And Now For Something Completely Different

 Ah, showing my age there I know.

It's not completely different - it's still car mods.

Winter gives me a problem at my girlfriends house, The only practical way of us both parking outside is if I reverse my car in, But as her house is at the end of a short private drive past two other houses, there are all sorts of hazards from bushes to cars at odd angles. It's not a problem in the summer when I can see, but when it's dark, it's VERY dark & one of the TinTop's few downsides shows up - the reverse light is rubbish for seeing where you're going & there's no reversing camera.

This isn't the best pic!

So what to do? I considered fitting after market reverse lights, but they are mostly chrome, meant for '50s cars & would look stupid on the Cactus. Then I found an LED bulb that would do the job light wise, but how to mount it? The last post was singing the praises of the 3D printer & this one will too. I drew up a "cannister" & printed it in hard plastic, then in soft rubbery TPU I printed a seal ring & in harder (but still flexible) TPU I printed an end cap with two tiny holes to let the wires through. My first thought was to print a housing which would fit into a hole cut into the rear bumper, but then I saw the 10mm thick plate the bike rack slides onto & a plan hatched.

I drew up a "sleeve" to slide over the plate & hold a pair of the bulb barrels, each pointing down & outward. I ran a wire from the fuse box via a switch on the dash, back to the boot where I fitted a relay triggered by the reversing light, then down to the tow hitch where there's a "SuperSeal" connector.

So - the "light pod" fits over the bike mounting plate & is triggered by the reverse lamps, but I can also switch the whole lot off to avoid dazzling folk in "normal" reversing.

Blanking Plug - in case you were wondering

If the MoT man objects or I want to fit the bike rack, it just comes off & unplugs & I have another SuperSeal plug blanked off with another 3D printed sealing cover to keep the weather out of the socket.

 

Aren't 3D Printers BRILLIANT!?

 It's been a while, but a coming together of several circumstances led to a little garage time this weekend & my attention turned to the Stylus' airbox.

I made it when I put the blacktop in the car as the existing foam filter was tight up against the trumpets & was breathing engine bay air. Some time later, on a road trip I discovered that the flat face opposite the trumpets had broken up - the resonance of the air pulses I expect, so I mended that, this time also on a road trip I found the airbox was loose, I suspected the lower bolts had torn through & took it off to investigate.

If fact the airbox was still intact, but the bolts had fallen out. Easy fix, but there were more repairs to be done.

Repair 1 was to one of the upper mounting holes, that had pulled through, so an aluminium plate was made & bonded in place. A hole was later drilled.

Yes, it's on my kitchen worktop - what of it?

Repair 2 was the intake. This had originally been bonded on with Tigerseal - usually a very reliable means of attaching stuff. but not this time.

I had carried out a (ahem) "temporary" repair some time ago with a yard & a half of duct tape, could I come up with some thing better? You betcha!

I fired up the laptop & the very useful (& free) CAD system "OnShape" & effectively drew up an "N" - an internal groove, joined to an external groove, the first goes round the flange at the end of the intake, the second fits to the edge if the airbox

Having fed this into the 3D printer & given it some nice soft shore A90 TPU filament to chew on - and a couple of hours, I peeled this of the bed & after a little cleaning up - you can see it's a bit hairy still - I fitted the edge of the Air Box into the outward facing groove.

You can't see anything else though, because it's BLACK! (sorry, my girlfriend & I are a little "Fast Show" obsessed at the moment.

The intake slides through the big hole in the middle locking it in place & when slid fully home, the flange on the other end of the intake is trapped in the inward facing groove (after a brief struggle).

So the outside looks all neat & tidy like this ...

... and the inside looks all neat & tidy like this, the airflow is undisturbed & the intake has a little "give", but is VERY tightly held.

On the car it looks like this. Practically invisible - at least compared to a yard & a half of duct tape.

So there you are - 3D printers - not just for miniature figures of Yoda & sex toys, they have real world practical uses.

More Maintenance

 This afternoon I re-packed the exhaust. I bought the wadding almost a year ago but had been putting it off as it was bound to be a pig of a job & I looked deep into the engine bay at the rusty bolt on the clamp with some trepidation. But with my magic ratchet & enough extension bars to reach right out of the car it came undone easily, then the clamp moved off the outer pipe easily.

I undid the nut holding the tailpipe onto it's rubber mount easily, but the exhaust wouldn't move. I applied a little WD40, but it still seemed to be stuck, so I inserted  breaker bar up it's tailpipe & pulled - was that some rotation? Yes it was, with a wiggle it came off the car & I set about opening the can.

