 | Home > Maintenance & Modifications > A day in the life of Miffy the 110... |
 
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| 1NRO Member Since: 22 Feb 2015 Location: cumbria Posts: 69  
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I bought a pair of c posts off the eBay seller “bulkhead lr”, they are crisply made and were a good price.
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12th May 2023 4:42pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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Many thanks for the tip
 Did they fit OK? |
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12th May 2023 7:17pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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Well I am keen to see how you get on
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12th May 2023 8:41pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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So, where to get a rear cross member from folks?
Pretty sure it is advisable to get a galvanised one. Opinions? |
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12th May 2023 8:42pm |
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| kenzle8a Member Since: 12 Feb 2020 Location: None Posts: 1074 
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I’ve read a few places suggesting you have galvanised metal gently shot blasted to give the best surface for the paint to adhere to. Jotum recommend it.
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12th May 2023 9:21pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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Have to love a hot sunny mostly windless day and on a saturday
 So today it was painting and more painting. All those bits I have taken off Miffy in the last few weekends.
Plus it is a good day to unroll the awning and check it after a very wet winter. First off the jackal sills, rear chequer plate, rear ladder, rear steps and the X-Eng rear anti roll bar components.  Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge And then on to the ARB side awning that after living in a damp Welsh county has sprouted some black mould on the canvas. So, out with the awning and the salt solution. A good scrub and leave it to dry. Say good bye to living black mould. Then a wash down, re-proof and dry. Amazing stuff mould. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Oh and I chucked a bit of black paint on the rear crossmember whilst I wait for a space at the garage. Tomorrow it is out with the hose and wire brush to scrub up the chassis ready for a fresh coat of something rust-resistant :rolleyes: Ash we can but live in hope... |
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13th May 2023 6:08pm |
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| Screbble Member Since: 26 Apr 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 2032 
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Looks like a great days work - you deserve a beer and Eurovision 🤪
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13th May 2023 6:40pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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I am fairly sure I would rather gouge my eyeballs out with a dull spoon than watch Eurovision… 🤣 but yes a good day all in all
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13th May 2023 6:51pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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Onwards... Just spent a very wet day washing down the chassis ready for a scrub (not actually much to scrub) and re-chassis coating. Have to say the waxoyl that I had a company (think it was rust masters Cheshire way) do many years ago now has done an excellent job. It was claimed that the product they used was designed for rust proofing oil rigs and whilst I do not know if that is true or not. It has persisted extremely well and the vast majority of it is still in-situ, just not in the higher impact areas. The stuff that is still there seems completely fused to the chassis now
But, now is the time for a decent going over. My heart is with waxoyl because I do very much like the black chassis look. I am falling out of love with Lanoguard. I like that it is mostly natural and I love how easy it is to apply, even like the smell. But it doesn't seems to persist well. Perhaps it is perfectly suited to the inside of the chassis. Perhaps, something more traditionally waxoyleeeee is required here as there is already a similar product on the chassis. Maybe Dinitrol?! never used that but hear good things and it is aerosolised so can be propelled in to difficult to reach areas. Back to the chassis. Apart from the known C-post and rear crossmember holiness the rest is in really good nick, even the dumb irons. So not a full chassis but a few awkward bits that need repairing. Then protecting. I doubt the C-posts would have rotted at all if Miffy had been fitted with Gwyn Lewis' internal mud guards. 20 years too late
All that can be done now is to repair the bad bits and let the chassis dry out for a good week or so before beginning the rust proofing. Fingers crossed for some nice warm days and limited rain. In other news, the ARB awning has now been re-treated with some canvas waterproofing and rolled back up again. It is an irritating thing to get up and down on your own. I can see why the self supporting awnings are so popular. Also all the newly painted bits and pieces have been secreted away until the chassis work has been completed. If I can get the centre crossmember here this week I might be able to replace that next weekend. It would be nice to tick off one of the undesirable bits |
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14th May 2023 5:59pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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Oh my goodness that is an exciting sight so early in the day. How on Earth am I going to work on writing when there is a new differential sitting downstairs in the kitchen...
Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Goodness, so exciting... Not long now until I can have Miffy back up and running again. Apart from putting all the bits I have taken off her back on again that is. Poor lady is sporting a few less accessories and body parts than usual to say the least. 
