Bugrat returns to Phaeton

[Phaeton]

After building my first Freestyle Mary I enjoyed it so much I sold her & bought a part build, as but I wanted to have a buggy on the road a Bugrat came up somewhere near Dartford if I remember correctly. I think I was working at Bluewater shopping hellhole & called to look at it on my way home, bought it then went back down at the weekend, think I towed it back on a dolly. It attended a few shows as there was back then, including towing a folding caravan to Peterborough & Newark, also seem to remember towing a Freestyle back to Peterborough one that was having running issues. Then when Bumble was completed the Bugrat was sold to a guy from Great Yarmouth who later moved back to his home county of Suffolk in 2017 taking it with him. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which side of the pain you are he injured his back & can no longer get in it.

After long protracted negotiations which started last year & 17 years with the previous owner eventually the Bugrat ended up on my dtive.



Hasn't been run for about 5 years & not been on the road for 7 but that's the next challenge,

 

[Phaeton]

Quite a good day in the Bugrat, started by getting it up in the air & getting the fuel out of it, looked okay but decided not it use it although I'm sure it would have been fine



Then freed up all the carb, the choke was all seized up on it, pulled out the plugs & rotated the engine with a ratchet, had to remove a panel to get to it. Then tried to get it to spin over on the key but couldn't get it to do it, tried to take the dash out but the screws are seized solid. The seats are knackered so took out the drivers so I could lay in the floor with my feet over the engine & head under the dash & proved the switch was good after playing with it for a while. I had 12V at the starter but turning the key did nothing, tested that I was getting 12V on turning the key so pulled out the starter, there is only just enough room. Cleaned all the terminals up & bench tested it, then put it back, it now spins on the key.

Tested for spark which I got, so put the plugs back in & spun it over with a quick spray of ezistart, fired up & ran immediately which is promising, oh this was after spinning up until oil light went out. Currently don't have an ignition light but figured I'd wait until it's running before looking at that. I think the only thing stopping it running now is clean fuel, just been & fetched 10L, but couldn't get any new filters so they are arriving tomorrow.

The clutch pedal is solid, no movement at all, I'm hoping MC, hopefully won't have to split engine/box to free the plate off, but I'll get it running & a few heat cycles first.

Then there are the brakes, I pressed the pedal at one point & now the front brakes are on solid, not sure about the backs as it's on ramps, so tomorrow I'll swap them to axle stands, again hopefully it's a MC. But the brakes are plumbed up very strangely, not sure if it's deliberate or an error I don't remember how they were plumbed, I don't remember ever having problems with the brakes but when talking to my son earlier he said they were terrible & you had to sent them an email to ge them to work.

Anyway the way they are currently plumbed is, it's a 2 chamber MC like the Mini Yellow, it has twin pot front calipers & rear drums. On the outlet closest to the servo the pipe goes to one of the front twin pot caliper at each side, then the furthest away output goes to the other twin pot caliper on the front & the rear brakes. It instinctively seems wrong to me but maybe that is the way they got some bias on it.

In the image below the Red goes to 1 pot either side of the front & the Green goes the other other pot of the front & the rear.

 

[Phaeton]

Not a lot done today other than taking the calipers off & freeing up the pistons, the big achievement was managing to undo all 6 bleed nipples on the calipers, think I need to buy a lottery ticket tonight, although I do have to mention I don't understand why all manufactirers don't use 8 or 10mm bleed nipples, so much less chance of snapping them

Tried to remove the MC from the servo but it's stick solid, so sprayed it up & will have another go tomorrow.

 

[Phaeton]

Another day with a little progress, got a new fuel filter & some pipe, put a filter before the pump unlike when I got it after the pump, I did buy teo so I might put the 2nd one between the pump & the carb until all the crap has been collected. Started up very nicely, tiny bit of popping but couldn't get it fully off the choke, was hoping not to have to strip the carb fully but I may have to, also need to get an air filter for it.

Only thing I did find is that both fans are not working, one is seized the other doesn't appear to have an earth, I do intend to move the rad from the mid mounted position to mount it at the front, but I want to get it on the road as it is at the moment, so I think the next job is to remove both fans & bench test them.

