skoda_cat

If I don’t take the cover off it I can believe it’s finished. :p Seriously it will get started and run several times over winter and I’ll keep the battery topped up. I should fix up the headlight adjusters really, but it’s pretty locked up for winter now. Sorry. More to come in spring, or if there are crisp days in which I get over excited.

It's a bit weird to think that the roads we drive on are made of oil, all the dashboards and steering wheels are made of oil, the tyres are made of oil, the fuel is oil, there's oil in the oil hole and the grease in the bearings is made of oil. Then we spray paints all over the thing which is made out of oil and then underseal everything with oil. It's a miracle the whole LOT doesn't catch fire tbh.

I'm just sulking for a bit, I will get back to it. Weather's also traaaasshhhhh so there's not much to do.

Sage advice, I'm glad this sticker survived, because it sure is tempting. I think I'm going to end up dropping this to weld more and more and more and more trash, Like for example this joy I found whilst taking that photo: It's that joy where the underseal becomes more of a blight than a help, it's held water in against the steel. That repair is going to be right by the fuel lines \0/ This is going to be my forever project, like welding the fourth bridge or whatever.

I thought it best not to hang the back box on whatever joints are up the front end of the thing so I tried to get a jack stand under but it was too big, but lol this bit was the right length. Witness the crimes committed with wire and snapped rubber: This is NOT a place of honour: I had to tickle the mount with an angle grinder to get a generic rubber on, but on it is and if it tries to escape it can have a washer welded on the end to capture it FOR EVER... or maybe some allthread welded on and a nice nyloc nut or something i don't know. it's not escaped yet so i don't need to plan. At least the half rotten system now sits neatly into the bumper relief dingle and it's one more stupid job ticked off the list of infinite tasks.

yeh, turns out I don't have to cut back too far to get good metal, but the geometry is now killing me. Happily as it's a project it can sit and moulder for another few months, I have no NEED to drive it for any reason. I just WANT to. I yanked out the spare wheel which was a giggle because I don't have the 'security key' to undo the bolt, I stuck some grips on it and was BRIEFLY impressed with the anti theft slip ring on the bolt, but then watched as I could slide it off and then just unwind the now slipless bolt out. I might not bother running a spare, maybe just keep some tyre glue around, or rely on breakdown, but maybe I will. I can't imaging the market for stolen steel wheels in this PCD is very good so I don't think theft is a strong consideration anyway. I'll see if I can get the bracket sandblasted. it's solid but pretty grotty and the grommets that it goes into the frame with are smoked. I also found the exhaust rubber at the back is half snapped and the exhaust is wired up. ffs.

This holiday is basically over, truck work wise. I'm back to the labour mines on Monday so 'progress' (LOL) will slow again, but I might be able to afford more welding gas :/ Tiny victories: FIXED! CL servo for the driver's door installed. found the tab on the lock mech for the CL and got a wire in it, that then popped out later. Look, the window doesn't hit it :D I need to check the DRO on the mill is accurate and make a bell crank to go around the corner. Hey look the spare is a YOKO! And it's on the wear stops :( I need to drop that and give the bracket some care!

Yeh, just feels like the one thing that’s in reach of being fixed right now. As well as being something I’d better not forget to fix. Losing this thing in a fireball would feel pretty sucky ;p

ok, I did some stuff... I pointed a needle scaler at various bits and lopped the back off the sill. There's so much more going on in here than at the previous spot we did. counting from the right in the next photo; the third bit of metal needs repaired, whereas the second bit is actually fine. The left hand bit is box section, I guess, but it's not giving me access to the third bit I need to patch. I can either cut out good metal to get access and stitch it back in, or repair the box section by doing it as two Ls that join underneath. i can't really weld at the innermost side either because the suspension is in the way... it COULD be dropped, but urgh. Either that or plate over the lot and lap weld and cry and pretend it's NOT a jacking point :D Anyway I'm thinking about it. In other terrifying news this is the fuel filler neck going into the tank: A 2.5inch clampy thingy will have to be sourced, the one I found on a shelf is too big.

You go through all kinds of emotion, right? Like now i want to push this thing into the nearest canal and never speak of it again. I went and scraped some more underseal off it. It's clearly had rust patched.... with nothing but underseal... in its history. There are SO many intersecting parts, or rather 'no longer intersecting' parts, and as yet I'm too scared to just start lopping bits off because I might not remember where they need to go back on. There's no joy to be found from underneath either: This car is clearly a write off, but we're not going to do that are we, we're going to FIX it. But not today, not today. I went round the other side to take a couple of photos of the 'good' corner on the other side, got suspicious and shoved a screwdriver through it so that's another bit of screwed up sill to go on the list. It's getting further away. Motivation is gone, but it will come back.

Oops the weeks just fly by. I took a couple of days to let my aching muscles recover from that sill and flipping heck, a WEEK's escaped. I did mostly build a box for my home-brew tube amp and wrap it in vinyl though so I've hardly been slacking. Today whilst it rained I've tided up some of the garage so it makes me less inclined to cry and when the skies cleared I started un-peeling the onion at the rear of the truck to find out how it's put together. I'm going to make a buck to form that wheel arch plate later but it seems to make sense in there. Lots to do, sigh. It started raining again though, so I'm indoors having a cup of tea :P

you're totally right in that it's less consequential, the problem is that i could stand pretty comfortably to weld the windscreen, this lying down with weld going down your sleeves is some kind of hell :) I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Well, it’s facing the other way round and I bought a work light. The tyres are soft in fairness but no power steering is horrible. The brakes are dragging I think, but it doesn’t drive “well” yet at all in loads of ways. The rear quarter is now jacked up and I’ve started trying to work out how to build a new corner for the sill end. It’s the wheel arch, floor, and sill all in combo. I think I can probably build a copy of it off the car though and then weld that in from the back, side, and underneath. Here's the view from underneath, it's all a bit 'soft' but was strong enough to jack the truck with. I'm not looking forward to fixing it, but it's got to be tractable.

