Unkel Kunkel

Black Cat, the general view seems to be that the fibreglass version is hard and inflexible which makes it less easy to fit than the injection moulded plastic ones. I did try to resurrect a battered old cardboard tunnel by using fibreglass resin to mend the damaged bits and coat it.The resin soaked in easily and it was certainly very strong, but so rigid it was awkward to fit and resulted in a very gappy fit therefore I chucked it. I bought a plastic one and it is very good - vastly superior to the original card board jobs which get weaker each time they are disturbed -that and the polythene bag of fibreglass insulation having either disappeared or hanging off its staples saturated in ancient EP 90. The seal can still be an area of weakness, however .Some have made a new seal by buying one of those camping rolls from Millets and cuting a gasket seal from it - and those frustrating spire clips...

Rimmers ( so far )OK for carraige off shore to IOM as are the others such as Canleys, Paddocks. Moss-I have always called in when in Manchester. The TSSC shop basic £21.95 cost is prohibitive - I paid an off shore rate of £14.95 to a firm to send me an engine crane!

They are all OK. Some might do a better price for some things so it is worth comparing.I have found Rimmer Bros. customer service to be excellent as is Paddocks .I have visited both and have had mail order from them ,both are fast despatchers. I have also been very pleased with Canleys and Moss. Don’t forget the the club shop of course.I don’t use them because they charge so much to post off shore.

Vehicle fires can be fast and so furious that the waxoyl probably won’t add much to the general mayhem from the petrol paint tyres upholstery etc so I wouldn't worry,Dave. Years ago there seemed to be a spate of fibreglass Reliant Robins “brewing-up”. They were rather dramatic. I had a Scimitar then with a few wiring issues. I thought about it now and then -mainly when putting 17 gallons of petrol in the tank.

Waxoyl flammability? Oh yes! Years ago, we nearly had a chimney fire after putting on just a few broken up bits of Waxoyl-soaked hard board that had been used to collect the drips when WaxOyling a car weeks previously.It was quite an alarming lesson to learn. Welding Welding our old cars is liable to ignite bits of that horrible bitumen stuff they used .It always seems to be near where the car needs welding, An extinguisher is already there in your hands if you are MIG welding. Quickly turn off the power, and then use the gas -your CO2 or CO2 /or Argon , to cool and quickly stifle the flames before they get a hold.

I have only once had to use a fire extinguisher. and that was in a building ,not a car. One of those old fashioned big red cone shaped things that you bang the plunger on the base (it breaks a glass vial of acid into bicarb. solution and the CO2 squirts out water). - I was quite shocked to see such a pathetic jet of water appear and how briefly it worked for.Utterly useless. I certainly wouldn’t hang around to use one of those things again. For my car, I used to have an ex MOD Chubb fighting vehicle extinguisher reasoning that they should be fairly effective. I haven't seen them available for some time now.

Ha ! like it. Brevity in Newspaper headlines also used to be the thing of ? the Sun or the News of the World, I forget which. The story goes of a report of a psychotic patient breaking free from a secure unit pausing en route to sexually assault one of the female domestic staff working in the laundry before escaping from the hospital. Next morning the Sun’s headlines were “ Nut Screws Washer and Bolts”.

The title brought back memories of an advert that used to be placed by a small engineering firm every few months in the local paper “ Wanted - women for cleaning”

Well done - It certainly looks great to me! Before I buy a car I go with a set figure in my head and rehearse what I am going to say. -However this has never, ever worked. I always come away kicking myself for being talked around and paying more! I really should get someone to do the deal for me . What’s your commission ?

Old motoring books are fascinating. They are fairly cheap, require little maintenance and can be enjoyed comfortably in the worst of weathers.. Autocar did something along the lines your “Motor” book, John. The cut-aways and the adverts are wonderful -who could resist buying the “Nightingale” ’ exhaust whistle? and doesn’t the Autovac looked so cunningly clever? ( though the crews of WW1 tank s equipped with these towards the end of the war allegedly used to say,” The attack will proceed at ... hours. ... God and Autovac willing”.

AA book is a bit modern. This is one of mine

All of the above plus a piece of one of the most useful, cheapest and lightest “ tools” I have ever bought: a piece of comfy closed cell foam matting to save your knees, elbows back etc. when working on road gravel. I have a bigger piece in a roll I bought at the Classic Car Show at the NEC some years ago for about a tenner. Transforms working next to or under the car at home for some of us now ‘beyond our teenage years” - it even feels warm.

that’s very goog news -thanks

That’s them , Colin! - from Cleckheaton by gum, They are (or were ) brilliant.

