Friday 21 January 2011

Welding the rear bumper of a P5b

The rear bumper on my P5B was pretty grim,I had a badly rusted and damaged spare and I thought I'd see if it was possible to get it to a state that it could be powder coated or even sprayed to act as a spare.The rust on the ends of the bumpers had gone through,it seems to have started from behind the fittings for the bumper bolts.

Cutting the hole square after a bit of poking with a screwdriver I cut a plate to fit flush into the holes and MIG welded it in place.

After grinding and filing it down,it looked alot better but there are a few pin holes in the welds and around the edges.I might try filling these with braze.


Friday 14 January 2011

Recession what recession?.

Christmas has been and gone and by gawd trade is slow.It seems like there's no money about (there was much of it in Lowestoft.The internet is quiet,ebay and ebid are both slow and I keep getting firms ringing up out of the blue offering me this that and the other,cheap.
I don't see much chance of any huge improvement any time soon.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

Snow and Ice gone,fire up the tranny.

After standing for a couple of months under snow and ice the old ford transit motorhome was entitled to feel a bit neglected.
I put the battery on charge for a few hours,primed the pump and turned the key.After a couple of spins it started.I love the old V4's they either go or they don't,none of that electronic stuff,if they go wrong you can usually fix them by the side of the road.It cut out  a bit later as a connection to the ballast resistor fell off as it has almost corroded through.With that sorted the old van took a trip to Yarmouth and back again.
I bought an old scrap V4 engine some time ago as a spare.It had been in a shed for some years and has seized.I'm going to drag it out and see if it can be got working again.