Interior decor

 The boss said that the interior was now letting the improved exterior down 

So... all the doors came off, the cupboards were refurbished with some new interior woodwork where needed and everything was given a few coats of nice white and blue paint 

It does look a lot better I am sure that you will agree

Success !

 After all the trouble that the relatives of this little chap have caused it's time for some good news

BTW this is Cedric the Covid. He's not really dangerous because he's made out of wool if you had not guessed!

This is Katy sitting outside the MOT station waiting for the test.

And this is her at home having passed! :)

Given how much of her has been apart in the last few months and how much effort it has been to put her back together I have to admit being a little nervous that the tester would spot something I had missed. So I was really pleased to get a pass certificate with just one minor advise on an item that had not been part of this work. 

As always a few minor things have been spotted after the shakedown cruise to home so she's actually going to stay up at the workshop for a short time longer whilst I do those (one of the minor points was a weeping oil cooler pipe) and then she will be properly home and allowed on the new drive and hopefully not drop any fluids on the new blockwork

New Glass, Peeling Skins

I've had some great news that the windscreen has been fitted. I did not think that I was up to that job so happily it was done for me by Paul and Mike two experts with a lot of years experience and who did a quality job in a very short time 

Its amazing how much having a windscreen in place really makes it look like the job is progressing well. There are loads of things that I can get on with now that's done, but before I can move ahead there is actually one more welding job (remember a couple of posts ago I said all the welding was done, actually I had forgotten something) 

The door bottoms were rotten and were causing some bimetallic corrosion and the only way to resolve that is to peel open the door skin, clean up pretty much everything. put in new door frame

Here it is part way through the process where the new frame has been put in by Steve the welder and given a quick coat of primer

After that it was a case of paint everything and then put the door skin back in place with sealant to ensure that there is a separation between the steel and the aluminium door skin. 

And then where there had been corrosion on the outer surface it had to be filled, sanded and repainted. 

Modern Art

One of the few things that I can get on with at home is cleaning up clips and parts for the roof rack which has been safely stored at home whilst the rest of Katy has been in the workshop being welded 

One of the more messy jobs was to prime and paint a set of clips to hold wooden walk rails onto the roof rack. 

I think that after 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of Hammerite and leaving that all to dry on a section of old plant seeding tray I've got quite an advanced piece of modern art (Land Rover style) 

Next stop the Turner prize methinks :)

2020 Review - What a year!

 What a year! 

It started with such optimism about getting out and visiting places and we had the Welsh Festival of Land Rovers to look forward to

I even got around in January to finishing off some of the Solar installation (however I'm still not happy with it this will be revisited in 2021 hopefully) 

Then of course in February we started hearing that there could be something nasty going around and we learned all about Covid-10. March came and the weather got better and we were still waiting for some clarity on what was going to happen and then as march was about to leave us we were all asked to stay at home and not meet up with anyone.

What an optimist I was.. 

April was when we started clapping and I thought it was fun to include Katy in some of the pictures, but I was so embarrassed about the way she looked 

that as May came along I know I thought give it a quick rub down with a sander, a coat of paint and it will be good to go when things free up in the summer. 

Soon everyone was debating whether to wear masks or not and it meant not a lot to me because during June I was wearing one for about 6 hours a day whilst sanding the multiple layers of paint off the roof and sides of Katy. 

I added the first coat of the new colour to the roof and I congratulated myself (I was so over optimistic!) and by July I was congratulating myself on getting the sides painted as well 

Things certainly moved on at pace that month because I got the rear step welded up and I moved her from our drive up to Steve's workshop where the really hard work could take place. By the end of that month she was devoid of wings, windscreen and we could see the real state of the sections that needed attention. 

In August the cutting started and I repaired the wings ready to go back again and then in September we managed to move her into the workshop proper (with the help of a Massey Ferguson industrial tractor and the cutting and welding could really get started. 

Welding started we had some good progress at first 

However, later in September we had "local lockdown" in  Wales with constraints against crossing county boundaries which was a disaster for the project because despite being only 2.5 miles away, Katy was in a different county. A lazy way to restrict things IMO by politicians, and a real nonsense because I was working mainly alone, could easily stay away from Steve because the workshop is a set of barns, but rules are rules and things went on hold :(

Towards the end of the year there was a brief opening of rules before we were locked down again. during that time I managed to rub down and ready for second coat some sections where Steve the welder wasn't working (social distancing managed at all times)  

So in summary 

Things are looking better on one corner where the welding has finished

but its still work in progress 

 

Heavy Metal - Part 1

 Ok, it's just the start of one corner, but the rebuild has started properly now with some real metal going back in place of the fresh air and rust that was in this position just a couple of days ago. 

Just a quick spray of primer to keep any moisture away over the weekend and it will be back to it on Monday. There is a long way to go and a lot more to do before she will be back in one piece, but it's a positive step forwards

Wings waiting

After a strip down, some reshaping, prime and repainting the wings are waiting for the welding and then to go back on again

Katy naked

If that title doesn't get lots of hits on the interweb nothing will!

For those of you who came here not looking for Land Rover stuff.. sorry :)

I've watched loads of videos and read lots of things which said that it would take 1-2 hours to remove a wing. Well the driver side took me almost all of the working day due to my ineptitude and some information that did not get mentioned on any of the videos I watched. 

1. To get the top bolt out under the wing is a pain as most people say, but actually ignoring the advice of long bars on a socket ratchet and using a flexible ratchet spanner made it a lot easier

2. Having a long handled 13mm / 1/2 inch ring spanner was very useful for a couple of nuts

3. And this is the big one. The inner and outer wings have a gasket that glued them together so even when all the bolts were out they wouldn't separate until I prised them apart with a nailbar

Anyway success...

With the wings off I can see that the rot is not as bad as feared, but it needs doing

Another interesting features is the two tone airborne.. fabulous noise as you can hear on the video celebrating the NHS but here they are to see as well

Brushed Aluminium

As I am sure UK readers are aware it's Alumin-i-um... and people like it brushed on vehicles..

Katy's wings were covered with some old aluminium checker plate which was corroded and going to look really tatty compared to loads of nice new paint.

so I brushed it ..

Here's a before and after to see what about 30 minutes with a wire brush and steel wool will give you

And just to prove I wasn't going half hearted at this here is the finished job

 

Rivet Counter

Anyone who is in to Land Rovers will know the phrase"Rivet Counter". These are knowledgeable and generally helpful people who know everything that needs to be known and is happy to help check that the right thing has been used and of course the right number of rivets have been used (especially on a Series one).

I'm not one, I'm not enough of an expert especially on series Land Rovers. 

However today I have been counting them carefully and have got to the number 45 ... and what is even better is the rear step does not wobble and closes easier

My favourite corner shop is open again

It's been an interesting time this lockdown

I've been keeping busy which you can see on the posts that have already happened and I'm certain I will be doing more

Today I removed the bonnet to work on that. Four of the six bolts snapped off and those were the easy ones! 

The other two resisted the damaged screwhead tools that I have and had to be drilled out so new nuts and bolts would be needed. I decided to make use of the click and collect service at Bearmach and they were excellent as usual.

Glad to be supporting a local business

Stoned at the back

first coat of the new light stone colour on the body work

The cupboard is going to be done as well, but needed some repairs first