For Sale TEN LUCKY Z3 OWNERS AT XMAS TIME

[Southernboy]

Yep.... that is a shame. I enjoyed his insistence on excellence.

 

[Southernboy]

Look what I found for £5 on Gumtree.... I stripped it down, cleaned everything and gave the frame a lick of original paint colour... Paint cost more than the item... Yesterday I picked up two new pieces of Birch plywood at the best possible price of "cut, sanded all round and corners slightly chamfered" for ... free !!! Guy makes plywood doors for offices, and had the offcuts... So, I'll drill the new boards and fit them. The OE parts are a little "chewed up" on the edges and have saw scars... So for around £15, I get a vintage, circa 1975 B&D workmate. I've looked on the internet, and in similar condition, they're asking $ 250. I think I'll keep this little baby though... Useful fold up table with clamping facilities..and I can work outside on my patio in the shade instead of in the garage when it's hot weather...

 

[oldcarman]

Hi Barry, I've had mine since around 75 and they are amazing how versatile they are! And easily portable!! Nice scoop on it and the plywood. I was given door off cuts in various types of plywood years ago and am still finding uses for it! JIM

 

[Low Rider]

Look what I found for £5 on Gumtree.... I stripped it down, cleaned everything and gave the frame a lick of original paint colour... Paint cost more than the item... Yesterday I picked up two new pieces of Birch plywood at the best possible price of "cut, sanded all round and corners slightly chamfered" for ... free !!! Guy makes plywood doors for offices, and had the offcuts... So, I'll drill the new boards and fit them. The OE parts are a little "chewed up" on the edges and have saw scars... So for around £15, I get a vintage, circa 1975 B&D workmate. I've looked on the internet, and in similar condition, they're asking $ 250. I think I'll keep this little baby though... Useful fold up table with clamping facilities..and I can work outside on my patio in the shade instead of in the garage when it's hot weather...View attachment 44888

I've found these very useful in the past now I know I've still got it somewhere
Good purchase Barry

 

[Southernboy]

Hi Jim
I must say, I'm really loving it out on my patio.... Good place to put the snacks and beers too... I spent an hour marking all the drilling locations for the holes and mounting bolts. I've bought 8 brass large flange clinch nuts to replace the OE nylon inserts in the new tops. I thought about trying to get the original ones out, but then figured I might just mess them up anyhow. They seem to be well locked into their housing holes.
So, tomorrow I'll do some wood work and get the holes bored and the brass clinch nuts epoxied into place. Then leave the epoxy overnight and do the swap over on Sunday.
I also am very chuffed with the first "test" fitting of the new gearshift surround fitting system....Nice aluminium frame shaped to perfection. The top trim will simply screw into the frame, which will have the leather boot glued to it. The fram will clip into the console hole just like the OE plastic frame does... so simple now... I had a 20mm thick steel jig laser cut so I can just stick the frame into one end, and wrap it around the jig to bend it to shape... 20 seconds and done... Tomorrow I'm off to learn how to solder aluminium and brass...30 minute instruction at the consumables supplier..
How's things on the other side of the planet Jim ? My daughter is down the road from you in Vancouver.

 

[Southernboy]

I'm back to waiting for some screws from the UK. They're here in SA already, but sat at customs still... I decided to buy a heap of them, and possibly sell some off to the local fastner specialist shop - they never have any, and I'll just bet there are modelers out there wishing they could find some tiny M2 socket head hex drive screws instead of the crappy looking pan head stuff being sold here..

 

[oldcarman]

This just gets better and better Barry, I like the innovation of just screwing the top down and fitting like OEM. Maybe I should just reorder and get it black chromed seems it will save me some fiddling and ordering those bolts as it looks like they aren't needed. Could you PM me a price please?? Enjoy your beer and snacks my friend, JIM

 

[Southernboy]

PM sent...

 

[Sean d]

Ooooooh I want one, reminds me of when I was a kid, all the male adults going on about how good their Black and Decker work mate was.

 

[Southernboy]

So now I know how to solder aluminium to brass and ally to ally....
Also, got my woodworking done....well mostly. I need a 10.5mm drill bit to fit the clinch nuts. Gotta ask yourself WTF couldn't they make it 10mm or 12mm.... so now I need to buy a drill bit, I'll likely never ever use again...
Sean, I must tell you, I made excellent use of my little B&D Workmate today.... and as you see below, it's getting new Birch tops. Just need to sand all my pencil marks off and seal them with some urethane or whatever, then strip the old ones off and fit them...
Also made a small adjustment to the gearshift skirt fitting - I needed to widen the top flange to provide enough room for the two screws that fit there.... So now all 100% good. On monday, I'll pop up the road to a sheet metal working outfit that does guillotine work and have the ally skirts trimmed to the right size. We can only get 12mm x 25mm unequal length extrusion as a standard here.... I need it to be 9mm x 14mm, so I'm hoping these guys can save me some boring trimming with a hacksaw. If they can, that will cut the production time of each skirt to around 10 minutes, and it'll be a lot neater than my hand tool efforts.
Also on monday, I'm hoping to collect the laser cut surrounds - the guy who does them cocked up the first lot. I shan't go into detail, but it was a pretty elementary oversight on his part... If I can get them on Monday and drop them off at the CNS fella, I may be lucky enough to have them all radiused by the end of the week. That'll mean I can spend the weekend finishing / buffing etc etc... and drop them on Monday with the chrome plating guys... So really another 2 weeks to go before they'll be ready to post.... That's conditional on our 'kin cutoms people getting my screws cleared and delivered to me.......... But all fun in the end..
.

