The English are coming! Or..another C10 in the Motherland.

[Grizz1963]

Good news Paul.

Well done and thanks for posting the report.

[Paul Y]

Remember this?



Well for the astute you may have noticed that when Woody arrived in the Mother Country there were a number of box’s that accompanied him.



Some small, some large. But all full of goodness. Funny enough one of the box’s contained this.



HUZZAH!! A cure for….



So first things first, off with the door panel.



Now you will have to use the ‘theatre of the mind’ for the next bit as, for some reason my camera flipped out. So, imagine that I have taken the door panel off, identified the triangular plate on the inside of the door that provides strength to the door skin and used a punch to mark the holes so that I can drill three holes in the right place.

See, not so hard…

A bit difficult to see but again using your super imagination and you can just make out the 3 marks from the punch to mark the holes.



Anyway, holes drilled,



and a little application of red oxide to protect the bare metal



Mirror offered up and then a little ingenuity to enable the nuts and washers to be attached to the bolts that will hold the mirror on.



Why the tape and spanner you ask?

Because without it there was no way I was getting my arm through the small hole in the inner door skin to hold them on! Now, I could have just wound the bolts in but prefer the added security of knowing that everything is secure.

If you have arms like a super model then you won’t need the tape but if you’re a normal soul then I can’t see any other way of getting it all together.

Ta Da!!



Yes I know the picture is slightly out of focus but you get the picture.



Hopefully on my trip out to meet Rian and Martin on Saturday, I will be able to report if it has made any difference

A change from electrics and probably deathly dull for the majority but it keeps me amused.

Until the next time.

P.

[CRGRS 66]

Nice job on the mirrors, will be following along

[Ta2Don]

I've used the taped spanner trick many times…
Maybe mundane, but will keep your sanity a bit longer than dealing with said electrics...

[Paul Y]

Amen to that Don!

Craige, thanks for joining the fun.

P.

[mjh1965]

Nice job on the mirror, and it should make it a lot nicer and safer to drive . I am looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, but bring some tissues ,as we myself and Rian (Grizz) may start crying not being able to meet you in our trucks . As most of you know are trucks are in a state of strip down , hence the trip over to Essex to collect parts from the shipping company. ROAD TRIP update to follow on our threads

[Grizz1963]

Originally Posted by mjh1965

Nice job on the mirror, and it should make it a lot nicer and safer to drive . I am looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, but bring some tissues ,as we myself and Rian (Grizz) may start crying not being able to meet you in our trucks . As most of you know are trucks are in a state of strip down , hence the trip over to Essex to collect parts from the shipping company. ROAD TRIP update to follow on our threads

MINI ROAD TRIP !!

Well, it was a trip, and it was by road.

Got contacted by our import agent this week to say our bits had landed and been unpacked. Duties and shipping to be paid on collection.

So Martin and I set off early, also to meet up with Paul Y en-route before collecting our parts from Ron.

Perfect weather.



Spent about 90 minutes with Paul talking truck, especially his plans for Woody.



As always we spent quite a long time chatting cars, imports and the state of the nation before hitting the road to Ron's place to collect our bits.

As always, good to see you today mate.

[Paul Y]

Electricians of the World, Rejoice! Your jobs are safe! Why? I am glad you asked that question. Quite simply it has taken me 8 whole hours to take the number plate bulb from this.


To this.



Now, I am embarrassed about this enough and, as those who have taken the time to follow the ramblings of this particular idiot will know about my loathing for all things electrical, but 8 hours to make a lightbulb work? Muppet.

Anyway, done now and I can move onto other stuff. Oh goody…more electrics… Ever since picking Woody up he has been rather reluctant to start on certain occasions.
Originally I thought this was a draw on the battery but checked this through and found nothing. On the day that I was supposed to meet Rian and Martin I once again experienced this reticence to turn electrical juice into rotary motion of the starter so had to face the indignation of using the Super Fiesta ™ to meet my other ‘Truckies’… I voiced my Holmes like deductions to Rian and came to the conclusion that it ‘must’ be a problem with the starter.

Now, I am going to have to call upon you to employ the ‘Theater of the Mind’ once again at this stage as I have no pictures of me taking the starter out, putting it on the bench and testing it (it was all good, thanks for asking). Once nestled back in the bosom of my small block, I turn the key and….

