Keyser

12 minutes ago, ATTAK Z said:

I forgot ...  ... I have a road toy too:

 

You forgot the 911 Turbo !!!!!!!!!

 

How the, what the, I mean you, but .............. No...................... Really  ...........

 

I'm speechless  .................................... and thats rare!!!!

 

You've been in lock down to long mate !!!

 

Nice Guitar collection though

 

The final instalment in the dash build 

 

Well done if you stuck with it, 2 days went into this, It was fun to be fair and what else are you goanna do on Easter weekend while on lockdown?

 

Another template

 

 

 

Transfer to ally

 

 

 

Test fit

 

 

Mark the deliberate mistake in red – I used the front template again and forgot about the overhang at the front  

 

 

Now it fits

 

 

So cut a rough hole in it

 

 

Then mill it all up square

 

 

To give

 

 

Make a back mark it out then drill it

 

 

Tap some threads into the back plate

 

 

Clamp it all together

 

 

Must have got one of those dials in the right place my welding isn’t as ugly

 

 

Extra clamps to keep it all square

 

 

All sanded back

 

 

Drill a hole in the cable box

Add grommet

 

 

Finish the lid

 

 

The finished article ……………………….

 

 

 

And on The Bug

 

 

Hope you enjoyed that, tomorrow we move onto extreme cleaning  

 

Be Safe!

 

Keyser - It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company. George Washington – I’m definitely a bad influence not sure about company  

 

 

 

Well I have an hour to kill so I thought I’d post up some more on the dash build,

 

Firstly I removed these original mounting tabs and the temp gauge holder

 

All gone

 

 

Now this is all the wiring that needs to go “neatly” (read hidden) to the back of the dash

 

 

So some more bits I had laying around

 

I milled 6mm of one edge (the side wall is 3mm) see if your ahead of me  

 

 

Spot weld

 

 

Big weld

 

 

Sanded back

 

 

Lined it up on the frame and spot welded it in place

 

 

Ugly weld

 

 

So, I checked the dials on the TiG

 

 

I came to the conclusion there are a lot and I have no idea what most of them do  

 

Back on the bench 2 more of the same angle bits and a piece of card (to allow for powder coat_

 

 

 

Now you know why I milled 6mm of it  

All welded up

 

More coming …………………………….

 

 

2 hours ago, andy james said:

Hows the Boss getting on with the painting?......

Don't ask she got more paint today

O the toy box - well lets see -

 

I have the road toy -

 

 

Then we have the track toy

 

 

Currently refurbishing the off road toy

 

 

Then we have the indor toys we have an E-Quad and E-Kart in assosiation with @Beb the E-Kart is still in prototype

 

 

 

I LOVE TOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Keyser.

46 minutes ago, andybp said:

back to stock (ish) prior to selling it 

No why you selling  

 

56 minutes ago, andybp said:

some of us are more equal than others 

 

 

 

 

Yes some of us are

Moving swiftly on then,

 

Made a couple of mounting brackets for the gauges

 

Welded those in

Onto the top

 

 

I angled the edges so I can go for an invisible weld

 

 

 

Here goes again (Try not to burn myself this time )

 

Clamped

 

 

Spot welded

 

 

Welded

 

 

Sanded

 

 

I like it so  time for a test fit

 

 

 

Tomorrow the back and cable entry fabrication

 

Stay Safe

 

Keyser - " I don't want to be alone; I want to be left alone.” -  Audrey Hepburn (and she didn’t have a Zed Shed  

)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I worry about minor things like how to make it stay in place I thought I’d improve the temp gauge angle –

Que the montage –

 

 

 

That’s better  

 

Now then the ends of the dash – Hmmm

Ahhh I know  

 

Bit of aluminium pipe cut down and cleaned up

 

Cut that in half

 

Weld those on the ends and it looks like this

 

Next I removed the original das mounting tags

 

Cleaned the metal up and noticed the bar is threaded = idea for mounting

 

 

Some aluminium angle

 

Cut and drilled

 

 

Tack weld that on

 

Rinse and repeat for the other side

 

 

Some tatty scrap from the bottom of the pile

 

 

Cut and cleaned up to make the fill in bits

 

 

 

 

Onto the welding (self taught ally TiG welder here don’t expect YouTube welding tutorial levels of quality) 

 

 

But it sticks together so not all bad

 

Then the welder broke (OK I drooped it – it was hot!)

 

 

Stop laughing ya bastards I knew it was hot I just lent in the wrong place – I have the scar and everything!!!

Anyway, I keep spares for the welder so that didn’t slow me down for long!

