A pictorial round-up.
Three weeks ago, Sunday 11th, I was enthusiastically fitting the brand new front rotors and pads. Hint: to spread the pads so they fit over the new disc, try this. Squeeze the spanners together, they pivot on the shoulder by the rings, and the rings move outwards levering the pads apart.
The new rotors are shiny, and took very little time to swap onto these hubs. Beautiful. Except not. Those rotor attaching bolts are in the wrong way, the nuts should be on the other side. The wheel does not go on properly. I am surprisingly frustrated. Naturally I am also very quick to re-do it and fix the problem.
A week later, Friday 17th, I suddenly decide to ring a wrecker from work. Later that afternoon I am at home getting rid of the Audi. They gave me $150 which covered the Kiwiburn ticket I bought for the stranger.
While waiting for the fucking towie who was 2 hours late I started drilling out the rusted-in eyebolts on the original springs. This was a painful process. Fortunately I lined it up well, and went through quite straight, but the collar that remained was a good 2mm thick, and solidly melded to the bushing sleeve.
There followed a process of trying various tools to grind away at the thickness of the core remainder, using drill bits tilted sideways, round file, tiny flat files, all sorts. Most of Saturday was spent chipping away at the metal, peeling bits off. Several brand new drill bits of lage size were broken. Bit by bit the metal flaked and wore away. I levered and hammered at it.
Finally the last remaining piece came out, about a day and a half after I started.
Fitted, the bump stop is now over twice the distance from the frame as before.
Obviously the other one has to be done. Tomorrow.
Sunday, I drill away with my new bit, spraying volatile solvents onto it to boil away fast and cool it down. The last thing I want is melted rubber.
Eventually,I fit a snapped-off piece of rat-tail file into the drill, make it spin in the direction which sends the spiral in a scraping action, and keep patiently reducing the thickness of the bolt "tube".
Half a day later a screwdriver is hammered down between the bushing and the tube, bending it inwards.
All good. CRC and hammers.
What a frustrating waste of two and a half days. At this point I'm rushing to get the van ready for a holiday, and this is a sign that things may not work out.
I start pushing myself, neglecting everything else, doing long days or bodywork, not eating properly, and not sleeping properly. By that I mean 6 hours sleep a night, sporadic baked beans and chips, sleeping in the t-shirt I wore under the van, in the morning getting back into dirty jeans without showering. I start work about 9 or 10am and finish when it is dark, about 9pm.
Wednesday, I get considerable roofline prepped. It's not too pretty, but it's ok.
Then, Thursday, I get it smoothed, and sort out the driver's door pillar which is looking manky but is not too bad at all, just needs cleaning up and painting.
Friday, going strong,I was hopeful of going for the WoF test on Saturday. I finish more of the roofline, get started on the rear sill, and do the left door pillar repaint also.
Towards evening, I tried Chemico and Jif for cleaning it up. The results are astounding.
On the left, the original dirt.
By this time I am absolutely fucking exhausted, worn out, despondent. There is no way I can get it woffed Saturday (the next day), so I plan for Monday, and get ready for a weekend of hard work.
One major thing is that rear sill. Looks bad?
Not so bad after a wire wheel. The floor pan and rear guards also.
Prime it...wait for a while, and just paint the white over that. Both paints can be used on bare metal, it's a hot breezy day so the first lot will be fairly set, and with any luck the white will actually fuse with the grey and cure to a harder shell.
As well as that, lots of tidying up the driver's floor pan.
Sunday, paint the RH headlight area.
Strip the donor bumper. ROUGHLY. This is going to look beat up.
Prime it, paint it, and bolt it on. Sounds easy.
Yeah except there is still the one mounting point which has the remains of a snapped-off bolt still in it, the one for which I had to buy a right-angle drill attachment. After several hours of trying to abrade it,I wind in a smaller thread tap to help hollow it out. Next: the actual size tap which is two sizes up... and which still won't fit in to start the cut. No worries. I grind a sharper taper onto it, and clean it up and sharpen it with a draw file
This is how to force it in. Also, use cutting oil. Also, wind it a quarter, back it, forward again, move the spanner round onto the next flats, forward a quarter, back, forward, shift spanner, forward etc...
Then it's on, I go for a drive.
A strange grinding noise appears. Luckily, I just forgot to do up this trim segment.
Monday, more tapping...
When this is tidied up, towards the end of the day, I go to get an alignment and some new tyres. The tyre shop refuses to sell me the size I ask for, telling me the van must have such and such size, or it will not get a WoF, and this totally awful week or more of every single task becoming difficult and taking three times too long is topped off perfectly.
