The Fake Jaguar Thread

[Ulu]

Still no work is getting done on the car.

I spent 18 hours with sandpaper and wire brushes cleaning up my sliding door and frame.

I got into the paint about three cans before I ran out, and by the time I got to the shop for more it was too windy to finish painting. It looks like it will take a couple more days to get this back up.

I keep looking at this bicycle frame and parts hanging in my shed thinking, “Gee, I’d like to do this or that with it.”

Then I remember that I’m not going to touch another bicycle until this car is running. I’ve been so busy I only went riding once last week, & only for about 4 miles. I need to make more time for the bicycle because my left knee is complaining.

 

[Ulu]

Nothing easy is worthwhile.

I ended up putting that door up and taking it down and putting it back up again because I discovered there was a bend in the bottom rail.

To make it work initially I just bent the bottom track lip, But to fix it correctly the door just had to come down. The door track was beat up, and in my ignorance I straightened it up and improved the welding. The straightened track was incompatible with the bent door.

Anyhow, now everything is fixed and it works quite well, and I am much happier than I was two days ago. In the meantime I have been goofing off and spending time to irrigate my trees and clean up after my fish. I have about 420 gallons of water circulating 24/7/365. It is in seven vessels. 4 are just sumps for filtration, but they total 90 gals, and they all need maintenance from time to time.

Crazy outdoor reflection shot of my garden against the big outdoor aquarium.

 

[Ulu]

There’s Blue Leeloo, peeking out of his cave.

 

[Ulu]

Thursday I decided that my sliding doors needed some more adjustment and in the process of that I smacked my fingers pretty hard in the door.

Anyhow my right hand is banged up and I’m not gonna be doing any serious work for a while.

Also, it is traditional for the weather to be very hot here over the Fourth of July holiday & this year will be no exception to that rule.

 

[Kevin B]

Ouch!!

 

[Son of Kradus]

WhooooaaaaaH thats a beauty, and it looks to be your right hand. Holy schmacko's @ 44c.... thats hotter than aussie! whats the humidity there like! in brisbane we are sub tropical and if gets to 40c with 95% humidity its absolutely unbearable! drops to about 27c at night, real sticky uncomfortable sleeps!

 

[Ulu]

Humidity here is very low, but it depends on who is irrigating. Without irrigation it’s normally not much wetter than the Mojave desert.

 

[JA331]

Hoping your hand heals well. I admire your commitment and craftsmanship. I’ve restored a number of cars in my time and know what it takes to keep at it. Well done.

 

[Ulu]

Hoping your hand heals well. I admire your commitment and craftsmanship. I’ve restored a number of cars in my time and know what it takes to keep at it. Well done.

Thank you. I do what I can manage to do by myself for the most part. I try not to farm out anything.

While I have never “restored” anything, I have done lots of repairs and customizing.

But I’ve customized my finger too much to get any work out of it in the near future. I’ve been soaking it frequently to soften everything up so the nail will fall off.

Hopefully this happens before I get gangrene.

Thankfully, the other finger took much less damage and is back to normal.

 

[Ulu]

It’s been over 10 days since I smacked my fingers, and they have healed up well enough to continue working on the car.

Basically I have been grinding, scraping, and wire brushing dirty/rusty/greasy, corners and also grinding out ugly welds in preparation to repair them.

I decided to keep this pedal stop and I re-shaped it with the grinder. Then I went through and gouged out all the nasty welds in preparation to repairing the pits and missed penetrations.

I decided not to replace this patch with another patch because I could inlay a new patch and make it look good, but it’s still gonna be under the carpet. If you lift the carpet it’s gonna look like a patch. Pfft.

For two days I’ve been working to clean up these universal joints.

They were pretty well caked up with gunk and rust and layers of black paint.

Fortunately they are still greasy inside and they are still quite serviceable.

For $100 apiece I could’ve replaced those axles and all four CV joints with new boots and saved myself a lot of cleaning.

But these are the original German parts and I would be getting either Brazilian or Chinese reproductions. The German parts are nearly always made better.

 

[Ulu]

I finally cashed in my father’s day gift certificate. My kids know I like tools.