The burn did – I cried like a little girl

 

 

Still more coming ………….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to it then? Hope you all had a great bank holiday weekend not that you could get out much given the current situation, this did mean that I "had" to stay home and as Mrs K was busy painting the hall as the painters couldn't come and I would only be in her way in the house I thought it best if I found something to do in the Zed Shed

 

Been busy all weekend on The Bug, it’s amazing how quickly time flies by when you are fabricating things, if time was being billed this would not be worthwhile but I really enjoy this stuff and I have the tools and space so why the hell not  

Before I crack on with the rebuild there are several issues I need to address, and I’m waiting for a load of parts to arrive which may be slower than usual again due to the current lockdown.

 

Anyway, the first thing I decided to tackle is this –

 

 

 

 

The Dash!

 

So, what’s wrong with it? - Well it would be quicker to list the things that are right with it,

1. Nothing

Problems.

1. The speedo which has all the warning lights incorporated in it is not in line of sight.

2. It is not waterproof or even splash proof as you can see above it has no base.

3. The buttons (pic below) especially the indicator switch are useless while just testing the indicators I can’t turn them off which is a half press a complete press is about 1.5cm imagine trying to do it while driving!

4. The heater gauge which for some reason is bigger than the speedo is mounted behind the dash on the frame – I have no idea maybe they added it later?

5. There is no fog light switch – but then there is no fog light. We need one though.

6. Its plastic and looks cheap

Apart from the horn button which is OK I have nothing good to say about it.

 

 

My solution was to get back to my Blue Peter fabrication technique –

Starting with a cardboard template that puts all the switches in a row, separates the indicators, incorporates the temp gauge and puts the speedo where it should be in front of the driver!

 

 

Find a big enough scrap of aluminium

 

 

And cut out the basic shape,

 

 

Now the fun, go through a plethora of hole cutting bits to get the right size for eacj switch and/or dial 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bit of help from the DRO on the mill to get 30mm centres in a straight line

 

 

 

@andybp before you say anything 0.022mm is within my tolerances

 

That got me to here

 

 

and that will fit here something like this –

 

Front 

 

 

 

Back 

 

 

I made this up as I went along so I now had to work out what to do next ……………………….

 

 

More in a mo………………………

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like you need my permission  

 

look forwards to seeing your progress and I’ll be more than happy to give any advice I can. 

Good Morning to all my readers (yes both of you) and my favourite critic @andybp

 

So, nothing interesting on The Bug just yet, spent a bit more time on the wiring yesterday which anyone who has chased electrical faults round a car will know is boring and monotonous, it’s just tracing wires and testing components. I do love the way they change wire colours at any connector randomly, there never seems to be any reason to do it, I also can’t find (or can’t be bothered to look hard enough) a wiring diagram although they are never that good anyway in my experience.

As my thread covers EVERYTHING a here are a few pictures of not cars, instead I invite you to join me on a trip down nostalgia lane for those who are really REALLY bored!

 

So grab a drink and off we go-

My dad who passed a few years back built a table when I was a but a young man, he may have even built it before I was born, I remember it from as far back as I can which would make me about 5 or 6 years old, that table moved with the family until I joined the army in 1988. Then, when my parents moved to a town house the table disappeared.

 

I never thought much about it back then to be honest but I noticed it one day stored in my dads garage, this would be around 2006/6 it just so happened that we (by now I was married with my own children) needed a dining room table so I asked if I could have it, dad was happy to pass it on but storage had taken it’s toll. One end was rotten from standing on a concrete floor and both sides had wood worm.

 

I trimmed about 6 inches of the length and about 2 inches of each side then sanded it down varnished it and we have been using it ever since. When my parents passed, we inherited an oak dining table one of those extendable ones, a modern one and nothing spectacular. As it was a bit bigger Mrs Keyser decided we would use the oak table and the other one became her sewing table for a while. But she hates the oak table as you can’t put 6 chairs under it as they hit the legs and it messes with her OCD to have 2 chairs “out”

 

We (read Mrs Keyser) recently did a make over and redecorated the kitchen-diner and the subject of the table came up, Mrs Keyser wanted to buy a new one!  

I complained and said get the old one out, it has huge sentimental value to me, Mrs Keyser said she loves the table but it’s too narrow as it had to be cut down when we first got it. You can seat 6 but it’s hard top get all the food down the middle at Christmas ask @buster

 

So the point to all this inane rambling is when my dad originally built the table he made it with 3 benches 1 full length for one side and 2 half lengths for the other side (they were never that comfortable) the legs were rotten after storage but the seat parts were stored in my dad’s garage loft for years and I got them with the table and put them in my loft, I suggested to Mrs K I widen the table by using the long bench – same wood same age etc it would be good. Mrs Keyser agreed to see what it came out like and would consider using it instead of buying a new table.

