Thread: Plugger and The Camel

Originally Posted by mick88

Good stuff,
There are far worse things a young fella of his age could get mixed up in, plus he is building up a harem of vehicles and will have something at the end of it, instead of just an empty wallet.

Cheers, Mick.

Hmmm, old landrovers and old kawasaki motor bikes? I don't think his wallet will be too healthy, but at least he'll never be able to say he has nothing to do!

Originally Posted by mick88

Good stuff,
There are far worse things a young fella of his age could get mixed up in, plus he is building up a harem of vehicles and will have something at the end of it, instead of just an empty wallet.

Cheers, Mick.

Originally Posted by donh54

Hmmm, old landrovers and old kawasaki motor bikes? I don't think his wallet will be too healthy, but at least he'll never be able to say he has nothing to do!

Exactly!! As long as he is engaged and active with his pursuits I have no issues. He also needs to start his Senior Engineering project soon for his Senior Certificate so we need to think about that too. Was thinking of a Manx buggy or something...

Well we got some sunny days in the past week, and sun means painting!!

While its been wet on and off with a few straight days of sun it was enought to burn the latent water off the ground and reduce the amount of moisture in the air. Plugger decided it was time for a change from painting all this yellow so we decided it was time to start painting some of the black parts. The main part that is black is the hardtop.

Whiel the hardtop had some dents and dings most of them were on the top, small and invisible from the ground so I we decided not to spend an enormous amount of time correcting them. The main damage that the hardtop received was actually where the alpine windows were located (on the drivers side) and was removed when the alpine window was cutout so that was a bit of a blessing.

The black turned out really nice and glossy off the gun, and I am happy with the result. Apologies for the quality of the photos, phone didn't seem to want to capture quality images this weekend.

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And just in case you didn't know what that noisy, slow, smelly yellow and black thing was you were overtaking...
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Only a few bits to go now mainly the bulkhead and the tray. Once these are done we can start the electrics and putting it all back together. Yay!

Cheers and thanks,
Tricky and Plugger

WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Gang,

A few people have asked me what I think of the Rocky Mountain door tops I got from Rocky Mountain in Canada.
Well not having anything new to compare them to they are 100% on what we had - the original, rusty and totally knackered OEM ones.

I think that the workmanship is first class and being made from aluminium extrusion they should last a helluva long time.
I like the way they have done the sliding window latches which lock well and match anything modern - like Pluggers canopy sliding window latches.
The slides are really smooth, and the finish on the glass (as in the rounding on the edges and the holes for mounting the hardware) are perfect.

Likewise the frames come finshed in a brushed aluminium look. We will paint ours but I am sure if you wanted you could install them as is and the finish would not look out of place.

In short, I think they are great value for money and I would certainly buy them again if I did another Landy to keep.
The only downside of course is that they aren't cheap to buy nor to freight here. But hey, you get what you pay for I guess.

Some pics:
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All the locks n latches and mounting hardware come in a seperate packet. The mounting bolts are stainless steel so this should help with limiting the rust which was a huge issue on the OEM stuff.
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Bought the new door top rubber seals from them as well. Just as cheap as anywhere else...
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And finally isn't this a nice touch - its a Rocky Mountain bottle opener which came with the order FOC!! That will get hard-mounted to the car somewhere I'm sure
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Anyway, the Rocky Mountain door tops get two thumbs up from me!

Cheers and thanks,
Tricky

Hi Gang,

Well this will be the last post before Xmas and I would just like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Xmas and Happy New Year. I hope that you all stay safe over the 'silly season'....!

During the week I had the opportunity to pick up the last consignment of goods from overseas for this year - Camel's shock absorbers. They had been delayed in customs both here and in the USA so I was thankful to pick them up the week before the Xmas closure date. The Pro Comp shocks came in two boxes, one containing the shocks themselves while the other contained the rubber gaiters to keep all the crap out. Obviously you could fit them up without the rubber gaiters but why would you!

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I set about fitting them up on Saturday morning first up. The front and rear shocks are different with the rears being a larger bore diameter and slightly longer in travel. These Pro Comps are the +(plus) 2" model over the standard travel. If anyone wants the model numbers just let me know and I will send them to you. For the price I paid, including freight, they were far and away the best value for money for a nitrogen-gas charged monotube shock I had found.

Fitment was fairly straight forward, except that the front rubber bushings were 16mm ID instead of 19mm. A quick ream out with the 19mm drill bit sorted that in short order. All the mounting bolts and rubbers were lubed with lithium grease to aid in corrosion resistance and of course new split pins were used.

Rears mounted up:
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Fronts mounted up:
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Value for money wise I think they are neat, and should enhance the ride of the Camel to something slightly better than 'park bench'!!.

I also decided I would tidy up some of the other 101 minor things that are unfinished to date on the Camel. One of these was the carby install and the conncetions to the carb. The Cain manifold came with two studs and two through-bolt format flange. On closer inspection the two studs, which I took to be 5/16" UNF were a little bit rubbish, so I decided to replace them all with stainless allen bolts with stainless nuts and washers. It took me all of 5 mins to unscrew the studs and then mount the Holley with the stainless hardware - all uniform now and a much better look. I then proceeded to cut back the fuel line and the vacuum advance line (still at Stromberg length) and make the connection with rubber. I also fitted a new throttle-return spring. All good and only 100 more to go!!
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Next I decided to fit up Pluggers Rocky Mountain bottle opener in the most usuable and pragmetic space available, the swingaway spare wheel carrier!! I press fit all the wheel studs into the metal plate to hold the spare wheel on then mounted the spare wheel itself just to see how much room was left in the centre - heaps! I then drilled and tapped some M6 holes for the bottle opener and mounted it with some M6 stainless CS bolts. A quick try-out wth a Corona and it works fantastic - no more hunting around for a bottle opener now!
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Two down and 99 more to go!

And finally, I decided to do something a bit more, well, artistic. Plugger wanted to put some decals on the Camel to kind of 'individualise' him and I make him look a bit more 'Pluggerish'. He had ordered some Dakar decals from the interweb and I decided while he was out helping one of my mates out with his rat problem (infested chook pen) I would have a crack at putting the decals on. Centre of the door flat areas turned out to be 50mm up from the bottom and 150mm from the leading edge. Down with some masking tape at these distances and that gave me a straight edge in two planes to align the decals with. Some patience and a steady hand later they were done. Probabaly not to everyones taste but Plugger loves them and so do I!
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Anyway, that's all I have for now. Probably going to start the electrics on Boxing Day whilst trying to watch the cricket! Hope to see you all back here in the New Year. Stay safe.

Cheers and thanks,
Tricky and Plugger

His landy, his choice! Good on him. Cheers and merry xmas to you both, thanks for the build thread.

Originally Posted by Gordie

His landy, his choice! Good on him. Cheers and merry xmas to you both, thanks for the build thread.

Thanks Gordie, so nice of you to say! He is a bit of an individual lad so it makes sense he wants an individual car!!

Cheers,
Tricky