Wipers Fixed

The Stylus has always had a minor problemette with the wipers - they struggled to clear the centre of the sweep - yes, the bit I needed to look through. They would clear it after a couple of dozen sweeps & after 1/2 an hour or so it'd be fine. The Fury I built never had this problem & then one day I noticed the angle the Stylus' wiper spindles sat at. The builder had presumably used the angled sleeves that came with the wiper motor, so the spindles were almost horizontal, meaning there was spring pressure on the wipers at each end where the screen was 90deg to the spindle, but just about none in the middle where the screen sloped away.

So I removed the dash top - skinning several knuckles - removed & measured the angled sleeves & printed a couple of prototypes. That all seemed to work OK, the spindles sat perpendicular to the screen, so I re-printed the sleeves in polyurethane, I have two hardnesses, so I printed the face the nut screws onto in the hard one & mid-print swapped to the soft one for the face that seals to the bodywork. 

Having done all that a few times (starting with the wrong hardness, using the wrong print file etc) I had a set of parts that worked & after refitting, I squirted the screen, started the wipers and ........ perfect!

Wipe marks right to the very top of the very middle.

It looks pretty good, so tomorrow I'll put the dash top back on & skin a few more knuckles.

Winter Jobs

 Yes it's January & it's cold in the garage - but needs must.

With the rear axle looking fixed (hopefully) I took the car down off the stands & ramps & put just the front on stands to put some more anti-squeal shims on the front brake pads to get a quieter life (my girlfriend won't complain about the brake squeal). Obviously that's an easy enough job, but while I had my head in the wheel arch I noticed some corrosion at the rear lower corner where the paint had come away. Nothing serious, just a little surface rust on steel sheet 1.5mm thick, but I got out the rotary wire brushes & cleaned it back before running some polyurethane sealer up the join & giving is a thick coat of Car Builder Solutions' "Wonderseal". When it's cured off I shall over-spray it with black stone chip paint.

Yes, I know it looks a bit of a mess, but it's meant to, it protects the surface from stones, I used it in the Fury's wheel arches & never had a single star crack. the Stylus hasn't got any & has many star cracks.

Also getting done is the installation of new cameras. My lovely girlfriend bought me a pair of DJI "Action 4" cameras for Christmas & while they have the same fitting as the GoPro Hero 3+'s I've been using, there were a few tweaks.

Firstly the camera doesn't fit in a waterproof case - it is waterproof, except when the charging door is open. I had cut holes in the GoPro cases for the power lead, so they weren't waterproof either, but often it just rains a little bit, so I've drawn & printed a "shield" to keep light wetness away from the power plug & a tethered cap so I can close the charge door, run the camera off the battery & still keep the charge lead's business end dry. They are printed in TPU, so are soft & flexible, but extremely tough. Of course if it's proper rain, the hood will be up & either the camera arm will be folded across, filming through the windscreen, or the camera will be on the outside mount above the windscreen running on the battery.

Not a very clear picture of the power lead shield, cap & its' tether.

A clearer picture, but the shield's not on the plug in this one.

The cameras themselves seem pretty good, with stabilisation built & any number of different options. I will keep it simple, I only want the lowest setting it does as that's still better than the Hero 3+ that I was perfectly happy with. I'll be keeping those for the occasional views from the radiator intake / door mirror etc.

New Year - Brooklands Meet

 We trotted along to the New Year's Day meet at Brooklands as we had a little membership left. It was cold (but about to get colder) & having nothing else taxed, we went in the Cactus. as we arrived there were signs to a car park the other side of the main road, but I spurned them for the main "The Heights" parking, which nearly went wrong - we were one of the last cars in!

Having parked up & got in, we were faced with a whole bunch of Triumphs, but the volunteers were starting to struggle to get cars parked up, there was a queue all down the show car approach road & next to no space. This is a good thing as it means there are many many cars out there in garages & people enjoying them.

