Things have been pretty hectic around here in the last few weeks as I’ve been switching jobs and getting dogs and all this sort of thing. Big Car has been sat patiently on my driveway waiting for a bit of love. Well, I’ve started moving in the right direction.

One of the big probems I’ve had, is that a lot of the stuff I want to buy for BC is big and heavy, and in turn, getting that stuff over here is expensive in courier bills. Well, via LandyZone, I got in touch with a friendly chap by the name of Pos who mentioned he happened to be visiting Guernsey, with his 90, and did I want anything brought over? He even put me in touch with a Land Rover garage near him – Jake Wright – if I could find anything from them, and they’d fit in the back of his 90 – he’d bring them over for me!

Brilliant. So I sent Jake Wright my shopping list, and after a bit of negotiation, managed to acquire some lovely new secondhand parts for BC – one lot to replace badly rusting doors – and one has a pure vanity thing – a huge bull bar!

The doors are off an old RAF Series 3 – so we’re talking slidy windows! Which is pretty good – as the windy ones are well known for letting in water. They’re also aluminium capped, which means they shouldn’t rust again. They’re obviously grey, but then again, BC is expecting a spray job at some point, so I don’t see it as a big issue. The bull bar – well, it just looks brutal, doesn’t it?

They’re on their way this weekend and might take some snaps when they turn up. No idea when I’ll get the time to fit them – there’s lot to do before she’s ready for that anyway – most pressing is the worry amount of rust on the tops of the bulkhead which needs grinding out. Have offered Pos BC’s Sankey style towhitch in exchange for his courier services – it’s no good to me but for a man like him, they’re pretty priceless.

Not much movement (metaphorically) in Big Car’s restoration… but she has been earning her keep – helping me move pallet load of boxes.

Big Car is very much back on the road now and getting some regular use. There are still quite a few areas that need working on in continuing the restoration. She’s running quite nicely, but she ain’t pretty! There are jobs to do that are either quite serious or more aesthetic/general.

Here’s the todo list, in approximately the order I’ll be looking at them:

1. Remove rust and Waxoyl chassis
2. Remove, repair and straighten wings, bonnet and front
3. Inspect bulkhead, repair rusty areas, remove old welds
4. Replace front door(s)
5. Check mysterious oil leak
6. Repaint whole exterior, affix chequer plates
7. Front offside wheel no oil or cap
8. Truck body rust areas
9. Cabin floorpans rusting
10. Rear window cracked
11. Line / plywood truck body inner
12. Fit speakers/wiring/head unit

There’re a few mods I’d like to make:

1. Rock sliders
2. Bull bars
3. Snorkel (maybe)
4. Exterior lights
5. Install windows

But they’re all subject to funds!

Should be some fun times over the coming months.

Bank Holiday weekends are pretty useful, and when the weather people got the forecast horrificly wrong, it meant a day to Big Car. The skies were clear & blue, and although threatened to rain a few times during the day, I was lucky. Following last week’s shower, today it was time for a spruce up inside. The back of Big Car still held the familiar three plastic containers with various nuts, bolts, plastics, belts, filters and everything else. There was a good 6 years’ worth of leaves and muck, not to mention about 2″ of water at the bulk end, which I’m hoping was after the shower, not a gradual build up! The first job was to get the three remaining bench seats out. I don’t envisage anyone sitting in the back of Big Car anytime soon, and so they’re really just noisy and getting in the way. Typically, the bolts securing them to the bodywork were solidly rusted/threaded on, so I had to get creative with a ratchet, some gaffer tape and a spanner under the chassis to get them out. When they were out, it was a case of sweeping out all the grime and muck. With a little elbow grease, she was looking quite tidy again.

At the cab end, there was one simple task – rebuild the interior! Of the many questions I have, one, quite near the top of the list is: “Simon, why on earth was the first you did when you got Big Car, to remove everything from the cab?!” The entire dash, doorcards and pretty much anything plastic with a bolt in it got removed. 6 years later we’ve got a small selection of parts, an even smaller selection of nuts and bolts, and an even smaller clue how it all fits together, and after this amount of time, everything has warped, rotted, rusted or just plain fallen off. Sifting through the various boxes, I found as much as possible. The doorcards were there, as well as the handles and the little inserts for the door openers. The plastic lock things are missing (or too bloody fiddly to refit). The cards went in approximately the right positions, but given the missing bolts and holes, it was really a lottery of finding a bolt that would fit a hole. In fact, very few of the original holes were used – it was far easier to drill out new ones! Although Big Car did claim (another) drill bit in the process… not to mention quite a lot of skin.

