The old boat

[ignatzcatz]

I don't really like this car and would much rather it met its miserable end in the jaws of the crusher at my local breakers. Why I undertook the restoration I really don't know as it has effectively stopped me working on my much preferred set of wheels which is about 70 percent finished. Anyway I'm into it now so I will finish it and this log is really for me so I can check off what I have done and what needs to be done. Most people have nice cottagy names for their cars like moggly or mikey the morris; well mines called f###ing great rusty POS-heap. However for the younger populance I shall refer to it as either the heap or the old boat and believe me this is complimentary.
The next problem is uploading photos, actually the first problem is pointing a camera at the heap in the first place but I have effected the latter just to give an insight into the unbelievable steps people go to in the name of car maintenance.
OK here goes everybody chant OM OM Uplode. ... .. . F*** I am just crap with compootahs[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Hang on, blimey I've done it. Righto, 1st pic, does this remind you of anything? How about the castle cum sill section, yup that's it, and what is it? I'll tell you, it's a solid great lump of some sort of resin like would be poured onto the windings of a big commercial electric motor. It is solid and took me three days of tugging and levering to dislodge. Can you believe anybody would have gone to the trouble to goop all this crap into a poor little morry sill. And the other side, ditto. But this stuff is so tough, it doesnt cut, grind, drill, its bloody spaceship stuff. What a start to a restoration, instantly I hate it.

[mmjosh]

if you dont want the project ill have it

[rayofleamington]

it's a solid great lump of some sort of resin like would be poured onto the windings of a big commercial electric motor. It is solid and took me three days of tugging and levering to dislodge. Can you believe anybody would have gone to the trouble to goop all this crap into a poor little morry sill.

I've heard of copncrete being used - your stuff some kind of building product?
i.e. the stuff they use on to of concrete floors to make them level (resin that's meant to dry as hard as rock)

Anyway, you may think you hate the car, but the car won't hate you when you've done all that work ;-)

[davidmiles]

how about a general view of the "old boat" so we can see the scale of your trouble.

[ignatzcatz]

[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Yes chaps it's not pretty is it, in fact it's [] horrible. But where there's a will there's a sad sod like me with whitworth spanner in one hand and welding torch in t'other waiting to right rusty wrongs and restore or die, and I probably will soon doing this POC. So I've got big holes where sills should be and not much in the way of floor to weld them to either. I thought OK buy sills, inner, outer top bottom but it seemed there was just too much missing so I whipped out the tape measure and found what was missing was as near as dammit 8" up by 4" across. Alor, off to the local steel stockholders and purchase 4 meters of 4" x 4" 16gauge or whatever the metric [shennanigans] for it is. I had to piggy back the box sections cos you can't get 8 by 4 but I was able to bend it easier using lots of hot spanner mind. I got them about right, clamped them up tight and very securely welded the beggers in and up. It's all gas welded, I've got mig and tig but I'm a bit old skooly and its so much easier when you might have a bit of a gap here and there or you're chasing a lump of rusty [rot]. Enough bunny, time for some more pics,, wahay man, ahm gettin good at this , ,[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[chrisryder]

looks like a hefty job, i can understand your anguish! will be worth it in the end!

i can just about see in your pictures, it appears to have 'radius arms' on the rear suspension. a hint that it may have been modded. are you aware if it has a different engine? (i'm a sucker for a modded minor )

[beero]

OH MY WORD! And I thought mine was rusty! Thanks for cheering me up anyway.

[ignatzcatz]

Hey Chris, you got it in one, the rear axle is Sprite/midget with a 3 to 1 diff. Yeah its got radius arms on the top and I've put some teflon strips between the spring leaves to smooth things out a bit. It's an old trick learned from my street rodding days (V8 Pop with semi elliptics on the front - gasser stylee). What else we got now, tele shocks all round, disc brakes on the front, 1275 with big carb, big valve head and headers (freeflow exhaust) electronic ignition and a Toyota 5 speed box, and I have Goodridge hoses allround too. That's about it but I do have a fully rebuilt 302 small block Ford with a close ratio Toploader sitting under my bench, a leftover from my Pop rod and I have measured it up and yer know it might just squeeze in. Well I'm off to SFO in the am tomorrow to take in the Autorama at Sacramento. I need a holiday as I managed to work a whole 7 days in January. HaHa back to work suckers, see yah in a week.

