Mud Flaps

You would think my 100th post on this blog would be something profound.... it's not going to be

Nothing exciting you may think, but quite an excercise in itself, and another job completed so a bit more self satisfaction

As I commented in the post Nothing-is-simple the new rear flaps I had bought were not going to fit. After doing some checking the easiest thing was to buy some new front ones and cut them to shape.

However also in the last post you can see the state of the fasteners that held the old ones onto the brackets. These were not going to come off without serious effort and I ended up brealing them off with a long spanner cutting them off with a cutting disc on a battery operated Dremmel hand tool

To complete this work 22 nuts & bolts or rivets had to be addressed. 20 of them ended up being cut off.

I now have 22 nice new copper greased and undersealed ones holding the new flaps in place, so in 25 years tie shen this set wear out it should be easier for someone to replace them. maybe that someone will be me. As that point Katy will be my current age (50) and I'll be wat the 2 of us add up to now (75) so I'll need the jobs to be easier

At least there is less mud hitting the underside all the time now

Katy's History again

I've recently had some information regarding Katy's history that I would love to look into further and try and get to the bottom of

As is stated on the About Katy page there is a question regarding whether she served in the former Yugoslavia. This has been commented upon by Clive who left a useful comment on the Anti Roll Bar Linkages page which put that possibility at even more question as he did not remember 127 ambulnaces when he seved

Purely by chance this weekend I was reading a book called Land Rover 90, 110 & Defender 83-94 Gold Portfolio by R M Clarke from Brooklands publishers which included a picture of a 127 in full UN paint stating it was taken in Bosnia by Carl Schulze who I find mentioned on the Internet as a photojournalist  .

 The print is not sharp, but I think the registration is 63-KG-63 whereas Katy is 63-KG-65, but it looks like  real confirmation that 127 ambulances were out there, and if one was... maybe another was

I've sent the publisher an email but if you know any contact details for the Author or for Carl himself I would be really pleased if you could pass on this post in the hope he may get in contact with me

Boing (Part 2)

Back in July I spent a day fitting new rear suspension  to Katy. Now was the opportunity for finishing of the job

I had done quite a bit of preparation for this one by loosening off all the nuts and bolts and identifying the things you needed to move in order to get at other things

Steve's workshop was full of a series 2 chassis that he's rebuilding for a client so I had planned to work outside. It was a cold day so Steve suggested I work in front of the hay barn which was out of the prevailing wind and sheltered if it came on to rain. It felt right... a natural home for a Land Rover

First the wheels came off for access and Katy was resting on the new axle stands I bought recently. This allowed the wheels to drop and take the compression out of the springs, but you need to be careful not to allow them to drop too far or the brake lines will be damaged, so I kept Steve's trolley jack under the axle for control and adjustment.

It was then then a relatively simple job of unscrewing the bottom of the shock absorber (damper) which needs the shock to be held in place or it just turns. A flexible strap is a great tool for this and the job was quickly done.

Then the suspension turret nuts came off using ratchet spanners and a socket as shown below

Removing the access panels in the engine bay to get at the top of the shock absorbers. In Katy  this meant moving the coolant expansion tank first so I could get at one of them. The Drivers side came off easily, but the passenger side was well rusted on and it needed 2 of us (me holding on the flexible strap and Phil pulling on a long socket bar for leverage, but within a few minutes the old shocks and springs could be lifted out

Before rebuild began I took the opportunity to clean a few things up and put some liquid grease on the brake pipes and into the corners behind the springs that had not been east to get to when I was doing the waxolyling

The new springs and shocks simply slotted into place and I had a spot of help from Dan who dropped by and showed me something I hadn't spotted (that the shock have a pair of flat sides at the top of the screw thread which you can put a set of mole grips or in this case a 9 mm spanner on. If you look back to the top of this post you can see them clearly, and realise what a dope I felt

Compressing the springs by lifting the axle up on the trolley jack allowed the bottom bush and nut to be put on and the job was done..

