A Festive Blowout!

 

With the new year looming and some much needed funds received as Christmas gifts I have blew it all with very little to show for it really. The picture here shows you what £150 will get you on the Rimmer Bros trade account, along with frustration and disappointment added in for good measure. Firstly I really wanted (not needed) a fancy looking rocker valve cover and whilst these are not really massively expensive they aren’t cheap either… apart from the quality and finish. 

Whilst these covers are not made by Rimmers so they can’t be directly responsible I would have just expected better for the money. Firstly no baffle plate in the new one compared to the older original. Secondly the mounting face on the new one is just a flat flange to accept the gasket. If you look at the older unit you can see the return pressed into the perimeter to give the gasket a channel to sit and expand into and logically seal. The new unit has now forced me to use RVT to bond the gasket onto the cover, which again didn’t fit well at all. This now “should” seal when fitted and torqued correctly, however in this day and age when you can 3D print, CAD and machine anything from anything I just would like to see a little more effort from these manufacturers of aftermarket parts… but maybe my standards of expectation are extremely high? 

So my next gripe with my purchases was the quality of the packing from Rimmers. Call me old fashioned but gaskets “should” be kept flat for packing and shipping, however in this situation the water pump gasket was just crammed into the box with the water pump and during transit had been ripped, making it unusable. Again this is a trivial issue, but more care and consideration should be taken by these big international companies as it is luck that I already have a number of sheets of gasket paper that has allowed me to continue with the installation today by making a replacement. But onto my further grip with the same supplier is the picking and packing issues…. Again. 

I had to order a number of fixing bolts and fixings for the water pump housing and thermostat housing etc… each of these bolts are slightly different in length ranging from 2 1/4 to 1 3/8 and 1 1/4 etc etc… again with various thread pitches. 

So further frustration when I unpacked my bits and non of the specific bolts were labelled or marked in any way to help identify which was which. Not even written on with pen…. Nothing.  So further time had to be spent measuring and identifying each one. Can’t understand why they feel the need to conduct business like this… I genuinely think I will back heal Rimmer Bros now and give someone else my business from now on. It’s a competitive market and there is plenty of choices out there and I would happily pay more for a better level of service and quality of component. Still meh! Just another bad experience with a leading supplier who won’t give a shit if I could be bothered to inform them. 

However despite all the trivial setbacks I was able to fit the new water pump housing and pump, the thermostat housing with stat along with the original alternator and fan belt. The alternator I have had up to where I work and I bench tested it on the testing machine checking that it was all working ok. The only niggle with it was that the bearings were/are a little noisier than I would like, but to not have to replace it now is money saved on the ever tightening budget. 

You can also see here that I have fitted the replacement valve cover which does look great, however I’ll reserve judgement on its practical uses once I have had a couple of engine run cycles, I have little confidence it is going to seal easily or effectively. 

So my last bit for this update is fitting a couple of bonnet straps that I have had for ages but been putting on the back burner until I had next nothing else to do. I started off changing the fixing bolts to the same style as used in the rest of the build (pan head sockets) so that all fixings are using the same style and the attention to detail is in the whole build front to back, inside and outside. 

 These are really easy to fit just a simple drilling of the bonnet and side panel in the correct position that makes them look ok for the three fixing bolts. 

I did the first strap by eye and in a position that I liked. Then using some masking tape, I made a crude template to mark the fixing position which when mirrored onto the other side gave me a relatively accurate position to drill for the second strap. 

After fitting the second strap and then checking measurements from a strap fixing bolts to the uppermost headlight escutcheon bolt and triangulated back to the bonnet vent corner, then I’m only out by 1mm side to side…. Which I can live with easily, they don’t look uneven and both straps now will keep the bonnet closed and secure when out on the road, just need to get and fit two more to the boot now. 

So not a great deal to update you all on however I’m still just plodding on slowly and surely chipping away bit by bit until I can define the car “finished” as such. So happy new year if you read my blog and some further updates soon to come hopefully.