Used Eezibleed many times. Always found it to be very straightforward to use.The cap / master cylinder seal has the potential for trouble, I agree. I really can’t explain why it hasn’t worked for you,Darren.The obvious points such as having enough pressure and opening the bleed valves sufficiently, I am sure you have addressed , and Pete’s explanation seemed very sound. The only thing I do different is I adapted mine to connect to a compressor ( on low pressure, of course! ) rather than from a tyre valve - but that was simply for convenience. The best thing I ever found for bleeding brakes as a one person job very quickly and easily was to replace the standard bleed valves with “ ABV” valves (presumably for automatic bleed valves).They were neat spring loaded one way bleed valves .You could get them for most vehicles .You just undid the valve a half to one turn a half turn , pumped the pedal a few times , tightened it up, next wheel and so on.The only need for a tube and jar was to catch the fluid to avoid making a mess. I haven’t seen them anywhere for years...

There was something that fell off the timing cover on my 73 Spitfire.I also think it had been some sort of an attempt at sound deadening .Either that or it was a desicated cow pat.

I have not seen them. If you are sure that the dreaded big “R” “disease” is so localised, then cutting out and butt welding in new metal would seem an option as would buying a whole panel , cutting the bit you need for replacement and welding that in.(After factoring in the expenditure of time and effort against the cost of the part)

Firstly, a disclaimer : This is certainly not a technical answer to the problem - a historical diversion at most . The pictures brought back a memory of the very hot summer if ‘76 when my work found me working in Norwich. Sweating and very despondent, I was staring at something very similar on the head of my ‘71 GT6. I was short of money.My outgoings were out of balance from my income which was very poor even then - and quite unbelievable to most people now .The only option was to put the head back on and keep my fingers crossed. Long after uncrossing my fingers, 2 years on and a few thousand further ,it was still running really well - brilliantly in fact. I sold it - to the person who had sold it to me. We remain good friends.

Brilliant! thanks Doug and Angel for your help-I understand now ... I think.

If this has been on before and I am just the last person in the world to see it then please ignore but it amused me! It is titled “Triumph spitfire engine assembles itself” on Utube “11 months, 3000 pictures snd a lot of coffee” I have tried to attach it but I admit defeat!

Echoing Pete’s comment - Is there a need for ” De-carbonising ” or “decoking” ? I haven’t even heard the terms for years . The Saturday afternoon ritual whipping the top off engines to scrape the head and the piston tops (trying to leave a rim of carbon around the edge in an attempt to mantain a seal, of course) I thought had disappeared with such things as side-valve sit-up and beg Ford Prefects. The only “ decarbonising” I have had to in recent times is clean the thick carbon sludge from a seized EGR valve - on a thoroughly modern diesel.

I fairly recently separated the body from the chassis of a 1973 MK1V Spitfire. I know from the records of its one previous owner that this was the first time.The wheel arches had received the usual coating of bitumous underseal. Where there was still paint, most of the chassis was in the original pimento red. In some less accessible areas such as tops of chassis rails had some thin areas of a what looked like a matt red primer, perhaps as overspray of body primer when the body had been fixed on.Other areas were in plain black as were parts of the chassis which were bolted to the body work. This suggests, as the scrapman says, that a black painted chassis was bolted to the body then the combination sprayed with the the body colour. In general the paint coverage of the chassis was poor with some areas barely covered with what appears to be a single coat of black. I am always surprised they have lasted so long,really.

What a sad picture! It has been left outside in the rain for .. how many winters? It will be seized solid.It looks like anything attached to it is either broken, seriously corroded or both. I think if you look carefully you will see the characteristic marks left by the ten foot barge poles possesed only by the most brave.

These are brilliant for fast paint removal and aren’t damaging to panel work The name Dronco does not inspire but they very good ! They are 115 mm for angle grinder and fairly cheap from Weldequip.com

dichloromethane /methylene dichloride /DCM (as used to be in “old’ Nitromors) In the domestic / hobby situation / ocassional user, (not in the industrial setting) be really nasty stuff if not used with great care regarding inhalation. I am no fan of EU and its rules, but I would say the restrictions were decades overdue.It was restricted in the US years ago. There is a mass of well- documented data about its toxicity - from medical articles highlighting specific cases (often tragic) ,animal data , biochemical data.Very serious effects from short term exposure.Some of the effects are more long term however with neurological damage and a large study in America showed a significant increased risk of pancreatic cancer from frequent exposure. Its dangers are very real.