Elna Supermatic Elna2 zigzag sewing machine 1958

Surprise gifts are some of the best. Our neighbours at Vintageflathead found this hefty box at a second hand shop and donated it to our collection.  What a great find! What a wonderful present!   

Opening the heavy metal case shows a complete Supermatic Elna2 zigzag sewing machine manufactured in 1958. This two tone green machine is the second version of the Supermatic Elna2. Much larger than the earlier Grasshopper and huge compare to the little Lotus! This is a full zigzag machine. Drive is supplied by a rubber wheel that develops a flat spot. This machine does have the flat spot, but is is not too bad, so this machine stitches well enough, although a little noisier than intended. 

Jeep CJ5 dashboard, leaky filler pipe fix and service

 

The CJ had an ugly spot on the dashboard left by an old factory sticker, so I decided to remove and  repaint the dashboard. Usually I don't fancy taking out dashboards, but this one seemed easy enough. 

The patch sanded and filled with primer. Of course you can't just paint the patch. 

No surprise I was left with some spaghetti wiring. I tried to tidy it up, but as everything was working fine decided not to tear it all out, but generally remove some unused wires and tuck it in a bit. 

The dashboard sanded, primed and painted. I like this shade of blue. The easy part is done, now the dashboard needs to be refitted and the controls and dials reconnected. 

The dashboard refitted. I'd seen this 4 wheel drive script on the back of some earlier Jeeps and decided to put one on the dashboard. I used a template to paint the correct image. 

To my surprise all the switches worked after I reconnected the wiring. I replaced a few connectors at the back of the wiper switch, but the rest were fine. 

After this I changed the oil and checked the brakes. 

It is always useful to check a car regularly. I found the fuel filler hose had deteriorated and was leaking fuel. Here I've cut the bad part off to be able to measure the attachment to the fuel tank.  

There's a ventilation hose connected to the filler hose. The filler hose actually has a hole to connect the ventilation hose.   

Of course things were rusted and I had some trouble getting this connector free, but I succeeded and ordered a replacement.   

The new hose arrived after a few days. I managed to fit the connector for the ventilation hose, but the filler hose was very tight, so I could not fit it to the tank and filler. I used a pipe expander to stretch the hose a little and left it overnight.  

The next day I could fit the new hose. It was a snug fit, but that means there' s less risk of leakage. So the repair is a success!

Officially the 4 wheel drive script was intended to be used on the tailgate, so it seemed logical to add it to the tail gate of our Jeep.  A test drive showed that the choke and carburetor did not work as intended. The Jeep had not been used for a while and some linkages were stuck. After freeing these everything worked well and there were no electrical problems behind the dashboard and no leak from the tank. I think I need to get this Jeep out more! 

Peugeot Starter motor problem

Very considerately the Peugeot 405 refused to start in the morning. This could have happened somewhere much less convenient. Still a problem that needed to be solved as I want a reliable car. It had hesitated to start a few times, so I thought it might be the battery or even an earthing problem. But in the end the car would only start after a tap on the solenoid. I heard a little "thunk" and then the car started easily.  

I decided the solenoid was definitely suspect and, as this a "new to us" car,  buying a new starter looked like the most reliable option to reach optimum reliability.   

I found it is not as easy to buy a new starter for such a "modern" as it is for our usual old cars as there are various starters available for this engine. The most probable replacement looked very different from the one I took out of the car. It was a great relief that this new starter did work and to celebrate I also treated the car to a new set of spark plugs. Now our "Josephine" starts and performs as smooth as a French limousine should.  Vraiment ça marche très bien!

 

Workshop reshuffle

While clearing out the rubbish left in the garage after a messy rebuild of the roof on our house, I decided a second workbench would be a good addition. I also moved all the crates that were on a shelf to the shelf under the new workbench. This feels much safer as there will be fewer itens that can fall from the shelf onto an unsuspecting car. The photo above shows the new bench. I wonder how long I can keep the worksurface clear. Below the number one bench at the other end. 

 

2007 trip to Queensland video re-edited

 

 

In 2007 we traveled to Queensland and made a roundtrip, driving paved and unpaved roads. Visiting places like Cairns, Cooktown, Cape Tribulation, Chilligoe, Dimbulah. Laura, Etty Bay, Irvinebank and Kuranda

Australia outback roads highlights re-edited video (2005)

I re-edited some video highlights of our 2005 trip to Australia. Amazing nature and beautiful desert and tropical forest tracks. It was an unforgettable adventure.

 

 

Australian Landcrab meeting video (2005)

 

In 2005 we made a trip to Australia. There we attended a meeting of the Australian Landcrab club. Here's a re-edit of the video I made back then.

AMRWR Autumn run

 

Another fine Autumn run for the |Wolseley.