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Forums › Tuning, Modification & Legal › Project Cars › Project Phoenix -> Teaching an old dog new tricks: Day 11 |
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 Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 12:55 pm |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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Project Day 2 - Original Axle Removal: Phase 2
On Day Two I only got a few hours to play with the car and in all it was a slightly frustrating day, but still rewarding.
First we had a quick visit to Halfords to grab some replacement bulbs for Mrs VorTechS' KA(ck) oh and a butterfly as she's decided that as she has pink wheels, the thing definitely needs a butterfly atop the aerial! (You have to love her sense of humour!). At the same time I decided to grab some brake cleaner, copper ease, dust masks and some foam flooring to help my fat frame shift along the concrete without strangling myself.
At £10, it covers the underside of the car quite nicely and does make life a lot easier.
Having decided which cables / pipes were the right ones I managed to un-clip them from the bodywork after removing another section of heat shield. The Haynes manual dutifully says to remove them from the front, but not how! As I'm going to be servicing the brakes anyway, I've not done that yet, and will remove them from the hub instead. According to that trusty manual, it's to to get the hub off.
Ah. I've not got the wheels off yet!
So, I dropped the car and proceeded to look inside for the wheel nut wrench. I guess I removed that years ago! Luckily the previous owner of the donor car left me two. Starting with the smaller, I quickly gave up as it started bending as I yanked it!
The bigger one had a lot more luck, but knowing that these were previous done up by an air gun, it came as no surprise that I struggled a bit. They did eventually come out though, and thus began the task of trying to rock the things off the hub. Which also took some doing!
Next up, removing the hub dust cap. At first I couldn't even see a join where the dust caps were placed, but a few taps around the very edge soon dislodged them.
Next I was to grab a pointed chisel and un-stake the hub nut.
And this is where I got stuck!
I don't have a small enough chisel to drive in here. The small screwdriver I tried actually snapped off, and I don't have anything solid enough to drive in there to free this nut. As it happens even if I did, then I'd need to find a 32-34mm socket (judging by the posts I can find on hub nut removal) to fit whatever mis-match of tools I have.
And so, I think it's probably time I concede that really I should look to get some more tools in! I don't really want to be spending £150 on a tool kit. Halfords do have a sale on, and they've got a toolkit on sale right now for £80. Okay, I know this isn't really going to do the job as well as the Advanced stuff, but I'm leaning towards this.
But I'm open to any suggestions, specifically ones that are going to suit this particular and future tasks....?
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:07 am |
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Joined: Mar 10, 2011
Posts: 227
Trade Rating: +5
Location: Nottingham
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great progress so far to say you've not done anything like this before.
In my opinion you need a good tool set, buy cheap, buy twice.... I got bought a halfords tool kit at least 10 years ago from my mum and dad and It's still going strong so if you can manage to get a kit in the sale then it would probably be the best purchase to make especially as your doing all the work yourself.... It will make life soo much easier.
Haynes manuals are good but just take your time (and break less).
keep it up though fella.
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| 2004 GTI 180 - SOLD, 2000 GTI - SOLD, 2002 SW D TURBO - CURRENT | |
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:19 pm |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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| pAvax wrote: |
Vortech, how did you get the groove out of the puck? Cutting it is straight forward... but how did you go from a cut to groove?
I like this idea and I can make use of my 30 odd pucks finally (I am a hockey player). |
I cut in 3 places, across the width of the groove and then used a large screwdriver to prise and chisel it out.
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 8:09 pm |
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Joined: Aug 01, 2016
Posts: 248
Trade Rating: 0
Location: Essex
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| VorTechS wrote: |
| pAvax wrote: |
Vortech, how did you get the groove out of the puck? Cutting it is straight forward... but how did you go from a cut to groove?
I like this idea and I can make use of my 30 odd pucks finally (I am a hockey player). |
I cut in 3 places, across the width of the groove and then used a large screwdriver to prise and chisel it out. |
Sounds like something to do for me tomorrow. Cheers!
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| Current project: Ciri
Silver 206cc - 2.0 - 2001 | |
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Posted: Sat Sep 24, 2016 9:36 am |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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| spud_gti wrote: |
great progress so far to say you've not done anything like this before.
In my opinion you need a good tool set, buy cheap, buy twice.... I got bought a halfords tool kit at least 10 years ago from my mum and dad and It's still going strong so if you can manage to get a kit in the sale then it would probably be the best purchase to make especially as your doing all the work yourself.... It will make life soo much easier.
