Sunday, March 24, 2013

More fettling


Finished the paint job by whipping off the bonnet and blasting the underside with rattle-can Hammerite, and I have to say the engine department looks pretty damn good.  Then Richard discovered a bijou problemette during a routine foray under the chassis.  The brackets which hold the sway-bar bushes onto the chassis should have two bolts each side.  Actually they each had one bolt, a broken bolt and a half-hearted bit of tack-weld which had (predictably) failed.
Both broken bolts were duly drilled, heated and shown the extractor.  One surrendered easily, but the other wasn’t co-operating so we ended up drilling it out completely and putting in a helicoil.  So that’s all sorted.  (Maybe this was part of the reason why I was bouncing around like a pea on a drum during the last UAQ event.)
The plates which protect the bonnet from the bonnet pins were pretty well mangled, they appeared to be made out of chrome-plated tissue paper which is probably OK on a normal car.  So Richard made up some new ones from 1mm galv, and backing plates of the same with rivnuts inserted.  The result looks a great deal more business-like, plus we have shiny new bonnet pins which slide in easily.
Still on the ‘to-do’ list is the battery bracket, which is not convincingly anchored to the body, and the on-going hub-stud issue.  Looks like two of the studs have stripped their threads, so we need to dismantle the hubs and helicoil the offending holes.  Finally the car has to go to Bin Sulayem Garage for its annual test, then we’re going to treat it to some new Castrol 10/60 and a change of gearbox and back axle oils.  Oh, and a new battery and tyres!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Spannering and Painting

Richard has already volunteered to come over on Monday evening, so we had a bit of a session on the Beast.  Stripped out everything hanging on the right wing, installed some rivnuts so that we didn't need to fish around inside the wing for nuts ever again, and Richard came up with some improvements to the mountings for the fuse and relay boxes.  So now they are held on by something more substantial than tiewraps and goodwill.

Part of the reason for this was to slap some white Hammerite onto the wing, to cover up the grey primer and rust.  It's not exactly up to Sistine Chapel standard, but a couple of coats of Hammerite does cover a multitude of sins. 

That happened on Tueday and tonight (Wed) it's back together.  Now I've given the other wing the Good News by unbolting everything removeable and blasting it with the pressure washer.  Just needs a quick going over with a wire brush, and that'll be ready for paint at the weekend - along with the front bulkhead, which is currently two-tone blue and white.

Got the race licences today as well, and put in the entry forms for DC and Qatar.  Still a load of odd jobs on the 'to-do' list, but we're getting there.

UAQ Again 8th March

More of the same I'm afraid.  Sheikh of UAQ turned up by helicopter at 1.45pm, so then we could sit down to lunch and the event kicked off at 3.00pm.  Seems there are more competitors each time we race, so each lap takes longer. 

This time the 4x4s went first onto a track now further extended to some 16+km, and I screwed up.  Got a bit airborne on the early bumpy bits, came down on one wheel and popped a tyre off the bead.  Which wouldn't have been so bad, had I not (as usual) dumped the spare wheel, jack and rattle gun back at service.  Fortunately Streaky came to the rescue, after some (ahem!) words with the marshals who weren't too happy about it.  I don't know what my lap time was, but noticed that the finish marshal had abandoned his stopwatch and picked up a calendar.

The second run was better, even though I was encumbered by a spare wheel, jack and rattle gun (20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing).   I managed to catch up the Rangie who started 2 mins ahead of me, but the local lady driverette was kind enough to let me past when she could, bless her, so I didn't lose too much time.  The final lap was done by braille, with headlights on as night fell, again not too shabby (I think). 

But it's the cumulative time which counts, so no silverware for me.  I hung around in the hope that they might be able to calculate the results, but clearly their abacus was on the fritz.  By 8.30 I was bored, hungry and cold, so I gave it the elbow and headed back home.

Anyway, nothing important fell off or broke, so that's a Good Thing, reliability-wise.







Tuesday, March 5, 2013

DNF at UAQ


Sorry about the delay, people.  Work, eh?  It just gets in the way sometimes.
Well, the event on 22nd Feb was the first event in the UAQ Solo Race Championship.  Run over a new 13km course, it was scheduled to start at 1.00pm.  1.00pm came and went, and I had my picnic lunch.  Then, at 2.00pm and without any prior warning, the Motorplex wheeled out a huge feast.  There was enough food crammed into that tent to feed the entire population of Umm Al Quwain for a week, and most of it went untouched.  Nice gesture, but we actually wanted to get some racing in before it got dark.
Finally it kicked off close to 3.00pm, with the bikes and quads doing three laps back-to-back.  Then the Barracudas and 4x4s went out to do three single timed laps.  I got through to almost the end of the first lap and felt that it was relatively tidy, but the clutch pedal seemed to be sticking a bit.  I reached a fast stretch in 3rd gear, leading into a hairpin left.  I turned in, dropped it into second, let out the clutch – and nothing happened.  By the time clutch pedal came back up, I’d overshot the corner.  Tried to correct it, but the exit was through a gap in a berm and I was too far out of line to make it, and ended up hung up on the berm.  Eventually I was towed off, and finished the lap in 20+ minutes – unimpressive. 
Richard tried bleeding the clutch, but the hydraulics weren’t holding any pressure.  Started the 2nd lap on the starter motor in 1st gear, and if I could only have got it to shift up to 2nd gear I’d have been good to go.  But I couldn’t, so it was a DNF.  Bugger.
Dave Mabbs ended up winning in the FJ and taking home Dh 2,500.00.  Nice one!
Both clutch cylinders have been re-sealed now – the master cylinder lives next to the exhaust so it has a pretty hard life.  So we’re up for another go-round at UAQ on Friday, although having DNF’d the first round, the championship is probably out of reach now.  Anyway, we’ll give it our best shot.