Post by nickyjuk on Feb 27, 2024 22:46:02 GMT
I haven't updated this build diary for a long while, but it's not because things aren't still progressing, it is just that everything seems to take ages!
A case in point would be the fuel filler. Some dogged internet research revealed that the fuel filler from a late Land Rover Defender would probably do the trick as it has a short neck and the original Discovery one was far too giraffe like to fit underneath the flat bed body. I managed to get my mitts on one of the Defender fuel fillers and spent some time trying to get it to fit at an angle that would allow the fuel to flow into the tank and not slop straight out again if I attempted driving up either a slope or around a corner in the road. After holding the filler up at the requisite angle with blocks of wood, wads of gaffer tape and several lengths of string I ordered the necessary lengths and angles of flexi and rigid tubing to connect the filler to the tank. With 100 other jobs to keep me occupied I ordered my parts through the AliExpress app. I've been buying so many bits that I've theoretically saved a good few £ by buying parts that are shipped from China. The downside is of course that they take a while to turn up! So, after waiting a couple of weeks, they did - for me to find I'd ordered bits that wouldn't quite fit together to give me what I wanted. Not to be put off, I employed the money that I'd saved in buying bits which when they turned up and were slotted together did work! Hurrah! This left me just having to make a far more complex bracket than most would think would be necessary to hang the whole assembly. I taped together several pieces of cardboard, scored them, folded them and then flattened them to make a template for a steel bracket. Then over a few evenings I wafted the angle grinder around and made something at the third attempt that did the job. A few licks of paint, then at least five weeks after I started I now have a functioning fuel filler!
A case in point would be the fuel filler. Some dogged internet research revealed that the fuel filler from a late Land Rover Defender would probably do the trick as it has a short neck and the original Discovery one was far too giraffe like to fit underneath the flat bed body. I managed to get my mitts on one of the Defender fuel fillers and spent some time trying to get it to fit at an angle that would allow the fuel to flow into the tank and not slop straight out again if I attempted driving up either a slope or around a corner in the road. After holding the filler up at the requisite angle with blocks of wood, wads of gaffer tape and several lengths of string I ordered the necessary lengths and angles of flexi and rigid tubing to connect the filler to the tank. With 100 other jobs to keep me occupied I ordered my parts through the AliExpress app. I've been buying so many bits that I've theoretically saved a good few £ by buying parts that are shipped from China. The downside is of course that they take a while to turn up! So, after waiting a couple of weeks, they did - for me to find I'd ordered bits that wouldn't quite fit together to give me what I wanted. Not to be put off, I employed the money that I'd saved in buying bits which when they turned up and were slotted together did work! Hurrah! This left me just having to make a far more complex bracket than most would think would be necessary to hang the whole assembly. I taped together several pieces of cardboard, scored them, folded them and then flattened them to make a template for a steel bracket. Then over a few evenings I wafted the angle grinder around and made something at the third attempt that did the job. A few licks of paint, then at least five weeks after I started I now have a functioning fuel filler!