Merry Christmas

Only 2 days left... (Revisited)

...to snap up this bargain!

"ONE OFF CUSTOM SHOW TRIKE" with 2900cc of raw Ford V6 power.

An absolute Christmas steal at a mere £100,000 

Reduced to a barely believable £24,995

Hit that Ebay jackpot

Relisted on Ebay

Coming Up...

Slough National Swapmeet

Sunday 1st December

Montem Sports Hall

Montem Lane, Slough, West Berkshire

SL1 2QG

Doors open 9am

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Proof

Jesus drives a Volkswagen

Queen of the Mountain

Kadir Nurman & Hal Needham RIP

c1933 - 24.10.2013

Doner kebab 'inventor' Kadir Nurman dies in Berlin

 

06.03.1931 - 25.10.2013

Director-Stuntman Hal Needham Dies at 82

NOT Coming Up...

For those who haven't heard yet, the Slough Swapmeet has changed its date this year. Instead of its usual Remembrance Day slot, this year it's being held on December 1st.

Slough Swapmeet - December 1st

As a result the Split Screen Van Club will not be having their swapmeet at The Ace Cafe this year.

If you are desperate for some VW swapmeet action in November, the Dubfreeze people are putting on the Autobahn Motor Show at the Staffs County Showground on November 3rd for VW, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Porsche and other VW group car and camper enthusiasts. Entry is £10 per adult. Accompanied children (16 years and under) admitted free.

VW Camper For Sale

1971/1973 Splitscreen Skinny Camper

 

As seen at this year's Wheels Day

All yours for a mere £34,950!

Something less silly to finish: Ken Box

It lives

Sywell Classic Pistons & Props

Sywell Classic Pistons & Props is a new event on the calendar celebrating classic vehicles - both on the ground and in the air. Held at Northamptonshire’s Sywell Aerodrome on the 28th and 29th Sept 2013, enjoy high octane live action, amazing aerial displays, breathtaking classic vehicle displays, great family entertainment, vintage and classic traders.

There will be racing and 1/8th mile sprinting on the runway, static and flying displays including acrobatics and wing-walking, the Wall of Death, classic car parking (pre-register) along with DJs and bands throughout the weekend.

Tickets are £17 on the gate (children 5-15 are £7, under 5 go free)

See the website for weekend/camping tickets

Sywell Aerodrome is just outside Wellingborough, approx 1 hour's drive from Bicester or Snorbens.

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Coming up...

September's a busy month with a plethora of events to choose from:

Wednesday 4th is the End of Summer Riot at the Ace Cafe for an evening of Hot Rod & Custom based silliness.

This is followed, immediately, by the FIA European Finals at Santa Pod for 4 days of serious drag racing featuring 300 teams in 16 classes including

• FIA European Top Fuel Dragster Championship
• European Funny Car Series
• FIA European Top Methanol Dragsters Championship
• FIA European Top Methanol Funny Car Championship
• FIA European Pro Stock Car Championship
• FIA European / MSA Pro Modified Championship
• Super Comp
• Super Gas
• Super Street
• Super Pro ET
• Pro ET
• Topspeed Automotive Street Eliminator
• Comp Eliminator

Also on next weekend is the VHRA Hot Rod Races on Pendine Sands, Wales. All 100 competitors' slots have been pre-booked so be ready for a day of Vintage Hot Rod Action on the 7 mile sands. Spectators are £3.

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The following Sunday (15th) has Ultra VW's Bug Boogie returning to Wellington Park near Reading, sharing the site with 911 & Porsche World and Classic Porsche magazines. Entry is £7, under 16s go free.

Also on Sunday 15th, the Deaf Dogs for the Blind are having their Late Summer Show just outside Princes Risborough. Along with the Hearing Dogs Fun Dog Show and Scruffts competitions there will be a display of classic and vintage cars - if you want to join the display please let Gemma know in advance.

Tickets are £7 for adults, £4 for kids, under 5s go free.

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Finally the weekend of 21st/22nd has the 5th Kop Hill Climb Revival at Princes Risborough. Over the weekend there are 400 vehicles on the hill with a further 200 on display in the paddock, including the Napier-Railton Land Speed Record holder from the Brooklands museum. Further distractions are the Wall of Death, Soapbox kart races and a fly-past by the Battle of Britain memorial flight.

Tickets are £10 for adults, kids under 12 go free.

Project Hello Kitty

Howard's been having a little trouble with his Caddy lately. Back in the spring it popped its head gasket right before Big Bang, so he and Ross slapped a new gasket on it so it could make it to t'Pod for the weekend. When it popped again H took the head off, cleaned it, had it skimmed, cleaned up the valves, checked the guides, fitted new tappets and a Lumpy Bumpstick race cam from Cris's parts stash and went for it again. This time a tappy tappet and a suspicious bottom end knocking called time - with Bug Jam fast approaching there wasn't time to get it done.

Bug Jam over, but with a shortage of time and money, and a holiday approaching H decided to forget about it 'til later - the Lo 'E' Nuf way.

