X-Cap installed

I installed a small item today, an upgraded radiator cap called X-Cap. The original crappy plastic original cap is very hard to remove without destroying it.

Starting

I was reading my old post about replacing the battery cables and rebuilding the starter. I just wanted to follow up on that. Starting is a joy! I had never started this landy before I did this work because the engine was broken when I bought it, but compared to the 110 I used to have (same age/engine) it is a great improvement!

Bulkhead solid, some rust in the floor

Today I removed the floor in the cab to assess the extent the of rust that could be seen where the footwells meet the floorboard. Not too bad, on the passenger side it is just the upper, thicker, sheet that is rusted and no holes thru. On the drivers side there is a hole where the footwell meets the floorboard, in the middle under the brake pedal.

The good news is that the rest of the bulkhead seems solid, went over it with a hammer and as far as I can tell there is no more rust anywhere :-)

I also spent some time checking out the chassis for rust, and apart from some surface rust it also seems solid.
I am thinking of having it rust-proofed, I don't know what it's called but wax stuff they spray inside the chassis might be a good insurance for the future.

Baptism by fire!

Yesterday I took the landy for it's first long drive since I rebuilt the engine. A friend had bought a car, a non runner, up in Norrtälje and asked me for help to tow it back to Stockholm. It's about 72 km one way from where I live. The drive up was un-eventful, with the water- and oil temp meters going up to normal and staying there, rock solid.

The tow back was real easy, I hardly felt that I was towing at all, this engine might be low in horsepower, but it aint "weak". It has really good torque. When towing you want to avoid gear changes as they cause yanking in the line, but I didnt have too, I just put it in 4th and kept it there. Hills or sharp turns were no problem.Where other engines would have stalled, this one just kept pulling. I love it!

BUT, it was *really* boring going so slow, took like two hours coming back, so my next sub-project will be to install the towbar that I have lying around so we can use a trailer next time!