My cat stole a custard cream from my desk. She proceeded to lick the biscuit part for several minutes, hard enough to erode it. I thought she must have been working hard for the "cream" part, but then she wandered off not long after she got to it.
Adding this to the list of unusual things I have seen my cat eat, with ready salted crisps, omelette, some stale bread I chucked out for the birds, and chips from KFC (she had no interest in the chicken).
She is so strange.
[#]Cats
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I've been on Mastodon two years today. Cool. What I'm mostly amazed at is that even with a microscopic following I get lots of thoughtful conversations with people and only one really negative interaction ever. It's pretty nice over here.
Here is my cat, in a box.
[#]cats #CatsOfMastodon
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And then, I wrote rather too many words about the Fiesta, which I then illustrated with some pictures. https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/posts/2024-12-31-the-fiesta-continues/
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Anyway, in "not putting an LS into something that shouldn't have one" news, the £600 Fiesta is still going strong and passed its fourth MOT with me recently.
Been too long since it got some love, so it recently got a new steering rack (old one wasn't terrible, but it was worn out and a bit vague) and a bunch of much more minor things fixed. Also, had a clean today, which is rare enough to merit a photo of it.
Not even slightly #WeirdCarMastodon but it is a champion.
[#]BoringCarMastodon
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Tiny side project while I wait for some things to show up for version 5000 of my rear leaf spring mounts.
A disused railway station near me is being restored and the group had a reproduction sign made, with plastic pegs glued on the back and no clear way to mount it.
So I spent much of yesterday chopping up bits of 1mm galvanised that I had kicking around and MIGing them together (I know, welding galvanised - I did the HSE-approved "hold breath then blow on it a bit"). It worked alright. :)
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Also, what I don't have is any space to use the OEM GS6-53DZ mount; not without cutting the middle of the rear crossmember out and relocating it backwards by like half a foot. I don't mind this, because after acquiring an OEM mount I have concluded that it is bollocks.
I understand why mounts need flexibility (it's not just for NVH, it's to stop components shaking themselves apart). But I can definitely improve on whatever this is.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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I have a week off, so back to what I should be doing, which is finding out all the ways a BMW gearbox doesn't fit in a Rover P5 and what to do about it.
First thing was finding out that my engine needs to be moved starboard a few mm (that or my subframe is nowhere near straight, but I'll just pretend that's not the case). That'd make no practical difference on driveline angles, but I believe in chasing mm's everywhere I can.
I'll remedy this before setting up tomorrow.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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The obvious: yep, I know the leaf spring cannot teleport through the things marked A. I started this with a single piece of random box section that had more or less the right dimensions. It helped me keep everything nice and square as I was building it.
Area B is the more troublesome one. I estimated more space than I actually had for the excess of the bolts to disappear into. I can die-grind myself out some space for the bolt and move the missing reinforcement elsewhere.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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Instead of getting my gearbox mounted, I got some odds and sods I had kicking around and took a go at redesigning my rear leaf spring bush.
This provisional version doesn't work (two reasons, one obvious which I knew about while making it, one less obvious), but it's close enough to working that I can call this a plan.
If I get this right, it will drop the rear of the spring ~10mm relative to the body. Don't think that's going to upset many things much.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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I accidentally made smiley faces in my engine mounts while using the press to "adjust" the heat distortion out of them. Look at how happy they are to be engine mounts!
:)
[#]WeirdCarMastodon #facesinplaces
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So I wrote some words about the LS-into-P5 saga so far, and I illustrated those words with some pictures. https://exhaust.lewiscollard.com/post/784450596/lewis-loses-the-plot/
[#]WeirdCarMastodon #v8
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I got that recess made for the extra clearance around the pokey-out bit around the starter motor by cutting a chunk out of it, chopping up a piece of pipe and shoving that in the hole. Much better!
That gives me a little milestone: An LS (stunt) engine, with a sump, sitting in a P5 subframe, everything that needs to clear clearing the things they need to clear. If my plan works out to do all the tidy-ups tomorrow, next weekend I'll be figuring out how the gearbox doesn't fit.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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Previously, I was making a whole load of apologies for my welding; pointing out that it is not complete, that I know it needs tidying up, etc. That is pre-empting Internet welding dudes (and only the dudes), who are the absolute worst.
I've stopped doing that because a) I've not actually encountered any on fedi b) I have firm plans to found a space company to launch them into fucking orbit if I do.
Anyway, here's a nice German fire truck!
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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And the centre crossmember is starting to shape up. I'll cut a chunk out of all this for the sticky-out bit around the starter motor on the gearbox adapter once it's complete. But for now, it's mostly boxed in, doesn't flex, and I'll call that enough car for the weekend.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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my day (meme edition)
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That's the bottom of the new rails in the P5's subframe boxed in. There's a couple of welds I want to grind back and do over and there's still some tidying to do, but that is the rails fundamentally Done.
I threw some satin black rattle cans at the other side of it, just to protect it while it's sitting outside till next weekend. Given that it's the work of someone who has no clue what he's doing, I think that looks kind of alright.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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In other "clearance" news, I'm just going to pretend that the lack of space around the steering box is not going to be a problem.
The pretend heads for the stunt engine are down the container and I couldn't be bothered to get them, but eyeballing this suggests the factory manifolds aren't gonna work. I don't know how to solve this; I can see enough room that some solution to this feels possible.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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In "clearance" news, no, the alternator won't fit with the new rail. It's hard against it. I thought this might be the case.
The fact it ALMOST fits hints at a solution which is not "top mount it". While I could recess the rail just a tiny bit to clear it, I don't know for a fact that this alternator works and would probably want to replace it anyway. So, a more compact alternator will definitely solve this.
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So, here are my weird looking rails for the engine. They're not finished (need to finish boxing them in at the bottom and then tidy everything up) but the idea is here. Leftmost pickup point boxes out a suspension mounting point so I'd hope that's solid. I might reinforce that further once I have remade the crossmember over immediately to the left (rear) of it.
And then it hit 2pm on my 9th day in a row of working on this and I said "that's enough car for the day".
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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Eight days straight later, the stunt engine is now fully supported on the subframe by nothing other than things I have stuck onto a subframe, in the place it wants to be (+/- a mm or two).
It gets easier now, because with the mounts in position setting everything up doesn't take three hours as it did yesterday. Hoping to finish off (most of) the new rails tomorrow, but plans rarely go to plan and that's OK.
[#]WeirdCarMastodon
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text/gemini
