Manky's Pop.

[Manky Monkey]

PD nipped out to the local auto factors for me today & picked up new slave cylinders, shoes & a handbrake cable for the rear Sherpa van axle. He's a mechanic by trade so gets a bit of a discount. Having fitted both front discs & calipers, it's time to move onto the arse end brakes, then hopefully hook them up & get 'em working.

[ByzMax]

Like that photo. you just need a welder going in the background.

Must get down and have a look at this agian soon.

After I've been to see Shaun 

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah we'll stage the photo again properly when the car's finished.
There's a small back street car repair garage in Basingstoke, just up the road from my old flat. It's surrounded by modern buildings, but looks like it was built in the 50s, with a pair of tall wooden doors on rollers. I'd like to park the finished Pop half in & half out of the open doors & get some pics. With it's MMMotors logos on the doors & no modern stuff around it, it'd  make a great black & white shot.

[Manky Monkey]

I nipped up to West Drayton this morning, (outskirts of London), & picked up a set of new wheel studs & chrome nuts for the rear wheels. I've used Speedshack several times before for that kinda thing & they've always been very helpful & prompt with mail order stuff. They're listed in our Links for Commercial Purposes section of the forum. Like a lot of people though, they've been hit by the recession & had to move out of their high street shop unit & are now operating from a tiny yard in the back streets behind the old premises. Still just as helpful though. Took me ages, driving round & round, till I found them, squeezed down a tiny alleyway. The rear axle on the pick-up used to live under a Sherpa van, so has 7/16" studs. I decided to swap them for 12mm ones, to match the front wheels, so was soon on my way back around the M25 with a bag of new studs & chrome nuts. I'll need to open the holes in the hubs out to 13mm to take the splined ends of the studs.

[Manky Monkey]

One of the old wheel cylinders has been leaking, but I'm replacing them anyway. Took bloomin' ages to release the brake drums from their grip on the shoes. Eventually PD stepped in & beat them into submission with a club hammer. Job done. With the drums off & shoes removed, the drive shafts had to be pulled out so I can get the new wheel studs pressed into the hubs & also so the bearings & oil seals can be replaced. Right hand shaft no problem.

[Manky Monkey]

Left hand shaft ...bugger. Some damn fool built the workshop wall 2 inches too close to the car.
Knocking a hole in the wall is apparently not an option, so we'll have to shuffle the whole car over a couple of inches -not so easy now there's no rear wheels on it.

[poprodder]

Manky's Pop.

sorry could'nt resist.

[ByzMax]

Good opportunity to narrow the rear axle..

[Manky Monkey]

Or widen the workshop.
Just had a parcel from Triker Pete in the post. To pass the commercial SVA registration test, the pick-up bed needs to be longer than the internal length of the cab, (to stop people nailing a tea chest on the back of their car & claiming it's a pick-up). The internal length of the bed doesn't include anything fitted in it. We plan to use the original cylindrical Pop fuel tank, sat up behind the cab, so the bed length would be measured from the tank back to the tailgate, which would be too short to qualify. Simple solution is to fit a temporary tank slung under the chassis for the test, then change it afterwards, (perfectly acceptable). So I rescued the little square fuel tank from Taz's donor Reliant before TrikerPete took it away. He's just sent me the filler neck that was still attached to the bodywork, so we can try it all in place. Cheers Pete.

[panthershaun]

I'm going to be running the original Pop tank fitted under the rear of the bed

[Manky Monkey]

We thought it looked too nice to hide out of sight -an oval cylinder -an ovaloid? Looks nicely vintage.
Had a big box of bits in the post today from Custom Chrome in Warwickshire. Not sure if that's the same Custom Chrome who do all the bolt-on bike accessories. Anyway, after spending months trying to find someone to make me a set of stainless steel exhaust headers for the Pop, with no success, I finally got fed up with being fobbed off by people who plainly don't need the work, & ordered a header kit. So we've got a big box of 45 & 90 degree bends, some flanges & a pair of collectors. All we have to do is weld it all together -simples! 

[panthershaun]

-simples! 

thats lucky then 

[Manky Monkey]

It looks so easy in the instructions! 
Drove over to Basingstoke this afternoon, (a 45 minute drive for me from Guildford), & picked up the 56mm socket PD had ordered for me from the local car spares place. We need one to undo the big hub nuts on the rear axle, so we can take the hubs off & press the new wheel studs in, then replace the bearings & seals behind the hub. Biggest socket I've ever owned! It's a very shallow nut & we couldn't get a grip on it with anything else. Standard size on Ford Transit hubs too apparently.
I also had my welder & gas bottle in the car. Loony's got a small roll of stainless MIG wire to tack-weld the headers together but it's too small to fit his welder, so I lugged mine out of the shed.
Just as I jumped back in the car with the socket, Loony texted to say he'd gone home with a migraine & wouldn't be at the workshop. Poo. So I had to turn around & head home again. Will probably be Saturday now before I get another chance to get over there.

[poprodder]

stainless, thats shiny ain't it!!!
 

[panthershaun]

stainless, thats shiny ain't it!!!
 

horrors  perish the thought