ArtistsRifles

Air start runs at 100 to 150 atu - about 2,000 psi. I looked at this when I got mine and was told I would need a dive conpressor.......

'Cos its a bit safer to have it unpluggable quickly and 'cos some gave me it :-)

Day 2 of of the tidy up is over. The old bus is looking a bit better now even if I do say it myself Finished off rubbing the grab handle and map reading light down then masked he dash up and gave them a c a few coats of Satin Black, same as the auxilliary IP. Looks reasonable I think: Whilst I had the Satin Black out and ready I sprayed a dollop onto some clean card and then used a modelling brush to give a coat to the two screen hinge brackets. Next I went back to the smooth black Hammerite and finished painting the top sections of the seat frames and the front seat back, I think the rear backs are too far gone to be worth trying. Once I have it running again with a reg plate and, if necessary a ticket I want to remover the seats completely, replace the cushions and backs and, whilst waiting for those, media blast all the frames, prime them and spray them to get a nice smooth finish. I also cleaned out the back of the spare wheel and gave that a brush over to improve the visual appearance and refitted the headlamp bezels Lastly a few people had mentioned the wee problem of the tension bows constantly springing out - and true to form mine do it too - even when standing still. As I got fed up with lumps of steel flying into the back of my head I did something about it. One length of string later you have the simple way of stopping this happening. Wonder if I can patent it??? And why on earth didn't they put the clips on the other way around so they hold the bows in place all the time??? If the weather holds the next steps will be to fit the rear mudflaps and the new rear lights and reflectors then come up with a way of mounting a UK registration plate on the rear that clips to the jerry can holder. Then fit the new brake master cylinder. Brakes then will have to wait until I can source another couple of Czech spec front wheel cylinders. Oh yes - and find a better way of getting the damned bonnet open!!!

Thanks May get a brush out and give them a light coat of NATO green paint, can't see it will affect the weights that much......

Wheels came back from the powder coaters on Tuesday - they have done what I think is an excellent job and a very good match to the paint colour on the vehicle. Popped down to the tyre fitters on Thursday and had the tyres and tube + one new tube fitted and the assemblies balanced. I did ask about stick-on weights rather than conventional ones but there was some discussion amongst the fitters as to whether the ones they had would stick to the powder coating. So I took the safe option and had the normal weight fitted. Then it was straight back home and get the got the wheels onto the vehicle. Finished job looks really good and hopefully means the end of rust flake induced punctures for a good few years. As soon as funds permit I will have the two fronts and the spare done too. Before I do any more on the Landie I need to sort out the appearance of the UAZ to keep the neighbours happy. Once that is done it will be a case of remove the heater matrix box, fit the blower fan, refit the matrix and hook it all up. Then have the dash off to find the missing thumb screw for one of the speedo clamps and laying a new red supply cable to the panel lights switch. That will complete the works required on the vehicle side of things. and I can revert back to the radio side - need to relocate the shunt box to it's original location in the back and fit the supply feed to the radio batteries. Then wire in a 24v in, 12v out step down transformer to allow things like a sat nav or phone charger to be used whilst travelling. Probably do the UAZ brakes before moving onto the radio side though.

