Biddy the 1969 44 standard

[dafdaffer]

well in trying my best to get Biddy ready for cars in the park i have had another 3 days of with loads of rain, i managed a full 12 hours at it today but sadly not got much further.

up to now....



i have manged to weld up the rear panel and then fill over the weld and add some stone chip to the bottom of the panel ( will be painted white )



the welding is now finished on the floor of the off side, the sill has also been patched and painted with rust proof primer. then covered in stone chip



the floor has been treated with rust inhibitor then painted in rust proof primer then white hamerite



the off side inner wing has been patched as this fell apart, even the outer wing was crumbling, i patched it then it bunt through so another patch had to be added.



the wing also had a patch that need to be cut out near the drivers door, this was re welded then skimmed.



the top of the near side wing was the same,



this was cut out and a new bit welded in.



the bottom of the wing had been cut off so i had to rebuild it all from scratch, i removed the door and made a new sill/wing part

i added a bit more to make up the wing and also the inner section.







this was all filled over then painted, all was good until i refitted the door, oops i didnt realise that the wing goes back out not straight down, i will have to undo some work there

i fitted some new transport plates to the floor and painted them over in rust proof primer.



around the headlight was treated,



so still need to shultz the near side, re do the wing, sort the brakes, get her running and refit the tank, refit all the interior, and now buy a new battery as its dead...very dead

chin up

[33grinder]

Glad to see some progress with Biddy Paul. Keep up the good work and look forward to catching up at Litchfield.

[dafdaffer]

i would love to go, maybe in the volvo this year with lots of daf bits to help with the stand

[spunkymonkey]

That's an impressive step forward, Paul. However you get there will be fine, but you do know that Biddy will get Star spot if you manage to pull off the impossible and get her there

[Bob Scrivens]

Hi Paul, a great effort, If you are stuck drop in here and go down in the Green Machine.

Bob

[stefan]

Drag Biddy up on the towing dolly, project in progress

[mattsdafs]

Very good progress Paul and hope you do get her finished in time..good luck

[dafdaffer]

Thankyou for all the kind comments guys, i have just started my 3 days off with rain on the menu again for all my days off

i have decided that there is no way i can get her painted for the Lichfield trip so she can go as is.

1st job of today in between the rain drops was to clean out the tank..it was in quite good condition to be fair so i removed the sender unit just to check.



after a a mop up i put the sender back in along with a new gasket , note the metallic strip in the cork for earth purposes.





the tank was all refitted and the sender was was tested with aid of one of my lads 6v batterys from his battery trike.



just as i fitted the tank up my new 6v battery arrived by courier





bumhats

i started to refit the interior starting with the sound deadening over the tunnel





then i fitted the rear lights, the only problem is that the guy who took the car to bits in the first place labelled all the parts up.....in polish glad i had a manual



thats about it for today...will do some more tomorrow.

[mattsdafs]

Looking very good Paul and a respray can wait
Shame about the battery and hope a replacement arrives in time..good luck with that

[dafdaffer]

cheers matt, the rain looks well set in today, just dropped my lad off at school and got drowned

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Go Biddy, go!

This is how she was as we set up at the NEC in 1998 (Or it may have been 1999, but hey, what's a year?)


NEC1 Biddy by dafmag editor, on Flickr

[dafdaffer]

wow..... she looked good then, shame she has got how she is now.
mind that was 14 years ago!
most modern stuff does not last that long, she is 43 this year

when i first got her she had started to go on the wings and boot floor area. i kept sticking in the filler as i couldn't weld then...not that im that good now

[Nick the man with a daf....]

looks pretty damn good to me though.. re that battery.. have you checked if it will hold a charge as it looks t be made of seperate cells then fitted into the outer case? you never know... it could jsut be the outer thats took the knock

[spunkymonkey]

Unpainted is fine, Paul - gives people an excuse for talking about her and hearing her sad but improving history. Let's be honest, how often do you see people stopping to talk about the shiny MG brigade? "Oh, that's a shiny MG. Oh, there's another one. Oh, look, another ....." ;D

[pauldaf44]

Jun 23, 2012 18:37:38 GMT spunkymonkey said:

Unpainted is fine, Paul - gives people an excuse for talking about her and hearing her sad but improving history. Let's be honest, how often do you see people stopping to talk about the shiny MG brigade? "Oh, that's a shiny MG. Oh, there's another one. Oh, look, another ....." ;D

I wouldn't worry she wont look worse than Sophie lol

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Here's another from the same time:

flic.kr/p/cjkqxU

[dafdaffer]

well i have been at it again, trying to get stuff done, its been a nightmare with the rain, you just get started then you have to pack it all away again.

i needed to sort out an area of crust under the front light, so i cut out a nice big patch.



it was welded in and then covered over with filler. all the floor and sills were shultz

the front panel was removed and the rust was treated, sadly the lower grill was dead after being towed by a friend a few years ago.



luck would have it stef had a spare nos mk1 grill (although it was red) so that was fitted, Cheers stef



next up was to refit the interior and seat belts, all the bolts were somewhere although i didnt find them

next up was the drivers window, even when i had here ten years ago the window would not wind back up if it was wound down to the bottom, it had also had a big chunk missing out the top where it had been grabbed by pliers.