This was pretty much the same story, I drilled the rivets, it didn't move, I gave it a squirt & a tap & off it came.

So it was a comparatively simple job to re-fill it with fluff & put it all back together.

Pine Ridge (Again)

 I've been engaged in a number of things today, I've done a little on the Stylus - nothing interesting, I just swapped the front & rear wheels, the LSD seems to scrub the rear tyres, so evening out the wear seems like a good plan.

I also "customised" the 3D printer, It has a selector knob on the front which has always seemed unnecessarily dull, so it got brightened up.

But before either of these things I took myself off to Pine Ridge Golf Club (relax, I've not taken up the "sport") for the monthly car breakfast meet.

There was the usual spread of stunning cars & some that were "less so" (I'm afraid a charcoal grey Fiat 500 Arbath with a few lurid green stickers on doesn't do it for me", but each to their own.

On arrival it was immediately clear that there was an event on because the roundabout just inside the entrance looked like this:-

That's a Packard & the only thing it lacked was a couple of violin cases with machine guns in on the rear seat.

The next thing to grab my attention - & I'd still not cleared the roundabout - was this. 

At first glance I thought "someone's HotRodded a '50s Bentley", but no, it appears to be a Lagonda used for classic motorsport by the look of it, but the lack of bumpers & hubcaps & the stance, just perfect.

 The place was heaving & I had to drive round the car part three times looking for a space, fortunately someone left, just as I was circumnavigating the roundabout for the forth time.

"Roar Willys" was there, I'm seeing a lot of this car this year, it's been a few different colours in it's time.

Further in there was a Minor with the Willys esque bonnet that was available in the '80s

Meet the "Desoto Firesweep".

Really? "Firesweep"? Did no-one in the marketing meeting start humming "chim-chimeny, chim-chimeny, chim chim cheroo"? OK, the car probably pre-dates the film.

Like a lot of American cars of this era it's all rear over-hang, the bonnet wasn't that long & the bit where the people go wasn't that big, but the boot was enormous.

Three bustles, that's a Model B, a Model A & an Austin Devon

Classic - though it might benefit from more orange than the indicators are currently offering, but I'm biased.

And - It seems slot mags are back in vogue after 30 years in the HotRod wilderness.

Variety - it's a good thing.

It often feels like car culture is under attack, meets with a "broad church" are the best defence.

This 100e appears at a number of local meets, I like it a lot, it has the roll cage & racing roundels, but the standard 1172 engine with period tuning parts.

It's cool.

Two faces of HotRodding at the moment, though one's heart bleeds for the small boy, if the powers that be have their way, there'll be nothing interesting when he is old enough to drive.

Not a Dodge Charger of Dukes of Hazzard fame, but a Plymouth Road Runner. The same car, just a different face.

This is a Dodge Coronet - another variation on the same theme.

More Pop, they're a little like a British Model B, they never go out of fashion, they just get new styles invented to mod them into.

 No idea what it is, but it was fabulous to look at.

And that's about it for photos I'm afraid, there were many many fabulous cars there, many of which I've posted pictures of before.

Still Got It

 Today I was on my own at home, so the car got jacked up for some attention (girlfriend's off photographing planes). I didn't do a great deal, I just took the Panhard rod off (again) & drilled the adjustment jam nuts for wire-locking as some time ago a "clonking" from the rear suspension had been identified as a rattling rose joint after the jam nut came loose. I also drilled both of the Panhard rod pivot bolt tails & put locking wire through the holes. It won't stop the nuts coming loose, but it will stop them coming off & leaving the Panhard rod flailing about & the car going sideways.

And before anyone says "one of them's anti-locked you old fool", that's the left hand thread end and yes I did make that mistake & had to re-wire it the other way.

Did it need wire-locking? Not really, but it's nice to use the old aircraft fitter skills from time to time.

Sad Day Sorn Day

 Yes, the Stylus is off the road for the Winter, so the DVLA owes me 5 months road tax. I took it out for a last run this evening to test a couple of things.

Thing one was a new camera mount that raises the cameras just above the roll bar, so it can see more of the scenery & less of the dashboard. It's a little "leggy", but I have a plan for that.

The other thing was an steering wheel.

