BOO - I'm Back
Yes the GreenHornet is ALIVE & Kicking - well when i say kicking I mean rattling and throwing bits of metal out of axles - but more of that later on..
First off I must apologise for my absence - I have been messing with another mistress in my life taking the shape of the Lotus 7 Replica - One day I drove her into the garage and then after a while I was working out how to connect this
But enough of that as it doesn't belong on this site, firstly it has NO rust on it and it isn't GREEN
So at the beginning of the month I taxed and insured the 'Hornet' and away I went........for about 10 miles before modifications started again. Much to the annoyance of the new Mrs Hornet (Yes I got married), seems she must love me as I am old, have no money and already have 4 kids between us!!
I needed to finish off the winch bumper as I had a lot of plans and hadnt started anything at all. So to get the ball rolling I brought a 12000lb winch for £150.00. Unfortunately it was buggered. When I fitted it the wires started smoking just when it was winching OUT the cable!!!
What followed was a crash course in winch motor repair that included two new terminals, a complete clean and a new main cable. SORTED but still not tested yet.
To fit it in this is what I did.
I firstly stripped the front of the car down and cleaned off the chassis rails and cross member.
Now I stripped it all down as I was also putting in a new timing belt as I had a buggered water pump. However it wasn't until I removed the timing cover that i realised the engine had the
Zeus Timing Gear Conversion. Umm... All the signs were there. Zeus in big letters for one and no timing cover drain screw for another.
Well it did give me time to clean everything down and, much to the annoyance of MattBaxter I painted the pulleys
to make them look nice.
Anyhow back to the winch thingy. Onto the clean metal chassis I welded 50x50x2 SHS box section to raise the plate I was mounting the winch onto. As the 'Hornet' has had a body lift, I struggled in vain to get modified winch trays and bumpers to suit the new height. I didnt want any part of the winch exposed beneath the chassis, nor did i want the grill cut out and for you to see the winch.
On top of the box section I seam welded 8mm plate all the way back and this also served as a plate to mount the radiator too, therefore raising that up to the normal sort of height.
Next on went the winch. I mounted the drum centrally and then worked out the cable run ensuring that the main cables from the starter battery to the Aux battery, and the cables from the winch were not going to get rubbed or trapped in anyway.
Now at this point you will notice what the muppet who owned the winch before had down - YES he had wound the cable on incorrectly. the winch cable (and I may be wrong but everything I have read supports what I'm saying so bollocks
) should be wound on from the bottom of the drum. Well on this model anyway. He had it wound in reverse and this can easily damage the brake. anyhow here is the underside of the plate prior to seam welding it.
The funny thing I noticed is that I have gone to all this trouble to make sure the metal is welded in strongly ONLY for the winch itself to be mounted to the vehicle using 4 M10 bolts. PLUS the winch is in two halves held together by two M8 allen bolts!! funny that.
Anyhow this is what she looked like before I started on the bumper.