Moth Busting Mk 2 Decathlon

[fozzza]

Nothing ground breaking or innovative to report but I have continued to check over the electrical side of the car with minor repairs to some corroded connections and brittle wire. Alongside this I have been de rusting a few components.
16 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Headlight brackets.
17 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Heater casing soaking in white vinegar.
18 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
The vinegar worked a bit too well. The underside of the heater casing has rusted through but I have managed to locate another heater unit that's less corroded but the matrix was still shot.
I must admit it was the first time I tried vinegar and it does work quite well but for the best results its best to let the components soak for quite a few days and I like the fact that its nice and safe to use, no nasty chemicals. The only draw back if you haven't got a lid on the container my shed smelt like a pickle factory and every time I entered the shed and for the benefit of the mature forum members it reminded me of that old comedy program Nearest and Dearest, " Walter have you Beeeeen"
To a more serious note I finished the components off with the trusted wire brush.
19 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
And now to the painting.
20 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Those brackets again.
21 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Heater unit de-rusted and painted, waiting to be fitted back together.
Whilst in the mood for dismantling things I decided to strip the wiper motor apart to check there was no nasty corrosion lurking inside and to clean the body and you got it get the paint out again.
22 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
The problem with this is when you clean one part it shows the rest up and then it becomes a vicious circle and before you know it your to do list becomes twice as long.
23 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
You guessed it more cleaning and painting.

[streetsy]

I have taken bits off to clean them up on two Midas' both have ended up being stripped to the ground and rebuilt. In the end it was worth it though.

[goldeneye]

Looks verry nice!

[fozzza]

I have taken bits off to clean them up on two Midas' both have ended up being stripped to the ground and rebuilt. In the end it was worth it though.

Looks verry nice!

Cheers guys for the moral support, it goes a long way to keep the motivation going. I have seen the pictures of your projects and the build quality of your completed cars are second to none. If mine comes close to what you guys have achieved I will be one happy chappy.

[fozzza]

kick off the update with more cleaning and painting, cleaning and painting, laborious I know, but just trying to stick at it and not lose the motivation.
24 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
no prizes for naming the latest batch of art work.
25 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
now out with the old allegro unit.
26 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
and in with the new metro unit.
27 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
it is quite surprising the wait difference between the two, I don't know whether this is a good thing or not, is the old unit better quality being all metal or is the plastic metro one an improved use of different materials. The mounting posts are slightly wider apart but the top mounting brackets can still be used just bolted on further apart. For the lower mountings, there is a groove the length of the bottom of the rad so I have made two nylon feet that fit in this groove and spaced them so they fit the original fiberglass mounting posts and self tapered them into the rim of the rad.
28 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

[Inim666]

Hi fozza I'm just building mine and was wondering if you know what the permanent live brown wire near the dizzy is for

[fozzza]

Hi fozza I'm just building mine and was wondering if you know what the permanent live brown wire near the dizzy is for

It depends if the wiring has been tampered with, the only brown wires I have in that area are a brown and brown/yellow that go to the altenator and the other ones around the clutch area go to the starter soleniod that is bolted to the clutch cover.

[fozzza]

I must first apologies that these updates are a bit on the mundane side and nothing what you could call edge of your seat stuff is going on, but my main aim is to try and get the car back on the road as soon as possible without it looking like a shed on wheels if you know what I mean.
Progress has been a little slower than hoped as a bad case of man flu Knocked me back a couple of weeks, even though I still went to work, when I got home that cold garage wasn't very appealing. Well to start off with all the original electrics have been sorted out and everything works ok. I have rewired the radiator fan to a rocker switch inside the car and rewired the heater fan circuit to a resister so I now have a two speed fan, and run the cabling for the front driving lights and the electric fuel pump and inertia switch.
A while back I temporarily fitted the battery into place and with the lugs cut off the back and the sides the varta B36 fits like a glove, just need to fabricate a battery clamp, also I'm fitting an isolating switch mainly for safety's sake when the cars not in use
29 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Finally I got round to rebuilding the heater unit back together.
30 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Fitted the headlights, radiator and wiper motor back into place.
31 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
32 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
33 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
I finally plucked up courage to fit heat shield to the bulk head, it being self adhesive I had one shot at it, the amount of times I had a dry run at it was unbelievable and I think more by luck than judgment it didn't work out too bad.
34 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
While into heat protection mode I also covered the LCB with heat wrap.
35 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
One of the next items on the agenda is also to fabricate a sort of mounting bracket for an engine steady bar, that mounts on to the thermostat housing that I purchased some time ago, and also mounting brackets for a Metro expansion tank.

[fozzza]

I have managed to fabricate the bracket for the near side engine steady bar and incorporated mounting the metro expansion tank to it.
37 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
38 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
39 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
The engine steady bar in question.
40 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Before I could bolt the manifolds on I had to make a repair to the water outlets on the inlet manifold as the original ones had corroded away.
41 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Now I could bolt them on.
42 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
In an attempt to finish fitting the driving lights I reached the spoiler down from the loft to fit it on the car so I could position the lights correctly, but then remembered that it has a crack down the middle, courtesy of the ex wife backing in to it when it was parked on the road. On closer inspection there are quite a few marks that I don't even know where they have come from, so a re spray of the spoiler will be needed.
`43 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
I have used P40 on the underside to make it more rigid again.
44 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr

[fozzza]

Finally got round to updating my progress, now the weather has warmed up a bit and the concrete floor is not as cold on the aging bones, so I have moved onto the front suspension and completely stripped down both sides so I can give everything the proverbial make over and give the surrounding panels a good clean.
49 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr
50 by Roy Forrester, on Flickr