October 30, 2003
Hooray...
KABLOG
For king fisher customs ! The parts arrived. All present and correct and ready to go.... Harlets. Mounts and joints...
October 29, 2003
Get it on !
KABLOG
Two days to go... Got the tube... Engine out... Box out... Can we get it all done for the weekend ?
October 28, 2003
Oh my...
KABLOG
Just dropped the engine... Its eaten the air filters ! All the missing bits must have gone through...
October 27, 2003
Tomorrow we weld !
KABLOG
Arrived at paul's place and sat and chatted over pizza . All is well with the world and tomorrow we start on the roll acid !
off to see the wizard...
down to the new botchwerks in oxford today to see paul and jos. the'yre fitting a cab cage into the bus... all being well it'll be done (along with other twiddling) in time for racing this weekend at santapod.
watch this space!
October 25, 2003
Travelling...
A trip away heading south... We had fun playing with a honda r type. Sadly the bus lost the edge after about xxx mph. It was only after slowing and regaining hearing that i realised the bus had lost a plug lead and was running on three cylinders the whole time.... Cool !had to stop a bit later and fix part of the throttle assembly that had worked loose too. All in all an uneventful trip. ;)
here's the busted linkage. it just fell off the throttle spindle. at first i looked at it and it looked like a welded/pressed factory fit and that was that.... no roadside fix. then on further investigation i found the tiniest allen grub screw inside it and after a few minutes rummaging in the toolbox all was well !
Tdpt
KABLOG
Pgmgmgt
OH WOW! it actually worked properly... kinda... after a fashion.. i actually got my phone and server set up correctly to be able to update the blog AND post pictures direct from my phone. theoretically from anywhere in the world. ha ha! now all i need id to be able to publish audio and video and i'm set! amazing what a night of tinkering with electronic devices does. i even set up a new vidfeo recorder, an mp3 player (and downloaded a whole album into the phone) a cell based GPS style tracker, somew new camera software, a camera self timer and some file managememt software. and it nearly all works ! will wonders never cease. its better than a tamagotchi!
October 24, 2003
sleep, please !
well, its about 3 am and i'm still up, well i mean that i went to bed at about 11pm but couldn't sleep and grabbed the laptop and sat in bed checking some of the automation on the web site. wild life i lead huh ? i also did some wandering around other websites and ended up on ebay looking for petrol heaters to go in the bus. although i'm looking to save weight etc etc etc. its starting to get a little cold without any heating. infact it's been so long since i drove a warm VW (excluding my yellow newBeetle) that i can't remember what it's like not to drive in a hat, scarf, gloves and three coats...
...well, it lookis like i might have located what i need. i had been looking at a new webasto petrol heater but the come in around £650 in new money so a quick shufty through babelfish' translation and i seem to have located a rather nice looking eberspacher petrol heater for an 'advantageous sum'. i'll let you know in a few days if i get it...
AH! to think of it.
windscreen wipers that work, a radio that works, heating that works!
what a dream that would be !
OH BTW i had a quick look over the volkszone website and paul venners at the new botchwerks has confirmed the bus into the workshop on monday for a roll cage !
October 22, 2003
sadly...no
well, the guy at the MOT station was impressed that i bothered to return to try again but sadly...
no.
almost all was well but...
he wanted two or three little bits of the welding 'finished up' with proper seams and the headlights seem to kickup to the wrong side, as if they were LHD lenses..
ah well. i will investigate. on a more positive note it seems to be running much better and i think it could be rather nice to drive.
it needs slamming though.
big time.
October 20, 2003
remember the fugly ?
well, the winter is drawing in and the bus' lack of heating is starting to show up as somewhat of a drawback in this climate... so perhaps it's time to take the fugly 412 to get an MOT. the fugly is orange, and has heating (after a fashion)
time to get it booked it.
October 16, 2003
don't fence me in!
had a quick chat with paul 'botch' venners today. paul has styarted a new workshop in the oxford area. continuing on in the same tradition as the fabled 'der botcheinvolks' workshop in days of old.
all being well i will be rolling the bus down to the new workshop next week for paul and his partner joss to measure up and start bending pipe to fit in a cab rollcage. the cage is planned to reinforce the A and B pillars, acroos the roof with sideways triangulation behind the seats (but still allowing walkthru access to the cab). reinforcement across at floor, knee and head height with two longitudinal bars reaching back that will be bolt in/removable.
with luck i'l also get the gearbox strapping done and the cv joints changed and the gearbox leaks sorted.
the last race meet of the year, Flame and Thunder will be happening a few days after the bus is planned to be finished at pauls' so i think that seeing as the bus will be stripped out for welding i'll keep it stripped and see how much difference the reduction in weight makes to the time.
just between me and you i think that i might try dialling in at 13.99s and see what happens ( the bus best run is 15.54s so far but i hope with the gearbox work done and a good launch to get into the 14s. Jimby Kellas reckons that if i remove 200kilos i should be able to shave over a second off the time so maybe 13.99s is not too unrealistic.
:)
watch this space. i'll let you all know how we get on
October 15, 2003
desktops and downloads
spent a few hours yesterday avoiding doing useful things and noodled through a few image variations and came up with this.
i thought that people might like some desktop picture downloads...
?
October 06, 2003
today i broke
my toe.
i think.
last week i incorporated akciddento as a limited company. to put things into a fore focused setting (and so that the drag racing next year is tax deductable hee hee...) so getting ready for a meeting with the new company bankers i stubbed my middle toe on some furniture in the studio...
.. you know the pain.
unfortunately that was mid day and here i am at 6pm and the pain is the same but now my toes has swollen up and gone purple.
i've got aikido tonight over at the dojo but i think i might sit this one out. discrection being the better part of valour and all that.... :)
been trying to get in touch with Ed, the genius behind [b]Kid Carpet[/b]. kid carpet is ed's new solo project outside of his usual band [b] actual size[/b]
billed as 'shit hop' or 'electwrongica' it is inspired madness.
also called ' the battery powered tommy cooper of electronica' he's playing in brostol this friday (can't remember where but i'll let you know)
anyhow, i've got the video edited from some of the runs at the national finals and i've used part of a track that i got from ed earlier in the week. i just need to actually [i]ask[/i] if it's ok if i use it before i post it on the site....
off to cook tea and feel sorry for my self... :)
October 03, 2003
how times change!
i just found an old timing sheet from doing a 'run what ya brung' at santapod raceway.
its for my old splitscreen van running at bigstock 12th august 1995
reaction time 1.330 seconds
60 ft time 3.427
1/8 mile time 16.652
1/8 mile mph 40.47
1/4 mile time 26.553
1/4 mile mph 48.96
sambasaurus now does the quarter mile in less than the time it took my last bus to do the 1/8th...
October 01, 2003
**** me !
followed a link someone posted on the VZi forum to quarter mile performance ratings of production cars. its here at syclone.
my 'caravannette' (as the commentators at the summer nationals described it) does the quarter faster than.....
porsche boxster
bmw 325i
mazda 323 turbo
audi a8 4.2
jaguar s type V8 auto
caterham 7K
mercedes SLK
audi TT
saab s93 turbo
and many many more !!!!!