I am currently in the process of welding the box-section sill replacement on the passenger side to match the one on the other. I have done all of the outer welding, now I just have to fabricate the mountings and weld up the remains of the old inner sill to it.
Unfortunately I have only just discovered that the two rubber body mountings at the front of the footwell are rotten. These are a pig to get to (I had to chop a hole in the footwell to get the bolt out!) and there is no way I can see of doing them other than to cut them and the footwell out completely, fab them back up and then replace the floor section. At the moment I am refusing to think about this in the hope that it will go away.
In terms of welding I have done the front, driver's side, back and half of the passenger side - I reckon I have done at least three quarters of the required welding. It would be more except for those body mounts... Because of this set-back, I am thinking of time savers now - trying to make do with things to just get through the MoT and then sort them out later.
One trick I have just discovered will remove the need to fab up a rear bumper: I was wanting something stronger than the normal thin steel thing and while looking at it I found that, after removing the end caps I can shove a piece of scaffold along it's length inside It is a reasonable fit and with a little welding will make something FAR stronger than the original while still looking ok I hope.
Another time-saver decision I have made recently is to stick with the viscous fan. I was going to use electric (Peugeot 406: Perfect) but using the viscous one saves time and money, and next time it comes off (when I do the front crank pulley oil seal) it should be easy-peasy
I re-tested the waterproofness of the Megajolt system the other day (I keep having to do it - getting more extreme each time) with one of those plastic storage boxes full of water - heh heh hehe: I got soaked, but the engine just shrugged it off
The engine continues to start and run incredibly well with it's Megajolt system, even though it is still running rich. I had a word with my usual MoT man and he suggested that I shouldn't worry too much until and if it actually fails - he implied that a 1990 car would have to be pretty bad to fail on emissions. Still on the engine - it sounds fantastic without the last silencer so I am going to leave it like that and hope it gets through the MoT on noise too. It doesn't actually seem that loud until you give it some berries so I'll keep my fingers crossed. All I am going to do is weld in a 90deg bend in place of the last box and bring it out through the bodywork at the bottom of the wing just in front of the bumper. If it fails at MoT I can chop that off and weld on the original box in an hour or two so I think it's worth a try.
The fuel system is all piped up on the supply and return - with new pipe everywhere. Only the breather line going up to the engine remains to be fitted - this is because it will run up the other side of the car to all the others and there is still welding to be done on that side. The LPG is all plumbed in too and ready for it's first filling once I have that MoT.
The rear floor is a bit of a head scratcher. I would really like to fit new top-hat sections, but according to Paddocks nobody make pattern ones and I didn't even ask the price of genuine... At the moment I am thinking of getting them sand-blasted, but they are pretty corroded and not looking too strong as they are so what they would be like after blasting is anyones guess, but I am probably going to line out the rear floor with plywood so at least there shouldn't be any localised loading on the original wriggly alloy floor underneath.
One minor success is the repair of the sunroof and it's associated guttering. The sunroof itself would often stop in the rearmost position (they always break while open and it's about to rain - never when shut and you want to open them! Anyway - it turned out to be a dodgy relay so that's done. And as for the leaking gutter - this was down to corroded holes near the corners and blocked drain pipes. The pipes cleared with compressed air (green slimy sh1t all over me when it blew back ) and the holes were cleaned up and patched with two-part epoxy putty which was then painted over. Well epoxy putty has held the oil in my Honda for the last year so I think it should manage a little rain water!
The original head lining was stripped of it's saggy cloth and the manky spongy backing stuff that remained stuck to the back-board was pressure washed off it. It is now lying on the spare bed waiting for somebody to give me some left-over vinyl silk to paint it with. I don't know what it will look like when it is done but as long as it does it's job (insulation and prevention of condensation-drips) I'll be happy.
I fitted new crystal headlights the other day ( the old ones were very rusty) but they are a little loose in the mounting and the rear waterproof cover will not fit (the are a deeper dish than the originals) In order to stop them rattling I put a line of silicone around them and only the next day realised that I wont be able to get them out to change bulbs now without cutting the sealant away... D'OH!
I get a little bonus at the end of next week and - depending on how big it is - I may actually get some wheels/tyres for the RRC that would allow me to have a go in the Disco in the mean time. I am pretty certain that I am going to push the boat out and go for Kumho KL71, 235x85x16's although they are going up so rapidly at the moment I may be forced to go for the cheaper 31x10.50x15s. One is taller, the other wider hmmm...
I still haven't found a final home for the CB (does anyone actually use them any more?) but favourite at the moment is on top of the dash. I have decided that the snatch-plates that it came with are pretty art-less and have removed them. In the process of doing this I got a screw in the wrong hole (I failed to notice the one screw as shorter than all the rest by ooh about 1.5mm, and when I put it in I shorted out one of the tracks on the PCB, effectively preventing any reception. Luckily I found the problem and once I had repositioned the screws the unit works ok, so I can once more listen with delight to the erudite discourse of 'big John' and 'Patty' who seem to do little more than buy and sell rigs, twigs and burners and burp (with distorted echo) all day
Well that's all I can think of right now - I'll still be in the Disco at RHB, but hopefully the RRC will be finished for late November.
TTFN
Roger