Mr Bumble's Rebuild

Status
Not open for further replies.

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Went to work in Bumble one day last week & it started raining as soon as I got into the office, luckily it stopped about 30 minutes before I was due to go home, went to start him & he wasn't interested, wouldn't turn over & lights would go out. Pretty new battery so doubted it was that, tried to bump him down the very short hill out of the car park but still wan't having any. So called the recovery company to come fetch me & whilst the woman on the phone was making arrangements I was playing around with the negative lead from battery to engine to chassis. Put some pressure onto it & away he went, so cancelled the recovery & drove home, clearly a bad earth, So today made some new leads up & all seems good.

Also made a towbar for him so I can take a small trailer to Wales rather than trying to cram everything into the passenger seat, but that meant starting with a new exhaust, as you can see the bend is not going to do it

20180605_174408.jpg

So had to get a bit creative with the angle grinder & welder, not too pretty but at least now there are no holes which will please the MOT tester

20180609_155815.jpg

Then onto the tow bracket

20180601_181427.jpg
20180602_110334.jpg
20180602_123656.jpg
20180609_155811.jpg
20180609_155819.jpg

The exhaust clamps are so it can be taken back off, but I'm not sure now that I will, I may just remove the towball so I don't smash my shins. I may need to devise a different method as it will need to be removable so I can get to exhaust & subframe. Annoyingly the towball electric alloy lid snapped the first time I tried to plug anything into it.

Couple of pictures of something else I did last week, swapped out the 4 spots for a lighting bar, Christmas present from the wife, although i'm not sure I ever got the money for it.

20180609_155841.jpg
20180609_155902.jpg

Then lastly I had some resistors in as I have LED bulbs, but they appear to be getting very hot, so I've ordered a LED flasher unit.

20180609_160028.jpg
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Wow 11 months since I posted anything about Bumble, problem really is there's nothing to post, the towbar is a huge success taking all the stuff over to Wales was a breeze, gives you so much more space in the cockpit you're not having to constantly keep pushing it back into place. Once I got back from Wales he was SORN & over several weeks/months I did the coilover conversion, it's a bit of a hassle to do & it makes a lot of grinding mess but now having driven it it's well worth the effort, the whole thing is so much quieter.

Start by getting some 50x50 angle & following Danny's incorrect profile, only incorrect as you have to remove more meat from the low side
20180719_174700.jpg
Then remove some from each edge as 50mm is a bit wide
20180721_123558.jpg
Then using a load of washers to keep things straight
20180727_180629.jpg
Then weld up the gap & clean up all the welds
20180728_140838.jpg
Test fit on the bench
20180728_141228.jpg
This is where Danny's template is wrong you have to take more meat off this shoulder
20180728_141557.jpg
Then starts the messy bit taking the mounts off the frame
20180730_191515.jpg
20180801_185528.jpg
20180823_152747.jpg
20180823_152812.jpg
Then bolt into place
20180823_170706.jpg
Bolt up the coilovers
20181021_135336.jpg
His old cover had had it, it was leaking so treated him to a new cover on the old frame
20181021_152301.jpg20181021_152332.jpg

So this year brings Stoneleigh was due to go Saturday till Monday but through family commitments, had to fetch my 94 year old father along with my 90 year old uncle from the airport at 3:30am Sunday morning, couldn't expect uncle to drive after being up 20+ hours. Fetched them went back to bed, then got up around 8 & drove to Stoneleigh, all I had done Saturday as preparation was check, oil, water & tyre pressures. Again due to other family problems wife was very sick I had to come back Sunday, but had a great day, unfortunately the company was far better than the show, the kitcar industry is dying on it's feet, it's a shame, but there is no new blood coming into the hobby.

Only issue I experienced is that the throttle was quite stiff & smooth acceleration was difficult, looking at the cable today the outer has been worn away by rubbing in a couple of places which has allowed water in & caused the inner to rust, I've managed to free it up with WD40 for now but it needs a new cable & then maybe some protection on.
 

Attachments

  • 20180830_184553.jpg
    20180830_184553.jpg
    4.2 MB · Views: 7,176

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Drive to & from Stoneleigh was no big issue but the throttle was a real pain, looked on Rimmer Bros only to find a new cable was £56+vat, so went looking for another solution, Fleecebay revealed a local guy breaking MG's so a trip out on Tuesday on the bike secured a 2nd hand one for £8. Quite a funny experience, turned up on the bike, rang the bell, young lad about 10 looked out of the window & said wait, 2 minutes later a lady wrapped in a towelling robe answered the door, he'd got her out of the shower, I had arrived at the right time, but husband had failed to tell her I was coming ;D ;D ;D ;D

Didn't get time to fit Tuesday night, so when the MOT tester picked him up on Wednesday morning I had to warn him, quite funny really it was pissing it down when he drove it to the garage, it pissed it down all day whilst it was stood outside & it really went for it on his drive back, he was soaked but still had a big grin on his face when he got back & I could tell Bumble had been given a decent trash on the way back ;D

Only advisory is a loose O/S front wheel bearing, which I hope will nip up, but worst case is a new bearing, which I think I already have.
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Bearing nipped up today all good, I have to start driving him otherwise seems pointless owning him
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
So a 7 hour round trip resulted in a new subframe for Bumble, it's been blasted, zinc dipped & then powder coated, just need time now to swap it over



This was one of the reasons it took so long, 3/4 hour to travel less than a mile on the A38, water main has burst, then we got to within 1 mile of the guys house only to find the Police has cordonned the whole area off, so had to do another 7 mile detour.
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Been buying again, this time resulted in









Cheaper to buy a whole car than just a VVC engine, I also get a full rear suspension which I'm hoping to swap over to the new subframe.
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
So tonight the engine came out, wheeled over to the back of Bumble & then I came up with a cunning plan, do think I can get away with a single radiator?


 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Slowly moving forward, well I say forward, I'm still at that point of going backwards by taking things apart I had 1 piece, which was an engine, gearbox & subframe now I have 3 separate pieces.



IMG_20190904_170314.jpg

IMG_20190904_170319.jpg

IMG_20190904_170322.jpg
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
I was going to strip the subframe further, but got distracted by the engine, the alternator bracket decided it didn't want to come off so it was persuaded to let go of the alternator. Then moved onto seeing about taking the cambelt off, had to remove the thermostat housing, which appears to have been leaking as it had broken in 2

IMG_20190907_131441.jpg

The water pump looked okay but i's clear they didn't run antifreeze in the engine, I have a new one to fit.

IMG_20190907_131417.jpg


IMG_20190907_131430.jpg
 

Phaeton

Moderator
Staff member
Mr Bumble has gone to pastures new, he's now owned by a guy called Paul who lives in Ashby de la Zouch. He has been replaced with Eric, a 1972 1600cc Beetle, who is already making his presence felt by having burnt/melted wiring, headlight reflectors installed upside down, plus I'm sure numerous other things as we dig deeper.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top