As a warm up today I fixed up the tail gate Die grinding those shapes out freehand is haaaaardd. I really need to buy a work light, this is somewhat of a joke but it's the best I've been able to figure out to see where to aim in my welding hat The colours are actually the camera having 'fun' the light does look white to humans. This has ended up a complete dog's breakfast, but is significantly stronger than the massive hole that was there before. All these crimes to be hidden by filler and underseal :/ Some tin wormy edges ran away and needed chasing till we found something sticky to fix to, hrm. Probably should have cut more out... like the whole sill perhaps. Just need an mot... Just need an mot... It's raining for the next few days so I get to have a rest. haha. Oh yeh, I started it to spin the disks to clean the rust off them before they get too bad and it started up first turn of the key. Thing's a BEAST.

A lift, a lift, my kingdom for a lift. Working on your back welding SUCKS... who knew? Still, I've scabbed in the inner sill/floor bit with the downward pointing metal bit, and molished a new bit of tin onto the bottom of the inner? middle sill? i don't know. Then we've slammed on a bit of mangled rubbish which whilst not completely in-welded will get some more love tomorrow and frankly a lot of filler and underseal :P I may get the sills done professionally at some point if i feel like it but for now i am charitably just screaming GET AN MOT at myself. I am knackered. mostly just from getting on the floor and then getting up again 400,000 times.

Artisanal, hand hammered outer sill plate. return fashioned in the vise, curve formed on the argon bottle and tweaked with some sweating.. it's close and can probably be hammered in as it goes: Honestly this could be a LOT worse than it is. quite a bit of tin left on the inner sill. It's a horrible job getting the underseal off, I'm using a serious wire wheel in a drill. So the plan, as it forms, is to reinstate the inner sill first, repair the mid sill bottom plate, then weld on the outer, plug welding it to the mid sill and inner. Then there's another bit to do at the rear of the sill which will probably be a bunch more fun, and there's a split boot on the left hand drive shaft which needs ministration. Not going anything like as fast as I'd like but the post covid malaise is real (also I've got the DRO fitted to my milling machine which is a satisfying job to have completed; and gave me the confidence to get hacking at the sill) In good news, the repairs will all be below the beltline where your eye falls when you're looking at the thing so should be fairly discreet. yay.

You have to understand how much I love this damnable truck since this is VERY much a rusteration where the money going in is MUCH more than the value of the lump. I really hope I don't go off it when I find out just how gutless 55bhp is, hahahaha. Thanks for the kind words, they do give me a boost!

I'm not dead, I just spent a week in Iceland and caught corvids for the first time which gosh it sucks doesn't it? Just barely back on my legs now but it's tipping down with tasty Scottish rain obviously. I'm off work for 2.5 more weeks and want to get this thing to fail an MOT by the end of that. I've picked up some more welding gas because it likes to float off at one hell of a rate! The plan for Friday and Saturday (which look drier) is to get the sill fixed up. Other tasks are just headlight adjuster and dashboard install crap really. So obviously I've been working on adding DRO scales to my milling machine instead of working on the car. Sorry.

pigtails for the headlight adjusters in: it's getting clooooooooosssssseeeeerrrrrrr it's getting fuuuurrrrttthhheeeerrrr aaaaawwwwwaaaayyyyyyy :D

Ok! Got all the 6mm clip thingies in place: Finally worked out that you can remove the indicators to get access to the screw that attaches the wing to the front bit! smacked brand new panels with hammers to stop them rubbing on stuff. dry fit a wheel bucket to figure out how it everything... my neighbour is going to help me with a big jack to wheel off and rivet in the bucket soon. and then just had a lusty look at the scabby thing. It's getting clooooooosssseeeeeerrrrrrr

today feels like it's been a bit trash, but actually i got a load of tidying up done. still can't find the 19" rack mount thingies i'm using as wing attachment nuts. Anyway the front plastic thingies arrive so i tried to fit them That'll have to do. Spent the rest of my time finding and tapping all the existing nut thingies and working out where I need to put the cage nuts I've just ordered for next day delivery, sigh. Once the wing's on we can figure out where the tub wants to sit, the places it would have mounted to are mostly gone so it's just going to get some strategic holes and get pop rivited on. Games will have to be played with panel gaps, getting it tight at the door makes getting on the front panel and joining it to the wings a bit bendy. I have NO idea how you're supposed to do up the screw that sits under the front light when the light is in place. and i don't see that the light can be fitted without removing the front panel. Otherwise just earthed off all the additional electronic fluff i've been installing. Still need to locate power sources for the headlight adjusters and whatnot. sigh.

Yeh it’s such a weird quirk, it’s car derived and has the same load capacity as my polo with the seats down. How dare a normal person have a 2 seater with an odd void in the back. Sigh. At least I have no ncd to transfer as this is an addition not a replacement.

cheers, Dan. I ran a quote. Sadly you're over twice what the people who insure my other car quote, soz. Chris Knott couldn't help either. Weird.

Actually shopping for insurance now, what hubris is this?! At least the news on this front isn't too horrific. I don't think it's hubris, it needs to be insured to get to the MOT station.

I hope I’m not posting in the wrong place. I’m upgrading the lights on a Felicia to use the servo motors from a fabia but I can’t find the sockets to plug into the motors anywhere, nor work out what type of connectors they are so I can pin up my own. They’re the flat 3 pin variety for the 6Y0 941 295 servo variant. I just wondered if anyone has a spare loom a couple could be clipped out of. I’ve tried soldering to the pins but they’re made of Teflon so I think I really need the connectors ;p Thanks.