Now the Landie is back on all 4 wheels and motivated by more than a few of the "what's that pile of crap he's got on the drive now" comments from neighbours I took advantage of the decent weather today to do something about the hodge-podge appearance of the UAZ. I fitted the door tops a couple of weeks ago - bought a strip of rubber from Woolies to make the sealing strips between top and bottom and the tidied up the four tops. Alll 4 could do with new rubbers around the glazing 100% and the two door bottoms on the drivers side are buckled so that the tops lean outwards away from the hood. Three of the doors also have half the captive nuts missing so the tops are at present a very loose fit. Need to order new bottom pieces at least from Tarmot in Poland. unfortunately all 4 tops were diffferent colours/shades of green. :embarrassed: So I spent today rubbing down the dashboard and door caps and windscreen frame before masking up and applying a some much needed paint. First up was some smooth black Hammerite - front bumper got washed off, rubbed over and then given a coat. The heater box below the dash likewise got rubbed down, a coat of rust killer applied then, once dry a coat. Lastly the frames of the front and back seats were rubbed down and also the head lamp bezels before applying a coat. Where it was applied over bare metal a second coat will be needed. Next up was the dash board - what could be removed was removed and everything else masked up then a coat of semi-matt green applied. So were the door tops which had also received a coat of the rust killer When this was touch dry the auxiliary instrument pane was masked off from the rest of the vehicle and it was given a coat of satin black. Once it was dry it was refitted and then the instrument and speedo bevels painted with smooth black Hammerite as were the speedo bezel, handbrake lever, gear shift levers and the brackets for the screen hinges. If we have good weather tomorrow then the grab handle on the dash and the map reading light will all be masked off and sprayed satin black to finish the hob. Whilst the auxiliary instrument panel was out I had a look behind and found a few more loose wires. Some I guess are for the fuel tank change over switch as this is missing. Likewise the switch for the heater fan. What did concern me most was the heavy gauge light blue wire hanging loose by the accelerator that seems to originate from the rear of the middle of the three warning lights. I have no idea what it is meant to be for. Likewise the two white buttons to the top left of the auxiliary instrument panel, no idea yet what are they meant to be for - seem to be press to use as opposed to press for on, press for off - one maybe screen washer???? As a reminder - this was the start of play: Masking in progress: Finished (for today) job: Apart from the odd loose wires one thing that did seem odd was the back of the auxiliary instrument - I am thinking the tube on the back of each gauge is for a bulb holder?? If so - I seem to have all the panel lighting missing too!! Any one got a wiring diagram for a Czech built UAZ 469 I could get a sight/copy of please????? Other good news is that most of the parts have arrived for the brakes and lights. Just need to get the other two front wheel cylinders and the rebuild can be carried out. Brakes (ref boxes = rear wheels, blue boxes = front wheels): Fuel change-over tap: Oil/water temp sender and thermostat: Tools: Screenwash reservoir/pump:

I used to have a Van Den Plas 4 Litre R -one of the best British cars I ever had! There is an owners register, it can be found on the web at http://www.vpoc.info/ - this would also be a good place to ask the sort of questions you want answers to. Unlike a lot of Austin products of the era the VDP 4 litre R was actually well built and extremely comfortable. Not quite so quiet you could hear the clock tick :laugh: but quiet enough that a friend who had been deaf from an early age could hold a normal conversation with the driver from the back seat.

Sometimes its easier to remove the passenger floor panel to get at things like the slave!!! :laugh:

Given recent events in the news "grooming" might be a unfortunate choice of words. Be ready for the vice squad knocking on your door!!

Paint the wheels green - and apply the disruptive black overlay on the vehicle :-)

NATO green to match the vehicle.

IIRC - the hand signals were asked in the question session before the actual test. How old would a vehicle have to be noto hoave indicators? 432's have, CVR(t)'s heve - even my OT has them.

Weather seems crazy these days - bright sunshine in the morning the around 12:00 to 13:00 the wind gets up closely followed by the heavy rains :-(

Will do :-)

