Wednesday 27 February 2008

A Load of Hot Air.




A recent addition of a space heater to the Overland Preparation Barn, a thoughtful Christmas present from Liz, Matt’s wife, raised the temperature from -20º to a tropical -5º and made an evenings work on the Jeep almost enjoyable. I was trusted with wire brushing bits of chassis whilst Matt fitted new; engine mounting rubbers, gearbox mounting rubbers, and a new rear wheel bearing. In an evening we achieved a lot. Prior to my visit, Matt had already fitted a completely new brake system, rebuilt the steering box (yet to be fitted) and replaced all the seals in both the gearboxes and both diffs. I’m optimistic that it will hit the tarmac in June.

11 comments:

Fred Fibonacci said...

I've only just worked out that the eerie blue glow in the space where the engine's meant to be is, in fact, a desk lamp. For a moment I thought the Jeep was going to get a new clean-burn bio-degradable power source, maybe a stray photon beam left over from the CERN experiment.

One other question; will it have indicators?

Toby Savage said...

Or, in fact, Did it have indicators? The origin of the phrase comes from a 'phone conversation when I was selling a Honda moped sometime in the last millennium. It sold immediately, but the next phone call from an expectant buyer went something like this. "Is the Honda still for sale?", "No. It's gone. Sorry", "Oh..... Did it have indicators?"

Peter Ashley said...

I do hope that's not Time Team's Tony Robinson in the top pic.

Camilla Jessop said...

Hello there Mr Savage, I hope you don't mind me intruding on your wonderful blog. I couldn't help but notice the lovely artistic brake lines on the axle. They look like copper, and I wonder if you could share your views on the use of that material? I suppose most manufacturers use Bundy tube these days but I can see the attraction of copper on a military vehicle: so much easier to repair in the field. But copper does have a tendency to work-harden - and then to crack; certainly Grandad was concerned that the vibration from his Rudge racer would cause hardening up, and he was always afraid of a sudden leak. He switched to Kunifer I believe - what actually is a Kunifer?

Peter Ashley said...

I was always lead to believe a Kunifer was an Austrian fir tree.

Fred Fibonacci said...

...and didn't Kunifer Aniston appear in the long-running German sit-com 'Freunds'?

Toby Savage said...

Kunifer '90' was, I believe, developed by Yorkshire Imperial Metals as a 90% copper, 10% Nickel alloy from which to make brake pipes that will resist corrosion and not be as soft as copper. I did fit them to my old Land Rover back in about 1975 and when I ripped them out to replace the whole system a couple of years ago they were still fine. Bravo the chaps from Yorkshire. God! That was a boring remark. Sorry!

Fred Fibonacci said...

Toby, you don't mention the correct flare-angle for the brake pipe ends. 37 degrees surely?

Peter Ashley said...

Toby, don't you worry. You wait when I start blogging my fifties razor blade packets.

Affer said...

37 degrees? Flares are so 1960s, don't you think?

Fred Fibonacci said...

Actually, they were a not very successful tribute band. Their near miss was entitled 'When will I see you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you and you again?'.

For a while they weren't Prince Charles' favourite band either.