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ibrooks

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Everything posted by ibrooks

  1. And I've got a set of alloys you could have plus a set of past their sell-by-date tyres that would fit them. They aren't currently connected but I can soon throw the tyres on the wheels for you and they would be fine for rolling around in the workshop purposes. Depends on where in S.Yorks which of us is closer. Iain
  2. That's the same as the Mercedes ones I'm watching on ebay. It's not quite a Cox GTM - it's a GTM Coupe so an evolution of it. If your Cox was an early one it may have had the straight top to the windscreen - later cars had a curved aperture which added strength to the front of the roof. When using a Mini engine the water pump is on it's limit. I'm in unknown territory as I've fitted a Nissan CG13 from a Micra so the pump may be fine or it may need assistance just with the radiator pipes. Either way it's not the only reason I want to make a change - as I've said there's a shortage of room in the back half of the tunnel and more so where the pipes/cables exit the tunnel and have to turn up or sideways around the engine. Partly that's due to the new engine having an exhaust there whereas the Mini lump had one down the rear of the engine. I've ordered a pump for hot water circulation in a solar power system. It's continuously rated, 12v and says it can handle over 100degC so should hopefully do the job. It's also a whole lot smaller than most of the automotive stuff and it's costing less than £6 including postage. We'll see if it copes when it gets used in anger - if not then it's five and a bit quid down the hole and I'll look at something more expensive. Iain
  3. Florin - it's not two radiators, it's a radiator which has a heat exchanger inside it. Normally it's used to allow the transmission fluid of the autobox to dump heat into the car's coolant. Some cars have a seperate radiator for the transmission fluid - like the traditional oil cooler. And yes the GTM is rear engined - well mid-engined. Think Lotus Elise but built using Mini mechanicals in the '60's. There are rumours that Lotus bought a GTM to see how they had done it when the Elise was being designed - strikes me as a little iffy as there's nothing complicated or clever about it. I did toy with the idea of a matrix in the engine bay and blowing heat from the rear of the cabin but there's just no room back there. Bizzarely I used to have a problem with the cabin getting too hot but that was down to the tunnel being enclosed all around and closed off at the front end. The coolant pipes run through it and it ended up being a big radiator inside the cabin. The new spaceframe should do away with that problem as it's open at the bottom and both ends so should actually see some airflow now. I do have a heated screen which I'm actually going to connect when it goes back in but I want some heat in there for me when it's nippy outside. This may all be a moot point as the exhaust on the new engine is at the front which puts it very close to the rear bulkhead. I have wrapped the exhaust and added a heatshield plus I'm planning some sort of heat reflection/insulation on the engine side of the bulkhead itself but I can see it being constantly warm at which point all I need to do is get fresh air into the car to prevent misting of the side/rear windows. I now have some Galaxy/Sharan/BMW/Mercedes pumps in my watch list on ebay. Details on the electric stuff would be good. I have seen the electric fan-heaters but they've always looked a bit naff and I want something that looks "factory" if you get my meaning i.e. like it's meant to be there and not an afterthought. The heating pads could be an idea - where are they from and what sort of current do they draw? Iain
  4. Anyone know of a small continuously rated pump that could be used for coolant in a car? The GTM has a bit of an issue with overcrowding of the tunnel towards the rear so I don't want to have to squeeze two more coolant pipes down there for a heater. Couple this with the fact that the standard pumps on front engined cars don't tend to cope well with driving coolant all the way to the other end of the car when the engine has been mid-mounted and I'm looking for alternatives. So a thought occured..... Many automatic cars have a heat exchanger in the radiator that they run the transmission fluid through. If I could source such a radiator that fits under the nosecone I could run a small closed system with liquid circulating through this heat exchanger and the heater matrix. I only need pipes to run from under the dash to the radiator where the tunnel is fairly empty. Problem is that means I need a pump to circulate that liquid. The radiator is brand new so no worries about contamination yet and therefore I can pretty much use the liquid of my choice - I'm thinking pretty much the same stuff that's running through the engine (maybe stronger or even straight anti-freeze). I don't see it wanting a massive amount of flow and small is obviously good. I had initially thought of a screenwash pump but I suspect it wouldn't last long if asked to run constantly when I want heat. Some jiggery pokery could no doubt make it run intermittently but I suspect I'd still be running it way beyond it's design spec and wearing them out regularly. I wonder about an electric fuel pump for a carb'd car. Any thoughts on how happy they would be pumping coolant instead of fuel? Maybe I could run a light oil in the heater circuit. Any other suggestions/thoughts? Iain
  5. The ones Dino has linked to are BOB engines - very little difference to the BOA. The timing chain is a little different (two simplex chains rather than a duplex one). The intake manifold is different. The cams are different (the BOB ones are a popular swap into the BOA for a slight power hike). Think that's about it. Iain
  6. Yep - there were a good few places where I winced and tried to make myself narrower to fit through the gaps. Loon that he is though there were others he followed or passed that weren't much behind him in the idiot stakes.
  7. ibrooks

