Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

And the now famous Monkey bonnet badge. This is undoubtedly the most photographed part of the whole vehicle. It's been nickel plated before by Mr Dslam, but I caught it with the wire brush on the angle grinder while de-rusting the bonnet a few months ago & flaked off a big chunk of coating. Now good as new again.
I drew it up as a pencil sketch, photographed it & emailed it to Steven Brock in Ireland, (I haven't got a scanner). He scanned the image into his CAD drawing programme, & tidied it up, then split it into 3 sections. Then it was sent to his laser cutters, who cut them from steel plate. He posted the parts to me in England. My brother Steve, (who's user name is, confusingly, Brock), TIG welded the 3 pieces together, (through holes for the purpose on the back), before Mr Dslam nickel plated the finished thing & it was bolted to the nose of the truck. So I like to think it kinda represents the spirit of the forum. Rolls Royce have the spirit of Ecstasy -we have the Spirit of Manky.

[Mendalot]

That all looks great, a nice bit of shiny    Out of interest, is the choke cable still flexible?

[Manky Monkey]

Not really. I may have to carefully wet n dry the coating off it. Might work though if it doesn't have too many bends in it.
The choke & vent knobs were actually B & Q kitchen door knobs. I stripped the paint off them & tapped one to take a short length of threaded stud. That one screws into the vent opening mechanism, (the small vent in front of the windscreen, which ducts air up to the screen demister vents). The choke is just a twist to lock type car choke cable with the original knob cut off & the end bonded into the hole in the back of the new knob. I think I used Araldite glue. I was expecting it to drop out during the chroming because they dip the parts in various degreasing & cleaning tanks first. I may just buy another cable & replace it.

[Manky Monkey]

Ordered a new choke cable from Ebay for a fiver.
Back to the powder coaters this afternoon to collect my seats & a few other bits & pieces. They coated a set of VW wheels for one of Loony's customers, then put my parts through while they were doing another black order, (I usually want gloss or satin black, which they do a lot of, so it means I get it cheaper if I'm willing to wait for them to do another batch). The 2 seats, plus a handful of other odds & ends, for 10 quid! A bargain.
The driver's seat, with new upholstery, sat in place to see how it looks. Mr Loon tried it for size cos we were worried the extra seat padding might mean our heads would be touching the roof. Seems fine.

[spanners]

youre bulling that up ,nicely,,

when do you want me to bring ,EMILY, for the same treatment 

[Manky Monkey]

I thought you were selling her!

Meanwhile Loon's Mum's been busy stitching together a handbrake gaiter for me. We drove all last Summer with a gaping hole in the tunnel around the lever. It's got quite a bulky mounting bracket so needs a big hole to pass it up through. At motorway speeds the gearbox tunnel ducts hot air from the motor & blasts it up through the hole into the cab. So the gaiter's more than just decoration. It's another step towards weather proofing the cab.
I made a template from a length of roller towel, then picked up an offcut of black leather for 6 quid from Ebay.

[Manky Monkey]

Tried in place. That'll do nicely. Just got to find or make a base plate for it now to match the gearchange one.

[poprodder]

looking good andy. Dave.

[Manky Monkey]

Thank you Rodney. 
Pouring with rain & strong winds this afternoon & the Pop had to sit outside the workshop while Archie fixed the brakes on his lady's car. Trying to wire up the interior light by torchlight under the tarpaulin over the cab was ...challenging.
Did it though. Nathan, (Galaxie 500), made up an LED conversion for me. I tried holding the circuit board in place inside the light unit with the mounting bolts, but for some reason it'd only work with the board loose -possibly it flexed when the bolts were tightened? Anyway, a dab of mastic of some sort should hold it in place. It'll be wired into the live feed to the main vehicle light switch, so I need to feed the wire down the windscreen pillar to the back of the dashboard. Unfortunately some idiot's plated over the pillar. After an hour of fishing about with a length of welding rod I gave up for the day. Might have to drill a couple of access holes then plug them up afterwards.

Although we've covered the glass up every time we've welded or used the grinder, there's several quite deep burn marks in the screen now. So it'll definitely have to be replaced before the MOT. I've seen new Landrover Defender screens, (one of the few vehicles with flat glass that can be cut down). on Ebay for 129 quid. Anyone know a cheaper source? Do Citroen 2CVs have flat glass?

[poprodder]

yes they do andy. are the burn marks that bad?
light looks good.

[spanners]

screen ,, try AEW PADDOCK MOTORS   i think they now trade as ,PADDOCK SPARES,, the showground the cliff matlock derbyshire.

acttually that is where youre screen originaly came from    i bought a few and got them at a good price of £35 each  them were the days   (stoneheads motors  )

[hunter]

Daihatsu fourtrak has a flat screen.

[Manky Monkey]

Found a place in Leeds selling 2CV screens on Ebay for 65 quid. The rear window needs replacing too.

[Olds]

Rimmer Bros. Land Rover 90 & 110 Laminated clear LRO 420760 P £48 inc. vat but postage will be high. Green tint is about £68
Try Keith Gott near Alton

[Manky Monkey]

Don't suppose you can collect in person from Rimmer's? I was tempted by green tint, but only if I could do all the windows. I've got green Perspex sunvisors to go in at some point.