Rebuilding the dashboard was a mission. First job – figure out what bits I had and where everything went. It’s made of about five pieces, and once worked out, it was fairly clear where it all went. But again, no suitable nuts, bolts or holes, not to mention it all being really heavy, so holding things in place whilst trying to screw, as it were, is easier said than done. I got a bit of assistance from Whiskey (cat) and Julia (gf) and after a lot of heaving, effing, blinding, and flat out destroying things in the way, it’s all, pretty much, back in. It certainly ain’t pretty, but it should at least be functional.

This will hopefully just be a temporary until I decide exactly what is going to happen with Big Car. The driver’s door is in pretty bad shape and either needs repairing… or, more likely, replacing. I can’t be certain how long the dash will hold out how it is – there are plenty of gaps and very strained fixings. The truck will either get ply-lined and left as/is, although I’m toying with idea of turning her into a full-time pickup!

Watch this space…

More photos on Flickr. Follow Big Car on Facebook and Twitter.

6 years (ish) of grime, muck, and green (including paint) washed away with a power wash. Quite a lot of power wash in fact.

Hello everyone! It’s with great delight I can tell you that Big Car is back on the road to recovery. Huge props to Big Car’s friend Chris for sorting out the electrics so that it’s now possible to drive her (relatively) safely.

The downside of such inaction for so long of course is that she’s been sat for a *long* time. That didn’t stop her firing up – with a little persuasion, of course – but she is running nicely. Unfortunately there’s a list of things to be done, but hey, she’s an old Land Rover – and wants some TLC!

Anyway, I’m hoping to stay on top of this in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on the website!

Atb,

Matt

Well, it’s been a while, no? So here’s what has been happening with Big Car in the 6 months since the last post.

Not much!

No, seriously – Big Car came back from Keith Gott’s in much better shape. She starts first time, everytime. But sadly, with some work still left to be done, she was sat about on a friend’s garden, going unloved.

So we elected to move her out to live with me for a while, in Guernsey. She was trailered to Weymouth ferry port, and then went on the Condor Ferry. Since then, I have insured her, registered her and gotten numberplates!

There’s still some work to do to her – but currently, she’s at least on the road!

Matt

Big Car is back from Keith Gott’s and is running!

She needed a set of new pistons, tappets and push rods, as well as a couple of exhaust valves, lots of gaskets and 16 hours of labour!
Keith Gott have given us a list of jobs that need doing to get Big Car ready for the MOT:

Stop the fuel tank leaking – Alice and I took a look at this today and we can see where it’s leaking from, so we’re going to scrub it clean and keep an eye on it;

Connect the speedo cable – we reconnected this today, but we’re not sure if it’s clipped
on properly ;

Adjust the hand brake – we got this done today;

Investigate the slight play in the off-side swivel joint – hopefully this is not bad enough to fail the MOT;

Replace a missing circlip on the off side front wheel – I’m gonna order one of these this week;

Reattach the front wings – Jono got this done last week;

Fix the wiring to the lights, indicators and windscreen wipers – this was all working before but a connection must have come loose;

Put some seats and a battery cover in – Alice is going to take a look at her local scrappys for these bits;

Reattach the passenger seat belt – Alice got this done today;

Clamp the battery down – we need to work out how’s best to do this.

Alice and I are going to have another go at Big Car on Saturday the 24th of Novemeber, if anybody would like to join us.

Take care, Bob.

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, Big Car aka Helga has been taken away for a little TLC to Keith Gott’s. Many thanks to everyone who has been in touch with us offering us ideas and hints at what may be wrong – we were able to give them a really insightful list of what we need them to do.

Sadly for us, and moreso Big Car, those people involved in the Big Car restoration project have found it increasingly difficult to find the time to really investigate and diagnose the problems and so we decided that a little professional help was in order. Keith Gott has got an excellent rep, and whilst we might not have them actually do the work, we can at least expect to get a thorough breakdown (pardon the pun) of what’s wrong and what needs doing.

So Big Car was today stretchered away to undergo a good physical.

Exciting times!

I was thinking about Big Car the other day and a thought crossed my mind. The fuel injection pump is driven by the timing belt – that’s how it knows when to squirt the fuel. When we took the fuel injection pump off, the timing belt would have gone slack. The timing would have gotten all messed up when the engine was turned. I figured this could be why the inlet was blowing instead of sucking.

Today, I took the fan, water pump, fan belt, big nut and the timing cover off to get at the timing belt. I set up the timing and put it all back together again. When we turned the engine over we could get it to fire, but not on all cylinders. Also, the inlet was still blowing and there was an ominous knocking noise. I’m thinking that one of the inlet valves may be broken and that the head needs to come off…