    Why Is A Q Plate So Bad?

    Regarding the question of "scrapping" a car that you no longer physically have or can't get a destruction certificate for. Send a letter to DVLA telling them that you sold the car 6 weeks ago and sent the documents off with the new keepers address but you haven't had a confirmation letter telling you that you are no longer the registered keeper. They might ask you for the new keepers details but just tell them you don't have them - they were on the document you posted 6 weeks ago. As far as they are concerned someone called "Fred" (or other name of your choice) from "Inverness" (or other area of your choosing) turned up gave you cash and took the car away. He filled in his name on the docs and you posted them off the following day. By all means embelish it with a sum of cash and a half remembered street name - it wasn't advertised on ebay though as they might want to see an advert or the winners ID. Your name comes off their records as the registered keeper and it stays on their database as keeper unknown. In short it's no longer your problem. It'll be flagged so that if a policeman sees it he is supposed to pull it over and verify the keepers details but we all know that's not going to happen. As for the DVLA - if they are going to come up with these damn silly rules and regulations that just don't work in the real world then I'm more than happy to dump the mess back in their lap to clean up. Iain
  8. Disposable bottles used to last me quite a while and I've mentioned that when fitting the bigger reg to my welder I made sure I could revert to the disposables easily as I still usually keep one about for when I run out of gas on a Sunday afternoon - it's also far more portable than the pub bottle if the welder is going to the job rather than vice-versa. Disconnecting them when not in use is critical as the valves in the welder are simply not good enough to hold the pressure over any length of time. Ditto on a full size bottle turn it off at it's own valve when not in use or even it's contents will leak off whilst you are not welding. Iain
  9. Not that many years ago I was told the Ford team were picked up and given a talking to when cars with the same reg number were competing on different continents on the same weekend. They were Mk1.5 Focus' from what I was told. Iain
  10. Shame you're so far away - I've been trying to give away a set of 15" alloys that were on my last Sierra. I've also got a rough set of 14" Speedlines that were on my 4x4 when I got it - sort of a starfish look. When I still had my 2B I was running it on Capri wheels. RWD Escorts and the Capri and Cortina (plus others no doubt) ran a different offset to the Sierra which pushed their wheels further out but they have the same PCD and centre bore size so they are a straight swap. Peugeot cars have the same offset as the earlier RWD Fords but a larger centre bore and a different angle on the seat for the nuts so they are a relatively easy fit but should really have a spigot ring and proper wheel nuts fitted. You might find something that suits from their range and in the recent-ish crop this also means that a lot of the Citroen stuff could be yoinked and put on a Ford so don't discount Saxos and the like if there is something that looks right. As for Midland Wheels - I've heard a LOT of rather different accounts of the quality of their products from the Mini crew. The general consensus there is that the wheels are OK but the paint/laquer will be peeling/flaking within 12 months so budget for a repaint/powder-coat in the price of any wheels you buy from them. Iain
  11. I run a Clarke 150 amp Turbo that I bought from MachineMart maybe 12 years ago. I use it at the heavy end of hobby use and I've not managed to kill it yet. I've replaced tips and shrouds but that's it. I've converted it to a proper size bottle and for 99% of my use I use CO2 from Chorley Bottled Gas - should be local enough for you. The bottle cost me £40 first time and when I empty it I take it back and pay £20 to swap it for a full one and I'll supposedly get £20 back when I'm done with it - given how long I've had it I wouldn't complain if I didn't and I've long ago lost the original receipt. I used a compressed air quick release fitting in the gas pipe and have the same on my TIG and Albee Argon bottle so I can easily switch bottles between welders. I use a cheap auto mask and have never had a problem with it. My old one had non-replaceable batteries and so when they went dud it was time to throw it away but then for the price I'll live with replacing it every few years. From memory my current one is the same. Give me a shout if you want to come and have a play with my setup. Iain
  12. The angry grinder leaves bigger scars. My absolute best though is a burn. I have a wood-burner in the garage to keep me nice and toasty when it's snowing outside - not I didn't burn myself on it. I was given a load of scrap wood when a mate replaced the frame for his garage door - it had all sorts of nails and screws in it so I was cutting it into small enough bits to go in the burner with a hacksaw as that just keeps going when you find a screw (and you just sweep the bits out of the bottom of the burner with the ash). So I was cutting through a 4"x4" section and the hacksaw won't go all the way through but it's only pine so you cut as far as the hacksaw frame allows and then thump it to break the last little bit off. All was going well but I had a bit in the vice that needed two cuts and rather than putting the saw down I laid it across the top of the piece of wood and put my left hand across the wood and the frame of the saw so it didn't fall down when I hit the bit I'd mostly cut through. What actually happened was that the saw jumped and pivoted about the frame leaving the blade across my wrist. It was only there for a fraction of a second but nearly two years on you can still see the mark. On the first day before it turned into a gooey mess you could actually see the outline of the teeth of the blade - the resolution was really impressive. Iain
  13. Might seem like an insult but rough ones can't be given away. ebay doesn't always represent the real world so no doubt it'll fetch more. Obviously this one might well be a minter though in which case yes £200 is an insult.
  14. I miss my Land-Rovers for this. I had enough lights on the front that if they didn't dip their lights I could give them a sun-tan. They usually got the message.
  15. ibrooks