Not long after we ran into my Brother & Nephew attending their second car event of 2026, as they'd called in at "The Phoenix" at Hartley Witney on their way. they had come with a guy of my nephew's acquaintance who was driving a Lagonda, so when arriving at the gate they said "We're with the Lagonda" & found themselves parked in the prestigious area in the square in front of the club house - many |rolls, Bentleys, Lagondas, Delaheys with a stripped out Ford Model A & a '90s kit pick-up based on a Sierra.

As usual the truck got a lot of positive attention - not necessarily good as my brother was trying to find his phone & interested passers by were something of a distraction - he did find it in the end.

Nice Buick Riviera parked round the back of the trade stands.

A couple of Sevens

Not a Willys, It's a VW with a body kit, but very very well done, hats off to the creator.

Interesting Saaaab, the exhaust exit is just ahead of the front wheel.

Three Fulvias

Really liked this - I wouldn't want to have to park it though

This was interesting too, it's a Puma GT, production made in South Africa on a beetle floor pan.

Lotus Seven S2 from 1960, which makes it even older than me!

Austin Woody. I'm not going to speculate on which county it's named after.

The writing said it had been restored

Axle Possibly Cured.

Having obtained some new O-rings I found that the size wasn't quite right & the bearing was reluctant to go into the axle. So I drew up the O-ring & printed a seal in polyurethane. This might work & it might not, there's no relative movement, no real heat & no pressure, so it might well work, time will tell. if not I'll try harder to fit the O-ring.

For the corrosion, I've now cleaned the non-adhering paint & rust off the chassis in both rear wheel arches, also cleared the mud off the inside of the bodywork. There wasn't any bad corrosion, just a bit of surface rust, so it got a coat of CBS "Wunderseal" on the steel work & the inside of the GRP & that was overcoated with stone chip paint, so that should be all sorted. The suspension is all back together & I just have the perennial problem of lining up the holes in the passenger seat with the holes in the floor so I can bolt it down (sigh).

The picture's confusing. I appears to be a view along a vertical parallel member with a floor above & perspective making it look tapered. In face it's a vertical triangular panel & what appears to be the floor above is the back face of the door aperture. But the main thin is - it's all nicely black & corrosion free.

I have also taken the opportunity to scrape / claw / dissolve the residue of the black foam pads out of the passenger seat. I couldn't be seen, it was all under the cushion, but I knew it was there.

Axle Not Cured

 ARSE!

It was dry - then when I returned home from my Girlfriend's house, the off side very much wasn't. A brief investigation revealed that I'd caught & cut the O-Ring when I pushed the halfshaft in.

I measured & ordered new O-rings, but the closest size I could get was reluctant to go into the housing, so I drew up & printed one & a seal for the end of the housing. will this work? Well it fitted together nicely, but only time will tell if it seals or hardens & as the car is now on a SORN (again), that may be some time.

While fitting this all back together I noticed the end of a chassis tube was wet, the last time the car saw any water was almost a month ago. I poked a screwdriver between the floor & the GRP sill & water came out - quite a lot of water. That in the bowl plus all the water that ran out while I was looking for that bowl. It seems to be coming in at the front & getting trapped, so I'll need to put some drain holes in the sill.

Also while I was round there I made the mistake of poking the inner wheelarch & some paint came off. It turns out that what appears to be paint is in fact a waffer theen smear almost - but not quite - in contact with some rusty steel. I've peeled off a fair bit of it, but it'll need many more unpleasant hours under the car with a selection of wire brushes before it's all ready for a re-paint (sigh).

The main area of concern is right at the front with the trailing arm bracket, it's not in any danger of failing - it's not even pitted, but it's going to clog up with mud again, the passenger side has a sizeable gap for water, mud, sheep doodoo etc to escape through. I need to cut something similar on the driver's side.