Meanwhile, me and Ross started plotting and one evening Project Hello Kitty was born. We would 'steal' the Caddy when H was on the Lo 'E' Nuf group holiday and do a 2.0 litre conversion - which was nice for H - but there would be a cost, something H would have to live with, you don't get nothing for free...

Fire up the Ebay!

A couple of days later a complete AGG 2.0 engine from a 1998 Golf was bought from Watlington. On the way back we discovered the dizzy wouldn't work with H's Digifant so one from an earlier 2E 2.0 engine was Ebay'd. Meanwhile, back at Casa del ginga,  we stripped down, checked, cleaned and painted the 'new' engine as much as we could. The new engine was equipped with a 70A multi-ribbed-belt alternator so it and all of its brackets and pulleys were checked/cleaned up. At the same time we ordered a new metal head gasket, water pump, timing belt, oil and filter.

Then we found out that H wasn't going on the group Camp-a-thon at the Isle of Wight after all but was joining them for the Somerset leg a week later. This meant we had an extra week of keeping schtum and twiddling thumbs. It also led to not-Workshop Night being a BBQ at my place that week and H gave us his tale of woe unaware that 20 feet away was his new engine...

 

Nothing so see here, move along...

Finally, Friday August 16th rolled around and in the afternoon H, the Birks, the Paynes etc etc etc all trundled off for a 4 day weekend of camping, cider and dog bites. Once they were gone Ross delivered the Caddy to my place, along with a borrowed engine crane, and at (quick glance at the wall clock) 2.41 we could begin.

Somehow my garage is full of Howard's cars

It's out and it's still only 2.41

Worm's eye view

Off with Howard's head - bin the rest

Time to clean up and get some primer on the rocker cover

Howard's head fitted onto new block and it's only 2.41 - plenty of time

Engine and gearbox built up, new alternator fitted, and ready to go in.

A quick stop for late night pizza then push on...

It's 2.41 in the evening and the engine/box is about to go in

Engine and gearbox bolted in - time to call it a night

Saturday morning rolled around far too soon and after a couple of strong coffees we were back on it - nailing on all the loose stuff - radiator, belts, cables, gear linkage but no rocker cover yet, the lacquer's still drying. The new alternator conversion meant that it fouled the radiator so we moved the rad over but this now fouled the battery. Luckily we had H's spare battery sat in his Beetle mere inches away so in that went and it's a perfect fit.

Finally, at 2.41, it was all in...

So, with everything checked it was time to fire it up - fingers crossed. Success! OK, the timing needed fine tuning but it's running and sounding good. Time for a test drive so Ross jumped in, eventually found reverse and stalled it. Damn.

There the nightmare started - it wouldn't start, if it did it ran badly and, even worse, H's new starter motor seemed to be packing up. We spent hours, from 2.41 to 2.41, checking and re-checking everything. All the electrics were checked, the belt timing checked, double checked and triple checked. Nothing seemed wrong. It was late, we were getting angry/frustrated so we called it a night.

Sunday morning was definitely too early but hopefully a night's sleep wil have helped. Ross checked the belt timing, again, and then had a moment of inspiration and checked the engine earth with a jump lead. The starter motor suddenly is working perfectly again. So, despite being tight before, despite the engine running perfectly earlier we had a loose earth. Tightened up the engine now turned over fine but it would not start, but there was the occasional cough and splutter. After much head scratching Ross decided the duff earth had affected the ECU. To test this theory we needed a spare - quick, call Josh! So Ross sped off down to Thame and back, plugged it in and VROOM! At last! A few quick road tests and we're happy. Just as well, we were knackered.

Grrrr.....

Job done

The last task was to park it back on Ross's driveway in time for H's return. Once he was back he was faced with 2 grinning idiots handing him his keys and, after much persuasion, he fired it up. Success, and a smile which was bigger after a test drive - that made it all worth while.

There is still a tappy tappet, which is a mystery as they are all new, but that can be solved with the engine in situ. The main thing is the Caddy lives.

Thanks go to Caroline for being the spy in the camp, Josh for the loan of his ECU, Cris for his donations and Billy at Ninja Motors for the loan of the crane.

This silliness was brought to you by the letters A, L, D and I and the number 2.41

It's correct twice a day

Ross has plenty more pics including many of me looking like an idiot

ginga

Bug Jam TV

Santa Pod have uploaded a half hour Bug Jam review onto YouTube...

Plus, here's a few pics of the weekend. (click pics for full size)

Thursday evening in Club Camping

Pap'd

Alex on track

and Show & Shine

Should they be left in charge of fire?

Saturday evening BBQ

Out for a cruz

Pimped

Easy access to the rear

Coming up...

NSRA Hot Rod Supernationals

Europe's largest Hot Rod & Custom show is on this weekend at Old Warden Park, near Biggleswade. Using the rolling lawns as the show field, it features some of the best cars the UK, and Europe, can offer - plus a load of 'other choices'.

 

This year's special guest is US rodding journalist Jay Storer, who writes for Street Rodder and The Rodder's Journal, as well as racing at Bonneville, El Mirage & Muroc.

Also appearing this year is the Wall Of Death

Tickets are £8 (adults) £4 (children 4-16)

SatNav: SG18 9EA

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