Got the head back in just prior to Damyns Hall - what a performance. With the TUUAM boxws it was virtually impossible for a single person to lift in and I found there was no way to secure the head gasket in place whilst positioning the head that way. So after a bit of out-of-the-box thinking that involved the daughter Mk1, a scaffold pole, some wooden kitchen steps and para-cord we fudged a way of lifting the head into place accurately enough that the bolts could be dropped in then screwed in a few threads so as to locate the gasket. Once that was done the head was progressively tightened down to the figure given in the conversion chart for the torque wrench to 65 lb/ft. All the ancillaries were replaced and I took her for a test run. Disappointed was an understatement - the banging was cured but she was spitting and popping with no power at all. Went back over the procedure i my mind and could see nothing we had missed so on the off chance I Googled the Kg/M figure equivalent to 65 lb/ft - and found it differed from that given in the conversion chart. So the head was re-torqued to the new figure and tested again. This time on the test drive power was back but it was still not running right. By now it was 21:00 on the Thursday so I left it on the basis anything else could be fixed at Damyns hall. On the way there for the first half of the Journey it sill lacked something, it was running a bit rough and sluggish. I stopped at a set of lights which was a 4-way that rotated through each axis in turn. As I pulled away I hit the accelerator to compensate for the lack of power - only to find the problem had cleared itself and power was back to normal. Surprised me - but possibly not as much as the guy on the outside who thought he was passing a slow old banger only to find it pulling away from him....... Rest of the run to Damyns was uneventful but after being there a few hours I noted both rear tyres slowly going down. Yep - a puncture in both!! reinflated they were taking some 8 hours to go flat again so I was OK for the journey home. When I got back I ran them down to the tyre fitters who took the tyres off to repair the tubes only to find the problem was the rust on the inner rims. It was flaking again and abrading the tubes. So - next plan is to whip both wheels over to Maldon tomorrow and get them blasted and powder coated. The firm there reckon they can match the colour and texture on the NATO Green I used. As a plus to all this I took the opportunity to fit the temp senders (capillary) for both water and oil. Oil was easy but the water was a pain until I had the thermostat housing off. I also replace the adapter and fitted a Series 3 heater valve, replacing the tap at the rear of the cylinder head with the straight in tapping. So I now have all the gauges working correctly!!! Next steps are to remove the heater matrix once the rear wheels are back on so I can fit the blower motor, pull the dash face off completely : (a) to locate the missing thumb wheel from the speedo that I dropped in the dark on the Thursday night and (b) to run a feed wire in from the sidelight circuit so that night I can see all the working gauges. and fit the new heater control cable from the sliders to the new heater valve.

Hence asking Luke to come for a measure up. My air ones are knackered and not good enough to use as patterns.

Thanks Luke - will do.

Unfortunately no patterns for either so best would be an on-site. Its based - temporarily - at Great Yeldham in Essex. Is that reachable for you?

The German with a sore hand said the usual was 1.5mm. I laughed ar the time but got annoyed later when the realisation that, had it been so thin, I would have had a dent in the panel sank in.

How would you fancy making up a set of the engine air inlet and exhaust outlet deck mats for a BMP-1 class vehicle - possibly even the canvas transit cover that goes over the whole thing??

It would - if there were not already a 2-stroke Saab already in there David :-)

Oh yes - once you (a) find the built-in inhibitor and (b) work out how to use it!!!! :-) :-)

Some time ago I bought a UAZ 469 to go with 55 FM 58, my Series 3 FFR. Thinking being I'd have a matched set of utilities from either side of the Iron Curtain. What with one thing and another it took a while for the beast to arrive on the drive but it is now at home. Came home from Wolverhampton via the W&PR show where, alas, the brake master cylinder gave up the ghost!! A friend is making a run over to Bulgaria and Poland next week and will be bringing back new tyres and various spares to get the old bus road going again. This is how it looked when I bought it: The seller, Rob, decided it was in too poor a condition so did a lot of work to get back to order for me. This is how it is now sitting on the drive: First job will be to fit the side bows and tensioning straps so that I stop keep getting soaked every time it rains and then the wind blows! Then the brake master cylinder has to be replaced. To be safe the wheel cylinders are being replaced to - all that come out will be cleaned up and overhauled then shelved as spares for the future. The flexi hoses likewise will be replaces so that the braking system is totally overhauled. Once this is done the electrical system will need checking through as there are at least two switches missing from the dash and a fair few loose wires floating about. It seems the switch which may- or may not have been intended for am "A" pillar mounted spotlight has been wired in as the head side and tail light switch whilst the actual HST switch and the heater fan switch are both missing... Also on order. I also need to get the door tops fitted. The door bottoms are not in very good condition and the captive nuts have rotted out - not a problem as I can use ordinary nuts and bolts for now - just need to source some rubber strip not unlike that used for the same job on Landrovers, only thinner, to fit between the two. The bottoms of the lower doors are also rotted out - a big problem with the UAZ apparently - so it will either be a job for the fibre glass resin or - if a good solid set can be found, replacements Other than this there are a few minor jobs - one of the temp senders on the engine is non-op, new one is ordered, the fuel tank change over tap is broken and needs replacing and it needs the door or "A" pillar mounted rear view mirrors as with the hood up the rear view is worse than an FFR Landies. Oh yes - and it needs to be re-registered as apparently the registration number was sold privately. Knowing DVLA - this will likely be the hardest job of all!! :wow:

Done mate.

Paul would be leading the charge!! :wow: