger seat next yr

 

[pollyp]

during the black friday sales I ordered afew bottles of 10w40 Castrol GTX from eurocarparts for £16 (tesco, asda & B&Q no longer do deals so they're a full £23), since kasandra suffers from heavy blood loss at a huge rate.

what I received tday was the Castrol GTX Ultraclean. this recent rebranding did initially confuse me abit like whats changed? will it be suitable for the car?

looking at castrols datasheet there's absolutely no difference other than the normal GTX has a 40C viscosity of 98.9mm2/s while the GTX Ultraclean is 99mm2/s and they claim it resists sludge 50% better than industry standard.
so basically it's the same stuff.

 

[SuperUno]

I normally wait for the ECP buy 1 get 1 free offers on their own brand oil. Means 5L of 5w-40 fully synth works out about £13/14 a time.

 

[pollyp]

catchcan caught 100ml after 850 miles

records say it worked best behind the front grill with all that direct cold air, condensing upto 450ml per 1000m.
once I began to fit it behind the headlights with an enclosure and slight vent intake, it only catches upto 250ml per 1k during chilly winter temps and 100ml per 1k during hot summer air.

 

[pollyp]

there was a terribly annoying squeak from the rear end while driving over bumpy roads & humps. traced it down to the panhard rod.

removed the panhard, I had to really wack this upper steel insert off the PU bush really hard cos it's never been serviced since 2009.
it had a 2mm thick layer of dry rust jamming against the soft bushing making it squeak.

after cleaning, it's now too loose in the hole. I cba to machine a new insert or bushing so I wrapped some tape around the bushing and greased it all up. no more squeaks

 

[John_D]

there was a terribly annoying squeak from the rear end while driving over bumpy roads & humps. traced it down to the panhard rod.

removed the panhard, I had to really wack this upper steel insert off the PU bush really hard cos it's never been serviced since 2009.
it had a 2mm thick layer of dry rust jamming against the soft bushing making it squeak.

after cleaning, it's now too loose in the hole. I cba to machine a new insert or bushing so I wrapped some tape around the bushing and greased it all up. no more squeaks

View attachment 56085

Remake the bush in stainless steel Paul, will solve the problem forever....

 

[pollyp]

Remake the bush in stainless steel Paul, will solve the problem forever....

aye tis on my to-do list

 

[pollyp]

overhauled the mini lathe tail-stock with afew refinements

adjusted the locking cam mechanism to work better

after aligning the tail-stock I noticed the base doesn't sit properly on the V-groove (notice the huge gap) due to the locking shoe underneath which is pulling it off-set

it's cos the threaded hole was originally drilled wayy off-center. so I redrilled a new hole in the middle

now it sits much better and tail-stock is aligned with the chuck

 

[pollyp]

ok personal update. it's been almost 3yrs ago since I left my job, dumped/rejected by gf, sank into depression/anxiety and drain away my savings.
I've been working in a post room for a yr with barely peanuts of pay to keep me busy & help with bills but definately unsustainable.

I'm aware I should complete my CV, portfolio, goto job seekers and get any job to better myself but my anxiety/depression is worse than I thought. even with the long support & encouragement from friends/family I simply don't have enough will power to do it, to fight this 1-way mental block and brain wants to retreat & do other things instead.

with encouragement from friends I decided to go back to my GP about this issue and he prescibed me on serpraline (anti-depres) & propranolol (calming pills). doing something about this is better than nothing and fade into oblivion.

dunno what'll happen but began takin em in 1/2 doses for now.

meanwhile I spent a day with a few car friends in redcar, shopping, eating, chatting. was chilly but had a nice time.

tday some relatives were staying over during the weekend which sends my anxiety up so decided to leave the house for a hair cut in town but during busy xmas, the barbers were really busy and I hate waiting at the barbers. I was so anxious & paranoid, ended up walking all around shopping centre afew times checking up on the queue as I pass-by but eventually I had to give up, I'll cut it another time.
I dunno if it's the pills or people or me but I always feel warm/tired and mental state seem to worsen abit. I have to keep taking these pills now but we'll see how it pans out.

 

[pollyp]

clutch cable feeling slightly sticky & bite point abit low, even with the adjuster fully tight, so I removed the cable for the usual re-oiling and found that this rubber collar which cusions the outer cable against the gearbox bracket is old, soft and perished

so I machined a solid plastic collar and the clutch now feels much more solid

 

[Mrthc]

ok personal update. it's been almost 3yrs ago since I left my job, dumped/rejected by gf, sank into depression/anxiety and drain away my savings.
I've been working in a post room for a yr with barely peanuts of pay to keep me busy & help with bills but definately unsustainable.

I'm aware I should complete my CV, portfolio, goto job seekers and get any job to better myself but my anxiety/depression is worse than I thought. even with the long support & encouragement from friends/family I simply don't have enough will power to do it, to fight this 1-way mental block and brain wants to retreat & do other things instead.

with encouragement from friends I decided to go back to my GP about this issue and he prescibed me on serpraline (anti-depres) & propranolol (calming pills). doing something about this is better than nothing and fade into oblivion.

dunno what'll happen but began takin em in 1/2 doses for now.

meanwhile I spent a day with a few car friends in redcar, shopping, eating, chatting. was chilly but had a nice time.

View attachment 56119 View attachment 56118

tday some relatives were staying over during the weekend which sends my anxiety up so decided to leave the house for a hair cut in town but during busy xmas, the barbers were really busy and I hate waiting at the barbers. I was so anxious & paranoid, ended up walking all around shopping centre afew times checking up on the queue as I pass-by but eventually I had to give up, I'll cut it another time.
I dunno if it's the pills or people or me but I always feel warm/tired and mental state seem to worsen abit. I have to keep taking these pills now but we'll see how it pans out.

Hello Polly
I give you my best whishes and hope you solve yours problem.
Never give up
Ciao. ..

Inviato dal mio SM-J500FN utilizzando Tapatalk

 

[pollyp]

Hello Polly
I give you my best whishes and hope you solve yours problem.
Never give up
Ciao. ..

Inviato dal mio SM-J500FN utilizzando Tapatalk

thanks you

 

[pollyp]

emptied the catchcan, it caught 140ml after 571 miles (245ml/1000mile)

looking at the catch can history there's an interesting pattern. during winter at the beginning/end of each year the glass jar condenses more vapour with the chilly airflow.

it also seems the freezing ambient temps of winter reduces how much oil she burns (notice the flatter curve near the end of each year)

 

[SuperUno]

Give the meds time to work.

Take it easy, enjoy your work on your car and then find a job you enjoy.

I am very lucky that I have a job which I really enjoy, so getting up for work isn't a chore (apart from some very early starts!). It helps then when you need to work later / more. I have spent a few hours today catching up with work stuff, based on the BSI (British Standard Institute) committee which I chair. Not something obviously fun to do on a day off, but good to clear emails and I enjoy the work...

 

[SuperUno]

BTW I would advise working outside of your hobbies, it allows you to separate the two.