Mat's BX Blog

[mat_fenwick]

Quick BX update now - whilst cleaning the inside of the wheel arch (or more correctly transferring all the dirt from the wheel arch to me) I noticed a couple of holes where it appeared something had been screwed to before I bought the car. The water had penetrated under the coating and significantly thinned the steel, as once I took the rotary wire brush to it the holes soon enlarged. So I cut them out with a hole saw...





...so at least I have good metal to weld to. I can do that from the inside, far easier than trying to do it upside down! You can see the staining where water has been getting in, so that may explain a slightly damp boot.

The outer wing support has also seen better days, so I've bent a piece of galvanised bar to replace it. I may Sikaflex that into place rather than weld it, as it's quite a bit thicker than what I'd have to weld it to. But first, bed!

[Wooscary]

Is that a little torch wired in there?

[mat_fenwick]

What would make you think that? It's actually one of these, which I got as a present a few years back. It's plugged into the lighter socket I fitted there so permanently charged up. I also replaced the standard boot lamp with the one which goes above the parcel shelf, so I can turn it off if working out of the back of the car, then wired an LED into the lighter socket illumination to come on when the boot is open. Hence the mess of wires!

[Vanny]

Are you going to use the same hole saw to make the filling pieces?

I bet with a little thought thats the sort of repair you could make complete seam less?


PS what are you like at welding aluminium? Of the gearbox variety?

[mat_fenwick]

Never welded aluminium, but I'll give anything a go!

I've got a fairly close set of hole saws, so I used the next set up to cut the fill in pieces (without the centre drill). Happily the ID of the next size up is almost an exact match for the OD of the one I used on the bodywork, so there's very little gap to fill with the welder.

No car stuff today though - been for a nice (dry) walk in the hills, and now sat in front of the fire with a bottle or two of red...

[Vanny]

I assume thats one each since you rarely make it past the first bottle

[mat_fenwick]

Me? I never drink more than a bottle!

Now she's gone to bed I couldn't resist nipping out to the garage to take a quick photo.



I'm pleased with how well they fit - it's surprising how much metal is removed with just the thickness of the hole saw - so using the same size would have left me with a big gap to weld. The one on the left isn't quite sitting right due to a burr, which I'll remove once I clean up around the holes.

[Defender110]

Very intricate, nice

[Vanny]

looks like you could do with some of these;

http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-weldi ... ening.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

must admit to being very tempted by a set myself!

[mat_fenwick]

Still not got round to welding them in - was out all day Sunday, and last night was spent replacing a pond liner - not fun in the hail, sleet and snow!

There wasn't much of the white stuff, but it did make my journey prettier:





Lana tested out her winter tyres last night, when she was the only vehicle to make it across the pass - lots of abandoned cars and no other tracks. I don't know why people just leave their cars part way up a hill and block gritters/snow ploughs from clearing. Surely they can reverse back down or turn around?

[citsncycles]

The problem is that when someone tries a hill in conditions like this without the necessary experience or equipment, the realisation that they can't manage it after all is all to often followed by a feeling that they will not be able to get back down without hitting something, so they stay put. I've seen dozens of vehicles brought to a standstill on one local hill due to the person in front scaring themselves and deciding to just sit it out where they are

[Dollywobbler]

Yup. The fear of skidding while going backwards seems to really put people off. Many winters ago, I had to reverse down an icy hill and get past an AMG Mercedes (which had caused me to lose momentum in the first place). They looked rather worried. I stayed away from the brakes and made sure I knew the front wheels were straight - very easy to lose straight-ahead on ice!

Was properly slippy. When I got stuck, a Land Rover came past me sideways...

Another attempt with a bit more momentum and I got up it while the Merc was going absolutely nowhere. 476 totally useless bhp!

[MULLEY]

Are they fitted to the mini & which one's are they? The only problem i can see with the mini is that they are very low to the ground, so if the snow builds up it'll get stuck as it will just ground out. Thats the beauty of the BX, when it starts to get a bit deep, just raise the suspension & off you go

[mat_fenwick]

She's got Continental WinterContact tyres on the MINI, as they had a lot of good reviews. They didn't do this year's model in her tyre size, so she went with the TS810 which wasn't too bad on price. I've only driven it back to back in the wet, and there was certainly a huge difference between her (worn) Pirellis. Not really a valid comparison though so was good to find they helped significantly on snow (especially as it was my idea for her to get them - I'd have got the blame if they were no better!)

[MULLEY]

Yup, they are a very good make, are they runflats? There's no way that they wouldn't be miles better than worn summer tyres in the snow, they should also be good in the wet conditions that seem to frequent Wales, so should prove a good buy. Just have to remember that in the dry, because the mini corners so flat & can take high corner speeds, don't take the corners as fast, as this will wear the outer edge of the tyre quickly. I have to keep reminding my wife that she doesn't need to corner into our road whilst pulling 3g, haha....She has said, well the tyres aren't squeeling, i replied, but my bloody bank balance will if those tyres are worn out in 12mths due to excessive cornering speeds when you don't have to, oh! she said.....