Here's my new Katy video
Sound track from the blues brothers
We hope you enjoyed it !
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Katy's Military Record
Having seen posts about just emailing DES for the vehicle information on the EMLRA forum I did so on Monday and I got the Merlin Management information sheets today – very efficient and no charge
ERM 63KG65 I knew this
Designation Amb Crash rescue 2/3 Stretcher 4x4 Land Rover – ermm… this too
Colour White Gloss Interesting – there is camouflage paint all over her underneath a very poor paint job
Barbus Ind N – I have No Idea what that means
Date in service 27-Jan-88
Date Cast 27-Apr-98
Disposal Date 16-Jun-98
Here is the Merlin report I got from DES
In case it's hard to read I've copied it out below
ERM 63KG65 I knew this
Designation Amb Crash rescue 2/3 Stretcher 4x4 Land Rover – ermm… this too
Colour White Gloss Interesting – there is camouflage paint all over her underneath a very poor paint job
Barbus Ind N – I have No Idea what that means
Date in service 27-Jan-88
Date Cast 27-Apr-98Disposal Date 16-Jun-98
Here is the Merlin report I got from DES
In case it's hard to read I've copied it out below
IV NO
|
IV DATE
|
UIN
|
UNIT TITLE
|
REC NO
|
REC DATE
|
F5039A
|
RAF REGT DEPOT
| ||||
500427
|
25-NOV-88
|
F6919A
|
RAF MANSTON
|
724
|
5-JAN-89
|
347
|
27-OCT-89
|
F5039A
|
RAF REGT DEPOT
|
999/91
|
15-NOV-89
|
999
|
3-JUL-92
|
CA005A
|
JSCS ASHCHURCH
|
A001769
|
3-JUL-92
|
A11857
|
23-SEP-93
|
A1073A
|
OP HANWOOD-YUGOSLAVIA
|
999/DAI
|
23-SEP-93
|
200
|
23-SEP-93
|
CA195A
|
OSU THETFORD
|
E50/093
|
22-OCT-93
|
069
|
5-JAN-94
|
A0916A
|
ARMD FD AMB RAMC
|
795F1
|
21-FEB-94
|
108
|
29-JUL-94
|
A0944A
|
PARA FIELD AMBULANCE
|
174H67
|
29-NOV-94
|
030
|
16-JUN-98
|
CQ700A
|
MVSL (DISPOSALS)
|
999M92
|
19-JUN-98
|
The Depot and disposal lines are fairly obvious – parked somewhere waiting for a new life
RAF Manston is fairly self-explanatory, What is nice is that it’s next to the Spitfire museum and that probably gives us a really good reason for a trip down there and take some pictures of her “at home”
Op Hanwood seems to be an operation to Croatia (Yugoslavia), but it’s not clear whether she went given the dates, it would be nice as that was I understand it a humanitarian mission (see post It's official as an update to this statement)
The rest I’m not clear on, and have asked some people on military forums to try and get clear
if anyone is looking into this I did the following
DES is Defence Equipment and Support http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/MicroSite/DES/
I sent the registration number (like you have) and other information I had (see http://landroverkaty.blogspot.com/p/about-katy.html) to query@edisposals.com an email address I found on http://www2.edisposals.com/contact.htm
They were not the right people, but passed it on to someone in Nottingham and I got a letter back
Simples !
RAF Manston is fairly self-explanatory, What is nice is that it’s next to the Spitfire museum and that probably gives us a really good reason for a trip down there and take some pictures of her “at home”
Op Hanwood seems to be an operation to Croatia (Yugoslavia), but it’s not clear whether she went given the dates, it would be nice as that was I understand it a humanitarian mission (see post It's official as an update to this statement)
The rest I’m not clear on, and have asked some people on military forums to try and get clear
if anyone is looking into this I did the following
DES is Defence Equipment and Support http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/MicroSite/DES/
I sent the registration number (like you have) and other information I had (see http://landroverkaty.blogspot.com/p/about-katy.html) to query@edisposals.com an email address I found on http://www2.edisposals.com/contact.htm
They were not the right people, but passed it on to someone in Nottingham and I got a letter back
Simples !
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Nearly Exhausted
I've posted before on how I needed a rear section of exhaust and some of the troubles I've had in finding the right one. Here's how bad it was, there were about 3 sections like this in the rear pipe. The top has literally been eaten away and black soot is covering the bracket
Given the 2 non fitting exhausts I had, I took some advice from the guys in the South Wales Land Rover Club and visited Charlie at Pro-Speed Exhausts for some advice
He was really helpful and after a look around offered to widen the flare on the exhaust I had already purchased for nothing.