 

[Phaeton]

Further we go down the rabbit hole, decided to look at the brakes again, cannot get the MC to separate from the servo, undone the 2 nuts but although there is a little movement it's not coming loose. So decided to take the servo & the MC to look at it on the bench, the servo wants a good clean & paint anyway. Undid the 4 bolts for which I had to take out both seats & harnesses, now I can't get the plunger rod off the pedal, looking at taking the front bodywork off now

Also took off the 2 side panels & the radiator shroud so I can remove the radiator, as you have to do that to get to the fans, it's like a fkin onion, layer after layer. I may now continue removing all the panels, they are very faded & considering wrapping them, will be much easier off the car (I think) I was hoping for a quick MOT & rebuild over winter, I can see this now being just a rebuild over winter

 

[Phaeton]

Tonights episode involved taking the radiator off, finding that one fan can be freed up & got working, the other fan although now turns it is still not working, put the working one & radiator back, fixed the wiring so it actually worked & started the car, still not sure if the temperature switch works, I should have tested it whilst there was no water in. But it's got to come off again when I move it to the front, this radiator isn't a bad fit, so I may go with it, although I'd rather fit a new one.



Then after that I returned to the brake MC/servo fight, in the end I took off the front panel to get easier access, quite a few big pop rivets & some 25 year old tigerseal but it did come off, it needed to come off anyway to address the rust issue on the top rail.




Once that was off it became apparent the only way to get the servo off is to remove the pedal, which now I could see without laying on my back with my feet in the air was quite simple. Once off the car another couple of taps separated the servo from the MC, the servo can now be cleaned & painted but I don't think the MC can be saved.

 

[Phaeton]

Not much of an update other than the clutch MC & slave taken off, I think I could have got away with them, but with no rebuild kit available, ordered new clutch MC & slave, brake MC from Czechoslovakia should be here by next weekend. Not too bad, all 3 delivered for £78 assuming they are the correct ones.

 

[Phaeton]

Today exciting or not episode involved removing both side panels, which involved around 5 hours of drilling out rivets & trying to cur 25 year old Tiger seal, but in the end I ended up with revealing the rust issues, now the question is what to do next. In an ideal world with a garage & storage space I'd remove the engine/gearbox both front & rear suspension, then send it to the blasters to be stripped back to bare metal, any repairs made & then powder coated again. Have to say it was a quality job originally it had been powder coated grey I presume some primer & then powder coated black. But I'm not sure how far I want to go, as there is no Lincoln/Newark show I'm not in a hurry but it would be nice to get a few miles in before winter.

 

[Phaeton]

Sides are looking a bit better now they have been wire brushed & painted, I did think I had taken a couple of shots but can't see them now so will try this weekend.

The brake MC arrived but it didn't appear to be the right one, but others have said that's all that's available & it will be fine, mounted it to the servo & fitted it back on, need it there to start to work out where the radiator is going.



Just seems all a bit warm at the moment, so taking it easy, I suspect it will be pissing it down this weekend.

 

[Phaeton]

When aftermarket parts don't fit as well as OEM

 

[Phaeton]

Lots of hours put in but no further forward, in fact if anything I'm further backwards, I have spent countless hours trying to bleed the brakes, I have tried everything I have ever learnt & still cannot bleed them, it all just doesn't make any sense, I've now convinced myself it's a faulty new MC. I've ordered another new one, should be here Wednesday, different supplier, supposedly different manufacturer. It's just like the MC is not drawing fluid from the reservoir which means the pedal never goes hard.

So today I spent a couple of hours making a couple of bracket to move the radiator to the front, it was good to be distracted with something else, I forgot to take any images other than this when I drilled a hole in the chassis to put a rivnut in LOL

 

[Phaeton]

Work is progressing but very slowly this not getting a pedal on the brakes was taking ages to repair, in the end I took all the brakes off the car put them on the bench & after ages eventually managed to get them to work. But even then putting them all back on the car took several hours of bleeding to get any form of pedal it's still not good, but with the pedal held down with a brush I now cannot turn any of the wheels. So hoping my son comes over in the next couple if weeks so we can manually do an up/down bleed, it's hard doing it all on your own. I did try ezbleed my usual go to, but that just spat brake fluid all over out of the MC cap.

Also been working on the radiator, it's now mounted up the front, it does need a grill or some form of protection & actually looking at the 2nd image now it just needs some mess putting between the uprights, also bought a couple of 9" fans to assist.