Wheels back on and time for a test drive ...

Crash

Not Katy before you worry... 

Unfortunately right outside our house tonight we had a bump (a lady passed out at the wheel (medical not alcohol  and hit someone hear on. Luckily she had slowed to about 20 MPH when it happened and the other car was slowing hard as well so no-one badly hurt and once the paramedics had done their job every walked away.

The paramedic who turned up did so very quickly in a very fast looking Landy ...

With a lot of expensive kit in the back

 Tidy snorkel

And lights everywhere

This was a very well equipped vehicle and shows the preparedness of the services who use them.

It is good to see a Landy doing a good job and I have to say that I saw excellent work by the paramedics who kindly said I could take pictures of their car

Mind you I had and won a good argument with the PC who took exception to that - it's a pity that more police do not know the actual law

All ended well which is even nicer - apparently it was a medical reason that caused the young lady to lose consciousness at the wheel, not alcohol. She'll be prevented from driving until she's got medication sorted out, but it could have been a lot worse

Nothing is simple

It's been quiet on the Katy Front for a while as work has got in the way again

I finally found some time to start again. I was going to replace the front springs and shocks, but in the end I thought I'd take on a few small jobs as I only had a small amount of time

The 1st job was to look into a rattle on the front - it tuned out to be the front brake disc mud shield where s small bracket had broken off. These are expensive for a small bit of metal so I'll see how I can repair it and give pictures then

Whilst the wheels were off I noted a patch of rust that needed dealing with on the bulkhead. It started small so I started with the rust killer 

But as I worked on it I kept finding more ... 

In the end there was about 6 inches that had to be rust killed and then for now it's been undersealed.as It isn't structural at that point

Next was to fit the nice new mudflaps which once I got the old ones off turned out not to be the right shape as you can see 

Also, the old ones look riveted to the frame which is a pain

Even if I cut them they are not going to fit .. 

So I'm posting here so I can link to these pictures and ask for help on the forums before buying more

Not a successful session

Tredegar Show 2012

Last year at the Tredegar Vintage Car show I met a bunch of nutters really nice people called the South Wales Land Rover Club

I joined them and have stated having adventures with them

I went on Saturday night to set-up the stand with some of the guys and when they all went home, Katy and I stayed on our own on the field. I mean when The wife is away and you have a campervan, some bottles of beer and a sleeping bag what's the point in going home

So this morming we awoke to a dewy and empty field

It wasn't too long before the gan arrived and in very short order we had the stand looking very professional. Katy seems to have taken a liking to holding up flagpoles as you can see from this picture

One of the Highlights of this years show was definitely the Toy Landrover that Dave has made. It's not complete, but is already in a driveable state as you can see from the gang having a ride on it below

We also had our tame mechanic working on the broken Landy which was the centrepiece of the stand. His workrate isn't that good as he was under there all day and didn't manage to fix it. He's quite a quiet chap though and not demanding of cups of tea like most mechanics I've met

All in all the weather was OK and we had a great time, and from the number of people who stoped to ask questions I think Katy is becoming a firm favourite at these shows.

She's still the only Marshalls Ambulnace I've seen at any of them so quite a rare sight. I'm trying to find how many were made and if I do find it out I'll add it to the story

Speech House 2012

Having put the new wheels on it was time for a test drive, and what better to do than got to a classic car show

I had found that there was a show at Speech House in the Forest of Dean today so headed up there this morning for a look around

As usual at these things there was a good show of Land Rovers, mostly belonging to the Forest of Dean Land Rover Group including this tidy piece of Limestone

However probably the star of the whole show was this superbly restored Series 1 which has been done out as an RAC van. Speaking to the owner he'd seen a few AA Vans, but never an RAC one so he decided to do it in that style. 

It was very busy in the car park but I couldn't resist getting a picture of Katy with her new wheels on in a Lay-by in the Forest. She was driving well - every little improvement seems to be helping. I'm not sure about the black wheels they may yet get painted cream like the rest of her