Heavy Metal.

Slowly becoming heavier again, but not from any filler (yet!!)

Last of the summer nights

Enjoyed a night in the field opposite Maxine N Phills place, good food, good company. Dazza and the apprentice, an Sam n julia also joined us. The apprentice is toying with the idea that a squareback is her future, the condition spreads to epidemic proportions.

Nu Shooezzz

Well not quite, Garys wheels fit very nice, and run very well. Still cant decide on what looks best, and for the money i still am leaning towards the 15" originals. comments please...........

sill woes

well after seeing gary on sat i was all on for a quick patch to acheive an mot, but in the process of finding something to weld to, i have created a rather large hole!! so im gonna need some pannels, thinking sill, top hat (though i only need 12 inches of it) and an out rigger, i already have the closing pannel and the rest i can fabricate. any thoughts on anything else. and for the benifit of my sanity im going to jk and paying postage this time!!

Sods Law 0, Gary and Magoo 1!

Sods Law 0, Gary and Magoo 1.

Finally happy, with the windscreen fitted we are now confident as to the accuracy of the refitting. These stages always look so much fun in relation to the hell of working inner sills, but full front repair is scary stuff!! Looks fucking strong now!!

from this to this.........

And this is something else!!! Its like the Haynes manual front cover!!

M25 resurfacing????

Neil started the day off like a proper Navey, the amount of ashfelt, grit, tar and hessian like stringy shit, he could have been working on the M25!!!

A small mountain of crap and dead weight slowly accumulates.
Well at least we can see the roof now and start to plan a solution............your comments please.

Option 1: Justkamper repair kit £300 inc a complete plastic hat to eliminate leaks?

option 2: Disassemble original replacing all seals and poprivets for waterproof poprivets...£150??? lots more time and blisters.

Any way its looks a darn sight better now. More bus, less shed!!

I can see the sumit...

..Its looks even further away now!!!!! Chris wanted image of jacking point also took one of the rear jpoint but its so blurred!

Gary removed front hinges from a pillar f******g mad or what!!! But the door hinges differ from what he has...........but with much work the door hangs nice and tight!

Front panel looking good............................fueeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww!!!! Even windscreen surround all round so now just need to refit the screen to check it.

Piece by piece

A few moths ago.........

The bottom of b pillar repaired and new plte added to seal off and to grab the outer repair skin.

Oter skin for inner wheel arch starting to be welded.
outer skin nice and straight...........need outer sill then front wheel arch.

Front panel pain!

A a picture could paint a thousand words then a face can too, long hours and hard work. Looking perfect from the front and window frame, just more beating to its exact home.

Barge theme????

A take on Ben's idea for a barge theme! Just a thought but the shapes of the barrier structures would make good living "pods" one at each end of the barge with a removable middle canopy between them, would still give a guggenheim-esque impression quite pleasing to the eye with good usable roof space to place solar panels etc :)

Till late

Removing A pillar.....scary stufferr its back new new a pillar still scary stuff.........starting to fit up good.

Bloody hell how hard is it to fit this entire front panel in a backwards order!!!! Magoo is starting to get some real strength and shape back..............now need to research the difference between a 74 door hinge and a 76 one? any help?

Boat styling

Frank Gehry possible inspiration or starting point for boat project. Material use is its greatest strength, limit the explosiveness of the structure of course, but look at more by Gehry Darren!!

Obsessive Canalboat Disorder... Pt IV.

Last Monday evening a crane arrived at Meadow Lane wharf in Nottingham. It was a 220 ton beast that was going to lift a couple of barges in and out of the trent...

After the cars were all cleared and a solid lifting plan was formulated, the first lift began. This was Warren's new home that he's been restoring for the past 6 months...

He's now waiting for a tug up the trent a bit, where he's just got a liveaboard mooring... Hope the hole in his roof gets fixed (The chains on the crane got a bit close!).

No problem with damaging this one, tho! As night settled, we managed to pull Hopper11 along the quayside BY HAND! This was a first for all of us, and if it wasn't for Tim, the lock keeper, and his experience, I think the hopper would be somewhere near Newark by now!

Once the chains were securely located and balanced under the hull, the lift began. At this point, I was holding the front rope and sh&ting myself!!

As she rose out of the trent, half a ton of debris dropped from underneath, and she was a site to behold. Thought the hull was going to collapse at one point, but amazingly she is solid!

The crane had to drop her and move along the wharf three times before she was situated in the right place for the welding company to do their work! Thought they were going to charge me more than the agreed price, as we didn't finish until 22:30! 5 hour mission but well worth it!

Next day Tom, Debs and me, headed up to check her out in the daylight. I really didn't realise how big she was going to be... And the hull is solid 6mm steel! Not a lot of pitting at all. The welding guys have said it's in great condition and shouldn't take too much work to cut up and re-inforce for conversion.

I've got a skip on order now, and there's a couple of young lads up for scooping out all the crap into it. Just hope they manage to work out which is which!!!

Then it's over to the shot blasters and welders... First job is to cut out the inner plating on the bottom of the V shaped hopper. The original had two doors in the bottom, running the length of the hopper, and these would be opened when it was full of dredge and emptied over a weir. So a massive new plate is required along the main length of the hull... ouch! Still, I don't really want to be dumped into the river with all my belongs in a few years time due to some dodgy hinges.

 

watch this space...

VW TRAGEDY!! For every bus that's restored...

An unfortunate site greeted me on the return to the close the other day, Ben remember the yellow viking parked opposite my place?... 'kids on the rampage' torched six vehicles (not all dubs) in the leicester area on the same night apparently and the guy who own's it told me it wasn't insured!



Lighter fluid through the louvered window!! look at the sorry looking steering wheel! still the running gear, shell, engine and poptop look salvagable how much is it worth in this state (owner was asking), any opinions??



Fingers crossed Hempy and Ruby are not in danger !!!