It is apparently impossible to find the correct rims second hand.
The new rotors are shiny, and took very little time to swap onto these hubs. Beautiful. Except not. Those rotor attaching bolts are in the wrong way, the nuts should be on the other side. The wheel does not go on properly. I am surprisingly frustrated. Naturally I am also very quick to re-do it and fix the problem.
A week later, Friday 17th, I suddenly decide to ring a wrecker from work. Later that afternoon I am at home getting rid of the Audi. They gave me $150 which covered the Kiwiburn ticket I bought for the stranger.
While waiting for the fucking towie who was 2 hours late I started drilling out the rusted-in eyebolts on the original springs. This was a painful process. Fortunately I lined it up well, and went through quite straight, but the collar that remained was a good 2mm thick, and solidly melded to the bushing sleeve.
There followed a process of trying various tools to grind away at the thickness of the core remainder, using drill bits tilted sideways, round file, tiny flat files, all sorts. Most of Saturday was spent chipping away at the metal, peeling bits off. Several brand new drill bits of lage size were broken. Bit by bit the metal flaked and wore away. I levered and hammered at it.
Finally the last remaining piece came out, about a day and a half after I started.
Fitted, the bump stop is now over twice the distance from the frame as before.
Obviously the other one has to be done. Tomorrow.
Sunday, I drill away with my new bit, spraying volatile solvents onto it to boil away fast and cool it down. The last thing I want is melted rubber.
Eventually,I fit a snapped-off piece of rat-tail file into the drill, make it spin in the direction which sends the spiral in a scraping action, and keep patiently reducing the thickness of the bolt "tube".
Half a day later a screwdriver is hammered down between the bushing and the tube, bending it inwards.
All good. CRC and hammers.
What a frustrating waste of two and a half days. At this point I'm rushing to get the van ready for a holiday, and this is a sign that things may not work out.
I start pushing myself, neglecting everything else, doing long days or bodywork, not eating properly, and not sleeping properly. By that I mean 6 hours sleep a night, sporadic baked beans and chips, sleeping in the t-shirt I wore under the van, in the morning getting back into dirty jeans without showering. I start work about 9 or 10am and finish when it is dark, about 9pm.
Wednesday, I get considerable roofline prepped. It's not too pretty, but it's ok.
Then, Thursday, I get it smoothed, and sort out the driver's door pillar which is looking manky but is not too bad at all, just needs cleaning up and painting.
Friday, going strong,I was hopeful of going for the WoF test on Saturday. I finish more of the roofline, get started on the rear sill, and do the left door pillar repaint also.
Towards evening, I tried Chemico and Jif for cleaning it up. The results are astounding.
On the left, the original dirt.
By this time I am absolutely fucking exhausted, worn out, despondent. There is no way I can get it woffed Saturday (the next day), so I plan for Monday, and get ready for a weekend of hard work.
One major thing is that rear sill. Looks bad?
Not so bad after a wire wheel. The floor pan and rear guards also.
Prime it...wait for a while, and just paint the white over that. Both paints can be used on bare metal, it's a hot breezy day so the first lot will be fairly set, and with any luck the white will actually fuse with the grey and cure to a harder shell.
As well as that, lots of tidying up the driver's floor pan.
Sunday, paint the RH headlight area.
Strip the donor bumper. ROUGHLY. This is going to look beat up.
Prime it, paint it, and bolt it on. Sounds easy.
Yeah except there is still the one mounting point which has the remains of a snapped-off bolt still in it, the one for which I had to buy a right-angle drill attachment. After several hours of trying to abrade it,I wind in a smaller thread tap to help hollow it out. Next: the actual size tap which is two sizes up... and which still won't fit in to start the cut. No worries. I grind a sharper taper onto it, and clean it up and sharpen it with a draw file
This is how to force it in. Also, use cutting oil. Also, wind it a quarter, back it, forward again, move the spanner round onto the next flats, forward a quarter, back, forward, shift spanner, forward etc...
Then it's on, I go for a drive.
A strange grinding noise appears. Luckily, I just forgot to do up this trim segment.
Monday, more tapping...
When this is tidied up, towards the end of the day, I go to get an alignment and some new tyres. The tyre shop refuses to sell me the size I ask for, telling me the van must have such and such size, or it will not get a WoF, and this totally awful week or more of every single task becoming difficult and taking three times too long is topped off perfectly.
It is apparently impossible to find the correct rims second hand.