Clear out and refill.

I did a stall at the car boot at Burgh Castle on Sunday and remembered the camera..
A good day,I managed to sell a lot of the older tools and stuff out of the workshop and store that I don't need anymore.
Only problem is,that as usual I got all over excited when I went for a wander and ended up buying more stuff that "Might come in handy one day" . I like this car boot.They don't pack you in like sardines,there's a fresh veg and a butcher,both of who are there every week and its a nice relaxed atmosphere.
Julies car boot

Putting the boot in.

The boot on the Rover P5b has a couple of holes where rust has come through at the bottom.I've ordered some cellulose paint in Burnt Grey which is supposed to be the colour and repaired a spray gun I bought at a car boot.With no garage I'm hoping for a day with no wind so I can repair the rust and get the boot looking a bit better.

 

There are a lot of micro blisters in places,on the doors one side and on the top of the boot lid.I'm going to try 

rubbing the paint down with a very fine wet and dry to get to the sound coats underneath and then compounding and polishing the paint.

Burgh Castle car boot time again.

I went to Julies car boot  near Yarmouth on sunday.They close this car boot for part of the year this was the first one of the season.I managed to pick up some tools and a lap top computer from a smashing couple who gave me their name and address in case there was any problem,there wasn't it works great.
I might even do a stall up there this coming sunday,.If  I remember the camera I'll take some pictures.

Kick down a cock up.

I thought I'd have a go at adjusting the kick down cable on the Rover.The gear changes are happening at  higher speeds than they should do and the poor old girl thumps when coasting to a halt.People tell me thats because the kick down cable is too tight.The ruddy thing is hard to get to and all the bolts and adjustments were too tight for fingures and next to impossible to get at with pliers but I managed to get it all off,cleaned and adjusted.

I took it out for a run and it seemed a bit better,not really sure if thats wishfull thinking or imagination as it wasn't really that horrible in the first place.I'll have to wait for a longer run and get it good and hot.

Rule Britannia.

I've just taken delivery of some English made tools.The quality is very high (trouble is so is the price).
"Made in England" still carries some weight in the USA and Australia/New Zealand etc but sales in the UK just aren't that good,everyone buys the cheaper imported stuff.
These tools are from a company thats been making them in england for over a century,I wonder if they'll still be about in another 100 years.

Car booty.Not worth the effort today.

I had a look round the car boot at the Kessingland wildlife park on Sunday.What a waste of time,the weather was pretty poor buy no excuse for all the junk and overpriced tat.Most of the car booters are now professionals and some of the stuff must get humped in and out of the car boots for months on end before they find sonmeone to buy it.I was hoping to find some whitworth or other obsolete tools
I took the rover to a trip to gorleston and spent a pleasant hour with a bag of chips watching a couple of die hard enthusiasts with radio controlled boats on the boating lake.

Is Ebay still the place for a bargain?.

People keep saying ebay is on the way out but it still seems to attract a lot of interest.I've tried the other auction sites like Ecrater and Ebid but I've bought more on ebay than all the others put together.
Well,if you can't beat them join them and I've now started having a clear out of tools
I think ebay has now got so big that its a bit like Tesco,no matter how bad things get people will still spend money there.There's a discussion forum about internet auctions called pheebay they discuss ebay,ebid and ecrater.In the meanwhile I'm still relying on my own site for the majority of tool sale,its better than paying fees to ebay and I dont feel as though someones looking over my shoulder all the time.

Exhausting repairs on the taxi.

I thought the taxi was getting a bit noisy and today the exhaust decided to break.In the middle there's a sort of swivel joint that allows the exhaust to move about and where this joins the exhaust pipe it had split all the way round.Taking off the exhaust should have been easy,it's held on by rubber mounts and three nuts hold the front manifold on.These are hard to get to and had rusted solid.The studs in the manifold will probably shear off before ayhthing comes undone so I cut through the pipe under the cab,took the exhaust off,welded it all back together and then hung it in place and welded the cut down pipe back together.It means that at some time I'm going to have to work out a way of getting the nuts off but I just don't fancy doing it now in the cold and wet.
The odd thing was that with the pipe fixed the taxi seems to have a bit more go than it did before,I haven't a clue why but I',m not complaining.

Lathering leather.

I spent a fair few hours scrubbing the seats of the rover with saddle soap,then treating them with wax and polishing.I was told the secret was to keep doing it over and over again untill a piece of clean white cloth shows no marks when rubbed over the leather.same thing with the wax,a slow build up,polished off then redone time and time again.
It took a long while but the end results justify the hard work.

