All work no play

Not so much to report really, been a bit pre-occupied with estate agents, work and other such stuff. Still the postman arrived with 4 new tyres for the Austin all the way from Germany, dumped them in the back of TFW and i drove them up to the workshop. Took all 4 wheels off the Austin and left it stranded in mid air on axle stands but I think delivering them to the tyre fitter might have to wait a little while until i have the time and the cash, shame cos i can't wait to get on the road again.

TFW has been performing faultlessly since being put into service as a removal vehicle, a tighten of the alternator belt to stop it screeching is the only bit of maintenance in the past month.

Plenty of tread left on the old tyres but they are as hard as rock and starting to crack. I've had the car for almost 4 years so these tyres have probably been on there for about 10 - time for a change - the new tyres are closer to the correct size anyway, slightly taller sidewalls and bit narrower as you can see - may help my weedy arms a bit by making the non power assisted steering a touch lighter - only one way to find out.

Finally get rid of the cheeeeezy white walls too.

Automobile abuse + new shoooz

TFW is back in action - it has a super cavernous boot and is a great car for lugging stuff around so it has been pressed into hard labour transporting the first few loads of boxes we have packed getting ready for moving in april.
Having recently expanded my workshop space i'm now using part of it for storage during the move - a whole load cheaper than renting a room in one of these city self storage places.

I am also in the process of building a new workbench in my newly aquired space and for this TFW is fantastic - need a 3m length of 3" x 2" no probs - just dump it on the roof and tie it to the rails and off we go.



Haven't had time to touch the austin the last few weeks but i did get around to ordering it a new set of tyres. Pretty difficult getting hold of an long obsolete size. 185 x R14 is OK if you own a van but those tyres are no good for a car - all low profile stuff these days so what to do - the good old internet of course. Ordered these (just the tyres not the wheels) from dekkonline.com should be here within a week or so. I can then throw the wheels with old tyres and the new tyres in TFW and trundle on down to a near by tyre fitter for them to put them on.... well thats the plan anyhow.
Have to see if the postman has room for 4 tyres in his bag all the way from Germany.

Eezi peasy

After what seems like an eternity i have finally got the clutch slave cylinder back together in one piece and on the car. An ebay purchase turned out to contain the wrong parts, no, not my fault, so a quick word with the seller and he quickly sent off the right bit.
An OK pretty straight forward rebuild and reinstall and everything was back together.
The clutch biting point now seems to have gone from right at the top of the pedal travel to almost right at the bottom so i expect it to be much better when changing from 1st to 2nd gear, can't wait for the spring weather to come so i can test it out on the road.

Spot the difference, anyone tell me which the old bits are and which new bits are? I could quite believe that this car hasn't had much done to it since new in 1964 judging by the state of this.




Ahh.... eezi bleed, a super invention for billy no mates like me, this has been in my possession for a good number of years but this is the first time i've actually used it. Single handed hydraulic bleeding, this is the thing.

Design masterpiece

No movement for TFW due to many reasons so work continues on the Austin,.... now, I was poking around the engine bay like i do and noticed that the fuel line is routed, quite astonishingly along the chassis member and around the front under the radiator. Now this strikes me as one of the dumbest places you could possibly think to put a thin walled pipe feeding petrol to the engine especially when being pumped by an electric fuel pump mounted in the boot. So picture the scene, in an accident the front end gets smashed up, the fuel line ruptures but the electrics are OK so the pump keeps pumping fuel out ....hmmm nice.
Luckily technology has advanced somewhat in the last 40 years and modern cars use an inertia switch so in the event of a crash the sudden impact trips the switch and cuts the power to the pump. A quick search on ebay turned up one for 8 quid, new ones are about 30.
A scratch round my parts bin at the work shop threw up some brackets and a few drill holes later and everything was put together ready for mounting. Just so happens there was a handy place just above the fuel pump and bit of electrickery wiring later the job was done. Money and well spent me thinks....you just never know.







The workshop is a fantastic place but my allocated spot didn't really leave any room for a workbench, so when a guy just by the side of me said he no longer needed his space i did the calculations a decided the extra pennies (kroner) every month would be within my meager means. So i've expanded and this is now part of my domain, it's going to be great not having to work crouched down over a rug on the workshop floor.