The car came with a D-shaped black suede item from "OMP", which I didn't think went well with the car, so when my brother offered me the wheel from his HotRod of 50 years, I put that on. it looked great, just the job & I hung the OMP one on my kitchen wall as a conversation piece - which was fine, but I really wanted an older looking one. I looked around the Autojumble, where many wheels were to be found in pretty poor condition for £lots. However, I stumbled upon (literally) a wheel claiming to fit a Mini, in good condition for £30 & bought that. Then I started thinking. My brother's wheel looked good, but when touring I found the rim a little thin & my hands ached, also, I'd never been very happy with the look of the adaptor I'd made. But could I fit the new one & hang the older wood rim wheel on the wall?

When we got back I summoned up my inner Aircraft Fitter & drilled out the rivets holding the spokes onto the mounting ring, I countersunk the holes & rivetted it back on, now with a smooth underside, drilled holes for bolts & there it was, fitted - ish.

Of course the centre looked ugly, so I set about drawing up a new centre cap using "OnShape", as ever with me, it ended up a little "complex" as it had to fit over all the uglyness.

There were rebates for the bolts, for the arms and for a square rubber plug to retain it in the square hole in the centre of the wheel. That I will admit was a little genius. How do you hold a centre cap on without bolts & without it vibrating & buzzing? I used the square hole to fit a TPU (soft polyurethane) block I'd drawn & printed, which wedged into both the wheel & the cap - job done.

I set it printing at about 9:30 that evening, then had a "better" idea.  I could put subtle coloured rings on it! So I sat up late & swapped the colour to blue, then set my alarm & an hour later, re-set it to silver.

Then after another hour, orange, then silver again.

Obviously by this time I'd had broken sleep all night & it was a rather jaded Blatter that staggered down stairs the following day & was rather pleased when he found the display on the printer showing 99%.

I peeled it off the print mat & tried it on the wheel - perfect!

This was a good thing after a sleepless night.

Isn't that the cat's nightwear?

How did I manage without a 3D printer?

Holidays III

 

We had a week in the New Forest because - the AutoJumble was on & my girlfriend wanted to go.

As we arrived on the Saturday this was up for auction. I've been seeing barn-find E-Types for 30 years, surely there have now been more pulled out than there are barns to pull them out of.

This one went for £29k

Lovely soft top, early 2 door DS & a much later 4 door behind it.

Immaculate old Lancia - these have a weird looking engine, the cast cam cover looks like an aluminium blancmange with spark plugs sticking out apparently randomly.

This was not for sale. "Tetanus" was found as the rusted out wreck of a four door, front wheel drive Cord. Normally a properly expensive car, but there was so little left, it was not worth restoring. Until that is Andy Saunders found it. Andy has built some fantastic HotRods & as you can see the car is now a swoopy two door coupe & driven by the correct wheels. It is absolutely stunning.

Still a working vehicle, this Morris van was beautiful.

This was in the car park - & we saw it driving though the forest as well. It's a coach-built MG, one was built for a car show & an American ordered 100 to sell, but in the end only 60 odd were delivered, but isn't it fantastic?

Also in the "not seen one of those before" category was this Prefect pick-up. no idea of the history but it was either factory made or brilliantly executed, you can usually tell a saloon made into a pick-up, but this had none of the usual traits.

After the AutoJumble we visited Sammy Miller's Motorcycle Museum, as is usually the case we arrived as it opened & were thrown out when it closed. This was in the car park when we arrived.

I'm afraid I can't claim any great interest in motorcycles, but I do like engineering & there was certainly some of that on display - like this one with .......

.....a combined fairing / exhaust casting.

Or quarter-eliptic leaf spring front suspension........

,,,,,or girder forks with six springs, only two of which control the forks going up & down........

..... some had no forks at all & were just plain weird .......

....... while others were like rolling art works.

We even saw the actual Sammy Miller, now 90 years young, wandering about & organising people.

This was someone's Uni project. Looks fantastic, but I couldn't get past the idea that the engine's in there with you - that's not going to make for a relaxing experience.

There's a bit of a kit car connection here, the blue & green bikes were owned by Don & Derek Rickman - they of the Rickman Ranger kit, two of which I have owned.

A bike that falls into the "interesting" category. I expect there's an engine in there somewhere.

Not someone's custom built confection, but a standard 1938 Zundapp.

It looked absolutely fantastic.

I told you there was some weird front suspension going on

Trapezium steering - really?

A six GALLON petrol tank on a bike, & all hand beaten aluminium

As I say I thoroughly enjoyed the trip there - not necessarily for the "right" reasons, I was intrigued by the inventiveness & weirdness & by just how many ways people had come up with of solving the same problem.

And finally You have to love an enormous dustbin fairing!