New gloves and wire brushes, scrapers and clamps, and a big copper ground clamp.

I got tired of the suspension cleaning and went back to weld prepping.

I managed to get the remains of the abandoned control tubes out of the tunnel. They were welded down on the butchered ends so they wouldn’t flop about.

There was lots of crappy welding with Near-zero fusion. It was awkward to access, but it slowly succumbed to grinding and chiseling.

Now I can really get inside the tunnel and do some structural repairs.

 

[Ulu]

Well I twisted my knee. It is all swollen and it looks like I am out of action for a while.

I am lying here with an ice pack, and I’m afraid it’s gonna be a week before I feel like walking around much. I can hobble around with a cane but that’s not going to get me far.

It will definitely keep me off the bicycle for the foreseeable future.

 

[Ulu]

A week later, the knee is almost normal, and I have been working on the projects again for 3 days. I have also been working on the aquariums a lot, but I have not ridden the bicycle.

Mostly I have been cleaning the rear suspension and frame, and there is still days of cleaning before it can be painted.

Meanwhile, my vintage Marvin the Martian shirt has finally turned into a grease rag.

 

[Ulu]

It has been 12 days since I tweaked my knee. It finally seems normal-ish in size and function, but it is not. I did get around the supermarket and the pet store today, but I can’t walk long distances without some pain and swelling.

Yet, If I just loaf around, it won’t get enough circulation to heal: so careful exercise is essential. I have not tried to ride the bike again, but I will later today (It is but 00:45 hours here…) I should make it at least 2 miles today. That doesn’t sound like much, but last time I only rode one mile, using mostly one leg, and I was aching for it to end.

I have worked on the Fake Jaguar every day, 5 or 6 hours. Mostly I am in a chair, or on the floor, scraping and wire-brushing with the power tools. I also spent time cleaning and painting lug bolts and little brackets.

These pics were taken 2 days ago. I have since disassembled all the tube braces for access, and things are looking much cleaner now.

 

[Kevin B]

The hole in the rear of the chassis tunnel looks like it needs open for access. Are you going to make a removable cover with a grommet for what looks ( in the photo) like wires to.pass through?

 

[Son of Kradus]

all the injuries mate, you better give up this fighting in public bars caper!
I can just imagine you having to get everything you need close by then sit down and manouvre into position and start working on the car! LOL everything within reach so you dont have to move ha ha ha , I know coz its happened to me!

 

[Ulu]

The hole in the rear of the chassis tunnel looks like it needs open for access. Are you going to make a removable cover with a grommet for what looks ( in the photo) like wires to.pass through?

Those “wires” coming from big the hole are just a piece of rope I’m using to keep the hydraulic lines out of my way. I have the stock Volkswagen cover plate for that hole, which is normally under a rubber mat below the rear seat.

The big opening allows access to the shifter rod connection at the transmission.

 

[Ulu]

all the injuries mate, you better give up this fighting in public bars caper!
I can just imagine you having to get everything you need close by then sit down and manouvre into position and start working on the car! LOL everything within reach so you dont have to move ha ha ha , I know coz its happened to me!

It’s a big PITA because so many angles of attack are required. I did all the easiest things first. I did a lot of this standing up (bent over) or sitting on the chassis.

My small tools are set about on 4 of these buckets, so easy to reach.

But I do have to get up now and then. I have two battery powered drill motors and four batteries, but I can blow through the charge pretty quickly. A lot of the heaviest rust was attacked with a 5 inch angle grinder with a 4-1/2 inch knot brush. (It’s only about 3 inches now though.)

But some spots have to be scraped by hand. I have a variety of long scrapers and chisels. I even went around with the hammer and chisel and knocked off the 50 year old German factory dingleberries from the MIG.

There’s not really enough sunlight for new photographs yet, but since I’m awake here they are.

 

[Son of Kradus]

Jeeeeeez mate theres a ton of work that happened here, youre doing great!

 

[Ulu]

I’m struggling on, that’s for sure. Anyhow I had to go to the dentist and do other business today so this photograph is from yesterday’s work.

Mostly I cleaned up the transmission case and parts of the suspension arms you can’t see his photo.