skoda_cat

This is the future I'm staring directly into, isn't it? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007920185061.html

In everything is completely normal news, the sump plug sold to me by eurocar parts for the car via the reg plate is too small, they've sold me an M14 plug The plug that came OUT of the car has a major diameter of about 15.67mm which isn't even 0.6 inches exactly. The washer that came off it has a strange shape to it, it's kind of got lips round the edge and there were the remnants of some rubber which I had to rip off the plug with a pick. There was evidently some clever washer on it which is long gone. I'm now stuck in a place where i don't know what my sump plug even IS to order a replacement. Any of you kids know what I need to ask for? All the online places demand I put my reg in and they come back with the same stuff that doesn't fit rather than offering me an actual choice. Thanks helpful web ☠️ ooooh, maybe THIS https://www.autodoc.co.uk/planet-tech/22381098

made a bit of progress on the headlight adjusters. Finally understood which pin is which and lashed up this as a test: I failed to see the TINY writing labelling the pins on the servo so I'd popped the end cap off to try and work out which pin was which and whilst i was in there I saw the driver post was hollow most of the way through and just about right for the original bolt out of the hydraulic adjusters, so I lopped off the end and tapped it M5 0.8 for the bolt. I'm not sure if it's got QUITE enough bight to not vibrate and 'self adjust' so possibly a locking nut might be needed but this is looking good. There's a small mod needed to the headlight back unit to let the servo 'seat' which is scaring me to death, but if i get it wrong, new lights can still be got for reasonable money. I'm obviously avoiding attempting any welding on the windscreen area aren't I, but all these jobs DO need doing so it's good to get them on the way to done. This electrical fun will need some small amount of loom building for it but that's not hard, just need to find the power to splice into up at the lights and the signal wire running from the dash. Annoyingly the 'light' on the switch seems to be failed which sucks but maybe down the line i can get another driver unit which does light up. I can't figure out how to disassemble it enough to get at the light and replace it.

I dropped the coolant again, and fiddled with the thermostat and broke it. I've ordered a replacement housing which should be able to take standard thermostats rather than the built in rubbish skoda built in. The plastic had got all sad and let the spring go. I got the engine drain out which was a fight, very galled up threads. when the plug CAME out no coolant followed and refused to till a screwdriver went in the hole and came out a horrible colour. Then we got a trickle. so I flushed it every which way till the water ran clear. started doing an oil change, but I didn't realise i'd need a new drain plug so we can't refill that till I've been to the shops. Mean time I've cleaned both disgusting furred up juice bottles: And for your delectation, 12+ year old oil: boke.

My vise is a bit wimpy, it struggles to hold on to the thing because you have to fairly sit on it to make it do anything. It DOES gradually make curves: But I will need a bit more bend than that and it also needs to be an S shaped section which this isn't because working out how to fold that without a metal break might be beyond me :P

Cut up a bit of angle and drilled it for bolts so I can get the shrinker and stretcher into the vice and start learning how to re-manufacture windscreen frames and scuttles. bodyshop vibes intensify:

Been a minute, sorry. Did a bit of tidying so i can actually physically get inside the garage. My neighbour and I booted up the car and let it run till it got hot. it runs fine and temp climbs smoothly the whole way, but it's still getting hot and the fan doesn't come on. the sensor in the radiator doesn't seem to be closing the circuit and we suspect the thermostat as well. I'm going to pull both out and stick em in boiling water to see how they react. Probably going to replace both anyway just because i suspect them. No progress on the welding, but I'm off this week so I'll see what I can motivate myself to get done. P.s. still no windscreen, we still know where one is, sitting in a rotted out car but we're still struggling to get a deal made :/

Winter is trash, I hope a truck still remains when it stops weathering and the sun stays visible for more than 15 mins a day. I’ve not seen the Skoda for weeks!!

Lets hope. The temperature has been mad swinging. Small amounts of water will boil off when hot, yeh?

Which ever you like best.