Haynes manuals are good but just take your time (and break less).
keep it up though fella. |
Thanks! (sorry I missed this the first time).
You're right about the toolkit, and so I have done exactly that. I've gone for the Halfords Advanced (new name for professional) that is currently at £100 (I got £30 back from the broken tow pole!)
Done a tiny bit more this morning (freed the handbrake cable from the front of the car) and removed one brake line. But guess which spanner I'm missing from the kit I bought? Yup an 11mm needed to undo the brake line! So that's gonna have to wait until pay day (probably)
I'm also a bit stuck on how to remove the flexi hose from the mounting bracket...
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 7:17 am |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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So Days 3 & 4 were hampered as Mrs VorTechS was rushed to hospital last Wednesday where she has stayed since, stable but not very well. However, I managed to get a few hours in on the car.
Project Day 3 - Original Axle Removal: Phase 2
As mentioned above, I decided that it was time to bite the bullet and get some (half) decent kit to work on these two project cars, so with the £30 refund from the damaged Tow Pole, and a bit of extra added to it I bought this Halfords Advanced toolkit:
I also bought a centre punch with which to try and open the hub nut to make removal easier, but that seemed to just make things worse!
Of course the set I bought it was missing anything big enough to remove the hub nuts that I've been stuck with, so I added 3 more sockets to the kit, buying a 33mm non-impact socket, and 34mm and 35mm impact sockets (having reviewed various posts about hub removal on the forums).
It turns out the 33mm for my car was the right size. However, using a small breaker bar - too much force and the thing kept slipping off the nut. So a bigger bar is going to be needed I think!
Not having one doesn't help, so whilst waiting for a bar (kindly donated by Sim) I decided to alter the plan a bit. Back under the car, and rather than follow the instructions to remove the handbrake cable from the drums, let's remove them from the front!
That, was nice and easy:
This job is more easily performed if you push the clips from inside the cabin, which I learnt the hard way struggling from the outside to pull them through!
Next the manual says to trace the brake pipes (these are the green ones then!) from the front to the rear axle and remove them from where they are mounted on the rear axle.
In my case, they go to a junction box that sits on the axle:
...specifically these are the 3 that it says to remove:
Removing the first one at the brake hose, was nice and easy:
...but if you look carefully at the lower nut on the junction box, it's actually not the same shape as the one just above it. It's already been rounded off. Even the appropriate size spanner I bought for the job (11mm, the one size NOT in the toolkit I bought) wasn't good enough to get this bolt removed. And so, yet another 'spanner' in the works!
It's time to take stock, and come up with another plan!
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 10:19 am |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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*cough* I know. I know. I've not done anything on this, having torn a mediate ligament and the weather not being very good over the last few months.
I think I'll try and rectify that at the weekend! (Despite the ligament still not being 100%).
I ended up cutting the flexi-hose pipes, figuring I can just the ones on the replacement axle, (assuming I can get them off without the same hassle!) and so the axle was finally removed. Of course, it's been months now, so god knows what state either car is in!
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 10:07 am |
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Joined: Jun 20, 2012
Posts: 1171
Trade Rating: +1
Location: West Country
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Looking at this weather, all your ligaments will heal whilst lying down in the sun under the car!  Make sure you stick out the sore part for the rays 
Good luck with the resurrection!! If you need a hand, I'm just down the road 
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:31 am |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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Project Day 5 - Almost 7 months later!
So almost 7 months after the last update, a few more hospital trips for Mrs VorTechS and myself tearing a mediate ligament during the F.A. People's Cup, the weather has turned good again and my knee is just about good enough to survive doing some work on the car.
The first task, tackling those pesky flexi-pipes. No-one actually really gave me a proper answer, except Timon who alluded they 'should just pull away'.
In fact for anyone in the same boat as me, who has never touched the flexi-hose before, the end of the pipe is grooved (very much like a cog) and 'inserted' into what is a female bracket. I tried to capture a shot to best illustrate this, so hopefully this will help people in the future.
A quick spray (for good measure) with penetration spray and a couple of taps with a hammer and the pipe came away nice and easily. The bracket into which the pipe is inserted is not very strong, so try to be a little careful about how you go about knocking the pipe out as it's all too easy to bend the bracket!