    Expansion Tank Size

    Your cap will need two rubber seals. One is on the sprung part of the cap and is the pressure seal. The second is around the top part of the cap and is what makes any coolant that's been pushed past the pressure seal go along the pipe to the overflow tank. That second seal is also what prevents the system just drawing air back in when it contracts - it makes certain that the only place the system can draw from is the overflow tank and therefore assuming the pipe is in the bottom of the tank it has to draw back the coolant it forced out before it can draw any air. Iain
  16. I got a complete set from a Reliant Scimitar for my Mini. Sub £50. The Mini gearbox needed a little tweak to get it to turn the speedo cable 1000 turns per mile which should be un-necessary for you. The Rev-counter's face and needle were transferred to an MG gauge to change it from 6 to 4 cylinders. I got an adaptor to put the Scimitar temp sender in the Mini's head. Oil pressure was a capillary gauge so no worries there. and the Fuel gauge worked fine from the Mini sender. Presto a full set of nice pretty matching Smiths gauges. The only part that may be more difficult in your case would be the fuel sender if you are using the Ford one in the Hood's tank. I'm currently doing a similar exercise with my GTM and I have splashed on Smiths International speedo and rev-counter because the engine and box I've fitted don't have provision for a speedo cable. The auxiliaries are from a Series III Jag XJ6. I just wired them up on the bench with a variable resistor in place of their respective senders (OK I actually used the Mini fuel level sender) and checked what resistance range they want to see to indicate their min half and max readings. I'll need to obtain senders that will show those values but that's not hard (even if I need to go and find a set from the same type of Jag that the gauges came from. It can be done very cheaply with a little understanding of what's going on and how they work which is not complicated. Iain
  17. ibrooks