Not sure if the oil is a bit milky. Sad face emoji

totally gross, but just surface rust. painted in ferrozinc

I'm sorry there's been nothing going on with this thread, I THINK my welder may have a gas leak which I want to investigate before I drop another £50 of gas through it. The days are now so SHORT there's not much light available to achieve anything meaningful. I've been planning though, I've got rust neutralising paint on stuff so i can flat stuff like this back and treat the surface before priming. I think it must have been rubbed back and then just... left. The other side will get the same because it looks like someone else's slightly crap repair is bubbling. The last thing is that I've got my grubby paws on a shrinker and stretcher thingy which I believe will be really useful in making the right shapes for the remaining terror which is This thing is not going to beat me, although the weather is sure making it less fun.

I'm getting a BIT better, but not better enough, grrrrr. Metalworking isn't easy at all. Also I think I'm running out of gas. I've been working on making sure the metal I put in is at least lower than what is there so that filler is an option, that at least I have achieved.

It's not THAT risk I'm worried about, it's hydrogen inclusion in the weld puddle from the frying water. Also it's cold, no you shut up

Rain would have meant I couldn't carry on welding, but SNOW means I have to go outside every couple of hours to scrape the stuff off so it doesn't pull the car cover through the windscreen hole. grrrrrr. hahahahaha.

and the other wing is now done: Which has given me a real mood lift in thinking about how I can get this thing back on the road. I'd better order some wheel arch liners to keep all this work SAFE. So what's left to do is both buckets that sit between the wing and the light cluster, the other rail, and the mess round the windscreen. As ever, the windscreen is left till last because I'm using the rest of the welding to learn on first. Still haven't managed to source a replacement windscreen either so that's something to think about. Getting cold isn't it

poked it with the air shears till I realised I couldn't turn a corner with them (maybe this is user error) then did the rest with a worn down, thus smaller and more manoeuvrable angle grinder disk. Gradually worked over the new return with the joggling stick, finally gave a couple of choice areas a whack with the hammer and I ended up with this: Which seems to fit on the car like THIS: Which I would have to categorise as feeling flipping awesome! We can get this stuff DONE, can't we?!

grinds teeth, i can't find any differences in the outer skins, but the inners: I've made a joggling stick, so I guess i just cut that lovely new wing off a cm away from the template line and joggle the return back into it. I can't imagine why the panels are different, what car WOULDN'T have the bracing in the inner wing there, I can't think the truck has it for extra strength compared with the car?

sorted. annoyingly my new wing doesn't fit. I'm pretty sure the outer skin is right, but the inner rib is friends with the front rail in ways it shouldn't be. I need to get my big girl pants on and cut it to clearance. Bit of a bummer, would have been super fun to get that fitted up and see how it all tied in.

Interminable rain. I wish I had a garage I could get the thing in, heh. I pulled out the headlights and found both headlight adjusters have cracked where the hydraulic tube goes into the plastic housing. I've ordered a couple of manual adjusters which hopefully are enough for MOT whilst I figure out some way to either fix these ones, or rig up some servo motors to do the job instead. Put together a patch panel for the last bit of repair on that wing, but I can't weld it in in the rain, so it has to wait. welp.

I figured out what the things were i found in the bottom of the rail, cage nuts with the cage bit rusted through so they fell in. Are the wings really held on by 19" rack cage nuts?! the holes are certainly perfectly sized. Hoping to get this rail finished tomorrow and the light bucket thingy and see if i can test fit a wing!

this end doesn't have a big hole in it anymore: And there is this much less rusty hole in this bit: Lots more to do, but there's still time. Happy with progress. The hydraulic crap for adjusting the headlights doesn't work so I'll have to explore that and try and refill it or whatever.

I made a start on the welding today, I worked for about an hour and hilariously have only managed to sort out THIS much of the welding. But the front right, is that much less likely to fall off, so I can't complain. Now I've broken the fear of touching the car with plasma I can get on with sorting out the rest of it. I can't leave this post without the result though, can I. so ok, here it is I wonder if that will do.

I was REALLY confused because the picture in the HBoL looks so clear, ITS RIGHT THERE screams the picture But because I'm an idiot, i thought this was the UNDERSIDE of the engine, i figured the drain would be low down, but of course everything below the chambers is oil, so this is the lowest part of the jacket. So I found it, on the front of the engine where it always was. I'll get this cracked and see if there's any chance I can actually get this engine DRY before trying to fill it with fresh 😕 Everything is obvious in retrospect, heh.