So this time it fitted first time, especially as I'd taken some more advice and lifted the chassis on a jack to give me more room over the rear axle. it reduced the stress in the job by about 95% Everything has of course been put back with new nuts and bolts where needed and lots of copper grease
There is a downside however in that the soot that you can see below which I had thought was coming from the rear section is now proven to be coming from the centre section.
Charlie did offer to make me a stainless steel system, but I had hoped this was the last of the money I was going to need to spend this year, but it seems Katy's expensive tastes are going to continue for some time
Katy and I have decided to put the other not needed exhaust in as a Children in Need donation to the club events to thank all the generous people who have helped us in this trouble
Given the 2 non fitting exhausts I had, I took some advice from the guys in the South Wales Land Rover Club and visited Charlie at Pro-Speed Exhausts for some advice
He was really helpful and after a look around offered to widen the flare on the exhaust I had already purchased for nothing.
So this time it fitted first time, especially as I'd taken some more advice and lifted the chassis on a jack to give me more room over the rear axle. it reduced the stress in the job by about 95% Everything has of course been put back with new nuts and bolts where needed and lots of copper grease
There is a downside however in that the soot that you can see below which I had thought was coming from the rear section is now proven to be coming from the centre section.
Charlie did offer to make me a stainless steel system, but I had hoped this was the last of the money I was going to need to spend this year, but it seems Katy's expensive tastes are going to continue for some time
Katy and I have decided to put the other not needed exhaust in as a Children in Need donation to the club events to thank all the generous people who have helped us in this trouble
Friday, 14 October 2011
Katy joins a club
A few weeks ago I wrote about meeting kindred spirits at the Tredegar Classic Car show
Well last night we went out to meet the for the beer that I thought we'd have and I have to say what a wonderful warm welcome we had and what a great bunch of people they seem to be with a lot of fun and fundraising for charity going on and being planned
I had some excellent advice on how to get my exhaust problem sorted out and now hope to be completing that work very soon now
So I am now happy to say that we are officially members of the South Wales Land Rover Club
Well last night we went out to meet the for the beer that I thought we'd have and I have to say what a wonderful warm welcome we had and what a great bunch of people they seem to be with a lot of fun and fundraising for charity going on and being planned
I had some excellent advice on how to get my exhaust problem sorted out and now hope to be completing that work very soon now
So I am now happy to say that we are officially members of the South Wales Land Rover Club
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Today I failed to fit a new exhaust - Twice !
Some time ago I bought a new 300TDi rear section for my 127 (it's the same as the 110) having got it I realised it had 2 hole flanges not 3 hole like the piece it needed to mate to. The system changes part way down - presumably because of an engine swap
So I went to Bearmach and got another, this one. The conversation went something like this
So one of the team went and found some, and I went underneath and held it in place and it looked OK
However when I got to change it today, even though the pipe is the same, has the flared end section it is not flared out enough to go over the centre section joint.
I've still got them both and I'm thinking that I'll need to cut the end off both, transfer the 3 hole flange to the other with the bigger flare and get someone to weld it back on for me. It would be OK if I could weld - I can't find evening classes in Cardiff to learn.
Or it's buy a third and hope I've got it right that time
Sigh !
So I went to Bearmach and got another, this one. The conversation went something like this
"I need a new rear exhaust section for my Ambulance which is outside" I say pointing at it
"What wheelbase?" says the man behind the counter
"127"
"That's not in our system"
"It will be the same as a 110, there is simply an extra section in the middle"
"OK. What engine?"
"300TDi, but that's not relevant, it was probably a V8 Petrol, but I'm not sure"
"What?" He's starting to think I am a wind up merchant
"It's not original, and the system changes part way down from a 2 hole flange to a three hole flange"
"So What do you want?"
"You to bring a selection out so I can go underneath and see what fits"
"Are you serious" He's starting to be P**d off
"Yes!"
So one of the team went and found some, and I went underneath and held it in place and it looked OK
However when I got to change it today, even though the pipe is the same, has the flared end section it is not flared out enough to go over the centre section joint.
I've still got them both and I'm thinking that I'll need to cut the end off both, transfer the 3 hole flange to the other with the bigger flare and get someone to weld it back on for me. It would be OK if I could weld - I can't find evening classes in Cardiff to learn.
Or it's buy a third and hope I've got it right that time
Sigh !
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Waxolyling
This is going to be a long story. First of all you gather the tools and set off into the adventure with a great deal of optimism - I mean how hard can it be to wax a Land Rover ?
According to all the instructions available you warm up the Waxolyl in water before using it and if necessary thin it with white spirit (which is also good for cleaning things as you will see later)
Whilst that is warming up I popped around the front and tried reversing Katy up onto some ramps I'd borrowed - unfortunately I gunned it a little hard, shot backwards and with no-one to tell me how far to go I misjudged it and ended up going over the back or the ramps and jammed them under the chassis (oops!)