[ignatzcatz]

Back from the States and the show in Sacramento was great. We had intended to go there on two days but we did it all in one so that left us with a day spare so we saw on the map 'railroad museum'. Well I'm a bit partial to the old chuffers so off we went and what a great load of old iron they have there. If you also have a steam interest google Sacramento railroad museum and take a look, it's pretty good. Did'nt see any old Morrys out there it just seemed like every other car was a Toyota Prius, yes the Americans are saving our planet, ar'nt you bloody grateful. Right, old boat stuff and all I have done is weld, and weld, and weld some more. The old girl has some new panels but the previous owner must have had a real mickey mouse electric welder with about as much power as a 40 watt light bulb. So all it did was blob weld on the panel, with absolutely nil penetration but it has left all these little ball bearing size globules of weld which do nothing apart from make the panels stand away from the origin metal. It's double the work, you either heat up these globules and push them into your new weld or heat them up and let them drop off. Actually one did the other day, right on my chest. Instant overalls fire and through on my sweatshirt then I freaked cos I remembered I was wearing a brand new Harley T shirt, but I had bashed out the fire in time and the T shirt was unmarked. Phew, I usually always weld to the right and only deviated to overhead because I noticed a hole in the floorpan that needed closing. I won't do that again in a hurry. Anyway I rekon I have only a couple more days of welding left to do on the body then I can start on repairs to the front wings and associated panels. I have had all these shot blasted so I can see exactly where the rot is or rather was. I have already cut out repair patches and will very carefully butt weld these in. I did some similar work with my other old boat, my Porsche 356 and I got some good results using the TIG so maybe I'll use that instead of gas. I picked up the last pieces of suspension and running gear from my friendly shot blaster this afternoon so I had to rush about and get these bits in primer before they started to rust. These pieces were the last of the parts taken off the car, all the running gear, front and rear suspension plus back axle and prop shaft has received the blast treatment and will be sprayed in 2K before being bolted back on. It's going to look real nice.[frame][/frame]One big boy from Sac[frame][/frame]Oh yeah, and I've got the doors to do, will it ever end?

[rayofleamington]

Oh yeah, and I've got the doors to do, will it ever end?

Only when you finish it off and sell it... but then it starts again as you'll miss it and buy another ;-)

PS - had to remove some of the subtle and less subtle swearing - it's a family friendly site etc. etc.. ;-)

[goldfish]

Gosh I thought my restoration project was massive but I take my hat off to you !

[ignatzcatz]

Had to work 12 days last month, not good, so at least I had a couple of good breaks and as the weather seemed to be a bit better I decided to get some of the parts painted or at least primed that I had gotten shot blasted. In the end I was able to prime all the large-ish parts. So that is basically all of the front and rear suspension. Also I finished off removing all the underseal from the inside of the old boat; I know, underseal on the inside, quite strange, but I still have a couple of sections underfloor to attend to but this is a horrible job, torch burning yer loom, hot underseal landing on yer parts, breathing in smoky crap. Why can't we have bob a job week in March. I'll give em a job. Anyway I let the primer set for a few days before I bung some colour on and in the meantime got to welding on some patch panels onto my very mothy front wings. I cut 'em out pretty tight so the welding will be minimal. I'm doing a bit on one then a bit on'tother to minimise distortion because where the rusty sections are make it impossible to get a hammer and dolly to. Any distortion that occurs I will have to reduce by heating and quenching and of course a bleeding great bucket of pug always helps. I was at the NSRA swap meet at the Arena in Essex last Sunday and got some good stuff there. 2K black, for the roof, more primer, flap wheels, cut off wheels, Moon discs and some groovy wire mesh headlight grills. All very cheap. OK pics time . . .[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]Short on space so had to drape the bumpers and irons over my other old boat.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]Weld,weld,weld d'ya know I've almost done a whole big bottle of acetylene on this old dog.

[Plin]

ignatzcatz, you are steaming ahead with your 'boat'. By the way what is your other 'boat' that is being used as a temporary shelf? Looks like an interesting garage! Yuk, don't envy you removing all that underseal rubbish. Well keep it up and you will be finished before you know it! (Time and finances allowing of course!)

[ignatzcatz]

Hey Plin, it's a Porsche 356 which I'm building in an 'outlaw' style. Outlaw meaning slightly hot rodded, in Porsche circles one does'nt like to use words such like 'hot rod' however outlaw is the accepted term. I have a big bore 1720cc motor with huge Webers waiting to go in, it has 944 disc brakes and runs on Fuchs 16" wheels. Work has temporarily halted on the car whilst I do the Morry but it does'nt need much more to be done mainly the interior, re-wiring and paint. Hopefully I can get everything completed this year cos I want to chop my Buell asap. Cheers.

