Front Panel and Badge for sale.

Yes a front panel with a good bottom edge for sale and it even comes with a badge!

Offers please.

MINI E-BAY

Bidder 1 £100

Bidder 2 £200

Bidder 1 £150?

Bidder 3 £225

These are firm bids, in writing via e-mail, any more any one?

New Shock absorbers for ROD525.

Hi all, not much progress to the vehicle fleet this week but felt I had to replace the front shock absorbers on the pick-up truck.

These are the same as the later vehicles its just the method of retaining that is different. On the early pre 1956 approx they are held in with good old bolts and washers, on the later vans they used washers and large split pins, see previous pictures of OBL432 new front shock absorbers.

I now have a cheaper supplier of these, this set was £16.50 each plus postage.

I have the following spares in stock,

One front grill panel (Morris) £ ask

One king pin set original type £30

One king pin set later type J2  £10

Pair of front shocks, New old stock, see above £33

One axle set of new bonded brake shoes £35

One very rusty 15 inch wheel rim £ free!

One Lucas PCL6 lighting/ignition switch, only needs a key FP743, I will get one shortly. £ offers.

All plus postage unless you pop in for a coffee.

Camber,Castor,Toe-in and K.P.I.

The four things that govern front wheel alignment, so your driving a J and not a wonky wheeled shopping trolley.

Correct Camber and Castor is pre-set and would only alter if the front axle is bent or you have forgotten to fit the aluminium wedges under the leaf springs.

K.P.I. King Pin Inclination is machined into the castings and would only alter if the king pins or bushes were badly worn. So regular greasing is very important. Always make sure clean grease comes out of both top and bottom of each bush.

The main adjustment is of course Toe-in.

J types toe-in 3mm, a method of checking and adjusting toe-in is in the workshop manuel and is easy to do. You could try taking your J to a tyre fitting bay that also does wheel alignment but you will find they will ask you the degree angle of toe in not a measurement in millimeters. They will guess the adjustment.

Do it yourself by the book or get a plastic drive on tracking plate for about £25.

Did you know that the type of front axle on J type is called a reverse Elliot? Why? Because the king pins incline inwards but the road wheels incline outwards.

Mr Maurice, an understanding vehicle restorer.

Here is the business card of MTR Restorations. As a fellow old vehicle owner he understands the type of vehicles we love.

Having seen his workmanship I can honestly say his panel work/welding is first class.

I have trusted him already with one of my vehicles and the JB van is next in line for his excellent talents. 

So if you need help with welding work on your project, contact Maurice a quality restorer. "Mr Magic with a M.I.G.".

Sorry about the quality of the above scan, my scanner is playing up.

Some progress this weekend!

Close up of one axle end, near side.
New king pin and bushes fitted, using the modified type.
A nice pair of stub axles and back plates.
Four of the stubborn king pins.
One front axle and four stub axles all in a heap, this cottage industry of mine is taking off, stub axles refurbished while you wait. At least I can do all this in the dry, this summer has been such a wash out round here, I hope you have had better.

Well I have made some progress this weekend, J wise, I have been in the dry i.e. the garage rebuilding two, yes two front axles.

I got the local garage to press out two king pins for me, their press went up to 18 ton's of pressure to push out the pins.

Well I then only had to do a bit of reaming on the new bushes and have started to reassemble the front axle. 

I hope my purchaser turns up  this weekend.!

No van progress this week!

Well as you can tell from the title I have been unable to work on either of my two j types this week. The reason, summer rain or in my case last weekend flooding!

Last Sunday we ended up with rain all day and then a cloud burst in the afternoon leaving us with 4 inches of water all over the rear garden.

I will try to do a bit over the weekend, check out the blog on Monday.

I hope you all have a dry weekend.