I thought, after a hard morning's labour, I would fill you in as to my progress today. It has been, well, frustrating. It started off really well, with a tour of Burton Industrial Park to find Screwfix, Wickes and B and Q, to source some wood filler for me and a massive tarporlin for my friend Freddo, who decided the lovely weather was a calling for a giant makeshift water-slide.
We returned, laden with the requested items, plus a MacDonalds snack wrap each, and set to work. First we scraped off the middle beam of the wood frame, thinking it would be the easiest. Then we flicked out all the little flaky bits of wood filler, and revealed the problem... A massive amount of rot...
We scraped out so much rotten wood and rubber, that my drive is now a sea of it. The issue that we have is that we have to now put the metal beading that holds in the windows back in place. The next issue.
Sealant doesn't work, wood filler doesn't work, glue gun doesn't work, not even supper glue works. If I wasn't so skint I would be buying a whole new bit of wood, along with a couple of strips of the metal beading so that it would all fit nicely together.
The trouble with fixing something is that if you don't know how it works, you can't really fix it. This is something that me and freddo found out. Not only this, but neither of us knew how to do anything.
To give us one piece of credit for ingenuity, and persavereance would be a kind thing to do. 2 18 year olds, of the hottest day of the year, stood on my drive holding a piece of metal next to a piece of wood, hoping that it would just kind of fuse together maybe...
I am starting to think the project of building a carvan before the end of the summer may be a step to far in my DIY skills.
Not to worry, dad is on his way home. Dad's fix everything!
Thanks for reading.
Please follow me on twitter: @peachy146
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Monday, 8 July 2013
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Moggy Update 3/6/13: Some rusty troubles...
I thought I would update you again with progress of Lucy's life and restoration. Unfortunately, after all my excitement on starting work on the woodwork... it never happened. Bloomin' English weather is all I can say! However I have been keeping a keen eye on the weather forecast and have noticed a significant improvement towards and into the weekend which I am looking forward to finally getting stuck in.
This doesn't mean I haven't been busy though. I seem to have had a few issues, maybe brought on by the winter, others that just used the winter as a catalyst to break stuff. I have been plagued by the unfortunately inevitable rust trouble. This is something non-avoidable on a classic car, so it's a case of if not when. I have been very lucky though as I seem to just get corroded parts, as apposed to the bodywork. As soon as the bodywork starts getting rusty, it travels through it like a virus, attacking everything and leaving nothing but rusty flakes on your drive when you go out the next morning...
I have had 2 things to sort out over the past week. The first, I noticed that my tyres were wearing slightly unevenly, with the worst wear on the inside. So I took it down to the local tyre pace to ask them to balance my tyres. Turns out it wasn't the balancing, it was the tracking. Ahhhh...
So I went back to my local mechanic, who booked Lucy in for the next day and gladly fixed the tracking for all of £15 (how he can do work for the little is beyond me). Turns out she was an absolute mile out, so no wonder the tyres were wearing unevenly!
Anyway, I have also had a bit of a boost in the sound my car makes due to a slightly rusted and broken... So I kind of need to get a new one I think. So my gran, bless her, dutifully went and got a couple of quotes from her favourite mechanics and came back to me, both of whichw ere cheaper than I could buy the part on the internet and fit it myself. So upon this revelation, I went down to my local mechanic and spoke to him. I am currently toying between going for a stainless steel one or just a normal galvanised one. The thing is, seeing as this is a car which I will have for a very long time, no question, I want things to last me a long time, so that means it is a bit of a no-brainer on going for a stainless steel one, as it will last more than twice as long as the bog-standard model. So for an extra £15 (which it seems I have already spent on the tracking so might as well spend it again on an exhaust) I wouldn't mind betting that the stainless steel one is a better option.
So that is where I am up to with dear Lucy. In the process of sorting out the exhaust and a beautifully aligned tracking, I am good to go! And with the prospect of the weather improving enough to actually get down to do some woodwork on her, I am excited! All is well with the world.
Apart from the fact I will have to splash out the best part of £100 at some point in the near future for a new exhaust... Bad times...
Thanks for reading.
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146
This doesn't mean I haven't been busy though. I seem to have had a few issues, maybe brought on by the winter, others that just used the winter as a catalyst to break stuff. I have been plagued by the unfortunately inevitable rust trouble. This is something non-avoidable on a classic car, so it's a case of if not when. I have been very lucky though as I seem to just get corroded parts, as apposed to the bodywork. As soon as the bodywork starts getting rusty, it travels through it like a virus, attacking everything and leaving nothing but rusty flakes on your drive when you go out the next morning...
I have had 2 things to sort out over the past week. The first, I noticed that my tyres were wearing slightly unevenly, with the worst wear on the inside. So I took it down to the local tyre pace to ask them to balance my tyres. Turns out it wasn't the balancing, it was the tracking. Ahhhh...
So I went back to my local mechanic, who booked Lucy in for the next day and gladly fixed the tracking for all of £15 (how he can do work for the little is beyond me). Turns out she was an absolute mile out, so no wonder the tyres were wearing unevenly!
Anyway, I have also had a bit of a boost in the sound my car makes due to a slightly rusted and broken... So I kind of need to get a new one I think. So my gran, bless her, dutifully went and got a couple of quotes from her favourite mechanics and came back to me, both of whichw ere cheaper than I could buy the part on the internet and fit it myself. So upon this revelation, I went down to my local mechanic and spoke to him. I am currently toying between going for a stainless steel one or just a normal galvanised one. The thing is, seeing as this is a car which I will have for a very long time, no question, I want things to last me a long time, so that means it is a bit of a no-brainer on going for a stainless steel one, as it will last more than twice as long as the bog-standard model. So for an extra £15 (which it seems I have already spent on the tracking so might as well spend it again on an exhaust) I wouldn't mind betting that the stainless steel one is a better option.
So that is where I am up to with dear Lucy. In the process of sorting out the exhaust and a beautifully aligned tracking, I am good to go! And with the prospect of the weather improving enough to actually get down to do some woodwork on her, I am excited! All is well with the world.
Apart from the fact I will have to splash out the best part of £100 at some point in the near future for a new exhaust... Bad times...
Thanks for reading.
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146
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