 

 I therfore started by cutting the tabletop in half and lined it up with the old bench top

 

 

Planed the bench to the same thickness as it was a bit thicker (you can see how much lenght was cut of a few years back)

 

 

 

Glued it together

 

 

Squared the legs up – 50-year-old wood was a little warped

 

Before

 

 

After

 

 

After some sanding, wood stain and varnish it is now back in the dining room

 

That’s 50 years in the family, built by my dad and refurbished twice by me - a lot of memories from around this table!

And here it is ………………..

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the story if not that’s 10 minutes of your life you will never get back  

 

More on The Bug coming soon .................

 

PS -Mrs Keyser loves it.

 

 

Keyser - I'm just a lonely boy, Lonely and blue, I'm all alone, with nothing to do (ha Donny I have a Zed Shed = plenty to do)

10 hours ago, ATTAK Z said:

Great thread Chris ... be warned though ! I did a bit of fettling on the TR6 today. I might start my own thread. Ha Ha

I'd love to hear what you've been up to on the TR6 

 

 

1 hour ago, SuperStu said:

Chris your photography skills have gone fully professional recently; everything is in focus, no digits. Another string to your bow - niiiiiice.

That will be the new iPhone 11 camera

 

Now to work on my speliing

 

 

 

1 hour ago, andybp said:

I tried to just look at the pictures as suggested but a plethora of spelling mistakes just kept jumping out at me 

Have you replaced poor spelling with bad photography? 

You mean bad photography with bad spelling don't you -  You can't even insult me properly any more! Slacking Andy SLACKING!!!

 

 

 

Hope your feeling better mate

 

 

EDIT - Did it ever occur to you why I didn't want you to read it!?

 

 

Right while I have a captive audience under house arrest and bored enough to read my drivel, I'll post some more of it to maybe give you something to do for 5 minutes.

@andybp You just look at the pretty pictures mate

 

So where are we at, I made a buggy for "The Bug"

 

 

Now it fits on both the ramps and I can move it around

 

Next I removed the seats

 

 

needs a  clean but so do the seats

 

 

Qucik hose down in the garden

 

 

Good enough for now, everything will be cleaned properly later or before re-assembly

 

It now sat like this

 

 

So I removed some more bits

 

 

To get easier access to the electrics

 

Starting from the MOT Failure list it lists amongst other things

 

Stop lamp(s) all not working

Position lamp niot working Nearside Rear

Position lamp niot working Offside Rear

Registration plate lamp inoperative in the case of a single lap or all lamps Rear

 

So lets take a look

 

Nearside Rear light

 

 

Offside Rear light

 

 

It took a while but I may see why these failed

 

Number plate light

 

 

Not sure if this is a clear light painted black or just old

 

Anyway I got the multimeter out and the electrics don't supply and power to the lights so the missing bulbs are not the only issue, I started stripping back the wiring loom

 

 

and the dash came out

 

 

Coffee was needed! I keep finding "modificatins" to the loom like -

 

 

So far apart from the broken lights I have found;

 

1 x Damaged headlamp internal wiring (bent connectors shorting out or not making contact)

1 x Knackered relay

1 x Knackered headlamp switch

 

I'm also having an issue with the indicators as I'm swaping out the rears for LED units, I am well aware of the known relay issue and hyperblink when putting LED's in to the indicators but I have the resistors and when bench tested it works perfectly, it just stops working when I fit it onto The Bug

 

O well more investigation and a lot of rewiring, intrstingly the MOT failure states -

"Rear Fog Lamp not working"

But it dosn't have one, there is also no wiring or switch anywhere to be found, The law is it must have one from what I have read so fine I'll add one but how did it pass previous MOT's? Bit strange but there you go.

 

I asked the mad scientis @Beb if he minded me modifying a few things as it is our project but due to social distancing and the lockdown I'm just getting on with it by myself, he stupidly said yes whatever you think - Stand by for scope creep

 

Budget is a thing on this project as we intend to keep the cost down to £1000 which is less than it would cost if we had bought one with an MOT, I'll post up spending if anyone is intrested However I have a lot of bits laying around from other projects which I class as free and time is currently on my side so if I don't put a cost oion the time or the bits I have access to I can do a lot of mods for free and I'm doing some of themm because they are needed IMHO the rest I'm doing just  because I can and I want to

 

More soon.

 

Stay Safe

 

Keyser -  All by myself Don't wanna be All by myself Anymore .........................  (Yer thanks Celine )

 

 

1 minute ago, SuperStu said:

Is that for Golf?

