Turbo'd Trav!

[GAS]

A Brillo pad,nothing like dull paint..

[bmcecosse]

Battery security is a must for MOT - I suppose they may accept tie-wraps.

[heathy12]

Just one thing from those photos... looks like the battery isn't secured. Although not part of the MOT (I think), it'd probably be a good idea to sort something out. Apart from that, looks great!

Well spotted! I had to buy a new battery this morning and the one I came away with was fatter leaning the tie bar couldnt be reattached to this one, on the scout out for one with longer arms at the mo but its amazing what zip ties'll do!

Im on it! Just need some longer J bolts to make it all work really as the one I took off had been cut short.
I opted for the 44Ah battery over the slimmer 34Ah battery as its always nice to have more oomph than needed!
Thinking of grinding back some of the rust on the body and wings and either zinc oxiding them or leaving it bare metal to get some surface rust round the corners....only problem being they might be deep holes!

[heathy12]

Okay, with the MOT booked for later on this week gotta brave the rain and start the few jobs on the car.

First drum brake shoes need replacing on the back, I suspect the linings have corroded on where its bee stored with the handbrake on, but the car came with two new sets of shoes in the boot! When driving the 200 meters to the garage last week there was a thud thud thud noise from the back end, so i'll whip the shoes off and clean em all up!

Considering this car was sold and bought as spares or repair things are looking pretty good so far!


Running costs so far!

Total of buying car and delivery 750
New Battery 35
Fuel 15
Oil and service kit Nil (all came in a box in the boot!)

[heathy12]

Just got round to scanning this in.



Quite a sight!

Just had a read thru the David Vizard book and talked thru this with a local engine tuner. He's really impressed with the figures and how well the engines been put together!

I hadn't realised (Never had a RR printout before!) but the lb/torque power figure is the upper line and the lower one is the HP of the engine.
The lb figure starts early showing huge amounts of low end torque and then rises sharply and almost parrallel to the HP line which would indicate a very responsive and powerfull delivery of power thruought the rev ranges.

Quite an interesting book and its been good learning a bit more about why mods were chosen, and what exactly does what. The engine is running sweet as a nut now with no smoke, well a little bit as its a tad rich still. But it purs over nicely and sounds like it means buisness without tryin!

[JimK]

The lb figure starts early showing huge amounts of low end torque and then rises sharply and almost parrallel to the HP line which would indicate a very responsive and powerfull delivery of power thruought the rev ranges.

The torque curve is nearly flat at better than 95% of maximum from 3k to 5k revs, which is very good. Your 2-door is going to really fly, given that it's nearly 100kg lighter than a Trav.
Seriously, have you thought about how you're going to hold it on the road at high speed? A saloon will generate more lift at speed than a square-backed Trav, so you might have to pay some attention to the airflow underneath and down the back of the car. I don't think you want rear lift in a 750kg rear-drive car with 150bhp/ton...

Quite an interesting book and its been good learning a bit more about why mods were chosen, and what exactly does what.

Right, that's it, I'm going to Amazon for a copy now.

[plastic_orange]

Minors don't have any problems at high speed - they are extremely stable (personal experience) so don't worry - apart from your licence that is

Pete

[JimK]

Do they get light at speed? Straight-line stability is good, but I wondered about a fast corner on a greasy A-road taken at some speed, and whether the back of the car would be light. Remember the Audi TT issue? Several high speed crashes caused by rear-end lift.

Anybody got a wind tunnel?

With a powerplant like that it would be tragic if heathy12 doesn't take his 2-door on the track at some point. It's certainly something I intend to do with mine when it's done.

[heathy12]

Do they get light at speed? Straight-line stability is good, but I wondered about a fast corner on a greasy A-road taken at some speed, and whether the back of the car would be light. Remember the Audi TT issue? Several high speed crashes caused by rear-end lift.

Uh oh! I think i'll be okay. The car everything will go into is a bit of a pamphered toy im affraid to say so I wont be ragging it everywhere..............................Which is why im putting an MOT on the Trav as it is now!

Rat rod here we come!

With a powerplant like that it would be tragic if heathy12 doesn't take his 2-door on the track at some point. It's certainly something I intend to do with mine when it's done.

Hadn't though of track days, could be fun! Come to think of it, I havent even been to a club show, national or meet yet either. One of those things i'd love to go to but havent had the time! Any good SW meets coming up...where are the Nationals this year??!?

[JimK]

Uh oh! I think i'll be okay. The car everything will go into is a bit of a pampered toy im afraid to say so I wont be ragging it everywhere.

So is the turbo unit staying in the Trav then? If you have an engine of that quality and don't make use of its ability than I will personally come and give you a slap And try to steal the engine...

Hadn't thought of track days, could be fun!

Oh, they're fun alright.They vary in quality of organisation, but they're worth doing. Try to get to Castle Combe, it's a nice circuit not too far away (north of Bath).

Any good SW meets coming up...where are the Nationals this year??!?

Errm, don't know about down your way, but the Dorset Rally is nice, the Gloucestershire Rally is well-attended and the Isle-of-Wight event makes a nice weekend away. Nationals are in the Midlands somewhere.

[heathy12]

okay. Just had an hour out in the back garden fiddling!