the new battery arrived and was refilled with acid, i felt like a lab tech what with wearing googles and gloves,

to my surprise the battery was in use when it was filled so cranked it over, nothing, so i chucked some fuel into the carb and ....nothing, i pulled of the dizzy cap and cleaned the points... she fired on the key ;D

the exhaust sounded quite bad on the back, i discovered that the mounting had dissolved.

i decided to remove the rear transport plate and weld a braket onto a plate.







it was quite hard to weld in, the sun had come out to full capacity and kept turning off my mask, plus i couldn't get in so not to pretty!

then decided to make up some brackets as the seat belts are not reels but the spaghetti type





with that and a quick drive down the road all seems good except the brakes which i feel need adjusting up.





Harvey came out and had his bed time drink in her, i think that he was pleased with the result



so need to sort brakes, MOT and sort a few electrical issues, then tax, fingers crossed.

[spunkymonkey]

That's looking very promising indeed, Paul!

And looks like Harvey hasn't lost his love of Dafs since the last Lichfield he attended ;D

[Patrick]

Jun 23, 2012 18:37:38 GMT spunkymonkey said:

Unpainted is fine, Paul - gives people an excuse for talking about her and hearing her sad but improving history. Let's be honest, how often do you see people stopping to talk about the shiny MG brigade? "Oh, that's a shiny MG. Oh, there's another one. Oh, look, another ....." ;D

"Post of the Week".

[dafdaffer]

agreed patrick and also very true. ;D

ok another go at it today, didnt get up until 12 as i have a 12 hour night shift!

managed to adjust the front brakes on the adjusters turning them until the wheel locked then backing off a bit.

got to the back and turned the bolt, it just kept turning and never it never felt undertension....bumhats




wheel off and splitpin, hub nut, then puller to remove the drum,



ok wheres the lug gone?

cleaned up the broken part and then decided to weld a bolt on, this was cut down to the correct size and seemed to work ok.



exactley the same on the other side a snapped off lug, so same thing again, only with this side the slave cyclinder was leaking badly, i dont have a spare but did have a repair kit,

I stripped it out and left it on the car, i cleaned it out with a lint free cloth, squirted some penetrating fluid down the bore and then got some very fine grade glass paper, rolled it up and put the end into my drill, i then ran it up and down the length of the bore adding more oil to it untill all the marks were gone.

cleaned it out with the air line and and a clean cloth, i put a small squirt of oil as i fitted the new seals into the cyclinder.

this was re-bled and the brakes were rebuilt....until i tried to get the bottom spring on, it was quite tight and as i pulled at it i managed to snap of the linning, so i pulled it all apart again and found some more shoes and rebuilt it.

after fighting with the springs again i got the drum, hub nut and new plit pin i lifted the wheel to put back on, i discovered a small half circle clip on the floor....where had it come from? a quick read of the manual and found out that it comes from the center spring and handbrake bar. boll..ks, so after another strip and rebuilt the brakes feel better, i do feel however that one of the flexible hoses are on there way out as its quite hard to push the pedal even when i was bleeding the system on the n/s rear.

so now need to sort out an electrical issue, when the lights are turned on the front indicator comes on, i suspect an earth somewhere, so with that and getting it to the Mot, an oil change and new points and condesor all should be good

[spunkymonkey]

Cracking progress Grommit ;D

[dafdaffer]

After a day of fighting with the lights and adding new earthpoints we now have mot, tax and is now sat in works car park.

i must change two of the tyres as he was not going to pass it how it was, but knowing that i would do as promised he has advised, so booked in for tomorrow

the flexi hoses will need changing soon as well

other than that no issues, not bad really

cant get in camping at cars in the park though as fully booked for camping, there are a couple of people not paid yet so some hope.

so may just pop along on the sunday.

Paul

[33grinder]

GREAT NEWS PAUL!

I'll be in Litchfield on Sunday, hope to see you and Biddy there!

And well done that man, superb effort!

[spunkymonkey]

Brilliant news, Paul - that little burst at the end puts my reputation to shame ;D Just emailed the chairman to see if we can wangle an extra camping space (we're going down to help set up tomorrow so may be able to nudge a boundary rope a little

Now we just need good news from Paul B after his fairly confident "won't make it" yesterday and we might actually half-fill the stand on at least one day...... ;D

[mattsdafs]

Well done Paul....

Great effort and well rewarded with a new ticket...hope the trip to cars in the park goes well

[spunkymonkey]

Camping available f you need it

[Richard DAF Webmeister]

Excellent news Paul. Go (again) Biddy, go!

[dafdaffer]

thanks guys, sadly she decided to blow holes in all her hot spot pipes, i managed to sort out the manifold as i had a spare, i welded the holes up in the lower pipe but still no joy,

still no worries see you friday.

ps hope its not like today

[Nick the man with a daf....]

good going Paul !! never realised she was so rusty in places.. your welding looks very good by the way..

[dafdaffer]

cheers bud....not quite on the same scale as you, i can Tig reasonably well but not too good with the MIG and i use gas less wire