[ignatzcatz]

I've had a load of grief with the front wings mainly because where the wings bolt to the body there was'nt much in the way of either body or wing so getting captive nuts situated correctly then getting the respective holes in the wings to line up was major but they are all lubly jubly now with all the old grot cut out and new steel welded in. Unfortunately I got a bit of distortion during the welding mainly because I was unable to hammer weld down on the seam cos of the inside panel being positioned too near to the exterior panel. I got the majority of the wobbles out but I thought I would lead the panel as I don't like heaving on loads of pug. Leading is a bit of a pain, the most important part is to tin it real good, and as I was working horizontal this was pretty easy although I did some vertical leading on the nose of my 356 and it was a bitch. Q pics . . .[frame][/frame]What a crap photo, I must get a new camera[frame][/frame]Yup, brazed up the dreadful wing mirror holes[frame][/frame]This repair should'nt need any work prior to paint as I was able to massage it as I welded it on.[frame][/frame]This wing was a bit sad and I had to splodge a goodly load of jollop on to get it back. A few coats of primer filler and you'll never know . . .[frame][/frame]I just flowed a bit of brass into this bit and finished it with the grinder. Job done. The next biggie on the to do list has to be the doors, but first I'm off on me travels again, it's the Goodguys rod and custom meet in Pleasanton which is over on the bayside of San Fran. This is a huge meet with about 3000 cars to see over the weekend of 26th/27th. I really dig these rods so it's a must see, and, actually we've had a bit of a win lately so we thought we would push the boat out a bit and we will be flying Virgin Upper Class. Oh yes a couple of glasses of chablis in the lounge at Heathrow, away from all you plebs, then get rat arsed in the on board bar for 10 hours, or I might stretch out and have a kip whilst all the other punters have got their knees rammed up by their ears. Well someone's got to keep Branson in F1 tyres for the season. So long suckers.

[ignatzcatz]

Time for old boat update I reckon. I hav'nt done a great deal on the old heap since I got back from the States, and by the way, if you need to fly anywhere soonish and you happen to have a few grand spare just fly Virgin Upper class. Oh joy oh joy. We were pampered rotten, they just made you feel so special not like two legged cattle when travelling scumbo Ryanscare or notso Easyjerk off. Sorry, advert over but they are Good. As I said not a massive amount of stuff done, I have completely removed all the underseal from the underneath, what a lovely job, hot tar running down your arm, the knob before must have put it on with a trowel. I am just going to Por 15 it then paint it black and no underseal so if any future work might be required you won't have to scrape a load of black crap off it before you can start. I've welded all the holes up in and around the hood/bonnet/engine cover 'cos I want it smoooth. I have a couple of cool louver panels to go in on the top just to break the line up a bit. The doors were slowly heading up the to do list so I moved my Porsche 356 out of the garage and got out the big breaker bar to see if the doors would come off. I had been chucking loads of Plus Gas and oil in the general direction of the bolts in the hope that I might just be lucky and get the bolts out in one go. Well luck was on my side and hey presto the buggers all came out albeit with a bit of the old back and forth. This was unlike the door catches which were all totally rusted in. So much so I had to completely cut out the door jam section to access the movable (immovable) plates, drill out the old studs and retap new threads then weld them all back in. I think I've got a pic of this. It's not pretty but I'll lead them in smooth later.
So I stripped out a door and they need all new rubbers, all the little screws in the brackets were rusted in. Drilled all those out and retapped. Yanked out the window mech which was bent to buggery and then found Mr. Knob had tarmacked in two car floor mats presumably to aid with sound deadening. My God I almost phoned the breakers cos this heap is just a total joke.
So when stuff like this gets right up yer a@#e I jump on my old Harley and putt around for a few miles out in the country, and may be stop at a pub and have a few scoops. Everything better. And the reason I havn't done too much graft on the old boat is because I recently got back a load of rechroming for my old Harley, the springer front end and clutch parts and I bought a pair of hi-comp ally heads, so that lot just had to be fitted asap. Also I had a bicycle to restore. Along with my carbon fibre two wheeled speed weapons I have a love of old racing iron such as was ridden in the '50s/ 60s and this old beast was kindly given to me by a retired gentleman, an ex-racer himself and it was such a nice bit of kit I just had to do the biz on it. There is a pic if your marginally interested oh and it rides beautifully. Back on planet normal I will crack on with the doors and then I won't be very far off painting. But of course I'll have to sand all the wood down first, never stops does it.[frame][/frame]Stripping by Calor[frame][/frame]No catches of course[frame][/frame]Great for the summer[frame][/frame]It's ugly but it's all working[frame][/frame]And I did'nt burn the wood, it was smouldering a bit[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]1950 Holdsworthy Monsoon[frame][/frame]Da Mosheen, foot clutch jockey shift, coool[frame][/frame]Aint she sweeet

[ignatzcatz]