The transit and the flat battery

The old Mk1 transit has got some sort of electrical fault.After a run it seems as though every so often the battery is flat.I've had the starter off,the brushes are OK and the commutaors fine,I've checked all the leads,the earth strap,even rigged up temporary ones with jump leads and changed the battery.
All I can think of to try is the starter solenoid.The trouble is,if it's left for ten minutes it will then sometimes turn over and fire OK anyway and thats about the time it would take to fit another solenoid,and,it can go a week or more without doing it anyway.
Do you think my bum looks big in this?

Autojumble at the Rednecks diner.

Near Beccles Norfolk is a place called the Rednecks diner.I went to an autojumble there this Sunday.It was the first one they've done,there were a few stalls and I managed to pick up a fair few bits.Some sealed beam units that will always come in handy for the transit or the Rover p5b and odd tools,sprayguns and assorted spares.

They say they might do another one later in the year,it will definately be on the list of places to go.

Google maps

I see the shop has got onto google maps.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=nr321bt&aq=&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=12.031771,28.256836&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Lowestoft,+Suffolk+NR32+1BT,+United+Kingdom&ll=52.473893,1.751976&spn=0.012103,0.027595&z=15&layer=c&cbll=52.473856,1.752123&panoid=nPPY-0HM4yPvtvdzj-eznA&cbp=12,329.96,,1,20
I should apologise for the sign,but I'm not going to.

A couple of boats come calling.

These two seem to be regular visitors to lowestoft docks.Moored in the old trawler basin they bring a reminder of how the area looked in its busy times.

Ebay bargains?.

I saw a listing on ebay,no picture but it sounded too good to miss.
Penis enlargement.No drugs,instant results,no risk works everytime.
I sent off my fifty quid.

I got a magnifying glass.

Welding finished

I finished welding the bumper on the Rover.
I though I'd repair the door cards,one of them looked a bit rough where the stitching had broken.Taking off the cards revealed the doors were reasonable although there was a bit of loose scale in the bottom.I got as much out as possible and treated the inside of the ddors with Fluid Film and then black Waxoyl.

Welding the rear bumper of a P5b

The rear bumper on my P5B was pretty grim,I had a badly rusted and damaged spare and I thought I'd see if it was possible to get it to a state that it could be powder coated or even sprayed to act as a spare.The rust on the ends of the bumpers had gone through,it seems to have started from behind the fittings for the bumper bolts.

Cutting the hole square after a bit of poking with a screwdriver I cut a plate to fit flush into the holes and MIG welded it in place.

After grinding and filing it down,it looked alot better but there are a few pin holes in the welds and around the edges.I might try filling these with braze.

Recession what recession?.

Christmas has been and gone and by gawd trade is slow.It seems like there's no money about (there was much of it in Lowestoft.The internet is quiet,ebay and ebid are both slow and I keep getting firms ringing up out of the blue offering me this that and the other,cheap.
I don't see much chance of any huge improvement any time soon.

Snow and Ice gone,fire up the tranny.

After standing for a couple of months under snow and ice the old ford transit motorhome was entitled to feel a bit neglected.
I put the battery on charge for a few hours,primed the pump and turned the key.After a couple of spins it started.I love the old V4's they either go or they don't,none of that electronic stuff,if they go wrong you can usually fix them by the side of the road.It cut out  a bit later as a connection to the ballast resistor fell off as it has almost corroded through.With that sorted the old van took a trip to Yarmouth and back again.
I bought an old scrap V4 engine some time ago as a spare.It had been in a shed for some years and has seized.I'm going to drag it out and see if it can be got working again.

Christmas day charity swim in lowestoft.

A freezing cold day,foggy and damp but some crazy fools in fancy dress braved the elements and took to the sea at lowestoft.The crowds weren't put off by the weather either and it was difficult to get some rally good pictures but I've done my best.

The swimmers gather on the beach and  start off with a quick 'warm up' by running up and down the beach.

Then suddenly the rush for the sea starts.

Despite the bitter cold some stayed in for some while.

The life boat heads back in a cloud of spray.All over for another year.

Too cold to mess about under cars.

I got part f the way to fitting the new mounts but found they need modifying.It was too cold to stay under there for long so I crawled out and played about changing the bumper for one thats a bit less rusty.
They're now saying another load of snow and feezing temperatures are heading this way so thats me done for a bit.
Indoors with the fire going,has to be better than grovelling about under a car.