No problem I thought I've got a good jack so I'll just lift her up a little, free them off, and take them out.
However the jack wasn't tall enough so I got a log from the log shed, which worked perfectly as you can see below.
Well actually what you can't see is this is after I've removed the first of the 2 ramps and discovered that the combination of log + jack at minimum height is taller than the gap up to the chassis when not held up by a ramp. This combination is therefore well and truly stuck !
So this is where Log & Jack number 2 comes in useful - I had to get an old scissor jack out of the garage and use that to lift the chassis up just a little so I could get the bottle jack out. I( have to say that this was a good lesson in the different capabilities of the 2 jacks because the bottle jack lifted her easily and the scissor jack was hard work
Having learned from the first side I put the scissor jack in whilst the bottle jack was still under and then released that one first and just lowered down on the less capable scissor jack.
On with the job then and the first discovery is that all this warming the stuff up was a waste of time it's still like goo and sprays awfully. So I go indoors and do some more reading and people talk about thinning it down so I take a dollop out of the can, replace with white spirit and shake madly - this time the stuff sprays OK so I start on with it
Apart from the nozzle on the sprayer blocking quite a few times I managed to get the job pretty well done, well at least I thought I had until I took these pictures. You see it's really black under there now and I didn't want to take a torch under as I was a bit messy by then, as you can see later. So I'll need to go back and touch up some bits
All in all however I have about 12 litres of Waxoyl applied and I'm letting that coat go off before I try any more as it's too sticky under there just now
Also at this point Rhian had come home and I needed to spend about an hour cleaning myself as you can tell by this picture that she took. The 2 kids cycling past the end of the drive just at this time almost fell of their bikes laughing at the state of me.
However even though I do have some more to do I am congratulating myself on another job of improvement well done and no worries about going out in the snow and rain this winter
Update... I had this message from a friend (John Perriment who is a superb photographer http://www.johnperrimentphotography.com/)
According to all the instructions available you warm up the Waxolyl in water before using it and if necessary thin it with white spirit (which is also good for cleaning things as you will see later)
Whilst that is warming up I popped around the front and tried reversing Katy up onto some ramps I'd borrowed - unfortunately I gunned it a little hard, shot backwards and with no-one to tell me how far to go I misjudged it and ended up going over the back or the ramps and jammed them under the chassis (oops!)
No problem I thought I've got a good jack so I'll just lift her up a little, free them off, and take them out.
However the jack wasn't tall enough so I got a log from the log shed, which worked perfectly as you can see below.
Well actually what you can't see is this is after I've removed the first of the 2 ramps and discovered that the combination of log + jack at minimum height is taller than the gap up to the chassis when not held up by a ramp. This combination is therefore well and truly stuck !
So this is where Log & Jack number 2 comes in useful - I had to get an old scissor jack out of the garage and use that to lift the chassis up just a little so I could get the bottle jack out. I( have to say that this was a good lesson in the different capabilities of the 2 jacks because the bottle jack lifted her easily and the scissor jack was hard work
Having learned from the first side I put the scissor jack in whilst the bottle jack was still under and then released that one first and just lowered down on the less capable scissor jack.
On with the job then and the first discovery is that all this warming the stuff up was a waste of time it's still like goo and sprays awfully. So I go indoors and do some more reading and people talk about thinning it down so I take a dollop out of the can, replace with white spirit and shake madly - this time the stuff sprays OK so I start on with it
Apart from the nozzle on the sprayer blocking quite a few times I managed to get the job pretty well done, well at least I thought I had until I took these pictures. You see it's really black under there now and I didn't want to take a torch under as I was a bit messy by then, as you can see later. So I'll need to go back and touch up some bits
All in all however I have about 12 litres of Waxoyl applied and I'm letting that coat go off before I try any more as it's too sticky under there just now
Also at this point Rhian had come home and I needed to spend about an hour cleaning myself as you can tell by this picture that she took. The 2 kids cycling past the end of the drive just at this time almost fell of their bikes laughing at the state of me.
However even though I do have some more to do I am congratulating myself on another job of improvement well done and no worries about going out in the snow and rain this winter
Update... I had this message from a friend (John Perriment who is a superb photographer http://www.johnperrimentphotography.com/)
Waxoyl? Didn't know you could still get that, what a blast from the past. I'm afraid I laughed at your predicament in overshooting the ramps and getting the jack stuck! Still, it's a job well done. At least Katy shouldn't rust anymore during the winter - and neither should you, judging by the state of that photo!Thanks John!
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