So. How far did I get on Day 5? Well, let's play a game of spot the difference here:
If you've not worked it out, yes the axle has successfully been moved from one car to the other! The hardest job was getting the replacement axle up to the bolt holes and in-line with just one trolley jack and a piece of board that kept falling off on every jack-up. Putting everything else back together, was relatively straight forward, although I do need to get some exhaust paste to refit the exhaust properly and am waiting for Pug to get some of the replacement bits above to me.
Day 6
Now as you can imaging, sitting around for 7 months not doing anything I wasn't expecting the car to fire up. The battery was dead. So I'd already gone out and bought a charger and now was the time to attach it to the battery (having removed it first of course!). However, the 9 month-old battery appears to be 'fully charged'. So I removed the (smaller) battery from the donor car and attached that. Same story. Eventually though the smaller battery did charge and 24 hours later, it was time to fire her up for the first time in a long time!
However, I wasn't quite prepared for this:
...perhaps a sign of removing the white door lining, mixed with temperature changes and general bacteria?
Even so. Key in and she turns over first time. She's still alive!
So Day 7 tasks are:
- Re-fill brake fluid (DOT 4 already purchased and ready to go)
- Deep clean that steering wheel
- Fitting of secret surprise purchase
Day 8, I'll be looking to do an oil change.
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 6:02 pm |
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Joined: Jun 20, 2012
Posts: 1171
Trade Rating: +1
Location: West Country
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Nice progress! How did/will you go about routing the brake hoses, as your donor axle has ABS, and the old one only had a distribution box?
After keeping me pugs in enclosed-ish places, couldn't know better about the damn mould! Main ingredients just like for any growth -- water and soil
You should check your seat belts, they won't look too inviting either
Cars have internal flap/vents at the back (you can still see them on C pillars of older ones), in order not to pop your ears and windscreen when you slam the doors.
I was hoping they'd be enough to keep the interior dry (with blower holes left open), but if your car isn't parked on a breezy place, equip yourself with a bottle of vinegar..
Same applies to cars kept in dry storage -- sometimes a roof above head is just not good enough to prevent moisture build-up (sometimes 4 walls even make it worse). Sucks even more when one can't leave windows open (due to dust and/or rain getting in)
But again I might be venting too much by now
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 7:55 pm |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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| Sim wrote: |
Nice progress! How did/will you go about routing the brake hoses, as your donor axle has ABS, and the old one only had a distribution box?
After keeping me pugs in enclosed-ish places, couldn't know better about the damn mould! Main ingredients just like for any growth -- water and soil
You should check your seat belts, they won't look too inviting either
Cars have internal flap/vents at the back (you can still see them on C pillars of older ones), in order not to pop your ears and windscreen when you slam the doors.
I was hoping they'd be enough to keep the interior dry (with blower holes left open), but if your car isn't parked on a breezy place, equip yourself with a bottle of vinegar..
Same applies to cars kept in dry storage -- sometimes a roof above head is just not good enough to prevent moisture build-up (sometimes 4 walls even make it worse). Sucks even more when one can't leave windows open (due to dust and/or rain getting in)
But again I might be venting too much by now |
The hoses didn't need re-routing, straight swap. The shell has clips for the ABS lines, but I do need to secure the plugs. No doubt a job for the trusty cable tie.
I'll check the seat belt, but I think it was fine. Even the sun visor was okay, so it's obviously just moisture. Feel free to pop in Sim if you're around, be good to catch up!
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 8:41 pm |
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Joined: Jun 20, 2012
Posts: 1171
Trade Rating: +1
Location: West Country
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We just fitted that secret surprise purchase, it looks like it's worth every penny and more 
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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:35 am |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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Day 7
Day 7 was, according to Mrs VorTechS, meant to be a straight forward day of just patching up some joints on the exhaust system and doing the brake fluid.
The exhaust proved to be something of a pain. Firstly a quick trip to Halfords for some Holts Gun Gum Putty to patch up the joints between the CAT and the stainless system, thinking firing up the car would dry the joint and perform a seal. Bad move. All that happened is that moisture built up around the joint and eventually blew the sodden gum out. Then, I decided perhaps I could dry the joint (with some towels) re-apply the gum and use a hair dryer to dry the joint. For good measure, another quick trip to Halford to buy an exhaust repair bandage, which we applied. Surely that would create a nice tight seal? Putting the exhaust clamp on proved impossible. Just adding a couple of millimeters somehow meant the clamp bolts couldn't sit on their threads properly, and so we had to go to Halfords a 3rd time (60 miles each trip) for a replacement clamp. Luckily we had to do this journey to drop my girls off at their mums. Once back though, and clamped surely this should be an air-tight seal now? Nope! It's a lot better, but moisture is still building up and exiting from somewhere under all that lot! It's not blowing now though, so it'll do until it's time to revisit it.