Axle Cured

When I bought the car the rear axle was leaking (just one of many problems it had), I read up on it & the internet suggested that the oil could leak round the outside of the wheel bearing. It wasn't a problem for Fords as they force-fitted the bearings, but as the axle got older & perhaps the bearings were changed, the tolerances weren't what they once were. I pulled both 1/2 shafts & put some sealant around the bearings & all was good.

Scroll forward 3 or so years & they started leaking again. At Camberley car show I found myself talking to some people who ran a local garage, not a "£50 to service your Fiesta" place, but proper engineers. They were stood by their 1930's Riley which had been cleverly modified with parts they had designed & manufactured themselves. I took a card & squirreled it away.

So when I needed the rear wheel bearings replaced - not a simple job - I knew where to go. The bearings are held in place by a shrunk - on ring which needs to be carefully cut off, then the new bearing fitted & a new ring heated up & pressed on. I took them in, went to my girlfriend's house for a few days & they called me to say they were all done. I picked them up when I got home, fitted them that evening, checked the axle oil level & put the car back on its wheels (I swapped the front & rear wheels as the LSD is starting to wear the rears a bit).

I got the new bearings from Burtons & interestingly (interesting if you're like me - other opinions are available) they now have a thin O-ring on the outer face to stop the oil leaking

Today I took the car to work & the engine was fine after all its' troubles & when I got home the inside of the back wheels are DRY.

So, this is a BIG thank you to Harding Auto Services, who are based near Woking & have excellent people & facilities. It's wonderful to find a garage that can do more than plug in a laptop & replace whatever it tells them to replace.

Oh yes - I said "took it to work" - my third attempt at retiring has failed, I'm back designing stuff for Surrey Satellite. So that'll be 49 years in Aerospace then 😧.

Is It Now Finally Sorted? Is it? Is it Though?

 I took the Stylus out last week for a test run, I trundled round the houses for a bit, then out onto the main road & back, then along to Blackbushe. All was well, so I got brave & decided to drive to Winchester. It was perfect & I was a happy bunny.

Two days ago I decided to drive to Portsmouth to visit a friend, I went out to the garage, started the car - "squeak, squeak, squeak squeak" it said in time with the engine, just like before.

Looked like I'd be staying at home then. It sounded mechanical, like a dry bearing, but on a hunch I tightened the Jubilee clips holding the silicone hoses onto the inlet manifold stubs & when I got to No.3, the tone of the squeak changed & then turned to a small hiss.

Gotcha!

I really dislike the inlet arrangement, it consists of the throttle bodies from a motorcycle - which is fine, but they are attached by silicone hose cones on a not-wide-enough flange & on the engine side they pass over a pipe welded to the inlet plate. the pipe is round at the free end, but oval at the engine end, so where the jubilee clips fit, they are trying to clamp a round thing to an oval thing, there is obviously little pressure at the centre of the flat at the top & bottom, so it leaks / whistles. As a temporary fix I tightened the jubilee clips resulting in one of them stripping. Arse!

So what to do? The obvious answer would be to spend £££ on a set of Jenveys, a new airbox & a rolling road session.

OK, what else can I do?

I did some careful measuring & drew up a sleeve to fit over the inlet manifold stubs, it's very thin - only 1mm thick mostly At the engine end I made it the oval shape inside, but round outside, at the other end it's just round. I printed a test article in 95shore hardness polyurethane & tried it on the engine, it was a little loose. The next one was a nice tight fit, so another three were printed & fitted between the silicone hose & the stub pipe. Even with the stripped Jubilee clip this seemed to work, but would the polyurethane take the heat?  I ran the car until the fan cut in, then a little longer, I tested the temperature where the stub pipe is welded on (the theoretically hottest point) & it reached the low 60 degrees mark, turning the engine off raised this to 65ish degrees (it's air-cooled when it's running), so with the bonnet closed it shouldn't get above the mid 70s, so should be OK.

The following day I took the car to Guildford & it was good, but on my return I fitted shiny new Jubilee clips to all four stubs & yes, the sleeves were just fine.

REALLY hoping this is the end of the saga