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

At this stage I reached for my handy, pocket size, copy of Roger Mellie's profanisaurus to bring to life my utter contempt and loathing for Edison and Tesler…. Ah, much better…

But, hold on a second… Hit key again and, as the bonnet (hood) was open I noticed a veritable 5th November (4th July) fireworks display coming from the negative battery lead. A quick feel of the cable and the 3rd degree burns to my palm indicated that I might have traced my problem (see I told all you electricians that you had nothing to fear…)

So, a quick trip to my local motor factors resulted in me procuring, these.



Which resulted in this.



Glad to report that turning the key now results in ‘Vroom, Vroom’ noise rather than CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

HUZZAH!!!

Jumping around slightly I better explain the picture at the top of the page. For the more observant amongst you, notice the lack of Industrial girder style bumper for the more svelte contours of an original chrome bumper? Good…

So, on all of my trucks to date I have had the ‘dealer option style rear bumper and… I am not a fan. For those of you still awake you might remember my search for a rear bumper to ship back with Woody and I am glad to report that (hang head in shame as he has forgotten the guys name )came through.

As I am sick and tired of Electrics (did I tell you I hate Electrics?) and have to brace myself for the LM7 install, I thought I would add some Bling.

Armed with this.



Which I used on these.



Resulting in this.



I managed to remove the Girder with little effort, due to my Herculean upper body strength, Grrrrrrr….



Unfortunately, substituting great strength for a pea size brain, as already demonstrated by my 8 hour electrical marathon, meant that the Rubik’s Cube puzzle that was the rear bumper irons took a little time to work out.



However! I can report success as shown in the above picture. Now just need to make some Gravel Shields, tidy up the wiring and apply a little paint and we are good to go.

HUZZAH!!! again…

Please note that when I take the bed off to sort out a few bits and pieces I will be cleaning and painting the chassis.

Now, Remember this?



Well I thought I had solved it with this.



Wrong! However, whilst rummaging through the ‘Mystical box of bits ™’ I came across a Peep mirror that I had not got round to fitting to my BBW 56 Pickup, probably because the BBW rendered it superfluous…



So, lets throw it on Woody and marvel in the extra vision this would give my driving a LHD truck in a RHD world.

HUZZAH!!!!!

Oh Cock…



I have a funny feeling that I will be converting his Royal Woodness to a BBW sometime in the future.

Anyway, as it is cold and miserable (not as cold as Boston but still bloody cold for those unprepared, i.e Me) I decided to do some stuff, inside. Have to use the indoors voice because, as beautiful and understanding as my South African bride is, car stuff is VERBOTEN inside the house…

I purchased a ‘deluxe’ gauge set up from TBone64 which I planned to restore and upgrade with a Tach and Vaccum gauge. However, upon opening it yesterday evening I realised that, even though he told me it was a unit that needed work, IT WAS MINT! I can’t say how impressed I was and I have put up a separate post thanking him. What a top man.



Plans are to start fitting the gauge and tach this week, now if anybody has a vacuum gauge overlay they have that is superfluous to their requirements, let me know… 

So that brings me up to where I am today, not sure if my ramblings are to all tastes but please let me know.



Until next time.

P.

[Grizz1963]

Nice progress, coz progress is progress.

Impressed you risked it indoors with having a South African Bride......

I have to admit, mine has made me bring motorbikes into the kitchen of my old house before we got married, and even now, has no problem with my sending tools and car parts through the dishwasher. However, you cannot wash mixed colours in her washing machine (when she is looking at least)

Looks like Woody is maybe destined for a uni campus near you soon.

Hope you can make Sundays Swapmeet in Essex, Martin and I are headed there, he is hoping for a replay of his luck last year, picking up a load of parts for his truck, for not a lot of money.

Kerry, Disasterbus is also hoping to make it there, if not for spares, then for the walkabout and to collect his glovebox and filler cap.

Otherwise I will see you next weekend.