    Speeding

    There's no "one size fits all" answer to that but the current route of speed equals dangerous is just as bad. The best method is to have enough police out there on the streets that can exercise some common sense/discretion. There are times and places where you could quite safely be doing 10+mph over the limit without putting yourself or anyone else at any increased risk of having an accident. In these cases a copper could pull you over and warn you that you are going a bit fast so slow it down and carry on. The only penalty to you being the time spent getting a bit of a dressing down and whilst the copper checks that the person driving is the owner and insured to drive (can't do that with an ANPR camera). There are other occasions (places, weather, pedestrians or whatever) where even doing the speed limit is dangerous and therefore the same copper could pull you over and give you a ticket for 1mph over the limit. Speeding may become to some extent the norm but it would be kept within tolerable limits. I'd also suggest many people would be more observant because they wouldn't know where to be looking out for the cameras (even the mobile ones only tend to plot up in certain common places where they can "hide"). I'd suggest speeding is for most people the norm anyway so I don't see that this policy rather than automatic enforcement would realistically increase it. And hey with that number of Police on the road maybe the scroats would commit less crime because suddenly they need to worry that maybe the next car that drives around the corner might be a Police-car or that even, if it's just a neighbour/passerby that sees them, a call to 999 might illicit a response to a crime in progress in under 45 minutes because there IS someone in the area. Iain
  18. It sticks fine for the conditions inside a sump. On a smooth surface outside it gets a reputation because you can peel it off but you need to do some damage and then physically pick at it to make that happen. So long as it's been clean when you paint it on then there won't be any edge that the oil will creep under and there shouldn't be any physical abuse to it inside the sump to create edges. Iain
  19. I buy it from a local specialist - they do all manner or GRP stuff but their main business nowadays is roofing. They do mail order I think. http://www.glasplies.co.uk/ Iain
  20. Sorting it is easy if it really is just porous welds. Clean it thoroughly - looks like you've done that. Fill it past the porous welds with white-spirit (which will take the oil out of the holes). Wash thoroughly with soapy water (which will remove the white spirit residue). Then rinse copiously with clean water to make sure there's no soap left. Now paint inside with POR15. It won't leak - be careful not to get the POR in the threads of the sump plug or it'll never come out again. Iain
  21. I think I'd have been tempted just to tell them they weren't there and let them cough up for a replacement set. I've just had something similar with citylink (had to restrain myself from the sh there). Got an email saying my parcel had been delivered to a neighbour and the card through the door would say where. Only there was no card through the door. I'd spoken briefly to one neighbour on the evening of the day that it had supposedly been delivered and the other neighbour had died two days previously so I assumed it wasn't with either of them. I'm still waiting for Citylink's complaints outfit to get back to me. I started asking further afield with no joy until I happened to bump into the immediate neighbour again (not the one who died) and mentioned it - it turns out the silly witch did have it but hadn't thought to mention "I've got a parcel for you" when I'd been speaking to her. If Citylink had bothered to tell me where they had actually left it I'd have had it several days earlier. Parcelfarce - I once saw the driver pull up so I put my shoes on and went to answer the door. As I reached the door the card dropped through the letterbox to tell me they had tried to deliver but there was no answer. He must have filled the card in whilst sat in the van before he even came up the path. His face was a picture when I opened the door and yelled Oi you!.
  22. Travel insurance can cover cancellations but again it's a matter of whether your reason for cancellation is covered under the contract you entered into. A relative of mine had to cancel a holiday due to ill health within the time that the holiday outfit would return any money and her insurance paid out the full cost as ill health was covered. If the cancellation had been just down to something like I can't go because I'd miss the new episode of Doctor Who then the answer would be no.
  23. I like the way that the big dial in the middle of the dash isn't speed - it's horsepower. I remember a few years ago at Cholmondleigh stamping out the grass that it had set fire to.
  24. Cor chief! Not before time - my nieces don't know what I'm going on about.
  25. ibrooks

    Pinto Dizzy

    Nowt. Sounds like it could be a good idea to take it to him anyway if they have become a consumable item
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