I suppose it could be

 

Its an off/on road buggy thing me and the Mad Scientist bough cheap of FB Market Place - see my thread I'm about to rebuild it and modify it Zed Shed style

 

It does have a racxk on the back so golf clubs would fit if that's yourt thing

 

I'm gonna off road it though

I have no response to that @ATTAK Z - Except why did you not keep your brolly instead of giving it away?

 

No Caption Competition today just a little side project or two -

 

So first thing on the list was to tidy the Zed Shed

 

 

and the Machine Shop

 

 

 

Much better

 

Now find some metal laying around on the pile of bits I keep for "projects"

 

 

Perfect

 

A few measurments and a chop saw to give me these (after a quick cleanup)

 

 

Start welding

 

 

bit of drilling and some more welding

 

 

 

added an extra bar underneath

 

 

 

I was going to add these but decided they were not needed

 

 

But wheels were

 

 

and we have a trolley to move the heater around the garage

 

 

Next .............

 

Some old stainless that I also have on the pile -

 

 

Bit of work on the mill

 

 

 

and the lathe

 

 

 

Saw some bits up

 

 

 

Action shot on the mill

 

 

 

 

Bit of stainless TiG welding (I need the practice )

 

 

We have ...................

 

 

 

They were supposed to be mounts to go above the washing machine in the utility room to hold a pole for drying jumper etc that can not be tumble dried, in my defence Mrs Keyser just asked if I could make something that would take a spare wooden curtain rail and hold it far enough off the wall to hang coat hangers on. After I accepted the challenge and made them I took a proper look at what she wanted and said a stainles bar would be better so cut 2 of them up and re-used them to make this -

 

 

Still it does what is needed and I had fun fabricating, it's all from my large "scrap" pile so had some welding and machining practice and keeps me from wanting to go out

 

 

More Soon when we start working are way through the short!!?? MOT failure list for "The Bug"

 

 

 

Just a few more things to keep me busy

 

 

Keyser - One Man Alone (but very happy) In His Shed.     

 

 

Be Safe Guys n Gals!

On 03/04/2020 at 05:12, CLASSIX said:

Do you still have the plenum?

Just saw this - still here I think need to check as I had a clear out   

On 05/04/2020 at 22:12, Finners said:

Do you still have the bluetooth adapter? 

Yes mate

 

PM replied to.

Well I'm still working but as 70% of my companies have 75% of the staff furloughed and I can't do any site work I have a lot more free time, just need to keep answering calls and sorting problems as the arise.

 

However Boredom is not a problem cause I have the Zed Shed II in the back garden

 

 

Always something to do - See my thread (update coming today)

 

 

We3ll that's annoying, get the CPS looked at, I'd like to be more help but its akward just now!

 

Good luck.

@ATTAK Z at your behest

 

 

 

 

 

 

I look so cool

1 hour ago, ATTAK Z said:

@Keyser prefers doughnuts !!!

Nope on a diet - lost 1.5 Stone since January

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK Send the doughnuts anyway

Hi,

 

@ZMANALEX is reffering to me as the guy up the coast, so you owe him a beer for taking the time to PM me - you'll have to post it as he is in Scotland  

 

 In different times I'd come take a look at the car with you but I had almost the exact same issue with a Zed a few years back, the fault turned out to be a poor engine earth if yoy take off the front black plastic top engine covert on the left hand side you will see a 10mm bolt holding down an earth lug, that is the earth pont for the injectors and the coil packs, if that has corrosion under it (an it will) the car will turn over throw no fault codes and not start - we tested it on a working Zed if you disconnect it the Zed won't start but will turn over until the battery dies.

So whip it off and give it a clean, you can also try putting a jump lead from the engine block ddirect to the battery negative to make sure you have a good engine earth, but that may not be required.

Yes it could be that simple mine was but took ages to find!

Good luck, I'm in Bournemouth and happy to help if I can

Gooooood Morning - Hope you lot are keeping well???

 

So some more from the Zed Shed II - this time it's current I was on this yesterday

 

I decided that I would investigate what was causing "The Bug" to not go forwards and backwards - well it does but it clunks and grinds and ocasionally locks the back axle so ......................

 

 

On the ramp - it's not wide enough for both

 

 

Start stripping the back end down one bearing fell apart

 

 

 

 

Not terminal it can be re-assembled and greased up

 

Next challenge was to get the "reverse assembly" out - I have no idea what muppet came up with the design but you can't slide the assembly far enough right to clear the drive shaft, it took me an hour to work out how to do.

 

Check the drive shaft

 

 

Had to get this off by moving to the right

 

 

 

Good game good game - But I did it

 

Drained the oil

 

 

and took it apart

 

 

Found the problem

 

 

Just need to find a replacment, thats fun as the factory that makes them closed 8 years ago

 

 

More soon

 

Keyser - The Hermit.