Your daughter looks way too comfortable behind the wheel. (I trust it is your daughter)

[notsolo]

Hey Paul Great truck, cool story. I have followed some of Grizz and Martins builds. ( also great ) brings a whole new level of patient when parts are weeks away. Loved the photo #6 on page 1 ( wife in background arms crossed ) No caption necessary... Any forward progress is good...Cheers...Ed

[Paul Y]

Thank you for the comments Gentlemen, good to hear that somebody is reading my rambling.

Grizz, thought you might enjoy these pictures, 4 years apart but still the same daughter.





Lulu was driving Woody around the driveway, the joy of a Granny 4 speed!

P.

[JustLearnin]

Subscribed. Love your writing style Paul; very entertaining.

[CRGRS 66]

watching, and reading, make sure you post some detail on how you go about modifying your cluster, cheers

[Grizz1963]

Ready for you to come over next weekend to sandblast (well, walnut shells) all your suspension parts etc, Martin and I assembled the blasting cabinet I bought the end of last year, this week, so ready for you.

Word of warning, it was bought from a large importer who supplies others and just adds their badging, but when we unpacked it, most of the paint had blistered, so if you scratch or push on the paint, it flakes off badly.
I just could not be bothered with exchanging it as it would probably mean taking time off to get the new unit delivered and this one collected.

Still, it is ready to work.

[Ta2Don]

Just caught up on your very entertaining thread...
I too prefer spanners and hammers over electrical junk...

[53Sparky]

The British are coming! The British are coming!

Between you, Rian, and Martin, this forum is getting very interesting. I appreciate your enthusiasm and writing style. It's infectious. Looking forward to some more posts, my neighbours to the east.

Subscribed.

[Paul Y]

Now, where were we…..



I would love to tell you that normal service has been resumed but as I have a very loose grasp on my reality let alone yours lets just say I have a bit of an update.

After sorting out the things that needed to be done to ensure reliable and semi legal motoring I decided to just enjoy Woody (narf narf) and get to know him a little better.

So, after a number of miles I kept coming back to 3 things that were distracting from my basic motoring please.

Drum roll please, may I present those distractions:-

1. Win the Euro Millions roll over
2. Do something about the Comedy Gearing ™
3. Either equip Woody with a sail and rudder or attend to the door handle scraping handling.

So, Euro Millions ticket purchased, I proceeded to look through the pile of boxes that accompanied the Woodster. Ah Ha! Boxes from the nice people at No Limits so option 3 it is!



Now, most people would have a wonderful staged photo of all the boxes to illustrate their purchase. However, this is me so this is all you are going to get. Please note Safety Wellies ™ and medium BFH
.
Decided to install the front roll bar first and after mocking it up in the correct position realised that I was going to have to remove my first rivets.



Now, after hearing how awful a job this was can’t say I was looking forward to it in any way. After a quick research I had my plan of attack.

1. Grind a cross in the head of the rivet
2. Use large chisel and medium BFH to remove head.
3. Centre punch and drill out body of rivet in 3 stages (small, bigger, biggest)
4. Use same large chisel and medium BFH to remove the back of the rivet.

Success! Took about 2-3 mins per side. Felt pretty cocky to be honest…

So rivets out I used 2 beer crates to hold up the bar whilst I put the drop links into the pre drilled holes in the lower A arms.





Rest assured that at no time have I ever swallowed Holsten….

Pushed the bar into place and marked out the required holes, drilled and all bolted into position. Had to enlarge the hole slightly in the roll bar for the bolts to seat fully but nothing that my trust drill couldnt handle



Pretty easy job if I am being honest, did notice that the rad cross member had obviously been used to pull it out of the container when it arrived, so that is a job to do in the not too distant future.

Next was to install the Doetsch shocks.



New vs Old



And installed…Mmm…Anybody spot the issue? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

So, a quick measure up and a call to a few people resulted in a bit of box section that I then proceeded to turn into scrap…



Thankfully I had enough left over to try again. But this time I am decided to make it out of cardboard first.



Do you know what, I am going to send this off to Blue Peter. If anything is worthy of a Blue Peter Badge it is this beauty. Hold on a second, just enjoying the moment again.



Arty shot.

Transferred this template to the box steel, marked it out and made loads of noise with a grinder and drill.

Anyway, to cut a long story short….Success!



Reckon I have about 2 ½ - 3” of travel now, so around 5” at the wheel, quite pleased with this if you can’t tell.



