Manky's Pop.

[Olds]

You can borrow mine and put the two together as long as you don't pull too many amps.

[poprodder]

remember tounwind them fully though andy, they soon burn, ask me how i know!!!!!

[Manky Monkey]

[Manky Monkey]

No more progress to report, but have decided I'd like to try & get it to the Romsey classic car meet on Boxing Day, organised by forum member Mr B the Barber. That's the last trip it did back in 2013, when Loon & Chris took it down cos I was at a family Christmas get-together. That would mean it'd be in a drivable, MOT'd, Tax'd & insured condition for the Spring & would give me a couple more months to carry on prettying it up before the first date of the new season, (probably the NSRA swapmeet in March).
So the aim for now is to clean up, regrease & repaint everything around the engine bay, (including refitting the brake discs that I'm still waiting for), then get the engine running.
Sort out the silencer mounts under the cab & get them fitted -most Rover engined rods I look at only have 1 or 2 silencers. To get mine down to the decibel level needed for the SVA test we fitted 4, 2 under the cab & 2 more at the back, behind the rear axle. I like the more muted, vintage touring car burble that creates, so will put them back on, but can run on just the 2 front ones to start with.
With the pick-up bed off, I can properly clean up the rear of the chassis, (areas like the top shock mounts need some serious de-rusting), as well as finishing the back of the cab, which I couldn't reach before. Painting the chassis will be much easier as I can unclip brake lines, fuel pipes & wiring as I go, then put them back.
Both the battery, (I've just bought a new one), & the rear fuel tank bolt to the chassis, not the bed, so can go back in without it. The rear lights & number plate attach to the bed, but I can fix that with a trailer board hung off the back of the chassis. In fact, if I bolt a temporary flat steel plate across the chassis behind the cab, I can fit the new front fuel tank too. That would also partially cover the open prop shaft.
Last major bodywork job will be reworking the doors to accept new runners for the glass, (they've never been right), & fitting some American Ford quarter lights I've got. I'm hoping I can have a word with Archie & the boys at the Guzzlers car club barn though & give them cash for the electricity to take one door at a time there for a couple of days to sort out.

Chris is calling in one day next week to give me a hand with refitting the distributor & timing it up so hopefully we won't be far away from firing it up.
Lots of plans, just need the push of enthusiasm to get them done now.
   

[spanners]

have you got a priming tool to prime the oil pump ,, only i,v found the one i made thats fits in a cordless drill

can post it to you if you want ,,

[Manky Monkey]

Yes thanks Mike, I've got one.

[Manky Monkey]

Many thanks to Chris & Bob, (Forgotten & BayChimp), & Bob's Number One Son, (another Chris), for turning up at the garage today & giving me the kick up the arse, enthusiasm boost I needed. Thanks chaps. 

It took all 4 of us to ratchet strap the pick-up bed up to the roof joists, then back the straps up with rope -dreading the next visit to the garage in case the whole lot's on the floor, or worse, on the cab. It'll be fine, they told me.
Gonna have to get some foam pipe lagging to put over the bottom edges though or I'm going to be constantly walking into it. Or maybe I should get a yellow hard hat to wear when I'm working in there.

[Manky Monkey]

It's not pretty underneath, but I'll just try not to look up till I'm ready to tackle it again.
Most of the parts on the floor will be going back on the Pop, so eventually I'll have a bit  more room in here.

[Manky Monkey]

With that out of the way, I can start attacking the chassis. I plan to run a wire brush on an angle grinder, (running off my little generator), to scrub the rust off, unclipping fuel lines, brake pipes & wiring, as I go. Then I'll shop around for the best rust killer I can find to treat it with, before a heavy coat of red oxide primer & several coats of black -what I should've done when we first built it. Also got a couple of old brackets to cut off & tidy up & some unwanted wiring/hose clip holes to fill. If I mark those, they can be welded up at the same time as the exhaust mounts.

[Manky Monkey]

3 years of living outside in a farmyard, covered with a tarpaulin, hasn't done it any favours, but nothing that can't be fixed.
I can get to the back of the cab now too, to finish smoothing it out.

[Manky Monkey]

You can see here how heavily Z'd the chassis rails are -they drop down to floor level either side of the cab, so the cab sits low to the ground, but it still has full suspension travel front & back.

[Manky Monkey]

Chris set the engine to top dead centre & dropped the distributor back in place. Mr Phunkie HighBoy tells me that it will probably need advancing by 6 degrees, because of the new motor's 9.35:1 compression ratio.
We hooked the battery terminals up & tentatively tried the ignition. Got some warning lights, but not all, headlights, but no horn or wipers. The indicators all come on together, but that's probably because the rear ones are disconnected at the moment. Maybe the mystery wires behind the dash are an Earth that should be connected to the speedo mount? Mr Olds, can you spare me some time to take a look please?
Chris turned the key just long enough to ascertain the motor actually turns over. Sounding promising. Both he & I are on holiday next week, so hopefully we can get everything in place to get it running. Thanks again for your help today chaps.  

[Baychimp]

It took a while to get the truck bed up. But it will be a lot easier to get it down.

[Olds]

Good progress (if taking it apart is progress    ), it has to be done at some point.
 As to the wires Andy, no problem  just let me know when and where and I will 'pop' around with the meter.

[poprodder]

wow, that is real great to see.