Overhauled the brakes as they were binding somewhat! The rear drums were soo tight. So fitted the Brand new Shoes that came with the car and cleaned everything up. No nasty suprises at the back end which is nice! Everythings free from rust and well protected. Took me a while to get my head into brake drums again! Nice and easy when i found the Brake slackening screw!

Everything freely revolving now and as it should be. Lets hope the Knock knock knocking at the back end when driving was the shoes binding and not the diff/bearing or something else a bit more sinister!

Whilst in the front left hand sode wheel arch I had a good poke about with my screwdriver and got rid of most or the rot in the wing. Jonothan told me the guy who had it before me had a thing for expandafoam! Ive now found it all!

The Wing drain vents were clogged up with foal so the water was running down the back of the wing and has rotted out the bottom end of the A Post/inner/outer/boxing plate sections. This isn't too bad, the door hasnt dropped and theres no movement in the door pillar so thats good, just a bit of patching to do then we're MOT'able!

Remember this car was sold as Spares/Repair! One patch of welding a new battery/fuel and brake overhaul (with all parts supplied!) in my books dosen't define a car thats only fit for spares!




Nice pile of expanda foam and rust for the bin!



Should be nice and easy to chop and weld in a few small plates/patches into this to join everything up! The extent of the rust dosen't go far back at all. The white ish section you can see on the bottom left hand side above the tyre is the glue from the carpet, so its rusted right the way thru.



I'll pop a plate in this bit too just to neaten it all up, only small holes and a bit of surface rust that grew under the foam!



Probably the hardest bit'll be neatening up this corner where everything comes together!

Gotta dust off the MIG welder now so i can start tarting it up.

No more costs involved up untill now apart from my time!

[bmcecosse]

Looks like more than 'a bit of patching' to me !! The Mig will go straight through that.

[heathy12]

Looks like more than 'a bit of patching' to me !! The Mig will go straight through that.

It does look like that but its totally solid round the edges, obviously it needs a damn good clean up before anything else!

[plastic_orange]

That's what I thought too until I poked a bit further - resulted in complete rebuild of the entire area concerned. Mig won't like welding rusty panels - gas will be ok - ish if you're gentle. If you're doing a quick job for MOT you don't need to be too fussy, but it won't last long, or be particularly strong.

Pete

[heathy12]

That's what I thought too until I poked a bit further - resulted in complete rebuild of the entire area concerned. Mig won't like welding rusty panels - gas will be ok - ish if you're gentle. If you're doing a quick job for MOT you don't need to be too fussy, but it won't last long, or be particularly strong.

Pete

Tis true.

well without getting too involved and throwing money at a car I dont really want to be spending too much on a quick job'll do for the moment. I'll be doing it tommorrow. Just need an MOT so I can take the car on a few little journeys to sus out the turbo and drivetrain and park the car on the road to free up my backyard!

It will be an alright job, i'll make sure its going to last!
Job after the welding will be a good tune up and then the MOT.

[bmcecosse]

Happy welding and Good Luck with it!!

[Kevin]

So its turning out to be an excellent buy then

[bmcecosse]

It's certainly worth it for the parts - even if the shell gets scrapped off.

[heathy12]

Managed some work yesterday, Thought id get it all done before the rain set in again (good job I did as its tipping it down today) Unfortunatley the varnish hadnt fully hardened so its gone milky which is a real pain as it looked ace when i'd finished yesterday.

Gone from this:


To this!






This:


To This.




This:


To this:




The last pics the bit im most pleased with as the area was completely black and soaked with water. I bought some Oxalic Acid and treated most black areas on the trav with this and it works really well. Amazing how it draws the blackness out of the wood.
I mixed up a strong solution and mixed with boiling water, then brushed/soaked into the black areas then rubbed it in and heated it all with a heat gun whilst running a scraper across the area to scrape the black sticky moisture as it bubbled up leaving ash wood again!

Gone from not a lot to bit of wood filler! Looks alright and its solid. Dug out all the rotten wood as much as I could and dried as much as I could out with a heat gun/paint stripper! Worked a treat, treated the wood with wood hardener, screwed in a load of long and short self tappers everywhere to hold it all together and give it some bracing then applied the filler.

Didnt have time to treat anll the areas and I wont as its not really worh my time because of the plans for the car but its def smartened it all up really well (apart from the patches of white varnish ) So would've been perfect!

Like I say, really annoyed about the milky varnish. What a pain, looked ace yesterday before it rained last night, my other traveller was in the garage so didnt have any cover to keep it under which is always a pain!

Well, MOT tommorrow then hopefully i'll hit the road!

First trips already planned, Kitebuggying trip up at Weston beach this weekend all going well!

[heathy12]

Next thing to do maybe is paint the woodgrain on.

I varnished over the filler to seal it in and stop more water ingess but do we recon the MOT man will take his toffee hammer to it and find out acutally how much filler is in there?? Ive been thinking about covering the filled areas only with wood paint just to hide up the fact its a bodge!
Like I said in previous posts the cars only really for spares but its MOT'able so im putting a ticket on it just to get the running gear sorted out and used again so im not fussy, Personally I love the RAT look its got going, anyone got any pictures of RAT look moggies, travellers inparticular?!?!?

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