http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl? http://www.eblah.com en http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283460005/ http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283460005/#num1 Thu, 2 Sep 2010 22:40:05 keithy http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283457064/ http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283457064/#num1
Unfortunately the example I spent countless hours sorting for my son's first car, and testing myself to the limit over 3000 miles before handing to him, is dead-RIP.

He managed to find a novel way of breaching a 5 bar gate, traversing 50 yards of meadow, and sinking it in the River Colne.

Apparently not much damage was caused by the accident, it was the recovery people smashing the rear window and quarterlight to throw a chain round, dragging it through a tree to remove the front wing, and discarding the exhaust sytem en-route which was the finisher
40 years of history gone in a flash ]]> Thu, 2 Sep 2010 21:51:04 linearaudio http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283414343/ http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283414343/#num1










As you can see the drivers wing was in a bit of a state but that was the worst bit of the car. I looked for new wings and struggled to find any, ive found loads since, its just a case of knowing where to look I guess, So I cut the rot out of the wing and welded in new sections of metal that I had shaped. I had to give them a skim over with filler but the metal underneath is sound so the filler is purely cosmetic and not hiding anything naughty!

I set about any other slight blemishes on the body work but they were only slight dings and nothing serious. I found a few holes in the floor pan which I fabricacted new sections, cut out the old back to good metal and welded in the new sections. I gave the sills a good bashing with a small hammer and no suprises there, a few holes in the sills too which have now been cut back to good strong metal and new sections welded in.

I decided to give the bodywork a coat of primer to show any imperfections I may have missed and after this process I gave the car its first coat of base coat to stop the primer absorbing any moisture as the car was to be left outside as my Dad and his Rover p6 have hogged the garage but ive spent so much time in the garage working on my car over the last few months that I thing I may be entitled to squatters rights .

Here are a few picture of the car coated up







]]> Thu, 2 Sep 2010 09:59:03 keithy http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283380472/ http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283380472/#num1 The biggest problem which we are still working on was the engine, it had a few problems- mostly high pitched whine sounded like it was coming from behind the fly wheel but I was told a mini engine would fit straight into the car, so i bought a 1300 mini engine from e-bay. Only when I got it home and cleaned it down it turned out to be a 998 auto engine. To start with the engine wasnt compatible because the engine mouns were in the wrong place and I didnt fancy putting a 1 litre engine in a car that is meant to be a 1300. My father-in-law pointed out that the mini engine was 20 years newer than the car and he assured me that the performance would not be massivley effected by the drop in size so I decided to go ahead and try it as I couldnt find a 1300 auto engine anywhere. Now we are at another hurdle where the original diff was fitted with Hardy Spicer joints and the new mini diff has pots. Im hoping I have found a place I can buy new Hardy Spicerss from and will be trying them in the morning. The other idea would be to keep the pots and change the drive shafts, hubs and who knows what else. I am looking to keep the car nice and standard but it may recieve a few extra like electric antenna but I love the way the car is looking and I am becoming more of a fan every day. Even my Girlfriend is starting to like the car that keeps me from her 5 nights a week lol. Well I look forward to getting to know you all and seeing and hearing about your cars.  Thanks for reading my introduction. Keith]]> Thu, 2 Sep 2010 00:34:32 keithy http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283196420/ http://www.ado16forums.info/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1283196420/#num1 I get to fix it.
Currently got the engine in bits as she drove it with a water leak until it stopped. Now it needs four new pistons and a rebore, which is bloody annoying on an engine that's only done 32000 miles! Spent today splitting the engine and gearbox, stripping the bottom end and jetwashing all the crap off everything.
Next step is drop the bits off at the local machine shop, and see what they say. Unfortunately the bloke I used to use for Mini bits has retired.
The plan is to paint the engine red once it's all ready to go back together, so it looks a bit better under the bonnet.
We also have new wings and doorskins to fit at some point soon, together with a new front panel(still to buy that), to go with the repairs I recently finished on the sills.

This thing is seriously eating into my Avenger time!

Nick]]> Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:27:00 avenger