But a word of warning, if when making a bracket & the braket sticks to the metal it's laid on, if you use the torch to break it free make sure you hit it away from yourself & not towards you especially if you are welding in shorts

 

[Phaeton]

Holes cut in both front & rear bulkheads for the water pipes it never gets easier chopping hiles

 

[Phaeton]

Got a bit more done between the rain showers, packed in before the thunderstorms

 

[Phaeton]

Decided to put another bracket in the front, which I'm hoping means I can get away with only 2 in the cockpit area, also means it's held in place as it goes through the bulkhead & can't drop onto the steering gaiter, may need to make some form of gasket to stop water coming through not sure.




Hopefully with that bracket, I can connect the 2 hoses up with a piece of pipe & not have to build another bracket, which as the pipes will be sloping will add a bit of extra fun. The front bracket will probably go further forward than where it currently is & almost to the corner




This is what is will sort of look like, the other question I have is whether I need to cover it up or not, clearly most of the time I am solo so it doesn't matter but I do sometimes have a passenger & I don't want them to burn their legs, but it I need to do that I can't until the side goes back on. I need to decide beforehand so that I can weld some extra tabs onto the brackets to fasten it to.



Top pipe is not the actual pipe it's only there to test the concept.

 

[Phaeton]

Some times I sit & wonder why things take so long to do, then I look at what I've done.

 

[Phaeton]

Then along came the Daddy as the last one

 

[Phaeton]

7x Metres of 32mm Aliminium tube made up inti 17 joiners
38x Jubilee clips
13x 32mm Exhaust clamps
8x 90 degree 32mm silicone hose
8x 45 degree 32mm silicone hose
1x 32mm T with 25mm outlet silicone hose
2x 38mm to 32mm 09 reducing bends
300mm 25mm silicone hose
7x custom fabricated brackets

All to get the water from the engine in the back to the radiator now in the front,

Now onto the heater pipes, going to use rubber so shouldn't be as bad

 

[Phaeton]

Decided to take a little break away from the plumbing, I'm putting a heater matrix up front with will be 2x 15mm ID rubber pipes, they're about 20mm OD so I'd like to bring them down the centre channel, bit concerned they will be a bit close to the brake & clutch but we'll worry about that later. It needs a modification to the gear selector, the mounting protrude into the channel, not quite sure why it was designed that way, but I have a solution.

Anyway the other thing that goes down there is the electrics, they have just used the old Skoda loom with the big fat wires, so I thought I could just thin it out a little by removing unused wires & also replacing the used ones with thin wall.

Bought a Haynes manual off Fleecebay as I could not locate a wiring diagram online. Problem 1, the wiring manual has no colours on it, Problem 2 there are no schematics of what the switches do, there's not even an ignition switch on the diagrams

Okay no problem I'll just look at the harness, the whole car is wired with 5 colours, white, black, red, blue & yellow with green stripe. But to make it even more fun, whites, blacks & blues can be a positive or can they also be a negative,

I might go back to the plumbing

 

[Phaeton]

More sorting out of the wiring, made up a spreadsheet with multiple tabs as I'm trying to work out what runs what & what is connected to what. It was quite fun to look at the working that I did 18 years ago when I took off the old rear lights & replaced them with LED hamburger still ones which are still working. In fact it all worked apart from 1 reversing light which didn't have a bulb & the high level brake light which was wired up wrong so somebody must have been in there since.

Then I had a play around with the heater pipes, the mounting brackets for the handbrake are all twisted which has also twisted the actual handbrake as will, it all had to come off so it cam be straightened. I think I need to bend the supports back into place & then add some extra bracing, maybe to each other then down to the channel.




The other weird way is the way the gear change has been mounted, but I suppose it was the easiest way, instead of going up from the channel under the change & back down to the other side of the channel, they've gone from inside the channel up, along & back down into it, problem with this is it takes up a lot of space, space that I need for the pipes. My plan is to cut each leg off separately, then weld a new support in along the length of the channel, so 90 degrees to where the existing one is.






Don't see that it will make any difference it still gives the support I need, but will have to wait until next weekend for that as I need a 32Amp extension cable so I can get the welder to the car. In the meantime I need to see about mounting the actual matrix the passenger is going to get more benefit as it will be more on their side, but my toes will get some.