This months non-mover

THW hasn't budged an inch since i left it in the car park at work before Christmas... Not needed to use it, not had the time, an added bonus is that it annoys one of the bosses at work that this huge great hunk of metal stands there taking up a space, which amuses me a LOT besides the roads in Oslo are super salty in the winter. I need to do some serious rustproofing before i expose its soft underbelly to that kind of thing. Granted it's lasted 25 years so far but it's at that point where any more abuse and it'll rust away before my very eyes.
Might coax it into life this week sometime, got a few errands to run.

Still, car work hasn't completely stopped....I have the Austin afterall.
Took the clutch hydraulics apart late last year as the last few times i drove it 2 gear was becoming a bit difficult to engage. As i had expected, judging by the grungy fluid i could see in the master cylinder, it needed a good sort out. Hydraulic fluid is hygroscopic so needs flushing out every couple of years or so, don't think this had been touched for a very long time...result, one very bunged up rusty master cylinder and even more rusty slave cylinder. Me thinks it's been functioning on a something like a 70/30 water clutch fluid mix, not good for the insides of the cylinder, they tend to rust. Not sure i can even save the slave cylinder, i'll give it a try though just waiting on the parts to arrive from my trusty middleman in the UK.

Master cylinder pieces, i could quite believe that this hasn't been touched for many many years.





In pieces, i can spend hour after hour taking things apart, more fun than actually driving the car sometimes.



Cleaned up and put back together using new insides, the walls of the cylinder were very lightly pitted in places but it should be OK, it all seemed to rub out with a bit of emery paper.



Another item on my list of things to do is sell these utterly horrid alloy wheels that came with the car. Cars in Norway generally come with 2 sets of wheels one with winter tyres and one with summer tyres. These are obviously the summer ones and I really don't like them, won't suit the car at all, just need to source some original Mercedes alloys, i got 2 in the pile of treasure i bought not long ago just need 2 more, turn up on finn.no all the time just need some in the Oslo area.

TCW

No super big progress with TFW this week although it has been pressed into service much more than i was expecting. My employers in their wisdom have packed me off to work at Ericsson in Asker the last couple of weeks so TFW has become, on the days when i can't take the train, the commuter wagon and performed flawlessly, well apart from one strange episode turning right when the rear door decided to swing open all by itself, a trip to the workshop soon sorted the sticking door handle and back seat passengers can now feel safe in the knowledge that they won't slide out the car at every turn...pheeew.
All the commuting has finally persuaded me that TFW is actually ready for some fat so all being well i will embark on the next stage and squirt some B100 biodiesel into the tank. Now you would think that this being Scandinavia and all that biodiesel would be pretty easy to get hold of, well just shows how wrong you can be. It may look like there are lots of stations but zoom in on Oslo and you will find 4 - two of which only sell to businesses and one being so far out of my way that it ain't an option. So one station to chooses from then......great.
Still not a simple as you think tho. as biodiesel has a tendency to eat through old rubber fuel lines and block the diesel filters with crap so i'll have to keep a close eye on that. Probably mix with some regular diesel at the start just to see how it goes....watch this space.


The offending door complete with what i like to call 'elephant skin' trim around the window, 25 years of sun and sub zero temps has done it no good, it would probably look nicer if i just pulled it off and had the paint showing... waddaya think?

Road trip

With a trip to Kristiansand looming for TFW i really needed to get the drive belts in the engine bay replaced, i spotted they were, shall we say, past their best on my check of the car just after i bought it. With one thing or another, mainly time and money being in short supply, i didn't get round to attempting this until a couple of days before the trip, needless to say i ran into problems. The main culprit being rusted bolts. So i had to admit defeat, douse the offending nut and bolt in WD40, and risk the journey as they were (about 650km round trip).
This was the first real test of TFW in my ownership and it didn't disappoint or let me down.
For a 25 year old it still drives well, a few niggles with the change on the autobox but nothing serious, it gobbled up the km's without a worry.

So this week it was back to the workshop to change its belts.
There are four belts in total, a tandem setup for the water pump and alternator, one for the power steering pump and one for the air condition pump. See the cracks in the belts - not good.


The killer is that to be able to remove the belts driving the alternator and water pump you have to first remove the powersteering and AC belts, may as well change them all eh.
From bottom to top - power steering, air condition and twin belts for alternator and water pump.



A week soaking in WD40 had done the trick and with the airfilter housing removed for easier access the belts came off no problem.
They were a long way past their prime.



Only three new belts were put on as i couldn't get hold of a belt for the air condition pump so to save time and frustration loosening the pump bolts i just cut the belt off, don't really think i'm going to be needing air condition in winter in Oslo so i'll sort this out later.