That long, what kept you ?! :~)
20 odd nuts or bolts and a four hose clips, it probably takes longer to clean the gasket surfaces than doing the spanner work...-- Jerry. Location - United Kingdom. In the first instance please reply to group, The quoted email address is a trash can for Spam only.
"Adrian" wrote
And yet you read resto articles in the classic press about people who've even done *this* bit themselves. How, in Gawd's name??
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Blue Max" saying something like:
Practice. Remember though, that for every gleaming home restoration that appears in the pages, there's a hundred unfinished projects that will never turn a wheel again if left to the current owner.
It's your duty to go out and wrest such cars from the idle buggers who own them and complete the work.
On top of practice, you need to believe you can do it. And have high standards; don't settle for "It'll do", but make sure its the best possible. Any welding that can be seen afterwards isn't good enough for me. I put up with visible seam lines underfloors, but prefer to make even those invisible! My A40 has no visible welds, other than a few out of sight and inaccessible bits. Paint too, can be done with patience. My Elf looks pretty good!
I have a queue of projects. They will get done; in the gaps between the reality of work!
the engine was hot!
Did you do it twice daily?
-- Peter Hill Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header Can of worms - what every fisherman wants. Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!
Luckily no; students coudn't afford the gaskets more than once a month!
The Blue Max ( snipped-for-privacy@Jasta1.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Usually, badly. It's not always as clear cut as "professional=good, amateur=bad", though...
We've all seen appalling "workmanship" from people who's invoices suggest they ought to know far far better.
Twice I used a professional to replace a worn clutch (two different establishments and two different cars) because at the time I was too busy to do them myself. One bent the overdrive actuating rod so that it fouled on the casing. The other forgot to put the wires back on the reversing light switch and left two bolts missing.
I have always found time to do my own since then.
Jim
I replaced the serpentine belts (posh name for fan belts, etc) on my FMDSH BMW recently. The recommended way is from underneath - fine if you have a lift or pit, but not for doing it in the street. The obvious way to me was to remove the viscous fan and surround. I've got the correct 32mm spanner for this as it's the same on the SD1. The surround is fixed by two of those popper rivets.
On mine, the rivets had been replaced by cable ties, and the fan clutch nut had been punched off with a drift by the marks.
I'd had the crankshaft sensor replaced under warranty, and you have to take the fan off for this.
The popper rivets were pennies each and in stock at the same main dealer.
Such expertise and only 110 quid an hour.
Dave Plowman ( snipped-for-privacy@argonet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Have you checked the invoice for that work? I bet they bloody charged for them...
It was free, being under warranty. But those 'popper' rivets are re-usable if removed with care. I don't know what they're correctly called - they're made of plastic with a spreader bar that goes down the middle. If you remove the bar carefully, the housing comes out. Try just levering it out with a screwdriver and they break.
"Jim Warren" realised it was Mon, 17 May 2004 10:24:50 +0100 and decided it was time to write:
Two days after a 'professional mechanic' replaced a driveshaft on my Spitfire, I stepped on the brake pedal and nothing happened, because all brake fluid had disappeared. Luckily, it was while backing off the driveway, but I've done *all* my own mechanical work on my classics since.
"Yippee" wrote
That's the bit I reckon I'd be good at.
My nerdy hobby for the last 25 years has been building ships in 1/200 scale. I reckon I can tell if a curve is right versus plans just by looking at it. I can also see if one side is symmetrical with the other, and it works on cars too. The materials are clearly different and we're talking sprayguns as opposed to airbrushes but if it's a question of practice I'd have thought I could do this. I find the mechanical stuff unintuitive. Even stuff that that ought to be easy.
'Plastic Rivets' you mean (well that's the only name all the people I have bought them off in the past have called them) ?!
Oh, and the ones that have a screw out centre seem to go by the name 'Scrivets' - at least by Rover !
-- Jerry. Location - United Kingdom. In the first instance please reply to group, The quoted email address is a trash can for Spam only.
I remember the first time I encountered one - couldn't work out how it was assembled. Took it off with a screwdriver. Snap!
I'd always assumed that when they were broke/lost/worn that was that. Any spares I've got I removed from scrap cars. Can they be got new from a motor factor or a dealer?
Hi,
I started messing around with cars when I was about 11 years old, my dad used to be into working on old cars, Austin Maxi's mainly, it was great to get in the garage and learn how to work on cars, how to strip engines, how to repair rust holes, I am 34 now and still find it enjoyable to do, I am working on a 1979 Chevrolet 21' camper van in the workshop, it needs full restoration.
You pick things up over the years, you mess things up and make mistakes along the way, but that is how you learn, get stuck in and don't be afraid of fu**ing things up, they can be fixed again, example, last year, I had a
1998 VW Polo, I bought the car cheap as it needed some new front panels after a minor prang, when the car was almost finished, I got the arc welder out and started to weld a little bit on lower A post, right behind where I was welding is the dash!!, I set fire to the dash, guess what!, the fire melted part of the dash, destroyed the main wiring loom including fuse board, melted the speedo etc, see pic at:I since sold the Polo and bought a nice clean 1979 Triumph Spitfire 1500
Simon
Many year ago my father wrote off a six-week old A35 van. The mechanics had forgotten to refill the diff with oil after draining it at its first service, and the back axle consequently seized solid on the A1!
It's not a recent phonomenon then.
Being a mean Aberdonian, I made a couple of tools to remove them without breaking. B&Q etc sell tack lifters - a sort of screwdriver with a sharp webbed end which has a slot to fit under carpet tacks etc. Grinding this out to the rivit 'popper' diameter meant one either side allowed them to be removed without damage. There is a Sykes-Pickavant tool almost the same, but at 10 times the price...
Pennies from my local BMW dealer. That's what annoyed me - they stock them, but their 'mechanic' preferred to use cable ties. Wanker. But for some reason didn't like being called that.
...and I use a very small screwdriver to poke the centres through.
Dunno why; should be used to it by now if that's his normal standard of workmanship.
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