Several hours later than intended and with all that done, time for the braking system. I'll try and produce and get some pictures up of how we did this, next time we need to do something with the brakes (which may be soon, depending on how things perform under proper testing).
I'd been told about using the 'gravity' method which involved little in the way of pumping, but also discovered the 'Gunson' method, which uses a sealed bottled and spare tyre air to flush the system. We opted for the latter and in one of the previous trips spotted and bought the appropriate kit (£20 RRP from your local Halfords)
Following the trusty Haynes manual instructions we started with the Front nearside, then Front offside, then Rear nearside and finally Rear offside.
The process is fairly simple, although not what I would call 'foolproof'; fill the supplied bottle with fluid and attach to the brake fluid reservoir. (We started with a mostly empty reservoir, but considered filling it before we started, and in hindsight next time we would part-fill it before doing the exercise). Attach the 'pump clip' end to a spare tyre that is inflated to a maximum of 20 PSI. Attach the supplied mini-hose to the bleed nippled and open it to allow air/fluid to be pushed out into a suitable container.
Pay attention to the colour of the fluid in your bottle, as old fluid is going to come out first and will be a darker colour. Once all of the air is expelled and new fluid pours through, re-tighten the nipple and move on to the next one. There are likely to be little bubbles in the fluid coming out of the nipple, so don't count this as 'air'. We found that the process didn't always push new fluid from the supplied bottle, so we had to turn it upside down to ensure the process started properly.
Also we hit an unexpected snag when doing the front offside. I managed to get my 'lefty loosy' and 'righty tighty' the wrong way round in a brain fart moment and snapped the bleed nipple off the caliper! Luckily, I'd had the foresight to buy a donor vehicle that was the same year / engine type, and so I had a spare. I had to 'quickly' learn how to undo, remove and replace a caliper. Which is a surprisingly a lot easier than you might think. We used the broken caliper as the learning exercise before releasing the donor caliper.
And that was that. Time to shut the bonnet, and she's ready to go back on the road. Except, the old girl had one last parting shot for us.
The bonnet catch, or more precisely the welded panel on the underside of the bonnet, has completely rusted through and separated from the topside! The bonnet will now no longer close!
A very, very frustrating day indeed. But one where a lot seems to have been done, and a lot has been learnt. So now, we need a new plan to get the old girl back on the road!
I put the old alloys back on, and got her moved up the drive to test both the brake and handbrakes. And all seem okay.
Despite this last set-back, I spent the rest of the afternoon (5pm by this time, from a 10am start) giving her a quick foam, wash and dry. So she was, at the end of day 7, sat like this:
In the meantime, we decided to treat her to some new 'shoes', and while we're at it, might as well get some new 'socks' too - seeing as it's my one biggest complaint when tidying her up. They arrived next day:
Sim by this point had got in touch, and so I thought I'd wait for him to fit them - as I know he likes little touches like this, and the extra pair of hands to give Mrs VorTechS a break would be useful.
Day 8 was planned!
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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:48 am |
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Joined: Feb 08, 2010
Posts: 2369
Trade Rating: +15
Location: Gloucestershire, UK
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Day 8
Day 8 wasn't really a 'day' it was a couple of hours catching up with Sim and then the fitting of the new alloys. By the time Sim had finished at the unit and shown up, the weather had turned and dumped a load of rain. By the time we'd caught up and there was a decent break in the rain, there was no light to take any 'as we were doing it' pictures.
Anyway, after neglecting the old girl for so long, I figured she deserved these... and Mrs VorTechS thinks its going to stop me complaining about how she looks. (The car, not Mrs VorTechS - just so we're clear!)
Now, while we await some details about potential welding work (no pressure Sim!) here's how she's looking:
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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 12:31 pm |
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Joined: Jun 20, 2012
Posts: 1171
Trade Rating: +1
Location: West Country
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Mate, why did you put up that photoshopped photo of your car raised? Here's the actual one:
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