On that note, last nights little effort was to remove the A-bar and give it a good clean and black with McGuire's. Unfortunately that the spotlight mounting bolts had seized into the brass nutserts. Which was a pain to say the least. Out with the drill to remove the bolt heads, remove the nutsert, then the broken bolt stud and replace the nutsert back where it should be with an ample amount of Elephant glue as it will stick so many different materials. The last thing to do is chase the threads out and Bob's your uncle... Well when it has been left to cure for a while that is. If any of you have one of these A-bars, make sure you apply plenty of anti-seize to the threads. What a paint in the rear. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Next it will be on to the bumper and rear wheel carrier that both need a wire brushing and re-paint. Say it again, but blooming' plastic coating... |
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16th May 2023 9:28am |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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Ten years ago today the ever stalwart Miffy delivered my soon to be wife and myself to the botanical gardens in Gibraltar to stand in front of a bloke with an astonishingly ginger beard, serenaded by frogs and a bus load of school children to be joined in marriage
Ten years ago Miffy aided us in our eloping, but it was not a smooth trip... Well it largely was but there are some lessons to be learnt. The packing of Miffy was fairly straight forward. She had an MSS chest and drawer in the back, a dog guard and I removed the 70% seat from the second row. The OzTent was slung on the inside of the roof so it would be safe when we left the vehicle unattended. The rest of the OzTent sides etc lie perfectly in the floor void of the second row. We didn't have the cash for a 12v fridge/freezer so opted for an Icy-Tek cooler, which kept all our food cool for uptown 4 days if careful. When we could we bought a bag of ice if on a long drive. Worked a treat, but needed managing. Super simple, didn't need a dual battery setup and never broke down. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The chest was solely for Miffy's spares, oils and tools. As always I took too much and failed to carry the bit that broke... Isn't that always the way...?! The drawer was part of our pantry (heavy items like tins) and stove. The warning triangle is in there because it doubled as a drawer stay when on a slope :rofl: The rest of the pantry and kitchen gear is in the wolf boxes. All simple kit, nothing too technical at all. Oh, and never leave home without an umbrella! They say you always forget one thing and this trip it was my bottle jack as I had lent it to my step father. Turned out to be the one tool we really needed as a little close to Toulouse there was an awful scraping noise when going around tight right hand corners. Sounded like a mud guard scraping on the tarmac. Really weird. Managed to get to the campsite and some lovely Dutch sole lent me their motorhomes scissor jack. Took many many hours to track down the problem... Of course I jumped to bearings, diff, gearbox oh hell the old girl is never going to make it :rofl: Turned out that the wheel spacer on the rear left wheel had become loose during the drive down through France. How?! No idea. But a good wrenching and all was fine again. Still have those spacer and wheels fitted today. Just needed a tweak. Click image to enlarge The second little hiccup was just to the east of Madrid where whilst accelerating out of a junction and up a hill there was a sudden pop and all power ceased and lots of whistling noise. It was such a simple simple problem that came from fitting a sub-standard part. The boost actuator pipe melted in the heat and burst. What a todo... Never thought to bring a length of small bore vacuum pipe. Queue some interesting communication including hand signals and beautifully British pointing and pointing and gesticulating... I do wish sometimes that I was a linguist.
Click image to enlarge This was in the dirt car park out back behind a unit in a tiny tiny village. Such lovely people. Back on the road and yes we made it to the botanical gardens in Gibraltar and on time
Click image to enlarge The way back took a fabulously circuitous route through Spain and so much camping and goodness what a special country. Stunning. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Ten years and so so many thousands of miles ago and she is still ours and still trucking on, well almost... Just the tiny thing about a differential stopping her. But, this morning the replacement arrived so getting closer to being back on the road. When I think about what the perfect vehicle really is to me then yes the Defender fits the bill, but not because it is a Defender, it is because it is the happy spot of design meeting function. It doesn't pretend to be anything it is not, but keeps plodding onwards come rain, snow or shine. I have no doubt that if I lived elsewhere in the World I would have ended up with the equivalent Toyota or Jeep or UAZ. It is the type of vehicle that matters to me, it fits my life and what I do whilst I still have time on this planet. Both hobby and transport. As much part of the family as the dogs are, but thankfully she has yet to roll over to have her belly tickled... I have lost count of the road trips we have done in her, lost count of the surveys I have worked out of her from and with a quarter of a million miles on the clock I expect I will lose count of those miles in the years to come.
All that is left to say is here is to the next ten years of travels with my wife, dogs and of course Miffy. Last edited by geobloke on 16th May 2023 4:21pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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16th May 2023 3:35pm |
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| Cragster69 Member Since: 15 Jun 2021 Location: Scotland Posts: 166  
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That's a beautiful story, thank you. Craig.
“Don't believe everything you read on the internet.” ― Abraham Lincoln www.scotgrc.co.uk |
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16th May 2023 4:09pm |
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| Screbble Member Since: 26 Apr 2015 Location: Lancashire Posts: 2032
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Great story - thanks for sharing
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16th May 2023 5:08pm |
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| geobloke Member Since: 06 Nov 2012 Location: Nottinghamshire Posts: 4401
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You’re welcome. A story with overlanding lessons 🤣
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16th May 2023 6:56pm |
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