As I intend to modify the lower arms to move them forward to improve the caster angles and centre the wheels the brackets are bolted in. Will weld them during final assembly. (wow get me….)

Next was a move to the rear to see what work had to be done to install the No Limits Panhard rod. Mmmmm…it is a nice piece of kit. Probably even nicer when I discovered that the bush on the old rod was completely missing…



So, buoyed by my success with the front rivets I used the same methodology on the 4 holding the old bar in place.

3 hours later….



Drill-4 Rivets – 1

Not a whole load of pictures of the install but sure there is one I can find of the end result.

Next little job was to replace the rather poor lowering blocks with the nice new shiny ones from Boris.



Well that is actually not the entire truth as I had to remove the ubolts to fit the brackets for the panhard rod and anti roll bar (sway bar) so whilst I was there…

Also decided to move the shocks to the outside of the chassis after reading Mr Frizzle Frys write up.

So, quick bit of measuring, bit of drawing, bit more measuring and a few holes drilled I had the lower brackets reversed.





Now it was just a matter of fitting the rear shocks.Lots more measuring revealed that the Doetsch shocks from Rob would work better if the shock was mounted above the chassis rail. Now, remember the first set of bracket that I made? The scrap pair? Good.

Well they were just too small to be of any use for the rear shock mounts so had to cut up my last bit of box section to make up a mount.

Bit of careful measuring and came up with a design that would work with the old front upper shock mounts.



Cut, cut. Grind Grind, Drill Drill.



Oh yes and paint paint.



Couldn't mount the shocks straight up as the panhard bar mount was in the way but this is what I ended up with.



Will have to oval the holes in the lower sock mount as the bushes are under a little too much stress but that can wait until I take the bed off to fit the rear anti roll bar (sway bar) and paint the chassis and weld the brackets in.

Now the moment of truth, what does it drive like?

What a huge difference! The turn in is ‘modern’ even with the old steering box. Ride is less bouncy and a lot more confidence inspiring. Even managed a little Dorri, Dorri, Dorriftoo action at a roundabout. One down side is that I am going to have to do the brakes next as carrying a huge amount more speed into corners. Strangely the rear seems to have dropped by an inch after the new shocks (no the lowering blocks are the same size). Good job I have dropped spindles to go with disk upgrade.

Oh yes. Before I forget. This might have only taken 30 minutes to write but took me a solid 12 hours over the weekend. Felt like I had been at the gym for a weeks. And just because you have a rattle gun you don’t have to put it on max for every bolt you do up….

Lulu and Gizmo approve, but why my beautiful daughter insists on looking like Beaker from Muppet labs is beyond me…



So, on that Bombshell and until the next time…

Goodnight!

P.

[ibrown50]

I'm signed up! I'm just about to start on my suspension so this is great to read

[Grizz1963]

Your daughter is called Gizmo??


Great progress.

[Paul Y]

The difference has been huge. If you have the means I would suggest getting the complete front and rear set up from No Limits, not fitted the rear anti roll bar but have high hopes.

If you are going to relocate your rear shocks I have the measurements to make sure that the shocks are under less stress on the bottom bush so you dont make the same mistake I did.

What set up have you gone with?

P.

[Paul Y]

Rian,

For a family friendly forum that is the more acceptable name she will go by....

P.

[Ta2Don]

Nice Work...
Diggin' the pic of Beaker and the puppy….

[ibrown50]

Paul, at the moment I have 2" Mcguaghy's dropped spindles (off the shelf disc conversion), with 2" drop springs for the front, for the rear I have 4" drop springs (all still in their boxes!) and I'm planning to fit lowering blocks but was going to see how the truck sat before deciding how thick they would be.

[Paul Y]

That is the same set up I have on Woody. Not fitted the dropped spindle and disk conversion yet but that is next on the list.

I am going to c notch mine as, whilst there is room between the axle and chassis, I use mine as a truck so want that extra clearance. Plus I am going to fit rear bags.

Just subscribed to your thread, looks good!

P.
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[ibrown50]

I c notched my 32 Ford frame using a piece of heavy gauge pipe split down the centre and then boxed, I'm planning to do the same on the C10, cost me about a tenner if memory serves me right