I've just run out of acetylene. The big bottle. I've used the whole lot on the boat. Unbelievabubble. And guess wot, dear old BOC hav'nt got any, the wombats oop North are having some grief or whatever so no supplies. It is just crazy that BOC have this stranglehold on supply. I can get Argon for TIG from a private mob near Reading, I have bought a bottle and I just pay for refills but with acetylene I'm buggered. Still lots of other stuff to do. In fact I only had a couple of bits I wanted to snot on so without the gas it's no big deal. I'm going to rub some wood down tomorrow. It's got some horrible varnish on it that fortunately comes off pretty easy, I'm going to stain it with some Sikkens light oak then just Danish oil it. I will have to oil it every month but I really prefer the more natural look this gives. I really hate that supper glossy yacht varnish finish even if it is more serviceable.
Met an interesting bloke last Saturday at a motorcycle meet. So I said do you run a car then? Well not really, I've got an Aveling Barford road roller I take it out on a Sunday for a potter. I just love having a traffic jam behind me wherever I go.
Ah yes, screw the world, a man after my own heart

[ignatzcatz]

I'm really into my doors at the mo. All the old underseal has been scraped out where I can get to it. I mean what sort of knob underseals the inside of doors, use dynomat if you want to quiet it down but underseal, so sad. I ordered all new rubber for the windows, channel, quarterlights everything, thanks East Sussex Minors and the panel that goes on the very bottom which I will weld on tomorrow. Unfortunately there are no quarterlight catches, these having presumably seized up then broken off but in my offcuts box (don't ever throw nuffink away) I have a likely looking bit of ally which with a bit of pokin and strokin should be made to do the job. I'll do some pics if they turn out good, but don't hold yer breath. The back doors just did not fit. Too many years of opening and closing had swollen the holes in the wood and whilst I tried to heat and form some adjustment into the rear hinges it was'nt enough so I drilled out the existing holes plugged them with some dowel and I'm going to endeavour to drill new holes a little up and to the right to regain the correct opening swing for the doors. I re-made the woody bit that fits below the doors which saved me a few quid and this is a great interferance fit with the rear valance panel tieing it all together. With all the welding and grot jobs complete I am working from the back forward and apart from final paint completing tasks that I come to as I proceed. See there is method in my madness. And pinstriping. I have been engrossed in this art since I saw guys doing freehand masterpieces at the last street rod meet I went to in the States. So I now have a 'dagger' it's a Mack 'O' stripers brush and I'm striping anything and everything that stays still for more than two minutes. Here kitty. The pic is of my first attempt on the front fender of my monkey bike. I will get better. . .[frame][/frame]Not much pug in this old boy[frame][/frame]Action photo with flame! health and safety, not here mate[frame][/frame]I will call on higher powers to guide my drill[frame][/frame]Ready for paint[frame][/frame]Monkey bikes rule!

[ignatzcatz]

I've gotten to a stage where it's almost pleasant getting out into the garage. Mainly because all the grotty dirty shi@#y jobs have been done. All the welding, cleaning out the rust, I had bags and bags of rusty muck and rubble that I disinterred from the old boat. I have now rubbed down the whole underside and this afternoon gave it the first coat of Frosts chassis black and it do look good. Ah yes. And the door now has a new bottom as per pics and I fabricated a nifty little quarter light catch which holds the quarter light shut tight. The doors have now all new rubbers but I won't fit the window frames until they are sprayed. I did have to weld the doors as they both had a weird split on the inside up the top where the glass would go. It did look like they had been hacksawed but very finely although from the previous findings on this old shi@#er nothing really surprises me. Now what else, I POR 15'd the inside metalwork. If you have never heard of POR 15 it's a rust proofing paint which is pretty much without competition. You can get it from Frosts, google Frost Restoration, it aint that cheap but it is v. good. Advert over, Thursday, tomorrow I think, I'll be second coating the underneath and starting on the final fitting of the rear doors now having plugged the old hinge holes and redrilled them to enable the offside door to now close perfectly. Another little item which keeps floating around the old bonce is what colour, indeed what colour. The hood doors and wings are all just waiting for some colour. I'm thinking mid gunmetal or maybe a nice warm beige. Dunno, gotta decide soon tho.[frame][/frame]The catch is held by a stainless M5 capscrew and it used to be the thing that held the thing that pointed into the dish for a satellite TV system. Told you I don't throw much away.[frame][/frame]Grey but not a battleship[frame][/frame]I thought the flame from the torch would come out better, anyway I got it smokin.[frame][/frame]Wahey job done, those welds are a bit suspect, better stay off the Jack until after midday.

[irmscher]

I like the von dutch striping on the monkey