 

[Low Rider]

So now I know how to solder aluminium to brass and ally to ally....
Also, got my woodworking done....well mostly. I need a 10.5mm drill bit to fit the clinch nuts. Gotta ask yourself WTF couldn't they make it 10mm or 12mm.... so now I need to buy a drill bit, I'll likely never ever use again...
Sean, I must tell you, I made excellent use of my little B&D Workmate today.... and as you see below, it's getting new Birch tops. Just need to sand all my pencil marks off and seal them with some urethane or whatever, then strip the old ones off and fit them...
Also made a small adjustment to the gearshift skirt fitting - I needed to widen the top flange to provide enough room for the two screws that fit there.... So now all 100% good. On monday, I'll pop up the road to a sheet metal working outfit that does guillotine work and have the ally skirts trimmed to the right size. We can only get 12mm x 25mm unequal length extrusion as a standard here.... I need it to be 9mm x 14mm, so I'm hoping these guys can save me some boring trimming with a hacksaw. If they can, that will cut the production time of each skirt to around 10 minutes, and it'll be a lot neater than my hand tool efforts.
Also on monday, I'm hoping to collect the laser cut surrounds - the guy who does them cocked up the first lot. I shan't go into detail, but it was a pretty elementary oversight on his part... If I can get them on Monday and drop them off at the CNS fella, I may be lucky enough to have them all radiused by the end of the week. That'll mean I can spend the weekend finishing / buffing etc etc... and drop them on Monday with the chrome plating guys... So really another 2 weeks to go before they'll be ready to post.... That's conditional on our 'kin cutoms people getting my screws cleared and delivered to me.......... But all fun in the end..
.View attachment 44907

Looks like you've made a cracking job on workmate Barry and from the sound of things excellent progress with your redesign of the gear stick rim

 

[oldcarman]

Great work as I'd expect from you Barry!! Sit down and have a beer, you earned it!! JIM

 

[Southernboy]

Thanks... I'm quite pleased with the workmate.... Had it out on the patio doing the woodwork thing while a good African thunderstorm complete with hail and lightning was crashing about... fortunately I have a decent size patio.
I've been fitting the clips to the gearshift base frame this evening - works perfectly.... Just the CNC machining to be done as soon as I can get the laser cut parts and then the finishing, chroming and posting... I actually found some brass spade connectors at the local hardware shop which has a built in clip already.... a little bit of alteration to its appearance and works a treat....

Pic shows the part on the right as bought, and on the left is the same part flattened out... you can see the little pop up clip... that's what will hook under the flange at the bottom of the hole in the console - same positions as the OE plastic frame...The brass component is fixed to the ally frame and when fitted into the console, will clip and hold it down at the 4 OE positions. Then the top chromed trim just needs to be screwed into that all frame.... The frame obviously will have the 10 corresponding holes threaded for the little M2 socket head screws which can be seen from the top of the chromed part.... So fitting will be a matter of removing the leather boot from the OE plastic frame and sticking it to the ally frame.... then clip it in, and screw the top on... 10 minutes and job done...

 

[Southernboy]

I'm actually sat at my desk ahving just had some roast lamb & veggies for dinner, and enjoying some 12 year old Glenfiddich... I have a client who gives me a couple of bottles every year, I still have bottles from 15 years ago... don't drink much...

 

[Low Rider]

Would love to see one of your completed piece's Barry. Show the installation process

 

[Southernboy]

As soon as I have one completed I'll post all the pics.... It'll be a week or two still though. Unfortunately I have to wait for other people to do their part. I'm really happy that it requires less manual labour on my part though. If I can get someone to guillotine the ally extrusion to the size I want, it'll mean I can knock out the base frame in around 15 minutes including cutting, shaping and a little bit of filing to smooth the cut edges....
Here's the bending jig I made to shape the frame that fits into the console hole...The slot in the end is where I lock a little "ear" which holds the one end in position while I bend the rest around the jig...the ear gets cut off afterwards

 

[Southernboy]

The ally extrusion is basicall a right angled piece with one leg 25mm wide and the other 12mm wide.... They need to be guillotined to 14mm and 9mm respectively... At this point I'm using a hacksaw and a dremmel, both of which need extensive post cutting reworking with a file... If I can have the basic extrusion pre-trimmed by guillotine, then it'll mean just removing the pieces of the 9mm leg which bend through the corners....

 

[Low Rider]

As soon as I have one completed I'll post all the pics.... It'll be a week or two still though. Unfortunately I have to wait for other people to do their part. I'm really happy that it requires less manual labour on my part though. If I can get someone to guillotine the ally extrusion to the size I want, it'll mean I can knock out the base frame in around 15 minutes including cutting, shaping and a little bit of filing to smooth the cut edges....
Here's the bending jig I made to shape the frame that fits into the console hole...The slot in the end is where I lock a little "ear" which holds the one end in position while I bend the rest around the jig...the ear gets cut off afterwards
View attachment 44934

Is that how you formed mine Barry

 

[Southernboy]

You can see in the pic below the four 9mm corner pieces have been cut out allowing the bend to happen...but leaving the rest of the 9mm flange for the 10 screws to lock into from the chrome top piece...

 

[Southernboy]

As you can see, the "roughness" is because I have had to cut and file etc etc by hand to get the size of the ally correct...